Growing Victorious In This Viperous World

Posted on February 7, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by RUN 4 FFWPU: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-ripping-finish-line-strap-2524739/

2 Peter 3:1-2 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: 2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior:

In this wonderful chapter of my life – serving the Lord as a pastor and an unworthy servant – I have read many books and listened to sermons from men who were considered “greats” in our faith. The past 25 years or so I have been shocked at the fall of many of the great pastors and preachers. Johnny Hunt has been accused of sexual harassment, and is suing the SBC contrary to the direct teaching of the Scripture (1 Corinthians 6:1-11). Ravi Zacharias, a prolific author and well known apologist, was discovered (after his death) that he was systematically and sexually abusing women. Paige Patterson the former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was fired for improper behavior. Bill Hybels resigned from Willow Creek and Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill amidst charges of abusive leadership. Perry Noble was fired from his church for alcohol abuse. The grandson of Billy Graham, William Graham Tullian Tchividjian resigned as pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian due to an extramarital affair. Just yesterday, I read of a horrible misstep by Alistair Begg. On his “Truth For Life” radio program, Begg was asked by a grandmother what she should do about her grandson. Her grandson wanted to marry his same sex lover, and asked the grandmother to attend the ceremony. Begg said, “I suggest you do go to the ceremony. And I suggest that you buy them a gift.” American Family Radio dropped Begg’s program after this. As Christians, we are commanded to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).

Attending a homosexual marriage and giving a gift is no different from going to an abortion and holding the hand of the person killing her child. By your actions you are saying you approve!

Ever since the Devil possessed a snake and slithered into the Garden of Eden, he has proved over and over again that he is the dark master of deception. As I speak of fallen Pastors – men I did learn from who were at one time great men of God – I am not jeering. There but for the Grace of God go I! How can we as Christians Live Victorious In This Viperous World? Today Peter is going to give is four steps we need to follow that will guarantee the devil won’t get the upper hand on our lives.

1st Key To Growth: Cherish The Word Of God

2 Peter 3:1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance…

Word Study: Why were the Scriptures given to us? Because God loves us. We start out seeing that Peter calls the believer “beloved”, the Greek agapētos which means “someone well and dearly beloved, highly esteemed, worthy of love”. The Father used this word for Jesus when He said, “This is My BELOVED (agapētos) Son, in Whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; 17:5). Throughout the writings of the Apostles, the Church is collectively called “Beloved” (Romans 1:7; 9:25; 12:19; 1 Corinthians 10:14; 15:58; 2 Corinthians 7:1, et. al.). The Bible tells us that …

Ephesians 1:6 … {God the Father} has made us ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED…

Because Christ is God’s Beloved Son, and we have received Christ as Lord and Savior, we too are “Beloved Sons and Daughters”. Not because we are worthy, but because HE is worthy. God now applies this same word to the Christian four times in this chapter alone. We see it not just in this verse, but in:

vs 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing …

vs 14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things …

vs 17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before …

God gave us His Word because He loves us. He gave the greatest Sacrifice He could give to redeem us. God gave us His Beloved Son, sacrificing and punishing Him Who was sinless in our place. God gave us His Word to not only construct us into New Creations, but to Complete us. We are God’s Beloved. We have a destiny. As Beloved members of His Kingdom, He gives us HIS WORD to cherish and learn. We are told in:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Word of God is eternally secure. It contains the will of God for our lives. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Words will by no means pass away” (Matthew 24:25). Our Lord Jesus said in John 10:35, “The Scripture cannot be broken”, and the Psalmist in 119:89, “Forever, O Lord, Your WORD is SETTLED in Heaven”. It was the Word of God that brought light into the darkness. “Let there be Light” (Genesis 1:3), our God commanded, and there was Light.

In the Old Testament God spoke to His people through Prophets. In the New Testament, God the Son hand picked Apostles to train and broadcast His Word. The writings of the Apostles were given …

Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

The WORD of God saved us from this world. The WORD of God raises our thinking above the doctrines of this world. Jesus said:

John 15:19 (ESV) 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.

And again in John 17:6 as Jesus prayed, He said “Father, I have manifested Your Name TO THE PEOPLE WHOM YOU HAVE ME OUT OF THE WORLD” (ESV). Christians are not to be part of this world in their mentality.

There is a great and ongoing battle between Satan and the Church, striving for the mind of the Christian.

1 John 2:15 (ESV) Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Christians are called out of the darkness of this world, with its philosophies and foolishness and lewdness and sloppy thinking. 2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” We are not to let the fads and fashions of our day drive our minds. We are to be driven by Scripture, by what God has said.

THE INTENT OF THE SCRIPTURAL WRITINGS is to …

2 Peter 3:1 … stir up your pure minds

Word Study: The word “pure” is the Greek eilikrinḗs, which means “that judged by light”. God wants the believer’s mind to be genuine, uncorrupted by the perversions of the scoffers and false teachers who are always about. We should not be driven by lusts, but by the Scriptures. The intent of the Scripture is to “stir up” (Greek diegeirō), “to awaken or arouse, to make active” your spiritual thought process and therefore your activity for the Lord.

2 Peter 3:2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior:

We are not to fill our minds with the gobbly-dee-goo that the world vomits out, but with the Word of God. By emphasizing the “holy prophets” along with the “apostles”. The early Church grew by leaps and bounds because …

Acts 2:42-43 … they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

The written words of the Apostles formed our New Testament, and were ordained of God. The Apostle wrote:

1 Corinthians 14:37-38 (ESV) If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

The Bible is the Word of God, and is accurate in all that it affirms (John 17:17). God has not left us as His people drifting – “We have the MIND OF CHRIST” (1 Corinthians 2:16). We have the WORD OF GOD.

2nd Key To Growth: Avoid The Junk Food

2 Peter 3:3-4 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

The devil is watching this Church, and what we are preaching! Last Wednesday I preached on the Fourth Commandment of God, and explained why we worship Jesus on the “First Day” of the week and not the “Sabbath”. If you weren’t here or didn’t listen online, I can’t re-preach this today. If you’d like a copy of the manuscript, tell me as you leave the Church and I’ll mail one to you. Whether you were here or not, the Devil was watching. During the course of the message I spoke of the “Seventh Day Adventists” and some of the strange doctrines they have taught.

On Friday I received this book in the mail, called “The Great Controversy”. It’s a beautiful book, very heavy, printed on beautiful paper with a ribbon bookmark in it. On the spine the author is listed as “White”. The title pages tell me the author is “E.G. White”. Who is this? It’s Ellen G. White, a false prophetess and false teacher from the “Seventh Day Adventists”. The Adventists were originally called “Millerites” because they followed the false prophet William Miller. Miller prophesied that Jesus would return in 1843 or 1844. He “prophesied” this though our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said,

Matthew 24:26 (NKJV) But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

The Bible says that Jesus will return “as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10). Nonetheless Miller said that God told him when Jesus was returning. When Jesus didn’t come as he “prophesied”, the Millerites disbanded. But another false prophet rose up out of the Millerites, saying that Miller was right – Jesus did return – but He didn’t come to earth but to the Heavenly Temple. This false prophet was the 17 year old Ellen G. Harmon, after her marriage to an Adventist preacher she was known as Ellen G. White. Her followers believe her writings to be the “The spirit of prophecy” written about in Revelation 19:10.

Seventh Day Adventists do not believe the soul is immortal, nor do they believe that hellfire is eternal. They teach that Jesus Christ is actually Michael the Archangel, that when you die your soul sleeps in the grave, that the wicked are burned up rather than punished with torment, and used to teach that those who worship on Sunday have received the mark of the beast. If that were true the Apostle would not have written:

Colossians 2:16-17 (ESV) Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Most Adventists are vegan, and will not eat meat. This is because Ellen G White, their false prophet, taught them that it is wrong to eat meat – even though the Bible says:

1 Timothy 4:1-5 (ESV) Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

When the Apostle Peter was in prayer, God showed him “a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” (Acts 10:11-13). God would not have told Peter to KILL and EAT what he saw if God commanded we be vegan. It is false prophecy!

2 Peter 3:3-4 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

“SCOFFERS” rise up within the Church, like White and her ilk. “SCOFFERS” rise up outside the Church, mocking the precepts of God. The word “SCOFFERS” is the Greek empaiktēs, which means “false teachers who mock or deride”. Pharisees mocked Jesus when what He taught did not go along with the “truths of the elders”. When Jesus told them “You do the deeds of your father, the devil” (John 8:41), they mocked Jesus, saying “WE are not born of FORNICATION – WE have only ONE FATHER, God” (John 8:41). They mocked the virgin birth of Christ, implying that His mother Mary had Him out of wedlock. The chief priests, teachers of the Law and the elders (Matthew 27:41) MOCKED Christ, even as He hung dying on Calvary.

These scoffers, these false teachers are not just religious, but secular. I was listening to comedian Bill Burr the other day when he began to mock God. He said, “It kills me when someone says I’m going to be judged one day. God made me this way. God gave me free will. He had to know this would go off the rails. If I made a car, and it was messed up, I wouldn’t burn it forever. I’d examine it, and fix it.” Oh, as he mocked God, the crowd cheered and jeered. Of course, the idea that there is a God Who will judge us is ludicrous. Or is it? Bill, a human is not a car. A human is made in the image of God, given an eternal soul. When you die,

Ecclesiastes 12:7 (NLT) … the DUST WILL RETURN TO THE EARTH, and THE SPIRIT WILL RETURN TO GOD WHO GAVE IT.

God said, “ALL SOULS ARE MINE: the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is MINE: the SOUL WHO SINS shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). The human soul is immortal because it is in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), and were designed to walk with God. If we, using our free will, refuse to come to Christ and honor God by believing in Him, we will leave this life to enter a place of eternal torment. God said of the wicked “their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched” (Isaiah 66:22-24). The Prophet Daniel said “some shall awaken to everlasting LIFE, others to everlasting CONTEMPT” (Daniel 12:1-2). Jesus preached often on Hell (Matthew 18:6-9; 25:31-46; Mark 9:42-48), and taught that the unrepentant rich man “died, and in HELL lifted up his eyes, BEING IN TORMENTS” (Luke 16:23-31).

There will always be scoffers, scorners, mockers and false teachers. Turn off that television and go back to the first key to growth – cherish the Word of God.

The 3rd Key To Growth: Understand
The Patience And Longsuffering Of God

2 Peter 3:5-7 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

We must understand that God’s timing is NOT our timing. However, GOD’S WORD IS SURE. When God made the Heavens and the earth, He did so BY HIS WORD. The Psalmist said,

Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

God spoke all things into existence. It is His Word that gives light and life. “Through FAITH WE UNDERSTAND THAT THE WORLDS WERE FRAMED BY THE WORD OF GOD, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3).

The Word of God that made all things is the same Word of God that makes the Christian.

We are “born again, not by corruptible seed, but by incorruptible seed, BY THE WORD OF GOD, which lives and abides FOREVER” (1 Peter 1:23). It does not matter what the scoffers say. It does not matter what the world says. What God has said stands true. Jesus Christ is coming again. When? The scoffers say, “all things are as they were. Jesus has been gone over 2000 years. Surely we have misunderstood. Surely, if He’s not come yet, He’s NEVER coming – or He came spiritually and we didn’t see Him!” No, dear fools. The Bible says:

Revelation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

When Jesus returns it will be sudden – and you’ll know it. Why does He wait? The Bible says:

2 Peter 3:9-10 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Why does God wait? Why did He wait for E.G. White? Why did He wait for Bill Burr? Why does He wait for YOU. YOU have had plenty of time to surrender to Christ, to give your life to Him, to receive His salvation. Though the Scripture says “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ” (Hebrews 3:12-13). Yet you tarry. You refuse Him Who calls you to salvation. The same was true in Noah’s Day. That good man preached the flood, the coming judgment, but none would REPENT (Mark 6:12; Luke 24:47; Acts 3:19; 17:30). God tarries because He loves deeply. He allows the wicked one more day. Though “NOW is the DAY OF SALVATION” (2 Corinthians 6:2) they harden their hearts (Psalm 95:7-8). Then they die suddenly, their soul called home by the Creator Who made it. What comes then? THE JUDGMENT (Hebrews 9:27). Oh, that they had called on Jesus when they could. Oh, that you had not heeded the scoffers.

Holy Spirit, break their hearts. Draw them to Christ today!

The Final Key: Live Out Your Faith

2 Peter 3:11-12 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

IF you are Christians, your life – and your eternal life – are gifts from God. We should be living our lives without compromise, following the Lord our Savior. Let us:

1. Cherish the Word of God
2. Avoid the nonsense of the false teachers
3. Understand that our God is longsuffering and loving

Live your lives, if you are Christians, looking toward eternity. You do not know when God is coming to take you home. Live every day for Him, honoring Christ in your lives. I close with:

2 Peter 3:15 … And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…

He has given us one more day to live in His Kingdom, and perhaps to lead another to trust in Christ. Let us not be lethargic in our faith. Tell others. Tell others. Live for Him. We are not promised tomorrow, let’s live for Him today. Amen and Amen.

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The Fifth Commandment To Honor Your Parents

Posted on February 1, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Elina Fairytale: https://www.pexels.com/photo/smiling-family-sitting-by-christmas-tree-5860054/

The last few weeks we have looked at the Ten Commandments of God. To review, the First Commandment is that “You will have no other gods before Yahweh”. Our God is #1! The Second Commandment is that “You will not create any idol of any type to worship or bow down to”. For this one we show the picture of the bowing number 2. The Third Commandment is that we will not “Take the Name of Yahweh in vain – to dishonor God with your lips”. The number 3 looks like a set of lips. The Fourth Commandment is to “Remember the Sabbath”, or to take one day in seven and dedicate it to the Lord. As Christians we do this on Sunday. The number 4 looks like a book end for a Bible. Now we come to the Fifth Commandment:

Exodus 20:12 Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

A Lawyer asked Jesus one day, “What is the “Great Commandment” in the Law?” (Matthew 22:35-40). His intent was to “tempt”or test Jesus, so as to show Him to be a fraud. Our Lord didn’t hesitate. He said:

Matthew 22:37-40 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Our Lord divided the Ten Commandments into two great Commandments. When we look at the Ten, the first Four Commandments are summarized as “To love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, and ALL your mind”. The last Five Commandments: you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet another’s property; are all summarized by “You shall love your neighbor as you want to be loved”.

The Fifth Commandment to honor your parents is a hinge that connects the two great commandments. Your parents teach you to love God with your ALL, and to love others the way you want to be loved. The civility of a nation is determined by whether this commandment is honored or not.

The Office of Parent Was Designed By God
To Be Representatives For God

Exodus 20:12 … HONOR thy father and thy mother …

Word Study: The word translated “HONOR” is the Hebrew kāḇaḏ, which means “to ascribe weight to, to give glory to, to recognize as rich or valuable”. The same word is used in:

Psalm 22:23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise Him: all ye the seed of Jacob, GLORIFY (kāḇaḏ) Him …..

