Who Said That? Jesus or Satan?

Posted on September 17, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Mido Makasardi ©️: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-holding-microphone-while-talking-to-another-man-2872418/

I was watching a video the other day where they were conducting “Man (or Woman) on the Street” interviews. The reporter was asking each person, “Who said this?” and then they named two political candidates.. What interested me is that most everyone guessed wrong on “Who said this?”. That got me to thinking about doing the same thing, but in a sermon. No, not politics – we’ve got enough of that on television. But on things we hear every day. I’m going to ask quite simply, “Who said this – Jesus or Satan?”

1. Who said “Follow your heart” – Jesus or Satan?

If you thought “Jesus”, you’d be wrong. Jesus never told us to “follow your hearts”. When Jesus came from glory to this earth, He came bearing the Word of God, that which God had said from eternity past. God told us through the Prophet:

Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT) The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?

The wisest man who ever lived was King Solomon. He wrote in:

Ecclesiastes 9:3 (NKJV) … Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live…

Did Jesus say “follow your heart?” No! Jesus saw the heart of mankind as the source of all evil. Jesus said:

Matthew 15:19 (NKJV) … out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

And in Mark 7:21-23 (ESV) For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

The heart of mankind (and womankind) has been warped from the time of Adam’s sin and fall from Paradise. God gave Adam a very clear order and a clear warning. He said, “You may eat of every tree in the Garden, BUT the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” (Genesis 2:16). Satan appealed to the heart of man when he called on Adam and Eve to “Follow your heart”. Satan said, “You will not die when you disobey God. You will become like gods, knowing right and wrong, establishing your own truths”. Jesus never told us to follow our hearts.

Jesus said “Follow Me”.

To the men who loved to fish with all their hearts, Jesus said “FOLLOW ME, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17).

To the ones who had lost loved ones, who said “Let me first go and bury my father”, Jesus said “FOLLOW ME, and let the dead bury the dead”. (Matthew 8:22; Luke 9:59).

To the rich man who loved his money with all his heart Jesus said, “If you would be right with God, go, sell all you have. Give your money to the poor, and come FOLLOW ME.” (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22).

In fact, to be saved you must specifically NOT follow your heart. Jesus said:

“If anyone would come after Me, let him DENY himself, and take up his CROSS, and FOLLOW ME.” (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23).

Judas Iscariot followed his heart when he sold Jesus out for thirty pieces of silver. After Judas saw Jesus in chains, beaten and bruised, he realized the evil he had done. Judas followed his heart. He took the thirty pieces of silver back the chief priests and elders and tried to give it back. Following his heart, Judas told them “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood” (Matthew 27:4). The elders said, “That’s your responsibility, not ours”. Throwing down the money, Judas continued to follow his heart. Judas went away, and hung himself. (Matthew 27:5). Had he repented and followed God, he would have lived. But following his heart Judas found no recourse. He died a terrible death, “his body burst open, his intestines spilled out” (Acts 1:18).

Pilate the Governor of Judea found no fault with Jesus. Washing his hands (Matthew 27:24), he followed his heart, and had an innocent Man crucified to please a crowd that was following its murderous heart.

The devil loves when we follow our hearts. The Bible tells us to follow Jesus, and to “guard our hearts” (Proverbs 4:23). Fill your hearts with the Word of God and follow the Lord. That is where joy is.

2. Who said “Be TRUE to yourself” – Jesus or Satan?

I came across this quote the other day, and like it:

“Society preaches three seemingly innocent phrases: “Be true to yourself;” “You be you;” and “You do you.” They all communicate the same philosophy: everyone should unapologetically do what he or she wants, because that’s the path to freedom.”

I’ve already quoted this – but I’ll do it again. The Christian way of life – the Way of Christ – is not in pleasing self but in denying self. In order for God’s work to be done on this earth there must be a denial of self. At one point in His ministry the Bible says that:

Matthew 16:21 (ESV) … Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised …

The Bible tells us that (vs 22-23, AP) “Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked Him, saying, ‘No Lord, You’re not going to do this. This shall never happened to you’. Jesus told Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan – that is devilish thinking. You are hindering Me. You are setting your mind – your HEART – on the things of Man, not God”. At that point Jesus went on to say:

Matthew 16:24-26 (ESV) … If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

God does not call us to “Be True To Yourself”, but to “Deny Yourself” and follow Jesus in carrying the Cross. As my commentary notes:

“Remember, when Jesus invited/commanded his disciples to follow Him:

they left their boats and nets (their identity & livelihood)

began to obey His other commands (leaving their own priorities)

began to learn from Him (beginning to leave their own opinions)

began to imitate Him (beginning to leave their self-righteousness)”

Christians are “New Creatures in Christ”. Accordingly the Scripture tells us not to be true to OURSELVES, but to be true to JESUS. The Bible says:

Romans 13:12-14 … Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

We are to deny ourselves, and be true to Jesus. Period. Any other way is of Satan.

3. Who said “Believe In Yourself” – Jesus or Satan?

The false prophet Norman Vincent Peale (writer of “The Power of Positive Thinking”) wrote:

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy”.

Jesus never told us to believe in ourselves – this is the devil’s whisper. The pagan religions teach “Believe in yourself”. Hindu Swami Vivekananda said, “You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself”. But what didJesus say?

John 14:1 (ESV) Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

As we believe in GOD, we are to believe in JESUS. Jesus is the Son of God. He is the Great I AM, God manifest in the flesh. Jesus is the One Whom God has sent to show us the way of light. When Israel believed in themselves, they lost the Promised Land. God told Israel that every 7th year was to be a Sabbatical Year where Israel believed not in themselves, but in God. God gave Israel numerous Sabbaths where they were to cease their own works, and believe in God. Yet Israel believed in themselves – and lost the Promised Land and their freedoms. We are never to believe in ourselves – but in God and in Christ. Jesus said:

John 12:44-50 (ESV) …. Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. 47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.

We are not to believe in ourselves apart from the power of Jesus. The Scripture does not say “I can do all things”, but “I can do all things through CHRIST WHICH STRENGTHENETH ME” (Philippians 4:13, KJV). The Christian is saved by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. The Christian is sanctified – made more godly – by faith in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said:

John 11:25-26 (KJV) … I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

Well, do you?

4. Who said “Live Your Truth” – Jesus or Satan?

The poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (Essays) wrote:

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

The concept of “Live YOUR truth” implies that each person has a truth deep within their soul that they must discover and live out. The thought is that your truth may not be the same as my truth – just live YOUR truth. This is not a new idea, but has been around since ancient times. When Jesus stood in front of the Governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, he asked Jesus “Are You a King?” Jesus replied:

John 18:37 (AP) I was born and came into the world to bear witness to THE TRUTH. Everyone who knows THE TRUTH hears My voice …

Pilate replied, “What is TRUTH?”. Like most of the world, people want to define truth their way. But Jesus said “I bear witness to THE TRUTH”. In another place, Jesus said:

John 14:6 I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.

Jesus is THE TRUTH. Jesus bears witness to THE TRUTH. Jesus prayed for the Church before He went to the Cross for us all:

John 17:17 (KJV) {Father}, Sanctify them {the Church} through THY TRUTH: THY WORD IS TRUTH.

We do not each have a “truth” within us. There is but One Truth, and that Truth is found in the Word of God, in following Jesus the Faithful Witness of the Truth (Revelation 1:5). Jesus is “the Word made flesh” (John 1:14), God’s Word embodied in perfect Man. If Jesus said it, you can guarantee it is true. We are to not live our truth, but are to live like Jesus, to imitate Him, to let Him as “The Truth” dominate our lives. The Apostle wrote:

Galatians 2:20 (ESV) I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Our worth comes from God. It is He that made us, and He Who determines what is and is not truth. Rather than “Live Your Truth”, the way of God is to “Live God’s Truth” and “be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29).

5. Who said “As Long As You’re Happy,
That’s All That Matters” – Jesus or Satan?

Happiness is a temporary emotion. The word “happiness” comes from the Old Norse word “hap”, which means “chance, luck, fortune, fate”. The Norse or Vikings practiced polytheism, the belief in many gods and goddesses. The concept of “happiness” was embedded in American culture by our Declaration of Independence which states:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”

Thomas Jefferson – a Deist and NOT a Christian – borrowed the phrase “pursuit of happiness” from the English Philosopher John Locke, and incorporated it into the Declaration of Independence.

As a Deist, Jefferson valued reason over revelation, and rejected traditional Christian doctrines. Jefferson did not believe in the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection of Christ, or the Biblical Doctrine of original sin. The Philosopher Locke wrote:

“The necessity of pursuing happiness [is] the foundation of liberty. As therefore the highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake not imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty. ” (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, pg 348).

The concept “As long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters” has permeated our culture from its inception. But is it Biblical, something that Jesus endorsed? In His Sermon on the Mount in a section commonly called The Beatitudes, Jesus showed us that Godly Happiness comes not from “the care of ourselves, our self satisfaction”, but in laying ourselves down in service to others. Jesus said:

Matthew 5:3-11 (NKJV) BLESSED {makarios, happy} [are] the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [4] BLESSED {makarios, happy} [are] those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. [5] BLESSED {makarios, happy} [are] the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. [6] BLESSED {makarios, happy} [are] those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. [7] BLESSED {makarios, happy} [are] the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. [8] BLESSED {makarios, happy} [are] the pure in heart, For they shall see God. [9] BLESSED {makarios, happy} [are] the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. [10] BLESSED {makarios, happy} [are] those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [11] BLESSED {makarios, happy} are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.

Jesus saw happiness not coming from self care and selfishness, but from laying your life down for a greater good. Happiness is only found in pursuit of God, in the enjoyment of Jesus Christ, in following Him. After washing the disciples feet – the act of a slave – our Lord Jesus said:

John 13:13-17 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for [so] I am. [14] If I then, [your] Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. [15] For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. [16] Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. [17] If ye know these things, happy {makarios} are ye if ye do them.

There is no happiness in self care, in pandering to our every want and desire. Jesus saves us freely when we come to Him by faith, when we repent of serving ourselves as gods and come to Him as the Son of God and God the Son. Once saved by faith, we serve Him as Lord, doing good to others. This is why Jesus told us to “love your enemies. BLESS them that curse you, DO GOOD to them that hate you, and PRAY for them that despitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44).

The Happy Christian is not the selfish Christian,
but the serving Christian.

Keep His commands and you will have His joy. If you are saved, follow Jesus. Jesus said:

John 15:9-11 (KJV) As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. [10] If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. [11] These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and [that] your joy might be full.

If you are saved by faith in Christ, you are called not to be selfish, but to serve and love others. You are to show love to others, whether they show it to you or not. Period. You do not do this to work your way to Heaven, but because, saved by faith in Christ, you are a son or daughter of God. You are children born of love. If you are not saved, I invite you to come and receive Jesus as lord and Savior this very day. As the Scripture says:

Romans 10:9-13 KJV That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. [10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. [11] For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. [12] For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. [13] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

May God touch your hearts with His Word.

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The Dangerous Confusion Of Idolatry

Posted on September 9, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Ahmed ツ: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-wearing-a-beige-coat-and-headphones-walking-in-a-street-with-a-coffee-and-phone-20447502/

Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Opening: What is the most deadly poison in the world? If you ask scientists, they will tell you that it is not snake venom, nor black mold, nor even radiation poisoning. The most deadly poison they say is not cyanide, arsenic, or strychnine. It is Botulinum toxin. A tiny particle – 1 nanogram, a billionth of a gram … and a gram is 1/30 of an ounce – will kill you.

There is something even more deadly than Botulinum toxin, and what makes it so deadly is that it can creep up on you. No, I’m not talking about Covid or the Flu.

The deadliest thing ever was introduced to our species not by a monkey or a sheep, but by a snake in a garden. This deadly thing is idolatry.

What makes idolatry so deadly is that it’s sneaky. Idolatry turns the truth of God into a lie. Idolatry tells us to not worship the God Who made us, the God of the Bible, but to worship created things. In the Gym that I visit each week there is a mirror that stretches along one of the walls – a HUGE MIRROR. I was walking on the treadmill the other day , and watching people working out with weights while looking in the mirror. There is one woman who is there quite frequently. She’ll work out for a while, then stop, turn and stare at herself in the mirror. I wondered what she was looking at. As I wondered the Lord spoke to my heart, saying: “She’s worshiping her idol”.

Our text defines idolatry.

WORSHIPED and SERVED the CREATURE MORE than the CREATOR

It is God Who made us. The Psalmist wrote:

Psalm 100:3 (AP) Know that the LORD HE IS GOD: It is HE WHO MADE US, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the Sheep of HIS PASTURE

It is God Who created us, created this world, and all that is in it. The Scripture says:

Psalm 24:1 (NKJV) The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.

As Creator, God deserves our respect and our worship. He is the Owner of all things, including us. As such, God expects us to serve Him. And yet, so often we expect God to serve us. We ignore God until we have a need in our lives, then we call out to God and demand that He fix what ails us. We want Him to wait on us, instead of what the Scripture says. God wants to bless us. The Scripture says:

Psalm 27:14 (ESV) WAIT {qāvâ, kaw-vaw’ look for with expectation} for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; WAIT {qāvâ} for the Lord!

Isaiah 40:31 (ESV) but they who WAIT {qāvâ, kaw-vaw’ look for with expectation} for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

As God’s creatures, His creation, we have the right to LOOK FOR the Lord when we are tried. But we must always remember.

He is THE LORD!
He’s not our Servant.
He’s not our Genie.

He is the CREATOR and SOVEREIGN over all.

This means that we are to put God first in our lives. When we

WORSHIPED and SERVED the CREATURE MORE than the CREATOR

then we have fallen into idolatry. When we put ourselves first in all things, we are guilty of idolatry.

Idolatry Worships The Human Above The Holy

Romans 1:26-27 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

In idolatry we ask ourselves, “What pleases ME most” as opposed to “What has God said?”

