SRR #88 | A Special Tribute To The Montijo Family

I do a podcast.

I'm not interested in your podcast. The anathema of God was for those who denied justification by faith alone. When that is at stake, we need to be on the battlefield, exposing the air and combating the air.

We are unabashedly, unashamedly Clarkian. And so, the next few statements that I'm going to make, I'm probably going to step on all of the Vantillian toes at the same time. And this is what we do at Simple Riff around the radio, you know.

We are polemical and polarizing Jesus style.

I would first say that to characterize what we do as bashing is itself bashing. It's not hate, it's history. It's not bashing, it's the Bible.

Jesus said, woe to you when men speak well of you. For their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. As opposed to, blessed are you when you have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness.

It is on. We're taking the gloves off. It's time to battle.

Dr. Piper, in your defense of the gospel against N .T. Wright, have you found federal vision theology of Doug Wilson to be another gospel?

No. That's easy. Doug Wilson doesn't preach another gospel.

Okay.

I don't think N .T. Wright preaches a false gospel either. I think N .T. Wright preaches a very confusing gospel. The burden of that book is to say, tell us more clearly what you mean, if you think all of this in different categories really coheres with historic reform theology.

I wonder, I wonder if it does. I doubt, but I wanted to be so careful. I sent the manuscript to him. He wrote an 11 ,000 word response. That was a third the length of my book, and he wrote that much response.

It helped me a lot to catch on to some nuances.

Commenting on Paul's statement in 2 Timothy 3 .13, Paul warned Timothy in his final correspondence with him before he died, that wicked men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving others and being deceived.

John Calvin wrote a sentence that I wish every pastor had plastered over the door of their study. It is highly necessary for godly teachers to be reminded of this, to be reminded that wicked men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves.

Calvin says that we need to be reminded of this, that we may be prepared for uninterrupted warfare, and may not be discouraged by delay or yield to the haughtiness and insolence of adversaries. There are new Galatian heretics today.

There are new Galatian Judaizers today. The new perspective writers like N .T. Wright and the federal visionists like Steve Wilkins, Peter Lightheart, Rich Lust, Doug Wilson, Steve Schlissel and many others.

The names change, the nuances change, but it's always the same rehashing of the same old errors. Listen to N .T. Wright in his own words in his newer book which I just got on Kindle, the day the revolution began, I was reading this in the introduction, quote, we have paganized our understanding of salvation, substituting the idea of God killing Jesus to satisfy his wrath, for the genuinely biblical notions we're about to explore, end quote.

The idea that Jesus died in the place of sinners, says N .T. Wright, is quote, closer to the pagan idea of an angry deity being pacified by a human death than they are to anything in either Israel's scriptures or the New Testament, end quote.

N .T. Wright rejects the concept of Christ satisfying divine justice against our sin at the cross completely. He denies that entirely, comprehensively. No substitutionary atonement whatsoever in N .T. Wright's theology.

He denies that our sins are imputed to Christ and that Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. Says Wright, quote, if we use the language of the law court, it makes no sense whatsoever to say that the judge imputes, imparts, bequeaths, conveys, or otherwise transfers his righteousness to either the plaintiff or the defendant.

Righteousness is not a substance, an object, or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom. This gives the impression of a legal transaction, a kind of cold piece of business, almost a trick of thought performed by a God who is logical and correct, but hardly one any of us want to worship, end quote.

N .T. Wright also said, quote, I must stress again that the doctrine of justification by faith is not what Paul means by the gospel. The gospel is not an account of how people get saved. Are you hearing this?

First Corinthians 15, moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel by which also you are saved. As John MacArthur said, N .T. Wright is N .T. wrong. You can clap. It's not Sunday morning. And there are Protestant ministers today who promote this man's incredible array of false teaching, obfuscations, contradictions, and simple denials, frontal attacks on the core gospel and biblical truths that are the very lifeblood of the Christian.

The Gospel Controversy Around N.T. Wright and Federal Vision

Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the podcast. My name is Tim, and you are listening to Semper Reformanda Radio. So what you just heard was a little bit of a promotional clip to advertise one of our podcasters, Pastor Patrick Hines.

And I want to encourage everybody out there to turn off John Piper and to turn on Patrick Hines. We played a little clip of his latest episode, and it is a fantastic episode. I want to encourage everybody to listen to episode number 16 of the Protestant Witness.