Psalm 50:15 {God said} call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt GLORIFY (kāḇaḏ) Me …

Parents are not to be worshiped as we worship God – this would be a violation of the First and Second Commandments. But Parents are designed by God to be His representative on the earth. When God made Adam and Eve, the Bible says:

Genesis 1:28 (ESV) God blessed THEM. And God said to THEM, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God blessed the first Couple, and gave THEM DOMINION or control over “every living thing that moves”. The husband and wife were to be a team, the father and mother, the PARENTS. They were to rule the earth and all living things under their control which INCLUDED THEIR CHILDREN. Parents were to teach their children to love God with their ALL (the first Four Commandments) and to love and respect OTHERS the way that they wanted to be respected and loved (the last Five Commandments).

Parents stand in the gap, teaching children to love God and to be good citizens.

Pastor and Bible Scholar Steven J. Cole stated:

“If we are rebellious and disrespectful toward our parents who gave us life and sustenance, we will also probably be rebellious and disrespectful toward the Lord God, our creator and sustainer. Disrespect toward parents and God will also carry over into disrespect for all authority, and thus will result in a breakdown of law and order, leading to a disintegration of the very basis for civilized society. Thus the keeping of the Fifth Commandment is not some outmoded, quaint idea to be set aside without consequence. It is vital to the survival of our nation.”

The reason we as a nation are failing is because the Office of Parent has been destroyed by free sexuality and promiscuity contrary to the command of God. Children are taught how to relate to others in the home, long before they ever are released into the wild. Satan has so confused our nation that we no longer can identify what a woman is or what a man is. Children are fed a diet of books like “Jennifer Has Two Daddies” or “A Tale Of Two Daddies”, or “Heather Has Two Mommies”. They are told that the normal family can be two people of any gender, just as long as they “love” one another. What’s wrong with that? It is contrary to the standard of Christ.

The Pharisees asked our Lord Jesus about marriage and divorce one day. What was Jesus’ response?

Mark 10:6-9 … from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

God’s standard was to male them MALE AND FEMALE. The MALE AND FEMALE were to multiply, that is, reproduce. These PARENTS who are FATHER and MOTHER were to rule and guide the children. And the children were to honor and obey their parents as long as the parents did not direct them to violate the Laws of God. Though humans in a misbegotten desire to be “progressive” may twist and pervert the family unit, God said to “HONOR thy father and thy mother. Children are to be punished for violating the Ten Commandments, as these laws lay the basis for an orderly and civil society. How serious was God over parental guidance of the children? The Bible says:

Exodus 21:14-15 … if a man willfully attacks another to kill him by cunning, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die. 15 Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

God considered a child who so disrespected their parents so as to strike them to be as worthy of death as a premeditated murderer! God said in:

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (ESV) If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, 20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Why so harsh? The Parent is the first authority that the child will know. The father and the mother, as God’s representatives, are to teach the child to respect authority and to live civilly with others. The child who will not respect authority in the home will grow up to be the adult disrespectful of order in society.

Both Father And Mother – Though They Themselves Are Imperfect – Are To Be Honored

Proverbs 1:8 Hear, my son, your Father’s instruction, and forsake not your Mother’s teaching.

Proverbs 23:22 Listen to your Father who gave you life, and do not despise your Mother when she is old

Illustrate: Children who are not raised to respect the authority of their father AND mother grow up to be adults who are confused and lawless. They make bad employees, terrible companions, and frightful lawbreakers. I stood watching a child destroy DVD covers at a local Walmart one day while the mother watched. When the young boy of color started tearing up the THIRD DVD I politely asked him, “Son, is that YOUR property?” The mother glared at me, grabbed his hand, and stomped off. I will guarantee you that the mother who does not teach her child to respect the property of others was herself a child who was not taught and corrected. Bad and spoiled children make bad and spoiled children.

Certainly parents will make mistakes. Parents, though called by God to represent God to the child, are imperfect. But even if imperfect, the child is still under the command:

Ephesians 6:1-3 (ESV) Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

One of the earliest examples of disrespect toward a parent is found in the Noahic Account. When the flood waters receded and God blessed Noah and his family, the Bible says that:

Genesis 9:20-21 (ESV) Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. 21 He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent

Noah, a man who found “Grace in the eyes of God” (Genesis 6:8), a man who faithfully preached of coming destruction while he built an Ark – 120 years!, “planted a vineyard”. Making wine, Noah “became drunk”. That’s a sin! Believers are to …

Romans 13:13 … walk honestly, as in the day; NOT in RIOTING and DRUNKENNESS …

Those who are MURDERERS or those who pursue DRUNKENNESS are warned that THEY SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD (Galatians 5:21). Noah should not have gotten drunk. Yet even believers in Christ, recipients of Grace, fall short at times. This is not to justify what Noah did by any means. “Do NOT BE DRUNK WITH WINE, for that is excess; but BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Ephesians 5:18). No, Noah had no excuse. As a man of God he should not have gotten drunk. As a parent, a father with three young boys, he should not have gotten drunk. But Noah failed God, just as we all do at time. He failed miserably, and ended up drunken and unclothed. The Bible says:

Genesis 9:22-24 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned backward, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him …

One of Noah’s sons Ham came and found his drunken, naked father stretched out. His father had sinned against God. Rather than cover his sin, out of respect for his father, the Bible says that Ham goes outside and tells his other brothers about it. The commentaries I have read said that Ham was mocking or making light of what his father had done, and then went outside to enlist his brothers into doing the same. When Shem and Japheth heard what Ham had to say, rather than mock their father they took a blanket and, walking backwards out of respect for their father, they covered his sinfulness. When Noah woke up, he cursed his son Ham, saying:

Genesis 9:25 “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.”

Noah did not curse HAM, but he cursed HAM’S SON CANAAN. Why is that?

Canaan was cursed rather than Ham, because disrespect of the parent is transmitted – like disease – from generation to generation.

Because the effects of violating the Fifth Commandment pass down from generation to generation. Ham had no respect for his father, and by gazing at him and mocking him, tried to enlist his other brothers into doing the same. Ham’s son Canaan would see this, and pass this same disrespect down to his children. Canaan and his children would settle in a land called “Canaan”. The people of that land would be so sinful and out of control, that when God sent His people Israel into that land He told them:

Deuteronomy 20:16-17 (ESV) In the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you.

I have read commentaries that detailed the Phallic Religions of Canaan. They often committed group orgies while false priests beat on human skin covered drums. Children were sacrificed in the fire to appease their gods. When God examined the cultures of those Canaanites, He wanted Israel to not just push them out of the land. God said:

1 Samuel 15:3 (ESV) Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

I’m sure as you read this you are thinking this is horribly excessive. And yet, when the Fifth Commandment goes out the window, all the other Commandments are forfeited. Anarchy and hatred becomes the rule of the day. Children raised lawlessly are belligerent, and many times cannot be corrected. The Apostle Paul, writing of the degeneration he was seeing in the Roman Empire, said:

Romans 1:28-30 (ESV) … since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents …

Rome was not destroyed from without, but from within. Because children were not taught to respect authority, they grew up into adults that did not respect authority. In time, Rome was led by greater and more perverse children in adult bodies. Eventually Rome and all its glory died.

America is heading the same way, dear friends.

Parents Are To Remember They Represent God When Training Their Children

Right after the Scripture says:

Ephesians 6:1-3 (ESV) … Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

It continues with … Ephesians 6:4 FATHERS, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Our society tells us that fathers are unimportant, that a child doesn’t need a father. Yet that is wrong. God makes children using fathers AND mothers, and both are needed to raise children. In August of 2022 the State Auditor of Mississippi, Shad White, released a study called “Dads Matter: The Taxpayer Cost of Fatherlessness”. In the summary we read:

“engaged fathers are critical for a healthy society. By comparison, fatherlessness creates myriad costs, both social and economic. Studies show that fatherless children do not go as far in school, have more health problems, and are less financially secure as adults. Other studies show fatherless boys are more likely to become men who enter the corrections system. Still more research shows fatherless girls are more likely to become teenage mothers. Both incarceration and teenage pregnancy are strongly associated with the high school dropout rate. ”

Mississippi spends approximately $180 million each year to incarcerate men from fatherless homes.

If that’s true in Mississippi, what do you think the total across the United States is? Fathers matter, and what fathers do matter. Fathers are commanded to “bring {children} up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord”. Whether a child can play “Grand Theft Auto” or some video game is of little consequence. Fathers are to be engaged in teaching their children, both sons and daughters, to love the Lord with their all. The Scripture says:

Colossians 3:18-21 (ESV) Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

We are to follow the pattern of the family as God has given it in the Scripture. The husband – a man – leads and loves the wife and family. The children obey their parents, both father and mother. And fathers are to encourage and train their children, teaching them the two Great Commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength, and love your neighbor as you yourself would be loved.

We Are To Imitate Jesus In Following The Fifth Commandment

Our Lord Jesus obeyed and honored His parents. In Luke chapter 2 when Jesus was about 12 years old, Mary and Joseph took Him to the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem. Part of a caravan, they left at the end of the Feast, but unknown to them Jesus stayed behind. When they discovered Jesus was missing, they returned to Jerusalem and found Jesus sitting in the Temple, teaching the Rabbis the Word of God. Mary asked Jesus, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” Jesus replied, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Jesus was honoring His Heavenly Father first. But the Bible says that:

Luke 2:51 {Jesus} … went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.

Jesus, though “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), in His humanity was the Son of Mary and the stepson of Joseph. Jesus honored His earthly parents, just as the Fifth Commandment directs. One of the first miracles Jesus ever did was turning water into wine at a Wedding Feast in Cana of Galilee (John 4:46). Mary was related to the Bride and Groom, and was invited to be there, along with Jesus and His disciples. As the Wedding celebration proceeded they ran out of wine. Mary called Jesus to the side:

John 2:3-4 … the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. 4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. 5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

When Mary told Jesus they were out of wine, Jesus explained that it was not the best time for Him to do anything. Mary didn’t argue with her Son. She expected Him to make the wine situation go away. He was able. He is God incarnate. There is nothing Jesus can’t do but sin. Guess what? Jesus obeyed His mother. He HONORED her, as He should have. The commentaries note that Joseph was not at the Wedding Feast, possibly because he was deceased. But Mary as Jesus’ parent was to be honored.

When Jesus hung dying for our sins on the Cross, Mary His mother and the Apostle John stood at the foot of the Cross watching. Joseph was no longer with the family, so Jesus was the head of the household. Knowing that He would not be around to look after His mother, the Bible says …

John 19:26-27 When Jesus therefore saw HIS MOTHER, AND THE DISCIPLE STANDING BY, WHOM HE LOVED {John}, He saith to His mother, “Woman, behold thy son”. 27 Then saith He to the disciple, “Behold thy mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her into his own home.

Jesus honored His parents. Jesus heeded His earthly parents, and honors His Heavenly Father still today. He set the pattern for obeying the Fifth Commandment.

In Conclusion

Exodus 20:12 Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

Children who honor their parents are promised long lives. But children who are disrespectful of their parents often find their lives cut short. The Bible tells us of King David’s third son Absalom. Absalom rebelled against his father, and actually tried to kill David so that he could take the Throne of Israel. In the Battle of Ephraim (2 Samuel 18:9-17) Absalom’s long hair got caught in the branches of a tree, and his mount left him dangling in the air. David’s General Joab found him that way, and together with ten other soldiers stabbed him to death. Absalom was 29 years old.

The Judge and Strongman Samson died at a younger age than he should have because he would not heed his parents. His parents told him to leave Philistine women alone (Judges 14:2-3). He wouldn’t listen, and only judged Israel 20 years, probably dying before he was 30 years old.

But Joseph, the son of Jacob honored his father, and forgave his brothers for their treachery. Loving God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, Joseph lived with honor, and became the highest ruler in Egypt next to the King. Honoring his parents, Joseph became the key to the growth of Israel as a nation. The Bible says:

Proverbs 10:27 (ESV) The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.

Proverbs 30:17 The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.

I’ll end with this illustration by Joy Davidman from the book, Smoke on the Mountain:

{There was} an old man who lived with his son and daughter-in-law because he had no where else to go. The old man’s hands trembled. When he ate, he clattered the silverware, often missed his mouth with the spoon, and dribbled some of his food on the tablecloth. The daughter-in-law hated having him there because he interfered with her right to happiness. So she and her husband took the old man gently but firmly and led him to a corner of the kitchen. There they set him on a stool and gave him his food in an earthenware bowl. From then on he always ate in the corner, blinking at the table with wistful eyes. One day his hands trembled more than usual and he dropped the bowl, which broke. “If you are a pig,” said the daughter-in-law, “you must eat out of a trough.” So they made him a little wooden trough, and he got his meals in that.

This couple had a four-year-old son they were quite fond of. One night the father noticed the boy playing intently with some bits of wood and he asked what he was doing. “I’m making a trough,” he said, smiling for approval, “to feed you and Mamma out of when I get big.” The man and his wife looked at each other for a while and didn’t say anything. Then they cried a little. Then they went to the corner and took the old man by the arm and led him back to the table. They sat him in a comfortable chair and fed him his dinner on a plate. From then on nobody scolded him when he clattered or spilled or broke things.

What you sow, you will reap. Honor your parents!

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The Lord Knows, Part 2

Posted on January 29, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Brett Sayles: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-mountain-hill-1121887/

2 Peter 2:22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Review And Opening Comments

The last few weeks we have been looking at 2 Peter 2, as the Apostle discusses false prophets and their danger to the Church. False prophets – like the Pharisees who plagued Jesus – are ravenous wolves. Our Lord said:

Matthew 7:13-15 (ESV) Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. 15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

The way to Heaven is a “narrow gate” and a “HARD WAY”. It doesn’t follow the crowd, but Jesus.

Many follow the wide and easy path, a way that Jesus said “LEADS TO DESTRUCTION”. The false prophet always offers the easy way, the cheap way, the shortcut that doesn’t lead to Heaven but to Hell.

In 2022 Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research (a Southern Baptist entity) did a study of “The State of American Theology”, that is, what people in America believe about God. Some of the news was good.

7 in 10 Americans believe God is Triune, one God in Three Persons.
2 out of 3 Americans believe that God cannot make a mistake.

But then we drift – badly.

2 out of 3 believe that God accepts worship from ALL religions.
53% of Americans believe Jesus was a great teacher, but not God.
59% believe the Holy Spirit is a Force, not a Person.
66% say that “Everyone sins a little, but most are good by nature”.
51% say that “The Bible is 100% accurate in all it teaches”.
52% say that “The Bible has the authority to tell us what to do”.
66% say that “Worshiping alone or with my family replaces regular Church attendance”. Church is not essential to the Christian way of life.

