I am looking forward to spending today with a TV/film production crew in Tucson, Arizona.

Lord willing, I will be teaching for around 4 hours in total with the purpose of making a DVD seminar as a supplement to my new book “Twelve What Abouts.”

Obviously our wish is that the final product could really be a blessing to people and help many to understand Divine election in a new and fresh way. I would really appreciate your prayers.

The sermons, interviews and radio programs (available by clicking on the audio tab above) were down for a few days, due to technical difficulties, but I am pleased to say that they are now functioning properly.

Thank you for your patience.

(1) There’s some very good deals going on at Ligonier right now in the Friday $5 online Sale.

I particularly recommend the hardback book “What’s So Great About the Doctrines of Grace?” by Rick Phillips, normally $15. It might be a good idea to get multiple copies to hand out to friends.

The Face to Face with Jesus CD series is also worth picking up. Check out the $5 Ligonier sale here.

(2) A reminder from yesterday’s blog post: From my friend, Dr. James White, an outstanding resource on a subject that very few will tackle head on: the biblical definition of “marriage” and a refutation of so called “Gay Christianity.” Many questions are answered biblically including:

How did Jesus define marriage?
What really was the sin at Sodom and Gomorrah?
What does Leviticus say about God’s attitude towards homosexuality?
Just how clear is Romans chapter 1 on this issue?

Here is the link.

(1) Most Christians would be ill equipped to respond Matthew Vines’ “The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality” YouTube presentation. However, Dr. James White’s does do so here.

(2) Ligonier has some EXCELLENT deals on right now in this week’s $5 Friday sale. Items include materials on Calvinism, God’s love, Providence, Church and State, Biblical figures, the Gospel and Apologetics,

I particularly recommend the “Tough Questions Christians Face – 2010 Ligonier National Conference” CD series, normally $65, as well as the “Loved By God” teaching series by Sproul. Check out the $5 Ligonier sale here.

(3) I continue to be very much encouraged by the reaction to my new book “Twelve What Abouts” now out in paperback. At 168 pages, it seeks to provide answers to the most frequently raised objections to the doctrine of God’s Sovereignty in salvation.

One lady today wrote to say:

Dear Pastor Samson, I just purchased the 12 What Abouts for my kindle. Thank you so much for sharing from a pastor’s heart about these sensitive subjects. I am thoroughly convinced that Calvinism is correct, but as a newcomer to these truths, I have struggled with these “what abouts”. I am so thankful that God has revealed these truths to me and I am praying for my friends and family to understand the Biblical teachings on the grace of God and how one comes to be saved. I will use your book as a tool to help me as I witness and explain what I have come to believe with others. It was indeed a blessing for me to be able to purchase it! May God continue to bless you in your ministry. – Brenda Hedgepeth

For more information, click on the links to the right hand side of this page. If you are in the United Kingdom, you can purchase the paperback edition at this link.

(1) Some quotes:

Martin Luther on Romans – “It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul. It can never be read or pondered too much, and the more it is dealt with the more precious it becomes, and the better it tastes.”

“We tend either to ignore the future, because we are so consumed in the drama of the here and now, or to see it as simply a continuation of our present lives, with our loved ones there and sickness and death gone. But in Jesus we see a future that has continuity and discontinuity. In his resurrected life, Jesus has gone before us as a pioneer of the new creation. Perhaps we dread death less from fear than from boredom, thinking the life to come will be an endless postlude to where the action really happens. This is betrayed in how we speak about the “afterlife”: it happens after we’ve lived our lives. The kingdom, then, is like a high-school reunion in which middle-aged people stand around and remember the “good old days.” But Jesus doesn’t promise an “afterlife.” He promises us life—and that everlasting. Your eternity is no more about looking back to this span of time than your life now is about reflecting on kindergarten. The moment you burst through the mud above your grave, you will begin an exciting new mission—one you couldn’t comprehend if someone told you. And those things that seem so important now—whether you’re attractive or wealthy or famous or cancer-free—will be utterly irrelevant.” – Russell Moore