Idolatry began in the Garden of Eden, and was introduced into this world by Satan who took the form of a Serpent. Satan is called “the Great Dragon, the Devil, and that Old Serpent” in Revelation 12:9 and 20:2. He has the power to possess those who are open to his ways. In Ezekiel chapter 28 God condemns the King of Tyre:

Ezekiel 28:1 (ESV) … Thus says the Lord God: “Because your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,’ yet you are but a man, and no god, though you make your heart like the heart of a god ….

The King of Tyre made an idol of himself, making himself out to be “a god in the seat of the gods”. The King was following a pattern that the Devil, that old Serpent followed in the Garden of Eden. As God chastises the King of Tyre, He says:

Ezekiel 28:12-17 (ESV) … “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering… You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. 16 In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.

The God Who made the King of Tyre, and Lucifer the Arch Angel, made these creatures with wisdom and beauty. Lucifer the Angel was “the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty … in Eden, the garden of God”. Lucifer was given a great job. As an Arch Angel, he was “on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire”. Lucifer ruled the other angels as an Arch Angel, just as the King of Tyre rule a great kingdom that God gave him. Both Lucifer and the King of Tyre began to look at themselves, and forget their purpose. In forgetting their purpose, they stared at their beauty. “Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor”. They forgot who made them.

And God cast them down!

The King of Tyre lost his kingdom because of idolatry. Lucifer lost his position as Arch Angel over the other angels. And so it is with all who move into idolatry, worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. When you misplace your God and make yourself a god, then your life falls apart.

Romans 1:26 For this cause GOD GAVE THEM UP unto VILE AFFECTIONS: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

Word Study: The phrase “GAVE THEM UP” is the Greek paradidōmi (pro. par-ad-id’-o-mee), which means “to give into the hands of another, to transfer custody to another to be judged, scourged, or condemned”. The word is used in Matthew 4:12 when it states “John the Baptist was CAST INTO PRISON {paradidōmi}”. The woman who looks at herself in the mirror and begins to worship herself, to set her pleasure above the will of the God Who made her. Fixated on herself, God paradidōmi, turns her over to what she is pursuing. These are not godly desires but “VILE AFFECTIONS” {atimia pathos}, “disgraceful or dishonorable suffering passions”. Though this is what the woman pursued, wanting it, it brings with it its own suffering and pain. It is not what the woman was designed for, but something lesser, without actual created purpose.

It is AGAINST NATURE, against created order.

Romans 1:27 And LIKEWISE also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, BURNED in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.

Word Study: The man that begins to worship himself rather than the Creator Who give him life is “LIKEWISE” turned over to another. They “BURNED” in their lust. This is the Greek ekkaiō (pro. ek-kah’-yo) which means “to set on fire, to burn out”. The picture here is of the man or men who, dousing themselves with gasoline, strike a match and immolate themselves. The “BURNING” they initially chase in passion eventually takes its toll on the creature. Satan through idolatry has convinced them that such behavior is not only normal, but beneficial … but in reality it is destructive and damning.

Sexual Sin Is Not The Only Idolatry

Though God is calling out the LGBTQ+ lifestyle in these passages, He is condemning ALL FORMS of idolatry. It is easy to look at these passages and say with a sense of superiority, “Well, I’m not homosexual or lesbian, so it has nothing to do with me”. But it does. In the next verse we read:

Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Let’s look at that first phrase: “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge”. The idolater does things without any consideration of God. They do not want to “RETAIN” {Greek echō, to have and hold} God in their “KNOWLEDGE” {epignōsis, the knowledge you have in daily life}. They lived their lives divorced from God. Pastor Chuck Smith wrote in “The Gospel According to Grace”:

“Man becomes perverted because he doesn’t want to retain God in his mind. He refuses to glorify God as God, and he seeks to make a god after himself. God gives him up to these vile affections because he has rejected the truth of God within his own heart.”

The idolater always asks the question “What do I want?”, but never asks “What does God want me to do?”

In the marriage, the idolater puts himself or herself FIRST, ignoring the needs of the partner. The idolater doesn’t see the partner as a gift from God, or made in the image of God. That person is just there to fulfill THEIR needs.

In the family, the idolater does not discipline the children, setting standards that they must keep. Children are either ignored, or spoiled. They are raised without any direction from the Word of God.

In the community, the idolater has no concern for what God would have them do for others. The idolater is always looking out for number 1, for what he or she can get.

In the Church, the idolater is constantly moving from congregation to congregation, looking to where he or she feels best served. The question is never asked “Where is God leading me to attend and serve?”, but rather “Which Church will best cater to my wants and desires?” The idolater is often easily offended by clear scriptural teaching – and wants as little of it as possible.

In The Kingdom of God the idolater does not heed the call of Christ, Who commanded those He has saved:

Matthew 16:24-26 (ESV) Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Idolatry is self satisfaction, but Christianity is first of all SELF DENIAL. We are not gods. He alone is God. What we do, we do to serve Him, not ourselves. Christianity is to TAKE UP YOUR CROSS. Idolatry is comfortable, myself laying in a recliner all the live long day. Christianity is uncomfortable. It is standing with Christ in the Light of God.

Isaiah 2:5 … come and let us walk In the light of the LORD

1 John 1:7 … if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Jesus was hated for walking in the Light of God. We will be hated for walking in the Light of God. We are to “FOLLOW CHRIST”. We FOLLOW Him, not LEAD Him. We go where Jesus bids us go, and avoid the things He tells us to do. We want to retain God in our knowledge if we are saved. God warns those who reject Him for their own idols:

Isaiah 50:11 … all you who kindle a fire, Who encircle yourselves with sparks: Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled— This you shall have from My hand: You shall lie down in torment.

If you reject God, and cling to yourselves, becoming idolaters, God tells us that He will turn us over to another.

Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Word Study: Rejecting God and His call to salvation, refusing to heed Him but instead becoming their own gods and goddesses, God turns them over to a “REPROBATE MIND”. The word translated “REPROBATE” is the Greek adokimos which means “something rejected, cast away, discarded as unfit”. When you will not put God first in your minds, making His will and His Word a priority, God will turn away from you.

Fill your minds with God and Christ and you will do divine things. Empty your minds of God and Christ and you will do useless and harmful things.

Where Does The Troubles Of This World Come From?

Romans 1:29-31 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

Someone once asked me, “If there is a loving God, why is there so much evil in the world?” Here you have your answer. The reason there is so much evil in the world is that people refuse to repent and turn to Jesus. They choose instead to build their own gods and goddesses. If God is not in your life, if your heart is not filled with Jesus, then you can BE FILLED WITH ALL else.

God in His Word warns us against idolatry. Our Lord Jesus said:

Luke 14:25-26 (ESV) Now great crowds accompanied {Jesus}, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not HATE his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Word Study: I have heard preachers try to explain away Jesus’ use of the word “HATE” in this passage. I have heard them say “Jesus really didn’t say HATE, but LOVE LESS. You need to love others LESS than Jesus. That’s all He was saying.” Beloved, God chooses His Words very carefully. The word rendered “HATE” is the Greek miseō (pro. mis-eh’-o), which literally means “To DETEST or HATE”. Jesus used the word repeatedly in texts like:

Matthew 5:44 … do good to them that HATE (miseō) you …

Matthew 10:22 … you shall be HATED (miseō) of all men for My sake

Luke 6:22 … Blessed are you when men shall HATE (miseō) you …

John 15:23 … He that HATES (miseō) Me HATES (miseō) My Father

You get the point. The word HATE (miseō) just means “to HATE or DETEST”. So what was Jesus saying when He said the saved need to HATE (miseō) their father, mother, wife, husband or children? The Fifth Commandment of God is to honor our father and mother (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16; Matthew 19:19; Ephesians 6:2). Jesus didn’t mean to dishonor any of our family, or even our own life. But what He was saying is

Don’t make an idol out of your family, of out of yourself. Love Jesus so much more than you love anyone else, even if your family thinks your service to Him is hateful to them.

Not far from this Church there is another gathering of professing Christians. The pastor of that flock believed the Bible, and upheld its teachings until his son came out of the closet and openly professed he was homosexual. At that point the Pastor did a 180 turn and began to preach that homosexuality was perfectly normal, that “Love is love” no matter how it is expressed.

But what does God’s Word say?

The Word of God is always right, and Christ is always right. Jesus defined marriage as one man and one woman. The pastor of that Church is an idolater, as is the pastor of every church that affirms what God condemns. The Scripture says:

Romans 3:4 … let God be true but every man a liar

The further a nation gets from God, the greater the anarchy and lawlessness reigns. People know that sin is wrong. But we believe if we create a law like Roe Vs Wade or Obergefell v. Hodges, and get the majority to say that it’s fine, then God will overlook it. We think that we can name a month of the year after evil, and build television stations dedicated to that which God condemns, then it will be all right. Beloved, when you sin, you sin against the Lord, and your sin shall find you out (Numbers 32:23).

King David thought he could get away with murder and adultery.

Nathan brought his sin to light.

Queen Jezebel thought she could spread idolatry throughout Israel.

Her payday came, and dogs ate her for lunch.

Samson though he could play with prostitutes because he was strong.

Delilah gave him a bad haircut, and the Philistines an eye exam.

Israel thought as God’s Chosen they could chase after idols.

They were chased out of their homes and land for their foolishness.

When King Solomon looked over His Kingdom, he wrote:

Ecclesiastes 3:16-17 (ESV) …. I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. 17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.

Dear ones, you cannot get away with sin. You cannot get away with idolatry. You may think you can, but there is coming a judgment day. On that day you will stand before God, and your life will be examined.

Do you know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Have you repented of your sin, your idolatry, and turned to Him Who gave Himself for you? Or are you putting off Jesus so you can continue in the darkness of idolatry and sin? Our last verse notes:

Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Those who pursue sin are “WORTHY OF DEATH”. A judgment day is coming. Which Judge will you stand before? If you reject Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, you will stand before a Great White Throne, and will go into a Lake of Fire for all eternity. But if you put down your idols, and turn to Him Who died for you, calling Him “Lord”, then you have eternal life. Our Lord Jesus said:

John 3:16-21 (NKJV) For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

May God the Holy Spirit lead you to put down your idols, and turn to Him Who loves you so. Amen and Amen!

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Steward Your Riches Wisely

Posted on September 6, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Leah Newhouse: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-hand-feeding-on-tree-trunk-185941/

Proverbs 11:22 As a JEWEL OF GOLD in a swine’s snout, so is a fair woman which is WITHOUT DISCRETION (sûr ṭaʿam).

A woman’s beauty is her riches – both internal and external. External beauty will be marred by time and life itself, but internal beauty will deepen as a woman grows in her relationship with the Lord. Solomon likens the woman’s beauty to a “JEWEL OF GOLD”. The woman should guard her beauty, to be careful to whom she gives it. To give her beauty “WITHOUT DISCRETION” (Hebrew sûr ṭaʿam, without careful judgment) through lewd behavior, sexual advances, or immodest dress is to defile that which God gave her for good. When women are indiscrete in dress or behavior with the opposite sex – or even their own gender – they are like a jewel in a pig’s snout.

Under the Law of God (Leviticus 11:7) the pig was not to be eaten because it had hooves but did not chew the cud. The Orthodox Jew considered pigs to be so unclean that they were not even called by their proper name, but were called “davar acher, meaning “another thing”. Jews were not even allowed to raise pigs. Pigs were abhorrent because:

  • It carried diseases. The Talmud (Kiddushin 49b) states “Ten measures of plagues descended to the world; pigs took nine of them”. The indiscrete woman, like the pig, spreads sexually transmitted diseases throughout the population.
  • It carries filth. The indiscrete woman enables doing the things which God has decreed are “abominations”. Leviticus 20:10 specified adultery as punishable by death, as did Deuteronomy 22:22-24. To be in a forbidden sexual union was to make yourself unclean (Leviticus 18:10). Both the male and the female were placed under capital punishment for adultery.
  • The pig symbolized hypocrisy. The outward hooves made it appear clean, but since it did not chew the cud, inwardly it was unclean. A woman who is sexually indiscrete may look outwardly clean, but inwardly she is defiled and a defiler before God.

The Lord tells the woman:

1 Peter 3:3-4 (ESV) Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

The godly woman prioritizes her relationship with Jesus Christ above that of any other man. As she grows spiritually, God will increase her inner beauty, and one day she will find the man that is her God chosen mate.

The Benefits Of Righteousness And Generosity Over Stinginess And Trust in Riches

Proverbs 11:23 The desire of the RIGHTEOUS is only good: BUT the expectation of the wicked is WRATH.

The person who is “RIGHTEOUS”, that is, the one who has called on the name of Jesus and has been saved, this person does good. Why? Because this person was “born again” of God’s Holy Spirit because of the shed blood of Christ on Calvary. A person is not “RIGHTEOUS” because they are moral creatures. We are “RIGHTEOUS” because God has imputed the righteousness of Christ to our lives. We are – because of Jesus –

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

Unless a person is born again into the family of God, that person cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3, 7). The Apostle Paul said:

Philippians 3:8-9 NKJV – Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which [is] from the law, but that which [is] through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

The “RIGHTEOUS” are not Nominal Christians, but Born Again Christians, people who were once dead in trespasses and sins but are now alive through God’s Spirit. The “RIGHTEOUS” seek to do GOOD, not evil. The “RIGHTEOUS” seek to build, not to tear down. Matthew Henry’s Commentary notes:

“The righteous would have good, only good; all they desire is that it may go well with all about them; they wish no hurt to any, but happiness to all; as to themselves, their desire is not to gratify any evil lust, but to obtain the favor of a good God and to preserve the peace of a good conscience; and good they shall have, that good which they desire, Psalm 37:4. … The wicked would have wrath; they desire the woeful day, that God’s judgments may gratify their passion and revenge, may remove those that stand in their way, and that they may make an advantage to themselves by fishing in troubled waters; and wrath they shall have, so shall their doom be. They expect and desire mischief to others, but it shall return upon themselves; as they loved cursing, they shall have enough of it.”