How did this worldview take over a nation that was started by Pilgrims seeking religious freedom? It was because of false prophets that infiltrated the Church of Christ. This is why Peter spends so much time addressing the evil of the false prophet. The shocking truth about false prophets is:

The False Prophet Knows The Right Path, But Forsakes
That Path For Another god

2 Peter 2:15-16 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbade the madness of the prophet.

Word Study: The false prophet is not someone who is sincere, but become deluded. The false prophet knows what the right way is, but they have “forsaken the right way”. The Greek for “forsaken” is kataleipō, which means “to depart from or leave behind, to abandon something to go another way”. The word was used for Jesus when he “LEFT {kataleipō} Nazareth to dwell in Capernaum” (Matthew 4:13). The false prophets know the right way – but have walked away from what is right. They are “gone astray”, planaō, “wander from truth, to be led into error, to choose to be deceived, to leave the right path”. They are, like Jesus said,

Matthew 15:14 … blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Illustrate: In the United States alone, some 600,000 people get lost in woods or forested area every year. Why do they get lost? First, they leave a designated trail. Second, going off trail they do not use a compass. Or third, off trail without a compass they follow someone who doesn’t know the way. Christians, we must stay on the designated trail, the Word of God. Our compass is God the Holy Spirit. Be careful who you follow, for if they do not refer to the Scripture – they themselves are deliberately lost.

False teachers are not usually deceived or tricked into what they teach, but choose to follow another god.

To help us understand what he’s saying, Peter refers to “Balaam the son of Bosor”. This is one of the most interesting passages in the Bible. In the pages of Scripture, there are two instances of talking animals. In the Garden of Eden Satan possessed a serpent or snake (Genesis 3:1, Revelation 12:9; 20:2), and through that creature enticed Adam and Eve to sin. In Numbers 22 we see a talking donkey that the Angel of God possesses. Whereas the talking Serpent led man astray, the talking Donkey led Balaam away from doing evil.

The Bible tells us that Israel was “camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan river at Jericho” (Numbers 22:1, AP). The King of Moab, Balak (bālāq, “the devastator”), son of Zippor, had witnessed how Israel had soundly defeated the Amoritesin the power of God. Israel was like a “Superman”, and Balak wanted to find the Kryptonite to destroy them. “Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel” (Numbers 22:3). So King Balak devised a plan.

He sent for “Balaam the son of Beor” (bᵊʿôr, “A burning lamp”). Peter doesn’t use the name “Balaam the son of Beor”, but the Greek equivalent “Balaam the son of Bosor”. The word “Bosor” means “a burning lamp”. Balaam was a Prophet, and as a Prophet was supposed to represent God Who is Light (1 John 1:5). Balaam also had somewhat of a relationship with God. My commentary notes:

“The best textual evidence suggests that Peter wrote, “Balaam, the son of Bosor,” Bosor being a play on the Hebrew word basar, flesh. Thus Peter indicated Balaam’s immoral character by calling him the son of flesh.”

Though Balaam’s god was the flesh, or what satisfied himself rather than glorified the Lord, the Lord did talk with him. King Balak of Moab had seen that God worked through Balaam, so he asked for his assistance.

Numbers 22:5-6 (ESV) {Balak said} “Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. 6 Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

Word had gotten around that God used Balaam, blessing those Balaam blessed and cursing those whom Balaam cursed. Does this mean that Balaam was saved? No,

Balaam was a son of the flesh (BOSOR), just as Judas Iscariot was the son of perdition
{John 17:12, apōleia, destruction or damnation}.

Judas Iscariot walked and talked with Jesus and the other 11 Apostles, just as he himself was designated an Apostle (Matthew 10:1; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:12-16). Jesus said of Judas,

John 6:70 Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.

In the same way God talked to Balaam. Why would God use a Balaam or a Judas? “God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). But God can and does use evil people and governments to fulfill His greater good will. God used unbelieving Assyria to punish wayward Israel (Isaiah 10:5), and raised up Babylon, a ruthless and impetuous people, to “sweep across the whole earth, to seize dwellings not their own” (Habakkuk 1:6). Our God is in control. He can use anyone – believer or unbeliever – to accomplish His purpose. And God’s purposes are always GOOD. “His steadfast love endures FOREVER” (Psalm 107:1).

When approached by King Balak, Balaam wants to sleep on the deal.

Numbers 22:9-12 (ESV) … God came to Balaam and said, “Who are these men with you?” 10 And Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying, 11 ‘Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and it covers the face of the earth. Now come, curse them for me. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out.’” 12 God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people {Israel}, for they are blessed.”

Balaam is NOT to curse Israel. God is leading them, and has promised His people “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3, NIV). Only God can curse Israel. Balaam goes back and tells Balak that, no, he will not curse Israel. But King Balak is persistent. He promises to give Balaam great riches if he will curse Israel. Balaam resists, saying:

Numbers 22:18-19 (ESV) “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more. 19 So you, too, please stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me.”

God has already told Balaam to NOT curse Israel. But now MORE MONEY is on the table. So Balaam – instead of telling them to get lost – promises to seek God again. Maybe the Lord will change His mind. God did not change His mind. God warned us that “it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle, than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). A desire for money is one of the greatest false gods there is. Jesus said,

Matthew 6:24-26 (AMP) No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money, possessions, fame, status, or whatever is valued more than the Lord].

“Mammon” was the name of the Syrian and Chaldean god of wealth, similar to the Roman god called Plutus. Money is a strong god that enslaves many who do not know the Lord.

When Balaam goes back to God that night, the Lord tells him:

Numbers 22:20 (ESV) … “If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.”

God didn’t tell Balaam not to curse Israel – He had already done that. God told Balaam to go with the messengers back to Balak – “but only do what I tell you”. The next morning Balaam goes with the messengers, but the Bible says:

Numbers 22:22 (ESV) … God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary.

The Bible says in 1 Samuel 16:7, “the LORD sees not as we see. We look on the outward appearance. The LORD looks ON THE HEART”. Balaam began to think of the riches had decided in his heart to disobey the Lord and to curse Israel. The Bible says that “the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way” – yet Balaam’s greed had so gotten hold of him that he couldn’t see the Angel standing there.

But the Donkey could!

Numbers 22:23-33 the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road. 24 Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. 25 And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he struck her again. 26 Then the angel of the Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. 28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” 30 And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.” 31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. 32 And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.”

Balaam is so taken in the throes of his desire for money, that he begins to argue with a donkey. This is how deluded people can become when they depart from the Word of God.

Balaam did not curse Israel, but later caused Israel to curse herself. Moses tells us that “Balaam advised the people of Israel to act treacherously against the LORD, causing a plague to come on Israel” (Numbers 31:16, AP).

Balaam encouraged the people of Israel to compromise with the Moabites, and worship their gods. Encouraging Israel to leave the Lord God, He punished Israel for their evil. Is there any difference between this, and what many so called “Prophets and Preachers” do today when they encourage their congregation to be “a little more secular” and “a little more inclusive”?

What The False Prophet Teaches Is Not Only
Valueless and Deadly, But Enslaving

2 Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

The false prophet is called “wells without water”. A well without water is a false promise. It says that it will quench your thirst, but it only makes it worst. They are “clouds carried with a tempest”, or the better translation “mists driven by a storm”. They look like rain clouds, but are unreal. Jesus tells His followers:

John 7:37-38 (NASB, 95) “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

“Those who hunger and thirst FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS, shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). This satisfaction is not in the false prophet, but in Jesus. Jesus promises that those who come to Him will not only find their thirst satisfied, but will be so supplied that they themselves are wells of living waters. The Christian – indwelt by the Spirit of God – leads others to the Word of God. The true Church of Christ offers satisfaction for thirst from the Word of God.

Revelation 21:6 And {Jesus} said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

Revelation 22:17 (ESV) The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

The false prophets claim to represent God, but only represent themselves. They are hypocrites, “waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted” (Jude 12). Because they have turned away from the Light and Power of God, to them “the mist of darkness is reserved FOREVER”. This is a reference to ETERNAL DAMNATION. Our Lord spoke of the empty and useless servant, saying:

Matthew 25:30 (ESV) And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

They shall spend eternity in a place where the light is but the fire of suffering, and the darkness is all about because they never had a relationship with the Lord. They professed to be saved, but were not. Beloved, “if we say we have fellowship with Jesus, but WALK IN DARKNESS, we are liars, and do not live according to the truth” (1 John 1:6). The saved walk with their Savior. The children of the Kingdom walk with their King.

If you walk in darkness in this life, you will live in darkness
and eternal flame in the next life!

2 Peter 2:18-19 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

These false prophets know how to speak. They are some of the finest orators around, but their words do not bring glory to God, nor uphold His Word. In fact, they detract from God. A quick search found these words from false prophets. Paul Crouch, Kenneth Copeland, and Creflo Dollar teach “You are little gods”. Benny Hinn said he wanted to kill his critics with the “Holy Ghost machine gun”. Suzanne Hinn, the wife of Benny Hinn, said “If your engine’s not revving up … you need a Holy Ghost enema right up your rear..” Todd Bentley kicked an elderly infirm woman in the face because he said God told him to do it to heal her. Kenneth Copeland says that you’re not much of a Christian if you’re not rich. Leroy Thompson said “God said – tell the money you don’t belong to the wicked, you belong to US… money, come to me now”. Mike Murdock said that if you donate $1000 with your credit card, your debt will be erased. Pat Robertson told a caller on the 700 Club to “divorce his wife and start all over again” because she had Alzheimer’s. When Jimmy Swaggart was caught with a second prostitute in 1991, he told his Church “The Lord told me, it’s flat none of your business”. Joel Osteen told interviewers that homosexuality is a sin, but then said “I stay in my lane. My job is to encourage and uplift, not to judge. So I don’t talk about it.”

It is so easy to be deceived if you do not read your Bibles and attend a Bible believing Church. The Scripture says:

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Word Study: We “try the spirits” by comparing what the alleged prophet has said according to the Word of God. These people use their words to “ALLURE” people into following them. The word “ALLURE” is the Greek deleazō, a fisherman’s term which means “to bait a trap or a hook”. This is the second time that Peter uses the word in this context, as back in verse 14 he said that the false prophets:

beguile (deleazō) unstable souls

When the fisherman or trapper hunts, he will take a piece of dead meat and put it in the trap or on the hook. The dead thing will disguise that which is deadly until the unsuspecting animal bites on it. Then the trap is set, the hook is set. A piece of dead meat was used to trap a living creature that will soon be dead. The wages of sin is death. The bait of the false prophet is sinful, dead meat covering a deadly thing. Do not be deceived.

Word Study:“they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption”. They are servants of “CORRUPTION”, Greek phthorá, “decay, ruin, eternal misery in hell”. The false prophets are like the 500 pound man who wrote a book on dieting, or a woman blind from birth who wrote a book on colors. They have nothing of value to offer, because their source is their own corrupt soul, and not the Word of God.

False Prophets Are Lost People Who Will Not
Lead Others Away From Christ

2 Peter 2:20-22 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

You can be blessed by following the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet never be saved. “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). There are many false prophets who use the precepts that Jesus taught, and are blessed by those precepts. They use the Scripture, and by it find riches in this world. But they are never saved.

The Apostle uses two phrases to describe the false prophets: “DOG” and “SOW”. In the Bible the words “DOG” and “PIG” are used for lost people. Jesus said:

Matthew 7:6 (ESV) Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

It was prophesied that DOGS would crucify the Messiah. Psalm 22:16 says “For DOGS have compassed Me: the assembly of THE WICKED have enclosed Me: they PIERCED MY HANDS AND MY FEET”. When a Canaanite woman asked Jesus to heal her child, Jesus said “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the DOGS” (Matthew 15:26, ESV). When the Apostle warned of those unrepentant Pharisees who demanded the saved male be circumcised, he wrote “Look out for the DOGS, look out for the EVILDOERS, look out for those who mutilate the flesh” (Philippians 3:2, ESV). Who shall be excluded from Heaven? The Bible says:

Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

I love dogs – the animal. But humans who act like dogs and pigs are unsaved. These false prophets are unsaved – and they’ve never been saved. The Bible says that the “dog is turned to his own vomit again”. He was a dog when he was eating his vomit before. “” emphasizes that he’s just turned back and doing the same thing he used to do. The “sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire”. You can wash a pig all day long, but until you change its NATURE, it will return to the mud. These people are lost, and the lost cannot lead the lost to be saved.

They need to REPENT. They need to stop trying to be “gods”, and surrender to Jesus. They, as we all, need to surrender to our Lord and Savior. He demands unconditional – I repeat – UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. He bids us “Follow ME” and “Obey My Commands”. The key to salvation is repentance. Have you repented? Do you know Him – my dear Jesus – as Lord and Savior? If not, today is the day. Come. Repent. Give Him your broken life, and He will give you glorious liberty and joy both now and forever more. Amen and Amen.

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The Fourth Commandment To Rest

Posted on January 29, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
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Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The last few weeks we have looked at the Ten Commandments of God. To review,

The First Commandment is that God is to be first in your life.

The Second Commandment is that you are to make no idols, nor bow down or worship anyone other than the God of the Bible.

The Third Commandment is that we not speak or represent the God Who is in an empty or blasphemous way.

Tonight we’ll be examining the Fourth Commandment, to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.

When we started this study, I showed you how the Ten Commandments are represented in the New Testament. For instance, the First Commandment was repeated by Jesus to Satan in:

Matthew 4:10 (ESV) … “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

The Apostle Paul chastised the lost peoples for violating the Second Commandment (Romans 1:23; Acts 19:26-35). The Fifth Commandment is referred to in:

Ephesians 6:1-3 (ESV) Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

The Apostle Paul quoted the bulk of the Commandments in

Romans 13:8-10 (ESV) … the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

All of the Commandments are reflected in the New Testament under the New Covenant – all but one: The Fourth Commandment, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”. Why is this?

The Sabbath Was A Shadow Of Christ

Exodus 20:8-10 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God…

Word Study: God told His people Israel to “Rememberšabāṯ (Shabbat)”. The Hebrew for “Remember” is zāḵar, which means “to be mindful of, to call to mind, to focus upon with intensity and purpose”. When God flooded the whole earth because of sin, after a period of time the Bible says:

Genesis 8:1 … God REMEMBERED (zāḵar) Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him on the Ark …

God FOCUSED on Noah and those with him on the Ark. Because of this focus, God caused the waters to recede, and the land to dry up so they could disembark. God then placed a rainbow in the sky as something to REMEMBER (zāḵar) so that world would no longer be destroyed by a flood. When God gave Israel the Old Covenant of the Law, He required that they have one day in seven to focus on Him and His gracious provision. As Israel worked and prospered, it was possible for them, as it is with us, to forget that it is God Who provided the good we have. We may toil the fields, but it is God Who blesses. God told Israel:

Deuteronomy 11:13-14 (ESV) … if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.

Work is a good thing. Work was commanded, even in the Garden of Eden. But we must remember that our prosperity does not come because of our efforts, but because of God’s provision. He gave us life. He gives us minds. He gives us rain in due season, so that our crops can grow. So God decreed that Israel would have a day – the seventh day – where they would FOCUS ON GOD’S PROVISION, and give Him praise. On that day they were supposed to cease work – except where absolutely necessary – and spend time with the Lord.

