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The Great Ark Of God

Posted on October 3, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Jose Vasquez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-doing-christian-baptism-on-the-water-4400997/

1 Peter 3:18-22 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

Our God Is Always Faithful

It should not surprise you if I tell you people make mistakes, that people are fallible, and prone to evil. Yet God never makes mistakes. People can be ignorant, dense even, but God knows all things. He is ever faithful, ever dependable, ever trustworthy, and very precise. His precision is seen in the Heavens, in their clockwork movement, in their complexity. It amazes me that people are constantly looking for space aliens and ufo’s, but will not look around the beauty of this earth and see God’s handiwork. Only a fool would look at creation and ascribe it to random chance. The Bible says:

Psalm 14:1-3 (ESV) The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

To do good is to look around you, to look up, to see the clear design of the Creator’s loving hand, and to rejoice that He cares so much for us. Of the thousands of worlds that are seen by astrologers, only earth has been so blessed by God. It is here that He planted us, it is here that He loves us.

Yet sometimes love MUST punish. If a cancer grows in your body, you allow the doctor to attack it, to poison it, to excise it. So it is with sin. Sin is a moral and physical evil that kills what it clings to.

We “wink” at sin today, but sin is a horrible thing. Sin separates us from God. Why is that dangerous? Because God is the Source of life. Life and light are in God. I came across this great truth the other day – and it is true because it is scriptural.

Illustrate: When God wanted to create GREEN things – plants and trees – He spoke to the EARTH. He said “Let the EARTH sprout” (Genesis 1:11) and the earth brought forth trees and grass, plants of all types. When God wanted to create FISH He spoke to the WATERS. He said, “Let the WATERS swarm” (Genesis 1:20) and the waters brought forth the fish and sea creatures. But when God created humanity, HE SPOKE TO HIMSELF (Genesis 1:26). He said “Let US make mankind in our image, after our likeness”. If you take a tree out of the EARTH, it will die. If you take a fish out of the WATERS, it will die. If you take a person out of GOD, that person will die. God is the Source of human life!

Jesus Christ did not come to this earth just to be an example to us. We are told:

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God

Jesus did not just die to bring us to Heaven. So many people think this is the end all and be all of salvation, but this is not true. Jesus did not get His ticket punched so you can get free admission to Heaven. Jesus died on Calvary – died a horrible death – “that he might bring us to God”. God sent His Only Begotten Son to this earth to offer a way to…

cover our sins (atonement),
conquer our sins (indwelling Holy Spirit),
CARRY us into the Family of God.

Why do we need to be in union with God? Because to be in union with sin and Satan is death. “The wages of SIN is DEATH” (Romans 6:23). As SIN spreads, like cancer it brings DEATH. God does not want this. He said:

Ezekiel 33:11 (ESV) … As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die ?

I have often read those passages in the Old Testament where God sent Israel into an area or a town, and told His people “You must completely destroy them – the Hethite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite ….” (Deuteronomy 20:16-18). Or where God said, “Go and attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. Do not spare them. Kill men and women, infants and nursing babies, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.” (1 Samuel 15:3). I read these things and shudder in my soul. How horrible this must be! And yet, God has said “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked”. If God is love, then how can we reconcile the deaths of whole people groups – with their animals – with the loving character of God? Dear one, it is simply this.

Sin is a cancer, a departure from the life that should be in God.
Cancer unchecked will destroy a body.
Sin unchecked will destroy a world!

God did not choose destruction as the first course in dealing with the wicked. If they would not repent, then He ordered them “driven out” (Exodus 23:29; Leviticus 18:24; Numbers 33:52), lest their sin spread through His Church. God did not drive out people because of their ethnicity. If you look in Chapter 1 of Matthew at the lineage of Christ, you will see in Christ’s lineage several believing Gentiles:

Tamar the Canaanite
Rahab the Midianite
Ruth the Moabite

God is not racist. He loves all people. But God is against sin, regardless as to your color or nationality. Yet you will not come to God unless you come through Jesus. God is FAITHFUL, and in His FAITHFULNESS He sent Jesus Christ to this earth to die for our sins and rise from the grave to lead us to God.

The devil has fought to keep us from this great truth.

The Devil Fought It, But God Is Faithful!

1 Peter 3:18-20 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

Word Study: To bring us to God our Lord Jesus was “put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit”. The word “quickened” is the Greek zōopoieō, which means “was made alive, restored to life”. The Bible tells us that it is “God Who brings to life the dead” (Romans 4:17). When Jesus went to the Cross, He did not just swoon or pass out. He literally DIED. His body lost all of his soul and spirit. He was dead, inspected as dead by executioners. When the executioner pierced His side, “blood and water (John 19:34) came out”. Jesus was dead. He was cleansed, wrapped in linen, and put in a sealed tomb. He was dead. He died for our sins. Then God the Holy Spirit brought Him back to life. Why? This was God’s assertion that Jesus Christ ALONE is the Messiah, the One and Only Who can bring us to God. We are told that Jesus was “quickened by the Spirit”. But now our God – through the Apostle Peter – takes us down a strange road. He says:

vs 19 By which {Spirit} also He {Jesus} went and preached unto the spirits in prison

Word Study: Following His death and resurrection Jesus took a “field trip” for God. He “went and preached unto the spirits in prison”. The word “prison” is the Greek phylakē, which means “a place watched over, a place where someone is guarded, a holding area”. What is our Lord telling us? These “spirits in prison” are tied to the Flood of Noah, for we are told

vs 20 Which sometime {pote, literally “in times past”} were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah

These “spirits in prison” are in prison because of what the did “in the days of Noah”. So what is our Lord telling us? To understand this, we have to go back to the beginning, back to Genesis. Directly following the fall of humanity – a fall engineered by “that Old Serpent, the Devil, called Satan” (Revelation 12:9; 20:2) – God told Satan:

Genesis 3:15 I {God} will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

God told Satan that He would send a “Seed of the woman” Who would “bruise” his HEAD, but that “Seed” would have only a “bruised” HEEL. I’ve seen street fights before when a person gets knocked down on the ground, and the person standing stomps down on the fallen’s HEAD. The person standing may limp away, but the one whose head was stomped doesn’t get up.

God promised Satan that his head would be
stomped by the coming “Seed of the Woman”.

Satan has no desire to get his head stomped – so he started working. He watched the woman Eve. When she had a son named “Cain”, Satan watched Cain and his brother Abel. Abel loved the Lord, for Jesus called him “RIGHTEOUS ABEL” (Matthew 23:35). We are told in Hebrews 11:4, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous”. Satan watched the brothers, and enticed Cain to sin rather than repent (Genesis 4:7). When Cain killed Abel I suspect Satan felt relief. He had killed the “Seed of the Woman” by killing the lineage of Christ. Yet our God is FAITHFUL (1 Corinthians 1:9; 10:13). The Bible says:

Genesis 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

The Hebrew “Seth” means “the substitute”. Satan wanted to cut off the lineage of Christ, but his efforts failed. As you go forward in the Bible history you come next to the Flood of Noah. What brought about this Great Flood? The Bible tells us:

Genesis 6:2 … the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

The righteous of God compromised and blended with the unrighteous. The Bible says “GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). What caused this massive spread of evil?

(1) The LIGHT of God’s Children blended with the DARKNESS of the lost.
(2) Satan inspired angels – those who joined him in rebellion against God – fanned the flame of evil.

Wickedness progressed to the point where God decided to “destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air” (Genesis 6:7). Yet “Noah found GRACE in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:8). For 120 years Noah built an Ark as God decreed, and for 120 years God gave mankind a chance to repent. Yet mankind would not repent. So only 8 souls were saved on that Ark from out of humanity. But the lineage of Christ was on that Ark.

What about those “Spirits” that were involved in the days of Noah. The Bible tells us in:

Jude 6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

Word Study: The fallen angels that “left their own habitation” are thought by many to be angels that “possessed” the lost during the time of Noah. As the Flood destroyed all but eight souls, the angels that “left their own habitation” were imprisoned by God in a place called “Tartaroō”. This is also written of in:

2 Peter 2:4-5 God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to HELL {Tartaroō}, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

There is an interesting place in Luke 8 where Jesus visits an area in Gadarenes to address a demon possessed man. The Bible says that the demons that possessed him – fallen angels – called themselves “Legion” (Luke 8:30). Now we come across an interesting statement:

Luke 8:31 And THEY {Legion begged Jesus} that He would not COMMAND them to go out into the DEEP {Greek abyssos}.

Word Study: The Greek abyssos means “the Abyss, the Bottomless Pit”. This is a reference to Tartaroō, the place where the angels that contributed to the corruption that led to the Great Flood are imprisoned. Legion begged Jesus not to send it there. This Bottomless Pit is mentioned again in Revelation 9, when these demons are released on the earth during the Great Tribulation to hurt those “which have not the seal of God in their foreheads” (Revelation 9:4). Those trapped in Tartaroō are horrible creatures, creatures that sought to destroy Christ’s lineage. Yet God is faithful.

The Devil Sought Our Damnation,
But God Our Salvation

Though Satan was thwarted at the Great Flood, and God protected the lineage of Christ, he did not stop trying to destroy the Plan of Salvation. When God promised to Abraham:

Genesis 12:2-3 … I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Satan heard what God said. God was going to bring “The Seed of the Woman” through Abraham, through Israel. So many years later when Israel was in Egypt, Satan moved in the heart of the King to decree:

Exodus 1:16 (AP) … If you mid-wives see a Hebrew woman giving birth, if she bears a MALE child, KILL IT – but if a daughter, then she shall live …

When the mid-wives failed to do this, the King extended his decree. “Every SON that is born, you will cast him into the river” (Exodus 1:22). Yet God prevailed, and raised up Moses to lead Israel from that demon infested place. The lineage of Christ was preserved.

Go forward a few more years. God decides to bring the “Seed of the woman” through David, a lowly Shepherd. David’s line is the Line of Judah. The Bible tells us that when King Ahaziah of Judah died, his mother Athaliah decided she would rule Israel. What did she do next?

2 Kings 11:1-3 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family. 2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram (the 9th King of Northern Israel, see 2 Kings 8:16, 25-28), sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah … put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death. 3 And he remained with her six years, hidden in the house of the Lord, while Athaliah reigned over the land.

Word Study: What better place to hide the lineage of Christ than in the Temple of God. The devil won’t go there! The line of Christ was down to just one righteous person – “Joash” – but Satan did not triumph. The name “Joash” (Hebrew Yôʼâsh) means “given by the Lord”. Satan tried, and failed again. Our God is faithful.

Is Satan done? No, he’s not. When the Wise Men come to Israel looking for the young Jesus, they stop in at the palace of Herod (Matthew 2:1-7). Herod told them that, if they would find Jesus and come back and tell him about it, that Herod would go and worship the Lord. God knew the intent of Herod’s heart, and warned Joseph to flee to Egypt with his family (Matthew 2:13-15). When the wise men didn’t return to Herod, the Bible says:

Matthew 2:16 (ESV) Herod … became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

But Jesus – the “Seed of the Woman” – was safely in Egypt while this horrible thing happened. Satan wanted Jesus gone. He did not want his head crushed. But once more, he was thwarted by the Lord.

When Jesus came of age, and was ready to begin His ministry, the Bible says that:

Matthew 4:1 … (ESV) Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

During one of those temptations we are told that:

Matthew 4:5-6 (ESV) … the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

The devil quoted Psalm 91:11-12, a prophecy of the coming Christ, hoping that Jesus would jump from this great height, killing Himself. If Jesus took the bait, the “Seed of the Woman” would not come, and Satan could continue to rule this earth. Yet Jesus was and is God Incarnate, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Jesus quoted Scripture back to Satan, “You shall not test God” (Numbers 14:22; Deuteronomy 6:16; Psalm 78:18, 41, 56; Psalm 95:9; 106:14). Satan did all he could to destroy the “Seed of the Woman”. This is the pattern he has followed from the fall of Adam till now. We are told of Satan’s attacks in

Revelation 12:1-5 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne …

The pregnant woman is the nation Israel, from whom Christ would come. The “great red dragon” whose tail swept down a third of the “stars of heaven” is Satan, who led a third of the angels in revolt against God. Israel gave birth to the “Seed of the Woman” through the virgin named Mary. Satan did his best to destroy Jesus, to kill Him before He crushed Satan’s head – but could not catch Him.

