The teaching ministry of Nick Batzig
When self is ultimate, then feelings and intuition are the supreme determiner of reality. When feelings take center stage in the societal consciousness, people embraces the notion that “evil is often just a bad day.” ...
There is nothing greater that a believer can fix his or her mind upon than the expansiveness of the love of God to sinners. We do not meditate enough on all that the Scriptures teach about the love that Christ has to sinners who are undeserving of that love. In fact, many believer struggle to be assured of the love of God for them because of the greatness of their sin. Nevetheless, Scripture constantly unites these two things when speaking of the love of God in Christ: God loved us when we were ungodly and sent His Son to die for us when we were still sinners; and, Christ loves sinners and gave himself freely for us when there was nothing lovely in us. Since Jesus loved us when we were in that condition, we can be assured that he will never stop loving us despite all of our sinful failures after he redeemed us....
The signs and seals of the New Testament are rooted in the symbolism of the types and shadows of the Old Testament. Taken together, we come to see more clearly the Christ to whom the sacraments point. ...
Those who have the highest esteem for the word of God––affirming its inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility––can sometimes fail to recognize the power of the word when it is accompanied by the working of the Holy Spirit. Scripture is not merely a religious text to be defended, it is God’s living revelation that works in the lives of God’s people. The written word is the inspired revelation of the living Word, Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is accompanied by all of the divine power with which it is invested. This is true in God’s ad extra works of creation and redemption. The word of God’s power is manifest in His work of creation, and it is made known in the preaching of Christ crucified in the work of redemption....
Pastors need the saints’ prayers because they are ever the object of the flaming arrows of the evil one. In addition, the world is eager to run them over at any opportunity. As one of my seminary professors so illustratively put it, “Ministers have a bull’s eye on their back and footprints up their chest.” Sadly, this is even a reality for pastors within the context of the local church....
When we think of the many calls in Scripture for the people of God to be singing joyful praises to the Lord for His majesty, as well as for His redeeming mercies and providential care, we should long to do so thoughtfully. We should meditate on the words of the Psalms, making them our own. We should think carefully about the words of the hymns we sing, ensuring that we are singing them "with grace in our hearts to the Lord" (Col. 3:16). We shoudl care far more about what we are singing in worship than how these songs are being performed. It is incumbent on us to think about how we are teaching and admonishing other believers with the word of Christ in our songs, and how we are singing those words from our hearts to the Lord. What a powerful means of imparting grace to one another through the ministry of singing the words of Christ together. ...
May we be strengthened to hold fast to the promises of God by trusting fully in the unchangeable God of promise. If He has promised, has bound Himself to that promise by covenant oath, and has fulfilled those promises in Christ, then we have every reason to believe that He will bring those promises to fruition throughout our lives and for eternity. ...
The entire life of David was a series of typological deaths and resurrections until he was delivered and exalted. The whole of Christ’s life was one of suffering followed by resurrection glory. Jesus is “the root and the descendant of David” (Rev. 22:16), the One “who has the key of David” (Rev. 3:7). Christ has been exalted to the right hand of God to rule on the throne of David (Luke 1:32). The crucified, risen, and exalted son of David rules forever over the kingdom of God in righteousness, truth, and grace as the new David....
If we treated the quest for unity in our marriage as being more important than the quest for truth, duplicity, deceit, and infidelity would run rapid and ultimately destroy any and all unity. It is unimaginable that any Christian would desire anything less than loving unity in truth with his or her spouse. How equally zealous ought we to be for loving unity in truth in the Church of God, the bride of Christ which He purchased with His own blood!...
Jesus' victory over the evil one surfaces at three periods of his Messianic ministry––at the beginning of his ministry when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, at the point of Peter's confession of Christ's messianic identity at Caesarea Philippi, and at at the close of his ministry in the garden and on the cross. While we often meditate on how Christ overcame Satan by his obedience to his Father in the wilderness and in his ultimate victory over the evil one on the cross, it is possible that we have not given adequate attention to the fact that Jesus was conquering the devil with every conscious act of obedience to the will of his Father. ...
Richard 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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