The Sabbath – like CIRCUMCISION – was a sign to Israel of the Mosaic Covenant. The Scripture says:

Exodus 31:16-17 (NASB 95) ‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ 17 “It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”

The Sabbath was specifically given to Israel. God said “I gave Israel My sabbaths to be a sign between ME AND THEM, that THEY MIGHT KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD WHO SANCTIFIES THEM” (Ezekiel 20:12, NASB 95. Also Nehemiah 9:14). The Shabbat (both the weekly and the special festival Shabbats) were given to Israel – not to the Gentiles. The Shabbat along with circumcision of males was specific to the Old Covenant.

The Apostle Paul tells us in:

Colossians 2:13-17 (ESV) … {God the Father} quickened {us} together with {Jesus Christ}, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

The Shabbat, like the rule of male circumcision, was a sign to Israel under the First or Old Covenant. The Shabbat was a “shadow of things to come” like animal sacrifice and the Temple Holy of Holies, the Festivals and Feasts. These things looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.

The New Testament NEVER commands Christians to observe the Shabbat. The Shabbat was not COMMANDED until the Law was given by Moses.

Jesus came to replace the First Commandment with the Second, the “New Covenant in His Blood” (Luke 22:20). The Scripture says:

Hebrews 8:10-13 (ESV) For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.

The First Covenant, the Covenant of Law, was EXTERNAL. The Second Covenant, the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood, would be INTERNAL.

Through the Spirit of God the believer in Christ would be born again, sanctified or set apart for the service of God. The Spirit of God would indwell the believer (Romans 8:9), drawing us to Christ and to the Father.

The Pharisees Did Not Understand The Transition Of Either Circumcision Nor Of The Shabbat

The Pharisees, the Conservatives who upheld the Law of Moses, were constantly at odds with Jesus over the Shabbat. When Jesus taught in the Synagogue of Capernaum on Shabbat, He was heckled by a man possessed of a demon:

Mark 1:24-26 (ESV) “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.

The Pharisees were not upset that Jesus cast out demons on Shabbat. But when He and His disciples ate from the grainfields on Shabbat (Mark 2:23) the Pharisees said, “Why are You doing what is UNLAWFUL ON SHABBAT?” (Mark 2:24). Jesus replied:

Mark 2:27-28 (ESV) … “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

God gave the Sabbath for man to remember His goodness and grace. The Shabbat was a time for those under the Old Covenant to focus on God. But Jesus said “the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath”. The phrase “Son of Man” is a title for the Messiah (see Daniel 7:13), and Jesus called Himself the “Son of Man” (Matthew 8:20; Matthew 9:6; Matthew 11:19; Matthew 12:40; Mathew 13:37). Jesus said not just here in Mark, but in other texts like:

Matthew 12:8 … the SON OF MAN IS LORD EVEN OF THE SABBATH DAY ..

Luke 6:5 … the SON OF MAN IS LORD ALSO OF THE SABBATH …

Jesus is the fulfillment of the shadows of the Law, and the Fourth Commandment was a shadow of the Messiah. We find our rest in Jesus Christ. He is our Shabbat. We rest from useless sacrifices that can never fully pay for sin (Hebrews 10:1). Jesus …

Hebrews 10:12 (ESV) … Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

The Bible tells us that we who are under the New Covenant have a Shabbat, a rest that we draw near to – this is Jesus. We are told in …

Hebrews 4:9-14 (ESV) … So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. 14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

Jesus Christ is LORD of the SHABBAT. He is our SHABBAT, our Sabbath Rest. Jesus satisfied the requirements of the sacrifices under the Law. Jesus satisfies the requirements of our High Priest. “How shall we escape if we neglect SO GREAT A SALVATION” (Hebrews 2:3)? We rest in Christ. We rest in His Word. He follow Him daily – not just one day a week. We rely upon Him every moment of every day. Jesus Christ is our Shabbat!

John 5:18 (ESV) This was why the Jews (the Pharisees) were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

I think it is significant that the Pharisees sought Jesus’ crucifixion for violating – they believed – the Shabbat. Jesus was crucified the day before Shabbat (Mark 15:42), the special Sabbath that followed the Feast of the Passover. The Bible tells us:

Leviticus 23:4-8 (ESV) These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord’s Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 8 But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.”

The Feast of Passover is on the 14th of the month, followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a Shabbat, a Special Sabbath. Jesus died on the Feast of Passover, for “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus was buried at the end of the Passover, just before the Special Shabbat of the Feast on Unleavened Bread. We are told in:

Luke 23:52-54 (ESV) This man {Joseph of Arimathea} went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid. 54 It was the day of Preparation, and the Sabbath was beginning.

John 19:31 (ESV) Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

Dying for our sins as our Passover, Jesus went to the Tomb for Three Days and Three nights just as He declared (Matthew 12:40). The Bible tells us that Jesus rose the day following the weekly Shabbat. The women who loved Jesus came to the Tomb to finish anointing Christ’s body the day following Shabbat, the weekly Sabbath:

Matthew 28:1 (ESV) Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

Mark 16:2, 9 (ESV) And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. … 9 Now when {Jesus} rose early on the first day of the week, {Jesus} appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.

If Jesus Is Our Shabbat, Why Do Christians Today Gather On Sunday?

The Jewish Shabbat was from Friday at Sunset to Saturday at Sunset. The Bible tells us that Jesus resurrected from the Grave, and appeared to His disciples on the first day of the week:

John 20:19 (ESV) On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

After the Day of Pentecost, where God sent His Holy Spirit to the Church, the Church began to meet on the first day of the week:

Acts 20:7 (ESV) On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

The Apostle encouraged the Church to

1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

The first day of the week began to be called “The Lord’s Day”. When John the Revelator wrote to the Church, he wrote the words of Christ “on the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10), or on Sunday. There are other extra-Biblical sources that note the early Church met on Sundays. About 150 A.D. the early Church Pastor Justin Martyr wrote:

“On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read. … Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead” (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 67; ANF 1:186).

And another early Pastor, Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Magnesians, 8 [AD 110] wrote:

“those who were brought up in the ancient order of things [i.e. Jews] have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s day, on which also our life has sprung up again by him and by his death”

As the early Church was comprised of both Jewish as well as Gentile converts, there was often controversy between the two groups as to whether they were to observe the Sabbath and circumcision of males. The Apostle commanded the Jews and Gentiles to not quarrel over keeping the Shabbat, saying:

Romans 14:5-6, 8 (ESV) One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. … while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. …. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

Some believers today meet on Sundays, whereas others on Saturday, or even Friday afternoon. The Apostles often went to the Jewish Synagogues on their Shabbat and preached to them, just as Jesus had done (see Luke 4:16; Acts 13:14; 13:42, 44; 16:13; 18:4).

Though many believers may believe that one day is better than another to meet, we are not to judge one another. Rather, as Christians we set apart one day a week to honor our Lord. As Baptists, we worship the Lord on Sunday because we recognize that Christ rose from the grave on Sunday. We are “New creations in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:17). He is our Shabbat.

We worship Jesus on “The Lord’s Day”, the day He rose from the Grave and made us New Creations.

But we are not dogmatic, nor do we condemn others for gathering and worshiping on other days. Shabbat was a shadow, and Christ the reality. We serve and worship Jesus every single day – but celebrate Him as a Body, His Church, on Sundays. We remember the word of Scripture:

Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV) And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

If you as a Christian are weak on “meeting together” with other believers, encouraging then and being encouraged to shine for Jesus – then you will be a weak Christian. We need one another. We may not meet on the Jewish Shabbat, but we meet Sundays to worship the Lord. May God touch your hearts through His Word to commit to being faithful in honoring Him at His Church this year. May the Holy Spirit draw you into a closer walk with your brothers and sisters in the faith, for Christ’s glory. Amen and Amen.

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The Lord Knows (Part 1)

Posted on January 16, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Kássia Melo: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-close-up-shot-of-a-white-peacock-butterfly-10917649/

2 Peter 2:9-14 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: 10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. 12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

Whereas 1 Peter addressed threats outside the Church, 2 Peter deals with threats inside or from within. Last week we saw the Scripture address the threats of the false prophets who rose up from within the Church. As I heard a preacher say one time,

“It isn’t the water OUTSIDE of the boat that is dangerous to those on the boat. It’s the water INSIDE the boat that will sink us, and drown us.”

As Peter – under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit – addresses these false prophets, it’s clear that he is angry, terse, and very pointed.

The False Prophets Preach Subjective Truth

It’s common to hear in America today,

“You do YOU, and I’ll do ME”, or
“Each person must live their own truth”

Is truth subjective? Subjective “truth” depends on feelings, desires, what I think as empirical. The Bible says of the false prophet:

2 Peter 2:10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

The mark of the false prophet is that they “walk after the flesh”. The Serpent in the Garden of Eden was a false prophet, saying “Has God REALLY said that you shall not eat of the forbidden tree?” (Genesis 3:1). Eve responded,

Genesis 3:3 (ESV) … “God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Eve was about half right. The truth was – the RULE was – “You shall not eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil – Eating of it, you will SURELY die” (Genesis 2:17). The rule that God gave was fair, clear, to the point. God did not require that mankind not TOUCH the fruit. You were just to NOT EAT IT or the consequences would be death. The Serpent went on to say, “You’ll NOT die. God knows if you eat of it, you’ll BE LIKE GOD, KNOWING GOOD AND EVIL” (Genesis 3:4-5, AP). What did Eve do?

“the woman SAW that the tree was good for food”
“it was a delight to the EYES”
“the tree was to be DESIRED to make one WISE”

Eve did not rely on the RULE, the FACT of what God said. Instead Eve defined what was good and evil BASED ON HER FLESH, based on what SHE felt. Truth went from being objective to subjective. It was no longer what God said, but what I FEEL or I THINK. The end result of this was, just as God said, DEATH. First came spiritual death as they, through their own choices, sinned and brought a barrier up between them and God. Second came eventual physical death. The two go hand in hand.

2 Peter 2:10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness…

Word Study: False prophets always “walk after the flesh”, that is, they live their lives according to their own desires and own wants. They walk after the flesh “in the lust of uncleanness”. The word rendered “uncleanness” is the Greek miasmos, which means “to be defiled, morally contaminated, polluted”. The false prophet entices others to reject the clearly presented truth of God to follow their own truth. The phrase “walk after the flesh” means to follow YOUR own path. Those who “walk after the flesh” do not want to be told what God says – they want God to agree with them.

The Bible has much to say about “walking after the flesh”. The Bible says:

Romans 8:1 … There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit …

The person who is saved – born again of God the Holy Spirit because they have called on Jesus for salvation – is under “no condemnation”. Why? Because that person is “in Christ Jesus”. Our hope is IN CHRIST JESUS. Our faith is IN CHRIST JESUS. Our salvation is IN CHRIST JESUS. We are not going to Heaven because we are on the roll of a church somewhere, but because I am IN CHRIST JESUS. Because I am IN CHRIST JESUS my name is IN THE BOOK OF LIFE. You are a Child of God because you are IN CHRIST JESUS. And because you are IN CHRIST JESUS, “walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit”. We who are saved “WALK IN THE {power of the} SPIRIT” (Galatians 5:16). The Bible says:

Galatians 5:25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

One follows the other. Saved by faith, indwelt of God’s Spirit, we walk in the Spirit, NOT after the flesh. God saved us by faith so that we might follow Him, doing His Will.

Romans 8:3-6 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Once you are saved, you enter the Kingdom of God. God is your King, not your flesh. You seek Him and His pleasure.

False Prophets Say You Can Be Saved
Without Repentance Or Obedience

False prophets say that you can be saved by faith in Christ – a thing called Grace – but God never demands your obedience – that your obedience is optional. How did that work out in the Garden of Eden? The Scripture says of these false prophets:

2 Peter 2:10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

Word Study: False prophets “despise government”, and teach others to do the same. They do not want anyone telling them what is right or wrong, what is good or evil. They are “self-willed”, that is, as long as it pleases them, then it’s true. And we are told that they are “not afraid to speak evil of dignities”. When I first read this it sounded like the false prophets were not afraid to stand up to God appointed leaders – but the actual Greek is much stronger than that. The false prophets are not afraid to blasphēmeō doxa, which means “to blaspheme or verbally degrade the Majesty or the Glory”. Some versions translate this as “The Glorious Majesties”. The Bible tells us that:

Romans 13:1 (NLT) … all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.

For the false prophets, there is no authority but what “I feel” or what “I think”. All others are rejected. This is rampant throughout America and the American Church.

2 Peter 2:11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

The false prophets, like “fools rush in where angels fear to tread” (Alexander Pope). Angels have much greater power and strength than humans do – and yet these angels do not rely on their own senses and desires, but on the Word of God. What has God said? The Book of Jude tells us that these false teachers:

Jude 8-9 (ESV) … in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.”

When battling Satan, Michael the Archangel did not rely on his own power or deductive reasoning, but on the Word of God. False prophets care nothing for God’s Word. By walking away from the Word of God and proclaiming the word of the flesh, these false prophets have lowered themselves from God’s best plan for their lives into a state to where they are more animal than human. We read:

2 Peter 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Word Study: God calls the false prophet “natural brute beasts”, the Greek physikos alogos zōon, which means “as physical against the Word animals”. Jesus Christ is called “The Word” or “The Logos” (John 1:1, 14), whereas the false prophet is the word Logos preceded by the alpha negative or Alogos.

A false prophet is ANTI Word. The false prophet bases perceived truth on what “I feel” or “I think”, and not what the Word of God says. God says “They shall UTTERLY PERISH in THEIR OWN CORRUPTION.

It is God’s Word that made all things. The Scripture says:

Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.

It is God Who brought light out of the darkness, and order out of the chaos. God did this in CREATION by His Word – and God does the same by the CREATION of the Christian.

The False Prophets And Their Converts
Will Receive The Reward Of Unrighteousness

2 Peter 2:13-14 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

The false prophet and their followers “shall receive the reward of unrighteousness”. Those who follow the false prophets think that they can “riot in the daytime”. Several years ago, crowds of rioters destroyed property, tore down statues, defaced artwork that was not theirs to deface, and did so in the guise of “social justice”. God does not bless anarchy. When God looks at these people, He sees them as “Spots” and “blemishes”. The word translated “Spots” is the Greek spílos, which means “moral defects, that which God has said is morally reprehensible”. The word translated “blemishes” is the Greek mōmos, which means “a flaw or blot that is disgraceful”. When God looks at the works and character of the false prophet, our Lord goes “YUK”. Their works are morally reprehensible, their behavior like the wet spot of a person that has urinated on themselves. This is not what Christ gave Himself for on the Cross. The Bible says:

Ephesians 5:26-27 … Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 27 That Jesus might present to Himself a glorious Church, NOT HAVING SPOT (spílos), or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Jesus did not suffer and die on Calvary so that we could willy nilly pursue sin. Granted, dearly Beloved, there are all times when we sin, when we do not do what Christ has bid we do. However, upon recognition of sin, the genuine believer will REPENT and TURN FROM THAT SIN and back to Christ. If we get off the path of righteousness, we get back on as soon as possible. We do not make excuses. We do not blame others. We own our sin, and REPENT of our sin and return to walking with Christ.