It amuses me when people are scared of Satan. You should be frightened of him, and of sin, just as you should avoid poison ivy or a rattler. But Satan is no more than a created being. If Satan couldn’t destroy Jesus, maybe he could modify what Jesus was going to do. The Bible tells us that:

Matthew 16:21-23 (NASB) … Jesus began to point out to His disciples that it was necessary for Him to go to Jerusalem and to suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised up on the third day. 22 And yet Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You!” 23 But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s purposes, but men’s.”

Jesus MUST go to the Cross. Jesus MUST be bruised, and beaten. Jesus MUST suffer the humiliation of Calvary. Jesus MUST bear the penalty of our sin as He dies, suffering immeasurably, upon that Tree. Only the Seed of the Woman can do what He is going to do.

And He does it. Jesus hangs on that Cross. The sun darkens. He cries out. “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46). He knows why, but the pain makes Him cry out, just as pain makes us cry out. Why? Why? Satan watches from the sidelines, his agent Judas Iscariot watching. An innocent Man is being crucified between two thieves. Satan has surely won. What does the Scripture say?

James 1:15 (AP) When LUST has conceived, it brings forth SIN, and SIN “WHEN IT IS FINISHED” brings forth DEATH

Satan has won! The Evil Won has triumphed. The “Seed of the Woman” will no longer be a problem. Then what happens? We are told:

John 19:30 … {Jesus} said, “IT IS FINISHED”, and bowed His head, and GAVE UP THE GHOST …

But before Hell could celebrate the death of Christ, the Bible says that “when Jesus gave up His spirit …

Matthew 27:52-54 (NASB) …the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. 52 Also the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; 53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. 54 Now as for the centurion {, he said…} “Truly this WAS the Son of God!”

Satan thought Jesus was done. But He wasn’t done. Dying, we read that …

1 Peter 3:19-20 {Jesus} went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime {pote, literally “in times past”} were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah

The demons bound in Tartaroō thought that they had beaten Jesus. But He came, and “preached” unto those fallen creatures. Why do you think He preached? I believe He preached “God is FAITHFUL. God is TRUE. God cannot be thwarted. God is in control!”.

Why Does God Bring Water Baptism In At This Point?

1 Peter 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Water baptism is “the answer of a good conscience toward God”. What does Water baptism symbolize? It is symbolic of the Noahic Flood. When the rain fell, the water would be the judgment of God that destroyed the unbeliever. The BELIEVER GOT ON THE ARK of God. The BELIEVER did not try to swim through the flood, but GOT ON THE ARK. As the judgment of God fell, that same judgment raised the believer above the water unto safety. If you have received Jesus Christ as BOTH your Lord and your Savior, your resting in Him will raise you above the judgment of God. The “Seed of the Woman” Jesus Christ will destroy death and the devil for you – but you must receive Him. Do not believe you can escape judgment if you reject Christ. The demons in Tartaroō probably thought that, upon Christ’s death, that they would be freed from prison. They were not, and will not be until God frees them. God is faithful! God is true!

1 Peter 3:22 {Jesus} is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him.

He has crushed Satan’s head! He is Lord! Jesus Christ is the Great Ark of God. Is He YOUR Lord and Savior? If not, today is the best time to call upon His Name and be saved. May God the Holy Spirit draw you to His side. Amen and Amen.

Posted in 1 Peter, General, Sermons Preached | Tagged Christ, Following Christ, Jesus Christ, love God, salvation | Leave a comment

You are gods

Posted on September 29, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brass-colored-balance-scale-on-a-lawyer-s-table-6077961/

John 10:30-38 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

Two Wrongs Never Make A Right!

When Jesus said,

vs 30 I and my Father are one.

The Pharisees picked up stones to “to stone” Jesus. This is one of the two times they sought to kill Jesus by throwing stones at Him. The other time was earlier in His ministry when Jesus said:

John 8:56-59 (ESV) Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

When Jesus said “before Abraham was, I am”, He was applying the most holy name of God to Himself. When God met Moses in the desert of Midian, He told Moses that His Name was “I Am”. “Tell Israel that I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). God said, “This is MY NAME FOREVER” (Exodus 3:15). Jesus took the name of God – His most holy Name – and applied it to Himself. In our text today Jesus told the Pharisees:

vs 30 I and my Father are ONE.

Word Study: The word “ONE” is the Greek eis, which means “singular, one in essence, a part of a unified whole”. The same word is used by Jesus in Matthew 19 to describe the marriage of man and woman:

Matthew 19:6 (AP) … the married couple are no more TWO, but ONE {eis} flesh. What therefore God has joined together, do not try and tear apart.

As well as to how He described His relationship to us as His disciples:

Matthew 23:10 Neither be ye called masters: for ONE {eis} is your Master, even Christ.

When Jesus said that He was “I AM”, He was making Himself out to be God. When Jesus said that He was “ONE” with God, He was saying He was co-equal and co-eternal with God. The Jews understood this – and Jesus did not correct them. They said,

vs 33 thou, being a man, makest thyself God

God in the Law said that “whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him.” (Leviticus 24:16). To “take the name of the Lord in vain” (Deuteronomy 5:11) is not just to make God’s name profane, but to apply the name of God to what you’re doing or to yourself. The Pharisees thought Jesus was “making Yourself God”. This was a serious crime, punishable by stoning – however, Jesus was to be stoned only after a proper trial before a priest!

The Jews took it upon themselves to be vigilantes – to be judge, jury, and executioner. This was very unlawful in itself. It is like many people do today when they seek vengeance while quoting – out of context:

Leviticus 24:19-20 (ESV) If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.

This verse did not mean that the Israelite was to pay back in kind an injury done to themselves. What the Law of Eye and Tooth did was to prescribe the maximum punishment for a crime once a person was convicted of it. No Jew had the right – just as no American has the right – to TAKE THE LAW INTO THEIR OWN HANDS. A person was tried, then once found guilty was punished. No one was ever to be punished by a lynch mob!

As the Jews prepare to illegally stone Jesus, He does what He always does. If you watch our Lord, any time He was attacked He (1) asked good questions, and (2) quoted the Scripture.

Vs 32 Jesus asked :Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?

Jesus points out that the works that He did – “GOOD WORKS” – are works that are from Father God. The signs that Jesus is the Messiah is that “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:5). These are GOOD WORKS, not evil works. Every “GOOD GIFT and every PERFECT GIFT is FROM ABOVE, and comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). What Jesus has clearly been doing is good works, not evil works. So Jesus asks them to consider His works. He will later tell them:

John 14:11 (ESV) Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

The Jews ignore the works that Jesus did, and instead refer to the Law of God. They only follow the Law when it suits them. Since Jesus “makest Thyself God”, then they felt they were justified in – vigilante style – executing Jesus.

You cannot obey just the parts of the Scripture
that suit you! This is hypocrisy!

Jesus Refers To The Law By “It Is Written”:
“Ye are gods”

John 10:34-35 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? 35 If He {God} called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

Since they have ignored the testimony of His good works, Jesus now refers to the Law of Moses. He tells them “Is it not written in your law”. This is the Law you often quote at Me, often declare I am against. When Jesus came, He told any who would listen:

Matthew 5:17-18 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

The Jews had so twisted and re-interpreted the Law, that it was but a shadow of what it should be. As The Messiah Jesus came to FULFILL the Law. He came as the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He came to be the “once for all” sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 7:27; 9:26). He came to give His people – and us – a clear and concise understanding of God’s Law and what He expects of His people. Jesus is actually quoting:

Psalm 82:1-7 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. 2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. 3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. 5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. 6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. 7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.

What is God speaking of in Psalm 82? How does this apply to Jesus? In the passage Jesus is quoting, Psalm 82, God is speaking to the Judges and Leaders of Israel. The Word of God came to these Judges and Leaders, and God Himself appointed these people to represent Him before the people. The Enduring Word Commentary notes:

“The judges of Psalm 82 were called “gods” because in their office they determined the fate of other men. Also, in Exodus 21:6 and 22:8-9, God called earthly judges “gods.”

Let me see if I can put it another way.

There is only ONE GOD Who made everything. This ONE GOD is Triune, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This God was never created, but has always been. This is why He is called “I Am”. This God appointed people to represent Him in the earth. In Psalm 82 the Eternal God calls these Judges and Leaders “gods” (little “g”) because they are supposed to represent Him. These little “g” gods are not co-eternal nor co-equal with the One God. They represent Him. God calls these little “g” gods “SONS OF THE MOST HIGH” because they are saved by Grace. The Word of the Lord came to them. As long as they represent the God Who made them and called them, they are little “g” gods.

Yet these Judges and Leaders in Psalm 82 forgot that they were little “g” gods. They began to think themselves big “G” Gods, in their offices because they were worthy or better than others. God told them because they – instead of honoring the God Who appointed them, they “JUDGED UNJUSTLY” and “ACCEPTED PERSONS THAT WERE WICKED” – that God will make them “DIE LIKE {LOST} MEN, AND FALL LIKE ONE OF THE {HEATHEN} PRINCES”. They would be no better than the lost in their deaths.

When God designates a steward, that steward represents God. In that sense they are little “g” gods. The little “g” god relies on the Word of God, not on themselves.

When God sent Moses to speak to Pharaoh, God told that old man:

Exodus 7:1 … See, I have made thee a {little “g”} god to Pharaoh: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.

In the Bible there is the True God, the God of Scripture. There are His representatives, the little “g” gods. And there are the false little “g” gods who stole the title, Satan and the idols that Satan’s people create. Once you understand this concept, other Scriptures become clearer:

1 Corinthians 8:4-6 (ESV) Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

Deuteronomy 10:17 For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

Jeremiah 10:11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

When our God created the Heaven and the earth, He created Adam out of the dust of the ground, and Eve out of Adam’s rib. The Scripture says the Word of God came to Adam and Eve and said:

Genesis 1:28 (ESV) … God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over{creation}

Though God made the creation, He gave control of it to Adam and Eve. God had “created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27, ESV). In that sense Adam and Eve were little “g” gods. They were stewards of what God gave them stewardship of, and were required to heed the Word of God that commissioned them.

Illustrate: One of my favorite books is one written by Jack London called “White Fang”. White Fang was half-wolf and half-dog. In the book’s chapter 6 as White Fang looked at his human captor, we read “The god sat down several feet away. White Fang could see nothing dangerous in that. When the gods administered punishment they stood on their legs. Besides, this god had no club, no whip, no firearm”.

God in His Grace made humans little “g” gods over creation. We, like God Himself, were given free will. The Word of the Lord came to us. And as little “g” gods, we are to do as our Maker has said – or suffer the consequence.

If God Appointed Judges & Leaders And Called Them Lower “g” gods, Then Why Is It Blasphemy For Jesus To Declare Himself God As His Works Prove He Is?

John 10:35-38 If He {God the Father} called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 Say ye of Him {Jesus the Messiah}, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

Jesus says “If God called Judges and other Leaders little “g” gods because the Word of God came to them” which is clearly seen in Psalm 82, “then why is it wrong for Me to say I am the Son of God, as My works are clearly from God?” Scholar D.A. Carson said in The Gospel According To John, pg 397:

“As Jesus uses the text, the general line of his argument is clear. This Scripture proves that the word ‘god’ is legitimately used to refer to others than God himself. If there are others whom God (the author of Scripture) can address as ‘god’ and ‘sons of the Most High’ (i.e. sons of God), on what biblical basis should anyone object when Jesus says, I am God’s Son?”

Jesus’ logic and quotation of Scripture is impeccable. Jesus did the “works of My Father”. The Judges and Leaders in Psalm 82 did not do what they were supposed to do, yet were called little “g” gods. Jesus did what He was supposed to do. The Word of God came to Jesus, and He reflected it perfectly to honor Him Who sent Him. Jesus said:

John 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does His works.

