A Site for the Teaching Ministry of Nick Batzig
Human experience is inexorably tied to desire. To stop desiring at any given moment of one's conscious life is an absolute impossibility. Our desires may change according to age, stage of life, and circumstances. However, it would be an ontological possibility for someone to cease desiring for even a single second of his or her conscious life. Gaining a proper understanding of desire is vital if men are going to come to Christ and if believers are going to glean maximum spiritual benefit from Christ in our Christian lives....
Christians today, no less than in Machen's day, desperately need to come to terms with the fact that we are all theologians--whether good ones or bad ones. While we must be zealous to guard our hearts against embracing the ethos of the vitriolic doctrinal voices around us, we must equally avoid giving ear to those who, under pretense of love and charity, have functionally encouraged "a horror of theology."...
Jesus is the full manifestation of the glory of God. As the apostle John explained, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt (i.e., tabernacled) among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth (John 1:14–15). In Christ, God was manifest in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). There is nowhere that the eternal Son of God dwelt so fully among men as He did when he became incarnate in Jesus. In Jesus, we see the glory of God in the flesh....
While God "richly provides us with everything to enjoy" (1 Tim. 6:17), there is yet a greater manifestation of His goodness–namely, the giving of His Son. God the Father gave up His infinitely beloved Son to redeem sinners. In addition to giving up His Son, God has promised to give believers ever other good thing for which they hope for all of eternity. Scripture encourges believers to measure the goodness of God in the giving up of His Son to assure them of the certainty of every lesser gift God has promised them....
Time is short. We only have so many years, months, days, and hours in which to be productive. This is reason enough for us to work as unto the Lord during the short time God has given us in this life. The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes speak repeatedly about our need to pursue productive and fruitful lives. The author of Ecclesiastes explains why productivity is fundamental to what we do when he says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going” (Eccl. 9:10)....
Pride is one of the greatest snares to the souls of men and is the snare of measuring ourselves by ourselves and comparing ourselves among ourselves (2 Cor. 10:12). When we allow pride to fester and take root in our hearts, we begin to think, act and speak as if we have, because of our supposed virtues, are spiritually superior to others. As we do so, we make that in which he believe we excel our standard of holiness, rather than God’s Law with its unattainable depths and requirements. Additionally, when we foster spiritual pride we reveal that we do not truly need the atoning sacrifice of Christ for our sin....
If we would remember the sphere of our callings from God, our need to mine out of Scripture the wisdom of God, and our sinfulness before God, we will be much more reticent to insert ourselves into controversies about which we do not need to involve ourselves. As we keep these three guiding principles before us, we will be more equipped to determine what controversies we should take up and those from which we should keep ourselves....
Whatever symbolism men may wish to impose on the covenantal sign that God set in the cloud, we must return again and again to the truth of Scripture and to the God who has aimed the arrows of His wrath at Himself so that we might not receive them for all eternity....
Many tend to think of sanctification as something entirely progressive, and, therefore, miss out on understanding one of the richest and most spiritually impacting gospel truths. In order for us to understand why both definitive and positional sanctification are two aspects of the doctrine of sanctification most frequently overlooked, it will help us to consider what they are, why they have frequently been overlooked, and how it ought to impact our Christian lives. ...
In his book The Bruised Reed, Richard Sibbes famously wrote, "We have this for a foundation truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us." Here is one of those oft repeated statements of Gospel assurance with which believers love to comfort one another. ...
In his sermon "The Believing Thief," C.H. Spurgeon pointed out the remarkable way that the dying thief, who rebuked the other thief on the cross and asked Jesus to remember him, used the one thing he could to glorify Christ. The man had no use of his hands or feet. He could not response with anything but his tongue. Spurgeon explained, "He had no member that was free excep...
Keep ReadingThe account of Jesus and Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) is a wonderful revelation of the sovereign grace of Christ in the salvation of sinners. In the context Jesus has told his disciples how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. He demonstrates the impossibility (i.e. human impossibility) by the account of the rich, young ruler. He then turns around, almost imm...
Keep ReadingLast May, Kevin DeYoung (Senior Minister of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, MI) and Lynn McClurg (Vice President of Covenant Eyes) gave a series of lectures on Sexual Sanity at Harvest Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You can listen to them below: Sexual Sanity (session 1) - Kevin DeYoung Sexual Sanity (session 2) - Lynn McClurg Sexual Sanity (session 3) - Kevi...
Keep ReadingJohn Piper recently engaged some of the prisoners at Angola Prison in LAÂ in a Question and Answer time. You can listen to the audio here. You can watch the video here....
Keep ReadingRichard J. Clifford points out some of the similarities between the OT experience of Israel in the Exodus and Wilderness, with the experience of believers in Christ in the NT. He writes: In the Gospels the Exodus appears in the voice of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness and the theme of the Way of the Lord. Matthew and Luke interpret the temptations of Jesus in th...
Keep ReadingDr. David Murray, Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, has a blog called Head, Heart, Hand. Dr. Murray is a godly and thoughtful man, who has some edifying and interesting thoughts. You can watch several videos of Dr. Murray speaking on various subjects here....
Keep ReadingFaith Comes By Hearing has compiled their Audio Roundup: Top Audio of 2009 list. A few Christ the Center episodes made the list. We are thankful for all those who have faithfully listened to our shows....
Keep ReadingIt is a rare thing in 21st Century America to hear an anchorman, from a major network news channel, urge someone to turn to Christ. This is precisely what Brit Hume did on this show. Hume went on the O'Reilly Factor to explain his initial comments. I wonder whether Hume is Roman Catholic or Protestant. He definitely professes faith in Christ in this interview. From the ...
Keep ReadingThis past Lord's Day, I preached a sermon on John 7:1-30. The title of the message was "The Heavenly Scholar." Here is the Audio and Video: Audio
C.J. Mahaney, in his sermon "Death Swallowed Up in Victory," quotes D. A. Carson on the nature of death. Carson notes, "death is God's limit on creatures who want to be God...Death is God's determination to limit our arrogance." For the natural man, death is the cessation of life--and consequently the cessation of the enjoyment of God's goodness unto all eternity. Death is...
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