Those who pursue sin will “receive the reward of unrighteousness”. What is the “the reward of unrighteousness”?

2 Peter 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children…

When you pursue sin, sin will multiply. Their “eyes are full of adultery”. They are constantly searching, and see others as sexual conquests, something to satisfy their urgings on. They “cannot cease from sin”. Jesus said:

John 8:34 (ESV) … Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

And again, in Romans 6:16 (ESV) Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Enslaved to sin, they actively “beguile” (Greek deleazō) or ENTICE the unstablesoul. They seek to enlist others to the path they are on, as misery loves company. Their hearts are not filled with love for God or love for others, but with “covetous practices”. Then we read that they have:

cursed children (katara teknon)

Their offspring learn about God from what they themselves have done. Their children are often “cursed”. This word is used in:

Hebrews 6:8 But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; {katara} whose end is to be burned.

That which is CURSED has an end to be BURNED. Oh, what a horrible picture this draws. The false prophet is headed toward hell, and is carrying others with them. This need not be!

Today Is The Day To Choose The Word Of God,
Not The Way Of Man

2 Peter 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

God knows the difference between the lost and the saved, the ungodly and the godly. The Scripture says that

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations {peirasmos}

The Lord looks after His own children. He delivers those who love Him out of enticements to sin. God looks after His people. But the Scripture says that God …

reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished

There are only two types of people in the world, insofar as God is concerned. There are the GODLY, and the UNJUST or UNGODLY. How does one become GODLY? The Scripture says:

Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

When a person actually HEARS the Gospel
– Hear now the Gospel of God!

1. We are all sinners, lost and unable to make ourselves right before God.


2. We all deserve eternal separation from God. We deserve hell.

3. Our sins are insurmountable barriers between us and God.

4. But God in mercy and love sent His Son Jesus to take upon Himself flesh. Perfect God became Perfect Man, and went to the horror of the Cross to pay for our sins.

5. Paying for our sins, Jesus died on that Cross, for the wages of sin is death.

6. Rising from the grave on the third day, Jesus ever lives to make intercession for those who receive Him as Lord and Savior.

7. REPENTING of our lives, we run into the arms of Jesus, trusting solely in Him.

8. Saved, we are members of the Family of God, ourselves sons and daughters of God. We follow the One Who saved us. We heed His Word, and live to please our Savior and Lord. God delivers the godly from temptations. He stays with His Children – forever. Do you know Him? Have you received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This is the only way.

1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

The false prophet will not tell you these things, but Beloved, I tell you. God expects you to follow Him. Today is the day of salvation. Believe on Him without delay. Amen and Amen!

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The Third Commandment

Posted on January 13, 2024 by bibleteacherorg

The past two weeks we’ve been studying the Ten Commandments. The First Commandment is:

Exodus 20:2-3 … I am the Lord thy God … thou shalt have no other gods before Me …

God is to be number one in our lives. That’s the First Commandment. The Second Commandment is …

Exodus 20:4-5 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness … Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve (worship) them …

Remember that the number “2” looks like it’s bowing down. The believer is neither to bow down to or serve any god other than Yahweh, the God of Scripture. Tonight we’re looking at the Third Commandment:

Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Word Study Let’s break this down from the Hebrew. The word translated “take” is the Hebrew Qal Imperfect of the verb nāśā’ (pronounced naw-saw’), which means “to lift up, to bear, to carry off or take away”. God’s name is sacred. He gave His Covenant Name to those who believed in Him, who loved Him. When Moses asked God His Name, God told Moses:

Exodus 3:14-15 … God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

The Name Of God Defines God

The Name of God defines Who God is. God is “I Am”. He is Eternal, without beginning or end. “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). God has no starting place. He was never created, but has always been the Creator. God knows all things. “His understanding is beyond measure” (Psalm 147:5). Dr. Adrian Rogers wrote:

“The name Jehovah is used some 6,800 times in the Bible. It is the personal covenant name of Israel’s God. In the King James Version of the Bible, it’s translated Lord God. Not only does it speak of God’s strength, but also it speaks of the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God. The root of this name means “self-existing,” one who never came into being, and one who always will be. When Moses asked God, “Who shall I tell Pharaoh has sent me?” God said, “I AM THAT I AM.””

God is eternal and UNCHANGING. He is I AM. “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Our God DEPENDS ON NO ONE. His Name is I AM. “The Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” (John 5:26). Our God is the pattern of all life. God’s Name is not “YOU ARE” but “I AM”. “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth” (Psalm 33:6). There is nothing that God cannot do except evil. Pastor John MacArthur writes:

“Although such power might seem frightful, remember that God is good. He can do anything according to His infinite ability, but will do only those things that are consistent with Himself. That’s why He can’t lie, tolerate sin, or save impenitent sinners.”

God knows and understands all things. His will will always be done. A.W. Tozer wrote:

“God perfectly knows Himself and, being the source and author of all things, it follows that He knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn.”

There is no where where God is not present. He is “I AM”. The fullness of His presence is all about us. God asks, “Am I a God at hand,’ declares the Lord, ‘and not a God afar off? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:23-24). Our God is the Perfect Standard of what is right and wrong. The Bible says “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

I could go on and on. God reveals Himself to us, and does so by His Name.

God’s Name Is Not To Be Used In An Empty Way

Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain …

The phrase translated “in vain” is the Hebrew šāv’ (pronounced shawv), which means “to fill with emptiness, to falsify, to break a vow or make a lie with, to hold up as worthless or empty”.

1. Cursing uses God’s Name in an empty way

It is common to hear the Name of Jesus Christ or “God” coupled with a profane word today. It is easy to understand why people do this. Those who know and fear God will respect how His Name is used. We shouldn’t expect unbelievers to live up to Biblical standards, for they are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). The lost are “walking according to the ways of this world”. The Bible declares that “people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means” (1 Corinthians 2:14, NLT). People who curse God’s Name have a greater problem than the cursing – they are lost and undone, and need Jesus.

It is a sin to use God’s Name in an empty, worthless way. Statements like “Oh my God” are sinful, unless we are addressing God. We are to reverence the Name of God. As one commentary notes:

“God controls the universe. A single word from Him creates worlds, puts planets in place, and sets galaxies in motion. He knows every hair on your head. The tiniest bird that falls does not escape His notice. This God, whom angels revere and demons fear, experienced unspeakable torture and horrors to redeem your life from eternal extinction. His name is neither an expletive nor a curse. It is holy. … You can use God’s name when giving thanks, offering praise, and in prayer. You can also lift up His name high by reflecting His love to others, as Jesus told us: “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14 NIV).”

2. Misrepresenting God’s Word Uses His Name In An EMPTY WAY

We take God’s Name in vain when we hold up as Biblical truths those things which God never said. This happens quite frequently among professing Christians and religious people. Our Lord Jesus chastised the Pharisees for dong this. Quoting Isaiah 29:13, Jesus told them:

Matthew 15:7-9 (NKJV) Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. 9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

God’s Word gives us a very clear picture of Who God is. Those who love God want to keep His commandments. The Apostle said:

1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

The Pharisees took the Word of God – which is given in the Name of God – and added hard and horrific restrictions that God never placed in the Bible.

God warned His people to be only ambassadors, not editors of God’s Commands. He said:

Deuteronomy 12:32 (NKJV) Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

God takes His Word seriously. When we modify the Word of God to suit ourselves, we are misrepresenting the character of God. God said in the last chapter of the Bible:

Revelation 22:18-19 … I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

When we modify the Word of God we distract from the richness of God’s Gospel, and can turn Christianity into a Do It Yourself religion. The Pharisees added restrictions that were never in the Law, such as …

A. Pharisees declared that you were only allowed to travel on the Sabbath “a Sabbath Day’s journey”, which the distance between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, about 2,920 – 3,034 feet (.55 of a mile to .57 of a mile). The phrase “Sabbath Day’s Journey” is only found in in Acts 1:12 – and there it is not given as a directive of God, but as a description of what the people had been taught.

B. You were not allowed to carry anything based on a poor interpretation of:

Jeremiah 17:21-22 (NKJV) Thus says the Lord: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

If you read the context, God was chastising His people for working and doing business on the Sabbath. The “gates” of Jerusalem were how merchants came into that city to sell their goods. People would carry goods out of their homes to meet these merchants, buying and selling on the Sabbath. THIS WAS HAPPENING IN JERUSALEM, WHERE THE TEMPLE WAS. God told Israel:

Jeremiah 17:27 (NKJV) “But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.”

It is not sinful to CARRY something on the Sabbath – else Jesus would not have told the man He healedon the Sabbathto“TAKE UP YOUR BED and walk” (John 5:10-11). Jesus would not have commanded a person to violate the Law, as Jesus came “to fulfill the Law” (Matthew 5:17).

C. The Pharisees taught that you were not allowed to pick fresh corn on Sabbath day – even to fill your own belly (Matthew 12:1-8). Jesus corrected the Pharisees by quoting Scripture rather than the teachings of Rabbis.

D. The Pharisees chastised Jesus for healing people on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:10). Again, this is not found in the Scriptures. Jesus corrected the Pharisees. Other silly additions to the Law were: You could not SPIT on the Sabbath, for it would disturb the dirt and plow the ground. You could not swat a fly, for that was HUNTING. You could not look at your reflection, lest you comb your hair, which was work. If your house was on fire during the Sabbath, you couldn’t carry clothes out. However, you could put on multiple layers of clothes and wear them out of the house.

An interesting article I found stated:

“There were 613 commands in the Old Testament but the Pharisees created over 1,500 additional “fence laws” for the people to obey. They believed the best way to keep people from breaking God’s Law was to build a protective barrier around that Law, even though the Lord never told them to do this.”

By infusing Man’s word with God’s Word, the Pharisees made God appear graceless, tedious, and unloving. This drove people AWAY from salvation.

Jesus recognized this when He said:

Matthew 23:13 (NKJV) … woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

The Pharisees were not only not going to Heaven, they were leading others to hell as well. The Law of God was given to show us the character of God – not just His holiness and righteousness, but His GRACE AND MERCY. The Law was given to highlight our need for the Savior Jesus Christ. The Apostle highlights this in:

Galatians 3:19-25 (NKJV) What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Nominal Christians Take The Name Of God In Vain

Those who profess to be saved by the Blood of Christ, but who willfully and knowingly live contrary to the command of God, take the name of God in vain. “We are AMBASSADORS for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20, NKJV). We represent the Lord to a lost and dying world. When we do what we ought not to do willfully and without care, we represent a false image of Christianity.

There are a number of texts that bring this out. God told Israel:

1 Samuel 12:22 … the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people.

God called Israel out of Abraham. Though Israel failed God numerous times, God will not forsake Israel lest it misrepresent His name. Likewise, the Christian is commanded of God to follow after RIGHTEOUSNESS for God’s Name’s sake. In the well known Shepherd’s Psalm 23 we read:

“The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He LEADETH ME IN THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HIS NAMES SAKE.”

It is a black mark on the Name of God when Christians do not walk in the Paths of Righteousness with Christ. The Bible says “If we walk in the light AS HE IS IN THE LIGHT … the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sins” (1 John 1:7). Our God calls us into salvation, commanding us to “cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Romans 13:12). What do we have to do with what God has said is sinful? We are commanded:

Ephesians 5:11 … have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

We are a people who have been saved by the Blood of Christ and by the Power of the Holy Spirit. We are “delivered from the power of darkness, and have been translated into the Kingdom of the Son of God” (Colossians 1:13). We are the “children of LIGHT, children of the DAY” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). Let us live for Jesus while we have life. I close with these words:

Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Pastor and Evangelist Dennis Kabingue noted:

“Solomon, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, rallies God’s people to secure a good name. In the book of Proverbs, he wrote, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold” (Proverbs 22:1). In Ecclesiastes 7:1, he wrote, “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” If God is teaching His people to do their best to preserve a good name, this should make you think how much more God treasures His own name.”

God sent curses upon Israel because they would not give glory to His Name (Malachi 2:2). The prohibition of the Third Commandment not only includes abusing the names and titles of God in cursing, but also in the violation or twisting of His Word, the misapplication of His truths, and the pursuit of false doctrines. God will not hold anyone guiltless for degrading His Name. Those who do so can expect a payday someday.

Let us live to honor the Lord Who saved us. Amen and Amen.

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The Gospel Of “I”

Posted on January 7, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/adult-lion-playing-with-lion-cub-40803/

Play video from Joel Osteen from CNN Interview (youtube link)

Please turn with me in your Bibles to:

2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

It’s not my intention today to make this sermon about Joel Osteen, but I do want to use Joel to make an introductory point. I believe Joel is sincere in what he believes. But I believe as you saw in this clip, Joel has a difficult problem answering the interviewers of CNN. Why? Because Joel is detached from the historic Gospel.

Joel preaches not the Gospel of Christ,
but the Gospel of “I”

Review what he said. His focus is to “lift people’s spirits”, not to direct them to God. He wants people to leave saying “I can do better. I can rise higher.” Instead of “I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST JESUS” (Philippians 4:13). Joel’s message focuses on our power instead of the God Who says:

2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV) … “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”

Joel said, “In the old days, you went to Church to know what you’re doing wrong, and came away thinking ‘I’m so guilty I can’t do right’”. Joel said, “I want people to leave our Church saying ‘I can do better. God has planted seeds of greatness in me’”.

Joel does not focus on sin, yet the Bible does. The Gospel does. “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “The wages of sin is DEATH, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus OUR LORD.”

Joel admits that homosexuality is a sin, but dances around the issue rather than be blunt, using straw man arguments. He says, “I’ve stayed in my lane, and my lane is lifting people’s spirits. Pride is a sin. There are other sins”. Yes Joel, there are other sins – and all sins are evil because they are against God’s loving design for us.

Joel’s Word says “I Can”. God’s Word says “I Can’t, But God Can If I Repent. I Can Through Christ.

What does the Bible say to the question, “Will people who are practicing sexual immorality go to Heaven?” Paul, what is your answer? When the Apostle was confronted with the Church at Corinth, where the members were suing one another in court, the Apostle did not categorize this loveless act as a “little” sin or a big sin. What he said was:

1 Corinthians 6:6-10 (ESV) … brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers! 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

The Apostle tells the Church that not only those holding up Christ and His Church to ridicule WILL NOT enter Heaven, but he goes on the address ALL SEXUALLY IMMORAL people, IDOLATORS, THIEVES, GREEDY, DRUNKARDS, REVILERS, SWINDLERS and HOMOSEXUALS. But what does Paul through the Spirit of God tell us next? Here’s the GOOD NEWS.

