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Titus 1:5-6 To Set In Order

Posted on March 8, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Titus 1:5-6For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest SET IN ORDER THE THINGS THAT ARE WANTING, and ORDAIN ELDERS IN EVERY CITY, as I had appointed thee: 6 If any be blameless, THE HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

Set In Order That Which Is Wanting

Word Study: The two Pastoral Epistles – Timothy and Titus – were given by God through the Apostle Paul. The purpose of the epistles are to “SET IN ORDER THE THINGS THAT ARE WANTING”. That phrase is the Greek epidiorthoō ho leipō, which means “to straighten up that which is lacking”.

When the Apostle Paul went to Crete with Timothy, the largest Island in Greece, he preached the Gospel of salvation and many were “saved through faith in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:8-9). We don’t know how many were saved, but we do know that the Apostle did not have time to set up Churches in Crete. God was calling Paul to Nicopolis, a Roman city in Northwestern Greece. So God the Holy Spirit – through Paul – gave an instruction book to Titus to help finish the work. What was the first thing Titus was supposed to do?

ORDAIN ELDERS IN EVERY CITY

Titus was to ordain elders “IN EVERY CITY”. The Roman Historian Pliny the Elder said that Crete had about 100 cities. There were a lot of Christians in Crete because of the abundant Grace of God. But there was something lacking.

Elders {presbyteros = “Those who are of age, Elders”}

Word Study: Elders are the Spiritual Leaders in the Church. The word “Elders {presbyteros}” is imported into Christianity from Judaism (Matthew 16:21; 21:23; Luke 7:3; Acts 4:8). The Elders among the Jews sat on the Sanhedrin, the Ruling Council of Israel, and also acted as the Spiritual Leaders in the Synagogues. We are told in …

1 Timothy 5:17 (KJV) Let the ELDERS {presbyteros} that RULE WELL well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who LABOR IN THE WORD AND DOCTRINE.

Word Study: The function of the Elder is to “LABOR IN THE WORD AND DOCTRINE”. To prayerfully study the Scripture, the Word of God, and to extract DOCTRINES {didaskalia, teaching and instruction} to share within the Church.

**The ELDERS are called to RULE WELL, which means that this is an authoritative position. The Elders are to focus on the spiritual health of the local Church.**

Illustrate Elders: There are several of you in this Church that have different names. I found out that Brother Witherspoon is called “Spoonie”, Loyd, Harvel, and his wife Frances is called “Catherine”. The office of Elder has more than one name. We read in:

Acts 20:17-18, 28-31 (KJV) And from Miletus {the Apostle Paul} sent to Ephesus, and CALLED THE ELDERS {presbyteros} OF THE CHURCH. 18 And when they were come to him, he said unto them.. 28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and TO ALL THE FLOCK, over the which THE HOLY SPIRIT HATH MADE YOU OVERSEERS {episkopos} to FEED THE CHURCH OF GOD, which He hath purchased with His own blood. 29 For I know this, that after my departing shall GRIEVOUS WOLVES ENTER IN AMONG YOU, not sparing the flock. 30 Also of YOUR OWN SELVES SHALL MEN ARISE, speaking PERVERSE THINGS, to DRAW AWAY DISCIPLES AFTER THEM. 31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.

Word Study: Before Paul left Ephesus he called the ELDERS {presbyteros} together to warn them. Paul called the ELDERS “OVERSEERS {episkopos}”. This word is translated in the King James as both Overseer and Bishop. The Elder’s job is to be the OVERSEER. The Elder is charged with authoritatively seeing that things in the Church are done Scripturally, and in a Christ honoring manner. In the other Pastoral Epistle the Apostle says:

1 Timothy 3:2 (KJV) A BISHOP {episkopos, Overseer} then must be blameless, THE HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE …

Paul warned the Elders, also called the Overseers (or Bishops in the KJV) that the Church is purchased by the Blood of Christ. The Church belongs to Jesus, not to us. And there would be false elders, false overseers who would rise up to “DRAW AWAY DISCIPLES AFTER THEMselves”. The Elders were to stay focused on feeding “ ALL THE FLOCK, over the which THE HOLY SPIRIT HATH MADE YOU OVERSEERS {episkopos}.

Word Study: That brings us to another name given to the Elder, besides Overseer or Bishop. The Church is the FLOCK OF CHRIST. Jesus said, “I am THE GOOD SHEPHERD, and know MY SHEEP, and am known of mine” (John 10:14-16). The Overseer (Bishop) or the Elder is to watch over ALL THE FLOCK that God has entrusted to us. The other title for the Spiritual Leader of Christ’s Flock is “PASTOR” {poimēn, Shepherds}. As we saw earlier, the Elder (Overseer/ Bishop/ Pastor) is given the office by the Holy Spirit of God. Paul tells us in:

Ephesians 4:11-12 (KJV) And He {the Holy Spirit} gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, PASTORS {poimēn, Shepherds} and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

The Apostles and Prophets wrote the Scripture as God gave them direction. The Evangelists focus on spreading the Gospel among the lost, with the intent of leading others into the flock, the Church. ThePASTORS {poimēn, Shepherds} work within the flock to advance the spiritual growth of the believer (the saints) so that they might do the work of the ministry, building up the Body of Christ.

The office of PASTOR/ OVERSEER/ ELDER is an authoritative preaching and teaching position in the Church. As a SHEPHERD the Pastor insures the flock stays true to the Word of God. As an OVERSEER the Pastor is entrusted with the truths of Scripture, and with authority teaches these truths to the Church.

A Christian cannot long stand outside of the Church. I have heard people say, “I can be a Christian, and yet not go to Church, and not have a Pastor”. You won’t last if you do. Satan loves lone sheep. The Bible says that Satan “your adversary the devil, AS A ROARING LION, walketh about, SEEKING WHOM HE MAY DEVOUR” (1 Peter 5:8). If you’ve ever watched a nature show on television (and I love to watch them), which animal does the lion attack and eat alive? The creature in the safety of the herd or flock has a much better chance of survival. If you are a Christian, you need a Pastor/ Elder/ Overseer that loves the Bible, and will, without flinching, tell you exactly what God has said. So many say “Well, I sit at home and watch Charles Stanley or Adrian Rogers or _whoever____”. Charles Stanley said before going to be with Jesus April 18, 2023:

“The church is not a building. It is the body of Christ made up of believers who gather to worship, learn, and serve. … we strengthen one another and remind each other of God’s truth.”

As we read before, Paul told Titus to “SET IN ORDER THE THINGS THAT ARE WANTING, and ORDAIN ELDERS IN EVERY CITY”. The Christian should have a Pastor/ Elder/ Overseer. The Christian should be in a Church regularly. The Christian should want to minister, to act as a believer/ Priest, not just in the Church, but outside of the Church.

Let’s Go Back To The Beginning …

Titus 1:6 If any be blameless, the HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE

As God the Holy Spirit through Paul tells Titus – a Gentile and not a Jew – that as Pastors/ Elders/ Overseers are set apart for each congregation, that they must be the HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE. This is a requirement of the office of the Pastor. Some have risen up and stated – even in our own denomination – that women can be as good Pastor as a man can be. Feminism has crept into Churches, and has begun to push this narrative.

But what does the Bible say?

First of all, both women and men are equally important in the Church. We see this on the Day of Pentecost. Before our Lord Jesus ascended into Heaven, He told His disciples:

Acts 1:4-5, 8 Do not depart from Jerusalem, but WAIT FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER that I told you about. You will be BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT in a few days. You WILL RECEIVE POWER when THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES ON YOU, and YOU WILL BE WITNESSES UNTO ME in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth”.

After Jesus ascended to glory, 120 gathered in prayer. Who were in the Upper Room? We read …

Acts 1:14 (KJV) These ALL CONTINUED WITH ONE ACCORD in prayer and supplication, WITH THE WOMEN, AND MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS, and with his brethren.

Women were in that Upper Room praying, waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit came and anointed those believers, we read:

Acts 2:1-4 (KJV) … when the day of Pentecost was fully come, THEY WERE ALL WITH ONE ACCORD IN ONE PLACE. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there APPEARED UNTO THEM cloven tongues like as of fire, and IT SAT UPON EACH OF THEM. 4 And THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

It was not just the men, but ALL were touched by God. ALL were filled with the Holy Spirit. ALL were given the ability to speak not gibberish, but earthly languages so they could share the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ to the crowd.

Acts 2:6-8 (KJV) EVERY MAN HEARD THEM SPEAK IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE … they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 8 And HOW HEAR WE EVERY MAN {hēmōn, every PERSON, men and women} IN OUR OWN TONGUE, WHEREIN WE WERE BORN?

The crowd was being evangelized. Both men and women were sharing their faith, the faith of the Lord jesus Christ. The crowd was saying “We do hear them speak in our tongues THE WONDERFUL WORKS OF GOD.” (Acts 2:11).

The Apostle Peter stood up {as an ELDER would do} and said that this was a fulfillment of the prophesy found in Joel 2:28-32

Acts 2:16-18 (KJV) But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT UPON ALL FLESH: and YOUR SONS and YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and ON MY HANDMAIDENS I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and THEY SHALL PROPHESY:

**What does it mean “to PROPHECY”? Someone who prophesies hears the Word of God, and shares that Word of God to others without adjustment. You say what God has said. Period.**

Mary Did This: When Jesus Christ rose from the grave, who was the first to see Him in His glory? It was Mary Magdalene. And Jesus told Mary:

John 20:17-18 (KJV) Jesus saith unto {Mary}, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but GO TO MY BRETHREN, and SAY UNTO THEM, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and [to] my God, and your God. 18 MARY MAGDALENE CAME AND TOLD THE DISCIPLES that she had seen the Lord, and [that] HE HAD SPOKEN THESE THINGS UNTO HER.

Men should share the Word of God. Women should share the Word of God. This is PROPHECY. It is not limited to male or female. And it’s not mysterious. The one who prophesies does not add to God’s Word. Mary Magdalene acted as a Prophet when she carried Jesus’ message to the Apostles. But Mary was not an Apostle, nor was she a Pastor/ Elder/ Overseer.

In the New Testament we see that Philip, one of the first Deacons (Acts 6:5), was also an Evangelist (Acts 8:5-6). Because of Philip the Gospel was introduced to Ethiopia (Acts 8:30-39). The Bible says:

Acts 21:9 (KJV) And the same man had FOUR DAUGHTERS, virgins, WHICH DID PROPHECY.

And yet, these daughters were not Elders/ Overseers/ Pastors. They are not even called “Prophets”. They prophesied. They shared the Word of God with others. The Apostle Paul talks about women prophesying in:

1 Corinthians 11:5-6 (KJV) But EVERY WOMAN THAT PRAYETH OR PROPHESIETH with [her] head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. 6 For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.

The Apostle specifies how the woman is to be who prays or prophesies – but he does not say they cannot pray or prophesy.

But the same Paul who wrote this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, also wrote this in Timothy:

1 Timothy 2:11-14 (KJV) Let THE WOMAN learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I SUFFER NOT {do not allow} a WOMAN TO TEACH, NOR TO USURP AUTHORITY OVER THE MAN, but to be in silence. 13 For ADAM WAS FIRST FORMED, then Eve. 14 And ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

We Went Back To The Beginning At Pentecost.
Let’s Go Back To The VERY Beginning.

When you read your Bibles, you need to remember that the original text had no chapter nor verses in it. The Pastoral Epistle we call 1 Timothy is a single letter with no divisions originally in it. Just as God started out with Titus, telling him to

Titus 1:5 SET IN ORDER THE THINGS THAT ARE WANTING, and ORDAIN ELDERS (Overseers/ Pastors) IN EVERY CITY

Paul does the same thing with Timothy. Now, Titus was a Gentile from a Gentile culture, and God gave Titus direction based on the culture he was in. Timothy is a Jew establishing Churches in Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3). What was in Ephesus? A major pagan Temple dedicated to the worship of the goddess Artemis (Acts 19:23-41).

The Temple of Artemis (a.k.a. Diana) was one of the largest and wealthiest religious institutions in Ephesus. It was headed by a High Priestess, the Chief Religious figure.

This is why God tells Paul to tell Timothy:

1 Timothy 2:11-12 (KJV) Let THE WOMAN learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I SUFFER NOT {do not allow} a WOMAN TO TEACH, NOR TO USURP AUTHORITY OVER THE MAN, but to be in silence.

He’s not talking about women sharing the Gospel. God is saying, “Unlike the pagans, the worshipers of Artemis, the Church is to be spiritually led by a MAN, not a woman”. Well, Paul, why is that? Isn’t that a type of misogyny? Paul doesn’t hate women. Jesus didn’t hate women. God doesn’t hate women. Paul explains himself:

1 Timothy 2:13-14 (KJV) For ADAM WAS FIRST FORMED, then Eve. 14 And ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

God takes it back to the order of Creation itself. When God created Man, He made the MALE FIRST from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). Once God made the MALE, He called Adam to OVERSEE THE GARDEN OF EDEN:

Genesis 2:15-17 (NKJV) Then the LORD God TOOK THE MAN and PUT HIM IN THE GARDEN of Eden to TEND IT AND TO KEEP IT. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

It was only after God commissioned Adam – the MAN – as OVERSEER of the Garden, that God made Eve from one of Adam’s ribs (Genesis 2:21-22). Adam was the OVERSEE not just the Garden, BUT THE MARRIAGE. Because Adam failed to do his job, the Bible tells us:

Romans 5:12, 14 (KJV) Wherefore, as BY ONE MAN sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: … 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Sin entered the world because one MAN sinned. God promised redemption through another MAN, but that MAN would come through the woman (Genesis 3:15). As you look through your Bibles, every Bible Covenant was given by God TO MEN, not WOMEN.

Whether it was Adam, Abraham, Moses, David or Jesus, every Covenant went through men. Why? Because of God’s design in the Garden. When Jesus chose Apostles, who did He choose? Twelve MEN (Matthew 10:2). When Jesus chose an Apostle to replace Judas Iscariot, who did He choose? A man named Paul (1 Corinthians 9:1). Every Book of the Bible was written by MEN as God gave them utterance.

God made men first, and calls men to lead and protect the covenant of marriage. I’ve referred to this text before …

Ephesians 5:22-23 (NKJV) WIVES, SUBMIT TO YOUR OWN HUSBANDS, AS TO THE LORD. 23 For THE HUSBAND IS HEAD OF THE WIFE, AS also CHRIST IS HEAD OF THE CHURCH; and He is the Savior of the body.

There is a creation order at play in the marriage, and in the Church. As you read further in 1 Timothy, right after Paul references the creation order he states:

1 Timothy 3:1-2 (KJV) This [is] a true saying, If a MAN desire the OFFICE OF A BISHOP (episkopē, episkopos = OVERSEER) , he desireth a good work. 2 A BISHOP then must be blameless, THE HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE …

There is a creation order difference between men and women. God made men to lead in the marriage, and in the Church. That does not mean that women cannot serve. Women served at the empty tomb. Women served on the Day of Pentecost. Women served in the early Church. Praise God for women who prophesy, who share the Word of the Gospel with others. We are told in:

Acts 18:24-26 (KJV) And a certain Jew named APOLLOS, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, [and] MIGHTY IN THE SCRIPTURES, CAME TO EPHESUS. 25 This MAN WAS INSTRUCTED IN THE WAY OF THE LORD; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, KNOWING ONLY THE BAPTISM OF JOHN. 26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when AQUILA AND PRISCILLA had heard, they took him unto [them], and EXPOUNDED UNTO HIM THE WAY OF GOD MORE PERFECTLY.

Apollos knew about the coming Messiah, but did not know that Jesus had come. He knew “ONLY THE BAPTISM OF JOHN”. When they heard him preaching one day, a married couple named “AQUILA AND PRISCILLA” (tent makers by trade who were students of the Apostle Paul– Acts 18:2-3) took Apollos to the side and “EXPOUNDED UNTO HIM THE WAY OF GOD MORE PERFECTLY”. Both husband and wife shared the truth that Christ had come and risen from the grave.

Why Does It Matter If The Overseer Is A Man?

Yes, a woman can teach – but not in the Office of Overseer/ Pastor/ Elder. Yes, a woman can prophesy – but not in the Office of Overseer/ Pastor/ Elder. Not according to the Scripture, which is God’s Word. Why does it matter? I go back to what Paul told the Overseers/ Pastors/ Elders in

Acts 20:29-30 (KJV) For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30 Also OF YOUR OWN SELVES SHALL MEN ARISE, SPEAKING PERVERSE THINGS, to draw away disciples after them.

Every mainline denomination that ordained women as Pastors has followed the same trajectory. The Episcopal Church ordained women in 1976. By 2003 they ordained an openly gay Bishop. By 2015, they normalized same sex marriages. Now they support transgenderism, while their Bishops deny the resurrection of Christ our Lord. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church USA, the United Methodists are all following the same pattern. You cannot name a mainline denomination that ordained a woman as Pastor who maintains Biblical integrity. The message they usually promote is “Well, that was THEN, but this is NOW”. Over and over again Satan has infiltrated local Churches, following this pattern:

Call “Biblical Leadership” OPPRESSION of women
Ordain women as “Pastors” to show you’re “enlightened”
Then the Church abandons Biblical sexuality in one generation
Which leads to the Church abandoning Biblical Christianity

Does it matter? Yes, it does. Either the Bible is ALL of God’s Word, or the Bible is NONE of God’s Word. We cannot cherry pick Scripture. As I close, I need to remind you that Jesus Christ was born a Man – not a Woman – because of Adam’s sin, not Eve’s. The only way to salvation is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Author of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:8, 13; 12:24). What you believe matters.

We’ll return to the qualifications of the Elder/ Pastor/ Overseer next week.

Posted in Sermons Preached, Titus | Tagged Bible is accurate, Bible is God's Word, Bible is true, Creation Order, elders, Following Christ, God Is Faithful, Overseers, pastor, Pastors, salvation | Leave a comment

We Need Godly Leadership

Posted on March 8, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Tabrez Syed on Unsplash

As we come into Proverbs chapter 28, most of these Proverbs are couplets. A couplet gives a truth and a contrast to emphasize that truth.

God Gave You A Conscience – And His Word

Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

What stalks the “wicked”, those who do that which is against God’s directive, is the “conscience”. God created each one of us with something called a conscience. The conscience (also called “the heart” because it is located in the “heart” of the soul) can be hardened through repeated and unrepentant sin. The conscience is NOT the indwelling Spirit of God – though the Spirit of God can effect our conscience. But every person, whether saved or not, has a conscience. The Bible tells us that:

Romans 2:14-15 (NKJV) for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their CONSCIENCE {syneidēsis} also bearing witness, and between themselves [their] thoughts accusing or else excusing [them])

Word Study: The Gentiles were never given the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone. God gave these Commandments to Israel to share with the world. But the Gentiles – those who did not receive the Law through Moses – had the Ten Commandments built into them. That’s the conscience. The conscience is “THE WORK OF THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART”. In all but the most hardened societies people know that MURDER, RAPE, ADULTERY, THEFT are wrong. The syneidēsis {pro. soon-i’-day-sis} is that part of the soul that distinguishes between morally good or bad acts.

When the conscience of a large people group becomes hardened, it is not long before that nation destroys itself.

Jesus often used the conscience of His listeners to drive home Biblical truths. While Jesus was teaching in the Temple (probably on Solomon’s Porch) a group of Scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery (John 8:3). These men threw the woman down in front of the Bible class, and asked Jesus:

John 8:4-5 (NKJV) … Teacher, this woman was CAUGHT IN ADULTERY, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that SUCH SHOULD BE STONED. But what do You say?

These Pharisees had heard Jesus say “I did not come to abolish or erase the Law, but to fulfill it” (Matthew 5:17-18). They were not interested in the Law of God, or else they would have brought the man who was with the woman sinner. They were interested in trapping Jesus into doing something that He ought not to do. Israel, as a nation under Roman rule, had no authority to execute others without first getting permission from Pilate. They wanted Jesus to either validate the Law so they could accuse Him to Pilate as a traitor to Roman Law, or validate Caesar’s Law so that they could accuse Him as a traitor to Israel. Jesus did neither.

Jesus, being righteous, quoted the Law.
Then He waited on their conscience.

