A Site for the Teaching Ministry of Nick Batzig
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 restorative Sabbath-day healings foreshadowed the ultimate healing that Christ secured for believers in the resurrection on the last day. The Sabbath healing of the man with the withered hand (Matt. 12:9–14) was tied to Jesus’ gospel invitation: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:28–29, emphasis added). Jesus purchased eschatological Sabbath rest for His people by taking upon Himself the judgment they deserve when He hung under the wrath of God on the cross. Picking up on Psalm 95:7–11, the writer of Hebrews alluded to the abiding hope of entering into eternal rest in glory with Christ, since Jesus entered into His everlasting rest _(Heb. 3:7–4:12)....
Understanding the marks of a true church ought to be of supreme importance to every believer. How can we know if any given church may be rightly considered to be a true church or not? The principles that enable us to answer this question have been systematically developed for us in church history. The Reformation era was a particularly formative movement in the development and articulation of the doctrine of the marks of the church. ...
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....
It 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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