2 Corinthians 6:11 (ESV) And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Can a REPENTANT sinner go to Heaven? Yes, if you have repented, and called upon Jesus to save you. You “WERE WASHED”. You didn’t wash yourself. God washed you. You “WERE SANCTIFIED”, set apart for God’s use. God the Holy Spirit did that to you. You “WERE JUSTIFIED”. You didn’t get better on your own, but “calling upon the Name of the Lord, you were saved” (1 Corinthians 1:2; Acts 2:21).

God saves those who REPENT and COME TO JESUS. When we recognize ourselves as sinners, and come to Him Who died for sinners, you shall be saved.

You cannot be saved unless you are CONVICTED of God that YOU ARE A SINNER. You cannot be saved unless you surrender to Jesus and let Him be your Lord and Savior.

The Gospel Of “I”, Though Increasingly Popular,
Is Horribly Dangerous, For It Is A Lie

The Gospel of “I” starts with the premise that we’re all okay, and that God loves everyone the way they are. The Gospel of “I” starts – not with Scripture – but with human viewpoint. Let’s look at our text again:

2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you…

Word Study Let’s start with the “But”. The word “But”, the Greek δέ (de) is a coordinating conjunction used to connect ideas that contrast. It’s different from the coordinating conjunction AND, as AND connects two things that are similar. BUT connects two things that are opposites. The BUT in verse 1 connects us to what was discussed last week:

2 Peter 1:20-21 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Word Study God gave us the Scripture NOT from 40 people’s opinions, not based on what THEY thought, but the Scripture was given to those men – these prophecies – “as they were moved by the Holy Ghost {spirit}”. The Holy Spirit “moved”, the Greek pherō, which means “to lift up, to bear, to carry”. The same verb was used of John the Baptist’s head CARRIED (pherō) on a platter (Matthew 14:11), or when four friends CARRIED (pherō) a crippled friend to see Jesus (Mark 2:3). The Bible tells us that God controlled the writings of Scripture, the Prophesies, so that what was produced was not flawed human byproducts, but the very Word of God. God has given us His Word, and clear instructions by His Word.

BUT where ever God speaks, it isn’t long before Satan and sinful humanity will rise up with a “what about this”. It happened in the Garden of Eden. God gave very clear directives to Adam on what he could, and could NOT eat. Satan entered in and said “has God really said?” When our foreparents didn’t run him out of the Garden, he went on to say “You will NOT die if you eat of the forbidden. God is trying to rob you of your joy!” Go ahead, do it.

2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you…

Where there is the TRUE, there will always be the FALSE. Where there is the LIGHT, there will always be competing DARKNESS. Our Lord Jesus warned us of “false prophets”. Jesus said:

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Wolves are dangerous. Disguised wolves are doubly dangerous. Disguised wolves in the Church are fatal!

How did Jesus characterize false prophets? First of all, they do not come to you with a sign above their head saying “FALSE PROPHET”. If they did that, you would know what they are. But what false prophets do – according to our Lord – is they “come to you in sheep’s clothing”. Now what is sheep’s clothing? Do sheep wear denim, or dresses? Do they wear patent leather or pretty suits? No, sheep wear WOOL. How does a wolf come to you in sheep’s clothing? The wolf must KILL THE SHEEP. It leads sheep to death. Those who preach a Gospel of “I” are leading people not to salvation, but death.

Word Study These wolves are, as Jesus said, “ravenous” (Greek arpax), which means “extortioners”. An “extortioner” is someone who kidnaps what is rightfully yours, then charges you money or services to get what is yours back. The false prophets (Greek pseudoprophētēs) rob people of the Gospel of salvation, and instead offer false promises and false hopes.

Jude, a stepbrother of Jesus wrote of this twisting of the Gospel. He wrote:

Jude 3-4 (ESV) Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

After the resurrection and ascension of Christ, and after the Apostles went out preaching “the FAITH ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS”, it wasn’t long before people “CREPT or SLITHERED IN” (Greek pareisdýnō) to the Churches. As false prophets they began to teach various falsehoods. Some taught that Jesus never died, but just swooned on the Cross. Others taught that the blood of Christ is insufficient to save, but you must be circumcised. Yet others taught that Jesus is but One of many ways to God. False writings cropped up called pseudepigrapha and apocryphal writings. If you can imagine it, it has been taught. The intent of the false prophets and false teachers is to “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality”. To make Grace all about “I”.

I have heard preachers say “God created man because He needed man to be complete”. That’s the Gospel of “I” talking. God doesn’t NEED us, though God MADE us and God LOVES us. But God is complete in Himself.

The Gospel of salvation brings a person to call upon Jesus as Lord and Savior. But the Gospel of “I” causes a person to “deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ”. The Gospel of salvation brings a person into the Kingdom of God and, eventual Heaven. The Gospel of “I” makes a person thing that THEY are THEIR OWN KING, and are co-equal rulers with Christ in glory. Jesus said,

Matthew 24:11 … many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.

Continuing with our text, these FALSE PROPHETSand FALSE TEACHERS will…

2 Peter 2:1 … privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

Word Study Again, these false prophets and teachers do what they do PRIVILY (pareisagō, SECRETLY, or CRAFTILY). They sneak about. They mask their real intent. They don’t do what they do in the LIGHT or in the OPEN, but conspire and sneak about. What are they doing? They are bringing about “DAMNABLE HERESIES”, the Greek apōleia airesis, “doctrines that bring utter destruction or ruin”.

The future Antichrist is called “The Son of apōleia, utter destruction” (see 2 Thessalonians 2:3). What the false prophets and false teachers bring is damnation with them – not blessing.

They “deny the Lord that BOUGHT them”. Jesus purchased our salvation by the shedding of His Blood on Calvary. Do you not know

1 Corinthians 6:20 … ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Corinthians 7:23 … Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

Though A Best Seller, The Gospel Of “I”
Lies About The Nature Of God

2 Peter 2:2-3 And many shall follow their pernicious (Greek apōleia) ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

Word Study The word “PERNICIOUS” is the same word translated “DAMNABLE” in verse 1, the Greek apōleia. Again, this means “something that brings total destruction”. A lot of people will follow the words of the false prophets and false teachers, because their ways require no repentance. The Gospel of “I” ignores passages like:

Psalm 145:20 The Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

God despises what He has categorized as SIN, because SIN BRINGS DEATH. To those who will be saved, God will save. But in order to be saved you must REPENT. Our Lord Jesus preached:

Matthew 4:17 … REPENT: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand

Matthew 9:13 … I am not come to call the righteous, but SINNERS TO REPENTANCE

The Gospel of the Scripture declares that we are all broken. But if we will come to God, turning away from being our own gods, then He will abundantly save whosoever will. Our Lord Jesus took the cup of suffering for us. He knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane praying,

Luke 22:42 (AP) Father, if it be Thy will, let THIS CUP – THIS CROSS – pass from Me. NEVERTHELESS NOT MY WILL BUT THINE BE DONE.

Illustrate: One popular book of fiction called The Shack portrays God as saying, “I don’t need to punish people for sin…. It’s not My purpose to punish it..” Is that true? Then why did Jesus have to go to the Cross of Calvary. A false teacher called Rob Bell questioned the nature of God and hell, saying “Has God created millions of people over tens of thousands of years who are going to spend eternity in anguish? Can God do this, or even allow this, and still claim to be a loving God?” Yes, God can.

The false prophet and false teacher “through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you”. They do not love those they are writing to, speaking to, teaching. It is not love to contradict God’s Word in order to gain a following. When my mother told me not to touch a hot stove, and then spanked me when I tried to do so, was not unloving. Love speaks the truth. You do not love someone when you see them doing something dangerous. You love them when you tell them what they are doing is foolish, against God’s Word.

Rather than make up a fictitious god of the Bible, why not refer to the Holy Scripture. We have previously been told that the Prophecy did not come by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved or carried along by the Holy Spirit. So what does the Bible tell us about God’s nature?

God Punished Catastrophically Before,
He Will Do So Again

2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

There were angels that revolted from Heaven with Lucifer, also known as Satan. Some of these angels are mentioned in

Jude 6 … the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day

These angels did something so horrific that God cast them into a pit the Bible calls “chains of darkness”. These angels – powerful beings – are being imprisoned until the Day of Final Judgment, where they will be cast into the Lake of Fire. God punishes sin.

2 Peter 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

As wickedness grew in our world, the Bible says that

Genesis 6:5-8 (ESV) The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

What made God want top destroy the world that He made? It was that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. People had departed from Who God is, and had turned their back on the Gospel of salvation. People began to adhere to the Gospel of “I”. They became so wicked that God said, “I regret making them. I’m going to blot it all out”. God did not spare the “OLD WORLD”, but because of sin God purged it by water, “bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly”. The Bible says that

1 Peter 3:20 … eight souls were saved by water

Those who heard the preaching of Noah and who GOT ON THE ARK were saved by the same water that killed the rest of the world. I am certain there were false prophets mocking Noah, and telling the lost that God loved them so much that He wouldn’t drown them. They were wrong.

2 Peter 2:6-8 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

When the world became so wicked that God had to destroy it, He did so by water. But the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were utterly destroyed by God by FIRE. Why? The Bible says:

Genesis 13:13 (ESV) Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord.

God calls sinners to REPENT. But when they reject God, and refuse to repent and cast themselves upon the Lord Jesus Christ, then they open the door to utter destruction. God sent two angels to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, saying:

Genesis 18:20 Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? It was the Gospel of “I”. It was a taste for and tolerance for sin, for that which God has forbidden.

Jesus was preaching one day, telling the people to repent and come to Him. Word came to the disciples that some Galileans had been offering sacrifices at the Temple when Pilate’s solders killed them at the altar of God. People began to think, “What did those Galileans do to deserve that?” Jesus told the crowd:

Luke 13:2-5 (ESV) … “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (apollymi, be brought to utter ruin). 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (apollymi, be brought to utter ruin).”

I heard someone in our flock joking about Church. He said, “We come to Church, the Preacher tells us how bad we are, then we eat friend chicken”. That’s amusing! But Beloved, it’s my calling to tell you that “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”.

Do you know Jesus? Have you given your life to Him? You cannot be saved unless – turning from your sin and the Gospel of “I”, you run into the arms of Jesus. Oh, that God the Holy Spirit would lead you to Christ this very day. Amen and Amen.

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The Second Commandment

Posted on January 5, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Shiva Kumar: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-a-figurine-4595295/

Please turn with me in your Bibles to:

Exodus 20:4-6 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

One of my heroes of the faith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was a pastor in Nazi Germany. Rather than “Go along to get along” he actively taught against and stood up to the Nazi atrocities committed in the concentration camps. Bonhoeffer could have taken the easy way out and run away when the Nazis began executing and burning Jews and other prisoners of war. He was martyred for standing up to evil, strangled and hung up naked in the very concentration camps he fought against. Bonhoeffer wrote:

“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”

Many people today are on the “wrong train”. Many are on a “long, black train” like Josh Turner sings about.

There’s a long black train comin’ down the line
Feedin’ off the souls that are lost and cryin’
Rails of sin, only evil remains
Watch out, brother, for that long black train

You get on a “Long, Black Train” when you get away from God’s Ten Commandments.

Last week we studied the First Commandment, where the Lord said:

Exodus 20:2-3 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

This is the first place the devil will come when he tries to damn a soul. He told Jesus,

“The whole world I’ll give you if You fall down and worship Me.” Matthew 4:9 (AP)

Jesus was very quick to refer to the First Commandment. He said “Get away, Satan. It is written, you shall WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, and Him only you shall serve” (Matthew 4:10 AP). The First Commandment is that “God is NUMBER ONE. I will worship and serve Him only.”.

The Second Commandment states:

Exodus 20:4-5 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them

Once we make a decision to worship other than the God of Scripture, it isn’t long before we are making a graven image or an idol. This can be money, a rabbit’s foot or lucky item, a Cross, a building, a horoscope, or some relic we have made “holy”.

The Danger Of Worshiping Other Than God

We are to remember Who saved us (God), but we are also to treat God and only God with the respect due our God. As we study the Ten Commandments, we’ll see the danger of violating the Second Commandment.

There is a Ten Commandments recognized by the Catholic Church, and a Ten Commandments recognized by the Christian Church. As you can see in the following chart, the Catholic version of the Ten Commandments skips the command against making graven images.

Slide 5

Catholic Ten CommandmentsChristian Church Ten Commandments
1. I am the Lord thy God…Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. (Exodus 20:2-3)1. I am the Lord thy God…Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. (Exodus 20:2-3)
2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. (Exodus 20:7)2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. (Exodus 20:4-6)
3. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8-11)3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain. (Exodus 20:7)

The Catholic Church removes the Second Commandment, and makes the Third Commandment the Second Commandment. Why do they do this? Some say it is because Saint Augustine, and early Roman Catholic Pastor, used that format for the Ten Commandments. But that’s not what the problem is. Even though the Roman Catholic Catechism states,

“Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons, power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 2113)

Catholics bow down to and venerate icons, religious images of Jesus, statues of the virgin Mary and the Saints.

The Catholics teach that the “relics” or remains of the saints are to be venerated because, as Friar Mario Conte, executive Editor of the Messenger of Saint Anthony magazine said:

“Saints’ relics help people overcome the abstract and make a connection with the holy … Saints do not perform miracles. Only God performs miracles, but saints are intercessors.”

An “intercessor” or a “mediator” is a person or an object that we address in order to get to the Presence of God. Catholics bow down to statues of the virgin Mary and other “Saints” who are recognized by their Church because they believe these “mediators” will speak to God or Christ on their behalf. Catholics will bow down and kiss the ring of the Pope, the Cardinals, or the Bishops. By bowing down and showing veneration to statues or crosses, or by kissing the ring of upper echelon officials in the Church, the “faith” secure “indulgences”.

“… an indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has been forgiven. Among the equivalent terms used in antiquity were pax, remissio, donatio, condonatio.”

In 787 AD the Second Council of Nicaea decreed that every Catholic altar should contain a relic. One source notes,

“Churches were generally built over the remains of martyrs, but when not possible a first-class relic was placed within the altar and covered by a stone slab. The Second Council of Nicaea would later decree that all churches were to have altars containing relics of saints. Eventually, the practice became ecclesiastical law, with early editions of the Roman Pontifical mandating altars to contain first-class relics from two separate saints, one of which a martyr.

The Second Vatican Council affirmed and simplified the ancient practice:

“The practice of placing relics of Saints, even those not Martyrs, under the altar to be dedicated is fittingly retained. Care should be taken, however, to ensure the authenticity of such relics.” – Roman Missal (302)

When the priest kisses the altar while celebrating Mass, he shows reverence not only for Jesus Christ as the literal cornerstone of the Church the altar represents, but also continues the ancient tradition of showing reverence for the sacrifice of martyrs. It serves as a continual reminder that when in celebrating Mass, we celebrate with all the saints and angels in Heaven.”