John 8:7 (NKJV) {Jesus} raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU, let him throw a stone at her first.”

**Under the Law of Moses, those who were witnesses of the sin were to be the first to cast the stone (see Deuteronomy 17:6-7). Jesus just quoted the Law.**

Then Jesus waited on their conscience.

John 8:9 (NKJV) Then those who heard [it], being CONVICTED BY [their] CONSCIENCE, {syneidēsis} went out one by one, beginning with the oldest [even] to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

What causes the paranoia and fear, where “The wicked FLEE when no man pursueth”. It is an imbalanced conscience. When a person acts against their conscience – the moral center of the soul – they will feel guilt and paranoia. They become defensive, reading implications into what is not there. When Adam led Eve into sin, when he heard God coming he hid himself from the Master. When God asked why he was hiding, Adam replied:

Genesis 3:10 (LSB) I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I WAS AFRAID because I was naked; so I hid.

Adam was running in fear against his own nakedness. His wicked act caused him to run from God – though God had only love for him. When Jonah ran from the call of God to preach in Nineveh, “Jonah arose to FLEE to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh”. After Jacob cheated his brother Esau out of his birthright, he immediately assumed the worst:

Genesis 32:6-8 (LSB) …. messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother, to Esau, and furthermore HE IS COMING TO MEET YOU, and FOUR HUNDRED MEN ARE WITH HIM.” 7 Then Jacob was GREATLY AFRAID AND DISTRESSED; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two camps. 8 And he said, If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the camp which remains will escape.

As it was, Esau had forgiven his brother (Genesis 33:4) because God had blessed him (Genesis 33:9). This is grace. When we do wickedly, our conscience amplifies our fear – for sin has separated us from God’s blessing. Pastor J. Vernon McGee wrote:

“I was speaking to a group of young people about sin, just sin in general. A young fellow and girl in the group were living together. I had never even mentioned that as a sin, but it was interesting to hear how that young man began to defend himself—it would have been amusing if it had not been so serious. When sin was being discussed, his conscience began to prick him, and then he began defending himself. ‘The wicked flee when no man pursueth.’ No one had pointed a finger at him. I would not have known of his sin if he had kept quiet. The discussion was about sin, not his particular sin.”

God warned Israel that if they violated His Covenant and refused to repent, that

Leviticus 26:36-37 (LSB) … the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them, and even when no one is pursuing they will FLEE as though from the sword, and they will fall. [37] They will therefore stumble over each other as if [RUNNING] from the sword, ALTHOUGH NO ONE IS PURSUING; and you will have [no strength] to stand up before your enemies.

But to those who love the Lord, and draw near to Him we have the promise:

Proverbs 28:1 … but the RIGHTEOUS are bold as a lion.

When you stand with God and do that which is right, this gives you boldness in this life. As Paul and the Apostles went out to share the Gospel in dangerous and unreceptive places because they maintained a GOOD CONSCIENCE before God and man.

Hebrews 13:18 (NKJV) Pray for us; for we are confident that we have a GOOD CONSCIENCE, in all things desiring to live honorably.

Paul was able to stand before the Governor Felix and preach the Gospel without fear, telling that old Pagan:

Acts 24:14-16 (NKJV) But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets. 15 I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of [the] dead, both of [the] just and [the] unjust. 16 This [being] so, I MYSELF ALWAYS STRIVE TO HAVE A CONSCIENCE WITHOUT OFFENSE TOWARD GOD AND MEN.

The one who does right according to God and his conscience will be able to stand against slander and liable. The promise that God gives to those who walk with Him is DO NOT FEAR. Look at our forefathers in the faith. God told

Abraham, “DO NOT BE AFRAID. I am your Shield. I am your Reward.” (Genesis 15:1). When the other spies encouraged the people to not enter the land of Promise, Joshua and Caleb told them “do not rebel against the LORD. Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (Numbers 14:8-9). When God sent Jeremiah to a rebellious Israel to preach, He told him “go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THEM, for I am with you and will rescue you.” (Jeremiah 1:7-8). God told the same to Ezekiel (2:6). And when John the Revelator was cast out on Patmos to die, Jesus told him “DO NOT BE AFRAID. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:17-18).

Wickedness Causes Not Only Paranoia,
But National Instability

Proverbs 28:2 (KJV) For the transgression of a land MANY [are] THE PRINCES THEREOF: but by a man of understanding [and] knowledge the state [thereof] shall be prolonged.

As a nation becomes more and more godless, there is a high turnover of leadership and rising instability in the land. When King David ruled Israel, as David was “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22) the land was blessed. Yes, David sinned grievously when he robbed Uriah of his wife and his life – but David repented of that before the Lord. The Bible tells us:

2 Samuel 7:1 (LSB) … the King inhabited his house {his palace}, and Yahweh had GIVEN HIM REST ON EVERY SIDE FROM ALL HIS ENEMIES

2 Samuel 8:14-15 (NKJV) … the LORD PRESERVED DAVID wherever he went. [15] So David reigned over all Israel; and David ADMINISTERED JUDGMENT AND JUSTICE TO ALL HIS PEOPLE.

Because David was a righteous King, the land was blessed because of it. His son Solomon ruled over Israel fairly and justly, and the land prospered.

When Solomon’s son Rehoboam became King, he treated the ten northern tribes not as a King and a Shepherd, but as a Tyrant – and caused a division of Israel (1 Kings 12; 2 Chronicles 10-11). Ten of the tribes went north and made King Jeroboam their ruler, whereas Judah and Benjamin stayed true to the ruling line of David. When Rehoboam assembled 180,000 chosen warriors to conquer the northern kingdom God spoke:

1 Kings 12:24 (NKJV) Thus says the LORD: You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Let every man return to his house, for THIS THING IS FROM ME. Therefore they obeyed the word of the LORD, and turned back, according to the word of the LORD.

God was showing Israel – and us – what happens when a nation drifts from His precepts.

Northern Israel not only rejected the Throne of David (and the Messianic Line), but they established pagan sacrifices to false gods rather than going to Jerusalem and the Temple to worship Yahweh (1 Kings 12:27-29). What happened after this?

The Northern Kingdom had 19 Kings while it existed, and ALL 19 were described as EVIL. Every Northern King rejected the worship of God in Jerusalem at the Temple. Every Northern King supported idolatry.

What about the Southern Kingdom, called Judah? Judah had 20 Kings, and of them 12 were evil. Because there were 8 good kings who led the nation to worship God, Judah outlasted Israel by 136 years. Israel fell to Assyria in 722 BC while Hoshea was King (2 Kings 17). The Assyrians scattered Israel so thoroughly that they are called “The Lost Tribes of Israel”. Judah, on the other hand, was conquered by Babylon while Zedekiah was King (586 BC).

Judah was preserved 136 years longer than Israel because of godly leadership.

Righteous Kings like Hezekiah, Josiah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, and Jotham led Judah back to God by destroying idols and worshiping the Lord themselves. Eventually Judah would fall – but God would raise her back up again. “By a man of understanding [and] knowledge THE STATE SHALL BE PROLONGED”. We who are Christians in America need to pray that God will raise up godly leaders to draw us away from idolatry and demonic deceptions.

America, we need to get back to Jesus!
Church, we need to get back to Jesus!

We need Shepherds to lead us to the Good Shepherd – not tyrants. Our next verse addresses bad leaders.

Proverbs 28:3 (KJV) A POOR {rûš} man that oppresseth the POOR {dal} [is like] a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.

Word Study: The word POOR stands out in this verse, but the two words are not the same in the Hebrew. The first use of POOR is the Hebrew rûš {pro. Roosh} which means those who lack, are in want, or are needy. The second POOR is the Hebrew dal, which means the weaker one, the one who is dangling. My commentary notes:

“{This} refers to a usurper who, rising to power from poor estate, makes the very worst and most tyrannical ruler. Such a one has learned nothing from his former condition but callous indifference, and now seeks to exercise on others that power which once galled him. Thus among schoolboys it is found that the greatest bully is one who has himself been bullied.”

Some move into power from obscurity, but once they get there (often by claiming “Vote for me, because I’m for the downtrodden. After all, I myself am downtrodden!”) they begin to take vengeance and bring suffering to the nation. My Bridges Commentary notes “Place an unprincipled spendthrift in power, and he is a destructive flood in his sphere: greedily serving every advantage by oppression to redeem his substance. A poor man suddenly raised to power, instead of sympathizing with grievances familiar to his former recollection, is usually preeminently distinguished by selfishness”.

Jesus illustrated this principle in His Parable of the Two Debtors.

Matthew 18:23-35 (KJV) Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. [24] And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. [25] But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. [26] The servant therefore fell down, and worshiped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. [27] Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. [28] But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took [him] by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. [29] And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. [30] And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. [31] So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. [32] Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: [33] Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? [34] And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. [35] So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

The best leader of a nation is not a poor man who struggled with poverty, and fought his way into power. The best leader is the one who has experienced the Grace of God, and practices that Grace to those around them. We are all impoverished apart from God. Oh, how we all need Jesus!

The Righteous Leader Will Stand Against Evil –
Not Enable It

Proverbs 28:4 (KJV) They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law CONTEND WITH THEM.

You cannot praise the wicked and yet be righteous. There are actions that the Bible clearly defines as wicked according to God. If you justify wickedness, then you yourself are a lawless offender. It was only after many years where sexual sin was encouraged by our national leaders to the point where we now have “Pride Month”, that such sins as God has condemned are now increasingly regarded as acceptable. The truth is …

Where an action is not clearly recognized as unlawful in God’s eyes and therefore sinful, then there is no call to repentance. In such a case, sin spreads like wildfire.

Those who honor God’s Law are called to not be quiet, but to “CONTEND WITH THEM”. We who are God’s children are not to sit down and shut up, but to stand with the Lord Jesus and share the Scripture. The Bible condemns those,

Romans 1:32 (NKJV) who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also APPROVE OF THOSE WHO PRACTICE THEM.

As Noah prepared the Ark for the judgment of God, the Bible says that he was “a PREACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS” (2 Peter 2:5). God warns us who are Christ’s:

Ephesians 5:11-14 (NKJV) And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but RATHER EXPOSE THEM. [12] For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. [13] But all things that are exposed are MADE MANIFEST BY THE LIGHT, for whatever makes manifest is light. [14] Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”

Proverbs 28:5 (KJV) Evil men understand not judgment: but they that SEEK THE LORD understand all [things].

The best leaders are those who “SEEK THE LORD” in their own lives. A lot of politicians claim to love the Lord, but only use Him as a photo op! Holding a high office – whether it be in local, state, or federal government – is a great responsibility. We need leaders who did as Solomon did before he actively began to reign a united Israel. Solomon went before the Lord in prayer.

1 Kings 3:7-9 (NKJV) Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I AM A LITTLE CHILD; I do not know [how] to go out or come in. [8] And Your servant [is] in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. [9] Therefore GIVE TO YOUR SERVANT AN UNDERSTANDING HEART to judge Your people, that I MAY DISCERN BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?

The great leaders know that all wisdom comes from God, and that leadership requires humility and wisdom. Solomon humbled himself. God gave Solomon wisdom to rule well. The Bible says “Solomon had peace ON ALL SIDES AROUND HIM. And Judah and Israel LIVED IN SAFETY … every man under his vine and under his fig tree” (1 Kings 4:24-25). We are told “the people of Judah and Israel were as NUMEROUS AS THE SAND BY THE SEA; they ate, drank, and were happy” (1 Kings 4:20).

Solomon’s reign was the golden age of a united monarchy. Why? Because God was in its midst. Until we as a nation get back to Godly leadership, we will struggled with madness and possible collapse. We need the Lord now more than ever before.

Posted in Proverbs, Sermons Preached | Tagged Faith, Following Christ, God Is Faithful, Godly Leaders, love God, salvation, We need Jesus | Leave a comment

Business Meetings are To Glorify God

Posted on March 8, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

About every quarter we as a Church have a “Business Meeting”. As we have a business meeting planned tonight, I got to thinking about business meetings, and whether the early Church had them. They did. There are three recorded business meetings (if you would call it that) in the Book of Acts. The early Church did not possess buildings, did not have electric or water bills, and usually met regularly on Solomon’s Porch at the Temple or in private homes (see Acts 2:46; 5:42; 12:12; Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 1:2).

There was no overhead, no bank accounts.
They just met to worship God.

Today we have to have Business Meetings, and we prayerfully vote on matters that will effect out Church. I want to ask this question: In the light of Scripture,

“What should be the focus of our Business Meetings?” I believe the only right answer is, “To glorify God our Father, and to enable the Kingdom of Christ to grow”.

Tonight we’ll talk about the first business meeting of the early Church. You’ll see that …

The First Church Business Meeting Was Out Of Order

The first recorded Church business meeting is found in:

Acts 1:16-26 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. 17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. 18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. 19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. 20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take. 21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection. 23 And THEY APPOINTED TWO, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24 And THEY PRAYED, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, 25 That he may take part of this ministry and APOSTLESHIP, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. 26 And THEY GAVE FORTH THEIR LOTS; and the LOT FELL UPON MATTHIAS; and HE WAS NUMBERED WITH THE ELEVEN APOSTLES.

The first business meeting of the Church was called by Peter the Chief Apostle – and it was out of order. Why? Because of what Jesus ordered. Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He told His disciples (Peter among them):

Acts 1:4-8 And, being assembled together with them, {Jesus} commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but WAIT FOR THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5 For John truly baptized with water; but YE SHALL BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY GHOST NOT MANY DAYS HENCE. 6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7 And he said unto them, It is NOT FOR YOU TO KNOW THE TIMES OR THE SEASONS, which the Father hath put in his own power. 8 But YE SHALL RECEIVE POWER, AFTER THAT THE HOLY GHOST IS COME UPON YOU: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Jesus’ instructions were very clear. The disciples were to WAIT. He did not ask Peter to go about replacing Judas. He did not ask Peter to do anything but WAIT, to PRAY, and to trust that God would do what He promised to do. The Power of the Church had not come.

God would not send the Holy Spirit to the Church until the Day of Pentecost (Jewish Shavuot [pronounced shah-VOO-oht]). God chose that day because Shavuot was when God gave Israel the Law at Sinai (Exodus 19-20), establishing her as God’s Covenant Nation. The Church would be empowered that very day.

Shavuotor the Feast of weeks was 50 days after Passover (Leviticus 23:15-21). During Shavuot Jews from all over the world would come to celebrate the founding of Israel at Sinai. God had a plan, and Peter as well as the other disciples were to wait on that plan. But Peter didn’t.

Peter was persuasive, and sincere in what he did. It was not his intention to do wrong. But he felt, as the leader of the Apostles, that since Judas Iscariot had dishonored the Lord by betraying him, that it would be a great thing to go ahead and replace Judas while they were waiting. But here’s the key questions:

Did Jesus as him to do that?
Did Jesus ask the Church to appoint a replacement?
Or was this just a “good idea”, Peter’s way of helping God out?

Who Actually Appoints Apostles?

Who appointed the Apostles in the first place? The Bible tells us:

Mark 3:13-14 (KJV) {Jesus} goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto Him WHOM HE WOULD: and they came unto Him. And HE ORDAINED TWELVE, that THEY SHOULD BE WITH HIM, and that He might send them forth to preach.

Luke 6:12-13 .. (KJV) it came to pass in those days, that {Jesus} went out into a mountain to pray, and CONTINUED ALL NIGHT IN PRAYER TO GOD. 13 And when it was day, HE CALLED UNTO HIM His disciples: and OF THEM HE CHOSE TWELVE, WHOM ALSO HE NAMED APOSTLES

Our Lord Jesus chose His Apostles. He chose Peter. He also chose Judas Iscariot. Jesus told them:

John 15:16 (KJV) … ye have not chosen Me, but I HAVE CHOSEN YOU, AND ORDAINED YOU…

Did Jesus make a mistake when He chose Judas Iscariot? No, Jesus deliberately chose Judas. He said, “I have CHOSEN YOU TWELVE, and ONE OF YOU A DEVIL” (John 6:70). Why did Jesus choose Judas Iscariot, knowing that he would betray Him? Jesus gives us the answer:

John 13:18 (LSB) … I know the ones I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘HE WHO EATS MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME.’

When the Messiah came, one of those closest to Him would betray Him (Psalm 41:9; 55:12-14). The Scripture said that the Messiah would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13). Jesus also knew that “his days would be few, and another would take his office” (Psalm 109:8). Jesus knew that.

He didn’t ask Peter to replace him.
The Word of God said WAIT.
Peter said “WE CAN’T WAIT”.

Peter led the Church is picking out two men, “Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias”. I am sure they were good, Godly men. Then we are told that “THEY PRAYED … And THEY GAVE FORTH THEIR LOTS; and the LOT FELL UPON MATTHIAS”. They cast lots, rolling marked stones – like dice – expecting the Lord to cause the lot to fall on the right man. God allowed Israel to cast lots in certain instances, but only as He directed.

Leviticus 16:8 Lots were used to determine the scapegoat.
Joshua 18:10 Canaan was divided by casting lots.
Jonah 1:7 Pagans cast lots to determine Jonah was at fault.
Joshua 7:14-18 the sinner Achan was uncovered by casting lots.

Jesus NEVER asked the disciples to cast lots to replace Judas. This is an Old Covenant method that the indwelling Holy Spirit will replace.

This was Peter’s idea he pushed on his church family. Sadly, the lot fell on Matthias, and “HE WAS NUMBERED WITH THE ELEVEN APOSTLES”. They called Matthias an Apostle – but was he?

When Matthias was chosen by lot (an Old Covenant technique before the coming of the Holy Spirit), this is the last recorded use of casting lots. After the Holy Spirit came, we are led by the Holy Spirit and the written Word of God:

Romans 8:14-16 (LSB) For as many as are being LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THESE ARE THE SONS OF GOD. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received [the] Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,

Once Matthias was ordained, he is never mentioned again in Scripture, nor in Church history. I am sure that God never penalized Matthias – but it is as if he is ignored completely by God. We know about the other Apostles:

Peter died a martyr’s death (John 21:18-19)
James (son of Zebedee) was executed by the sword (Acts 12:1-2)
Andrew was crucified in Greece
Thomas was killed by spear in Mylapore
Philip was killed in Hierapolis, death unknown
Bartholomew (Nathaniel) was beaten to death and beheaded
Matthew was stabbed to death in Ethiopia or Persia
James (son of Alphaeus) was thrown from the Temple
Thaddaeus (Jude) was killed in Persia
Simon the Zealot was sawn in half
Judas Iscariot hung himself (Matthew 27:3-5)
John died a natural death somewhere from 90-100 years old.

What about Matthias? No one really knows about his life, his contribution to the Church, or his death. Was he martyred, or did he die in bed? There are no reliable accounts that tell us anything about him. You know why?

Because Jesus Christ chose Paul the Apostle.

Galatians 1:1 (ESV) Paul, AN APOSTLE—NOT FROM MEN NOR THROUGH MAN, but THROUGH JESUS CHRIST and God the Father, who raised him from the dead–

Jesus called Paul an Apostle. Jesus told Ananias, “Paul is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the Children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). He was hand picked, and given the message of the Gospel directly by God:

Galatians 1:11-12 (ESV) For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I DID NOT RECEIVE IT FROM ANY MAN, nor was I taught it, but I RECEIVED IT THROUGH A REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST.

Matthias was chosen by an Old Covenant method, without the direction of the Word of God. He was not chosen by Jesus. Jesus chose Paul. God is in control. We exist as a Church to glorify Jesus, not ourselves.

I had someone call me the other day and ask me to do something that I felt the Spirit of God telling me to say NO! When I told him that I would pray for him, but that no, I would not be available for what he wanted me to do, he remarked:

“Brother, you NEVER say no to God”

I wasn’t saying no to God. I was saying no to this man and his desires. I live to glorify the Lord Jesus, not to please others – even if they are sincere in what they think. As we go into our business meeting let us understand that we are here …

“To glorify God our Father, and to enable the Kingdom of Christ to grow”

We are only to do as the Holy Spirit leads us to do, in accordance with the Word of God. The Bible says:

1 Corinthians 14:40 Let all things be done decently and in order.

We are to please the Lord, not ourselves. Let us pray.