Jesus Christ is the “Faithful Witness” of Revelation 1:5. He has seen and knows God, for He is God. He is God in the flesh, “God with us” (Matthew 1:22-23). Jesus came to give us life, to bring us into the Family of God as sons of God. The Apostle wrote:

2 Peter 1:3-4 (ESV) His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Paul Carter wrote:

“God is alone. He is one. He is unique. So what is Jesus saying? He is simply saying that in so much as human beings fell by rejecting the Word of God, they are restored, enlarged and ennobled by receiving the Word of God. When we come back under the Word of God, we begin to be elevated back toward our former height and glory. ”

You, dear Christian, are not called to be big “G” God, but stewards of God, His representatives, little “g” gods. We obey His Word. We follow His Christ. We worship Him and Him alone. We do not make ourselves the focus, but our focus is Christ and our Heavenly Father. We live our lives under the power of the Spirit and the Scripture. As Carter said, “Yes, the Bible is authoritative, yes the Bible is inerrant, yes the Bible is infallible – it is all those things. And it is transformative. Gloriously, marvelously, miraculously transformative.” The Scripture says in

Psalm 19:7–9 {NKJV} The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.

We Are Not Big “G” Gods – EVER!

One of the ancient heresies that is creeping back into televangelism today is that “We are equal with God”. This has been broadcast on TBN. Televangelists like Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, and others in the Word-Faith Movement have taken John 10:30-38 and Psalm 82 and twisted them to teach that those who receive God’s Word are in actuality a class of gods. Copeland said on TBN’s Praise The Lord Show (February 6, 1986) “Man was created in the god class. . . . All right. Are we gods? We are a class of god’s”. No, we are not. This is a false doctrine that the Mormons have taught for years. Called “The Doctrine of Eternal Progression”, LDS Church Leader Lorenzo Snow said, “As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be”. This is a lie that Satan first planted in our minds in the Garden of Eden. God said:

Isaiah 43:10 (ESV) … I am He. Before Me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after Me.

Our God, our Creator, the God of Scripture is called “The First and the Last, I am He” (Isaiah 41:4). He has declared “I am God, there is no other; I am God, and there is NONE LIKE ME” (Isaiah 46:9-9). “From the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:6). Though God may have designated stewards to work on His behalf according to His Word, we will never be like God in power, in knowledge, in scope, in ability. He is the Shepherd, and we are the Sheep. He is the Potter, and we are the Clay. He is God, and we are His people. We will never be equal to God!

Posted in John, Sermons Preached | Tagged Christ, Following Christ, God Is Faithful, love God, salvation | Leave a comment

Suffering Well

Posted on September 26, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Karolina Grabowska: https://www.pexels.com/photo/lonely-woman-crying-with-closed-eyes-4471316/

1 Peter 3:12-17 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. 13 And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? 14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; 15 But sanctify {hagiazō, elevate above all, consecrate, dedicate solely} the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: 16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation {anastrophḗ, manner of life, conduct} in Christ. 17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.

As humans, we often ask “Why is there suffering in this world we are in?” Sometimes we see suffering in children, such as those at St Jude’s Hospital. Open your newspaper and you don’t have far to look for suffering. I subscribe to “Main Street Maury”, our local newspaper. I like it because it seems to have balanced reporting. In the opinion section there is a liberal column right next to a Libertarian column. I don’t agree with all I read, but I do like balanced reporting. I look at my paper. On the front page, “SAFE Clinic helps victims of violence”. A wonderful ministry operated locally by the Center of Hope. It exists because of suffering. Turn the page. “Domestic incident leads to Columbia woman’s death; suspect hospitalized”. This is horrible. It’s suffering. Next page. “Free legal assistance to low income residents”. Suffering. The obituaries. Death and suffering. You see where I’m going.

If “God is good”, if there is a God Who created all things, why is there such suffering?

The Bible tells us that suffering entered our world because mankind chose to walk away from the God Who created all things “VERY GOOD” (Genesis 1:31). When God made us, He made us – both male and female – “in Our image, after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). God gave humans authority over the earth, telling us to “have dominion” and to “multiply and fill the earth”. God gave us authority over the animals and nature, but gave us a free will to make choices. We could choose to follow our Creator, or we could follow another created being.

Many of us, like Adam, choose to follow
the created rather than the Creator.

Adam chose to follow the created – a serpent that represented a fallen angel – rather than God. Making this choice Adam surrendered the world to evil. Evil leads to suffering. Evil began to move outward, to infect, to destroy. Rather than repent and return to our Creator, we, like Adam, blame God and others. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. Nothing was fixed by playing the blame game. Humanity was barred from Paradise and became servants of suffering because of decisions we made. Cain followed in his father’s footsteps. Rather than do what God said, he chose to blame God and His creation. What happened? Cain murdered his innocent brother Abel (Genesis 4:8). The blame game never fixes anything. The end result of the blame game is suffering, and it can will to death.

I’ve been reading a book entitled “Who Made God? Answers To Tough Questions”. Written by Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler, it has some interesting statements in it on suffering and evil. This one caught my eye:

“Evil is not something that has an existence all its own; rather, it is a corruption of that which already exists. Evil is the absence or privation of something good. Rot, for example, can exist only as long as the tree exists. Tooth decay can exist only as long as the tooth exists. Rust on a car and a decaying carcass illustrate the same point. Evil exists as a corruption of something good; it is a privation and does not have essence by itself. Norman Geisler tells us, “Evil is like a wound in an arm or moth-holes in a garment. It exists only in another but not in itself” … Today we face the reality of both moral evil (evil committed by free moral agents) … and natural evil (involving such things as hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and the like).”

Ironically one of the authors of this book, Ravi Zacharias, stopped following the Lord and suffered not only death, but the loss of his ministry for it. This Church is a safe place where God’s people are expected to live in the Light of Christ. We do not tolerate sexual abuse in any form. We follow the Lord, redeemed by the Blood of Christ, knowing that God is watching us and hearing us. Those who are saved by faith in Christ live their lives to please the Lord.

Live Your Life For Jesus Christ

1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

The Bible says “the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous”. First of all, WHO are the “righteous”? Is it the outwardly righteous? No, but it is those whose heart is right in God’s eyes. Jesus told the Pharisees – people who thought they were righteous:

John 8:42 If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but he sent me.

The righteous love Jesus. Why do we love Jesus? Because the Bible tells us that we are all born sinners, all born with our hearts far from God. We read:

Romans 3:10 (ESV) … None is righteous, no, not one …

When Adam brought sin into the world by misusing his free will, he brought sin on us all. The Bible says in Romans 5:12, “sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”. Adam brought a universal breach between us and God. And yet, the Father was not willing to leave us in this state. The Bible says that God sent His Son – His Eternal and Co-Powerful Son Jesus – into the world to save us. As Adam’s

Romans 5:18-19 (ESV) … one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness {this is Christ’s Cross} leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience {Christ’s death for us} the many will be made righteous.

Through faith in Christ’s death on Calvary, through belief that He rose from the grave, we are led to righteousness. Listen:

Every person has a BC. The believer has an AD.

Human time used to be divided BC and AD. BC stood for BEFORE CHRIST. AD stood for ANNO DOMINI which means “In the year of our Lord”. BEFORE CHRIST all people are naturally unrighteous, separated from God by sin and suffering. Jesus came to take us from BC to AD. Jesus came to bring sinners to salvation, and the unrighteous to righteousness. When the Pharisees (the religious right) and the Sadducees (the religious left) saw Jesus working with “sinners” they snarled, “Why do you sit with SINNERS?” (Matthew 9:11). Jesus quickly replied,

Matthew 9:13 (ESV) … I came not to call the RIGHTEOUS, but SINNERS ..

Sinners in the BC were required to bring a sacrifice (lamb, dove, bullock) without blemish to the Temple and the Priests to be sacrificed. The sins of the sinner were placed on the head of the animal, and the animal died in their place. When Jesus came, He came as the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36). Those in BC had to repeatedly offer animals for sins, “in those sacrifices a remembrance is made of sins every year” (Hebrews 10:3). “It is not possible that the blood of animals take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). What did Jesus do?

Hebrews 10:12 {Jesus} offered ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOREVER …

In BC sacrifices were made frequently. But with AD, when Jesus comes into your life, Jesus Christ made one sacrifice for sins FOREVER. It is Jesus and Jesus alone Who “made PURIFICATION FOR SINS” (Hebrews 1:3). When we receive Christ as Lord and Savior, He as our High Priest “is at the RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER INTERCEDING FOR US” (Romans 8:34). Jesus Christ is not only the Christian’s ONE and ONLY COVERING FOR SIN, but Jesus is our HIGH PRIEST (Hebrews 8:1-2). It is Jesus Who “entered ONCE FOR ALL INTO THE HOLY PLACE” of God, and “by MEANS OF HIS OWN BLOOD SECURED ETERNAL REDEMPTION” (Hebrews 9:12) for those who believe in Him.

You were purchased from satan and sin at a great cost. You, dear Christian, belong to God!

1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers

The Christian is RIGHTEOUS because of what Christ has done for us. But the Christian is also RIGHTEOUS IN PRACTICE. The day you were saved, God sent the Holy Spirit to indwell you, to walk with you, to partner with you. The Holy Spirit is a PERSON, not a POWER. Jesus promised the believer:

John 14:17 {The Spirit} lives with you, and WILL BE IN YOU. …

The Bible reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies”

The intent of Christ in dying for us was not just to get us to Heaven, but to bring Heaven to us. The Holy Spirit washes us, and regenerates us (Titus 3:5). We become partakers of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4), and are called to “honor God with our bodies”.

God watches OVER that which He has purchased at such a great cost. God listens to your prayers, and hears your words. The Bible says:

Proverbs 15:3 – The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

God watches over and hears His Children, those adopted into the Family of God by the Blood of Christ.

Psalm 121:8 – The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

As God saved the Christian, the Christian is to live to please the Lord. Our text again notes:

1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

God watches this world. Those who “do evil” are eventually punished according to the evil they did. Sadly, there are times when believers who should know better do evil – and suffer for it. The “face of the Lord is against them that do evil”. This applies not to just unbelievers, but believers as well.

Consider Moses. This was a great man of God. As he led a murmuring Israel to the Promised Land, they made camp at a place called Kadesh. The Bible says “there was NO WATER for the congregation” (Numbers 20:2). Moses went bto God in prayer, and the Lord told him,

Numbers 20:8 (ESV) Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.

Moses was only to SPEAK to the rock, for “that ROCK was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). Instead, Moses SPOKE the the congregation, saying:

Numbers 20:10 (ESV) … Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?

Moses robbed God of His glory, claiming that he did the good rather than acknowledge this was an act of the Grace of our Lord. Because of this Moses was barred from entering the Promised Land, and his ministry was turned over to Joshua.

The wages of sin is DEATH.

I could tell you of King David who committed adultery with another man’s wife, then had her husband murdered. Though David repented, God told him:

2 Samuel 12:10 … the sword shall NEVER DEPART FROM YOUR HOUSE, because YOU DESPISED ME, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife …

God’s eyes are over us. He watches us. The strongman and judge Samson learned this the hard way. Blinded and tied to pillars, mocked by Philistines, he killed himself and his enemies by pulling the stadium down on their heads.

The wages of sin is DEATH.

Everyone Suffers In This Life: Ensure You Suffer Well

1 Peter 3:13 And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?

If you are a Christian, you are called to be “followers of that which is good”. What does that mean? Last Wednesday, we studied in the Gospel of John where our Lord Jesus said:

John 10:11, 14, 27-30 (ESV) I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.

Who will harm us if we follow that which is GOOD? People may attack us as Christians. They may persecute us for our belief in Christ. They may mock our morality. But if we are following the GOOD SHEPHERD, the Lord Jesus Christ, then He will make everything come out right. He is the Good Shepherd, and we are His sheep.

The Christian who never suffers for the faith is the Christian who is not following Christ. The world will hate the believer. Jesus said, “you shall be HATED OF ALL for My name’s sake” (Matthew 10:22). He said:

John 15:19 (ESV) If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

We used to walk according to the ways of this world (Ephesians 2:2-5), but now walk following that which is good, that is, our Jesus. We are saved from what we were, and are daily sanctified to be more like what we will become (Titus 3:3-7). We are “called out of darkness into Christ’s marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9-12). You will “suffer for righteousness’ sake”.