The Catholics bow down to and worship “relics”, bones of saints, or religious “icons” like the Shroud of Turan. The Catholic Church considers the Shroud of Turan to be a venerated “icon”. The 14 foot linen cloth supposedly bears the imprints of the front and back of a crucified man that many think may be the image of Christ. Pope Clement VII declared the Shroud was not the true burial cloth of Christ, though the Church could display at as a man-made religious “icon”. Pope Francis said that the Shroud was “An Icon of Love”.

What is the problem with this? Can the saints, the Pope, the Cardinals or Bishops of the Catholic Church be “mediators” for us? The Bible says NO. The Scripture declares:

1 Timothy 2:3-6 (NKJV) … For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time …

There is no Mediator that stands between us and God … but GOD Himself. God said in the Old Testament:

Isaiah 43:11-12 (NKJV) I, even I, am the Lord, And besides Me there is no savior. 12 I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you …

The only way to be saved is to come to God our Savior. But the only way to approach our God is through Jesus Christ. The Bible is adamant that “there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus”. There is no other Mediator. Catholics argue that, yes, the Bible says that there is only One Mediator in the strictest sense, but that there are other “lesser and subordinate mediators”. The Bible does not support this. The Scripture says:

Hebrews 7:24-25(NKJV)…{Jesus}, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. 25 Therefore {Jesus} is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

We Are To Bow Down And Worship Only God

Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Word Study The words “graven image” is the Hebrew pesel, which means “something carved or molded into a likeness”. The word “likeness” is the Hebrew tᵊmûnâ, which means a representation or image of something in the natural world. God does not care that we make sculptures or statues of things, or draw pictures of the world around us. In my office there is a picture of an artist’s rendering of Jesus that my mother gave me. I love looking at it, and remembering the mom who gave it to me.

God does not care if we do artwork, or take photos. He just doesn’t want us making these man made objects into things we WORSHIP.

Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down (šāḥâ) thyself to them, nor serve them…

Word Study The words translated “BOW DOWN” is the Hebrew šāḥâ (pronounced shaw-khaw’). The word means “to revere, to show obeisance to or reverence, to display outward homage to”. When Abram saw God coming to his tent he “bowed himself toward the ground” (Genesis 18:2). His nephew Lot, on the other hand, “bowed himself with his face toward the ground” (Genesis 19:1) when he encountered angels of God.

We are not to worship or venerate the bones of saints, or linen cloths, or statues or paintings. We are not to bow down to ideas or social concepts. We are not to prostrate ourselves to any but God. In the Book of Revelation the Apostle John met an angel. The Bible says:

Revelation 22:8-9 Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. 9 Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”

Only God is to be venerated. Only God is to be worshiped. It is a dangerous thing to worship anyone outside of God. God tells us,

Exodus 20:5Thou shalt not bow down (šāḥâ) thyself to them, nor serve (ʿāḇaḏ) them…

Word Study The word translated “SERVE” is the Hebrew ʿāḇaḏ (pronounced aw-bad’), which means “to labor or work for”. God wants us to work. The Bible says,

2 Thessalonians 3:10 (ESV) … If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

We are to work. Work was even in Paradise, as God told Adam “to work and keep the Garden” (Genesis 2:15, ESV). But God does not want our jobs to be our gods. He does not want our money or prosperity to be our gods. Jesus said:

Matthew 6:24 (ESV) No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

We should not humble ourselves before any but God. When Peter went to visit the Gentile Cornelius:

Acts 10:25-26 As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I myself am also a man.”

Men should not be worshiped. Women should not be worshiped. The creations of our hands should not be worshiped. Nature itself should not be worshiped. Only God is to be worshiped.

There Is A Punishment For Violating
The 2nd Commandment

Exodus 20:5-6 for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

God saves us because He loves us. God is a “jealous God”. The difference between ENVY and JEALOUSY is that ENVY is sinful, for it COVETS what another has. On the other hand JEALOUSY is to guard that which is YOURS. God is jealous when we worship anyone other than Him. God said that He would “visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children”. Worship of anyone or anything outside of the God of Scripture is considered “iniquity” (ʿāôn, pronounced aw-vone’). This word means “guilt of sin, perversity, depravity”. Creation of false gods and goddesses ultimately leads to sexual perversity. The Apostle Paul spoke of this in

Romans 1:21-23 (ESV) … although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

When people violate the Second Commandment, making God into an image like “corruptible man, or creatures from the natural world” it is not long before sexual perversity creeps in. Paul went on the write:

Romans 1:25-27 (ESV) who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

Violating the Second Commandment, they “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator”. They bowed down to man made gods. What followed? Making a god in their own image to follow, they moved into sexual perversity, what God calls “vile passions”. We are told “their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another ”. Why do we have a proliferation of homosexuality, lesbian activity, and transgenderism? The Bible says it is because the Second Commandment was violated repeatedly. When you make the True God into a little “g” god, it isn’t long before you leave your divine design for that which is vile and perverse. God says that those who make idols “hate me”. In time God “gives them over to a debased mind, to do that which is not fitting” (Romans 1:28). Rejecting the God of the Scripture, they move into gender dysphoria and confusion.

God alone is to be worshiped.

Is It A Violation Of The Second Commandment
To Worship Jesus?

The simple answer is – NO! Jesus is “Emmanuel – God with us” (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). When the Wise Men came from the east to find the Messiah, the Bible says:

Matthew 2:11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Jesus Christ is the One Mediator between God and Man. He is the One Messiah, the very Son of God. He is God with us. When Jesus calmed the storm when the disciples were out on the Sea, we read:

Matthew 14:33 (NKJV) Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

Not only did these disciples worship Jesus – but Jesus received that worship. He did the same thing when Jesus healed the man born blind from birth. When the Pharisees cast this healed man out of the Synagogue, our Lord Jesus went to him. We read:

Luke 24:35-38 (NKJV) Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?” 36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” 37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” 38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.

Jesus received that worship. Following His resurrection, the women who saw the Lord worshiped Him – and again, he received that worship.

Matthew 28:9-10 (NKJV) And as {the women} went to tell His disciples {that Christ was risen}, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

And on the day that Christ ascended into glory, we read:

Luke 24:51-53 (NKJV) Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.

When we get to Heaven one day (if we have received Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior) we will worship Him. Jesus is worthy of worship. John the Revelator wrote:

Revelation 5:11-14 (NKJV) Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!” 14 Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.

We bow down to no one but our God. We obey and live for the Holy One Who is Father, Son, and Spirit. And one day we will worship Him in glory forever. I pray that you know Him. I pray that you have called on Jesus for salvation. Amen and Amen.

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What You Need To Know First

Posted on January 2, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich: https://www.pexels.com/photo/golden-cup-and-statuette-6532587/

2 Peter 1:19-21 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Christianity is very unique among all the other religions of the world because Christianity is God made. Last week we saw that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was NOT a fantasy or a myth made up to trick people. People saw Jesus, heard God the Father say “This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I Am well pleased”, and were willing to die gruesome deaths rather than deny what they saw. Peter, James and John saw Jesus transfigured on Mount Tabor. Two out of three of these men died martyrs deaths, refusing to renounce Christ.

When God became Man (for Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us – Matthew 1:23), the Holy Spirit moved on Mary. The Bible says that Mary was told:

Luke 1:35 (ESV) … The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

Mary was not perfect – but her Son, created of God, was perfect and sinless. Mary said when hearing the Angel,

Luke 1:46-47 (ESV) … My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in GOD MY SAVIOR …

Mary needed “GOD MY SAVIOR”. If she were perfect, she would have needed no Savior. Mary was a fallen creature just as we are. Yet she produced a Child that was sinless, flawless. We are told in:

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake {God the Father} made {Jesus Christ} to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And again,

Hebrews 4:15 (ESV) {Jesus Christ was} in every respect has been tempted as we are, YET WITHOUT SIN.

1 Peter 1:22 … (AP) in Jesus Christ there was NO DECEIT …

Jesus Christ had to be the “Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36; 1 Peter 1:19). If He were spotted with sin, then He could no more pay for our sins that I could. So Jesus – born of the Holy Spirit – was born perfect and holy and righteous, though His mother Mary was imperfect as we all are.

With God, NOTHING is impossible! (Luke 1:37)

Today Peter turns our attention to the witness of the Scripture, the Holy Bible. Last week he talked about the witnesses who saw Jesus, and gave their lives for the truth of Christ. Today Peter wants us to know that the witness of the Scripture is sure, right, and holy. People object. “But isn’t the Bible you read a collection of 66 books written by around 40 human authors. How do we know the Bible is without error? After all, it came through humans.” That’s true, the Bible was written by around 40 authors, people whom God picked to write it. But

Just as a sinless Jesus came from a broken Mary through the power of God the Holy Spirit, through the same Spirit God can send His Words through broken humans and the Word be flawless. The same Holy Spirit is the Author of the humanity of Christ and the Holy Bible.

Scripture Is Not A Human, But A Divine Idea

2 Peter 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

God loved us so much that, even when we were fallen and cared nothing for Him, He came to us through Mary and walked amongst us. He saved humanity through a Perfect Human that He created in an imperfect vessel. When God speaks to us, He does not do so through the sky – though He has done that. He does not speak to us through visions – though He has done that. Instead, God reached out to humanity through imperfect humans, and told us what He wants and desires for our lives. God did this because God has always been relational. He did not create Adam then abandon him to tend the Garden of Eden, but walked and talked with Adam “in the cool afternoon breeze of the day” (Genesis 3:8, AMP).

“We have also a more sure word of prophecy”. In the previous context the Apostle wrote:

2 Peter 1:17-18 {Jesus} received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

Word Study Peter said “James, John and I were there, and we heard the Father speak from Heaven”. THEY heard it – but WE didn’t. Peter goes on to say “We have also a more sure word of prophecy”. The words “more sure” is the Greek bebaios, which means “stable, steadfast, trustworthy, rock solid”. What Peter, James and John experienced was something they can only testify of. But the Bible says:

Hebrews 2:2-3 if the word spoken by angels was STEDFAST (bebaios), and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

The Prophets were “ANGELS” in the sense that they were messengers of God. The Word that God spoke through the Prophets is sure, rock steady because it is THE WORD OF THE LIVING GOD. It is not a man’s idea, but God’s directive. Evangelist Billy Graham said:

“ ‘God is love’ means that He tries constantly to block your route to destruction.”

Word Study It is God’s Word – His directive – that we must heed to protect ourselves from destruction. Peter said of the Scripture that “ye do well that ye take heed” (prosechō), “turn the mind toward, be attentive to respond to”. We are to dwell on the teachings of the Scripture. Why? Peter says:

2 Peter 1:19 … take heed, (prosechō) as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn…

Treat the Word of God as if the only flashlight in a dark environment, the only candle in a dark, dark cave.

Illustrate If you have ever had the power go down at your home, you’ve stumbled through the darkness looking for the flashlight. While in the darkness the most important thing in the world is the light.

1 John 1:5 (TLV) … this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you—that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.

“God is light”. God is not darkness, but light. The very first commandment that God gave in human history was “Let there be LIGHT” (Genesis 1:3), and the Bible says “and there WAS LIGHT”. Light is a creation of God. Light is in God, and through God. The Psalmist said to God:

Psalm 119:105 (ESV) Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

God’s Word is our flashlight in this present darkness, this fallen world. There will come a day when we will not need the Scripture, for on that day we who believe in Jesus will be with Him Who saved us. There will come a day when Jesus will rule and reign on this earth, for our Jesus is “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 17:14; 19:16). When Jesus comes the darkness of sin will cease to grip this present earth, for Jesus is “The DAYSPRING from on high” (Luke 1:78). But until that day we who have believed on Christ “take heed to God’s Light”. We read and study the Word of God, and apply its precepts to our lives.

God’s Word is not temporal, but timeless. The Prophet said:

Isaiah 40:8 (ESV) The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

And Jesus said to Satan,

Matthew 4:4 (ESV) … Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

Through Mary, God became incarnate Man.
Through the Prophets, God spoke to Man.

When Jeremiah wrote, he declared “The Word of the Lord came to me” (Jeremiah 1:4). When Samuel wrote, “The Word of the Lord came unto Samuel” (1 Samuel 15:10). King Saul was deposed from his throne because “he rejected the Word of the Lord” (1 Samuel 15:26). But David was given the Kingdom because in his song of deliverance he sang:

2 Samuel 22:31 As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

“God spoke to our fathers by the Prophets” (Hebrews 1:1). When the Bible speaks, it speaks with the very auithority of God, for it is God’s Word. Early Theologian John Calvin wrote:

“We owe to the Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God, because it has proceeded from Him alone.”

The Apostle Paul, the Apostle who Jesus called to reach the Gentiles, wrote:

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The Word of God is breathed out by God. It is the breath of Heaven. The Church that will be effective for Christ must cherish and apply the Scripture to its life. The Apostle said in:

1 Thessalonians 2:13 (ESV) … we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

The Word of God has no power in a person’s life if you regard it as the writing of men. But when you receive it as the Word of God, then it WORKS in the life of the believer. It grows the believer, strengthing the power of the Church on earth. As Dr. B.B. Warfield wrote:

“The Scriptures are throughout a Divine book, created by the Divine energy and speaking in their every part with Divine authority directory to the heart of the readers.”

As Scripture Is Holy Spirit INSPIRED,
It Must Be Holy Spirit INTERPRETED

2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

Word Study The words “of any private interpretation” is the Greek ídios epilysis. This means literally “an interpretation or explanation based on what you think or feel”. The Scripture was given to us by God the Holy Spirit. If you are a Christian, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 14:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Colossians 1:27).

It is the indwelling Holy Spirit that helps the believer in Christ to understand and apply the Scripture to their daily life.

We are told in 1 Corinthians 2:12 (ESV) “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”

God indwells us as the Holy Spirit not so that we can shape the Scripture according to our selves, our desires, but that the Scripture might shape us into the image of Christ. “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). The worldly will take the the Scripture and twist it so as to appease their desires and lusts. The Godly yield themselves to the Scripture, allowing the believer to live so as to honor Christ our Savior. When you “walk by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). Pastor Paul Carter (Cornerstone Baptist Church, Orillia, Ontario Canada) wrote:

“Rather than grasping for a quote from the sixth or sixteenth century, Christians ought to be primarily concerned to study the example of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word of God. He is the Spirit of Prophecy. He is God in the flesh, so if we’re looking for some guidance on how to relate to Holy Scripture, we ought to look no further than him.”

When Jesus made the statement, “I and the Father are ONE” (John 10:30, ESV) the Jews picked up stones to execute Him. To defend Himself, Jesus referred to the Scripture:

John 10:34-38 (ESV) … “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

Rather than argue His opinion with the opinions of the Pharisees, Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6 with the caveat, “Scripture cannot be broken”. Though I don’t have time to explain all the nuances of what Jesus was saying in this sermon, suffice it to say that Jesus quoted Scripture, and applied it to HIS life. Why? Why would Incarnate God not rely on His own opinion? Because He wanted to show us “Scripture cannot be broken”. The Word of God was given to us, not to twist, but to live by.