Proverbs 11:24 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

Those who withhold in giving do so because they think “to scatter my funds or myself is to use up my resources”. But God gives us life to share, not to hoard. When you hoard resources then you have made an idol out of those resources. God has said:

Isaiah 42:8 (NKJV) I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.

When you hoard that which God has given you, making an idol of His gifts and blessings, God sees what you do. Just as the farmer can only raise a great crop when he gives away the seed, you cannot have blessings in this life if you don’t share what you have with others. The Bible says:

2 Corinthians 9:7-8 (NKJV) [So let] each one [give] as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. [8] And God [is] able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all [things], may have an abundance for every good work.

If “God LOVES a CHEERFUL GIVER”, what does God think of the stingy and begrudging?

As we giver, God causes “ALL GRACE ABOUND TO US”. There will always be plenty when we worship God and generously give of our lives and fortunes. Conversely, when we worship our lives and fortunes, God will take away what we have and give it to another.

Proverbs 11:25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.

When you graciously share what God has given you, God will replenish whatever you have given away. Life itself is a gift from God – how are you spending it? Are you hoarding your life? If you sit around all day, selfishly watching the television and not giving of yourself – but demanding of God and others – you bring misery on your own life. I was reading a V.A. email today warning about blood clots in your legs. These clots form when we stay inactive for a long period of time, because when we move our legs it causes blood to flow through our veins. Stay idol or slothful, sitting in your recliner for hours upon hours, and your blood pools and thickens into clots. These clots cause swelling in the legs, and can break loose and move toward the lungs.

Then you can die!

God gives us life to use it for good, especially if you are a born again Christian. You need to get up and GO, and DO that which Christ has commanded. Hoard your life, and you may lose your life. Jesus illustrates this in a parable found in:

Matthew 25:14-30 (NKJV) For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.

20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’

26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.

29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What a wonderful parable! The Master has given each of us “TALENTS”, lives that we have neither earned nor deserved. Some have beauty. Some have talent. Some have riches. Everybody has something that God has given us. If we invest what we have been given for the glory of the Master, we will receive blessings from it. But if we hoard what we have been given – if we are “UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS” – we will LOSE OUR TALENT and be cast off into a place of misery, of darkness, of weeping and gnashing of teeth. I do not believe that this place is hell. I think it is HELL ON EARTH, the place of misery that we make when we are stingy with our lives.

Proverbs 11:26 He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it.

The person who is stingy – who hoards the blessings that God has given him – has few friends and many enemies. Word gets around as to how bad Ebenezer Scrooge or the Grinch is. When God gave Israel the Promised Land of Canaan, He told them:

Leviticus 23:22 (NKJV) When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

God repeated this command again and again:

Leviticus 19:9-10 (NIV) When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord…

When God told Israel to leave grapes on the vine or corn in the field, He always ended the command with “I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD”. God is saying, “I gave the good harvest to you. Let others enjoy some of the harvest. I gave your good health to you. Let others enjoy some of your life. Volunteer. Be a part of your Church. Quit being a bloodthirsty tick or leech who is always wanting. Give. Give of yourself, of your goods, of your time. I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD.”

Proverbs 11:27-28 He that diligently seeketh good procureth favor: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him. 28 He that trusteth in his riches shall fall; but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.

Those who “DILIGENTLY SEEK GOOD”, who reach out and try to uplift and bless others with their lives, they will receive favor from God. But those who try and tear down, who seek the destruction of others – they themselves will fail in the end. If you worship your money like an idol – “TRUSTING IN YOUR RICHES” – you shall fall. Money is a pitiful god. The Scripture says:

1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NIV) Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

God is the Source of our blessings – not our money. If you trust in money, if money is your god, then in time you will fall. But if you trust in God, “YOU SHALL FLOURISH LIKE A BRANCH”. Jesus said:

John 15:5 (ESV) I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Bound to Jesus, doing as He commands, we give. We give of ourselves. We give of our time, our tithe, and our talent. When we do so, God blesses. But lay around all day watching television. Stingily hoard what God has given you, instead of giving it away. And watch your life become smaller and smaller, until you have no life left.

Our Greatest Riches Is That We Belong To Christ’s Kingdom

Proverbs 11:29-31 He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart. 30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and HE THAT WINNETH SOULS IS WISE. 31 Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner.

Those who are born again Christians are of the House of Christ, the Kingdom of God. We are told in:

Hebrews 3:6 (KJV) Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

By giving of ourselves we contribute to the building of the House of Christ. When we are stingy with ourselves and our resources, we trouble our own house – and WE WILL INHERIT THE WIND. That’s a fancy way of saying you’ll get NOTHING for your stinginess. The righteous want to give. We want to share Christ with others. “HE THAT WINNETH SOULS IS WISE”. By living for Jesus, and giving as Jesus commands, others see Christ in us and are led to come into the House of Christ by faith in Him. God promises “THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL BE RECOMPENCED IN THE EARTH”. When you honor the Lord NOW with what He has given you in stewardship, you will be blessed NOW because of it. Conversely, if you do NOT honor the Lord with what He has entrusted to you, what you have, you will lose.

We who are born again Christians belong to Christ’s Kingdom. Let others see Him through how we live our lives. To God be the glory, both now, and into eternity.

Amen. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

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Man Not Naturally Good – But God Is

Posted on September 3, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Beautiful Beach at Sunrise
Photo by Travis Rupert: https://www.pexels.com/photo/scenic-view-of-ocean-during-sunset-1032650/

Romans 1:17-20 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; [19] Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed [it] unto them. [20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…

The “JUST” or “RIGHTEOUS” Shall
Live By Faith In God

Word Study: The Bible says “The JUST shall live by faith”. The word translated “JUST” is the Greek dikaios (pro. dik’-ah-yos) which means “those who are RIGHTEOUS, JUSTIFIED or in a RIGHT STATE WITH GOD, the HOLY or BLAMELESS”. This statement is used frequently in the Bible – and NOT just in the New Testament. In the Book of Habakkuk God told the Prophet:

Habakkuk 1:6-7 (ESV) … I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. 7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.

Why? Because Israel had departed from following God. Habakkuk wrote:

Habakkuk 1:12 (ESV) … We shall not die. O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.

God used the proud, the arrogant Chaldeans (aka Babylonians) to punish Israel for moving from faith. God told Habakkuk:

Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV) … Behold, his soul {the Chaldean soul, the godless ones} is puffed up {proud, believing only in themselves}; it is not UPRIGHT {Hebrew yāšar, pro. yaw-shar’} within him, BUT the RIGHTEOUS {Hebrew ṣadîq, the JUST, the LAWFUL, those RIGHT with God} shall live by his faith.

The righteous live by their faith IN GOD, in the GOD of the Bible. God can use the lost to temper the righteous, to teach us to rely on Him. The mark of the believer is that we KEEP OUR FAITH IN THE LORD.

This passage is from the Old Testament – that’s where it originated, “The JUST shall live by FAITH”. The Apostle uses this same phrase repeatedly throughout the New Testament:

Galatians 3:11 (ESV) Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

It is not keeping the Law of God that saves us, but FAITH in the GOODNESS of God in Christ. We believe that God is good. We believe that God is ALWAYS right. We follow the Law – the Commandments He has given us – not to BE saved, but BECAUSE we are saved. Belief follows with obedience. We are told in:

John 3:36 (ESV) Whoever BELIEVES {Greek pisteuō} in the Son has eternal life; whoever DOES NOT OBEY {Greek apeitheō} the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

If you BELIEVE, you OBEY. You BELIEVE to be saved. You believe that God is Who He says He is. You believe God is right, regardless as to what is popular or politically correct. There are passages in the Old Testament that people – usually so called Nominal Christians – find disturbing, and try to explain away. In 1 Samuel 15:3 God tells Saul:

“go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”

That is a difficult passage that many have tried to explain away. I have heard “theologians” suggest that there are actually two Gods in the Bible – the mean Old Testament God, and the meek and mild New Testament God called Jesus.

Is There A “God Of The New Testament” And Another “God Of The Old Testament”? Absolutely not!

People are appalled by the God Who “struck down the FIRSTBORN in every Egyptian household” (Psalm 135:8; 136:10), the tenth plague He brought on Egypt to force Pharaoh to release Israel. How dare God “take the little ones of Babylon, and dash them against the rocks” (Psalm 137:9)? Didn’t Jesus love the little children, and say “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14)? Did God send Jonah to Nineveh to preach so that 120,000 children might be saved (Jonah 4:11)? How dare God order the deaths of women and children! Has He lost His mind? God cannot be pro-life if He does this!

Beloved, if you are saved you know why such passages are in the Bible. “The Just shall live by faith”. We trust God. We believe God. God doesn’t owe us an explanation – we OWE HIM. If God declared it, if God ordered it, then God knows best. God always knows best!

God has the right to do what He will with His creation. It is His. He says, “All souls are MINE … and the soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE” (Ezekiel 18:4). It is God Who made all things. God has the right to do what He will with His creation.

But people want to be God.
The created want to be the CREATOR.
The job is not available – EVER!

God Himself Has Clearly Shown Us The He Is God
(And We Are Not)

Romans 1:18-19 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

People ask “Why has God allowed this? If God is there, why doesn’t He fix things?” Well, God is there, and God is doing what God is supposed to do. When God created humanity, God created us to do specific things. God said:

Genesis 1:26 (NKJV) … Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion …

God made humanity “in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”. As God is a Compound Unity, Man and Woman in marriage are a Compound Unity. God created Adam and Eve to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion” (Genesis 1:28). When God created us, He gave humanity a specific job. We were to reproduce, and we were to dominate the planet and all that is in it as stewards of God. We are told:

Romans 1:19 …that which may be known of God
is manifest in them

Word Study: God has not left Himself a “secret”, but has left very clear evidence that He is. He has “MANIFEST” (Greek phaneros, pro. Fan-er-os’) or “made Himself apparent or easily recognized”. God has not hidden Himself from us, nor is He hard to discover. We just don’t want to discover Him. If there is no God, then WE can be GODS. So we ignore God and His clear evidences.

God reveals Himself IN US in our CONSCIENCE: God has given each and every one of us a conscience. Yes, there are some people who are psychopaths, who have a distorted conscience because of their sin nature. There are the twisted ones like Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, H.H. Holmes, Ted Bundy who do horrid things. But even these people hide what they do because they know it’s evil. We all have consciences. In our conscience, we know that certain things are right and wrong. From civilization to civilization murder, theft, rape are wrong. Only the most depraved of people will justify cannibalization, the eating of human flesh. God gave Israel the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, but every society that is stable recognizes the Commandments. The Apostle tells us that:

Romans 2:14-15 (ESV) … when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness …

The Jews knew that murder was wrong because God’s Law forbade it. But the Gentiles – the non-Jews – know that murder is wrong because God wrote it in our hearts. We know what is right and wrong. It’s in our conscience. God manifests Himself through our conscience.

God reveals Himself IN US in our CREATION:

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse

There is evidence of God’s handiwork in us, and all about us. The human eye is a miracle that creation denying evolutionists cannot explain. Our fingerprints are distinct, I am told that no two are exactly alike. When you go outside you can see a design in the leaves of trees, the systems that keep this world alive. People betray their belief in God by their language. People often take God’s Name in vain in a variety of ways, and even text God’s name in vain (OMG). If there is no God Who created all things, then why don’t we curse Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny? The reality is, even the slowest among us can – if we stop and look – see evidence of God in us, and around us. King David wrote:

Psalm 8:3-9 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

David had no telescopes, no special equipment. He just opened his eyes and looked about him. People have no problem seeing the evidence of God. The reality is, God has manifested Himself very clearly – we just don’t want to acknowledge Him. When we acknowledge Him, then we have to DO something with Him. If He is God and we are not, this will change us. So we reject Him.

It is not that we don’t know there’s a God. We just
don’t want to deal with Him.

When Paul preached at Athens “in the midst of Areopagus” (Acts 17:22) he said:

Acts 17:24-28 (ESV) The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In Him we live and move and have our being’;

God is clearly represented in our Conscience and in Creation. He is not far from any of us. The reason that we do not see God is because, as Jesus said:

John 3:19-20 … light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

If there is a God, and He has clearly revealed Himself to us, then we have to do something about that. But if we ignore the clear evidences of God we are free to wallow in the darkness of being our own gods, our own creators.

Romans 1:20 … they are WITHOUT EXCUSE

People Prefer Idols – Man Made Gods –
To The Real God

Romans 1:21-23 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

They KNEW GOD. People know God. He has revealed Himself through Conscience, through Creation, and through Christ. People rejected the very clear evidence that God gave of Himself in our bodies, in our souls, and in our world and beyond. God raised up Israel, and gave her the Law. And yet people continued to reject God and turn instead to idols.

Rejecting the God Who clearly is in favor of a man-made idol is Divine Identity Theft. God could have destroyed us all when we robbed Him of His glory. But instead, the God Who is so good went beyond conscience and creation.

God sent His Son Jesus to show us God.

Jesus came into this world with a very clear message. Jesus “spoke the Words of God, and God gave His Spirit unto Jesus without measure” (John 3:34). Jesus came into a broken world to bring wholeness. He called on people to “REPENT” and to “believe on Me, Whom God has sent” (John 6:29). Jesus offered union with God to whoever would believe on Him. Jesus said:

John 17:3 (KJV) … this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

God sent His Son to save us from ourselves, from our sins. God loves us, and calls us to His side to love Him, to be filled with the love of God.

1 John 4:10 (KJV) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation {Greek hilasmos, satisfactory payment} for our sins.

