A Site for the Teaching Ministry of Nick Batzig
It is the common lot of those God has called into gospel ministry to become discouraged on account of the challenges and trials that come from serving as a pastor. I can almost always sense when a brother is weighed down by the pressures, demands, and discouragements that come with serving as a pastor of a congregation, because I have known them throughout my own pastoral service. The apostle Paul intimated the challenges that pastors face in the church when he added to the external opposition he experienced from the unbelieving world the care that he had for the church. He wrote, "apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches" (2 Cor. 11:28). So what are ministers to do when they feel overwhelmed by the discouragements of ministry?...
We are meant to know that Jesus had to remain silent when he was judged so that we might have our mouths shut before the just tribunal of God. Then, having heard the sentence exacted against the spotless lamb of God, believers might open their mouths in praise to God for all the ways that He has removed their transgressions and the righteous condemnation that stood against us for Christ's sake. The silence of condemnation belonged to Jesus that praise for justification might be ours. ...
Sadly, many professing believers approach the gifts of the Spirit by overvaluing the idea of the miraculous spiritual gifts (e.g., tongues, prophecy, healing) and undervalue the common spiritual gifts (e.g., salvation and sanctifying fruit). Holding faulty views of the miraculous spiritual gifts is usually due to a failure to grasp the redemptive-historical purpose of the gifts. When we come to understand the biblical teaching about the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and the ordinary gifts of the Spirit, we will better value the greater and continuing gifts in the life of the church today....
When each of the Old Covenant signs (i.e., the rainbow, Sabbath, circumcision, and the Passover) are viewed in light of the fulfillment of all that they typified, we come to understand a great deal about the work of Christ...
As we enter a new year with new personal goals and desires, the Lord wants His people to commit to Christian living among the members of the body. We must resist the urge to look to practices and programs in the local church to live out the Christian life or do the work of ministry for us. Our God has given us the enormous privilege and responsibility of diligently living out, daily, our Christian lives in Christ. Let’s commit ourselves to the practice of seeking to live the organic Christian life in the context of the local church to which we belong. ...
The reason why Mary sang a song of humility is because she was focusing on what God was doing to provide the Savior she needed. Mary had been waiting on God to fulfill the promises that He had made throughout the Old Testament era. Mary doesn't speak of herself or her privileges because Mary was focused on her need for redemption. ...
We rightly wonder of the coming of the eternal Son of God into the world in true human form while wrongly neglecting to wonder at the accompanying role of the Spirit of God in the ministry of the Redeemer....
In many of life’s circumstances, we struggle to understand how we will come to attain the promises of God, forgetting that their fulfillment is entirely based on the person and work of Christ. Jesus has secured an everlasting joy, an inheritance of hope for His people through His death and resurrection. Though we do not now see all that he has for us, we wait for him with patience. We are to be a people who trust in and wait for Christ in faith....
While recent developments concerning the state of Israel have given us reason to revisit this subject--it would do us good to be settled in our minds about the fact that all who are united to Jesus by faith have been made children of Abraham and heirs of God (Gal. 3:29). Believers are the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem (Phil. 3:20). This is the only Jerusalem that ultimately matters. As John Newton put it, "Solid joys and lasting treasures, none but Zion's children know."...
The Feast of Tabernacles was that final feast of the year for Israel--six months after they Passover--in which they were to commemorate Israel's dwelling in tents in the wilderness after their redemption from Egypt. They were to remember God's faithfulness in providing for them during the days of their pilgrimage in the desert. Every year until Christ's death, Israel was t...
Keep ReadingWe recently interviewed Dr. Joel Beeke, President of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, on Christ the Center with regard to his book Meet the Puritans. You can listen to the interview here. There is a special offer around 30 minutes into the interview....
Keep ReadingJerry Bilkes, Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, made the observation that Abraham and Rahab are singled out in James 2--as examples of those who had saving faith--for at least two reasons. First, Abraham was a man and Rahab was a woman. In Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female. Second, Abraham was a Jew and ...
Keep ReadingJohn Owen wrote: I confess I would rather, much rather, spend all my time and days in making up and healing the breaches and schisms that are amongst Christians than one hour in justifying our divisions even therein wherein, on the one side, they are capable of a fair defense. But who is sufficient for such an attempt? The closing of differences amongst Christians is like ...
Keep ReadingJohn 8:31-32 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." The believer can boast in the fact that the character of Christ is truth; ...
Keep ReadingMartin Bucer wrote these passionate words about the great satisfaction that is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ alone: " . . . Christ our Lord alone is the One who is, gives, and performs for us everything which we can desire for our true advantage, happiness, and honour." " . . . all gain, all enjoyment, all honour apart from Christ is poison and death, but . . . in C...
Keep ReadingLigonier Winter Conference (January 22-23, 2010) Desiring God Pastors Conference (February 1-3, 2010) The Nature and Sufficiency of Scripture (Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary - March 9-11) Ligonier West Coast Conference (March 26-27, 2010) Together for the Gospel (April 13-15, 2010) Scottish Reformed Conference (May 8, 2010) Banner of Truth Minister's Confere...
Keep ReadingGenesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Colossians 1:13-17 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdo...
Keep ReadingEvery now and then I have to post something culturally humorous. Thanks to my good friend Michael Dewalt for pointing this out. This is really, really funny. For everyone who was ever confounded by the droopy drawers trend, this is for you:
The following is the most recent update on our Reformed Presbyterian missionaries in Haiti, with specific ways to pray for them: Short-Term Team The short-term mission team made it out of Haiti and are safely home in Savannha, GA. They took a C-130 out of P-a-P to Homestead Airforce Base, and then a private jet to Savannah. They are tired and emotionally drained, but th...
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