Posted in Acts, Sermons Preached | Tagged Business Mtg, community, Following Christ, salvation, unity | Leave a comment

Breastplate of Righteousness: Ephesians 6:12-14

Posted on March 3, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Frederick Shaw on Unsplash

Ephesians 6:12-14 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your LOINS GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH, AND HAVING ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Hallmark Theology or Biblical Theology?

Minnesota Representative (R) Walter Hudson is first and foremost a Bible Based Christian. He has a podcast called “Closing Argument”. On a recent episode he spoke of “Hallmark Theology”, which is what many Churches have defaulted to today. Hallmark Theology portrays Christianity – as – Walter states:

“a mandate to project positivity, approval, and good wishes regardless of circumstances, actions or consequences. That’s not Christianity. That’s Hallmark Theology. The Bible does not teach us to shine the light of affirmation. It teaches us to shine the light of truth. Truth is not always comforting. Truth exposes. It divides. It demands repentance. And truth carries consequences. If your version of Christianity never makes anyone uncomfortable, never challenges wrongdoing, never calls sin what it is, never demands accountability, then you’re not practicing Christianity, you’re practicing emotional validation with Bible verses taped on to it. … Hell exists because precisely because light is just not pleasant, light reveals reality, and sometimes reality can be unbearable. Light is not vibes. Light is not niceness. Light is not emotional soothing. Light is revelation, and revelation is often painful.”

You may disagree with that statement, but every bit of it is Biblically true. Jesus flipped over the moneychangers tables. Jesus shamed the Pharisees and Chief Priests. John the Baptist called the self righteous “a brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7), and our Lord Jesus publicly called them the same (Matthew 12:34; 23:33). Jesus lashed out at the self righteous Sadducees, Scribes and Pharisees as “hypocrites” (Matthew 23). Many people rejected Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, our Lord said,

John 15:20-22, 24 (LSB) … If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you … But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because THEY DO NOT KNOW THE ONE WHO SENT ME. 22 “If I HAD NOT COME AND SPOKEN TO THEM, they would not have sin, but NOW THEY HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR THEIR SIN. … 24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now THEY HAVE BOTH SEEN AND HATED ME and MY FATHER AS WELL.

Last week we talked about the Belt of Truth, which is the integral part of the armor of God. Truth is the first thing you must put on before you put on anything else. If you modify the truth, making God into Who He is NOT, then everything you attach to that Belt will fail.

Once the Belt of Truth is put on, then and only then can you put on the first piece of the Armor of God: The Breastplate of Righteousness.

God Is Righteous, But We Are Naturally Unrighteous

It is true that God loves us, and that God expressed His love for us by sending Jesus Christ to this earth. But why did Jesus come to this earth? There are two things that are absolutely true:

1. God is absolutely righteous, totally without sin, and

2. We are born into this world sinners by nature

How “holy” or righteous is God? The Prophet Isaiah is an interesting person. He was a Prophet, the son of Amoz (Isaiah 1:1), a man who loved the Lord. God gave Isaiah a vision and began to speak through him to Israel – and the message was not good. God told Israel through Isaiah:

Isaiah 1:4 (LSB) Alas, sinful nation, People heavy with iniquity, Seed of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! THEY HAVE FORSAKEN YAHWEH!; They have spurned the Holy One of Israel; They have become estranged from Him.

Sin had come into Israel, and the nation was sick. How sick. God told them:

Isaiah 1:6 (LSB)From the sole of the foot even to the head There is nothing sound in it, Only bruises, wounds, and raw wounds, Not pressed out, not bandaged, Not softened with oil.

Isaiah was called of God to lead Israel back to YAHWEH. So was Isaiah perfect, without sin? In Isaiah chapter 6 God allowed Isaiah to look into Heaven, to see God as He really is. We humans think of God like He’s a BIG MAN upstairs, but just like us. When Isaiah looked into Heaven – a man who loved the Lord – the Bible says:

Isaiah 6:1-4 (AP) {Angels} flew above the throne of God, high and lifted up. The angels cried out “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY IS YAHWEH OF HOSTS, the whole earth is full of His glory!”

The ground shook as Isaiah looked on the holiness of God. Did he dance and sing, like the song “I Can Only Imagine” suggests? No. Isaiah was HORRIFIED when he compared himself to God. Isaiah cried out:

Isaiah 6:5 (LSB) Woe is me, for I am ruined! For I am A MAN OF UNCLEAN LIPS, And I live among a PEOPLE OF UNCLEAN LIPS; For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts.

Isaiah lamented his LIPS as being UNCLEAN, and the people that he represented, Israel, as a PEOPLE OF UNCLEAN LIPS. Not hands, but LIPS. Our Lord Jesus said “that which comes OUT OF THE MOUTH defiles a person” (Matthew 15:11). He said,

Matthew 15:18-19 (ESV) … what COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH PROCEEDS FROM THE HEART, and THIS DEFILES THE PERSON. 19 For OUT OF THE HEART come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

The unsaved heart is not righteous, but unrighteous. How did the Angel of Mercy help Isaiah. HE TOOK A BURNING COAL from the altar of God, and CAUTERIZED HIS MOUTH, the wound that evidences the wickedness of the heart. Isaiah did not make himself righteous before God. God sent a Messenger to Isaiah to TOUCH HIS LIPS, to make him right before God.

God is holy – we are not! God must touch our lips. He must change our hearts. Only God can do this!

God is not a BIG BUDDY upstairs that is just filled with LOVE and nothing else. Yes, God is LOVE (1 John 4:8, 16). But God’s love is motivated by His HOLINESS. When John the Revelator looked into Heaven from Patmos where he was exiled, and he first saw Jesus, did he run to Jesus to hug Him? What does John say?

Revelation 1:17-18 (LSB) … when I saw {Jesus}, I FELL AT HIS FEET LIKE A DEAD MAN. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not fear; I am THE FIRST AND THE LAST, 18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I HAVE THE KEYS OF DEATH AND OF HADES.

Oh, what a strange god we American Christians worship! You think when you get to Heaven, that you will get there because you were better than someone else. You think when you get the Heaven that you and your buddy jesus (and I meant to not capitalize this name, for this is the imaginary jesus some of you follow) will grab a fishing pole and go down and wet a hook at the River of Life. When Isaiah saw the God of the Bible, he nearly wet himself! When John the Revelator saw Jesus in his purity, he fell down like a dead man until Grace lifted him up.

You cannot get to Heaven without a heart transplant.
God must take a coal from His altar of righteousness, and touch our lips. We MUST be born again. The Holy Spirit must save us by the Blood of the Lamb, by Grace.

The Breastplate of Righteousness is attached to the Belt of Truth, and the truth is that GOD MUST SAVE US. It is of Absolute Grace that you are saved! Some say, “But I’m a good person. I know I’ll go to Heaven when I die.” Or one of the favorite things I hear people say at funerals, “If ANYONE deserved to go to Heaven, she/he did!” Here’s the truth. NO ONE DESERVES TO GO TO HEAVEN.

Is God “Love”? Yes, but it is “Love” motivated by HOLINESS or RIGHTEOUSNESS. This is why God sent His ONLY BELOVED SON to a damnable Cross for us!

What does God say of the unregenerate heart, the heart of the person who is not “born again”. He says:

Jeremiah 17:9-10 (LSB) The HEART IS MORE DECEITFUL THAN ALL ELSE, AND IS DESPERATELY SICK; Who can know it? 10 I, YAHWEH, SEARCH THE HEART; I test the inmost being, Even to GIVE TO EACH MAN ACCORDING TO HIS WAYS, According to the fruit of his deeds.

We look at a beautiful baby, our babies, and say “Oh, how sweet! How innocent. How pure and pristine!” But God looks at the heart of all and says,

Romans 3:10-18 (ESV) … NONE ARE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE; 11 no one understands; NO ONE SEEKS FOR GOD. ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

I hear people who profess to be Christian, “When I get to Heaven, God’s gonna tell me why …”. Can I tell you this: if you believe this, you’re not saved.

I heard Dr R. C. Sproul (rhymes with bowl) preach a message on the thief that Jesus saved. I can’t remember exactly how he put it, so this is a paraphrase. He spoke on the thief who repented, acknowledging his sin, asked Jesus to “remember me when you come into Your Kingdom” (Luke 23:39-43). Jesus told him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Later that day the Roman soldier in charge broke the legs of the thieves, and that man died. One thief went to hell, but the other thief went to Heaven. When that thief walked into Heaven, imagine if an angel asked him, “How did you get here?” The thief would have said, “I didn’t get here. WITH MY LIPS I CONFESSED JESUS. GOD TOOK A COAL FROM THE ALTAR, and though I was in unbearable agony, GOD CAUSED ME TO CONFESS THE SON AS MY LORD. I put all my hope and eternity in Him. I don’t deserve to be here, but JESUS GOT ME HERE!”

The man made breastplate of self righteousness will not save you. God must touch your lips. He must change your heart. With the MOUTH we confess Jesus as Lord. With the HEART we believe He has conquered sin and death.

When Nicodemus came to see Jesus at night, he was wearing the breastplate of the Pharisee, of self righteousness and pride. He began by commending Jesus as a great Rabbi. Jesus ignored what he said, and told Nicodemus:

John 3:3, 5-7 (ESV) Truly, truly, I say to you, UNLESS ONE IS BORN AGAIN he cannot see the kingdom of God.” … 5 Truly, truly, I SAY TO YOU, UNLESS ONE IS BORN OF WATER AND OF THE SPIRIT, HE CANNOT ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 6 THAT WHICH IS BORN OF THE FLESH IS FLESH, AND THAT WHICH IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT IS SPIRIT. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN’

“Nicodemus, you may be RELIGIOUS. The Pharisees were RELIGIOUS. Jesus told the Pharisees: “I assure you and most solemnly say to YOU that the tax collectors and the prostitutes WILL GET INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD BEFORE YOU” (Matthew 21:31). Why is that? Because the Pharisees and Chief Priests put on a man made breastplate of righteousness. That thief who repented got into Heaven because he was born again of the Spirit of God. He repented, and God made a way. The Breastplate of Righteousness is a breastplate composed – not of the righteousness of man – but of the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD. It is a God thing!

The Pharisees thought that they were going to Heaven because they kept the Law of God – and even augmented that Law with their own man made additions. They thought they were going to Heaven because the checked off all the items on the “holier than thou” list that THEY composed. What did God say of self righteousness and pretend religions?

Isaiah 65:5 {You} say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, For I AM HOLIER THAN YOU!’ These are SMOKE IN MY NOSTRILS, A fire that burns all the day.

The Breastplate of Righteousness is not OUR righteousness, but the righteousness that is only attained by surrender and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

How do you get the Breastplate of Righteousness? What work can you do to achieve it? The only work you can do is complete surrender of your life to God. The Apostle Paul described it this way:

Philippians 3:7-11 (LSB) But WHATEVER THINGS WERE GAIN TO ME, THOSE THINGS I HAVE COUNTED LOSS FOR THE SAKE OF CHRIST. 8 More than that, I COUNT ALL THINGS TO BE LOSS because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, FOR WHOM I HAVE SUFFERED THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS, and COUNT THEM BUT RUBBISH SO THAT I MAY GAIN CHRIST 9 and BE FOUND IN HIM, NOT HAVING A RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MY OWN which is from [the] Law, but THAT WHICH IS THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST, the RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS FROM GOD UPON FAITH, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Man Made Armor Cannot Defeat The Enemy

Ephesians 6:12-14 For WE WRESTLE NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD, but against PRINCIPALITIES {fallen angels that control nations}, against POWERS {fallen angels that control states}, against the RULERS OF DARKNESS of this world, against SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God … your LOINS GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH, AND HAVING ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Oh how the devil wants us to trade the God made Breastplate of Righteousness with the man-made breastplate of self righteousness! Our battle is not against flesh and blood. Our actual enemy is not human beings or animal life. Our enemy is not the natural elements of this earth. Our enemy is not the CORONAVIRUS {SARS-CoV-2} nor the INFLUENZA nor the BIRD FLU (avian influenza H5N1, H7N9, or H5N8). Just as it was not actually a SERPENT in the Garden of Eden, but SATAN, it is not a fleshly thing that is our enemy. Satan may possess the flesh, but he is the ultimate source of our battle.

When Goliath stood before the armies of Israel shouting, the soldiers of God’s people feared flesh and blood. But there was one young boy who loved God. The Lord described him as “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). David wore the Breastplate of Righteousness that God gave him. When he came up and heard Goliath, David volunteered to fight Goliath in the power of God.

The unsaved heart is far from God. But the saved have surrendered their broken lives to the Lord. We have “been brought near to God by the Blood of Jesus”

Ephesians 2:13-16, 18 (LSB) now in Christ Jesus you who formerly WERE FAR OFF HAVE BEEN BROUGHT NEAR (TO GOD) BY THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both [groups] one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition 15 by ABOLISHING IN HIS FLESH THE ENMITY, the Law of commandments [contained] in ordinances, so that in Himself He might create the two into one new man, making peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in Himself put to death the enmity. … 18 for THROUGH HIM WE BOTH HAVE OUR ACCESS IN ONE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER.

David learned to walk close to Jesus while watching sheep at night by himself. David had trusted God, and when wild animals threatened his sheep, he fought the enemy in the power of Christ.

Saul tried to get David to wear his armor before fighting Goliath. David refused it, saying “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them” (1 Samuel 17:39). David only wanted the Armor of God. David put on the Breastplate of Righteousness. He trusted fully in God. He picked up his sling, and five smooth stones.

And the enemy was defeated.
Not by David, but THROUGH David.
By God Who is faithful

We who are saved do not “follow our hearts”. We put on the Breastplate of Righteousness, and this GUARDS our hearts. Later in life David would sin by committing adultery with Bathsheba, and by having her husband killed. When Nathan the Prophet confronted David for his sin, David didn’t say “What can I do to make it up to Uriah’s family?” David told Nathan:

2 Samuel 12:13 I have sinned against Yahweh

He confessed his sin to God. David would later write in:

Psalm 51:1-4 (LSB) Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; According to the abundance of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And pure when You judge.

It is God Who saves us, and makes us right before God (righteous). When we sin, we confess our sin to God (1 John 1:8-10). We should later seek to give restitution to those we have harmed by our sins:

Zacchaeus restored fourfold that which he had stolen (Luke 19:8)
Those who did wrong are to make restitution (Ephesians 4:28)
We are not to owe anyone anything but love (Romans 13:8)
God expects us to reconcile with others (Matthew 5:23-24)

We do not do this in order to BE saved. The Breastplate of Righteousness is BLOOD BOUGHT. We do this BECAUSE we are saved (Revelation 1:5-6).

Once Saved By Grace, Given The Righteousness Of God
You Want To Follow God

Ephesians 6:14 HAVING ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Saved by Grace, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, the Christian COVERS THE HEART WITH RIGHTEOUS DEEDS. If you are saved, if you have been given the Breastplate of Righteousness, IT WILL SHOW IN HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE. The Bible does not give us as Christians permission to sin. Once saved, we “PUT ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST”. We walk with God in right living each and every day. We contribute to the LIGHT, not to the darkness.

Romans 13:12-14 (KJV) The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14 But PUT YE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, and MAKE NOT PROVISION FOR THE FLESH, to fulfill the lusts thereof.

If you are saved, you are not saved by works, but by God the Holy Spirit. You are saved because you were drowning in sin, and you cried out to the Lord Jesus. He pulled you out of the waters of destruction, out of certain death. Does the Scripture not say, “The WAGES of SIN IS DEATH” (Romans 6:23). Didn’t James warn us:

James 1:15 (NKJV) each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren

Someone once asked me, “Pastor, how can I know I am saved?” Very simple. Do you WANT to walk with Jesus? Do you WANT to hear and read the Word of God?

You should want to wear the Breastplate of Righteousness? When you sin, are you comfortable in your sin, or are you uncomfortable until you repent? What does the fruit of your life look like? If you are saved, the Holy Spirit will convict you when you sin. You will be uncomfortable until you repent, casting your sin on Jesus, and come back to the “Shepherd and Bishop of our souls” (1 Peter 2:25).

Don’t get me wrong. Though we strive to do so, true Christians never lead a sinless life. You will strive to do so, because you love the Lord. But we are all broken, imperfect. Our halos slip! We fail. I fail often. I don’t want to, but I do. The Apostle wrote:

2 Timothy 2:11-15 (LSB) It is a trustworthy saying: For IF WE DIED WITH HIM, WE WILL ALSO LIVE WITH HIM; 12 If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If WE DENY HIM, HE WILL ALSO DENY US; 13 If WE ARE FAITHLESS, HE REMAINS FAITHFUL, for HE CANNOT DENY HIMSELF. 14 Remind them of these things, solemnly charging them in the presence of God not to dispute about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. 15 Be diligent to PRESENT YOURSELF APPROVED TO GOD AS A WORKMAN who does not need to be ashamed, ACCURATELY HANDLING THE WORD OF TRUTH. 16 But avoid godless and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, 17 and their word will spread like gangrene.

Those who are Christ’s do not live to please the lost world, but to please Christ. I don’t care if you agree with me, or like what I’m saying. I do care what the Bible says. Period. My Best Friend and my Obsession is Jesus Christ.

So it is with you, too, if you are a Christian. We are saved by faith in Him. We adhere to the Word of God, not the word of this world. What saves me is my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So I will live for Him – and you will too. I will live so as to bring glory to Him, to the Father Who loves me so – and you will, too.

The Christian who sins will not remain in sin, but will repent and run back into the arms of the Savior. The Christian cherishes the Word of God, knowing that the word of this world is variable, and filled with darkness. There are times when our faith is small, but God remains faithful to us, for He cannot deny Himself. God indwells the believer, and never leaves us nor forsakes us.

The Breastplate of Righteousness guards our hearts. “The LORD KNOWS THOSE WHO ARE HIS” and “EVERYONE WHO NAMES THE NAME OF THE LORD IS TO DEPART FROM WICKEDNESS” (2 Timothy 2:19). A sinning Christian is abnormal, uncomfortable, and subject to discipline from the Father. If you are saved, you will follow the Savior, wearing the Breastplate that God has given to you by Grace.

Not a breastplate of self righteousness.
Not a breastplate of unrighteousness.
Not a breastplate of denominational righteousness
A Breastplate of God’s Righteousness!

Posted in Ephesians, Sermons Preached | Tagged armor of God, Bible, breastplate of righteousness, Faith, Following Christ, holiness of God, Jesus, righteousness, salvation | Leave a comment

Manifesting The Word Of God

Posted on March 3, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Humble Lamb on Unsplash

Titus 1:1-4 (KJV) Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; 2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; 3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior; 4 To Titus, [mine] own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, [and] peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

Introduction

What in the world are we doing in the Book of Titus? I imagine as you read this you’re thinking, “What does this have to do with me?”. As a matter of fact, in 30 years of ministry, the only sermons I’ve ever preached from Titus are in Titus 2:11-15. I didn’t realize that until just the other day. I usually preach the Gospels, the Church Epistles (like Romans, Corinthians), the General Epistles (like James, Peter, John), or the Revelation. Titus is called a Pastoral Epistle. There are two Pastoral Epistles,

Timothy (1 & 2)
Titus

Let’s talk about the two men Timothy and Titus. When Paul went out to preach there were two young men who went with him that he led to the Lord. Timothy, who Paul called “my true son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2) had a Jewish mother and a Gentile father. Paul left Timothy is Ephesus to help establish the Church there.

Titus, who Paul called “my true son in our common faith” (Titus 1:4), was a Gentile. When Gentiles began to enter the Church by faith in Christ (for initially it was entirely Jewish), Paul and Titus met with the Apostles to discuss whether saved Gentiles had to follow the Law of Moses. This meeting is described in:

Acts 15:2 (LSB) the brothers determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem TO THE APOSTLES AND ELDERS concerning this issue ..

Titus isn’t mentioned by name in the meeting of the Apostles and Elders (Pastors) of Jerusalem in Acts 15, but Paul mentions him by name in:

Galatians 2:1 (LSB) Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, TAKING TITUS ALONG ALSO.

Pharisees had come into the Church in Jerusalem, just as they come into the Church of every age. The Pharisees said:

Acts 15:5 (LSB) But some of the sect of the PHARISEES WHO HAD BELIEVED stood up, saying, “It is NECESSARY TO CIRCUMCISE THEM {the Gentiles} and to command them to KEEP THE LAW OF MOSES.”

