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."...
I am becoming more and more convinced that Dennis Johnson's book Him We Proclaim ought to be required reading in every seminary, bible school and elder training program. Whether it is understanding the preservation of the covenantal line, the principle of typology or the redemptive-historical purpose of the ceremonial and civil laws, there is no single volume that gives m...
Keep ReadingHere is an excellent article by Ed West, a journalist for the Telegraph, offering a critique of Britain's first pro-abortion television advertisement. HT: Martin Downes...
Keep ReadingI am not a huge fan of melodramatic, Mormon political analysts talking about God and country. But I was interested to see that yesterday Peter Lillback, President of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, was on Glen Beck to talk about the difference between the Gospel and the implications of the Gospel in light of current discussions on social justice. You can ...
Keep ReadingMatthew Blair, over at the Octavius Winslow website, is giveaway a copy of Winslow's Heaven Opened.. You can learn more here....
Keep ReadingThis is a particularly thought provoking sermon, by David Murray, on the significance of God's dwelling in the tabernacle. The Lord dwelt in the tent of meeting because His people dwelt in tents. He had promised to be their God. He had promised to dwell with His people. In order to do this, God became like His people. Israel dwelt in tents, so God dwelt in a tent. This is,...
Keep ReadingThe audio and video from the most recent sermon preached at New Covenant Presbyterian Church is now online. The text was Acts 6:8-15 and the title was "A Day in the Life of an Extraordinary Man." You can find the audio here. You can watch the video below:
Here is an outstanding article on the biblical mandate for tithing by R.C. Sproul. I wish every Christian would read this....
Keep ReadingA much needed reminder from Tim Keller on contentment. We desperately need to be reminded, time and time again, of the words of David from Psalm 131, and the theology of contentment: My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child w...
Keep ReadingSome time ago I posted a link to the interview we had with Dr. Joseph A. Pipa, on Christ the Center, regarding the preaching of William Perkins. You can listen to it here. Dr. Pipa wrote his doctoral dissertation on the preaching of Perkins. He recently gave a lecture on the life of Perkins at the 2010 Whiteabbey Congregational Church Puritan Conference. You can listen to ...
Keep ReadingE.M. Bounds, in his book The Power of Prayer, made the astute observation that humanly devised methods can never replace the working of God in the man of God. He wrote: God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else, because men are God's method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost ...
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