Good Christian music offends the world. The song “In Christ Alone” states:

“In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live.”

The Presbyterian Church USA dropped this song from their hymnal, because they don’t believe that God’s wrath hangs over the unrepentant sinner. The song is not inclusive enough – after all, God loves everyone. Yet the Scripture says:

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

John 3:36 (ESV) Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

1 Peter 3:14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;

Our Lord Jesus said this same thing in His Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Who will be in Heaven? Those who lived to please the King of Heaven while on this earth! If you live for hell on this earth, you need not expect Heaven beyond it!

You who are saved by Grace are Children of the Kingdom of Heaven. You are to live by Christ’s directive, not by the whim of this world. You are to be:

Ephesians 5:1-8 (ESV) Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…

Suffering Well Requires We Keep Our
Eyes On Our Shepherd

The devil and this fallen world will do its best to frighten us into following the darkness. The Lord tells us to not be “afraid of their terror, neither be troubled”. The word translated “troubled” is the Greek tarassō, which means “to cause inward commotion, to become anxious or distressed”. The world and its god will do what it can to get you to compromise your faith in Christ, to step away from truth and into the lie. The Lord gives us three things to do if we are to be overcomers in this darkened world:

1. “sanctify {hagiazō, elevate above all, consecrate, dedicate solely} the Lord God in your hearts”. Humans were designed to worship God. If we do not worship God, we will worship something. One thing I hear today is the saying, “Follow your heart”. This is the suggestion of Satan, who suggested to Adam and Eve to “follow your heart” rather than follow your Creator. The Bible says,

Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Rather than follow our hearts, we put Jesus on the Throne of our hearts and follow Him. That is the sense of “sanctify” the LORD GOD in your hearts. To “SANCTIFY” means “to set apart, to treat as holy, to regard with reverence and honor”. Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). Who do you love MORE? You are to love God MOST.

Is it possible that some of our suffering comes about because we have forgotten our God? Is it possible that we have, like the Church at Ephesus, “Lost our first love”? (Revelation 2:4). Isaiah told Israel:

Isaiah 8:13-14a (NASB) It is the Lord of armies whom you are to regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, And He shall be your dread. 14 Then He will become a sanctuary;

If you are a sheep, you need to be with the Good Shepherd. Stay close to Him. Be obedient to Him.

2. Be prepared to tell others about Jesus. We are told in verse 15, “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear”. The phrase “” is the Greek etoimos, which means “to prepare ahead mentally and be on the alert”. We do not know when nour Jesus is coming again – it might be today. Jesus used this same word when He told us:

Matthew 24:44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

We are in a battle for the soul of America. Be ready. Prepare ahead what you might say in different circumstances. Do you know why you love Jesus? How will you tell it?

3. Work as unto the Lord, not unto man. Finally, we are told:

1 Peter 3:16-17 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation {anastrophḗ, manner of life, conduct} in Christ.

Live your lives for Jesus. Honor Him in all that you do. Know that “it is better … that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.” Those who follow Satan and the way of the world bring suffering upon themselves and upon this nation. May I ask you ….

Are YOU saved?
Are YOU ready to see Jesus?

The difference between ac lost person and a saved person is see in what they cling to. The saved may sin, but will not cling to that sin, but fall under conviction, and repent, returning to Christ. The lost will sin and cling to the sin, embrace the sin, normalize the sin, and live in the sin. If you are not saved, today is the day of salvation. Call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for cleansing. Give yourself fully to Him, and allow Him to embrace your life. Do not delay. Amen and amen.

Posted in 1 Peter | Tagged Following Christ, following God, gospel, Light vs Darkness, living for Jesus, Suffering, suffering well | Leave a comment

Jesus The Good Shepherd

Posted on September 22, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/agriculture-clouds-countryside-daylight-414363/

Please turn with me in your Bibles to:

John 10:11-18 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. 17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Jesus spent a great deal of time describing Himself and His mission by using every day items that people would understand. For instance, last week Jesus described Himself:

John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

Everyone knows what a “door” is. We go into and out of buildings using doors. We do not climb in through windows – that’s something you’d do if you were trying to bypass the lock. There have been times when I’ve accidentally locked myself out of my home, and climbed in through an open window. That’s not normal, though. The only person who normally enters a horme by any way but the door is “a thief and a robber” (John 10:1). Jesus is THE Door. He is THE Door to Heaven.

Jesus is THE Door to life, both eternal and abundant.

As we’ve studied through John, we’ve seen Jesus use other “I Am” statements describing Himself and His ministry. He said:

John 6:35 … (ESV) I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

If you try to live your life on this earth without Jesus, you will never be satisfied. Why? Because the God Who made you, made you incomplete without Jesus. Jesus also said:

John 8:12 (ESV) … I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life …

Before Jesus said this, people thought that “the light of the world” was the sun by day and the moon by night. But here Jesus is not speaking of physical darkness, but spiritual darkness. The Bible says:

1 John 5:19 (NIV) We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

From Adam’s fall until the rise of Christ, the whole world was dominated by satanic darkness and wickedness. But Jesus came to lead us into the Light of God. Jesus Christ is the Messiah Who, having come in the flesh, “tells us all things” (John 4:25). Today Jesus tells us that He is “I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD”.

Jesus is not the mediocre Shepherd.
Jesus is not ONE of the Good Shepherds.
Jesus is THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

Jesus Is THE Good Shepherd Who Voluntarily
Lays His Life Down For His Sheep

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

First we note that Jesus is the “GOOD Shepherd”. It is not humans, but God Who determines what is good or evil. As God created all things, He declared at each stage of creation “God saw that it was GOOD” (Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25). When God created man and woman and finished what He started, God said “it was VERY GOOD” (Genesis 1:31). God established what was good, and what was evil. God told Adam that he could eat of any fruit, but:

Genesis 2:17 … 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.

Man could do good, which is what God said, or choose to do as he saw fit. Adam did as the serpent suggested. He ate of that which God said was bad. This caused man to die spiritually, and to lose Paradise. The Bible says:

Genesis 3:22 … the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil

This does not mean that man can now determine what is GOOD or EVIL, but that man THINKS he can determine GOOD and EVIL. Man cannot know good, because good is only defined by God. Our Lord Jesus said:

Matthew 19:17 (also Mark 10:18) there is none good but one, that is, God

If there are none good but God, then how can humans determine good? We cannot apart from God. We think we can. We think we are gods, but we are not. Only God is God. Only God is good. The Scripture says:

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

If it is GOOD, then it comes from God. Our good, our human goods, are stained and fall short of the glory of God. Jesus Christ is GOOD. He is GOOD because He was sent from the Father. John the Baptist said of Jesus:

John 3:31-36 (ESV) He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. 34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Jesus Christ is the GOOD Shepherd because He comes from above. Jesus Christ is God the Son. He said, “No one has seen the Father, except He WHO IS OF GOD, He has seen the Father”. He said, “He that has seen Me, has seen the Father” (John 6:46; 14:9).

Jesus is not only GOOD, but He is the
SHEPHERD of God’s people.

He is the GOOD SHEPHERD. In the Old Testament, God alone was said to be the Shepherd of His people. The Psalmist said:

Psalm 80:1 Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth!

Psalm 95:7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

And through the Prophet God said,

Ezekiel 34:31 “As for you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, you are men, and I am your God,” declares the Lord God.

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Jesus is not the Shepherd because He has to be, nor because He is paid to be, but is the Shepherd because He wants to be. Jesus said:

John 10:12-13 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.

Word Study: The “hireling” (Greek misthōtos, hired servant, wage worker) does what he does because he is paid money for it. He is a sharecropper or a steward of the sheep. He has no personal invested interest in those sheep. When that misthōtos sees a wolf or a bear coming, some type of threat that might hurt him, the misthōtos leaves the sheep. Why would he be willing to die for another man’s sheep.

Jesus is not a misthōtos, a hired laborer. The Scripture says:

Hebrews 2:9-11 (ESV) But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers…

Jesus Christ is the co-creator of all that you see, whether in the heavens or on the earth. When Adam sinned, he subjected all creation to darkness and the devil. Jesus Christ came to redeem that which He created, to restore creation to its rightful owners. He did not come because God the Father offered Him some reward or cash price for coming. Jesus willingly volunteered to come to restore and redeem us to Him. Jesus by the Grace of God “taste(d) death for everyone”. It was His intent to “bring many sons to glory”. Not everyone, but those who believed in Him.

Our Great Shepherd gave His life for us because He loves us. We are His purchased possessions. He is not paid to watch over us, but Himself paid a GREAT PRICE for us. The Scripture says:

1 Peter 2:9 (ESV) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession (peculiar people in the KJV)

1 Corinthians 3:23 (ESV) you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

Galatians 3:29 (ESV)And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Romans 14:8 (ESV) For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.

When the Bible says “we are the Lord’s”, we are not just a possession – but someone the Lord intimately loves. Jesus said:

John 10:14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

Word Study: The word translated “know” is the Greek ginōskō, which means “to have an intimate knowledge of”. This word is so intimate that it is sometimes used of sexual intercourse between husband and wife (Matthew 1:25, “and KNEW her not”, or Luke 1:34, “I KNOW not a man”), or to deeply understand something (Mark 5:29, “she FELT”). Jesus has an intimate and ongoing relationship with His Sheep, His people.

Illustrate: In one episode of M*A*S*H Colonel Potter relates to his friends how he met and fell in love with Doris Day. He states that he’s never been to a Doris Day movie with his wife Mildred. But whenever he feels bad about his love affair with Doris Day, he remembers that Doris never knew him, either. He loved her from afar! Many people profess to be Christian, and say they are saved. But like Potter did with Doris Day, they love Jesus only from afar. They never acquainted themselves with the Lord. They never loved Him, nor gave their lives to Jesus. They are like those Jesus speaks of in:

Matthew 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew {ginōskō} you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Those who KNOW Jesus INTIMATELY walk in the light of God with Him. Those who KNOW Jesus INTIMATELY know that He died for our sins, so they do not rejoice in wickedness. Those who KNOW Jesus INTIMATELY will imitate Him and do His Word. What saith the Scripture?

1 John 1:7 … 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.

We are cleansed from sin when we walk WITH our Shepherd and WITH other of His Sheep!

Our Shepherd Is Not Only Our PROVIDER And PROTECTOR, He Is Our POTENTATE

John 10:16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

The Sheep under the Shepherd obey the voice of their Shepherd. The Apostle wrote:

1 Timothy 6:14-15 … our Lord Jesus Christ: 15 Which in His times He shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

Jesus is the “Potentate” or autocratic Ruler of His Sheep. He is AUTOCRATIC, not DEMOCRATIC. The Sheep have no voting power. What Jesus says is true and right, regardless as to what the world or the majority might say. Jesus is the ultimate “King of kings, and Lord of lords”, and He expects us as His Sheep to obey Him. He said:

Luke 6:46-49 …. why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? 47 Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: 48 He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 49 But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

There are far too many deluded professors of the faith who will not follow the Shepherd.

Do you know what a sheep is called who will not follow the Shepherd? Lamb Chops!

As Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, they interrupted Him and demanded:

John 10:24 …. How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.

Jesus replied,

John 10:25-27 …. I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know {ginōskō} them, and they follow {akolouthéō} me:

The mark of the genuine Christian is that they (1) intimately know the Lord, and (2) follow (akolouthéō) or “walk in the same way with, to join as a disciple”. The concept that salvation and discipleship are two phases of the Christian life is a product of heretical easy believism. Pastor John MacArthur notes:

“Faith obeys. Unbelief rebels. The fruit of one’s life reveals whether a person is a believer or an unbeliever.”

Jesus is not just a passing fad for the Sheep – He is everything to us. His Word guides us. We live our lives loving Him. We hear His voice, and follow Him. And because we are His and He is ours He has promised:

John 10:28-30 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and my Father are one.

The saved are God’s Sheep. God’s Sheep follow the Shepherd. The Shepherd is Christ. We walk in the way with Him, believing and loving Him until we pass over into eternity. In eternity we will see Him face to face.

But let me be blunt.