The Law of Moses is much more than just the Ten Commandments that we all know (and which are still valid today). The Law of Moses established ceremonial laws, sacrificial laws, feasts, and rituals like circumcision on the Jewish people. When God gave the Law of Circumcision to Abraham, He said:

Genesis 17:10-14 (NKJV) This [is] My covenant which YOU SHALL KEEP, between Me and you and YOUR DESCENDANTS AFTER YOU: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 “He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and MY COVENANT SHALL BE IN YOUR FLESH FOR AN EVERLASTING COVENANT. 14 “And the uncircumcised male child, WHO IS NOT CIRCUMCISED in the flesh of his foreskin, THAT PERSON SHALL BE CUT OFF FROM HIS PEOPLE; he has broken My covenant.”

The Pharisees who had been ordained to the Pastorate – and who influential in the Church of Jerusalem – said “a Gentile can be saved. But that Gentile man MUST BE CIRCUMCISED and MUST KEEP THE LAW of Moses”.

So the elders (the Pastors) and the Apostles met to discuss the matter. Peter the Apostle (who had first seen Gentiles saved) stood on the Grace of God alone. He said:

Acts 15:11 (LSB) But we believe that WE ARE SAVED THROUGH THE GRACE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, in the same way as THEY {the Gentiles} ALSO ARE.

The Pharisees wanted Titus to be circumcised, but Paul refused to do so. Timothy had been circumcised because he was a Jew, but not Titus. Circumcision was never given to the Gentiles, but to the Jews. In fact, circumcision has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH SALVATION. God told Israel that the man who would not be circumcised “THAT PERSON SHALL BE CUT OFF FROM HIS PEOPLE”. Not from Heaven, but from “HIS PEOPLE”, or Israel. Circumcision, the feasts, the ceremonial laws that God gave to Israel under the Old Covenant were fulfilled in Christ. Why did these Pharisees come into the Church, professing to be children of God by faith in Christ? Paul said,

Galatians 2:4-5 (LSB) But [this was] because of THE FALSE BROTHERS SECRETLY BROUGHT IN, who had SNEAKED IN to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, IN ORDER TO ENSLAVE US. 5 But we did not yield in subjection to them for even a moment, so that THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL WOULD REMAIN WITH YOU.

So Titus was in the midst of this grand meeting of the Church. And in Acts 15 the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ specified that the born again Gentiles did NOT have to be circumcised, but they did have to STAY AWAY FROM IDOLATRY AND SEXUAL IMMORALITY (Acts 15:20).

From that point, Titus went with Paul to Corinth to establish the Church there. Then Paul left Titus in Crete, a large Grecian Island, so he could establish Churches there. The Grecians worshiped the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. There was also a strong Jewish presence therethat rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. Titus was given the challenge by God to not only preach the Gospel, but to establish Churches in Crete, ordaining Pastors for each Church.

If The Head Is Corrupt, The Body Cannot Be Well

When God sends us to do a chore, a work for Him, He will always equip us to do that work. As God was sending Titus to Crete to establish Churches, God through the Apostle Paul gave him his own “how to” guide. That’s what the Book of Titus is. If you had to establish a Church, the Book of Titus will explain how to do that starting at the Head.

Now I know that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church. There is ample Scripture that teaches us this:

Ephesians 1:22-23 (LSB) And HE {God the Father} PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET {God the Son}, and gave Him {Jesus} as HEAD OVER ALL THINGS TO THE CHURCH, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 5:23 (LSB) For the husband is the head of the wife, as CHRIST ALSO IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH, He Himself [being] the Savior of the body.

Jesus is the Head of His Church. Jesus is “The Word became flesh Who dwelt among us” (John 1:14). But Jesus now is “exalted TO THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD” (Acts 2:33). The Bible says that

Romans 8:34 (LSB) who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, WHO IS AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, who also intercedes for us.

Jesus as Eternal God will “never leave us, nor forsake us” (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 28:20). But He is literally at the right hand of the Father now, His Holy Spirit indwelling us. So how is Jesus manifested on the earth now?

Titus 1:2-3 (KJV) … God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; 3 But hath in due times MANIFESTED HIS WORD THROUGH PREACHING {kērygma, pro. kay’-roog-mah}

Word Study: God manifests Himself – His Word – through PREACHING. The word PREACHING is the Greekkērygma. Kērygma means “an AUTHORITATIVE proclamation by a Herald or a Public Crier”.

The Preacher is commissioned or called by God to manifest Jesus Christ to the listener, to make His truths understandable so the believer can live by them. The Preacher calls us to imitate Christ and so manifest Him to others by our very lives.

The Apostle Paul was a Preacher, following the call of God.

Titus 1:3 (KJV) But hath in due times MANIFESTED HIS WORD THROUGH PREACHING, which is COMMITTED {pisteuō} UNTO ME according to the commandment of God our Savior;

Word Study: Paul said, “I’m a Preacher. God “COMMITTED” this to me. The word translated COMMITTED is a very interesting word, the Greek pisteuō. This word is often used for BELIEF in God. We read:

Matthew 8:13 {NKJV}… Jesus said unto the Centurion, Go your way, and as you have BELIEVED {pisteuō}, so let it be done for you …

Matthew 18:6 {NKJV} (Jesus said) whoever causes one of these little ones who BELIEVE {pisteuō} in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Matthew 21:22 {NKJV} And whatever things you ask in prayer, BELIEVING, {pisteuō} you will receive.

To “BELIEVE” means to “commit to, to entrust with”. God entrusted the Gospel to Paul, and commanded that he preach it. The Preacher proclaims the Gospel of Christ AUTHORITATIVELY, EXCLUSIVELY, and WITHOUT COMPROMISE.

What are the characteristics of the Preacher of the Gospel?

Titus 1:1 Paul, a SERVANT of God …

Word Study: The Preacher is not perfect (for no one is). But the Preacher or the Herald of the Gospel is a “SERVANT”, the Greek doulos or a slave. The slave is someone who has given up his will to the will of the Master. The Master of the Preacher is God and God alone. Our Lord Jesus said,

Matthew 24:46 (KJV) Blessed [is] that SERVANT,[doulos] whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing.

There is but one Kingdom of God, and Jesus Christ is its King. Christians are to be servants – slaves unto God. In John 13:12-15 our Lord Jesus washed the feet of His disciples.

John 13:13-17 (NKJV) You call Me TEACHER AND LORD, and you say well, FOR SO I AM. 14 If I then, [your] Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, YOU ALSO OUGHT TO WASH ONE ANOTHER’S FEET. 15 “For I HAVE GIVEN YOU AN EXAMPLE, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 “Most assuredly, I say to you, A SERVANT IS NOT GREATER THAN HIS MASTER; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, BLESSED ARE YOU IF YOU DO THEM.

So many people come to a Church, shopping around to see if they can get “the best buy”. I hear this quite often: “What can YOU offer me?” Beloved, what I can offer you is the Gospel of the Kingdom, a Gospel that makes SLAVES unto God. The world rejects this Gospel.

1 Corinthians 1:18 (NKJV) For the MESSAGE OF THE CROSS is FOOLISHNESS TO THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING, but TO US WHO ARE BEING SAVED IT IS THE POWER OF GOD.

The world teaches “Have it YOUR way. If it FEELS GOOD, do it. Satisfy yourself. You be you. Be your own god, choose your own way”. This is the pathway of Satan. It started in the Garden of Eden, where Satan talked Adam out of the best job he ever had. Beloved, let me tell you this great truth:

If you have a Preacher who is promoting themselves and the glory of man, you are following a false brother who has crept in unawares “IN ORDER TO ENSLAVE US” (Galatians 2:4).

It is not the Gospel of the Kingdom if it makes every person a king over God. It is not the Gospel that teaches “name it and claim it”. It is not the Gospel that makes man glorious, while ignoring the glory of God. It is a Satanic delusion, a false doctrine, a false preacher. The Gospel that saves tells us to BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. As I have shown you before, BELIEVE means TO ENTRUST YOUR LIFE TO. The saved person is the person who has surrendered their lives to God the Father in the name of the Son of God.

The saved person is a SLAVE of the Kingdom!
Not elevated, but God’s property.

Titus 1:1 Paul, a SERVANT {doulos, slave} of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ

Notice the order that Paul put this in. He was a SLAVE FIRST, then He was an Apostle. The Apostles had the highest office in the Church. If you look at the deviations from Christianity today, deviations like Catholicism, the Church of England and some forms of Methodism, you will see leaders of the institution that dress up in specialized costumes and uniforms. You will see people with titles not found in Scripture:

Father (see Matthew 23:29)
Monsignor
Archbishop
Cardinal
Vicar
Abbot
Mother Superior
Supreme Pontiff

These people deviate from God’s Kingdom. Others bow down to them, kiss their rings, kneel before them. God has said:

Isaiah 42:8 I am the LORD; that is my name! I WILL NOT GIVE MY GLORY TO ANOTHER or my praise to idols.

Isaiah 48:11 I will not yield my glory to another.

God is God – we are not. God directs those of His Kingdom:

1 Corinthians 10:31 … whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD.

The Apostle, the Pastor, the Preacher, the People of the Kingdom are all slaves of God. We live to glorify Him. When we get to Heaven (if you get to Heaven), we will glorify Him and worship Him Who saved us. We will not be pleasing ourselves in glory, but HIM! Only HIM! In this life we are told:

Colossians 3:17 And WHATEVER YOU DO, in word or deed, DO EVERYTHING IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS, giving THANKS TO GOD THE FATHER through Him.

1 Peter 4:11 Whoever speaks, as one who speaks the oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who SERVES BY THE STRENGTH THAT GOD SUPPLIES, so that IN EVERYTHING GOD MAY BE GLORIFIED through Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of God glorifies God. The Church exists to glorify God, to serve God. Not ourselves, but God.

In the Old Testament Israel was a nation of slaves that God took out of Egypt to save them. Why did God free them? “Let My people go, THAT THEY MAY SERVE ME” (Exodus 9:1). In the New Testament, the Church is a group of people who were enslaved to sin, but who are now servants of God.

Romans 6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that WE SHOULD NO LONGER BE ENSLAVED TO SIN.

Romans 6:18 You have been SET FREE FROM SIN and have BECOME SLAVES TO RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Romans 6:22 But now that you have been SET FREE FROM SIN and have BECOME SLAVES OF GOD, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

It’s been my experience these last 30 years in the Pastorate that the average Christian wants to go to Heaven, but wants God to be his or her slave. But that’s not Christianity. When you become born again by faith in Christ, God saves you but God possesses you. You become His.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN, for YOU WERE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE. So GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY.

Let’s return to our text:

Titus 1:1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, ACCORDING TO THE FAITH OF GOD’S ELECT, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness

Saving faith is surrender to God. It’s not a compromise. It is unconditional surrender. If you are saved, then you are “GOD’S ELECT”. The word “ELECT” is the Greek eklektos, which means “to be picked out or chosen by God”. If you are a Christian, God CHOSE you and CALLED you to salvation. You willingly entered into a covenant relationship with Him. The Bible says …

2 Thessalonians 2:13-15 (NKJV) But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, BRETHREN BELOVED BY THE LORD, because God from the beginning CHOSE YOU TO SALVATION through sanctification by the Spirit and BELIEF IN THE TRUTH, 14 to which He CALLED YOU BY OUR GOSPEL, for the OBTAINING OF THE GLORY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 15 Therefore, brethren, STAND FAST and HOLD THE TRADITIONS which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.

The day the Christian is saved is the day that that person REPENTED of being gods and goddesses, and turn to God through faith in Christ. You believed that there was no way of salvation but by faith and surrender to Christ. God chose you to salvation. God knows who will be saved (Ephesians 1:4-5). You accepted the call. Now you are His. You belong to God, not to yourself.

I serve a risen Savior
He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him
He’s always near.

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.

If Jesus lives within your heart, then, like Jesus, you live to honor the God Who saved you. How do you honor God?

Titus 1:1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the ACKNOWLEDGING THE TRUTH WHICH IS AFTER GODLINESS

You do not honor God by chasing after the darkness. Whether Apostle, Pastor, or People of God, we live our lives “ACKNOWLEDGING THE TRUTH WHICH IS AFTER GODLINESS”. Christians will sin. No Christian is perfect. But no Christian will twist the truth. EVERY CHURCH THAT TEACHES YOU CAN BE A CHRISTIAN, AND BE COMFORTABLE IN YOUR SIN, WHETHER SEXUAL OR SOCIAL, IS A FALSE CHURCH. Can God save a sexual sinner? Yes. But He does not save them IN their sins, but FROM their sins. Once saved, JESUS IS LORD and WE ARE NOT. Can God save a substance abuser, or a hater or racist? Absolutely. But once saved, you will NOT wallow in that sin anymore. Being born again, you will “ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRUTH WHICH IS AFTER GODLINESS”. This may make you mad, but I have to say it:

There is no such person as a BLACK Christian or a WHITE Christian or an ASIAN Christian or an INDIAN Christian or a JEWISH Christian. There is only the CHRISTIAN. And the CHRISTIAN follows God as His servant.

I’m not saying there aren’t cultural differences between what we call “the races”. There are. But the Bible doesn’t teach “races” but NATIONS (see Acts 17:26). Once you are saved, you come into the Kingdom of God. Those who are “born again” are brothers and sisters, regardless of color or culture (Galatians 3:28). And when we get to Heaven, what will we see around the Throne of God? John the Revelator said:

Revelation 7:9-10 (LSB) … I looked, and behold, a GREAT MULTITUDE which no one could count, from EVERY NATION and [all] TRIBES, AND PEOPLES, AND TONGUES, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches [were] in their hands; 10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “SALVATION BELONGS TO OUR GOD who sits on the throne, and TO THE LAMB.”

I don’t see a single COLOR mentioned in this scene. Do you? Beloved, the saved belong to a Kingdom. We belong to God. Do you?

Posted in Sermons Preached, Titus | Tagged Bible, christianity, Faith, Following Christ, following God, Following Jesus, Jesus, narrow way, saved, saved follow God, slaves, slaves of God, we belong to God | Leave a comment

Suiting Up For Battle

Posted on February 25, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Ephesians 6:13-14 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

We Battle An Enemy We Have No Power To Defeat

The Bible tells us that we humans are in a great spiritual battle. Our battle is not between black and white, or Republican or Democrat, or rich or poor. We were previously told in this chapter:

Ephesians 6:12 For we WRESTLE NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Our enemy is an ancient foe, one who manifested himself in the Garden of Eden as a crafty beast of the field, a serpent. Again, our battle is not against flesh and blood. The serpent was not a serpent, though it looked like a serpent to Adam and Eve. The serpent was a possessed creature, possessed of an angelic being named Lucifer, Satan, the Devil (Revelation 12:9). In the end God will imprison that old serpent (Revelation 20:2), and will ultimately cast it into hell. Our Lord Jesus said:

Matthew 25:41 (LSB) {God} will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been PREPARED FOR THE DEVIL AND HIS ANGELS

There will come a day when Satan and the fallen angels will be cast into a Lake of Fire forever, a day when God will re-create the earth without sin and sinners. But until that day, Satan “our Adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). We have no ability within ourselves to do battle with a spiritual being like a fallen angel. We cannot, within our own abilities, wrestle with satanic forces and win. It is impossible. But our Lord Jesus said:

Luke 18:27 The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. (also see Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27)

We cannot wrestle with nor defeat Satan or his demons within our own strength. But God can. God sent Jesus Christ, His only Begotten Son – and Jesus is greater than Satan.

1 John 3:8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that HE MIGHT DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL.

Colossians 2:15 Having SPOILED PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS, JESUS made a show of them openly, TRIUMPHING OVER THEM IN IT

What We Cannot Do, God Can Do

Humans cannot defeat the powers of evil. BUT we can submit ourselves unto God and let Him dress us in His armor. We are told WHEREFORE!

Ephesians 6:13 Wherefore TAKE UNTO YOU {analambanō} the WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD

Word Study: Wherefore. Since we cannot defeat demonic forces, we are to turn to God. We could not save ourselves – God must. We cannot defeat our enemy, Satan. God must! The phrase “TAKE UNTO YOU” is the Greek analambanō which means “to receive what is offered so as to use or enjoy”. The word is used in the Septuagint (the earliest translation of the Hebrew scriptures to Greek) to describe Elijah’s last day on earth.

2 Kings 2:11 (Brenton’s English Septuagint – BES) as {Elisha and Elijah} were going, they went on talking; and, behold, a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and it separated them both; and Eliu {Elijah} WAS TAKEN UP {analambanō} in a whirlwind as it were unto Heaven.

When God took Elijah up into Heaven, He took him as he was.

Elijah gave himself to God as he was, and
God took him as he was.

In the same way, we who are saved take to us the armor of God as it is. We do not modify it, or change it in any way. Though we have looked at the armor of God in several Vacation Bible Schools, always showing a picture of a Roman Soldier in armor, we need to remember that the physical armor shown is just an illustration. Paul was led of God to look at the Roman army, and its soldiers, and describe the armor of God by paralleling it to what the soldier wore. But remember, the armor that we are learning about today is spiritual and real. We are to take this armor to ourselves without modification. It is the “armor of God”. It is not man made. It is God made. It is from God. It is spiritual, but real, and powerfully effective.

Illustrate: When God took Elijah off of the earth, He took the whole Elijah – not just a part of him. We are told to take upon ourselves “the WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD”. No soldier would go to battle with just part of the armor. Each piece worked together with the other pieces to help the soldier do a dangerous thing as safely as possible. No battle is won by a dead soldier! We as Christians are involved in deadly work! The spiritual forces of evil hate us.

Have you ever noticed that people don’t mock or make fun of Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus or even Jews and Judaism … but they readily mock and vilify the genuine Christ follower.

In St Paul, Minnesota, the forces of darkness stormed Cities Church on January 18, 2026. You do not hear of mosques or temples being stormed – only Churches. There’s a reason for that. Satan and his followers don’t care if you follow an idol. He does not care if you follow a man made religion. An idol is a man made god. The Bible says of the idols:

Psalm 115:3-9 (LSB) OUR GOD is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. 4 THEIR IDOLS are silver and gold, The work of man’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they do not speak; They have eyes, but they do not see; 6 They have ears, but they do not hear; They have noses, but they do not smell; 7 As for their hands, they do not feel; As for their feet, they do not walk; They do not make a sound with their throat. 8 Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them. 9 O Israel, trust in Yahweh; He is their help and their shield.

The True God, the God that our Lord Jesus Christ manifested to us, “IS IN THE HEAVENS”. He is all around us. There is no where where God is not. “THEIR IDOLS” are from the earth. They are made of “silver and gold, The work of man’s hands”. They are made of items that the worldly consider valuable, but they are earthly things subject to rust and corrosion. These idols “have mouths, but they do not speak”. Jesus said:

John 10:27-28 (LSB) My sheep HEAR MY VOICE, and I KNOW THEM, and THEY FOLLOW ME; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

Among the Catholics worshipers bow down and pray before statues of the virgin Mary, of the Church fathers, images and statues of Christ on a cross. This is idolatry. Hindus make gods of silver and gold. Buddhists make idols of themselves, believing they can achieve godhood. “THEY follow idols”. These idols, these statues, they have eyes, nose, mouth, hands, feet – but they cannot see, nor smell, nor taste, nor touch, nor feel, nor move of their own accord.

Our God not only knows us, but He prays for us at the right hand of God the Father (Romans 8:34). Our God not only cares for us, but He indwells us and speaks to us (Romans 8:27). Our God is a personal God Who shed His Blood for us and, on calling us into His family, expects us to follow Him.

There are many who profess to be “Christian”, who attend a local Church somewhat regularly, but who have devolved into idolatry rather than Christ following.

You cannot live the Christian way of life in your ability and in your power. You, like Elijah, must give yourself to God. You cannot modify the Armor of God to suit what you think is best. A man made armor will not survive a battle with highly superior angels! We are told to do TWO THINGS to defeat the demonic forces that want to damn us:

Ephesians 6:13 Wherefore TAKE UNTO YOU {analambanō} the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and HAVING DONE ALL {katergazomai hapas}, to STAND {histēmi}.