Jesus was proved to be the Son of God by the miracles that He did while on this earth. Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead. Jesus did that which no human can do. Jesus forgave sins. “Your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5-12)Jesus told the paralyzed man before healing him. “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more” (John 8:10-11) Jesus told the woman taken in adultery. Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus, and cried “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43-44)! With His word, the dead was raised back to life. When Jesus cast out demons, the demons cried out “You are the Son of God” (Luke 4:41). When Jesus commanded the storm “Peace, be still!” (Mark 4:39) and it stopped, those in the boat with Him said “Truly You are THE Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). Jesus told His disciples:

John 8:32 … You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world …

and prayed,

John 17:5 … Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

When Jesus was beaten and tormented, tortured and nailed to the Cross, dying for your sins and mine, He said “It is finished” and the veil of the Temple tore from top to bottom. Following that earthquake the Centurion who crucified Jesus and the men with Him said,

Matthew 27:54 … this Man TRULY WAS THE SON OF GOD

This Jesus rose from the dead, three days and three nights later, just as He said He would. Jesus proves there is a God, for He Himself is God. My commentary notes:

“John writes in his gospel: “No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us” (John 1:18, NLT). Paul told the Colossians, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation” (Colossians 1:15, NLT). And Jesus said to Philip, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” (John 14:9, NLT).

The signs and wonders Jesus performed revealed the glory and power of God. The way He lived, the miracles He performed, and His teachings and parables all demonstrated how much the Father cares for us. The way to know the Father and have a relationship with Him is to know the Son, who is the fullness of God’s revelation of Himself (Galatians 4:4–5; Hebrews 1:1–2).”

Through Conscience, through Creation, through Christ we clearly see that there is a God Who loves us, and calls us to His side. But many instead of believing on God,

Romans 1:23 … changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

If You Give Up On God, Eventually
God Will Give Up On You

Romans 1:24-25 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Those who reject God “love darkness more than light” (John 3:19). It is not that God isn’t there or that God is hard to find. He isn’t. God is near to us all. “In Him we live and move and have our being”. You can no more ignore the reality of God than you can wade in the ocean and doubt its existence.

When people reject God and His advances over and over again, in time “God WILL give them up to uncleanness”. If you want the darkness, and repeated reject the light of Christ, God will let you have what you want. We are told that:

John 3:18 (ESV) He who believes in Him {in Jesus} is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Our text today should stand as a stark reminder to us all that we should RUN, not walk but RUN into the arms of Jesus. We should put our idols down and give our lives to Him, believing that Jesus has power to save us. Those who reject Christ “DISHONOR THEIR OWN BODIES between themselves”. They do things which are not only destructive to themselves, but that bring destruction on their friends and loved ones.

There is a God. He has proven Himself in creation, in your conscience, and in Jesus Christ. He calls you to Himself through Jesus. Repent! Turn from being your own God. Put all your idols down, and come to Jesus. Do so without delay. In Jesus’ name I beg you.

Amen and Amen.

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Be Gracious But Careful

Posted on August 30, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Do you know where you are?
Photo by Jerome on Unsplash

Proverbs 11:15-21 He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretyship is sure. 16 A gracious woman retaineth honor: and strong men retain riches. 17 The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh. 18 The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. 19 As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death. 20 They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the Lord: but such as are upright in their way are his delight. 21 Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.

Christians Are Gracious

The fruit of the Christian life should be graciousness. We have received undeserved grace from the Lord Jesus Christ. We – in turn – should be gracious to others. When Jesus sent out His Apostles to minister, He told them:

Matthew 10:8 … (NIV) Freely you have received; freely give ..

The Apostle Paul gathered the Church at Ephesus and, speaking to those he so loved, encouraged the Church to live by GRACE. He said:

Acts 20:32-35 (NKJV) So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. 34 Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me. 35 I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

God gave grace freely to His Children, and we, in turn, are to give graciously. The mark of the true Christian is the one who shows the fruit of hospitality. The Scripture says “show HOSPITALITY to one another WITHOUT GRUMBLING” (1 Peter 4:9). We are commanded to “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13). But our generosity is not just to be IN the Church, but OUTSIDE of the Church. We are told:

Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

The stingy Christian has forgotten where their priority is to be. As Christ gave to the glory of the Father, so we give to the glory of the Son.

However, we are to be careful in our grace giving. We read:

Proverbs 11:15 He that is SURETY for a stranger shall smart for it: and he that hateth suretyship is sure.

This Proverb is almost poetic! “He that hateth suretyship is sure”. What is the Proverb talking about? The Hebrew for “SURETY” is ʿāraḇ (pro. Aw-rab’) which means “to give a pledge for, to sign a contract or enter a covenant for”. As believers we are to give help to those in need – as needed. But we are NEVER to enter into a contract or an obligation for another whom we do not know. The only ones that we should give “SURETYSHIP” (tāqaʿ, pro. taw-kah’) to is someone that we are WELL acquainted with. The word tāqaʿ means “to bind yourself with contractually, to tie the knot with, to become a bondsman with or yoke yourself legally with”. You need to be very careful who you make a pledge to, who you make a contract with. Your good name is important. If you are not careful with who you become “co-signers” with, they can destroy your estate.

In short, there are a lot of godless monsters out there that will destroy you if you yoke yourself with them. Be careful! Hate suretyship with anyone that you are not VERY WELL acquainted with – even if it’s a relative.

The Bible tells us to avoid unequal yokes or partnerships with people. Particularly with unbelievers:

2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

As a pastor I come into contact with people who are down on their luck, and needing assistance. I do not give loans to anyone. People come to me needing help with their utility bills. If I do this, I go to the utility myself and pay what portion of the bill I agree to. I’ve had people ask if we have “gas cards”. No, I will not give gas cards nor food cards to strangers. They can use the cards to buy alcohol, cigarettes, etc rather than gas. I go to the gas station and pump their gas myself. There was a time when we could put people in motel rooms overnight. Now I can’t. If I do, the motel requires that we exercise surety for that homeless person. If they steal a television, I am liable for it. I will NOT put someone up because of that.

As believers, we are to be gracious. But we are also to be careful. Jesus said,

Matthew 10:16 … I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Several years ago I had the pleasure of knowing a strange couple I’ll just call “R” and “K”. “R” worked a good job, and brought in much more money every week than I did as a pastor (though I didn’t know it at the time). “R’s” wife “K” was a bipolar manic-depressive person. She would get hold of the bank card and spend all their money on frivolous things, so much so that they couldn’t pay their utility bills. This is when “R” would call me, and beg the Church to pay his utility bills. I did that twice before I realized “R” and “K” were robbing me and the Church. “R” made twice my paycheck. I told “R” that before we would help them any more, they would have to come to the Church and the Deacons along with the Treasurer would help them set a budget. “R” refused indignantly. This was a violation of his privacy. “R” and “K” left the Church, spreading the news that the Church was money grubbing, and would not help its members. They are liars on the order of Ananias and Sapphira.

This couple tried looking me up a couple of years ago, but I hid from them. I gnawed my leg off one time to get away – I’m not going to get back into that trap again!

Proverbs 11:16 A GRACIOUS woman retaineth honor: and STRONG men retain riches.

Word Study: The word “GRACIOUS” is the Hebrew ḥēn (pro. Khane) which means “one who is favored, precious, the recipient of Grace”. The Christian woman should always remember that the greatest thing she possesses is her HONOR, her standing in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the world. I can’t tell you how many young women I have met who chose to marry ungodly and uncouth men thinking that they could change them in time.

Beloved, if you marry a monkey,
you’ll have to live with an ape!

The Blood of Jesus Christ purchased your salvation. You are daughters of God. Walk as His daughters. He has chosen a proper mate for you, and will reveal that man at the right time. Before giving yourselves away, realize who you are giving yourselves to. Turn away from the godless man, regardless as to how “exciting” he looks. Retain your honor – do not give away your precious life to a person who hates Christ. Now the man is addressed:

STRONG men retain riches

Being a Christian does not mean that you are to be a doormat. You are a son of God by the sacrifice of the Only Begotten. You are precious in God’s sight. Do not allow yourself to be bullied into the foolishness of this fallen world. Be generous with what you can freely give, but do not let anyone take evil advantage of you. The Bible says that …

Numbers 12:3 … the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.

Moses was a humble man, but he was not a milksop nor effeminate. Moses stood his ground when challenged, and clung to the Word of God. When challenged, he prayed to God. And Moses knew how to say NO. He was a STRONG MAN.

When we as men rely on God, we have His promise.

Psalm 37:11 … the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Psalm 147:6 … The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.

Our Lord Jesus is “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29), but He was not wishy-washy, effeminate, sissy, or a floor-mat. Jesus spoke the truth in love whether it hurt feelings or not. Twice Jesus chased the money changers out of the Temple with knotted cords, saying “You shall not make My Father’s House a den of thieves” (Jeremiah 7:11; Matthew 21:12-13).

A strong man will not let another rob him of his riches. The strong Christian man will not let the devil or this world rob him of his blessed walk with Christ.

Christians Are Gracious In Forgiveness

Proverbs 11:17 The MERCIFUL man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is CRUEL troubleth his own flesh.

When Jesus said “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), He did not say it was BETTER, but MORE BLESSED. There is a difference. Yes, it is better to give. But it is better BECAUSE IT BRINGS MORE BLESSINGS TO THOSE WHO DO SO. “MORE BLESSED” is the Greek mallon makarios, which literally means “much greater HAPPINESS”. People today are looking for happiness in fame, in beauty, in money or power. These are all things that are focused on self. But Jesus said “If you want to truly be HAPPY, then GIVE of yourself”. When you give of yourself, freely and without strings, God will bless it. We are told in;

2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (ESV) The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

When you graciously give, God will give graciously to you. The same is true nor of just TANGIBLES like goods and food, but INTANGIBLES like forgiveness and mercy. When someone wrongs you, rather than seek retribution, do good toward that person. Jesus said:

Matthew 5:43-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

You love your enemies not because it is better for THEM, but because it is better FOR YOUR SOUL.

Proverbs 11:17 The MERCIFUL man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is CRUEL troubleth his own flesh.

When you carry grudges or hatred, a sense that you have been wronged, then it weighs down on your own soul. It is sinful to do so. I tried explaining this to a Deacon named “S” years ago. He had a grudge again another Deacon named “T” because “T’s” wife hurt his feelings with her sharp, naggy tongue. Yes, “T’s” wife “L A” was a hot mess … but Deacon “S” mounted a campaign to have the family he hated cast out of the Church. He did so, but also ended up destroying the Church. The Bible says to trust God and let it go:

Romans 12:19 (NKJV) Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

Let God deal with it. Put it out of your head. Be merciful, not cruel – and protect your own soul.

The Christian Is To Do Good, Not Evil.
To Be Light, Not Dark.

Proverbs 11:18-19 The wicked worketh a DECEITFUL work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. 19 As righteousness tendeth to life: so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.

Word Study: The WICKED or lost person is characterized by “DECEITFUL” work. The word “DECEITFUL” is the Hebrew šeqer (pro. sheh’-ker) which means “lying, falsehood, that which deceives or is fraudulent”. The Pastor who tells you that you can walk an aisle, profess Christ, then go live life whatever way you want and you’ll go to Heaven is wicked, evil, lost. That person is like the Pharisees of whom Jesus said:

Matthew 23:13-15 … woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

People are always church-hopping, looking for a preacher to tickle their ears, to make them happy. The preacher who loves you will tell you the truth – even if it stings. Jesus did this. He preached hard messages, but He did so because He loved those He preached to. God will bless those who “soweth righteousness”, who speak the Word of God truly and without embellishment. We are told:

righteousness tendeth to life

When God saves a soul, He saves that soul FROM sin, not IN sin. He saves a person, then leads us to follow Christ, to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:8-9). Those who pursue righteousness – who live for the Lord – have abundant life now, and eternal life in glory. However,

he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death

The Bible is very clear that “the wages of sin IS DEATH” (Romans 6:23). There is coming a payday someday. God promises,

Romans 2:8-9 (ESV) … those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek …

We read:

Proverbs 11:20-21 They that are of a FROWARD (ʿiqqēš, pro. Ik-kashe’, twisted or perverted) heart are abomination to the Lord: but such as are upright in their way are his delight. 21 Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.

God will one day cut off the unrighteous from this earth. The unrighteous cannot inherit Heaven, but are headed toward eternal damnation. But God will deliver the “SEED”, the house of those who love the Lord. Let us strive to honor our God while we have life. He will bless His children by faith – if we will but follow Him.

May God lead you to follow Christ this very day. Amen.

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We Live By The Gospel

Posted on August 27, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Cross on a Mountain
Photo by Hugo Fergusson on Unsplash

Romans 1:8-17 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; 10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; 12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me. 13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. 14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

I was reading an article the other day about the first vending machine ever made. In the article the author stated:

“the first-ever vending machine was utilized all the way back in the 1st century A.D. — by the Christian church. No, it didn’t dispense indulgences, though that would have been awesome, and probably have inspired rampant sinning in a 10-foot radius of the machine. What it did dispense, as if it was Fruitopia or Surge, was holy water.

Apparently, there was a real problem with people taking more holy water than they paid for. As a non-Christian, this is surprising on two levels because first, I didn’t think that was something you bought, and second, hoarding holy water seems like a heavy-handed metaphor, not a real problem.

Nevertheless, everyone wanted as much of this water as they could get. It was like reverse Dasani. Thus, a man named Hero of Alexandria, which I assure you is his name and not a placeholder I forgot to remove, designed a solution. People would be given tokens that they could trade for their allotment of holy water…”

Of course there were numerous comments with the article about how crooked Christians were even back then. This idea has been spreading through the Internet for years – I didn’t learn of it until this week. But the reality is that the inventor of the Holy Water Dispenser – Hero of Alexandria – died in 70 AD. At that time the Church was under heavy persecution, and had no temples nor buildings until the time of Emperor Constantine in 313 AD signed the Edict of Milan. Christians didn’t have holy water dispensers nor buildings to put them in, as Christians were being killed for their faith. According to the site History Facts, the Holy Water Dispenser that Hero of Alexandria created was made for the pagan worship temples of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian gods.

It had nothing to do with Christianity.