If you have no love for Jesus now, and do not care to follow Him in this life, do not expect to be in glory with Him in the next life. John MacArthur put it this way:

“Christians believe in a holy law which provides complete freedom, a joyous freedom which is slavery to righteousness. Christians believe in a kingdom on earth with a capital in heaven. Christians believe in a little flock of innumerable saints. Christians believe they are wretched outcasts who became saints. They are enemies who became sons. They are slaves who became kings. They are poor who became wealthy. They are bankrupt souls who are given eternal riches. They are rebels who became friends. They are haters who became lovers and even lovers of those who hate them. .. Christians believe they are victims who became victors. They are strong who rejoice in their weakness. They are the despised who receive honor. They are souls who die once but live twice. They are mortals who become immortal. They are corrupt who become incorruptible. They are the sorrowful who have eternal joy. And all of these realities have come to us because the giver of life gave up His life so that those dead in sin would live forever. .. We’re in the world, we’re not of the world. We have a King and a Lord, and His name is Jesus Christ. And Scripture is crystal clear as to how we are to submit to our Lord. In Romans chapter 10, familiar words: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Salvation comes to those who confess Jesus as Lord.”

If He is not your Lord now, He is not your Savior in eternity. Salvation is by faith alone unto works. Jesus is the Good Shepherd of His Sheep – and His Sheep follow Him. Amen? Amen!

Posted in John, Sermons Preached | Tagged Following Christ, Jesus Christ, love God, salvation | Leave a comment

The Fruit Of Your Faith

Posted on September 17, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by aditya bhatia: https://www.pexels.com/photo/grapes-in-a-bowl-18200328/

1 Peter 3:8-12 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: 9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: 11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

Is Your Foundation FLESH or SPIRIT?

One of our Evangelists this week reminded us that the fruit that your life produces shows everyone what type of tree you are. False prophets abound in this world, trying to deceive people into following the flesh and satan. The Christian, saved by submitting to the Lordship of Christ, is born into the Kingdom of God through the operation of the Spirit. Once saved by faith and through the operation of the Holy Spirit, we as believers follow a pathway of submission:

1 Peter 3:7 The husband, the leader in the marriage, submits honor and love to the wife.

1 Peter 3:1 The wife, of equal value to her husband, submits to hisgodly leadership.

1 Peter 2:25 Every Christian submits to the Leadership of the Word of God and the Spirit of God. We follow Christ, and help others follow Christ.

1 Peter 2:24 Our Lord Jesus submitted to the Will of the Father by going to the Cross, becoming the Lamb of God to take away our sins.

The difference between the world and the Kingdom of God is that the world submits to the flesh and feelings, but those in God’s Kingdom submit to the Word and Spirit of God.

The Christian Mind Submits To Spirit And Word

1 Peter 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind …

We all have opinions, feelings, desires, and they are all somewhat different. The Christian does not walk according to the feelings of the flesh, but we submit to the Word of God. You were saved by submitting to the Word of God. You heard that Christ is the Messiah, that He died for your sins, and you came to Him with open and empty hands. You received Him as He is, both Lord and Savior. You were born again.

Jesus said in John 3:6-7, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit… you MUST be BORN AGAIN”. When you hear the Gospel, and believe that Christ died for you, and rose again for you, and you BELIEVE this Gospel is FOR YOU, then God the Holy Spirit changes you. Jesus said in

John 6:63 (AP) It is the HOLY SPIRIT that gives life; the FLESH PROFITS NOTHING: The Words that I SPEAK UNTO YOU, these Words are SPIRIT, and these Words are LIFE ..

The entrance into the Christian way of life is to understand WHO Jesus ACTUALLY IS. One day Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do PEOPLE say that I am?” (Mark 8:27). The disciples began to list the different theories as to Who Jesus is. Some thought Jesus was John the Baptist. That couldn’t be true, for John had been imprisoned by Herod, and was beheaded for his faith (Matthew 14:10). Others thought Jesus to be Elijah, returning from Heaven. Yet others thought Jesus to be a great Prophet. Hearing all these statements, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do YOU think I am?”. Peter spoke up and said:

Matthew 16:16 (AP) YOU are THE Christ, THE Son of the Living God!

Jesus tells Peter:

Matthew 16:17-19 (ESV) “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter (petros), and on this rock (petra) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

The Catholics took these verses and said that Peter became the first Pope, that God gave Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. But that’s not true. Jesus said “You are petros, and on petra I will build My Church”. Had Jesus meant that He was building His Church on Peter, He would have used the same Greek word each time.

God did not give Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, but He gives ALL Christians the keys. What are the KEYS? The Spirit and the Word of God.

1 Peter 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind

We are not told that just SOME are to be of ONE MIND, but ALL are to be of ONE MIND. We are not to be carnally or fleshly minded. The Apostle said:

Romans 8:6-9 (ESV) For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

When we are told to have “one mind”, that mind is to be “the MIND OF CHRIST” (1 Corinthians 2:16).

To have ONE MIND is to have singleness of purpose. The Bible says “the DOUBLE MINDED PERSON is UNSTABLE in all their ways” (James 1:8, AP). As one evangelist reminded us, our duty as Christians is to take others by the hand and help them follow Christ. We are to be single minded in doing what Jesus said.

I have heard Christians say, “I don’t like so and so, so I won’t go near them”. This is NOT the Christian way. Though Jesus hated what the Pharisees and Sadducees said and did, He was constantly addressing them, trying to draw them back to God. People are broken, and often do not see their brokenness. I can see another person’s sin so much easier than I can see my own. God’s will for this Church is expressed in:

Romans 15:5-6 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: 6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we are obedient to God, and love those who do not love us, we have the promise that God will accompany us on the journey. The Scripture says:

2 Corinthians 13:11 … be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

The devil loves it when Christians oppose one another. We are Children of the Most High. It is beneath the place of a royal to despise another member of the royal family. We are to …

Philippians 1:27 (ESV) Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, … with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel,

It is a blessing to your Pastor when you work together in unity to advance the Gospel of Christ. The Apostle said:

Philippians 2:2 Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

And again,

Romans 12:16 Be of the same mind one toward another….

The Fruit Of The Spirit Looks Like This

1 Peter 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:

Word Study: The word rendered “compassion” is the Greek sympathēs (pronounced soom-path-ace’), which means “to have a fellow-feeling with, to be sympathetic with”. Though this word is used only here in Scripture, it’s sentiment is echoed in:

1 Corinthians 12:24-26 … God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

The Body of Christ, the Church, is composed by God. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12:18 (ESV), “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose”. Just as the members of the human body has sympathy with the pain experienced by other members, so should the Body of Christ function when it is Spirit led.

We are God’s Team!

1 Peter 3:8 love as brethren,

Word Study: “love as brethren” is actually one word in the Greek, philadelphos. We are to treat one another like family.

We are God’s Family!

1 Peter 3:8 BE PITIFUL

Word Study: This is the Greek eusplagchnos, which means “to be tender hearted toward”. We are to give others the benefit of the doubt. We are told in:

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Being “tenderhearted” means to respond to a sleight or an offense with KINDNESSand FORGIVENESS. I was raised to respect others. If someone is talking, I let them finish talking before I put in my two cents worth. Not all people are raised like I was. I have been talking to someone when another person comes up and, ignoring me, starts a conversation with the person I’m talking to. I can feel my hackles rise up (that’s the hair on the back of my neck) – but I must not respond in an ugly way. The Spirit says to give that person the benefit of the doubt. Be kind and forgiving. I’ve put my hand out to shake another’s hand, only to be ignored. Be kind and forgiving. I’ve had people say ugly things to me, both to my face and behind my back. Be kind and forgiving – just as Christ gave us.

We are all broken!

1 Peter 3:8 be courteous

Word Study: This is the Greek compound philophrōn, which means “friendly minded”. Do not assume the worst of others, but be friendly and open to them as people. Do not be friendly minded toward sin. Many in modern Christian music seek to blend Christianity with that which God has forbidden in order to be “seeker sensitive”. For instance, the Christian artist known as Lecrae was selling t-shirts on his website that said “I can quote Cardi B and Corinthians”. Cardi B is a rap artist that uses blasphemous language in her songs, and many times sings sexually explicit or racist lyrics. Lecrae states “I’m righteous and ratchet”, a catch phrase that means you can speak righteously or unrighteously. I guess they get that from a “ratchet” as a tool can turn “right” or “left”. Beloved, the Bible says:

1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Christians do not “ratchet”. We serve a Living God Who is righteous and hates sin. He hates sin so much His Son had to die to cover our sins. As someone once said:

“You Christians will stand before God as if you are Christ, because Christ stood before God as if He were YOU! He paid for our sins.”

We are friendly-minded toward people – but NOT toward their broken ways. We are loving toward those in sin – but NOT toward their sin.

Christians Do Not Fight Fire With Fire

1 Peter 3:9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

Social Media has done more to ruin the cause of Christ than anything else in human history. People who profess to be Christian get on Social Media and post some of the most horrid items, thinking that they are somehow leading people to Christ.

Beloved, we as Christians do not get down in the mud
and wrestle with the unbeliever.

We as Christians do not enter the mental health facility
with the idea of arguing with its patients.

Often believers quote these Scriptures out of context:

Leviticus 24:19-20 (ESV) If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. (also see Deuteronomy 19:21)

This Law was given to a specific people – Israel – during a specific time – when a Judge pronounced sentence. This was not meant to be the Christian way of life. Our Lord Jesus said:

Matthew 5:38-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 43 “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.

We are not to avenge ourselves, but to do as Christ commanded. As He hung on the Cross of Calvary in undeserved and unimaginable pain, our Lord cried out:

Luke 23:34 (ESV) … “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

We are to allow our God to take care of vengeance. The Father has promised, “Vengeance is MINE, I will repay, says the LORD” (Romans 12:19). God will balance the scales in the end of days, and you who are saved will be more than satisfied with the results. Do not allow the sons of Adam to pull you down to their level. No soul has ever been won to Christ in an evil for evil battle.

You Bring A Blessing Or A Cursing On Yourself Based On The Fruit You Allow In Your Life

1 Peter 3:9-12 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: 11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and {pursue} it. 12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

The Christian is called to bring LIGHT to this earth, not darkness. “You are the LIGHT of the world” (Matthew 5:14). “Let your LIGHT shine before people, so they can SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS” (Matthew 5:16). Jesus said, “Be careful that the LIGHT that is in you is not darkness” (Luke 11:35). Jesus said, “I came into this world as LIGHT, that whoever believes on me WILL NOT ABIDE IN DARKNESS” (John 12:46).

If you “love life, and {want to} see good days”, then the Lord tells you to control your tongue. Do not let your tongue speak evil things. Do not let hypocrisy come from your lips. We are to:

1 Peter 3:11 … eschew evil, and do good

Word Study: That Old English word “eschew” is the Greek ekklinō, which means “to go out of the way to avoid”. If evil is in your path, “take the long way home”. Shun it. Refuse to entertain it. Celebrate the goodness of God, and shine for Him – even if the world doesn’t understand.

Illustrate: On Saturday (Sept. 9, 2023), 19-year-old Coco Gauff won the U.S. Open women’s tennis single finals, becoming the youngest American to claim the title since Serena Williams won in 1999 at the age of 17. Coco went off to the side after her victory, knelt, and praised God in a moment of silent prayer. She would later tell ESPN, “God [puts] you through tribulations and trials and that makes this moment even sweeter than I could have imagined”.

We who are Christ’s do not just go out of our way to avoid evil, but we “DO GOOD”. What “GOOD” have you done for the Lord this week? Social media doesn’t count. Social media takes no effort. Kneeling and praying to God on the sidelines after a victory takes courage, especially in our day in America. What you post on X (Twitter), Facebook or Linked-In takes no courage. You can ‘block’ whoever doesn’t agree with you, or ‘unfriend’ them, or make the post private. What “GOOD” have you done for the Lord this week in the marketplace, in Church, in your business, in your family or school? We are told to “SEEK PEACE and PURSUE it”. This does not mean to compromise what God has said is true. What this means is,

We are to live our lives so as to lead others to Christ (Ephesians 2:14).