Thus Satan leads poor creatures down into the depths of sin by winding stairs, that let them not see the bottom whither they are going. He first presents an object that occasions some thoughts; these set on fire the affections, and they fume up into the brain, and cloud the understanding, which being thus disabled, Satan now dares a little more declare himself, and boldly solicit the creature to that it would even now have defied. Many who at this day lie in open profaneness, never thought that should have rolled so far from their profession; but Satan beguiled them, poor souls, with their modest beginnings. O Christians, give not place to Satan, no, not an inch, in his first motions. He that is a beggar and a modest one without doors, will command the house if let in. Yield at first, and thou givest away thy strength to resist him in the rest; when the hem is worn the whole garment will ravel out, if it be not mended by timely repentance. — William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour (Banner of Truth Trust, 2002), 1:77

The Sovereignty of God is the stumbling block on which thousands fall and perish; and if we go contending with God about His sovereignty it will be our eternal ruin. It is absolutely necessary that we should submit to God as an absolute sovereign, and the sovereign of our souls; as one who may have mercy on whom He will have mercy and harden whom He will. – Jonathan Edwards

No doctrine in the whole Word of God has more excited the hatred of mankind than the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God. The fact that “the Lord reigneth” is indisputable, and it is this fact that arouses the utmost opposition in the unrenewed human heart. – C. H. Spurgeon

Theology is a serious quest for the true knowledge of God, undertaken in response to His self-revelation, illumined by Christian tradition, manifesting a rational inner coherence, issuing in ethical conduct, resonating with the contemporary world and concerned for the greater glory of God. – John Stott

Our sins have been put away. To use the language of the Scriptures…they are completely removed, put behind God’s back, blotted out, remembered no more, and hurled into the depths of the sea. – Jerry Bridges

The wonder of the cross is not the blood, but whose blood and to what purpose. – Donald English

(2) Once again, Ligonier has some excellent deals on right now in this week’s $5 Friday sale. I particularly recommend the “heaven” series on CD. Check out the $5 Ligonier sale here.

(1) I am very much encouraged by the reaction to my new book “Twelve What Abouts” now out in paperback. At 168 pages, it seeks to provide answers to the most frequently raised objections to the doctrine of God’s Sovereignty in salvation. For more information, click on the links to the right hand side of this page.

(2) It was a great pleasure (this week) to meet the hosts of “Backpack Radio” as they conducted an interview of me regarding my new book. The one hour program flew by and the show airs this Sunday night on 1360AM KPXQ Radio in Phoenix at 9:00 p.m. PST, which is of course midnight over on the east coast. For those outside the Phoenix area, you can hear the program as it goes out live on the internet at www.kpxq1360.com.

(3) What is at stake in N.T. Wright’s view of justification? Dr. Steven Lawson and Dr. Sinclair Ferguson explains here.

(4) Once again, Ligonier has some excellent deals on right now in this week’s $5 Friday sale. I particularly recommend the “The Atonement of Jesus” and the “God Alone” series (10 messages covering the five solas of the Reformation) downloads. Check out the $5 Ligonier sale here.

(5) TEMPTATIONS by Richard Sibbs

1. Take heed of Satan’s policy, that God has forgotten me because I am now in extremity; nay rather, God will then show mercy, for now is the special time of mercy; therefore beat back Satan with his own weapons.

2. Temptations at first are like Elijah’s cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand, but if we give way to them they will soon overspread the whole soul. Satan nestles himself when we dwell upon the thoughts of sin; we cannot prevent the sudden risings of sin, but by grace we may keep them down, and they should never long remain without opposition. Let us labor therefore as much as we can to be in good company, and run in a good course, for as the Holy Ghost works by these advantages, so we should wisely observe and improve them.

3. In every evil work that we are tempted to, we always need delivering grace, as to every good work God’s assisting grace.