But I’m not surprised. If the devil and the devil’s world hates any faith, it is the faith of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. The devil and his dark kingdom is constantly at work striving to manipulate the Gospel message. The Apostle said:

Ephesians 6:12 (ESV) .. we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

The devil does not want us to understand the Gospel, for it is the Gospel and the Gospel alone that will defeat the forces of evil, and saved those which are lost.

The Gospel Is A Work Of God That
Produces A Visible Faith

Before the Apostle chastises or corrects the Roman Christians, he starts out with a positive note. He starts out with

Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

Paul thanks God for the Christian Churches in Rome. Paul does the same thing for the Churches at Corinth:

1 Corinthians 1:4-5 (NKJV) I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him …

The Churches at Ephesus:

Ephesians 1:15-16 (NKJV) Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers …

The Churches at Philippi:

Philippians 1:3-5 (NKJV) I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now…

and to the Churches at Colossae:

Colossians 1:3-5 (NKJV) We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel …

I can go through every New Testament Book and find similar statements, but you see my point. When the Writer (inspired by God the Holy Spirit) addresses the Churches, he always notes that there is a clear evidence that the Gospel not only saved these communities of faith, but brought about a God given love in the hearts of its people – an enduring changed faith. The Gospel is not a “bootstraps” program where we work our way to God. Paul writes:

Romans 1:8 … I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all …

Paul does not thank the people for living in their faith. He says “I thank my God THROUGH Jesus Christ”. The Gospel is the message of salvation, but God is the worker in the Gospel. God the Holy Spirit – the same One Who controlled the writers of the Scripture – brings a Gospel change to those who repent and surrender their lives to Christ. Think about this statement:

Romans 1:8 … that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

The Roman Christians had a FAITH THAT WAS SPOKEN OF. Though there was no Internet, no Television, no Newspapers nor Radio, no Social Media of any type, the Roman Empire was SPEAKING about these Christians. They were living their faith out loud. Not just in Church buildings (which did not exist until after the Edict of Milan), but on the street, in their businesses, and in the marketplace. The Roman world was decidedly NOT sympathetic to these Christian believers. Had Christians worshiped multiple gods and goddesses, they would have been accepted. But Christians worshiped One God, serving Him alone. Because of this

Romans called Christians “atheists”.

The Roman citizen was taught falsehoods about Christian rituals. They were taught that the Lord’s Table was “actually a cannibalistic affair in which Christians ate the flesh and drank the blood of their master. The use of the holy kiss led the Romans to believe that the Christians were engaged in raucous orgies when they met together. And the fact that Christians referred to each other as “brother” and “sister” gave rise to rumors of incest among them.”

As the Roman Empire grew, it became harder to maintain order over the various conquered nations with their gods and goddesses. To stabilize power Rome taught Emperor Worship – that Caesar was “Lord”. An article on the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary notes:

“Toward the end of the first century, (Roman) Emperor Domitian sent out a decree that all in his empire should worship him as “God the Lord.” Residents of the empire were ordered to come to the public square, burn a pinch of incense, and speak the words Caesar kurios, “Caesar is lord.” This act of devotion seemed little enough in light of the emperor’s divine power and benevolence toward his subjects. And refusal could result in imprisonment, confiscation of property, banishment, and even death. Christians, however, did refuse. They confessed a higher allegiance: Iesous kurios, “Jesus is Lord,” recalling Paul’s admonition, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9)”

The Roman Christians were on the front line of this battle with darkness, and yet “their faith was spoken of THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE WORLD”. Christians in Rome were not just shamed, but were tortured, made sport of in the coliseum, and killed. Yet they continued to stand up for Jesus. Paul knew how hard this was, as he himself was a constant target for attack. He writes:

Romans 1:9-11 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; 10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established…

Paul prayed for these Churches, that they would be strengthened in their faith to endure the persecution they were going through. Paul wanted to get to Rome where he could share the Word of God with them, to strengthen them in their battle against darkness.

Paul Wanted To Preach The Gospel To The Romans

For some weird reason (and the devil is probably at the center of it), people think that the Gospel is only for the lost, to save a person to Christ. The Gospel is not just for the lost – it’s for the saved as well.

Romans 1:12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

The Gospel COMFORTS the believer, and brings us into union with one another. The Gospel bridges the differences in each person. We all have different opinions, different ideas, different likes and dislikes. But we have ONE GOSPEL. The Gospel is:

1. We are ALL SINNERS, and NONE are WORTHY on their own to come to God or be in God’s Presence. “No one is righteous – not even one” (Romans 3:10, NLT). We without Christ can do no good in God’s eyes. “No one does good, not a single one” (Romans 3:12, NLT).

2. We are born hopelessly separated from God. But “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NIV). We are born spiritually dead, but God came to this earth to give His life for us. Jesus came down from Heaven and “died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 5:3). His end goal was to call whosoever will to His side so that God the Holy Spirit could cause us to be born again, changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive children of God.

3. Repenting and calling on the name of Jesus, we are saved because Jesus purchased us to His Kingdom. The Scripture says:

1 Peter 3:18 (AP) Christ suffered ONCE FOR SINS, THE RIGHTEOUS (SUFFERED) FOR THE UNRIGHTEOUS, to BRING US TO GOD

and again,

1 Peter 2:24 (AP) (Jesus Christ) HIMSELF BORE OUR SINS IN HIS BODY ON THE CROSS. Why? So that we (who are saved by faith in Him) might DIE TO SINS AND LIVE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. By His wounds WE ARE HEALED.

4. Saved into the Kingdom of God by faith, our faith SHOULD BE SPOKEN OF THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

We are saved from darkness, and to light; from sin to the Savior; from this world to the Kingdom of God.

Christians come together because our faith is ONE. We comfort one another by looking to the Gospel, and realizing how good the Gospel is. The Apostle writes to the Christian Churches of Philippi:

Philippians 1:27 (ESV) … let your manner of life be worthy (axios) of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel

Sinclair B Ferguson in his book “Worthy: Living In Light of the Gospel” writes:

“In English versions of the New Testament, the Greek word axios is usually translated “worthy.” But its flavor is expressed elsewhere when it is translated “in keeping with” (Matthew 3:8; Acts 26:20). Like many other words, there is a picture lying behind the origin of axios. It means “Properly, ‘bringing up the other beam of the scales,’ ‘bringing into equilibrium,’ and therefore ‘equivalent.’ … The basic idea is that a life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ expresses in the form of a lifestyle what the gospel teaches in the form of a message. Such a life takes on a character that reflects the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

We are to be like Jesus. He is THE Son of God, but we are to be “sons and daughters of God”. Those saved by Him are to imitate Him.

Those who PROFESS Christ are to be POSSESSED of Christ. The Gospel is not a “one and done” message, but is what saves us, and what we live by.

Romans 1:13-14 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. 14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

Word Study: Though Paul has never preached the Gospel to the Churches at Rome, he has wanted to do so. He said “I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto)”. This is Old English. Let me put it in plain language. Paul is saying, “I tried to come be with you several times, but I was stopped up to this point”. Why? Because God sent Paul to preach the Gospel in other areas, to other nationalities of people. Paul says, “I am DEBTOR both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise”. The word “DEBTOR” is the Greek opheiletēs, which means “to be under obligation to another, be bound by duty”. Saved by the Grace of God, called to Christ’s side by the glorious Gospel, Paul is under obligation to “preach the Gospel”. He has preached the Gospel in other places, to well to do people, and to bums by the world’s standard. He has preached the Gospel to the wise, the educated, the Doctors and Pharisees. He has preached the Gospel to barbarians, uncivilized or savage people. Then Paul drops this bombshell:

Romans 1:15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

Wait a minute! The Churches at Rome – we were told earlier – had a “faith spoken of throughout the whole world”. If they’ve got a faith that has endured through all the persecution at ground zero, through all the shaming, through all the torture and humiliation and, yes, the killing and raping …. then WHY DO THEY NEED TO HEAR THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL THROUGH PAUL?

Because the Gospel is the driving force of Christianity. The Good News that God loves us, and gave Himself for us – we need to hear some form of that every time we meet.

The Gospel reminds us that we need God in Christ every single moment of every day. The Gospel is God the Son holding my hand. I came to the Gospel when the Holy Spirit convicted me that I was damned and shortly headed to hell. Down on my knees I cried out, “What must I do?” (Acts 2:37; 16:30). Broken, I needed the Great Physician. I heard the answer of the Spirit, “Repent, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Give your life to Him, and you will be saved” (Acts 2:38). Forsake all you have, come and follow Jesus (Luke 18:22). And He will save – and keep on saving.

When people “backslide” from Christ, the problem always lies in their perception of the Gospel. When you become “your own”, then you have abandoned the Gospel. What says the Scripture?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (AP) … You are NOT YOUR OWN. You are BOUGHT WITH A PRICE: therefore glorify God in your BODY and in your SPIRIT, for they belong to God.

When you try to do penance for your sins, or say “I have no sin”, you have abandoned the Gospel:

1 John 1:7-9 (KJV) … if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When I consider myself superior to another believer, we have abandoned the Gospel. We are all broken. We all need the Gospel. Not just at the point of salvation, but every moment of every day.

The Gospel Is God’s Power Unto Salvation

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Paul loved the Gospel – and we should, too. We cannot change people. But God’s Gospel can. We cannot save the nation. But God’s Gospel can. The Gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth”. This is not talking about a momentary belief, a one time thing. When the Gospel is first believed, it brings about a change in that person. What is that change?

Romans 1:17 … the JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH

We are born into Christ’s Kingdom by the Gospel. We live our lives by the Gospel. We leave this life confident of another, greater glory with God because of the Gospel. Do you know Him? Those who profess Christ, but live in sin, do not know the Gospel. The old time Puritan Chaplain John Owen (1616-1683) wrote:

“Never was there less regard of the person and offices of Christ, of his grace, and benefits of his mediation, among them that are called Christians, than is found among many at this day. Unless God graciously relieve, the world is like to lose Christ out of the gospel, as to the true glory of his person, and use of his mediation. … That which is the foundation of our profession in opposition hereunto, which we lay the weight of all our eternal concerns upon, is, that without Christ, before we receive him as set forth by God to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, we are in a lost, undone, and accursed condition; that our closing with him, our believing in him, is upon a conviction of our want of him for life, righteousness, and acceptation with God, both before and after believing.”

The Gospel is found in Christ. Christ is the Gospel. We need Him for salvation. We need Him for life. We need Him through life. We need Him throughout all eternity.

I think I’ll make Jesus my all and all
And if I’m in trouble on his name I’ll call
If I didn’t trust him I’d be less of a man
‘Cause Lord I can’t even walk without you holding my hand
Oh Lord, I can’t even walk without you holding my hand
The mountains too high and the valleys too wide
Down on my knees that’s where I learned to stand
‘Cause Lord I can’t even walk without you holding my hand
Oh Lord, I can’t even walk without you holding my hand.
(Cody Johnson)

May God touch your hearts with His Gospel! Amen.

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Community Relations

Posted on August 23, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Javardh on Unsplash

Proverbs 11:9-14 An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. 10 When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting. 11 By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted: but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked. 12 He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace. 13 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. 14 Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

Religious Hypocrisy Destroys Communities

Proverbs 11:9 An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.

God calls the Christian to be an encourager, with our words to sow the seed of the Gospel so that others might be saved. There are times when our words should rebuke or call out sin. But we need to always remember that Jesus, though He rebuked sin, more often called people to salvation through faith in Him. To the lost person, we are to remember that they abide in darkness and need the light that only God can bring. The Bible says:

Colossians 4:5-6 (NKJV) Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

As we have learned before, “Wisdom” is the very Word of God. Wisdom comes from God Himself, not from us. We have read:

James 1:5 (NKJV) If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

We should ask ourselves before talking to someone stumbling, “Are my words GRACIOUS? Is what I am saying POINTING THIS PERSON TO CHRIST? Is what I am saying truthful, according to the Scripture?” If not, perhaps I should hold my words. We are told “through knowledge shall the just be delivered”. It is the Word of God that directs the believer. Not opinion, not feelings or desires, but what God has said.

Jesus Called The Self Righteous Pharisees “Hypocrites”

The religious hypocrite is a person who puts on a mask, and pretends to be what he is NOT. The religious hypocrite speaks not to better to other, but to better themselves, to make themselves look better. The religious hypocrite is not directed by Scripture, but by Self, Self Love. Jesus chastised the religious hypocrites, because:

The hypocrite seeks glory for himself rather than God (Matthew 6:2)
The hypocrite pretends to pray so others think him great (Matthew 6:5)

The hypocrite judges others but is blind to his status (Matthew 7:5)

Hypocrites do not know the Lord, and prevent others from knowing Him (Matthew 23:13)

Religious hypocrites do not make the community better, but worsen it. Religious hypocrites come in all shapes and sizes. They are not necessarily tied to a “church”, but can be tied to “social justice” or “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” programs. Just the other day I saw an interview where a newsman asked a lady,

“Should a ten year old child be allowed to buy guns, or tobacco, or alcohol?”

The woman replied, “No, they’re too young to have those things, too young to make those choices”. The newsman next asked,

“Should a ten year old child be allowed to choose his or her sex, and choose to go through a medical sexual change?”

The same woman then said, “Well, that’s a different question. It’s the child’s body, and the child should be able to make that choice”. This is a religious hypocrite, a liberal hypocrite. Choosing sexual change surgery is a permanent and irreversible course. It mutilates the child’s body, just as a mishandled firearm or use of tobacco would.

The Just – those who are not only born again through faith in Christ – but those who live by KNOWLEDGE, by God’s Word are DELIVERED from satanic darkness and destructive foolishness.

Christians live by the standard that our Lord Jesus set:

Matthew 22:37-40 (NKJV) … 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. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

We are to live our lives for the Lord, and love others enough to tell them when they are departing from sanity and into foolishness. We live by Christ’s Word, and call others to His side through the glorious Gospel of Salvation. We seek to encourage the growth of His Kingdom on earth, knowing that as the righteous, God fearing base grows in a country, that nation becomes more stable and peaceful.