We end with these words:

1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

Do you feel that your prayers are largely unanswered? Do you feel that you are praying and praying, but God is not hearing? Then check your life. Are you walking with Christ? Are you living your life in accordance with the Word of God and the Spirit of God? Or are you imitating the lost? What you do as a believer will effect whether God blesses you or not.

May God touch your hearts, leading you to follow Him. Regardless as to where He leads. Jesus has promised that the gates of hell cannot defeat His Church. Let us follow Him into glory. If we believe, let us follow the lead of His Spirit and His Word – not the flesh. Amen and Amen.

I believe there is one salvation

One doorway that leads to life

One redemption, one confession

I believe in the name of Jesus Christ!

I believe in the crucifixion

By His blood I have been set free

I believe in the resurrection

Hallelujah, His life is death’s defeat

All praise to God the Father, all praise to Christ the Son

All praise to the Holy Spirit, our God has overcomе

The King who was and is and evermore will be

In Jesus’ mighty name, I believe!

(Phil Wickham)

Posted in 1 Peter, Sermons Preached | Tagged Following Christ, God Is Faithful, gospel, Jesus Christ, love God | Leave a comment

Likewise …

Posted on September 12, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Asad Photo Maldives: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-and-woman-walking-of-body-of-water-1024993/

Please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 3:

1 Peter 3:1-7 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; 2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. 3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. 5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: 6 Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. 7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

It seems as if America is in the deepest period of “confusion” I have ever seen. Those who should know better, college professors and medical professionals are now saying “sex is something assigned at birth”. This is not true. As John Stonestreet notes from the Colson Center:

“A person’s sex is acknowledged, not assigned. There are many things that doctors learn about a baby when it’s born, like height, weight, and blood type. Those things aren’t assigned. They’re acknowledged. … Sex is determined by our reproductive system. In most cases, humans are born with two sex chromosomes, either x/x {female} or x/y {male}. … For human reproduction to happen, contributions from both kinds of reproductive systems are required. The differences between males and females go beyond our reproductive systems. Men and women differ in how their brains operate, how they solve problems, what diseases they are susceptible to, and so much more. … disorders of sexual development don’t create new categories of sex. … The disorder that occurs when a person’s reproductive system doesn’t develop neatly along a male or female path is called “intersex.” If a person is intersex that does not mean that he or she is not male or female. Nor does it mean that there are additional categories of sex other than male and female. Some people are born without limbs. Others are born blind. Disorders of sexual development are not evidence of a new category of sex any more than disorders of the cardiac or respiratory systems are evidence of new kinds of hearts or lungs.”

This is what we used to call common sense. We don’t have common sense anymore, but confusion. This is not from God. The Bible is very clear that:

1 Corinthians 14:33 … God is not the author of confusion, but of peace ..

Where does confusion come from if not from God? It comes from the lost. When a person rejects the God Who wrote our Bible for a god of their own making, they enter into confusion. The Bible says (Isaiah 41:29) “their molten images are wind and CONFUSION”, and “they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols” (Isaiah 45:16). The Prophet said:

Jeremiah 3:25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.

Illustrate The Foundation Matters: When you depart from God you move into madness. I find it interesting that today, Sunday September 10, 2023 is “World Suicide Prevention Day”. Suicide, often called “Deaths Of Despair” have been rising. In 2000 there were around 23 deaths of despair per 100,000 people. In 2022 there was a record high 49,369 suicide deaths, and since 2011 nearly 540,000 people have been lost to suicide. In 2021 there were 43,340 residents in Columbia, TN, and 104,760 residents in Maury County. Nationwide there are more suicides than there are residents in Columbia, five times more than in our Maury County.

What in the world is happening? CONFUSION.

We need to get back to God. We need to get back to the Bible! If the foundation of our truth is rotted, our lives will be confusion and rot. We need to get back to Jesus.

A Good Foundation Begins With A Good Marriage

God instituted marriage in the Garden of Eden. It is through marriage that God designed our species to replicate. Man was FIRST created, made from the dust of the ground:

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God {Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm} formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

If you’ve ever walked through your house and saw DUST on an object, guess what? THAT’S YOU. We shed skin cells, which are DUST. God made us of DUST. Then after God made MAN – a MALE – He made the FEMALE. How did He make the female?

Genesis 2:21-22 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Now why didn’t God make woman – a FEMALE – out of dust as He did the man? Because God was showing an order in the family. God could have just as easily made the woman of dust as He made the man of dust. But He made the woman from a RIB taken from MAN who was made from DUST. Now, did this make the woman any less valuable than the man? Absolutely not! If you look in:

Genesis 1:27-30 (ESV) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you {you BOTH} every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You {you BOTH} shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

God made both MALE and FEMALE in His image and in His likeness. God “BLESSED THEM”. Not just HIM, but THEM. God told THEM – the male and female – to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion”. Man cannot “Be fruitful” without the woman. Woman cannot “multiply and fill the earth” without the man. Together as a family they were to “subdue” and “have dominion” over the earth, which means that the male and female in marriage were to rule the earth as representatives and stewards of God the Creator.

Jesus said of marriage,

Matthew 19:4-6 (ESV) … “Have you not read that He {Yᵊhōvâ ‘ĕlōhîm} who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Now, within this “one flesh” arrangement where each person is equally valuable, which leads the unit? Both are important. But the Bible makes it clear that the male leads the marriage. This is why God made man of DUST, but woman from Adam’s RIB. The woman is to be cherished, loved, and protected. The woman is to have input. She is NOT second class, no more than the man’s right arm is second class. The woman is valuable.

This Is Why Peter Addresses The Woman First

1 Peter 3:1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives

When we read these words, modern American philosophy has taught us to read:

ye wives, be in subjection
to your own husbands

and be offended at it. What do you mean the “WIFE” is to “BE IN SUBJECTION TO HER OWN HUSBAND”? That word “SUBJECTION” is a dirty word, highly politically incorrect in American society today. We don’t want to hear about “SUBJECTION”. We don’t want to have “SUBJECTION” in our religion, “SUBJECTION” in our politics, “SUBJECTION” in our relationships, “SUBJECTION” in our workplace. Everybody wants to be the BOSS. Heck with “SUBJECTION”. That’s archaic thought!

But rather than read “ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands”, let’s read that word we so easily skipped over.

“Likewise”

Word Study: This is the Greek homoiōs which means “in the same way”. In the “same way” as what? You have to go back to the previous chapter.

1 Peter 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

There was a time when “all we like SHEEP have GONE ASTRAY – we all turned TO OUR OWN WAY” (Isaiah 53:6). We departed from God, doing our own thing. We would NOT SUBMIT to Him Who loved us. And yet, “the LORD laid on Jesus the INIQUITY of us all”.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

We who are Christians “were as sheep going astray”. We were going our own way. But one day we heard the Gospel of salvation. The Gospel of salvation requires that WE SUBMIT TO GOD. What is the Gospel that was preached in the early Church?

Matthew 3:2 (AP) … REPENT, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ..

Matthew 4:17 (AP) … Jesus preached, REPENT, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand …

Matthew 9:13 (AP) … I did not come to call the righteous, but SINNERS TO REPENT .

Mark 1:15 (AP) … The Kingdom of God is at hand: REPENT and believe the Gospel …

Mark 6:12 … (AP) The Disciples of Christ went out and preached that ALL SHOULD REPENT …

Acts 2:38 (AP) … Peter said to the crowd, REPENT, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit …

2 Corinthians 7:10 (AP) For godly sorrow brings about REPENTANCE to salvation …

Word Study: Salvation will not come to a person who does not REPENT (the Greek metanoeō, which means “to change one’s mind for the better”) and come to Jesus as the “Shepherd and Bishop of your souls”. The “SHEPHERD” is the boss of the sheep. The “BISHOP” (Greek episkopos) is the “OVERSEER” or “SUPERINTENDENT” of your soul.

To be saved, you must SUBMIT to Jesus. When you SUBMIT to Jesus, your sins are covered by His work for you on the Cross. When you SUBMIT to Jesus you become a son of God and a child of God. Positionally, you become the property of God.

If you have not submitted to God, surrendering
your soul to Him, you are not saved.

But the “LIKEWISE” (homoiōs, “in the same way”) does not just refer to the Christian, but also to the Christ. Listen Beloved:

1 Peter 2:21-24 Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: 24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

We are saved by submitting ourselves to Jesus.
Jesus saved us by submitting Himself to the Cross.

Women Have A Massive Amount Of Control
Over Their Own Husbands

1 Peter 3:1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; 2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.

Word Study: The words translated “be in subjection” is the Greek hypotassō, which means “to be subject to, submit ones self to, to follow the leadership of or be under the direction of”. The woman should follow the leadership of her husband insofar as his leadership does not violate her covenant with God. The Bible commands our allegiance to be first and foremost to our Lord Jesus. We are commanded to “not walk as unbelievers walk, in the emptiness of their own minds” (Ephesians 4:17, AP). No Christian is to give themselves over to sexual sin, uncleanness, or greed (Ephesians 4:19). As Christians we are to be like Jesus is, “created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24, AP). We as Christians are told:

Ephesians 5:1-4 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. 3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; 4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

Wives are not to submit to sinful suggestions by their lost husbands, but are to model Christ while walking in loving submission to “their own husbands”. I have talked with several female believers in this Church who had unbelieving husbands. One lady told me she lived for the Lord, and every Sunday asked if her husband would come with her to Church. Week after week he would say no. But then one day he surprised her. He said, “Yes”, and went to Church with her. His life turned to Jesus not long after that. We are told:

if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives

Word Study: “conversation” is the Greek anastrophē, which means “manner of life, conduct, behavior, deportment”. If the wife was won to the Gospel by the preaching of the Word of God, but the husband will not hear that Word, he MAY see the lifestyle of the wife and be led to the Lord by that lifestyle.

1 Peter 3:2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.

Word Study: “chaste conversation” is the Greek hagnos anastrophē, which means “pure or clean manner of life, the way you live for Jesus”. When you were saved God the Holy Spirit came to indwell you (John 14:17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Titus 3:5). You are “partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Peter 1:4), just as men are who are saved. The Apostle goes on to say:

1 Peter 3:3-4 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

There’s a commercial on television that says, “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline”. The saved wife who loves her husband may use Maybelline, makeup, or some other outward adornment. There’s nothing wrong with that. But your outward adornment should not just be cosmetic. What should always be there – visible outwardly whether you are male or female – is “the hidden man of the heart” shining outward in all that you do. That inner Spirit is “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit”. That’s the opposite of a nag. The Bible says:

Proverbs 25:24 (AMP) It is better to live in a corner of the housetop [on the flat roof, exposed to the weather] Than in a house shared with a quarrelsome (contentious) woman.

Nagging a man does no good. Living for Jesus does great good. Peter himself had a wife, contrary to what the Catholics believe. When Jesus went to Simon Peter’s home we read:

Luke 4:38-39 (ESV) {Jesus} arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they {Simon and his wife} appealed to {Jesus} on her behalf. 39 And {Jesus} stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them..

In this text you see SUBMISSION all around. Simon’s Mother-in-law was sick. Simon and his wife asked Jesus to heal her, and our Lord SUBMITTED to their request. He healed the Mother-in-law. After that, she rose up and “began to serve them”. Submission. It is not a bad word!

1 Peter 3:5-6 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: 6 Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement {ptoēsis, to be terrified}.

The Bible encourages the wives to “do good, and do not fear anything that is frightening”. If wives with unsaved husbands will keep their eyes on Jesus, living submitted to Christ as all Christians should do, they will have a positive impact on their husbands.

But what about the husbands? Is there a word of God to saved husbands?

Don’t Miss The “Likewise” Again!

1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Word Study: Once more we see the word “LIKEWISE”, the Greek homoiōs, which means“in the same way”). We’ve been talking about SUBMISSION throughout this study. Now the husband is to submit to the wife. What is the husband to submit? The Apostle said in another place:

Ephesians 5:25-28 (ESV) Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Husbands are to “love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”. We are to emulate Christ. We are to lay our lives down for our wives to protect and save them. We are to be their buffer against the evils of this world. The Bible tells us, “husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself”.