Word Study: Your duty as Christians is to first take the WHOLE ARMOR to yourself. To make sure that you are fully suited before going to battle. And the other thing you are to do is “STAND”. This is the Greek histēmi, which means to “make a stand, set your position and hold it, stay in your place, to be ready and watching”. You are to visibly set against the enemy. You are not to hide, run away, go undercover, compromise, be tolerant, or yield. You are to stubbornly stand firm, cloaking yourself with the armor of God. You are to understand that you are in a battle that matters. When you “STAND”, you rest in the power of and certainty of God. But you do not rest in your own abilities. To “STAND” means to get out of your seat and do what God has called you to do. The Christian is a representative of the Kingdom of God, a sheep of Christ. We ought to baa loud enough so that others know we love our Lord, and He loves us. I cannot defeat Satan, but God can through me.

We are to “STAND” knowing that the power is of God, not of ourselves. Jesus told the parable of a Pharisee and a publican (telōnēs – tax agent). The Lord said:

Luke 18:10-13 (LSB) Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. [11] “The Pharisee STOOD {histēmi} and was praying these things to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ [13] “But the tax collector, STANDING {histēmi} some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’

Both men were standing – but only ONE was standing in the right place. The Pharisee was standing on “I” and what he had accomplished in his own power. The forces of darkness love these people, these religious characters that stand on “look at me, see what I’m doing”. Someone recently said to me, “I’ll be preaching on such and such a day. Make sure you come and hear me.” Would I be coming to hear you, or to hear my Lord speak through you? Idolatry is sneaky – and one of the devil’s greatest tools. He twists it so that we make it about ourselves. I have no doubt that the Pharisee was sincere in what he said – but everything he said glorified himself. He was proud that “I am not like other people”. He’s the top dog! He’s not broken like everyone else. Like God, the Pharisee is the Great “I AM”. At least he thinks he is. He fasts and pays tithes, not because he loves God, but because it is part of a checklist that he follows that magnifies himself in his own eyes.

But what of the tax collector? He “STOOD” also, but he stood in humility, as he was. He stood far from the holy place, and lowered his eyes, humbling himself before God. He struck himself in the chest, the center of the soul, near the heart. His prayer was simple:

God, be merciful to me, the sinner!

This man stood powerless before God, humbled before God, and asked God for the armor necessary to bless his life. Our Lord Jesus said:

Luke 18:14 (LSB) I tell you, this man went down to his house JUSTIFIED rather than the other, for EVERYONE WHO EXALTS HIMSELF WILL BE HUMBLED, but HE WHO HUMBLES HIMSELF WILL BE EXALTED.

God can use you, but only if you submit, and put on the armor He offers His children. You must take the whole armor as it is, without modification, and let God put it on you. Then you must take your stand for God, glorifying Him, not yourselves.

The Belt Of Truth

Ephesians 6:14 Stand therefore, having your LOINS GIRT ABOUT WITH TRUTH …

The BELT, though not actually a part of the armor, was integral to the armor. Jesus spoke of the “belt of truth” when He said:

Luke 12:35-37 (KJV) Let your LOINS BE GIRDED ABOUT, and YOUR LIGHTS BURNING; [36] And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. [37] Blessed [are] those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

The belt was the first thing the warrior put on. It was central to the armor, as all of the other parts of the armor attached to it.

Why is TRUTH the first thing that the Christian puts on?

Truth is under attack today. People talk about “you live YOUR truth, and I live MY truth”. People think that truth is fluid, not fixed. Because they believe this, we see strange things on the television. We see men dressed as women, treated as women, allowed to participate in the same sports that women are in. People say that this is fair though we know that men are structurally created stronger than women. But the majority of dark voices have spoken. Men can be women, and women can be men. This is “truth”.

Based on this “truth”, men can get pregnant. Men can have menstruation periods. Men can breast feed babies. Is it “true”? We are told, yes, because it is “our” truth. We hear “there is no difference between men and women”. And feminists mock men, saying “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”. Is it “true”? Well, yes, it is “our” truth. Raging mobs can burn down buildings while news people report “these are mostly peaceful protests”. Someone’s livelihood was destroyed, but it’s a peaceful protest. And it’s true, because we say it is.

Before Pilate executed Jesus, a Man he judged as innocent, our Lord had this discussion with him:

John 18:36-38 (LSB) Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be delivered over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not from here.” [37] Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You yourself said I am a king. FOR THIS I HAVE BEEN BORN, and FOR THIS I HAVE COME INTO THE WORLD, TO BEAR WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. EVERYONE WHO IS OF THE TRUTH HEARS MY VOICE.” [38] Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?”

The world says “What is TRUTH? It is fluid. We make the truth. What we say is true, is true.” Truth is not fluid. Truth is from God. Truth is in the Bible. As I prayed over this message, God showed me a correlation between creation and the truth. The Bible tells us that the very first thing that God created was LIGHT. “God said, “Let there BE LIGHT, and there WAS LIGHT” (Genesis 1:3). The Light was separate from the darkness. Light was created on the FIRST day of creation. But God did not create the sun or the moon until the FOURTH day (Genesis 1:14-19). Light existed first. Light comes from God. Darkness was there in the absence of God. Darkness is natural, but Light is from God.

When we look at the Armor of God, we see the BELT OF TRUTH is the first piece we receive from God. The order given is:

Belt of Truth
Breastplate of Righteousness
Gospel covered Feet
Shield of Faith
Helmet of Salvation
Sword of the Spirit, The WORD OF GOD

Just as God created LIGHT first, then later the Sun and Moon, God gives us TRUTH first, and as the crowning touch THE WORD OF GOD. Everything binds to the BELT OF TRUTH. The WORD OF GOD is the manifestation of God’s Truth, just as the Sun is the manifestation of God’s Light. It all begins with TRUTH.

Without the BELT OF TRUTH, the armor will not stay in place. If the TRUTH is man made, the God made armor will not be supported. I have seen young people walking around with no belts on, their underwear hanging out. They could not do battle, as their droopy drawers would get around their legs and trip them up.

What is TRUTH? Pilate asked. The God of the Bible is truth. God is the Source of Light and of Truth.

Who is the Source of darkness and lies? Listen to our Lord Jesus speak to the idolatrous Pharisees:

John 8:44 (LSB) You are of [your] father THE DEVIL, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and DOES NOT STAND IN THE TRUTH BECAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature], for HE IS A LIAR, AND THE FATHER OF LIES.

The source of darkness and lies is the devil. The Source of Light and Truth is God our Father. What He says is true. Jesus said, “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE” (John 14:6). The Bible says of God,

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just, A FAITHFUL GOD WHO DOES NO WRONG

God is called “the GOD OF TRUTH” (Isaiah 65:16). When God came to Moses and told him to go to Pharaoh, to lead His people out of Egypt, Moses asked Him “If they ask me Your Name, what shall I tell them?” God answered simply, “I AM WHO I AM. Say to the people of Israel, I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:13-15). Among the ancients, the name was always descriptive of the person. “Moses” or Mosheh means “one who is drawn out”. He was saved from the river by the princess of Egypt (Exodus 2:10), who said “I named him ‘Moses’ because I drew him out of the water”. God is the great I AM. There is no one like Him. God cannot be understood by comparing Him to something else. Truth comes from God. He establishes Truth.

God was not created. There was a time when you did not exist. I was born in 1958, but before that, there was no David. I became a created being when God allowed me life, and I constantly receive life from God. But God has always been. There was no time when He was created.

God does not receive life, light, love or being. He has always been life, light, love and being. We are born, then we become. God never becomes. He is I AM. Everything exists according to His will.

God does not need us. He is self sufficient. He is I AM. God did not need Adam and Eve, nor did He need Israel. He does not need you or me. God did not create humans because it filled up some deficiency He had. Everything we have and hope to be comes from God. When we give to God, we give back to Him what He has already given us. When King David praised God, he said:

1 Chronicles 29:11-14 (LSB) Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. [12] Both riches and honor [come] from You, and YOU RULE OVER ALL, AND IN YOUR HAND IS POWER AND MIGHT; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. [13] “So now, our God, we are thanking You and praising Your glorious name. [14] But who am I and who are my people that we should be able to offer as willingly as this? For ALL THINGS COME FROM YOU, and FROM YOUR HAND WE HAVE GIVEN YOU.

When David was confronted by the Prophet Nathan over his murder of Uriah, his adultery with Bathsheba, David repented, saying, “I have sinned AGAINST THE LORD” (2 Samuel 12:13). That has puzzled me till now. David sinned against God, because he robbed Uriah of what god gave him – his wife and his life. Everything we have, we have of God. Sin robs God!

The BELT OF TRUTH is that God does not NEED us,
but God LOVES us.

The Apostle said “For FROM HIM and THROUGH HIM and TO HIM are ALL THINGS” (Romans 11:36). Our God told us “every beast of the forest IS MINE, and the cattle upon a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10). We are not doing God a favor when we serve Him. The BELT OF TRUTH tells us that God doesn’t need us, but we desperately need God. The Doctrine of the Aseity (pronounced “uh-SEE-uh-tee”) of God is found in God’s name “I AM WHO I AM”. God’s love is free and gracious, not needy. His promises are unshakable. What God has said He will do, He will do. The idols require the service of their followers. But the Apostles knew that “Our God is not served by human hands, as though He needed anything. The Father has life in Himself” (Acts 17:24-25; John 5:26).

The Belt of Truth is that our God is all powerful, all knowing, all able. When God told Moses, “Tell them ‘I AM’ sent you”, he was being told (and now I quote Samuel G. Parkison):

“God} is the infinite Source and Giver of all life and being. Moses could not appeal categorically higher than to this Being for help in his task to deliver Israel from slavery. Who could help Moses more on this mission? Sure, Pharaoh was the king of the greatest earthly superpower—Moses had seen that up close. Sure, no living man was more powerful than he. Sure, Moses was a jaded, humiliated, failed deliverer coming to this people with a deficit of credibility to lead them. But the Being who commissioned Moses in Exodus 3 is the One who gives life and breath and being to everyone, including Pharoah. Moses had the help of the Infinite Maker of heaven and earth behind him: He should almost feel bad for Pharoah! No competition against “I am” is even fair.”

It is THIS God Who saved us by His Grace. This Infinite God knew who you were, and who you would be, when He called your name. He knew you were broken, and called you to salvation through His Son Jesus Christ anyway. This is the BELT OF TRUTH. Some of you run about, trying to save yourselves or to keep yourselves saved. You cannot. You could not make yourself born, nor could you make yourself born again. God did it all. He did it all through Jesus.

Though Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden, and though from that time WE think we have the answers, the truth is that this is a lie from Satan. We know nothing. Social justice warriors know nothing. Politicians (I’m sorry, Jerry) know nothing. Everything we have and hope to be comes from God, from Jesus, from the Holy Spirit given to us at New Birth. We are NOTHING without God.

We breath God’s air, and drink His water. We walk on the planet He made. And it is our privilege to be able to serve Him. It is not a chore, but an honor. It is also the safest place to be. God made Light and Truth. God made the TWO genders. God sent His ONLY Son Jesus to be our Messiah. If you do not humble yourself, and put on the BELT OF TRUTH, your pants will fall down. And the Devil will destroy your life.

We need God. We need Jesus. We need the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t need us!

Zach Williams sings a beautiful song “Heart of God”. Go listen to it! God doesn’t need YOU, but YOU need God. Come to Jesus Christ, bow before Him as Lord and Savior. Receive the salvation that He purchased for you on Calvary. Let Him send the Holy Spirit to you, and bring you into His Kingdom. As His Children, His Sheep, follow Him, because YOU NEED HIM. What He has said is truth. What is written in God’s Sun, the Bible, is TRUTH.

Posted in Ephesians, Sermons Preached | Tagged Bible, christianity, Faith, Following Christ, God, God Is Faithful, gospel, Jesus, salvation, Spirit Led, Spirit Works, spiritual warfare, spirituality | Leave a comment

The Worst Employer

Posted on February 25, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Dev Asangbam on Unsplash

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Number One Employer In The World Is Satan,
And His Business “Sin”

I get most of my news off of the Internet, not the legacy media. The legacy media (NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, FOX) long ago stopped reporting just the news, and began reporting opinion and trying to push it off on the public as news. There is a reason for this, and it has nothing to do with flesh and blood. It has to do with Satan. As we’ve studied before, the Bible tells the children of God:

Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) we WRESTLE NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD, but against PRINCIPALITIES, against POWERS, against the RULERS OF THE DARKNESS of this world, against SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS in high places.

We are in the middle of an angelic conflict, and what is fantastic is that most people who profess to be Christian have no idea this is going on. I heard a comedian joking to an audience that “when I was a kid, they taught critical thinking”. Thankfully they don’t do that anymore.

And they don’t. The devil and the fallen angels of this world work with “philosophy and vain or empty deceit, following man made tradition and not Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Our enemy is NOT flesh and blood. When Lucifer led a rebellion of a third of the angels from Heaven against God (Revelation 12:4), and he was cast out of Heaven to this earth, he has made it his priority to do everything he can to destroy humanity. It was this same Lucifer who, as “that Old Serpent” appeared in the Garden of Eden to tempt Adam and Eve (Revelation 12:9). When the Messiah came into the world through a virgin and the Holy Spirit, it was Lucifer who led Herod to kill that Christ Child (Revelation 12:4, 6; Matthew 2:3, 14-16). When Herod could not find Jesus (for Joseph was led to carry his family to Egypt), he murdered all the children of Bethlehem 2 years old and younger – but it was Lucifer that led him to do this. When Jesus was betrayed in Gethsemane by the Apostle Judas Iscariot, the Bible says that “Satan entered into Judas” (Luke 22:3), leading him to betray the Lord of Glory. Jesus was crucified on the Cross at Calvary though Pilate could find no fault in Him, and declared Him an “innocent man” (Matthew 27:24). It was Lucifer who enticed the “princes of this world to crucify the Lord of Glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8).

Lucifer doesn’t work alone. He has a number of fallen angels that serve him. Lucifer is in the number one business in the word today. It’s not Amazon, Microsoft, or some Social Media platform. The number one employer in our world today is called “Sin”.

This business called “Sin” is everywhere you look. It’s on television. It’s in the abortion clinics, and in the hospitals.

Sin is in the workplace.
Sin is in the Church.
Sin is in the supermarkets.
Sin is in the schools.
Sin is “in”.

Sin confuses. I watched and listened as a young black woman – Joy Flynn, the Vice President of Pajaro Valley School Board (California) – became outraged because someone used to term “homeless”. She said “I have a lot to say and I will speak plainly. You may not like it. I am personally offended by what was presented, on so many different levels. One thing I would like to see updated is the word “homeless” to “unhoused”.

HOW DOES CHANGING THE TERMINOLOGY FIX ANYTHING? Having worked with the “homeless”, I have never had one single person upset by the word “homeless”. They are hungry, cold, and need compassion. They don’t need to be redefined or relabeled. They don’t care. When I feed and pray with these people, they are grateful, and share their burdens with me. This is what sin as an employer does. Sin renames and redirects, rather than corrects. Sin covers and hides. I’ve noticed that people are now using words like “unalived” instead of “killed”. The first word is not even in the dictionary. But if it happens to you, you really don’t care what the socially acceptable word is. The effects are the same. You are DEAD.

Sin has us hiding it linguistically. Have you ever noticed that people don’t “sin” anymore. We “have an accident” or “made a mistake” or “slipped up” – but we don’t “sin”. We change the word to make it seem innocuous.

You can call a rattlesnake a “worm” but it’s bite is just as deadly. I saw a woman who put on her social media that she wanted to bread a world’s record. It is her intention to do what should only be done in the midst of marriage with over a thousand men in twenty four hours. Just to see if she can do it. Beloved, that is sin. And what she is doing will bring death. It is certain, because the Bible – as well as human history – proves it.

Let’s First Define That Employer Called “Sin”

Let’s deal with the “elephant in the room” first. Why do I call “sin” an EMPLOYER? Because of our text:

Romans 6:23 For the WAGES {opsōnion} of sin is death

Word Study: A “wage” is paid by an EMPLOYER. The Greek opsōnion originally meant “a soldier’s pay or allowance given for performing his duty”. Soldiers in the ancient world were many times not paid money, but they were given grain, meats, fruit, salt and other rations. When John the Baptist was baptizing those who came to him in the Jordan, he told those who were coming “bring forth fruit worthy of REPENTANCE” (Luke 3:8). Salvation first requires repentance. When the soldiers asked John:

Luke 3:14 (KJV) … what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your WAGES {opsōnion}.

The WAGE was what gave life to a soldier. It was food and drink. It was his rations. The government that employed the soldier wanted that soldier to be healthy and happy, so Rome made sure that its soldiers were well fed, well housed, and well equipped. A broken army cannot defend the Empire.

Unless it’s the devil’s empire.

The word “wage” means rations, substance that feeds and leads to life. But the wages of sin is DEATH, not life.

The government of the soldier cares about the soldier. But the government of Satan cares nothing for its citizen soldiers. Sin always pays off in DEATH, not LIFE. The rations that sin gives is poisonous, destructive, evil.

Sin would have you believe that there are BIG SINS and little sins. But our text doesn’t tell us this. It says, “The WAGES of SIN is DEATH”. Every sin tends and lends toward death. Some of you are turned off by certain sins. You have a hatred for murder, child molestation, same sex sins, theft, but feel that there are other actions that are lesser and not necessarily sins. The Pharisees did this. They chastised Jesus, saying:

Matthew 15:2-6 (LSB) Why do Your disciples break the TRADITION OF THE ELDERS? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. 3 And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves TRANSGRESS THE COMMANDMENT OF GOD for the sake of your tradition? 4 “For God said, ‘HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,’ and, ‘HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.’ 5 “But you say, ‘Whoever says to [his] father or mother, “Whatever you might benefit from me is given [to God],” 6 he need not honor his father.’ And [by this] you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

What the Pharisees were doing was considering a violation of the “TRADITION OF THE ELDERS” to be sinful. But where the Bible said “HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER”, they refused to help out their needy parents, claiming to have given all their money to God. They made what was NOT SIN to BE SIN, and made what was SIN to be nothing. The Pharisees and other self righteous elements – many people among us today – brand things that are sinful because THEY don’t like them. But that which is actually sinful, well, they turn a blind eye to it. But Beloved, “The WAGES of SIN is DEATH”.

Sin is not what YOU think is sin. Sin, simply defined, is anything that God says don’t do it.

Sin is that which breaks God’s Law. We are told:

1 John 3:4 Everyone who SINS BREAKS THE LAW; in fact, SIN IS LAWLESSNESS.

God gave Adam one law in the Garden – “do not eat of the forbidden fruit”. Adam said to God, “I know what You said – but I could care less! I’m going to do it my way.” We are born into this world wanting to do it our way. The Bible says,

Romans 3:23 ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

People think “Well, what’s wrong with MY sin? I’m not hurting anyone else!” Yes, you are. Sin not only hurts you, but it hurts those who love you. Sin is destructive because it separates you and your family from the Source of Life, from God Himself. Sin is the action of a rebellious heart, a heart that refuses God His glory. The Bible says

“The HEART is DECEITFUL above all things, and DESPERATELY WICKED” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Sin is not just doing what God says NOT do, but sin is REFUSING TO DO THE GOOD that God says do.

“If anyone KNOWS THE GOOD THEY OUGHT TO DO AND DOESN’T DO IT, it IS SIN FOR THEM” (James 4:17).

It is God Who sets the standard – ALWAYS. It is God Who is the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16). God determines what is right and what is not. When we sin, “our iniquities separate us from our God” (Isaiah 59:2).

God is not only the Creator, but the very Source of Life (Psalm 36:9; Job 33:4; Acts 17:25). When we disobey Him we separate ourselves from Life itself. THE WAGES OF SIN IS ALWAYS DEATH!

The nature of sin is seen in the Garden of Eden. God gave Adam a very clear path to follow. God is never mysterious, never skulking, never hard to understand. God made Adam and put him in the Garden, a perfect Paradise.

Genesis 2:15-17 (ESV) The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for IN THE DAY THAT YOU EAT OF IT YOU SHALL SURELY DIE.”