When Christ’s Kingdom Grows, The Nation Stabilizes

Proverbs 11:10 When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth: and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.

As the number of righteous people (saved by the grace of God, by faith in Christ, who LIVE following Jesus) grow in a nation, the better that nation will be. When Jesus was teaching one day, the religious leaders of Israel, the Pharisees, were listening. They got very offended! The Bible tells us that:

Matthew 15:12-13 … His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?” 13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”

The hypocrites like the Pharisees were not planted by the Heavenly Father, but by human tradition and human desire. Jesus’ advice to those who are resistant to the Word of God is “LET THEM ALONE”. If they will not hear the truth of God’s Word, and resist God’s Spirit, “LET THEM ALONE”. And yet, continue to preach the Gospel of Salvation.

The devil hates that!

God calls His people to STAND and BUILD HIS KINGDOM through proclamation of His Word.

When the Prophet Jeremiah spoke to Judah – a Judah that had departed from the Word of God – they would not listen. Jeremiah was ridiculed and mocked as he warned of God’s impending judgment on the nation. Jeremiah said “the Word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long” (Jeremiah 20:8). The Prophet wanted to quit – but God wouldn’t let him. Jeremiah said:

Jeremiah 20:9 (NIV) … if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

When God sent Jonah to preach in the Capital City of Assyria, Nineveh, Jonah tried running away. God had a whale swallow him, and spit him out on the shores of Nineveh. God made Jonah preach the Gospel. After Nineveh repented and turned to Christ, a sullen Jonah asked God why he was made to preach to those people. God told Jonah:

Jonah 4:11 (NKJV) … should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left …

There were 120,000 children in Nineveh – young children – who could not tell their left from their right hand. Jesus loves the children! If Nineveh was destroyed in the judgment of God, those children would have died as well. Our God is not willing that any perish, but that all come to eternal life through Christ!

The devil hates that!

When the early Christian Church began witnessing and growing adherents, the Sanhedrin, the Ruling Council of 70 and the High Priest demanded they stop speaking of Jesus. Peter told them,

Acts 5:29 (NKJV) We ought to obey God rather than men.

This infuriated the Council, who decided to kill Peter and the other Apostles. When the Council was debating this, Rabbi Gamaliel stood up and said:

Acts 5:38-39 (NKJV) … keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; 39 but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God

If God is in it, and the righteous grow, the city grows and rejoices. But if God is NOT in it, then the wicked grow, the darkness grows, and the city begins to stumble and fall.

If there are no justified people living and speaking out for Christ and righteousness, then as the wicked perish, there is shouting. There is anarchy – and we have seen it in America many, many times.

In our country the First Amendment to our Constitution states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

In America our Constitution allows the people to speak out, and to speak freely. And yet, as we get farther and farther from God, we are seeing more and more restriction of free speech, or illegal expansion of free speech.

Illustrate: When a young black man named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a white man, George Zimmerman. Though Zimmerman was tried and acquitted for murder and manslaughter, and investigated for three years by the Department of Justice which found no evidence for further prosecution, the aftermath sparked riots and destruction throughout the nation. Rather than peaceful protest, groups of protesters vandalized and burned private and public property. The later unjust deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd again set off another wave of vandalism and destruction. Public statues and commemorative plaques were torn down and destroyed while law enforcement was commanded to look the other way. “As the wicked perish there is shouting” A nation without God is a nation soon to lose all its freedoms and prosperity. We have seen anarchy. We will see more if the Gospel is not proclaimed.

Without God’s Word As A Moral Compass,
We Mistreat Others

Proverbs 11:12 He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.

The lost person has no genuine love for his or her neighbor. TheEvolutionist that teaches that humanity is no more than an animal, derived from lower animals, rejects any concept of God or Divine Design. Thus morality is a social construct. Man is a “primate” much like the Ape (Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orangutan, Gibbon). Darwinism teaches “survival of the fittest”, and that man outgrew the ape to compete with and control the environment. If children are taught that all humans are animals, then why shouldn’t we indiscriminately enjoy sex, bully, attack the weaker, fight to the top, and do whatever we feel is best to enjoy our own life? Though 70 different people suggested human evolution between 1748 and 1859, Charles Darwin published On The Origin of Species and popularized the Theory of Evolution. It was Darwin himself who suggested that – if evolution were true – then human morality also evolves. He wrote:

“With me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy. Would any one trust in the convictions of a monkey’s mind, if there are any convictions in such a mind?” (The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, 1:285)

Biblical Apologist Frank Turek noted:

“If evolution is the source of morality, then what’s to stop morals from evolving (changing) to the point that one day rape, theft, and murder are considered moral?” (Frank Turek, “Evolution Cannot Explain Morality,” Cross Examined Blog, July 1, 2008)

When we teach in school that we evolved from lower primates and are in fact primates, animals, and allow our children to play video games where people are killed by their hand, then why is it a surprise when there are school shootings and other atrocities against humanity?

When you take God and the Ten Commandments out of society and promote the concept that we are only evolved animals, then life becomes cheap.

Why not eat humans without guilt if they are only animals – wolves will eat other wolves, Polar Bears eat each other when seals are hard to find. Tiger sharks, hamsters, rats, hippos – in fact 1500 species of animals practice cannibalism. If we are only animals, why bury our dead? If you are outraged, you should be.

We are not animals.
We are created in God’s image.
We are given dominance by God over His planet.

Genesis 1:27-28 (NKJV) God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

If we are mere animals, then “He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor”. But to the Christian we know that humans are not animals, but are made in God’s Image. So we respect life. We love others, as we want to be loved.

People Need The Lord Jesus

Proverbs 11:13-14 A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. 14 Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

People need someone to confide in, someone who will listen to them as they share their troubles – and yet will NOT broadcast their troubles. There is nothing worse than sharing a hurt or a need with someone, and then have them carry your secret to others.

This is the gossip, the TALEBEARER.

The gossip or the talebearer causes division in the community in order to themselves feel superior to their victim. God commanded Israel:

Leviticus 19:16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor: I am the LORD.

To “stand against the blood of thy neighbor” or more literally “take a stand against the life of your neighbor” (NKJV) means to tell a lie about someone that can ruin their life, either literally or figuratively. You may not actually have someone killed, but by spreading falsehoods about someone you can destroy their reputation. This was done to Jesus by the Pharisees when He stood trial before the High Priest.

Matthew 26:59-60 (ESV) … the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward…

The talebearer does Satan’s work, and hinders the Gospel of Christ. People need the Lord. They need a faithful Counselor Who will never leave them nor forsake them. When we read “in the multitude of counselors there is safety”, this is another way of saying “two heads are better than one”. But the best Head is Jesus. Our Lord Jesus is called:

Isaiah 9:6 (ESV) … Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus listens to His people. He “never leaves nor forsakes us” (Hebrews 13:5), and promises to stay with His sheep “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Every person needs the Lord. The gods the world follows will eventually consume them, but those who follow Christ find His promise to be true:

John 10:9-11 (ESV) I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

May God bless you richly through His Word, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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What Is The Gospel?

Posted on August 21, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Jesus The True Savior
Photo by Alan Bowman on Unsplash

Romans 1:1-6 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

Opening: A Pastor preached on the Grace of God one Sunday. As he stood at the door following the service, an elderly man came up to him and shook his hand. He said “Pastor, your sermon really struck home! It perfectly illustrated the grace and love of God.” The Pastor was thrilled, and said, “Wonderful brother. How did my sermon show you the grace and love of God?” The man said, “Your sermon passed all understanding, and it seemed like it endured forever!”

Hopefully this sermon won’t “pass all understanding” or seem to “endure forever”. Last week we learned how Saul the Church Persecutor became Paul the Church builder.How did Saul become Paul? He met the Lord Jesus Christ on Damascus Road and, calling upon His Name, the Name of Jesus, Saul became Paul. He was changed, gloriously changed. Before Saul met Christ, he was a giver of death. After meeting Jesus, Paul was a giver of life.

Saul became Paul when he was “separated {made a Saint} unto the Gospel of God”

What is the “Gospel”? The word “GOSPEL” is the Greek euangelion (pronounced yoo-ang-ghel’-ee-on), which literally means “The GOOD NEWS”. Everyone knows what “good news” is, though we rarely hear it today. The Bible gives us bad news in that “God is Perfect, and yet we are far from perfect. We are all broken, and are born into this world sinners.” But the GOOD NEWS – the GOSPEL – is that God has provided a way to fix us in our brokenness.

Our text tells us that:

Romans 1:1-2 the gospel of God, 2 (Which HE HAD PROMISED afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

The Gospel is the fulfillment of God’s PROMISE to us.

Romans 1:3 Concerning HIS SON JESUS CHRIST our Lord

God offers the Gospel through His handpicked PERSON.

And thirdly,

Romans 1:6 Among whom ARE YE ALSO THE CALLED of Jesus Christ

God sets apart a Kingdom PEOPLE as His own through the Gospel.

Let’s break this down from His Holy Word:

The Gospel is the fulfillment of God’s PROMISE to us.

Let’s look at verses 1 and 2 again:

Romans 1:1-2 the gospel of God, 2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

The Gospel is a promise that God made to humanity – to whosoever would accept it – from the very beginning of our creation. The Gospel was “promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures”. As Paul writes this, the only “HOLY SCRIPTURES” that exist are the Old Testament prophetic writings. Paul wants us to understand that the Gospel is not some “Hail Mary, last ditch desperation pass”, but the Gospel has ALWAYS been God’s plan and purpose for us. The Apostle Peter will tell us that the Gospel and the Messiah …

1 Peter 1:20 (KJV) … was foreordained BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD ..

The Gospel is not God’s Plan B, but it is God’s Plan A.

The Gospel is not God’s backup plan because the first plan didn’t work. The Gospel is God’s plan from the beginning of creation. Our God is ALL KNOWING as well as ALL MIGHTY. When God made Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, God made Adam perfect and gave him a perfect free will. God made Adam and Eve, speaking within His Trinity:

Genesis 1:26-28 (NKJV) .. God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it …

Adam and Eve were given very clear instructions. Though they were not gods themselves, they were God’s Representatives. What this first Man and Woman did would impact all of creation. Before God created Eve, He made Adam. And God told Adam:

Genesis 2:16-17 (NKJV) … the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Notice the EXACT wording that God gave to Adam. God told Adam not “IF you eat of the forbidden you shall surely die”, but “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”.

God created Adam knowing that the Serpent, that old devil (Revelation 20:2) would creep into the Garden and tempt Adam. God knew that Adam would eat of that which was forbidden.

Our God knows all things BEFORE they occur – He is all knowing. “God is greater than our heart, and knows all things” (1 John 3:20). The Psalmist said, “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.”James, the Pastor of the early Church at Jerusalem told us “Known to God from eternity are all His works” (Acts 15:18). God knew that Adam was going to fail, that Adam would choose to follow the serpent rather than His directive. When Adam fell, it was not a surprise to God. He knew it was coming.

The Gospel is Plan A.

The Gospel teaches us that WE ARE NOT GODS, though we are MADE in His image. The Fall came because Adam assumed the role of not husband and gardener, but God!

The Bible says in Romans 5:12 (KJV) … by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned

Adam freely chose the Serpent and the human worldview over God’s Word, and brought sin and death into the world. After Adam’s sin God makes His PROMISE of the GOSPEL to the Serpent, that Old Devil:

Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

The first promise in the Bible is the promise God made to Adam, “In the day you eat of it, you shall SURELY DIE”. The second promise in the Bible is the promise God made to the devil, the promise of the Gospel. God promised that “the seed of the woman” would attack the serpent, “bruising His heel”. His attack would hurt Him, but not be fully fatal or life ending. But the serpent, that Old Devil, his “head would be bruised”. The head is where knowledge and wisdom are stored. It is where thinking comes from. Satan’s word and his worldview would be crushed by the heel of the Messiah. The intent and promise of the Gospel is to destroy the works of the devil, to free mankind from sin.

The Promise of the Gospel was not just to Adam and Eve, not just to the Jews or to any one nation of people. The Gospel promise is to whosoever will.

God told Abraham, the father of faith:

Genesis 22:17-18 (NKJV) … blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because YOU HAVE OBEYED MY VOICE.

God promised Eve that her “Seed” would be the bringer of the Gospel. God promised Abraham that his “Seed”, Israel, would be “as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore”. But God went on to promise that out of Israel would come the Messenger of the Gospel. This Gospel was not just for one people, but God said “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”.

A wayward prophet called Balaam who had often turned to sorcery was filled with the Spirit of God one day. Through this broken Balaam God promised:

Numbers 24:17 (NKJV) I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.

Jacob, also known as Israel, is the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. God promised that “A Star shall come out of Jacob”. The Light of God would come from Jacob’s seed. A Ruler or “A Scepter shall rise out of Israel”. This Messiah Who will rise will bring Light into the world, and defeat the forces of darkness and sinfulness. As time passed, God refined the Promise of the Gospel and of the Messiah more and more.

Isaiah 11:1 – The Messiah would come from the line of Jesse
Jeremiah 23:5-6 – The Messiah will be from the line of David
Micah 5:2 – The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem
Isaiah 7:14 – The Messiah would be virgin born
Jeremiah 31:15 An Evil King will try and kill the infant Messiah
Hosea 11:1 God would hide the Messiah in Egypt

God promised the Messiah would come, and when He came, He would bring a message of salvation to both Jews and Gentiles. God showed the Messiah to Isaiah, who wrote God’s Words:

Isaiah 42:1-4 (ESV) Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. 2 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. 3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; 4 he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.

Over and over again God promised the salvation of mankind through the Gospel. The Messiah that God chose will bring the Gospel.

Consider the Old Testament to be a puzzle, a 300-400 piece puzzle. When all the pieces of prophecy are put together, they are the picture of Jesus Christ!

God offers the Gospel through His uniquely
handpicked PERSON, Jesus Christ

Romans 1:3-4 Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

When Adam sinned and spiritually died (in the day that you eat of it you shall SURELY die) he and his children became separated from God by our sin nature. God told humanity:

Leviticus 17:11 (ESV) … the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.