A man who abuses or neglects his wife has no respect for his own life, much less hers.

give honor unto the wife, as unto
the weaker vessel

The woman IS the weaker vessel. The woman has neither the bulk of bone nor of muscle that the man has – not naturally, anyway. God did this because the man was made to protect the Rib, the weaker vessel. We are called of God to “givE honor unto the wife”. Though the vessel may be weaker, it is not cheap nor useless.

The Chinese Qianlong vase is made of porcelain. It is small – just 16 inches tall. This fragile easily broken vase was recently sold at auction for $53 MILLION.

Only the woman, the female, has the ability to bring forth life. Men do not have that ability. The husband and wife are “heirs together of the grace of life”. We are both headed toward glory, toward eternity with Jesus. That woman you married is precious in the eyes of Christ, and should be precious in your eyes as well. My commentary notes:

“… what proclaims God’s grace is our conduct (2:19-20). The Christian’s conduct in trying and difficult circumstances manifests God’s grace in a human life. The submissive conduct of servants whose masters are persecuting them manifests God’s grace. The submissive conduct of wives … manifests grace. The submissive conduct of husbands … manifests grace. The husband demonstrates his submission to God by treating his wife as a fellow heir of God’s grace (3:7).”

Beloved, if we would fix America, we must get back to the Bible. We must stop listening to woke philosophy and silliness. We must heed the Lord our God, submitting our lives to Him.

There will come a day when we will all stand before our God, to be judged and determined where our final destination will be. Will yours be with Jesus in Heaven, or in hell with Satan? The choice is going to be settled in this life, based on how you submitted to the authority of Christ and God’s Word. May God the Holy Spirit lead you to salvation through faith in Christ this very day.

Posted in 1 Peter, Men and Women, Sermons Preached | Tagged Following Christ, God Is Faithful, gospel, Jesus Christ | Leave a comment

A Double Amen Door

Posted on September 8, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Harrison Haines: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-wooden-opened-door-shed-2869565/

John 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

The Double Amen Emphasizes Truth

Jesus loved to ask His hearers questions, questions to make them think. But Jesus also loved to use illustrations. He looked at the world around Him, and used truths from that world to explain Heavenly things.

Word Study: Today Jesus starts out with “Verily, verily”, which is literally “amēn amēn”. When the Preacher is speaking in the Church, sometimes the people (if they’re not asleep) say “amēn”. When a prayer is said, we generally end it with “amēn”.

Have you ever thought about what “amēn” means?

In the Old Testament, God used the word “amēn” (also the Hebrew ‘āman) to refers to “something that is faithful, established, or unshakable”. Through Isaiah, God prophecies that Israel is going to be punished for rejecting His leadership. Though God will set up a King named Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and promises that …

Isaiah 22:23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure {‘āman} place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.

Nonetheless Israel will fall, because they continue to refuse to repent and return to God. Israel’s fall is not God’s fault, but Israel’s fault. God established Eliakim’s reign in an AMEN place, a certain place. His reign was unshakable, because God made him unshakable. Yet Israel will still fall, because they will ignore the will of God.

Several of my commentaries note that the reign of Eliakim is an Old Testament shadow of the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father established Jesus as “a nail in a sure {‘āman} place”. God even uses language for Eliakim that He later uses for Christ. He said of Eliakim:

Isaiah 22:22 (ESV) … I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

When Jesus addressed the Church at Philadelphia, He said of Himself:

Revelation 3:7 (ESV) {I am} the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

Jesus Christ is the Nail in a AMEN place, God the Son and the Son of God. Though God sent the Messiah to Israel, His people nonetheless fell to Rome and were scattered throughout the world in 70 AD. It was not Christ’s fault then, and is not Christ’s fault now. Our Lord is faithful. Jesus Christ is the Same yesterday, today, and FOREVER (Hebrews 13:8). He is the AMEN of God.

Yet if we reject Him, we, too, shall fall.
This is OUR FAULT, not God’s!

Before God led Israel into the Promised Land, He gave them very specific instructions. After each directive, God demanded His people respond with ‘āmēn. This was their signature on the contract, their statement that they understood what was being said. We read:

Deuteronomy 27:14-17 And the Levites shall speak, and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice, 15 Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen {‘āmēn}. 16 Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen {‘āmēn}. 17 Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen {‘āmēn}.

Twelve times throughout this chapter Israel is to respond with AMEN, one time for each tribe of Israel. When you say “AMEN”, you are saying “I understand what God has said – and now I am accountable to HIM for keeping my part of this contract.

Though the Bible tells us that there is only One God (1 Timothy 2:5), but as Adrian Rogers once said “God reveals Himself to us through many different names in the Bible. No single name can describe all that God is. In fact, God uses each and every one of His names to reveal a different part of His character to us”. We have One God with many different descriptive names. One website notes that there are 967 Names and Titles of God in the Scripture. One of God’s names is “the God of truth”, or “The GOD of AMEN”. This comes from two places in Scripture:

Isaiah 65:16 “he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth {‘āmēn}”.

Revelation 3:14 unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God

God is the “God of AMEN”, and Jesus Christ is “The AMEN”. To say AMEN is to invoke the very Name of God. It is not something to be taken lightly. Unless you heed Christ, and AMEN what He says:

Matthew 18:3 … Verily {amēn} I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

You cannot be saved.

Amēn affirms that what God has said is true.
Amēn says “I understand what You said, God, and I agree with it”.
Amēn submits to God’s authority and God’s Word.
Amēn does not debate what God has said is true.
Amēn fixes on Christ as True North.
The Online Bible College notes:

“All Jewish ears tingled when they heard those words. All conversation stopped. All eyes became transfixed on this one who started his teachings with the double “amen,” for this usage not only underlined the importance of what Jesus was about to say, it also linked his words to the eternal covenant-making God.”

You Can Only Lawfully Enter The
“Sheepfold” By The AMEN Door

John 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

The “Sheepfold” is the place where the owner of the sheep stored the sheep in safety. There were two types of sheepfolds. There was the sheepfold in town, and the sheepfold out of town and near the pasture.

The sheepfold had three things common to it, whether in the town or out of town. The sheepfold had walls, hedges, or some type of barrier to contain and protect the sheep. The sheepfold had a doorway that the sheep rightly went through to get inside the barrier. And the sheepfold had … wait for it … SHEEP! The whole purpose of the sheepfold was to protect the sheep.

God described His people as SHEEP. We read:

Psalm 74:1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

God’s people described themselves as God’s SHEEP. We read:

Psalm 79:13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

To describe the believer as a SHEEP is not an insult, but a perfect description. We are very similar to sheep.

Actual sheep have no natural defenses against the dangers of life. Wolves and lions love to eat sheep, the only defense against the wolves and lions is the shepherd.

The believer sheep has no defenses against the devil and his lot. The Bible says,

1 Peter 5:8 “the devil prowls around like a ROARING LION, seeking someone to devour”

We have no defenses against the devil. We have no real defense against death, disease, or destruction. We need the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, to look after us. We need the words of the Shepherd to comfort and control us. Jesus warned:

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

Sheep need protection. Sheep need the Shepherd, and the sheepfold. How do we get into the sheepfold?

John 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

You can sneak into the sheepfold. But if you do not come through “the door into the sheepfold”, then you are there unlawfully. You are “a thief and a robber”. Jesus tells us in:

John 10:7 … Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

Again we see the DOUBLE AMEN in “Verily, verily”. What does Jesus emphasize this time? That He is EXCLUSIVELY “the door of the sheep”. I hear people often say today,

“There are many ways to get to God”

Jesus says, “You are a THIEF and a ROBBER”. The Pharisees and Sadducees sought to get to God through the keeping of the Laws of Moses. Yet God did not give Israel the Law so that they could work their way into Heaven. God gave Israel the sabbaths, the sacrifices, the Temple services as a foreshadowing of Christ. The various ritual that were repeated yearly taught both Israel and US that we all fall far short of God’s righteousness. The Bible says:

Romans 3:19-25 (ESV) Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith…

The Door to the sheepfold is Jesus. It is His Blood that gives us access to God. It is His Word that explains the great truths of Scripture. The Pharisees and Sadducees saw Jesus and, though it was clear He is the Messiah, they rejected Him to create their own doorway into God’s sheepfold. They did not glorify God, but did what they did to bring glory to themselves. Jesus said of them:

Matthew 23:4-7 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

I was reading an article the other day called “The Greatest Danger That Any Human Being Faces” (Joe Rigney, fellow of Theology New Saint Andrews College). He wrote:

“For sinners, God is the supreme terror, and when we rightly understand our situation, we are right to fear. As the Scriptures say, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). Jesus himself makes this point in seeking to rightly order our fears: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! (Luke 12:4–5)”

The Door to God’s sheepfold is not my abilities, but that which my Jesus has done for me. He is the Door!

The Bible warns that “the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6). What will protect from that wrath, a sure wrath, a justified wrath? Only the Blood of Jesus Christ.

John 1:29 … looking upon Jesus as He walked, {John the Baptist} said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world’ (c/w John 1:36)

That which brings us out from under the wrath of God and into the Sheepfold is Jesus. Again we read:

1 Peter 1:18-19 (ESV) … you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Some turn to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Ellen White, Victor Wierville, Taz Russell. Some turn away from the Bible to the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of Mormon, the New World Translation, or some other “holy book”. Yet Jesus recognized NONE of these things. He said:

John 10:8-9 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

God’s Sheep will not hear these who try to sneak in through their own windows, or their own illegal doors. The Sheep enter in through “THE Door”. Those who try and enter into the Sheepfold apart from Christ are likewise thieves and robbers. We are told:

John 3:16-18 (ESV) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

God’s Word is very clear. You can choose to try and sneak in the Sheepfold and be labeled a thief and robber. Or you can enter into God’s Sheepfold through Jesus Christ His only Begotten Son. Pastor C.H. Spurgeon said:

“Christ has come that we may have life! If we could have obtained life without His coming, why did He need to come? If life could come to sinners apart from the Cross, why nail the Lord of Glory to the shameful tree? Why Your bleeding wounds, Immanuel, if life could come by some other door? Yet further, why did the Spirit of God descend at Pentecost, and why does He still abide among men if they can be quickened [made alive] without Him? If life is to be obtained apart from the Holy Spirit, to what end does He work in the human heart? The bleeding Savior and the indwelling Spirit are convincing proofs that our life is not from ourselves, but from above!”

Remember That We Mentioned There Are TWO Sheepfolds That Every Shepherd Had?

John 10:2-3 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. {3} To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

In this parable, Jesus not only makes Himself the DOOR, but He makes Himself also the SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. He said:

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

How can our Lord be BOTH SHEPHERD AND DOOR? And WHO is the PORTER? Let’s go back to what I mentioned earlier. Every shepherd had two sheepfolds. He had one in the city, usually a barn or some type of finished structure, and another sheepfold out in the country near where the sheep pastured. The sheepfold outside of the city was made out of hedges, briers, stone, or whatever natural material could be found and assembled to protect those sheep. Here’s the application.

In the city the sheepfold had a finished door guarded by a “PORTER” (thyrōros, the doorkeeper). When the shepherd came to get his sheep, the thyrōros would only let the right shepherd take his sheep. The thyrōros would not open the door to let a stranger in. He was employed to watch the sheep in the shepherd’s absense.

But in the field, there was no thyrōros, for the sheepfold was unfinished, rough. It had a doorway that the sheep went through. Once in the sheepfold, the shepherd would stand or lay across the doorway, becoming the “door” of the sheepfold. The shepherd protected the sheep with his very life.

While we as the people of God walk this earth, we are not home, not in our permanent city. We are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11). Our God places a “hedge” around us, making a sheepfold for us to rest in. Even the devil knows this, for he said of Job:

Job 1:9-10 Doth Job fear God for nought? {10} Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

God puts a hedge around His people. He is their Shelter from the storm. The Scripture says:

2 Samuel 22:2-4 The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; {3} The God of my rock; in him will I trust: [he is] my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my Savior; thou savest me from violence. {4} I will call on the LORD, [who is] worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies ..

God is the Hedge around His people. He is our Sheepfold. He saves us, and loves us, and protects and cares for us. And Jesus is the Door of this Sheepfold.