And we contrasted that to an interview that John Piper did in which he was asked about Doug Wilson and in which he said some really outlandish things. I find it remarkable that in the preface of a question about Doug Wilson, Mark Driscoll prefaces the question by saying, In your defense of the gospel against N .T. Wright.

And so here we have Mark Driscoll crediting Piper for defending the gospel against N .T. Wright, to which John Piper then goes on to clarify that he does not believe that N .T. Wright preaches a false gospel, but rather he preaches a confusing gospel.

Well, that is troubling to say the least, and it is flat wrong, because N .T. Wright does in fact preach a false gospel. And thankfully we have faithful godly men like Patrick Hines who are willing to point that out.

And also, the gospel is not confusing. Anybody who is telling you the gospel is confusing is likely preaching a false gospel themselves. And here we do in fact believe that Piper preaches a false gospel, because he says that faith alone, a faith which produces and manifests itself in good works, and is therefore a true and living faith, a faith alone is not enough to get you into heaven.

It's only enough to justify you. So we are going to tackle that issue one more time in a future episode. Carlos Montijo is about to publish part two of his article on the John Piper controversy, and we want to encourage all of our listeners to read that.

It is long, it's lengthy, but it is well worth your time. So we also want to go ahead and promote an upcoming event in which we are going to have Brandon Adams and Pastor Patrick Hines talk about baptism.

So that is going to be interesting. Pastor Patrick Hines is a Presbyterian, and Brandon Adams is a Reformed Baptist. And so we are definitely looking forward to that. And I also wanted to promote Timothy Kaufman's new series.

It is called From the Diving Board, and he is evaluating and looking closely at testimonies from people who have converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. So that is a big mistake. Don't do that.

But do check out his latest episode. I believe he's done episode one. And it is very good. Timothy Kaufman is a first-rate historian, and he's a first-rate theologian. So if you haven't heard Timothy Kaufman yet, please check him out.

We have a whole page against Rome, which is basically all of his work dedicated to tackling the errors of Romanism. It is fantastic. And then we also have Radio Lux Lucid. Hopefully Steve Matthews will be coming back soon, but be looking out for that.

Carlos Montijo's Funeral Sermon and the Hope of the Gospel

So today we are going to play a sermon by Carlos Montijo. It's his first sermon that he's ever preached, and unfortunately, it's the sermon that he preached at his father's funeral. We want to tell our listeners, thank you for praying.

We received messages from some of our listeners asking how they could be praying or just telling us that they were praying. We mentioned a couple of episodes back that Carlos' dad had end-stage cirrhosis of the liver, and his dad did pass away about two weeks ago.

So our deepest condolences go out to Carlos and his family. But they are comforted in knowing that his father did believe in Jesus as his Savior. He did believe the Gospel. He believed that Jesus died and rose again from the dead.

And that believing in him was the only way that he could enter into heaven. So we're very grateful for that. I want to commend Carlos for laboring intently to preach the Gospel to his father daily. Every chance he had, he preached the Gospel to him.

And it's just a wonderful testimony to God's faithfulness. So with that being said, let me go ahead and play this sermon. And once again, let me give our deepest condolences to the Montijo family. God bless.

That psalm that my sister read became very dear to my father before he passed away. He would ask my mom repeatedly to read it to him. Give him comfort. That psalm that my sister just read, Psalm 25, my father appreciated it a lot.

In his last days, he would ask my mom to read it to him. I want to thank you all for coming very much, for your love, your support, your prayers, your condolences. I never thought that my very first sermon would be about my dad's funeral, but here we are.

And I don't think it's really hit us yet, the reality of his loss. This is really just the beginning for us, I think, for the grieving process. But as unexpected his death was for us, even though we all saw it coming, I'm nevertheless extremely grateful that the Lord gave us to him for that long, that we were able to enjoy his company and to be with him in his dying days.

Probably in the future it will hit us, but I am very grateful to the Lord because he gave us 62 years with him. And we were able to appreciate many memories with him. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

And for those of us who knew my dad, it has been and will be a time to weep, to mourn, to embrace and to love. I wanted to share some memories, some of the fondest memories that I have of my father. He blessed us with a very good childhood.