4. It is hard to discern the working of Satan from our own corruptions, because for the most part he goes secretly along with them; he is like a pirate at sea who fires upon us under our own colors. Like Judas to Christ, he comes as a friend, therefore it is hard to discern; but it is partly seen by the eagerness of our lusts, when they are sudden, strong and strange, so strange sometimes that even nature itself abhors them. The Spirit of God leads sweetly on, but the devil hurries a man like a tempest, as we see in Amnon for his sister Tamar. Again, when we resist the motions of God’s good Spirit, dislike His government, and give way to passion, then the devil enters. Let a man be unadvisedly angry, and the devil will make him envious and seek revenge; when passions are let loose they are chariots in which the devil rides; some by nature are prone to distrust and some to be too confident; now the devil joins with them and so draws them on further; he broods upon our corruptions; he sits as it were upon the souls of men, and there broods and hatches all sin. All the devils in hell cannot force us to sin. Satan works by suggestions, stirring up humors and fancies, but he cannot work upon the will; we betray ourselves by yielding before he can do us any harm; yet he ripens sin when cherished in the heart and brings it forth into actual transgression.

I would welcome your prayers that all goes well (technically and discussion wise) with the one hour interview taking place today at 3:00 pm EST (12:00 pm PST) at the KPXQ 1360 Christian radio studios in downtown Phoenix. The show is a Christian apologetics program called “Backpack Radio.” I’ve not had the joy of meeting the hosts before but I’ve been asked to come in and speak about my new book “Twelve What Abouts” and to provide biblical answers to objections made against the Reformed faith.

Though the recording will be made today, I am told that the show will air at a later date. I will let you know details of date and time as they become available.

Many thanks.

(1) There’s been something of a delay at the printers but the good news is that my new book “Twelve What Abouts” should start shipping out within the next week. It is 160 pages (longer than people thought it might be) in its paperback edition. You can order it at the pre-publication sale price at the link to the right.

(2) “Satan tempts not whom he will but when God pleases. We find Christ was not led by an evil spirit into the wilderness to be tempted, but by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 4:1). And the same Holy Spirit which led Christ into the field of temptation, brought Him off with victory. Therefore we find Him marching into Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit, after He had repulsed Satan (Luke 4:14). When Satan tempts a saint, he is only serving as God’s messenger. Paul called his thorn in the flesh, “the messenger of Satan” (II Cor. 12:7), implying that the messenger was sent of God to Paul. The devil never meant to do Paul such a service, but God sends him to Paul to accomplish His own purpose. The devil and his instruments are both God’s instruments; therefore let God alone to wield the one and handle the other.

Let the devil choose his way. God is a match for him at every weapon. If he assaults the saints by persecution, as the Lord of hosts, God will oppose him. If Satan works by a subtlety, God is ready there, also. The devil and his whole council are but fools to God. The more wit and art in sin, the worse, because it is employed against an all-wise god who cannot be outwitted. “The foolishness of God is wiser than men” (I Cor. 1:25). God is wiser in a weak sermon, than Satan is in his deep plots; wiser in His simple one, than Satan in his Ahithophels and Sanballats. “He disappointeth the devices of the crafty” (Job 5:12). God, by displaying His wisdom in the pursuit of the saints’ enemies, adds a sweet relish to their deliverance at last. After He had hunted Pharaoh out of all his lairs and burrows, He broke the very brains of all his plots and served him up to His people, as a display of His wisdom and power.” – William Gurnall (Puritan writer, died 1679)

(3) “What is needed is something that cannot be explained in human terms. What is needed is something that is so striking and so signal that it will arrest the attention of the whole world. That is revival.

Now we of ourselves can never do anything like that. We can do a great deal, and we should do all we can. We can preach the truth, we can defend it, we can indulge in our apologetics, we can organize our campaigns, we can try to present a great front to the world. But you know, it does not impress the world. It leaves the world where it was. The need is for something which will be so overwhelming, so divine, so unusual that it will arrest the attention of the world . . . .

‘Authenticate thy word. Lord God, let it be known, let it be known beyond a doubt, that we are thy people. Shake us!’ I do not ask him to shake the building, but I ask him to shake us. I ask him to do something that is so amazing, so astounding, so divine, that the whole world shall be compelled to look on and say, ‘What is this?’ as they said on the day of Pentecost.”

– Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival (Westchester, 1987), pages 183-185

(4) Once again, Ligonier has some excellent deals on right now in this week’s $5 Friday sale. I particularly recommend the audio book of The Truth of the Cross by R.C. Sproul (perhaps think about getting more than one as they make great gifts for Easter) as well as the “Evangelism According to Jesus” 2008 National Conference series download. Check out the $5 Ligonier sale here.