God did not say, “If you LIE, or STEAL, or KILL, or BURN DOWN THE GARDEN you’ll die”. God said “You can have ALL THE GARDEN, and any fruit in it BUT ONE. If you EAT of that tree of the KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL the very day you do it YOU SHALL DIE”. The sin was to sink his teeth in the wrong fruit. The sin was to disbelieve God. The sin was to set yourself above God, rather than obey God.

God DID NOT KILL ADAM. Sin killed Adam.
Adam killed Adam by his sin.

Now, HOW did Adam die? The Bible tells us that. When Adam ate that which God said not to eat:

Genesis 3:7 (ESV) the EYES of both were OPENED, and they knew that they were naked.

When Adam was walking with God, his state of undress did not matter. But once he disobeyed God, now suddenly his state of being was in question. “Hey, I’m naked!”. Was “naked’ sinful? No, because God doesn’t sponsor sin.

1. The sinner always REDEFINED SIN. The sinner will always redefine sin according to his desires. Adam decided that eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge was NOT NOT sinful. But once Adam sinned, he redefined sin, making being naked in the Garden as SINFUL!

2. The sinner always tries to fix the sin himself. And as nakedness was sinful (according to Adam), he needed to fix the problem (according to Adam). So “they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin cloths”.

3. The sinner always hides themselves from God. When God came into the Garden, Adam and Eve hide themselves from God, the One Person that could fix their sin. They used to walk with God in the cool of the day. Now they hide from God.

4. The sinner always blames everyone else – but not themselves. Though Adam and Eve are physically alive, they are spiritually dead, separated from God. Adam blamed his wife and even God Himself for what he did rather than repent. “The WOMAN that YOU gave me, SHE gave me the fruit and I ate it” (Genesis 3:12).

The Wages of Sin is DEATH. Adam killed us all by sin. Hear God’s Word:

Romans 5:12 (KJV) … BY ONE MAN SIN ENTERED into the world, and DEATH BY SIN; and so DEATH PASSED UPON ALL men, for that ALL HAVE SINNED …

The devil would have you to believe that there are big sins and little sins. He would have you believe that some sins bring little harm, but only the BIG sins bring great harm. That’s a lie. “The WAGES of SIN is DEATH”. Sin brings DEATH to you, to your loved ones, to your family and friends. Sin brings death into your community, your country, your world. Sin brings death into the schools. Sin brings death in some way, shape, or form to all whom it touches. Whether rich or poor, whether powerful and famous or powerless and unknown, sin pays equally.

That employer “Sin” always gives equal pay for equal work.
Everyone who sins gets the wage of DEATH.

And sin guarantees you will always be employed. Sin never “lays off” anyone. Jesus said:

John 8:34 (ESV) Truly, truly, I say to you, EVERYONE who PRACTICES SIN is a SLAVE TO SIN.

Sin is not only an Employer that pays, but sin is a Master of those who submit to it. Sin enslaves it’s people.

When Adam introduced sin into the world, it wasn’t long before it started killing others. Sin enslaved Cain, leading him to kill his brother Abel (Genesis 4:7). When Cain killed his brother, he thought he got away with it. No one gets away with sin. God told Cain,

Genesis 4:10 (ESV) What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.

When Cain sinned, he not only killed his brother, but he killed his relationship with his parents and with his God. But what happened with Abel was a foreshadowing of what God would later do with His Only Begotten Son on Calvary. Sin brings death to the sinner. The only way that sin can NOT bring death is, if Another take the penalty of sin on Himself.

Sin begins with our LUSTS. It entices us. The Scripture says:

James 1:14-15 (ESV) … each person is tempted when he is LURED and ENTICED BY HIS OWN DESIRE. 15 Then desire when it has conceived GIVES BIRTH TO SIN, and SIN WHEN IT IS FULLY GROWN BRINGS FORTH DEATH.

The devil tempts us, tells us why we ought to want this or that. He wiggles before our desire like a worm on a hook. Then when our desire is satisfied, DESIRE GIVES BIRTH TO SIN, and SIN GIVES BIRTH TO DEATH. I think of it like that Sigourney Weaver movie Alien. The Alien had a mouth that, when it opened it’s mouth, another terrible mouth extended outward from it to bite and kill you. Sin is like that Alien. You can’t make friends with it. Sin doesn’t want friends. It wants slaves. It wants bound employees headed toward damnation and death.

You Do Not Need To Be Employed By Sin.
There Is Another Option, One From God

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ OUR LORD.

Comedian George Carlin died of heart failure, just 71 years old. He loved to mock God. Carlin said, “Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible Man living in the sky who watches everything you do… and He has a list of ten things He doesn’t want you to do”. Like most lost people, Carlin never understood that sin is not just ten things, nor did he understand that the reason God is against sin is because it brings death to us. The Bible says,

Romans 14:23 … whatever is NOT OF FAITH IS SIN

Anything you do apart from a personal relationship with God is sin. We are told in Proverbs 21:4, “a PROUD HEART and the PLOWING OF THE WICKED is sin”. Anything you do apart from God is sin – even plowing a field. “Without FAITH IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PLEASE GOD” (Hebrews 11:6). And again, “whatever YOU DO, DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD” (1 Corinthians 10:31). There is no such thing as neutral according to God. Jesus said,

Matthew 12:30 (ESV) Whoever is NOT WITH ME IS AGAINST ME, and whoever does NOT GATHER WITH ME SCATTERS.

You are going to serve a master. There is no neutral. The Apostle wrote, “Whoever you yield yourself to, this is your Master. You can yield to sin (which will kill you), or obey God and righteousness” (Romans 6:16, AP). When you served sin, you did not serve righteousness (Romans 6:20). Every life has a master:

You either serve Sin (and Death), Or you serve God and life.

the GIFT OF GOD is eternal life through
Jesus Christ OUR LORD

God offers a free gift to whosoever will. How do you receive that gift? You REPENT of following Satan, Sin and the world, and give your life unto Jesus. I want to be very blunt. You can NEVER be good enough or moral enough or righteous enough to be pleasing to God in your own power. You need the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to Me: you cannot get the Gift of God without submitting to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well:

John 4:10, 14 (ESV) If you knew THE GIFT OF GOD, and Who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have ASKED HIM, and HE WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU LIVING WATER. … 14 whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The WATER THAT I WILL GIVE HIM will become in him a SPRING OF WATER WELLING UP TO ETERNAL LIFE.

The only way to get out of slavery to sin – which is death – is to come and give your life to Jesus Christ. He is OUR LORD. Sin always pays off in wages called DEATH. But salvation is a GIFT. It pays off in LIFE.

There are some who believe that “Now that I’ve given my life to Jesus, now that He’s saved me, I don’t have to obey God. I can go on living my life the same way I always did.” Friend, this is a lie from the pit of hell. Once you are saved by Grace, you are dead to sin.

Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall WE, THAT ARE DEAD TO SIN, LIVE ANY LONGER THEREIN?

When you give your life to Jesus, when you receive the Gift of salvation by faith in Him, you DIE TO SIN. Sin is no longer your master, no longer your employer. God works a work in your life once you come to Jesus. God causes:

Your old self to die
A new life to be born again
And God Himself inhabits your life.

God does not walk in sin. God died for our sins. “our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth WE SHOULD NOT SERVE SIN” (Romans 6:6).

Christianity is not, properly understood, a license to sin. Jesus died for our sins. We do not revel in what Jesus bled and died over.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Christian comes from the left side of that BUT because he repents, and receives the free gift of salvation. Once saved, we AVOID sin. As the Apostle tells us:

Romans 6:17-18 (KJV) But God be thanked, that ye WERE THE SERVANTS OF SIN, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then MADE FREE FROM SIN, ye BECAME THE SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld – though not a Christian (he is culturally Jewish) – hit the nail on the head when he said, “We’re all basically trying to be good people … while doing whatever we want”. That’s what the unbeliever does. That’s what a lost person does. But that is not what a Christian does.

The Christian – born again of God’s Spirit – is not perfect. But the Christian loves the Lord, and strives to do the good that God has called us to do. The Christian may sin. But when we sin, we recognize it as such, repent, and run back into the arms of Jesus. One of my favorite texts explains it simply as this:

Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV) For BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED THROUGH FAITH. And this is not your own doing; it is THE GIFT OF GOD, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus FOR GOOD WORKS, which God prepared beforehand, that WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM.

The Christian does not walk in sin. Saved by Grace, we walk in good works. We live so as to please Him Who is our Savior and Lord. Praise His Holy Name!

Posted in Romans, Sermons Preached | Tagged Bible, Faith, Following Christ, God, Jesus, Jesus is Lord, salvation, wages of sin | Leave a comment

The “L” Word

Posted on February 25, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Unsplash

Please turn to Matthew 13. The title of my sermon tonight is “The L Word”. There was a television show that aired on Showtime called “The L Word” (2004-2009), a show that glorified sexual sins. This sermon is not about that. But God put this on my heart, and we’re going to travel through a lot of Scripture tonight as we discover together what “The L Word” is. And no, I’m not talking about LOVE – though that will factor in to what the “L Word” I’m talking about is.

Why Are So Many Young People Leaving the Church?
Because They Received The Gospel With Joy.

I saw a young lady the other day “deconstructing” her faith on Youtube. This is a new and popular thing to do among so called “young ex-Christians”, some Christian music artists who’ve made millions singing about Jesus. This young lady was saying “I thought I was a Christian. I made myself a Christian, but now I’ve changed my mind.”. She said:

“I got saved (mocking voice on saved) when in a very vulnerable position. I was struggling with alcohol, drugs, you know. That’s how I got in. When I came to the faith, I was like, the prime Christian. I was the Christian on fire. My whole congregation, I lit a flame up under their —es. They loved to see me coming. I can’t tell you how many times I went up in front of the Church, because you had to do that if you were found out in sin. … I would show up on my pastor’s porch and tell him I had sex with somebody. Then I would stand in front of the congregation, and confess my sin.”

The girl was never saved. Her testimony was all about I. In one short statement about her faith, she never spoke about God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, but about I. This young lady was never born again. She was a repeat fornicator. How can I say with assurance that she was never saved? Because Jesus spoke of such people.

Mechanics of Salvation: Jesus explained the mechanics of salvation in His parable of the Sower, also called the Parable of the Soils. It’s found in three Gospels:

Matthew 13:3-23
Mark 4:1-20
Luke 8:4-15

In this parable Jesus talks about the Sower sowing the seed of the Gospel. As the Sower sowed, some seed fell on the packed down path (Matthew 13:4). Other seed fell on rocky ground (Matthew 13:5-6). Yet other seed fell among thorns (Matthew 13:7). But the seed that fell on good soil, it PRODUCED fruit (Matthew 13:8).

Jesus was careful to explain the parable to His disciples, but NOT TO THE CROWD. Only those who were in a COVENANT RELATIONSHIP with Him heard the explanation. Why? Why did Jesus speak in parables? I’ve heard preachers mistakenly say “to make it easier to understand”. But Jesus explained this:

Matthew 13:10-13 (ESV) Then the disciples came and said to him, “WHY DO YOU SPEAK TO THEM IN PARABLES?” 11 And He answered them, “TO YOU (those in Covenant Relationship with Him) IT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO KNOW THE SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BUT TO THEM (those NOT in Covenant Relationship with Jesus) IT HAS NOT BEEN GIVEN. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 THIS IS WHY IS SPEAK TO THEM IN PARABLES, because SEEING THEY DO NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY DO NOT HEAR, NOR DO THEY UNDERSTAND.

Who was to know “THE SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN”? It wasn’t the masses. It was the Children of the Kingdom. It was those who heard the call of Jesus and, without hesitation, followed Him. Fishermen, prostitutes, sinners of all types. They heard Jesus’ call, and came to Him.

The “THE SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN” belong to those who are born again. And YOU CANNOT BE BORN AGAIN WITHOUT REPENTANCE.

Jesus preached Matthew 4:17 REPENT for the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is at hand.

Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. REPENT. Follow the King. There is no Kingdom without a King. Jesus is King. You must be in a Covenant Relationship with God in order to be saved. You cannot enter a Covenant Relationship without REPENTANCE, without bowing the knee to the King of Heaven.

Our Lord Jesus went on to explain the parable to those who were in Covenant Relationship with Him. Not to the crowd, but to those imperfect people who REPENTED and committed their lives to Him.

1. The seed sowed on the path is about those who do not understand the Gospel. They hear it, and Satan snatches it away. (Matthew 13:19).

2. The seed seed sowed on rocky or untilled soil is a picture of this young woman. Jesus said:

Matthew 13:20-21 (ESV) As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who HEARS THE WORD AND IMMEDIATELY RECEIVES IT WITH JOY, 21 yet he has NO ROOT IN HIMSELF but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, IMMEDIATELY HE FALLS AWAY.

The woman heard the Gospel and immediately received it WITH JOY. She didn’t repent of her sins, and grieve that her sins had been a barrier between her and the Lord Jesus. There was NO REPENTANCE. You cannot be saved with JOY. The first step in salvation is REPENTANCE.

This young woman is like so many who come to Jesus so He will FIX something in her life. BUT SHE NEVER ENTERS INTO A COVENANT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. Look how she treated sin. When she “slept with someone” – what the Bible condemns as FORNICATION when it is not in the Covenant of Marriage (1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13; 6:18; 7:2; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21). Did she confess her sin to God? No, she confessed her sin TO THE CHURCH. The Church does not forgive sins – only God (Isaiah 43:25; Micah 7:18). Sin is rebellion against God (Daniel 9:9). You go to God with your sins (1 John 1:8-10).

3. The seed sown among thorns is the Gospel preached to the comfortable and rich (Matthew 13:22). They will not hear, because they will not bow the knee. They want salvation without surrender. The free gift is only offered to those who REPENT and RUN to Jesus.

4. But the Gospel sowed on GOOD SOIL, Jesus said:

Matthew 13:23 (ESV) As for what was SOWN ON GOOD SOIL, this is the one who HEARS THE WORD and UNDERSTANDS IT. He indeed BEARS FRUIT and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

What is the “GOOD SOIL”? Every gardener or farmer knows that GOOD SOIL is BROKEN SOIL. It’s been STIRRED UP by a plow or a hoe. What it used to gladly grow, it cannot grow, because it has REPENTED of the WEEDS AND THORNS of SIN. It has turn to Jesus, and called upon Him for salvation. The GOOD SOIL produces fruit that blesses the Sower, blesses our God. The GOOD SOIL makes crops that give credit to the Lord Jesus.

It Is Not Belief Alone That Saves You
Inviting “Jesus Into Your Heart” Is Not Scriptural.

Jesus said “the one who HEARS THE WORD and UNDERSTANDS IT” (Matthew 13:23) is saved. Only those who are born again “HEAR THE WORD”. Jesus told the Pharisees, that religious crowd who, like this young lady “was outwardly on fire” (but not for Jesus):

John 8:42-44 (ESV) Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, YOU WOULD LOVE ME, for I CAME FROM GOD and I am here. I CAME NOT OF MY OWN ACCORD, BUT HE SENT ME. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because YOU CANNOT HEAR MY WORD. 44 YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER, THE DEVIL and your will is to do your father’s desires.

I’ve heard people make the statement, “I believe in Jesus”. Well, that’s fine. But the Bible makes it clear that belief in God alone DOES NOT SAVE. We are told in:

James 2:17-22 (NKJV) Thus also FAITH BY ITSELF, if IT DOES NOT HAVE WORKS, is DEAD. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 YOU BELIEVE THERE IS ONE GOD. YOU DO WELL. EVEN THE DEMONS BELIEVE – AND TREMBLE! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD? 21 Was not ABRAHAM OUR FATHER WAS JUSTIFIED BY WORKS when HE OFFERED ISAAC HIS SON ON THE ALTAR? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and BY WORKS FAITH WAS MADE PERFECT?

What Is The “L” Word? Salvation is by FAITH in God. But what is this thing called FAITH? Before you were saved, you followed your own path, and were LOYAL only to yourself. I told you at the beginning that this sermon was called “The L Word”. Yep. I’m talking about LOYALTY. Before you were saved, you were LOYAL to yourself, to your comfort, to your desires. But the day you were saved, God brought you face to face with the emptiness of your life. On that day, you REPENTED of your loyalties, and turned your loyalty over to Jesus. You began to follow Him.

I know some of you are going to say, “But I was told that salvation is a FREE GIFT from God, one that I cannot earn nor deserve”. Yes, that’s true. But before you receive that free gift, you need to understand it can ONLY BE RECEIVED AFTER REPENTANCE. You must turn your broken life over to God. This is the same thing we do – in a limited way – in the secular world.

If I have to go to court, I turn my life over to a Lawyer.
If I have a sickness, I turn my life over to a Doctor.

Now certainly, I have to pay for what the Doctor or Lawyer does. But I trust my life – in that instance – to the professional man. But what do we do about the barrier of sin between ourselves and God? Who do we call for that? We call out to Jesus. We surrender ourselves to Jesus. We REPENT, and enter into a LOYAL Covenant Relationship with Him.

This Covenant Relationship binds us to Jesus in a very intimate way. In the parable of the Vine Jesus said:

John 15:5-6 (NKJV) I am the Vine, you [are] the branches. He who ABIDES IN ME, and I IN HIM, BEARS MUCH FRUIT; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw [them] into the fire, and they are burned.

Those who are saved have REPENTED. To them, JESUS IS LORD, not us. We live in loyalty to Him Who saved us. We ABIDE IN JESUS and HE ABIDES IN US through the Holy Spirit. And what happens as a result of this?

You bear MUCH FRUIT.

There is much of what Jesus did replicated in your life. You live for Jesus. You are LOYAL to Jesus. That LOYALTY to Jesus exceeds any other loyalty on the earth.

Now James previously used Abraham as an example – so let’s go look at that example.

James 2:21 Was not ABRAHAM OUR FATHER WAS JUSTIFIED BY WORKS when HE OFFERED ISAAC HIS SON ON THE ALTAR?

What actually happened when God told Abraham to offer his only son Isaac on an altar at Mount Moriah, the Mountain of God (Genesis 22)? Just before this event, God told Abraham:

Genesis 21:12 (NKJV) in Isaac your seed shall be called.

God and Abraham were in a Covenant Relationship. Jesus came to Abraham and told him many years before:

Genesis 12:1-4 (NKJV) Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So ABRAM DEPARTED AS THE LORD HAD SPOKEN TO HIM, and Lot went with him. And Abram [was] seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

God offered Abraham a Covenant Relationship. God said, “If you’ll go where I tell you, and do what I tell you, you’ll not only have a child, but through you the whole world will be blessed”. There were times when Abraham doubted God. But Beloved,

Nearly every great believer in the Bible doubted God at one time or another. And yet, those believers REMAINED LOYAL to God.

As humans we doubt. As humans, we fail. When Abraham went through Egypt (Genesis 12:10-20) he feared for his life, and doubted God. He said “Sarah is my sister” not trusting in the power of God to protect him. He did the same thing later when he traveled through Gerar (Genesis 20:1-18). Both times God stayed faithful to protect Abraham, but Abraham doubted. But Abraham stayed loyal to following the Lord.

As time passed, and Abraham had no child, he again doubted God. In Genesis 15:2-3 Abraham suggested that Eliezer of Damascus, his faithful servant, be his heir. God said, “No, but one who comes from your own body will be your heir” (Genesis 15:4). Later when Abraham went in to Hagar (an act of doubt in God) and got her pregnant, he told the Lord “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” (Genesis 17:18). God told Abraham:

Genesis 17:19 No, Sarah YOUR WIFE SHALL BEAR YOU A SON, and you shall CALL HIS NAME ISAAC; I will establish My covenant with him for AN EVERLASTING COVENANT…”

God said “No, the Covenant that you and I have made MUST run through Isaac”. Though Abraham doubted this at times, he remained loyal to God. So after YEARS have passed, God tells Abraham:

Genesis 21:12 (NKJV) in Isaac YOUR SEED shall be called.

So when we come to Genesis 22 and God says, “Take your son, YOUR ONLY SON ISAAC, whom you love, to the land of Moriah, and OFFER HIM THERE as a BURNT OFFERING” (Genesis 22:2), this Abraham has been in a Covenant Relationship with God for many, many years. I have heard people say, “There is NO WAY I could do that”. Probably not. Many who say that have NEVER been in a Covenant Relationship with God, and others are YOUNG CHRISTIANS WHO ARE GROWING in their Covenant Relationship. God saved you to be in a Covenant Relationship with Him, not just on Sunday, but every single moment of every single day. This only comes with seasoning. With time. With trials as you go through them, looking unto Jesus.