He was a good father. He was not perfect. Nobody is perfect, of course. But he blessed us with a very good child. And one of the fondest memories I have of my father was at my wedding day. He actually, we had a situation where my, we had to order pre-order dinner plates for everybody who was going to attend.

And we ended up ordering a bunch of them and only about half of the people attended. So we were left with 10 extra plates and we didn't know what to do with them. And it was going to cost a lot of money.

So I just, I didn't know what to do. So I panicked and I ran to my dad and I told him that we have a bunch of extra plates. I don't know what to do with them. And all he said was, excuse me, he said, don't worry, I'll take care of it, my son.

This is one of the fondest memories I have of my father when we got married. And we ordered a bunch of extra plates for dinner at the reception. And we ended up with a bunch of extra plates and we didn't know what to do with them.

So I panicked and I ran to my dad and I told him that we have a bunch of extra plates. And all he said was, excuse me, he said, don't worry, I'll take care of it, my son. He also, he loved to, he was very playful with our kids.

He loved to draw boats for my son. He loved to draw boats for my son. He was, my son loves boats. He loved to play with our kids. He was very playful. He had, he was famous for his salsas. He was a very good chef and he made very good salsas.

They could have been world famous salsas. He bought me my first car, my first truck, which I called Tigger because it was orange. A Ford Ranger. He was an extremely hard worker as well, very studious.

He was very hard working. He got an MBA and he was, ever since I could remember him, he would always be studying and reading and reading technical books. He was always, he was always very diligent. And he also inculcated that in us, to me and my sister, to pursue studies, to be diligent in our studies and to pursue them.

And my sister and I did excel in academics and in college. It's very funny because I always say that my dad was my seminary trainer. I've never been to seminary. But my dad was, because he was so smart, he would always spot inconsistencies in everything that I, whenever I would talk to him about the Bible, he was not, he didn't believe for a time.

And we would always go back and forth and argue. He loved to debate. And it was, he always immediately saw implications, the inconsistencies in my beliefs and when I would share with him. And so he helped me to become a better believer, a more consistent Christian, and to understand the Bible more consistently.

And we also, towards the end of his life, but not too far, where he wasn't too debilitated, we had a Bible study on Romans that we finished as a family. And we had a lot of very fond memories, good memories of that.

He always challenged me. He always had something to say, but he would listen and he was very attentive. And he wasn't perfect by any means. He had many faults, pride especially. My dad was a very proud man.

And the Bible has a lot to say about pride. That pride cometh before a fall. Pride goeth to destruction in a haughty spirit before a fall. But thankfully, the Lord actually convicted him of that towards the end of his life.

And he was able to share with me that he felt very convicted for his pride. He had a lot of personal struggles, and he struggled a lot with many issues. And he fought to the very end, to the point of dying.

But he was very blessed to be surrounded with his family towards the end of his life and to be surrounded by those who love him. He never stopped fighting, but he was also very blessed to be with all those who love him and those who loved him.

They were there with him in his last days. I talked to him about the Gospel, about Christ and about God. And I asked him if he believed that Jesus is God, and he said yes. And I asked him if he believed that Christ died on the cross for his sins, that he suffered the wrath of God on his behalf, and he said yes.

And I knew he wasn't just saying yes just to say it because he himself then told me that Christ is the only way, that he is the only Savior. He's our only Savior and our only salvation, our only hope.

And I was very encouraged by that. That gave me a great hope that he is up in heaven with the Father and with the Son rejoicing. And because of this hope, this great encouragement that I got from this conversation, on his deathbed I reminded him that if he is in Christ, then there is no more judgment.

There's no judgment to face on that final day. There is no judgment, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That is one of the greatest treasures and greatest truths that the Bible shares all throughout the Old and New Testament.

There is no longer any judgment for those who believe in him. And in John chapter 5, verses 24 through 25, Christ said this, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 4, verses 24 through 25, it says, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. And so that was one of the things that I encouraged my dad with, not to be anxious and not to be fearful of facing God because he has Christ now and so there is no condemnation.

Those who believe in Christ are no longer sinners. They're no longer criminals in the eyes of God and God is no longer a judge to them. It is because Christ himself said, on the cross, it is finished.