In another instance the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, tried to get Jesus’ opinion on the afterlife. Jesus told them:

Matthew 22:29-32 (ESV) … “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”

The Sadducees knew “neither the Scriptures nor the power of God”. They did not have the Holy Spirit in their lives because they were not born again of the Spirit (John 3:3, 7; 1 Peter 1:23). In the Old Testament when God was recorded as saying “I am the God” of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God did not say “I WAS”, but “I am”. The very tense of the verb proved that God was the God of the Living, for if the dead ceased to be, then God would not be their God.

Game, set, and match.

When people attacked Jesus, they always brought TRADITION or SUPERSTITION unrooted in Scripture. Jesus knew that,

Hebrews 4:12 … the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit ..

The battles that Christ and His children by faith wage are not physical battles, but spiritual ones. “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” (Ephesians 6:12). Our battles are unwinnable if we attempt to win them by our opinions and desires. Principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in high places is all much more powerful than we are. Our power is of God. Our weapons are of God.

Christ’s Church in America began to drift away from the power of God when we began to modify the Gospel message to be “inclusive” to everyone, regardless as to whether they REPENTED or not. What God has said is sin is still sin. Again from Paul Carter:

“Jesus did not commission his people to undo the Old Testament; he faced the devil with Deuteronomy 8:3. He faced the Sadducees with Exodus 3:6. He faced the Pharisees with Psalm 110:1. Jesus clearly operated under the assumption that the whole Old Testament – properly understood – was binding and decisive and to be his follower requires you to do the same.”

When the devil attacked Jesus in the wilderness, our Lord did not defend Himself with His inherent power. Jesus defended Himself with,

Matthew 4:4 … It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:7 … It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Matthew 4:10 … it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Matthew 21:13 … It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Matthew 26:24 … The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.

Matthew 26:31 … Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

Jesus extensively quoted the Scripture in His earthly ministry, so much so that, if you took away all of His “it is written” statements – Jesus would have said very little.

You don’t get to have a smaller Bible than Jesus.

It is the whole of the Bible, the Scripture, that tells us of Christ (John 5:39). The Old Testament prepared people for the coming of Christ. The New Testament recorded the fulfillment of God’s promises in Christ. Everytime a lamb or a dove was sacrificed before the altar in the Old Testament, the action showed that sin is a horrible thing that leads to death. When Jesus started His earthly ministry, the Scfripture says:

Luke 24:27 (ESV) … beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, {Jesus} interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself

We know that there is a God, and know that He is holy because of Scripture. We know that we are fallen, and that we all need a Savior from our sin.

Jesus is that one and only Savior!

It is the Scripture that leads us to Jesus Christ. Praise God for the Scripture.

Let Us Rely Solely On God’s Word

2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

As God the Holy Spirit moved holy, dedicated men of God, they wrote of our need for a Savior. They wrote of Jesus. There is no other Savior than Jesus. As our Lord Jesus prepared to go to the Cross for us, He once more referred to the Scripture in

Luke 24:45-47 (ESV) Then {Jesus} opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

How is a person saved? Not by our works, but by His work. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, suffered on the Cross of Calvary. He died, bearing the full penalty for our sins. But Jesus did not die and stay dead, but rose from the dead on the third day. He laid His life down, and picked up His life again. He surrendered to and suffered death for us, so that we might be saved. A person is saved THROUGH REPENTANCE, by turning away from doing things your own way, and turning to and relying on Jesus. Believing on His Name, a person is saved to serve God.

Being saved is not about ME, but about HE. Being saved because you are following Jesus. Being saved because you have given your allegiance to Him. Jesus cherished the Scripture. If you are saved by faith, His disciple, then you too will cherish the Scripture. As Sinclair B. Ferguson wrote in his book “Worthy”:

“The grace of God in Christ provides us with a new identity, a heavenly one; it follows that this—and not our natural identity—determines everything we do. Our identity, our citizenship, is heavenly. As Paul says elsewhere, our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3) … So we are to “sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land” (Psalm 137:4). That’s not a matter of legalism, for “his commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Jesus tells us that being yoked to him, the meek and lowly one, brings ease, not dis-ease, and rest, not restlessness, for our souls (Matthew 11:28–30).”

Do you know Him? If not, today is the day to give your life to Christ. Only by faith are you saved, and only by faith in His applied word do you grow spiritually as a believer. May God touch your hearts with His Word.

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Introduction To The Ten Commandments And The First Commandment of God

Posted on December 30, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Please turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 20. As you’re turning there, I want you to see this clip from Cold Case Christianity:

View Clip Here

Introduction To The Ten Commandments

The first of the Ten Commandments is found in …

Exodus 20:1-3 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

I’m often asked “Why are there so many denominations in Christianity?” I like the way that J Warner Wallace said it,

“Because that’s who we are. That’s our nature as prideful, rebellious know it alls. We are all this way.”

It was human pride that caused the fall from Eden. Not God, but us trying to be gods. The devil told Adam and Eve:

Genesis 3:4 (AP) If you eat of the forbidden tree, you will surely NOT die. God knows that the day you eat of it you will be like Him, like a god. You will determine good and evil.

In our day today there is what is known as “An Epidemic of Despair”. The New York Times reported that “Nearly three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness in 2021 … and one in three girls seriously considered attempting suicide”. There is rarely a day that goes by where I don’t see a death obituary that states “He or she died unexpectedly at home”. That’s code for suicide, or an unintentional death because of alcohol or drugs. The rise of “Woke Doctrine” in our society has fueled narcissism and borderline personality disorders. Why has this come about?

Because we have, as a society, divorced ourselves from the God Who made us and loves us.

For a person to be happy that person must understand that we cannot be God. It is impossible. In our songs – whether Country Music, Rap, or Rock – we sing about and set impossible standards of love for humans. Humans do not have the capability to love as deeply or as rightly as God does. We create graven images of God in our modern worship songs. As I listen to much of the Contemporary Christian Music I hear people sing things about God that are unBiblical, and are therefore a fantasy. God is defined by the Scripture He gave us, not by our wants and desires. When Jesus prayed for His Church, He prayed:

John 17:17 Sanctify them {O Father} through THY TRUTH. THY WORD IS TRUTH.

When our country was founded, our first Vice President (1789-1797) and the second President of the United States (1797-1800) John Adams stated:

“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Our founders knew this. God as the Founder of Israel also knew this. If Israel as a nation would be stable, its people must be “moral and religious”. They must have a relationship with the God Who made them. When Israel got to the base of Mount Sinai, around fifty days after they were saved from enslavement to Egypt, God constituted Israel as not just a loose conglomeration of people, but as a nation. The Ten Commandments were given as a basic constitutional structure for God’s people. Though God went further with the Law after the giving of the Ten Commandments (He gave them ceremonial laws, dietary laws, sanitary laws, and sacrificial laws to Israel), the Ten Commandments are the basis of stability for any of God’s people, whether Jew or Gentile.

Our Lord Jesus applied the Ten Commandments to the believer. When asked by a follower “what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”, Jesus replied:

Matthew 19:17-19 … if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. … Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

The Apostle Paul said:

Romans 13:8-10 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

James, the stepbrother of Christ, told us:

James 1:21-25 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

The Ten Commandments are found all throughout the New Testament. They are not to be ignored, but to be cherished as a gift that God has given to His people.

The Ten Commandments Are Not Chains, But
Are The Perfect Law Of Liberty

Exodus 20:1-3 And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Evangelist Ronald L. Dart notes:

“Now I realize a lot of people don’t look at the Ten Commandments and think in terms of liberty. They have a habit of thinking that, well it’s kind of restricting, it keeps us from doing the things that we might want to do, but the problem is, a lot of things we might want to do will just put us back in slavery again. The Ten Commandments are introduced by this term, “I am the Lord your God that got you out of the house of bondage.” What we’re about here at Mount Sinai is liberty. Everything that follows is about liberty. … God didn’t bring Israel out of bondage to put them back in bondage again. Just read the introductory statement to the Ten Commandments of God, “I am the Lord your God, I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” We aren’t going there again!”

To break the commandments of God is to break yourself.

Again, I refer back to Eden. Had Adam obeyed the Commandment of God, we would still be in Paradise today, a place where there are no mosquitoes, no hard word, and no graveyards.

Death entered the world when Adam sinned, rejecting the Commandment of God. Death entered the kingdom of Israel when David ignored God’s Commandment, and took another man’s wife as his own. Eternal God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, adhered to the Commandments of God.

Jesus said in John 12:48-50 (NKJV) He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.

The command of the Father is EVERLASTING LIFE. The Bible says that

1 John 1:5 (NKJV) … God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

God did not save Israel from Egypt to enslave Israel, no more than He saves us to enslave us. God saves us to FREE us, to bring us into the LIGHT of God where we will have joy and peace.

This was the lesson that David learned the hard way. He would later prayerfully write:

Psalm 119:9-12 (NKJV) How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. 10 With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You. 12 Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes.

The First Commandment Reminds Us Of
The Singularity And Uniqueness Of God

As Israel remembers their salvation through the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian Army, God tells them:

Exodus 20:2 I am the Lord thy God

When Israel was in Egypt, they were exposed to the gods of Egypt. There were, according to one source I read, 44 male gods and 32 female goddesses in Egypt. Where Buddhism and Hinduism flourish, like India, there are some 300 million gods that are worshiped, and often the gods are at odds with one another.

Our God is not many, but ONE. God said “I am the Lord thy God”. He is singular, unified, and He wants a relationship with His people. When the second generation of Israel prepared to go into the Promised Land, God gave them the Law a second time in the Book of Deuteronomy. In that Book He wrote:

Deuteronomy 6:1-4 (NKJV) Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

God told Israel “The Lord our God, the Lord is one!”. Then The Lord summarized the first four commandments of the Ten Commandments by saying, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength”. Our Jesus did the same thing with the Commandments. When asked one day,

“Which is the GREAT COMMANDMENT in the Law?”

Jesus replied (Matthew 22:37-40) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Law of God – the Ten Commandments – is divided into two parts. Love God with your ALL, and love your neighbor as yourself. Treat others the way you want to be treated. But ALWAYS REMEMBER that God is God and we are NOT!

There is only ONE GOD, and He is the God of the Scripture, the God Who gave the Ten Commandments at Sinai. Our God is uniquely One.

He is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – but He is nonetheless ONE. Our Lord Jesus said,

John 10:27-30 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.

Jesus and the Father are ONE. When Jesus prayed for His Church, He prayed to the Father that “the Church may be ONE just as WE ARE ONE” (John 17:22). The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are uniquely One. Not three Gods, but One God in Three Persons. God told Israel:

Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

God wants us to love Him before all else. God despises idolatry, because idolatry divorces us from what is meant to be our best. We were created to walk with God, not as gods, but as adopted sons and daughters. We were meant to rely on God, not on ourselves. The Bible tells us in two places:

1 Corinthians 8:4-6 … that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

Idolatry is no more than a MAGNIFICATION OF HUMAN PRIDE. It is when we reject the true God of Scripture in favor of a false god that is more pleasing to our lusts and our own satisfactions.

The late Tim Keller wrote in his book Counterfeit Gods:

“An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give you what only God can give.”

There are many today who profess to be Christian, but follow a god of their imagination not realized in Scripture. The God of salvation says “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”. Why? Is it because God is jealous? Yes, He is. He made us to love us, and we will not be what we were fully intended to be until we fully love Him.

Idolatry began in the Garden of Eden, when Adam tried to make himself a god. It failed. Idolatry came to Israel soon after God gave them the Ten Commandments. God had told Israel:

Exodus 19:5-6 (NKJV) if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Israel heard this, and replied (vs 8) “all that the LORD has spoken, we will do”. And yet when Moses was 40 days on the Mountain, Israel demanded that Aaron (Exodus 32:1) “make us gods that shall go before us”. They worshiped a “golden calf”, giving this “god” credit for leading them out of Egypt. When God heard this from the Mountain, God threatened to destroy Israel and raise up a great nation out of Moses (Exodus 32:9). Had Moses not intervened in prayer, glorifying and honoring God, that nation could have died that day.

As it was, though Moses’ prayer spared Israel that day, this congregation would eventually die in the wilderness over a 40 year period because of idolatry.

When We Make The Primary Secondary, And The Secondary Primary, We Wreck God’s Work For Us

Why did Israel make the golden calf? They were driven by fear, impatience, selfishness. They loved themselves more than they loved God. We must always love God most. He must always be first in our hearts. God is the Giver of good things. I believe that God wants to give us good things. But that which God gives us must never be valued above the Giver of the good things. C.S. Lewis wrote about first things and second things. He said that first things are things that God designed to be first in our hearts – namely, loving Him; whereas second things are the good things that God has given us that are only good as long as they are secondary. I can think of a few illustrations.

I love my little dog Bella, I love her very much. I want no harm to come to her. But when she dies (and she will die) I will love God for the time He has given me with my pet.

I love my Church very much, but there will come a day I am here no more. Yet I will still love God for the time He has given me with my Church.

I love my children very much, but God saw fit to take one of my children away. Yet my love for God has no diminished, for He is the Giver of Children, that wonderful gift from Heaven. When Job lost all,

his servants,
his sheep,
his camels,
his sons,
his daughters,

Job said, (Job 1:20) Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.

God is in charge. What God gave, God took away. Does it not say,

Romans 8:28-30 we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Israel was predestined to enter the Promised Land, for God had promised that land to Abraham by faith. Even though the first generation failed to enter because of idolatry, the second generation entered. God’s will will be done!

The Christian is predestined to be “conformed to the image of His Son”, for the glory of God forever. This is why “all things work together for good to those who love God”. If you love God, and cherish His Word, everything that happens to you happens for a greater good. God is in control – not us. We are to trust Him. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32).

Israel was not saved by the Law, but by following Jesus through the Red Sea. Had Israel not followed the Lord, they would have never left Egypt and slavery. Jesus said, “Follow Me”. God says “Follow Me”. Faith follows God. Israel was not saved by the Law, but Israel was PRESERVED by the Law. While they obeyed God, they were protected and blessed.

Do not believe you can be saved, and not follow the Lord. Israel was at Sinai because they followed the Lord there. God told them:

Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

The first generation of Israel will lose the Promised Land because of Idolatry. The second generation of Israel will gain the Promised Land because the Canaanites were idolatrous. So God warned His people:

Slide 11

Deuteronomy 12:29-32 (NKJV) When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, 30 Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. 32 “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Do you know why God dispossessed the Canaanites? Because their idolatry led them to sacrifice their children to their false gods. Americans do that today, and call it a “medical procedure” or “women’s health”. It is not. It is murder. It is idolatry. It is evil. God says, do not do that. Idolatry destroys your relationship with God and with others. It is the gateway to anarchy and absolute darkness. As Evangelist Dwight L. Moody said:

“You don’t have to go to heathen lands today to find false gods. America is full of them. Whatever you love more than God is your idol.”

May God lead us as American Christians to put Him first. Amen and Amen.

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