When Abraham got to Mount Moriah with his servants and with Isaac, he told the men:

Genesis 22:5 (NKJV) And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; THE LAD AND I WILL GO YONDER AND WORSHIP, and WE WILL COME BACK TO YOU.”

Abraham went with the full intention of sacrificing Isaac on the altar of God on Moriah. And yet he told the men “WE WILL COME BACK TO YOU”. If Isaac was offered as a BURNT OFFERING, there was no way that he was coming back. But Abraham knew this. God is faithful. We know the story. Tied down to the altar, Abraham went to kill his son – and God intervened. God told Abraham:

Genesis 22:12 (NKJV) Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for NOW I KNOW THAT YOU FEAR GOD, since YOU HAVE NOT WITHHELD YOUR SON, your only son, FROM ME

Fear Of God Is To Trust in The Faithfulness Of God,
To Do What He Says

Abraham knew that God is faithful to His people. Abraham knew that he had to obey God. That’s what “fear of God” is – the willingness to obey God whether you understand or not. God does not ask us to understand His commands. He just says, “Follow Me. Do what I say. We are in a Covenant Relationship. I am loyal to YOU, and YOU need to be LOYAL TO ME”.

Abraham knew what God had promised. He knew that even if he had sacrificed and burned Isaac, God would have resurrected the ashes. Why? Because “God is faithful”.

1 Corinthians 1:9 (NKJV) GOD IS FAITHFUL, by Whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

God called you to salvation. We know this because you REPENTED and SURRENDERED to Jesus. You became

God’s POSSESSION (Ephesians 1:13-14; 1 Peter 2:9; Titus 2:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
God’s PEOPLE (John 1:12-13; Romans 8:14-16; 1 John 3:1)
God’s PURIFIED PRIESTS (1 Peter 2:9; Titus 2:14)
God’s PILGRIMS (1 Peter 2:11)
God’s PRAISE Bearers (1 Peter 2:9)
God’s PATRIOTS of Heaven (Philippians 3:20)
God’s PLANTINGS (Jeremiah 17:7; 1 Corinthians 3:6-7)
God’s PEACEMAKERS (Matthew 5:9)
God’s PROMISE KEEPERS (2 Corinthians 1:20)
God’s PARTNERS (2 Corinthians 6:1)

Fearing God means to faithfully DO WHAT GOD SAYS, regardless as to whether you understand it or not. That’s what Abraham the “Father of Faith” did.

Word Study Law Of First Usage: Let’s go back to “faithfulness”. What does it mean to be “faithful”? Bible scholars talk about “The Law of First Usage”. What this teaches is that “When a word or phrase occurs for the first time in Scripture, it sets the tone for how that word or phrase should be understood everywhere else”. The word “faithful” is found the first time in a battle that Israel fought with Amalek in Rephidim. Israel had just doubted God in Rephidim. When they pitched in Rephidim, the Bible says “there was no water for the people to drink” (Exodus 17:1). The people had no fear of the Lord. Though He saved them from Egypt, they had not been spiritually saved. Any time they were tested, Israel, like every lost soul, murmured and complained against God’s leaders and against God. God told Israel – now watch this:

Exodus 17:5-6 (KJV) And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and THY ROD, wherewith THOU SMOTEST THE RIVER, take in thine hand, and go. 6 Behold, I WILL STAND BEFORE THEE UPON THE ROCK in Horeb; and thou shalt SMITE THE ROCK, and THERE SHALL WATER COME OUT OF IT, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

This is a picture of Jesus, Who is the Giver of “Living water” (John 4:7-14; 7:37-39). He was beaten for our sins. He was bruised for our iniquities. What God asked Moses to do was graphically display the Gospel of salvation to these unbelieving people. “The LORD is my ROCK, my DELIVERER” (Psalm 18:2). “God ONLY is my ROCK and my SALVATION” (Psalm 62:2).

God gave Israel water at Rephidim. Now God will give Israel victory over Amalek at Rephidim – IF one thing is done.

As Israel went out to battle the Amalekites the next day, God put it on his heart to stand on the Rock, and lift up that Rod of God, the same Rod that struck the Rock to bring forth water. The Bible tells us that as Moses held the Rod of God above his head:

Exodus 17:11-12 (KJV) And it came to pass, when MOSES HELD UP HIS HAND, that Israel prevailed: and WHEN HE LET DOWN HIS HAND, Amalek prevailed. 12 But Moses’ hands [were] heavy; and they took a stone, and put [it] under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and HIS HANDS WERE STEADY {ĕmûnâ} until the going down of the sun.

Word Study: The word translated “STEADY” is the Hebrew ĕmûnâ, which means “FAITHFUL”. This is the first use of the word “FAITHFUL” in the Bible. Moses was FAITHFUL to do what God said do. This same word is used in:

Psalm 36:5 (KJV) Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy FAITHFULNESS (ĕmûnâ) reacheth unto the clouds.

Psalm 89:1-2 (KJV) I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy FAITHFULNESS (ĕmûnâ) to all generations. 2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy FAITHFULNESS (ĕmûnâ) shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

Psalm 119:75 (KJV) I know, O LORD, that thy judgments [are] right, and [that] thou in FAITHFULNESS (ĕmûnâ) hast afflicted me.

Moses didn’t debate with God when He told him to raise the staff. Moses raised his staff, but his arms got tired. So Aaron and Hur helped Moses hold up the staff – which is faithfulness, doing what God said do.

Biblical faith is not a feeling. It is a Covenant Commitment. Biblical faith is Moses doing what God said when God said it – even when it makes no sense to us. This is “Fear of the Lord”,
to trust Him no matter what.

Pastor Nate Sala said it very clearly:

“Faith in Scripture is not primarily about mental certitude. It’s about LOYALTY in relationship {with God}. Faith is a steady devotion of loyalty and trust in the context of relationship. A person is faithful in marriage because they are loyal to their spouse. The opposite of faith is not doubt. It’s disloyalty. It’s disobedience. You can be uncertain – and yet still faithful to God.”

Our God is faithful. I’ve already shown you that. God is reliable. God is consistent. God does what He says He will do. We are called to do the same. God is devoted to His children (Deuteronomy 32:4). We are told in:

Jeremiah 5:3 (LSB) O Yahweh, DO NOT YOUR EYES LOOK FOR FAITHFULNESS? You have struck them, But they did not weaken; You have consumed them, [But] THEY REFUSED TO RECEIVE DISCIPLINE. They have made their faces stronger than rock; THEY HAVE REFUSED TO REPENT.

Repentance means to follow God, to do as God says regardless as to what I think. It pleases God when we are FAITHFUL to Him, when we DO that which He says. Our Lord Jesus said, “If you LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS” (John 14:15). What God says is not a suggestion, but a commandment. Those who have fear of the Lord are AFRAID to not do what God says, because we know God is faithful. What He says, he will do. Jesus said, “If you KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS, YOU WILL ABIDE IN MY LOVE, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:10). Again, what God says is NOT a suggestion. It is a directive.

Throughout the Psalms, King David expressed doubts and questions with God. I want to end with this.

Psalm 13:1-4 (LSB) A Psalm of David. How long, O Yahweh? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, [Having] sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Look [and] answer me, O Yahweh my God; Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep the [sleep of] death, 4 Lest my enemy says, “I have overcome him,” [And] my adversaries rejoice that I am shaken.

David is struggling with doubt and fear. It seems like God is far away from him, far from his life. This may have been written when Saul was chasing him, trying to kill him. David had fear, despair, and doubt. And David didn’t hide this from God. He knows that God knows them that are His (2 Timothy 2:19), so he shares his heart with God. But notice what comes next:

Psalm 13:5-6 (LSB) But I HAVE TRUSTED IN YOUR LOVINGKINDNESS; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. 6 I WILL SING TO YAHWEH, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

When in doubt, trust in God. How did David get to this level of trust? Even when he did not understand, even when he doubted, he did what God said do.

God is the Covenant Keeping God. We don’t know why we go through a lot of the things that we go through – but God has a purpose for it. Trust in God’s love for you. If you have not, REPENT and COMMIT your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do what He has said do. Even when it makes no sense to us, do it anyway. Why? Because God loves us, and will be faithful in the Covenant Relationship He calls us to. We need to be faithful to Him, too.

To FEAR the Lord is to understand God is God – and we are not. So we obey Him. We live faithfully with Him each day, confessing sin to Him when we fail. Take your doubts to God – but trust God and do as He says. That is the Way of the Master. May the Holy Spirit touch your hearts with His Word!

Posted in Sermons Preached, topical | Tagged Bible, Covenant Relationship, Faith, Following Christ, God, God Is Faithful, Jesus, love God, salvation | Leave a comment

Right Place, Right Time

Posted on February 13, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Proverbs 27:8 As a bird that WANDERETH {nāḏaḏ} from her nest, so is a man that WANDERETH {nāḏaḏ} from his place.

Word Study: The word translated “WANDERETH” is the Greek nāḏaḏ, which means to “stray, retreat from the safety of, to be chased from”. The safest place for a bird to be is in its nest. It is when the bird leaves its nest to seek food or freedom that it is subject to being attacked by a bird of prey. God even gave a special provision in the Law:

Deuteronomy 22:6-7 (LSB) If A BIRD’S NEST happens to be before you along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, with the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you SHALL NOT TAKE THE MOTHER WITH THE YOUNG; 7 you shall surely LET THE MOTHER GO, and TAKE THE YOUNG FOR YOURSELF, that it may be well with you and that YOU MAY PROLONG YOUR DAYS.

If you came upon a bird sitting on her eggs, it was acceptable to take the eggs for food – but not to kill the mother. The nest was a place of safety. How does this relate to the man? In the Bible, there are times when the relationship we have with our God is poetically expressed, as if God is a Mother Bird and we are the chicks. This is particularly found in the Psalms:

Psalm 91:1-4 (LSB) He who abides in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to Yahweh, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!” 3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the destructive pestilence. 4 He will cover you with His pinions, And UNDER HIS WINGS YOU WILL TAKE REFUGE; His truth is a large shield and bulwark.

Psalm 36:6-9 (LSB) Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep. O Yahweh, You save man and beast. 7 How precious is Your loving kindness, O God! And THE SONS OF MEN TAKE REFUGE IN THE SHADOW OF YOUR WINGS. 8 They are satisfied from the richness of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights. 9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

The place where a person needs to be, our “nest” so to speak, is in the Presence of God and in the comfort of His Word. Sherry and I love to watch an old show called “What’s My Line?”, where people come on and 4 panelists question them and try to find out their profession. One of the questions I heard asked the other day by one of the panelists was:

“Is the product you are involved with a necessity, or a luxury item?”

There are certain products that people make that are not necessary for life, but are luxury items. That’s what they were trying to ascertain. Sadly in America today, God has become a luxury item, and not a Necessity. The Bible, the Word of God, has been supplanted by the word of man. Like the Prodigal Son that our Lord Jesus spoke of (Luke 15:11-32), many have wandered away from the “nest” of God and have now found themselves “being fed with the slop that the pigs were eating” (Luke 15:16). Rather than “come to themselves” (Luke 15:17) and return to the nest of Father God, they continue munching on swill, and blaming God and everyone else for their problems. And here’s the thing:

If you will not return to the nest, and rest under God and his Word
You will NEVER find peace and blessing!

The devil, Satan, that old accuser of the brethren, entices us to make God and His Word optional rather than mandatory. He whispers, “You have free will. You do YOU!” And many fall away, even among professing Christians, to find misery and the pig pen. What is the best place to be? The Bible says,

1 Corinthians 7:23-24 (LSB) You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. 24 Brothers, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called.

You were free from sin and bondage by the Blood of Jesus Christ – if you have repented and received Him as Lord and Savior. Now free, stay close to Him. The Bridges Commentary notes:

“Would we then abide in fellowship with God? We must “abide in our calling.” Every step of departure, without a clear Scriptural warrant, is departure from God. We are safe in following Providence.”

There are many who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior, which is a sad place to be. The Bible says that “Jesus came unto His own, and His own would not receive Him” (John 1:11). Just before His crucifixion, Jesus said:

Matthew 23:37-38 (LSB) Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! HOW OFTEN I WANTED TO GATHER YOUR CHILDREN TOGETHER, the WAY A HEN GATHERS HER CHICKS UNDER HER WINGS, and YOU DID NOT WANT IT. 38 Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!

Jerusalem would not rest under the authority of the Son of God, and Jesus died on a Hill called Golgotha or Calvary. Rising again, He ascended unto glory, and sits on the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for His people (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 1:3; 1 John 2:1). But Jesus only intercedes for His people. Jesus said “I pray for Your people. Not for the world, but FOR THOSE YOU HAVE GIVEN ME, for THEY ARE YOURS” (John 17:9). The Bible says that “Jesus WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jerusalem rejected Jesus, and was destroyed in 70 AD. Jerusalem has never fully recovered, and never will, until Israel turns to Christ. America and the American Church will not find safety until we draw close to Jesus Christ and the Word of God, the Holy Bible. What is written is sure, just as sure as God’s Presence is in the life of His people.

Proverbs 27:9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.

In ancient times water was many times a luxury item. People traveled through hot and humid areas, often areas where that was no readily available water source. As a result people kept water for drinking, not bathing. In our modern world even the poorest of people have access to water – but not in ancient times. As Americans we are used to bathing daily, or at least several times a week. But in the ancient world people often went without bathing for a week, or for weeks at a time.

And that means you smell!

Perfumes and ointments made from olive oil or animal fats mixed with myrrh, spikenard (nard), roses, lavender, mint, and other aromatic ingredients. Crushed flowers, roots, or spices were soaked in warm oil for days or weeks. The plant material was strained out and replaced with fresh material—again and again—until the oil became richly scented. It was then used to cover up odors from infrequent bathing. The perfumes and ointments made you more presentable to others around you!

Word Study: A friend is one who improves you by sweetly covering up your imperfections and faults. The friend gives “HEARTY COUNSEL”, the Hebrewnephesh ʿēṣâ (pronounced neh’-fesh ay-tsaw’), which means “LIFE GIVING advice, counsel, or purpose”. The word nephesh is first used in the creation account in

Genesis 1:20 (KJV) God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that HATH LIFE {nephesh}

The word itself goes back to the very creation of man. We are told in:

Genesis 2:7 (KJV) the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became A LIVING SOUL {nephesh}

A good friend is not someone who enables your departure from the nest, the safety of God. A good friend is someone who gives you counsel from the Word of God to bring you home where you belong. He does this SWEETLY, not self- righteously.

The Apostle wrote in Galatians 6:1 (LSB) Brothers, even if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, each of you looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.

I have heard people say “I can’t tell my friend that she is living a life contrary to God’s Word! If I do, I lose my friend.” You are not a friend if you see someone in a sin unto death and say nothing. “Whoever turns a sinner from the ERROR OF THEIR WAY WILL SAVE THEM FROM DEATH and cover over a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20). If that person is a friend, you should show them – SCRIPTURALLY – where they are in error. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Speak life to those you know. Speak the Gospel. Speak the Word of God.

2 Corinthians 2:15-17 (LSB) For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

Proverbs 27:10 Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbor that is near than a brother far off.

Though we should love our family (and certainly honor our parents – see Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16), we should better cherish our long time friends in this life. When our Lord Jesus walked the earth, the Bible says “even His own brothers DID NOT BELIEVE IN HIM” (John 7:5). One day when Jesus was preaching as the Messiah, the Bible says “when HIS FAMILY HEARD ABOUT THIS, they went to TAKE CHARGE OF HIM, for they said, HE IS OUT OF HIS MIND” (Mark 3:21). This is not strange, but expected. When Jesus came and revealed Himself as the One and Only Messiah, He knew that His controversial stance and revelation would bring divisions in families. Jesus said,

Matthew 10:34-36 Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword… A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.

It was not until after His resurrection that His step brothers James and Jude came to believe in Him – and even wrote Spirit directed Scripture. Jesus did not provoke conflict for no reason. He just knew that God’s truth demands a response, either negative or positive. Those who receive the Gospel will find “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Those who reject the Gospel will cling to the darkness maybe even to the point of violence. There was division in Jesus’ family. There may be in our own. These verses are telling:

Matthew 12:46-50 (LSB) While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. 47 Now someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” 48 But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! 50 For WHOEVER DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN, HE IS MY BROTHER AND SISTER AND MOTHER.”

What is “THE WILL OF THE FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN”? Let the Scripture speak:

John 6:38-40 (LSB) For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 Now this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For THIS IS THE WILL OF MY FATHER, that EVERYONE WHO SEES THE SON AND BELIEVES IN HIM will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.

Proverbs 27:11-12 My son, be WISE {ḥāḵam, [pronounced khaw-kam’]}, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me. 12 A PRUDENT {ʿārûm} man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.

A “wise son” – that is – a son who lives by the wisdom that comes from God (James 1:5; Proverbs 2:6; Colossians 2:2-3), brings pleasure to his father. He brings pleasure to his Heavenly Father, as well as to his earthly father. There is nothing more shameful than to have a child who grows up to be ignorant, or lawless. “The PRUDENT” or man who puts wisdom into action considers the action first in the light of God’s directive. This wise man considers it and then hides himself from it, refusing to participate. But the simple minded person charges in “where angels fear to tread” and pay the consequences. My Soniclight Commentary notes:

“Solomon, for example, brought great joy to aged David, and doubtless reduced the criticism that David received for raising Absalom as he had (cf. 1 Kings 2; cf. Eli and his sons, 1 Samuel 2:22-36).”

How the son lives matters to the Father. The Pulpit Commentary notes:

“If the pupil did not show wisdom and morality in his conduct, the teacher would incur blame for the apparent failure of his education; whereas the high tone of the disciple might be appealed to as a proof of the merit and efficacy of the tutor’s discipline. On the other hand, the evil doings of Hebrews often made the Name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles; just as nowadays the inconsistent lives of Christians are the greatest impediment to the success of missionary efforts in heathen countries”

Proverbs 27:13 Take his garment that is SURETY for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

We’ve seen this Proverb before:

Proverbs 20:16 (KJV) Take his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

What the Proverb is repeatedly telling us is to not take a stranger at his word. We are to love our neighbor but, until we get to know them, we are to be careful around them.

To take a promise from a stranger without getting “SURETY” {ʿāraḇ} or collateral is like making a vow of marriage to a strange woman. You are very likely to be burned!

The heart of people can be “desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). When Jesus chose 12 Apostles, He chose Judas Iscariot knowing full well that Judas was a devil (John 6:70-71). Only God knows the heart, and only God knows how badly someone can deceive another.

Jesus said “Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matthew 24:4).
Apostle John said “Little children, let no one deceive you” (1 John 3:7)
Apostle Paul said “Do not be deceived” (1 Corinthians 6:9),
and again “Let no one take you captive by philosophy and empty deceit” (Colossians 2:8)

We treat others with love, always aware that those who are not in Christ are broken creatures that can hurt us. So we study and meditate on Scripture, letting the Word of God guide our actions. We also – as prudent children, examine and look for evil in the light of Scripture. We think ahead.

In working with the homeless, I always think ahead. I go through “What if” scenarios. I want to help them, but know full well that many of these people are addicted to drugs, and will do harm to me, my family, or my Church if necessary to achieve their desires. So I handle with care. I draw lines, and stay within those lines. I approach the homeless in public places, and never invite them into my home. I know what they say, but they are not accidentally homeless. They have made bad decisions that have brought them to this place. I never give them money, but food. I have heard of local churches setting up “warming stations” where they can come into the facilities during the day. That’s fine, but you need to carefully examine your trusted manpower, and the availability of law enforcement in the event that things get out of hand. I heard of one church that had a single lady watching the facilities while the homeless came in. That’s foolish!

Proverbs 27:14 He that blesseth his friend with A LOUD VOICE, RISING EARLY IN THE MORNING, it shall be counted a curse to him.

It is good to bless your friend. It is good to bless or praise your friend with A LOUD VOICE. But here’s the thing:

There is a right way and a right time to do the right thing.