It is done. And so, instead of sinners, we are now sons. And instead of God being a judge to us, he is a father to us. He becomes our father. And Christ, instead of our accuser, becomes our greatest advocate.

He will be our great lawyer and our savior. And so, another amazing truth that the Scriptures talk about, about the resurrection that Pastor Joe touched on, in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 8, it says, Yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and home with the Lord.

And 2 Corinthians 5, verse 8 says,. So the Bible talks about how when believers who have died before the final judgment, they go straight to heaven to be with God, to be with the Lord, to be in heaven, except that they do not have a body yet.

And so, this is why we grieve. We still grieve. We still feel the loss of my dad, but we grieve in hope, because we have a hope in God and in Christ. And the Bible even tells us in Romans 8, 28, that, So, all of us who know my dad, we still grieve, we still feel, and we still grieve, but we grieve in hope, because we have the hope that we will be reunited with him in heaven, with God.

And the Bible says in Romans 8, that everything that happens, Romans 8, chapter 8, verse 28 says,. So we have this hope in Christ, to be reunited with him. However, there is one condition, you might call it.

There is a major condition that is required for this salvation. All of these blessings, all of this mercy, grace, forgiveness, justification, resurrection, glory, glorification, all of these benefits come with a condition.

Mercy, grace, forgiveness, justification, resurrection, glory, and the glorification of God, all of these have a condition. It doesn't come by default. It doesn't come automatically. Because God is not obligated to save anyone.

Because we are sinners. And sinners deserve judgment and the wrath of God. It's not... Christ said the very first words that came out of his mouth in the public, when he started his public ministry, in Mark, chapter 1, verse 15.

He says this,. The first words that Jesus said when he started his public ministry, He said this,. And that is the condition that we must meet in that sense, that we must believe in order to receive these benefits.

It must be Christ and Christ only, Christ alone. Not saints, not Mary, not your own good works, nothing. Nothing can be added and nothing can possibly make up for the perfect work and perfection that is required for God, for God's holy, perfect, righteous standard.

He demands perfection. His law is perfect and he demands for you to fulfill all of it. Not one jot can be faltered. And the Bible says in James that if you fail at one point, you fail them all. And so, it must be a perfect work, a perfect life.

And we are not perfect. None of us are. We are all sinners. We are all born sinners. And that is why the only one who can save us is Christ and Christ alone. God demands a perfect sacrifice, a perfect lamb without a spot.

And that perfect lamb is the Son of God, Christ Jesus. Nothing else is required, nothing else but simple faith in him and his finished work on your behalf. And that is why neither saints, nobody died on the cross.

The saints did not die on the cross. Mary did not die on the cross. Nobody died on that cross except for Christ alone. And apart from him, you will face God as judge and you will not have these blessings because if you did not trust in Christ for your behalf, you will face him as judge and as a sinner.

Apart from Christ, if you do not have the forgiveness of Jesus and if you do not believe in Jesus, you will face God as judge and not as a father. Because the only way that we can be perfect is if God imputes the just and perfect life of Christ in our place.

And so that is also why we have another problem. That problem is that we cannot choose God because we are by nature sinners. And therefore we are at enmity with God. We are the enemies of God. That's what it means to be a sinner, to be at odds with God.

And therefore God must choose us. And if God did not choose us, we would not choose God ourselves because we are sinners by nature. And that is also why there is another problem. Because we are sinners, we will not choose God because we are at enmity with God.

We are against God because we are sinners and we are selfish and we want to make our own life apart from Him. And that is why God must choose us. God must choose us and that is what Christ Himself said in John 15 verse 16.

That you did not choose me but I chose you. He is the good shepherd who takes care of his sheep. And sheep hear His voice. And they come to Him. And death is no respecter of persons. Not too long ago my niece also passed away, Sophie.

My sister's daughter. She was just an infant. She only lived a few hours after she was born. And so death does not discriminate. And death does not respect age. It does not respect anyone. No believer.

Nothing. That we are all born in Adam. And that means that we are born with the death penalty of Adam and with the condemnation. That Adam received when he disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. People often have a problem with accepting Christ as their Savior on their behalf.

But they have a problem when the Bible talks about how we are guilty of Adam's sin. But that is how God chose to save us. And that is how God has chosen to work. Only those who are in Christ. The second Adam.