The Gospel requires a Sacrifice, One Who will stand in for the sinner and pay the penalty of death that Adam brought on all.

Sin had to be ATONED for, that is COVERED by the sacrifice of the blood of an innocent. A sinner could not pay for a sinners sin. That would be trading evil for evil, soiled for soiled. God established the animal sacrifices to “atone” or “temporarily cover” the sins of humanity, as it was NOT the animal that sinned in Eden but Adam. Animals were not guilty of the sin that brought death into the world. Animals cannot permanently pay for our sins.

A Perfect Person had to come and fulfill the promise that God made. This Perfect Person is Jesus Christ. God promised King David:

2 Samuel 7:12-14 (NKJV) When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son.

Out of the line of King David, God would raise up a Messiah, One Who would rule forever. This Messiah would be the Son of God. He would enter this world as “the SEED OF THE WOMAN”, a Man virgin born. The Prophet Isaiah said of the Messiah:

Isaiah 7:14 (NKJV) … the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6-7 (NKJV) For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

This Person is Jesus Christ our Lord. He came preaching the Gospel to those who would hear Him. Jesus would go about doing good, not evil, and no sin would ever be found in Him. Jesus was sinless:

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV) {God} made {Jesus} who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Hebrews 4:15 (NKJV) {Jesus} was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

1 Peter 2:22 (NKJV) {Jesus} … committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”

Jesus had to be innocent of sin, or His Blood could not ATONE or COVER our sin. A sinner cannot pay for the sins of a sinner, no more than a beggar can pay off the debts of another beggar. No one born outside of Jesus can claim to be sinless. But Jesus – Eternal God in human form – is absolutely sinless, for He is God incarnate. Jesus was “made of the seed of David according to the flesh”. Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power”. As He went from town to town, Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, gave sight to the blind, and caused those who were lame to walk.

Jesus also did something no one else could do.
Jesus forgave sins.

No one can forgive sins but God, but sins are an offense against God. I cannot forgive an offense against someone else, nor can you. We can only forgive the offense against us. We read this in…

Matthew 9:1-7 He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city. 2 Then behold, they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you.” 3 And at once some of the scribes said within themselves, “This Man blasphemes!” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”— then He said to the paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 7 And he arose and departed to his house.

Jesus had the power on earth to forgive sins. Why? Because He is the Son of God, God the Son. Jesus was:

Romans 1:4 … declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead

God fulfilled the promise of the Gospel by sending a Perfect Person, His own Son. Jesus proved Himself God by the healing miracles He did. But He also proved Himself “by the resurrection from the dead”. To fulfill the promise that He made, God had to give His only Begotten Son over to death, a horrid death on the Cross. While on the Cross the Blood of Christ was poured out as our sins were poured out on Him and judged.

The Person Who fulfills the Promise of the Gospel is Jesus Christ. The Bible says:

Romans 10:9-11 (NKJV) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

John 3:15-16 (NKJV) whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Laying His life down, dying on the Cross of Calvary, Jesus fulfilled the promise of the Gospel. It is only through Christ that the Gospel is possible. There is no salvation without Jesus being your Lord and Savior.

God sets apart a KINGDOM PEOPLE as
His own through the Gospel.

Illustrate: One of the saddest things I’ve heard was of the death of Matthew Perry. Matthew became famous as one of the stars on NBC’s show called Friends. He appeared on many other television shows, starred in numerous movies, and was a creator, writer, and executive producer. Addicted to drugs and alcohol, he died last October (28th, 2023) at only 54 years old due to “acute effects of ketamine”. In short, he took a drug that was originally intended for veterinary medicine as an anesthesia, and he overdosed on that drug. This was not the first time this happened. In 2020 his heart stopped for 5 minutes, and the doctor that revived him broke eight of his ribs. Prior to that he suffered a “burst colon brought about by opioid abuse”.

Matthew said that “I believe there is a higher power. I have a very close relationship with Him that’s helped me a lot.” When he moved to Hollywood and began auditioning Matthew said he prayed: [sic] “That prayer was, ‘Please God, make me famous. You can do anything you want to me; just make me famous. Three weeks later, I got ‘Friends’ – and God did not forget about the second part.”

I do not know where Matthew is now, and cannot make that judgment. But I believe that the fruit of his life and of his religion is very similar to what many people label as “Christian” or “Religious” today. When Matthew entered drug rehab in 2001, he said that his decision came during “a very lovely spiritual moment. I realize(d), I’ve got to go save myself. I got on the phone and called the people who were willing to help me.” Matthew labeled himself as a “seeker”.

Beloved, you do not need to be a “seeker”. Jesus Christ is the Seeker. He is seeking you. Not to make you famous, but to bring you into His Kingdom. Not to make you a stand out, but to claim you as one of His beloved sheep. Jesus did not come and give His life on Calvary so that you could be glorified. He gave His life on Calvary so you could be saved from a life of hell, and a future life of hell.

Life without Jesus is HELL! Life with Jesus is Heaven!

God PROMISED the Gospel. God raised up a PERSON – Jesus Christ – to fulfill the Gospel. The intent of the Gospel – it’s target – is to raise up a people who follow God and honor His Kingdom, His Rule.

Romans 1:5-6 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for OBEDIENCE to the faith among all nations, for his name: 6 Among whom are ye also THE CALLED of Jesus Christ

Jesus CALLS us. He SEEKS us. We do not seek Him, but He seeks us. What does the Bible say? “We love Him, because He FIRST loved us” (1 John 4:19). God does not save us so we can continue in our sins. Christ saves us from our sins, from the hell our sins bring in our lives. He CALLS us out of Darkness, and “into His marvelous LIGHT” (1 Peter 2:9). Our final verse says:

Romans 1:7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ does not call you to His side as an addict. He calls the addict to repent, to trust in Him. Then Jesus cleans up the addict. There are no “saved practicing addicts”, no more than there are “saved practicing murderers” or “saved practicing rapists”. When you come to Jesus, you are made “born again”. He calls you to His side, and cleanses you. Away with the foolish thoughts that you can be “saved sinners”. The little lamb can and does sin, but runs back to the Great Shepherd when we do so. The sheep can get in the mud, but we do not wallow in it like pigs. We are no longer pigs, but His Sheep, His people. Those who come to Christ are “beloved of God”. He loves us with an infinite love. We are “called to be saints”. The word “saint” means “one set apart, uniquely chosen, dedicated to the Shepherd”. Our identity is not in our fame or our power or our money or in our looks, but in our Jesus Who “has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light”. We are the Children of God, the redeemed of Christ – if we have received Him as He is. Redeemed from the hell that satan offers, we are given “GRACE” and “PEACE”, but only through “our LORD JESUS CHRIST”.

Do you know Him? Have you received Him? He calls you to His side. Do not be a “seeker”, but a “finder”. Find Him Who calls you to salvation today. Do not delay, dear one. There is no joy in this life without a living relationship with God through His Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen.

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Salvation Brings Change

Posted on August 16, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
stair steps to Sanctification
Photo by Mark Ellsworth on Unsplash

Proverbs 11:5-8 The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. 6 The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness. 7 When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth. 8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.

Let’s Start With A Gospel Review

Last Sunday as we started studying the Book of Romans, we talked about the nature of salvation. Salvation is not a “work your way to Heaven” thing. Salvation is a supernatural act of God. Prior to salvation, a person is dead in their trespasses and sins, spiritually dead. We are born into this world as sinners. The Bible says:

Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV) But we are ALL like an unclean thing, And ALL our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We ALL fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

Babies are born into this world innocent and unknowing until they reach the age of accountability. The Jews usually considered this to be around 12-13 years old, when the child goes through a Bar or Bat Mitzvah ceremony. Dr John MacArthur writes:

“There is no “age of accountability” identified in Scripture as such. There is nothing in the Bible that says, “Here is the age and from here on you are responsible!” I think the reason for that is because children mature at different paces. That would be true from culture to culture, and from age to age in history.

So the Lord in His wisdom didn’t identify a specific moment. God knows when each soul is accountable. God knows when real rejection has taken place; when the love of sin exists in the heart. When enmity with God is conscious and willful. God alone knows when that occurs.”

Until the child is able to grasp the concept of God and His infinite holiness, along with our utter inability, the child is “innocent” and unaccountable.

A child who dies in that state goes to be with God because God does not hold the innocent unaccountable. When God caused King David’s infant to die, David said (2 Samuel 12:23, NKJV) “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me”. As a “man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22) David knew that upon death in this life, his soul would go to be with his child in the next life. But this does not mean David’s child was sinless. “we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags”. We are all born sinners. Our “hearts are deceitful above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Romans 3:23 (NKJV) … ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

This is a problem, because God Himself is without sin. Because of this, “Those who are IN THE FLESH CANNOT PLEASE GOD” (Romans 8:8). Though God commands that we “be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2), before we are saved by Grace we not only don’t try to be holy, we don’t want to be holy. The lost are spiritually dead. We must be made spiritually alive. This is what Jesus called “being born again”.

Those who are unregenerate – the technical term for “dead in trespasses and sins” – measure right and wrong by themselves and by human tradition. The regenerate or those who are “born again” have believed on Jesus as Lord and Savior, measure right and wrong by God’s standard, by what God has said. The Apostle Paul talks about this in

Romans 9:30-33 (NKJV) What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. 33 As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

The Gentiles who believed on Jesus attained righteousness because they surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ. Believing Him to be Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit came to them, and they were born again into God’s Kingdom. Once born into God’s Kingdom, the Gentiles relied on God’s Word and Christ’s teaching to define right and wrong. The Jews, however, refused Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Rather than resting on the Rock that is Christ, they rejected the Rock (like many do today) and relied on themselves. As a result God did not send His Spirit, and they were not born again.

I was talking to a man at Cabin Coffee today about Christ. He told me that “there is only one Jesus, but many paths to Him”. I told the man – his name was Bob – that there is but one path to Jesus – the Holy Scripture. The Bible takes us to Jesus, and Jesus takes us to God as Father. Bob disagreed, as all lost people do. Our Lord Jesus warned:

Matthew 7:13-14 (NKJV) Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

The “GATE” to Jesus is the Word of God, the Holy Scripture, our Bible. The “WAY” to God is Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I AM THE WAY, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father BUT BY ME”. The Way is difficult because, once you are “born again” into Christ’s Kingdom by the action of God (see Colossians 1:13), the world will tell you “there are many options”. In fact, the old sin nature still in you will encourage you to turn to other ways and means. But the born again follow their Heavenly Father.

The Born Again Follow Their Heavenly Father

Proverbs 11:5 The righteousness of the Perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

Word Study: What does this text mean in light of the Scripture we have discussed so far? The “righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way”. What directs the way of the Christian? Is it our righteousness, our desires, our thoughts, our choices? Is it our human traditions? No. This text is better translated “righteousness of the Complete, Whole, or Sound shall direct his way”. The Hebrew tâmîym (pronounced taw-meem’) refers to that which is without spot or blemish, what is complete or entirely in accord with truth and fact”. It is God Who is PERFECT and WHOLE within Himself. We are not perfect, but imperfect. Once we are born again, we who are Christ’s walk in His presence, following His Word, the Bible.

We can only be tâmîym when we walk in God’s presence, following God’s Word.

This is what God told Abraham, the father of Faith. He told Abraham:

Genesis 17:1 I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou PERFECT (tâmîym).

When you walk “BEFORE” God, in His Word and in His Way, doing what He clearly tells you to do in Scripture, then you are tâmîym. Before he retired, Joshua told Israel:

Joshua 24:14 (KJV) fear the LORD, and serve him in SINCERITY (tâmîym, perfection, without blemish) and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

We “put away the gods” that we used to serve, and do as God directs – even commands. The “righteousness of the Perfect”, the righteousness that God has established in His Word, directs us. But the lost, the unregenerate follow any path but God’s path. Choosing the wrong path, they shall in time “fall by his own wickedness”.

Those who follow Christ and His Word may at times be discouraged. Those we thought would never leave us have found other paths, other ways to go. We walk against the flow of cultural corruption and social media satanism. But those who are Christ’s follow Christ. Though we battle the flesh as all do, we know that

Galatians 5:24 … (KJV) they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to Jesus. We love Him, so we follow Him, and obey His Word. “Ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s” (1 Corinthians 3:23). God directs our steps, but the lost choose their own path. Though the wicked may seem successful, their days are numbered.

the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.

There is a payday coming. Dr. R.G. Lee in his sermon “Payday Someday” wrote:

“Dr. Meyer says: ‘According to God’s constitution of the world, the wrongdoer will be abundantly punished.’ The fathers sow the wind and the children reap the whirlwind. One generation labors to scatter tares, and the next generation reaps tares and retribution immeasurable. To the individual who goes not the direction God points, a terrible pay-day comes. To the nation which forgets God, payday will come in the awful realization of the truth that the ‘nations which forget God shall be turned into hell.’ When nations trample on the principles of the Almighty, the result is that the world is beaten with many stripes. We have seen nations slide into Gehenna — and the smoke of their torment has gone up before our eyes day and night. To the home that has no room for the Christ, death and grave clothes are certain. ‘Ichabod’ will be written about the church that soft-pedals on unpleasant truth or that stands not unwaveringly for ‘the faith once delivered’ — and it will acknowledge its retribution in that it will become ‘a drifting sepulcher manned by a frozen crew’ ”.

God Leads His People

Proverbs 11:6 The righteousness of the Upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness.

What shall “DELIVER” the Christian, the Disciple of Christ? The “righteousness of the Upright”. This is not our righteousness, but what God has said is right and true.

We are saved by “imputed righteousness”, that is, because Christ is righteous, and we have believed on Christ, His righteousness is placed on our spiritual account.