The person who “blesses his friend with a loud voice” at an inappropriate hour will be cursed by those whom he wakes up. There is a right time to do that.

Illustrate: As Pastor, I stand at the door Sunday morning, shaking hands with those who came, and encouraging them as they leave. At times someone will come to me with a problem they want me to solve while I’m standing at the door. The appropriate thing to do would be to ask, “Can I see you after Sunday School?”, to which I would reply “absolutely!” There is a right way to do the right thing – at the right time.

If someone has offended you, the best time to deal with the offense is when you (1) have your temper under control and (2) as close to the time of offense as possible. Jesus commanded that we handle personal offenses ourselves, addressing the offended party:

Matthew 18:15 If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen, you have won them over.

We are not to gossip, nor to publicly shame another. We are also to “pray for those who despitefully use you” (Matthew 5:44). The wrong way to handle the matter is to let weeks pass before addressing the offender. As if a fire, it should be addressed as soon as possible, as directly as possible.

Always do the right thing at the right time in the right way. To do otherwise is to harm yourself, and others. The first generation of Israel refused to go into the Promised Land UNTIL God told them they were going to be punished by wandering for 40 years in the desert. THEN they decided to do the right thing – but it was too late (Numbers 13-14:29-30). In the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13) five of the virgins sought to put oil in their lamps at the wrong time. As a result, they lost out on the Wedding Feast. In the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-20) God repeatedly blessed a farmer who loved his stuff more than he loved God. God then – without warning – took the man’s life! God called him to service, blessed him, but he waited until too long had passed. I see this quite frequently as a pastor. I warn others, but they ignore the Scriptural warning until too late.

Do the right thing at the right time in the right way, and you will be blessed!

Posted in Proverbs, Sermons Preached | Tagged Bible, christianity, Faith, Following Christ, God, God Is Faithful, gospel, Jesus, Jesus Christ, love God, salvation | Leave a comment

You’ve Got To Get Out Of The Building

Posted on February 10, 2026 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Adrien Olichon on Unsplash

Philippians 4:13-23 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 14 Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. 15 Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. 16 For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. 17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. 18 But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. 19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 20 Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

In the 1950s Solomon Asch (pronounced ash) conducted a series of social psychology studies to determine how people conform to group peer pressure. Asch had a PhD in psychology, and taught at Swarthmore College and Harvard University. Dr Asch wanted to see how peer pressure would cause someone to conform to the majority opinion even when that opinion was obviously wrong. Dr Asch asked an individual to take part in a vision test. The test subject was placed in a group of 7-9 people, but here’s the rub:

Only one person was being tested.

The other participants were actors that Dr Asch employed, and they were supposed to purposely agree to give a wrong answer. The participants were shown cards with one standard line, and three comparison lines labeled “A”, “B”, and “C”. The participants were asked to specify which of the comparison lines looked like the standard line. Very simple. Dr Asch would ask the participants which line matched, one at a time, and would always ask the test subject last. When the first few cards were shown, both the actors and the participant (who didn’t know the others were actors) all answered correctly. Then the actors intentionally began to give the same wrong answer. At first, the test subject stood against the group, and answered correctly. But after the first or second disagreement, the test subject – about 75% of the time – would conform to what the actors said. Only about 25% of those tested refused to give a wrong answer in order to please the group. This only mattered in open discussion in the group. When secret ballots were taken, conformity to the group dropped.

Recently Senator Josh Hawley questioned Dr. Nisha Verma, a board certified OB/GYN, asking her simply (and about 10 times) “Can men get pregnant?”. She refused to answer the question. The Senator asked her:

“It’s not complex. I’m trying to get to an answer, and I’m trying to test, frankly, your veracity as a medical professional and as a scientist, can men get pregnant?”

She refused to answer, but verbally danced around the question. Why?

Because we live in a dark, sin addled world. Jesus said, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). He said, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in Me will not abide in darkness” (John 12:46).

When someone comes to Jesus and gives their life to Him, He “sets them free from slavery to sin” (Romans 6:17-18, 20; Titus 3:3). Believers do not become sinless, but to us sin is abnormal, not normal. Jesus knew that when He sent us into the world that the believer would be at odds with the unbeliever. Jesus told us:

Matthew 10:34-36 (ESV) Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And A PERSON’S ENEMIES WILL BE THOSE OF HIS OWN HOUSEHOLD.

Jesus knew that His Kingdom and His believers would be at odds with the lost world. Jesus said:

John 15:18-21 (ESV) If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 IF YOU WERE OF THE WORLD, THE WORLD WOULD LOVE YOU AS ITS OWN; but because you are not of the world, but I CHOSE YOU OUT OF THE WORLD, therefore THE WORLD HATES YOU. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ IF THEY PERSECUTED ME, THEY WILL ALSO PERSECUTE YOU. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

The Church Must Go Outside The Building

Why was Jesus hated? Because Jesus got out of the building. If Jesus had started a little monastery somewhere, and kept His teachings out of the public arena, He would have never been hated. Where did Jesus teach? He taught in the Temple, among the Chief Priests and Pharisees and Scribes and Sadducees that hated Him. Jesus didn’t hide what He believed. You didn’t have to believe Him. You didn’t have to listen to Him. You didn’t even have to like Him. You could go your own way away from Jesus, and never hear Him until Judgment Day. But Jesus got out of the building. You won’t be persecuted if you hide your faith. Jesus didn’t get hounded and crucified because He hid the message of the Gospel.

Jesus was slandered, mocked, beaten, stripped naked, and nailed to a Cross because He refused to compromise with the darkness, openly speaking the Word of God. And Jesus expects His Church to go outside the building and stand boldly for the Scriptural truth.

Jesus told us all:

Mark 8:38 (ESV) For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Matthew 10:32-33 (ESV) So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven.

Professor of Christ, if you are ashamed of Jesus, ashamed to boldly represent Him outside of this building, He will be ashamed of you. Professor of Christ, if you refuse to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior outside of this building, He will deny you before the Heavenly Father. When you were called to salvation, IF you were called, you were called to love Jesus and love His Book, even if it offends the whole world. And it will!

Philippians 4:13-14 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. 14 Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate {sygkoinōneō} with my affliction.

The Church at Philippi got outside the building. When Paul wrote the other Churches, like the Church at Corinth or the Church at Galatia, he rebuked the Churches for open sin and compromise with false teachers. The believers at Corinth got outside the building, but in a horrible way. They were so bad in some of their sins that Paul told them:

1 Corinthians 5:1 (LSB) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.

Paul said, “You’re getting outside the building – but in the wrong way! You’re doing stuff that even the lost pagans don’t do!”. The other Churches that Paul addressed all got off course. But not Philippi. They got outside the building. When Paul was arrested for preaching the Gospel, he said:

ye did communicate {sygkoinōneō} with my affliction

When the trouble came, the Philippians reached out to Paul in the midst of his suffering. They didn’t find a foxhole to hunker down in, but fellow-shipped with him. They stood in the line of fire with Paul.

Philippians 4:15 Now ye Philippians know also, that IN THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL, when I departed from Macedonia, NO CHURCH COMMUNICATED WITH ME as concerning giving and receiving, but YE ONLY.

Where Paul speaks of “IN THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL”, he is saying that from the time he preached the Gospel to the Philippians, from the very beginning of that Church, the people assisted Paul by GIVING and RECEIVING. This was not the case with the other Churches. In fact, the Church at Corinth was so self centered and stingy that the Apostle told them:

2 Corinthians 11:8 (ESV) I ROBBED OTHER CHURCHES by accepting support from them in order to serve you.

Corinth was so flesh oriented that, though he had the right to receive financial support from them, he said “I did not make use of this right, lest it hinder the Gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12, 15). That Church was divided, prideful, sexually immoral, and status seeking. That was not the case with the Church at Philippi. In fact, when Paul planted the Church in Thessalonica, the Philippians reached out.

Philippians 4:16 For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again UNTO MY NECESSITY.

The Church must work together, helping its ministers to go outside the building. Though Philippi could not go everywhere Paul went, they nonetheless supported him financially and prayerfully. Paul couldn’t do the work he did by himself. No one can.

Jesus Himself was assisted by others in sharing the Gospel of the Kingdom, even in the midst of threat. The Father sent John the Baptist ahead of Jesus (Matthew 3:1-3). Jesus appointed 12 Apostles (Luke 6:12-13). He also sent 35 pairs of men (Luke 10:1) who went before Him to preach the coming of the King. There were women who financially supported Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8:1-3). If God Incarnate can’t do the work of the Kingdom by Himself, we who are mere humans certainly can’t !

You Will Never Be Blessed Until You
Get Out Of The Building

Philippians 4:17 Not because I desire a gift: but I DESIRE FRUIT THAT MAY ABOUND TO YOUR ACCOUNT

Paul never demanded help from the Philippians. But he wanted them to receive the blessings of giving. The Church at Corinth – a stingy bunch of rich believers – had to be warned by Paul:

2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (LSB) Now this [I say], he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows with blessing will also reap with blessing. 7 Each one [must do] just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed;

When a believer gives to God’s work, giving of both funds as well as physical effort, “God LOVES THE CHEERFUL GIVER”. God gives us abundance of health and physical blessings so that we might get outside the building and bring glory to the Lord. If you sow little:

little labor
little good deeds
little love
little witness

Then you can expect little blessing from God. The Apostle went on to say:

2 Corinthians 9:10-12 (LSB) Now He who supplies SEED TO THE SOWER AND BREAD FOR FOOD will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness; 11 you will be enriched in everything for all generosity, which through us is bringing about thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also abounding through many thanksgivings to God.

Miss Ruby Owens used to say, and I remember hearing her well,

“You can’t outgive God”

Paul praised the Philippians for giving, not because it would bless him, but because the Church and the Christians. The Bible tells us:

Proverbs 11:25 (ESV) Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.

Yes, Paul suffered for the Gospel. He “bore on his body the marks of Jesus” (Galatians 6:17). But to give for the Lord is to be blessed.

Philippians 4:18 But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.

Their generosity not only comforted an imprisoned Paul, but was “well pleasing to God”. When we as Christians go outside the building, we are being obedient to Jesus. Has He not command “GO into ALL THE WORLD, and share the GOSPEL with EVERY PERSON” (Mark 16:15, AP). You cannot do as Jesus said:

Matthew 5:14-16 (LSB) You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does [anyone] light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

It is easy to serve Jesus in the building and in the foxhole. We are called to serve the Lord outside the building. Covered light is not light at all! It blesses God when we go outside the building, outside our comfort zone. But further, we read:

Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

God will bless us, too. Yes, we will anger others who love the darkness. But it is our intent to glorify God, not ourselves. As the Apostle said:

Philippians 4:20 Now unto God and our Father BE GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER. Amen.

It glorifies the Father when we promote the Kingdom of Christ. Beloved, we are SAINTS of God, set apart to share the Gospel with whosoever will. The greatest enemy of the Church was not the Pharisees, and not even the Roman Empire. There were Saints – believers in Christ – even at the highest level of Rome. Look at this verse:

Philippians 4:22 All the saints salute you, chiefly THEY THAT ARE OF CAESAR’S HOUSEHOLD.

Caesar hated Christ followers – and yet the early Church had infiltrated the household of Caesar by sharing the Gospel of salvation. God will save. We must TESTIFY. So let’s do it. Starting now. Let’s get out of the building, and tell others about Jesus – that is, if we HAVE Jesus! How is the devil defeated? The Book of Revelation tells us:

Revelation 12:10-11 (LSB) Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 And THEY OVERCAME HIM because of the BLOOD OF THE LAMB and because of the WORD OF THEIR WITNESS, and they DID NOT LOVE THEIR LIFE EVEN UNTO DEATH.

Who do you love more? Yourself, or Jesus? You’ve got to get out of the building.

Philippians 4:23 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Posted in Philippians, Sermons Preached | Tagged Bible, christianity, Faith, Following Christ, God Is Faithful, Jesus, love God, salvation, Witnessing | Leave a comment

Today The Day of Salvation
April 2026

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Set In Order That Which Is Wanting

The ELDERS are called to RULE WELL, which means that this is an authoritative position. The Elders are to focus on the spiritual health of the local Church.

Let’s Go Back To The Beginning …

But what does the Bible say?

The Apostle Peter stood up {as an ELDER would do} and said that this was a fulfillment of the prophesy found in Joel 2:28-32

What does it mean “to PROPHECY”? Someone who prophesies hears the Word of God, and shares that Word of God to others without adjustment. You say what God has said. Period.

The Apostle specifies how the woman is to be who prays or prophesies – but he does not say they cannot pray or prophesy.

The Temple of Artemis (a.k.a. Diana) was one of the largest and wealthiest religious institutions in Ephesus. It was headed by a High Priestess, the Chief Religious figure.

Why Does It Matter If The Overseer Is A Man?

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God Gave You A Conscience – And His Word

Jesus, being righteous, quoted the Law.Then He waited on their conscience.

Under the Law of Moses, those who were witnesses of the sin were to be the first to cast the stone (see Deuteronomy 17:6-7). Jesus just quoted the Law.

Wickedness Causes Not Only Paranoia,But National Instability

Judah was preserved 136 years longer than Israel because of godly leadership.

The Righteous Leader Will Stand Against Evil –Not Enable It

Where an action is not clearly recognized as unlawful in God’s eyes and therefore sinful, then there is no call to repentance. In such a case, sin spreads like wildfire.

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The First Church Business Meeting Was Out Of Order

Who Actually Appoints Apostles?

“To glorify God our Father, and to enable the Kingdom of Christ to grow”

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Hallmark Theology or Biblical Theology?

God Is Righteous, But We Are Naturally Unrighteous

God is holy – we are not! God must touch our lips. He must change our hearts. Only God can do this!

Is God “Love”? Yes, but it is “Love” motivated by HOLINESS or RIGHTEOUSNESS. This is why God sent His ONLY BELOVED SON to a damnable Cross for us!

The man made breastplate of self righteousness will not save you. God must touch your lips. He must change your heart. With the MOUTH we confess Jesus as Lord. With the HEART we believe He has conquered sin and death.

The Breastplate of Righteousness is not OUR righteousness, but the righteousness that is only attained by surrender and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Man Made Armor Cannot Defeat The Enemy

Once Saved By Grace, Given The Righteousness Of GodYou Want To Follow God

Someone once asked me, “Pastor, how can I know I am saved?” Very simple. Do you WANT to walk with Jesus? Do you WANT to hear and read the Word of God?

Those who are Christ’s do not live to please the lost world, but to please Christ. I don’t care if you agree with me, or like what I’m saying. I do care what the Bible says. Period. My Best Friend and my Obsession is Jesus Christ.

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Introduction

The Pharisees who had been ordained to the Pastorate – and who influential in the Church of Jerusalem – said “a Gentile can be saved. But that Gentile man MUST BE CIRCUMCISED and MUST KEEP THE LAW of Moses”.

If The Head Is Corrupt, The Body Cannot Be Well

To “BELIEVE” means to “commit to, to entrust with”. God entrusted the Gospel to Paul, and commanded that he preach it. The Preacher proclaims the Gospel of Christ AUTHORITATIVELY, EXCLUSIVELY, and WITHOUT COMPROMISE.

If you have a Preacher who is promoting themselves and the glory of man, you are following a false brother who has crept in unawares “IN ORDER TO ENSLAVE US” (Galatians 2:4).

In the Old Testament Israel was a nation of slaves that God took out of Egypt to save them. Why did God free them? “Let My people go, THAT THEY MAY SERVE ME” (Exodus 9:1). In the New Testament, the Church is a group of people who were enslaved to sin, but who are now servants of God.

There is no such person as a BLACK Christian or a WHITE Christian or an ASIAN Christian or an INDIAN Christian or a JEWISH Christian. There is only the CHRISTIAN. And the CHRISTIAN follows God as His servant.

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We Battle An Enemy We Have No Power To Defeat

What We Cannot Do, God Can Do

Have you ever noticed that people don’t mock or make fun of Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus or even Jews and Judaism … but they readily mock and vilify the genuine Christ follower.

The Belt Of Truth

Why is TRUTH the first thing that the Christian puts on?

What is TRUTH? Pilate asked. The God of the Bible is truth. God is the Source of Light and of Truth.

The BELT OF TRUTH is that God does not NEED us, but God LOVES us.

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The Number One Employer In The World Is Satan, And His Business “Sin”

Let’s First Define That Employer Called “Sin”

The word “wage” means rations, substance that feeds and leads to life. But the wages of sin is DEATH, not life.

Sin is not what YOU think is sin. Sin, simply defined, is anything that God says don’t do it.

God DID NOT KILL ADAM. Sin killed Adam. Adam killed Adam by his sin.

Sin is not only an Employer that pays, but sin is a Master of those who submit to it. Sin enslaves it’s people.

You Do Not Need To Be Employed By Sin.There Is Another Option, One From God

Christianity is not, properly understood, a license to sin. Jesus died for our sins. We do not revel in what Jesus bled and died over.

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Why Are So Many Young People Leaving the Church?Because They Received The Gospel With Joy.

Our Lord Jesus went on to explain the parable to those who were in Covenant Relationship with Him. Not to the crowd, but to those imperfect people who REPENTED and committed their lives to Him.

It Is Not Belief Alone That Saves YouInviting “Jesus Into Your Heart” Is Not Scriptural.

Fear Of God Is To Trust in The Faithfulness Of God,To Do What He Says

Fearing God means to faithfully DO WHAT GOD SAYS, regardless as to whether you understand it or not. That’s what Abraham the “Father of Faith” did.

God gave Israel water at Rephidim. Now God will give Israel victory over Amalek at Rephidim – IF one thing is done.

Biblical faith is not a feeling. It is a Covenant Commitment. Biblical faith is Moses doing what God said when God said it – even when it makes no sense to us. This is “Fear of the Lord”, to trust Him no matter what.

When in doubt, trust in God. How did David get to this level of trust? Even when he did not understand, even when he doubted, he did what God said do.

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If you will not return to the nest, and rest under God and his WordYou will NEVER find peace and blessing!

A good friend is not someone who enables your departure from the nest, the safety of God. A good friend is someone who gives you counsel from the Word of God to bring you home where you belong. He does this SWEETLY, not self- righteously.

To take a promise from a stranger without getting “SURETY” {ʿāraḇ} or collateral is like making a vow of marriage to a strange woman. You are very likely to be burned!

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Because we live in a dark, sin addled world. Jesus said, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). He said, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in Me will not abide in darkness” (John 12:46).

The Church Must Go Outside The Building

You Will Never Be Blessed Until YouGet Out Of The Building

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David Buffaloe

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**The ELDERS are called to RULE WELL, which means that this is an authoritative position. The Elders are to focus on the spiritual health of the local Church.**

**What does it mean “to PROPHECY”? Someone who prophesies hears the Word of God, and shares that Word of God to others without adjustment. You say what God has said. Period.**

Jesus, being righteous, quoted the Law.
Then He waited on their conscience.

**Under the Law of Moses, those who were witnesses of the sin were to be the first to cast the stone (see Deuteronomy 17:6-7). Jesus just quoted the Law.**

Wickedness Causes Not Only Paranoia,
But National Instability

The Righteous Leader Will Stand Against Evil –
Not Enable It

Once Saved By Grace, Given The Righteousness Of God
You Want To Follow God

The BELT OF TRUTH is that God does not NEED us,
but God LOVES us.

The Number One Employer In The World Is Satan,
And His Business “Sin”

God DID NOT KILL ADAM. Sin killed Adam.
Adam killed Adam by his sin.

You Do Not Need To Be Employed By Sin.
There Is Another Option, One From God

Why Are So Many Young People Leaving the Church?
Because They Received The Gospel With Joy.

It Is Not Belief Alone That Saves You
Inviting “Jesus Into Your Heart” Is Not Scriptural.

Fear Of God Is To Trust in The Faithfulness Of God,
To Do What He Says

Biblical faith is not a feeling. It is a Covenant Commitment. Biblical faith is Moses doing what God said when God said it – even when it makes no sense to us. This is “Fear of the Lord”,
to trust Him no matter what.

If you will not return to the nest, and rest under God and his Word
You will NEVER find peace and blessing!

You Will Never Be Blessed Until You
Get Out Of The Building