The last Adam. That's what the Bible calls Him. Only those who are in Him will receive these benefits and blessings. And so as we remember my dad and his life and his death and we reflect on these things.

I also urge you to reflect on your own fate. To consider your own death. Because it's coming for us all. It's just a matter of time. And so I urge you to consider these things and to trust in Christ alone for His mercy and for your salvation.

Thank you very much. God bless you.

Thank you Carlos. Thank you Jorge.

It was beautiful.

I should have read it in Spanish. I should have stayed here, but it's okay. Thank you very much to all of you. Thank you very much. This is the only opportunity, almost in such sad moments, that you can have.

That people can take care of God's things. Everyone has their own God, right? That's why Carlos said that we choose God. We choose the one that we have in our imagination. The one that we have left. The way we live.

Our lifestyle. But my God is good and He blesses me. Yes, I have sinned a lot. But my God is good. We invent it. We do it according to our tastes. But that is not the true God. We cannot know the true God if He does not make us know Him first.

And that is the great mercy of God. That He made Himself known. That is our lifestyle that I'm okay with. That is accommodated to me. Because I don't like the God of the Bible. He's too harsh. He's too inconsistent.

Well, He's not the inconsistent. Our minds are the inconsistent. Our finite minds are inconsistent. Another encounter that I talked about. When I encountered Jesus with the Sadducees. And Paul with the philosophers.

The Epicureans and the Stoics. Paul encountered with the philosophers. And in Greece. The same philosophies that we see today. Existentialism and all the junk. Nietzsche, Jacques Bousso. All those God haters.

Mark Twain hated God. In his Huckleberry Finn adventures. He mocks Christianity. But I'm pretty sure he knows right now that he was wrong. He faced God. But there's so much hatred towards the God of the Bible.

People are okay with the gods of other people. But the God of the Bible is just too narrow to bigot type of God. That's the God that we hate by nature. And it's the God that has revealed Himself to us in Scripture.

Throughout the ages, different people. Men from different backgrounds. From different ages. I would not trust a person. A book that was written by one person like Muhammad. One book by one guy. I wouldn't trust that.

The Bible was written by 40 authors from different ages. From different epochs. From different backgrounds. And it's so consistent. If there's any inconsistency there that we think we see. It is explained clearly by the Scriptures.

When you read the whole from Genesis all the way to Revelation. That's what really convinced me. By God's grace. But I pray that the words that we share here will do an effect in our hearts. Because we will all face death.

All of us.

None of us can buy ourselves away from death. And either we meet Him as a father or as a judge. And I pray you all meet Him as a father. He has made that available for us. There's not a single person that's going to accuse God of being unjust.

The Bible says His judgments are righteous and perfect. There's no unrighteousness in God. So when we stand and we think we can interrogate God. We realize that the Bible says every mouth will shut completely.

We won't be able to say anything. Because all our sins if we haven't been forgiven will be exposed before us. With much shame. And that's why this is the only opportunity when a loved one passes away.

That we can hear from the God we shun. The God we ignore. The God we do away with through atheism. Which I don't believe that atheism exists. Atheists are always angry people who are angry with God. Karl Marx was angry with God.

Voltaire in his deathbed cursed God. He denied God but then in his deathbed he cursed God. So it's the inconsistency of atheism. But the truth is that we all are worshipers. We worship either the true living God.

Or worship the God of all making. Intellectualism. Scholars. Scholartism. We worship self. We worship man. We crown man and exalt man. A mortal being. A bubble in the ocean. That's what we worship today.

And every university should have on their entrance. Professing themselves to be wise they have become fools. The fool says in his heart there is no God. And what a shock. As soon as their eyes close. Physical eyes close.

And their spirit springs forth from this debilitating body. They stand before this God whom they denied for all their lives. And the Bible says every knee will bow. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

To the glory of the Father. I bless each one of you. And I ask the Lord to strengthen each one of you. And think about it. Think of God's grace. He gave you an opportunity to hear this message. It's not about denominationalism or some religion.

It's about the God who revealed himself in the scripture. And revealed himself through his son Jesus Christ. So I'm going to ask you all please just shall we stand as I give the benediction. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The love of the Father. And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. The love of the Father. And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. In the name of Christ Jesus.

Amen. Thank you very much.