But once saved we are to “walk in the Light as He is in the Light” (1 John 5:7). We walk in the Light that Christ has given us. Not our Light, but God’s Light. Not our traditions and relative goodness, but in His. The Scripture says:

1 Corinthians 1:27-31 God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But of {God} are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

We who are saved are “DELIVERED” from wasted lives, from the evil effects of wickedness, and from eternal damnation. Yet the lost have this promise from God:

Proverbs 11:6 transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness

The word rendered “NAUGHTINESS” is the Hebrew haûâ (pronounced hav-vaw’), meaning “wickedness, perversity, iniquity, that which is contrary to God’s nature”. The thing which they do, will actually be their undoing. It is what God has set as an eternal truth:

Hosea 10:12 (KJV) Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy …

2 Corinthians 9:6 (KJV) … He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Galatians 6:7-8 (KJV) Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. [8] For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

There are those who profess Christ as Savior, and yet live selfishly. They stay home from a local Church, and live so as to please themselves and not God. They are able to go to Church and worship with their brothers and sisters in Christ, but refuse to do so. They sow haûâ, do as THEY please, and yet expect a harvest of glory at a later date.

If You Are Not Serving The Lord, Your Final Destination
May Not Be Heaven

Proverbs 11:7-8 When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth. 8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.

When a wicked person – one who has not be “born again of the Spirit” leaves this life, their “expectation shall perish”. They expect Heaven, but end up in Hell. They lived their lives selfishly, themselves as the center of attention, and expect to go to a paradise where 70 virgins wait on their every need. Sadly, this is a false expectation. I am reminded of Hugh Hefner, the founder of the porn rag Playboy® who died in 2017. Following his death newspapers carried cartoons of Hefner entering Heaven. That is the expectation of the lost, that God allows all “good” people to go to Heaven. And yet the Bible says:

Revelation 21:8 … the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Those who have no use for Christ’s Church, who think nothing of the Lord until they are in trouble, will one day hear Him say “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity” (Matthew 7:23). The righteous are delivered out of trouble.

Those who are Christ’s fear the Lord, thus they need never fear damnation.

A better rendering of Proverbs 11:8 is:

(NKJV) The righteous is delivered from trouble, And it comes to the wicked instead.

God looks after His Children by faith. But to those who profess Him as Savior and lord, but do not live as if He is Savior and Lord, a payday is coming. Get ready. The Bible says:

2 Timothy 2:19 (KJV) Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

May God touch your hearts with His Word. Amen.

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What Does It Mean To Be Saved?

Posted on August 13, 2024 by bibleteacherorg
Photo by Martin Jernberg on Unsplash

Romans 1:1-6 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ…

What does it mean to be “saved”?

That’s a very important question that you need to answer for yourself. “What do I think “being saved” is?” Some people tie salvation to an action, or a series of actions they consider sacred (sacraments). For instance, you might think you’re saved because you were baptized by a preacher, or you may think you’re saved because you are a member of a church. Some think they are saved because they were born into a Church family.

Let’s look into the future. Imagine that you leave this life, and are standing at the entrance to Heaven. Peter is not there – that’s a fantasy of Catholicism. Do you know Who is at the entrance to Heaven? Jesus gives us a clue. He said in:

John 5:21-22 (ESV) as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son

Jesus said “the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son”. So Who is standing at the entrance to Heaven? It is Jesus Christ. All judgment is committed to the Son. And now Jesus asks you,

“By what right do you enter My Heaven? What makes you worthy to be here?”

How will you answer this? Will you list off a series of things that you did in this life, religious stuff that makes you worthy? Will your Church membership or tithing or attendance, your Bible knowledge, will these things make you worthy to enter? Jesus answers this in the Bible.

Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Do you know what the proper response to Jesus is, if He asks you “why should I allow you in My Heaven?” The answer is, “Lord, I’m not worthy. But when I was on earth, I realized I was a sinner who deserved to be condemned. But I heard that You gave Your life for me on Calvary, that You paid for my sins in full. Jesus, I called on Your name. I confessed my sins, and committed my life to you as Savior and Lord. And I did my best to do what You told me to do. Jesus, I know You”.

That’s the key. Do you know Jesus? I’m not asking if you know the Bible, but do you know Him? Have you surrendered your life to Him? Is He your Savior and Lord? If so, you know Him – and He knows you. Do you seek to obey Him? When you fail, do you ask Him to forgive your sins.

Is YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS part of your life?

The Bible is a great Book, with 66 great Books in it. We’ve just finished studying the Book of Hebrews, and seen how the Old Covenant was replaced with the New Covenant. We will have the Lord’s Table in a few moments, and when we drink of the Cup we will say Jesus’ words:

“Take, drink. This Cup is the NEW COVENANT in My Blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:20, ESV)

The Old Covenant was distinguished by repeated animal sacrifices, but the New Covenant by the Blood of Jesus Christ. “We are BROUGHT NEAR TO GOD by the BLOOD OF CHRIST” (Ephesians 2:13). “If we walk in the Light as Jesus is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST HIS SON cleanses us FROM ALL SIN”. (1 John 1:7). It is Jesus Who “loved us, and WASHED US FROM OUR SINS IN HIS OWN BLOOD” (Revelation 1:5).

It’s all about the relationship. Do you know Him?

Saul Didn’t Know Jesus – But He Knew The Bible
And He Was LOST

The Book of Romans starts with:

Romans 1:1 Paul…

Who was this “Paul”. Before Paul met Jesus, he was “Saul”. Saul was named after the first King of Israel, King Saul. King Saul was a man who started out humble, but because of his position as King he became arrogant. Saul erected a monument to himself at Carmel (1 Samuel 15:12-28), refused to obey God, and made sacrifices as only priests should do. Because of this God told Saul,

“You have rejected My Word, so I reject you as King over Israel”
(1 Samuel 15:26)

He was arrogant. Before he met the Lord and became Paul, Saul was arrogant. He tells us in:

Philippians 3:5-6 {I was} circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Saul was – by every work possible – outwardly a saved man. He was circumcised as a child, dedicated in the Temple on the eighth day. He was of God’s Chosen People Israel. He was “born into the Church”. Saul not only knew his Bible, but he was a “a Pharisee”, of a very strict religious sect. The Pharisees prided themselves on keeping the Law of God perfectly. Saul said, “concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless”. Saul dotted his i’s and crossed his t’s. Saul served on the Sanhedrin, the ruling Council of the Jews – 70 Elders highly respected in Israel.

By every human metric Saul was a saved person, someone who loved God. When the followers of Jesus Christ began to meet in the Temple, the Sanhedrin put out a contract on them. The Sanhedrin tasked Saul with looking for and capturing these “disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1) as they were called at that time.

The name “Christian” was not given to believers in Jesus until the Church was established in Antioch (Acts 11:26). Till then, believers were “disciples of the LORD”.

The Sanhedrin believed these “disciples of the Lord” were evil, blasphemous. The Bible tells us that:

Acts 9:1 (AP) … Saul breathed out threats and murder against the Disciples of the Lord …

As he headed toward Damascus, intent on trapping and killing more “disciples” he met Jesus. Jesus knocked him down on the Damascus Road, and asked him “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:3). When Jesus spoke to him from Heaven

this Saul,
this Hebrew of Hebrews,
this Pharisee,
this Law Keeper,
this member of the Sanhedrin,
this self righteous man cried out,

“Who ARE YOU, Lord?” (Acts 9:5)

He thought he knew God, but Saul didn’t know God. He had all the earmarks of being saved, but he was not saved. He knew the Bible, but did not know the God Who wrote the Bible. He went through all the motions – but missed what mattered most. Saul didn’t know Jesus.

Jesus introduced Himself. “I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5). At this point Saul asks the Lord,

“Lord, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?”
 (Acts 9:6)

That’s when Saul was saved. Saul was saved when he met Jesus, and realized that he was on the wrong path. Saul was saved when he humbled himself before the Lord. How is a person saved?

James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

While Saul was lifted up by his accomplishments, he was arrogant, murderous. He was sure of himself. But meeting Jesus, Saul humbled himself … and the LORD LIFTED HIM UP. That’s where salvation is. That’s how Saul became Paul.

When you meet Jesus and humble yourself before Him as both Savior and Lord, HE WILL LIFT YOU UP. It is His Blood that will save you. It is Christ’s Spirit that will come to you. You will become changed. When you were born, you were given a name by your birth parents. But when you meet Jesus, you will be BORN AGAIN.

Saul becomes Paul. Your life is never the same.

Salvation Is Not Something You Do,
But Something GOD Does

There was a man named Abram. Abram – whose name mean “great father”, had no children, and was not likely to have any children. God comes to Abram one day, and says “If you’ll follow Me – if you’ll do as I say – I will trade your inability to have children with ability. I’ll take what was dead – you and Sarah – and give you life!” Abram started following God. God took Abraham outside one night and said:

Genesis 15:5 …(NKJV) “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And {God} said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

The Bible tells us

Romans 4:3 … Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

When Saul believed in himself, he was Saul. But when Saul met the Lord and believed in the Lord, Saul became Paul. When Abram met the Lord and believed in the Lord, Abram became Abraham – the father of many nations. When you meet Jesus and receive Him as Lord and Savior, He changes you. You become “born again” (John 3:3; 3:7; 1 Peter 1:23). This isn’t something you do, but something God does to you.

Have you met Jesus?

Saul became Paul on meeting Jesus. Abram became Abraham on meeting Jesus. When you come to believe in Jesus, He changes your life.

Romans 1:1 Paul, a SERVANT of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God

Whereas Saul was a persecutor of the Disciples of the Lord, now he becomes a “a SERVANT of Jesus Christ”. Those who are saved serve the Lord. We do not live to serve ourselves, but to glorify Him.

Psalm 100:2 (ESV) Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!

Later on in this Book the Apostle will command us who love Jesus:

Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV) I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The believer in Christ is saved to serve the Lord, to glorify Him with our lives.

Romans 12:10-11 (NKJV) Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord

Like Paul (who was Saul), if we are saved it is to serve the Lord. God told the Church at Thessalonikki,

1 Thessalonians 1:9 … you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

Pastor John Piper notes:

“Over and over again, Paul calls himself and he calls Christians “servants” — literally, “slaves” — of Christ and of God (Romans 1:1; Ephesians 6:6). Peter does the same in 1 Peter 2:16 and 2 Peter 1:1. It is unmistakable. One biblical way of speaking rightly about the relationship to God that we have is to call ourselves servants or slaves of God and of Christ.”

We do not serve God because our service helps us retain our salvation, or our service makes us more saved. We serve God in Christ because we love Him.

He is our Savior, our Lord, our Shepherd. We serve Him because this is the way to true peace and contentment. The world serves itself, chasing after misplaced sexuality, mishandled money, misaligned fame, and misappropriated power. As much as people serve themselves, they are not happy nor content. Why? Because we were not created to serve ourselves or to be our own gods and goddesses. We were created to serve and glorify the Lord Who loves us.

When Saul served the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, and himself, he was not happy nor even content. But when Paul served and glorified the Lord, he began to live the life God designed him for. Jesus said:

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

The “THIEF”, the devil and his demonic worldly system, tells us that we have life by making much of ourselves, putting ourselves in the center of the universe. As Dr. Phil McGraw often asks those he counsels,

“How’s that workin’ out for ya?”

Every time we choose ourselves and selfishness, step back, look at yourself, and ask yourself “How’s that workin’ out for ya?”. God sets before us life and death, light and darkness, good and evil, water and fire. When we serve the Lord Who saved us, we will always walk in the light, in the life, and our lives will be blessed for it. Once Saul surrendered to Jesus, the Lord made him Paul.

Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

Paul didn’t serve himself, but the Lord. Paul stopped working for the Sanhedrin, and as an Apostle worked for the Savior. Saul was separated unto self righteousness. Paul is now “separated unto the gospel of God”. He is not a dead man walking – which is what he was – but is now a Child of God by faith in Christ. He is a Temple of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

The name “Paul” means “Little, Small”. Saul was big, filled with self. Paul is little, but serves an immense God!

Romans 1:2-3 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures,) 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord …

Saul used the Scriptures, twisting them to build up himself and the Pharisees whom he associated with. But Paul realized the Scriptures were all about Jesus. He stopped twisting the Scripture, and began to read the Scripture. Jesus told the Pharisees:

John 5:37-39 (NKJV) … the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. 38 But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these {scriptures} are they which testify of Me.

You can know the Bible, but not know the Lord.

Do You Know The Lord Jesus?
Does He Know You?

What did God do to save us? Let’s break it down.

Romans 1:3 Concerning HIS Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was MADE of the seed of David ACCORDING TO THE FLESH

Word Study: Jesus Christ is HIS Son, the Son of God. God MADE His Son flesh. Eternal God became temporal but perfect Man. Jesus was “MADE”, the Greek ginomai (pronounced ghin’-om-ahee) which means to move from one state to another state, to come into being or come onto the stage”. Jesus is the One of Whom the Scripture says, “the Word was WITH GOD, and the Word WAS GOD, the Same was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-3). Eternal God the Son lowered Himself to walk among us.

Romans 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with POWER, according to the Spirit of holiness …

Jesus walked on this earth, casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, doing that which only God could do. Jesus did this through the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:28). Jesus lived a perfect life on this earth. Then He laid down His life for your sins and mine.

1 Peter 1:18-19 (NKJV) … you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

The Lamb of God, Jesus, went to Calvary for you. He died for your sins and mine. Buried, He paid our penalty in full.

Romans 1:4 … by the resurrection from the dead:

But Jesus rose from the grave, and offers His Grace to whosoever will believe on Him. He calls to all, and bids us come, surrendered, to follow Him both now and forever.

Romans 1:5-6 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

Jesus Christ gives us salvation by Grace. We are saved by His hand, not ours. But once saved, we are called to “obedience to the faith”. That is the life He calls us to. Do you know Him? Does He know you? If not, I beg you, turn to Him in faith today. As Saul did, ask Him to reveal Himself to you. And once you see Him as He is – both Savior and Lord – ask Him, “Lord, what would You have me to do?”

Through His Spirit His Gospel calls. Amen and Amen.

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