Jesus has promised “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” He watches over us while we walk through this earth. Jesus stands in the doorway as our Door. He is there – He is always there. One day this life will end for us who have believed in Him. We will be transported to Heaven, that Heavenly Jerusalem, that great City of God. The Porter on the Gate of that City is God Himself. Not Saint Peter, not some human, but God. And Jesus – our Great Shepherd – will take us through that Gate. Only Jesus can do this.

There are two Sheepfolds: That in Eternity, In Heaven, and that on Earth. Jesus Is the Door to both Sheepfolds!

Do you know Him? If you do not, today is the day of salvation. Do not wait. Come to Christ. Give your life fully to Him. He is the Door and the Great Shepherd. Amen. Amen.

Posted in John, Sermons Preached | Tagged Following Christ, God Is Faithful, gospel, prayer, salvation | Leave a comment

Do You Believe?

Posted on September 6, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by stayhereforu: https://www.pexels.com/photo/light-sea-dawn-landscape-18128251/

John 9:35-41 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 36 He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? 37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee. 38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. 39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? 41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

God Can Heal Anything But Self Righteousness

We have been studying the longest passage in Scripture on Jesus’ healing a man born blind. Jesus healed other blind people, but the entirety of chapter 9 deals with this one man. Interestingly, we never know this man’s name. But God knows it. Jesus knows his name. Jesus healed this man to show us that, as Messiah, He came to give sight to the blind. God told Moses:

Exodus 4:11 (ESV) … Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?

It is God who makes a person. People say, “How can a loving God allow that child to be born blind, or with cancer, or with some horrid disease?” Yet what we are saying in reality is,

We have created a false god, an image of the true, in what we think is our image and in our likeness. God is not like what we want Him to be. God is as He is. God does what He does for a purpose. He is God, and we are not.

It is God – the LORD God Almighty – that makes each person according to His will. He made this man on purpose. God made this man blind so that, as we found out in verse 3, “that the works of God should be made manifest in him”. He was made blind from birth so that we all could see the power of Jesus over those who believe in Him. This man’s blindness could be healed – but the blindness of the Pharisee, the self righteousness of man made religion – cannot be fixed.

I find it interesting that Jesus waited until this man was “cast out” of the Synagogue to go to him. The Pharisees threw him out of their fellowship. Why? I believe it is because Christ cannot work with the self righteous. A person who is self righteous believes that they can be good enough for God on their own. The Bible says “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). We are all broken things, and all need Jesus.

Illustrate: Those who are in Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous know that the first thing the addict must do is to admit they have a problem. Once the problem is admitted, that person disconnects himself from others who are still in the grips of the problem. You cannot be a recovering alcoholic in a bar, nor a recovering addict in an opiate den or crack house. You must get away from those who are in the grip of that blindness.

The Pharisees were blind, not with alcohol or drugs, but with self righteousness. They might not have been physically blind, but they were spiritually blind. They saw clear indications through the miraculous that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. Yet they rejected what they saw with their eyes, because their hearts were hardened toward the Lord. They kept the “traditions of the elders” (Matthew 15:2), but disobeyed the clearly taught Word of God (Matthew 15:3-6). Jesus told the Pharisees:

Mark 7:9 Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

They did not actually guard the Law of God, so much as they modified the Law to suit their own beliefs. They are much like those who ignore the Apostolic Teaching on Pastors and Deacons (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6, “The HUSBAND of ONE WIFE) or on homosexual or heterosexual sin (1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10, “The sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals shall inherit the Kingdom of God”). Though the Bible says:

2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.

Just as we are commanded to withdraw from “every brother that walketh disorderly”, to not keep company with those who reject Apostolic Teaching, God caused the Pharisees to expel this once blind man from the company of the self righteous. The charge of God against the Pharisees was:

Romans 10:3-4 (NASB) For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Those who KNOW they are right will never entertain the notion that they need Jesus, the Son of God.

The Pharisees were a ground untilled, rocky, filled with weeds. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him “Why do You speak in parables?”, Jesus replied:

Matthew 13:13-15 (ESV) I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah (from Isaiah 6:9-10) is fulfilled that says: You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. 15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them. (see also John 12:39-40; Luke 8:10; Mark 4:12)

The Pharisees had forgotten that the purpose of the Law was to lead mankind to the Christ, to “believe on the Son of God”. They thought they were fine because of their knowledge of Scripture, but their hearts were far from God (see Matthew 15:8-9). Jesus called them “blind guides” (Matthew 15:14; 23:16, 24), “blind fools” (Matthew 23:17), and “blind men” (Matthew 23:19). The Pharisees had the worst type of blindness. Each and every person born into the world is born “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1-2), walking according to the ways of this world, and following the direction of the “prince of the power of the air – satan” (Ephesians 2:1-2). Jesus told the Pharisees:

If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth

One of my commentaries notes:

The Pharisees repeatedly listen to the preaching of Jesus. They are not absent when he performs amazing miracles. They witness his consistent kindness toward the lowest of their society’s low. Yet they reject him as God’s Messiah or even as a man from God (John 7:30-32; John 8:16). What’s more, they call him a glutton and a drunkard, a Samaritan, demon possessed, in league with the prince of demons, and even Beelzebul himself (Luke 7:34; John 8:48; Mark 3:22; Matthew 10:25). We ask ourselves, how can the Pharisees be so blind?

Separating The Once Blind Man From The Blind Pharisees, Jesus Asks A Simple Question

John 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

Jesus waited until He heard that “they had cast him out” of the Synagogue. Separated from the Pharisees our Lord asks him simply:

John 9:35 Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

Jesus has already seen this man’s heart. He sees that the man is prepared to be saved. He is out of the company of the self righteous and the confused. Jesus asks this man the question that is the key to eternal life. Jesus does not say, “Do you believe on Jesus of Nazareth?” Jesus is of Nazareth. He is “Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph” (John 1:45). But Joseph is not actually Christ’s father, but he is Jesus’ stepfather. Christ is born of God. He is born of the Virgin Mary. The Angel told Mary:

Luke 1:35 … The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Jesus is the unique Son of God. He was MADE Perfect Man, but has ALWAYS been the Son of God.

The Angels of Heaven are called “The sons of God” (Genesis 6:2, 4; Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 38:7) because they were CREATED by God. Likewise, Adam himself was called “the son of God”:

Luke 3:38 … Adam, which was the son of God

because he was CREATED of God. But Jesus – unlike Adam and the Angels – was not created the Son of God, but He was created the Son of Man. Jesus has always been THE Son of God. The Devil himself knows Jesus is THE Son of God (Matthew 4:3, 6). When Jesus met the two possessed of devils in the country of the Gergesenes, the demons themselves cried out:

Matthew 8:29 …. What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

The devils and their Ruler know that Jesus is the Son of God, but they will not repent. The Pharisees knew the Scripture, but refused to acknowledge Jesus is the Son of God. The Gospel that saves is that “Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Salvation comes when a person recognizes Jesus as Nathaniel did, saying:

John 1:49 … {Jesus is the} the Son of God; … the King of Israel.

He is the Messiah, the One prophesied of the Father in the Old Testament, the One Who would come and lead those who believe in Him to salvation. When we receive Jesus as “THE SON OF GOD”, the Bible says that we become “sons of God” by New Birth.

You say that you believe Jesus is THE Son of God? Then why aren’t you OBEYING Him? Why aren’t you WORSHIPING Him? Do not believe your ritual – whether circumcision or water baptism – will get you into Heaven. “Dost THOU believe on the SON OF GOD?” If you do, it will show in your lifestyle. It will show in how you spend your money, in how you dress and act, in how and what you worship.

The key to God’s Kingdom is confession and submission to Jesus as THE Son of God! The Scripture says:

1 John 4:15 Whosoever shall confess {this is PUBLIC confession} that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

1 John 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? {you obey JESUS, not the world}

1 John 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. {You believe Jesus is UNIQUELY THE SON of GOD}

1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. {you do not BRIEFLY believe Jesus is the Son of God, but HOLD ON to Him as such}

You may believe that Jesus was a good Man, a carpenter’s son, or even a master Rabbi – and you will remain dead in your sins. But if you have received Jesus as “THE Son of God”, the Scripture says:

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

When you RECEIVE Jesus as THE Son of God, God sends the Holy Spirit to you. You receive “power to become the sons of God”. Jesus Christ is Creator God in human perfection. The Scripture declares:

Colossians 1:15-17 (AP) … Jesus Christ is the very image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: For by Him all things are created, things in Heaven and earth, things visible or invisible, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers: all things were CREATED BY HIM AND FOR HIM, and He is preeminent and before all things, and by Him all things are held together.

This Once Blind Man Shows Us The
PROGRESSION Of Saving Faith

Jesus is more than mere man – He is the God Who became incarnate as Perfect Man. He is the Son of God from eternity. He asks this now seeing but who was once blind man, “Do YOU believe on the Son of God?”. God has been working on the heart of this man. When this man first was healed, he told people that he was healed when …

John 9:11 … A MAN that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes…

Jesus was just a MAN at this point. He was a person like the ex-blind man was a person. Jesus is indeed a Man, but He is not like us. He is a PERFECT Man. Jesus is our “High Priest, Who was tempted as we are, but remained SINLESS” (Hebrews 4:15). As this blind man began to contemplate the miracle of his healing, in his heart he knew that Jesus had to be MORE than just a man like himself. When the Pharisees approached him later, asking who healed him, the once blind man told them:

John 9:17 … He {Jesus} is a prophet.

He must be a Holy Man like John the Baptist, or Elijah or Elisha. After all, the great prophets of the Old Covenant sometimes healed people.

Elijah raised a widow’s son from death (1 Kings 17:17-24).
Elisha raised the Shunamite’s son from death (2 Kings 4:18-37).

Maybe Jesus was a Prophet, sent of God. But now this Person Who healed him stands before him, and asks,

vs 35 Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

The man once blind asks Jesus,

John 9:36 … Who is he, LORD, that I might believe on him?

Word Study: The context of the Greek text tells us that the word rendered “LORD” would be better rendered “SIR”. The healed blind man speaks to Jesus respectfully, but he has never (to his knowledge) seen the “Son of God” with his own eyes. Perhaps he recognizes Jesus’ voice – but he does not call Him “LORD” yet, but respectfully “SIR”. In his mind Jesus has come from common man, to Prophet, to a “Sir”. He asks Jesus Who is the Son of God. Our Lord replies:

John 9:37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.

Jesus declares He is the Son of God. To the Pharisees, Jesus now commits a terrible blaspheme. When they would later bring Jesus before Pilate to be crucified, they would tell the governor:

John 19:7 … We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.

They rejected Christ because they thought that “he made himself the Son of God”. But Jesus did not “MAKE HIMSELF” anything. He was clearly the Son of God. Only God could create eyes in a man born without sight. When His friend Lazarus died, Jesus brought him back to life (John 11:42-44). Martha said to Jesus:

John 11:27 … Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

Jesus did not MAKE HIMSELF anything. He is THE Son of God. His works proved His profession.

Jesus has told this man He is the Son of God. The man responds:

John 9:38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him.

The natural outflow of faith is WORSHIP. As a Pastor, if I have to chase you to get you to come and WORSHIP Jesus, then dear friend, YOU ARE NOT SAVED. If you do not love and worship Jesus, then you do not believe in Jesus. He is the Son of God. He is co-equal with God. Jesus told the devil:

Matthew 4:10 … it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’

Jesus was quoting Deuteronomy 6:13-14 as well as other texts. Only God is to be worshiped. Yet this once blind man WORSHIPS Jesus – and Jesus receives that worship.

Jesus was worshiped as a toddler (Matthew 2:11).
Jesus was worshiped by a leper (Matthew 8:2).
Jesus was worshiped by a ruler (Matthew 9:18).
Jesus was worshiped by His disciples (Matthew 14:33).
Jesus was worshiped by the Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:25).
Jesus was worshiped by Legion (Mark 5:6).
and Jesus will be worshiped in Heaven (Revelation 11:16).

Jesus is the Son of God. He came into the world to show us the truth of God, and to open our eyes, if we would but come to Him. He came,

John 9:39 … that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.

May God the Holy Spirit open your eyes to Christ this very day. If you are saved, live for Him. Worship Him. Please Him by your lifestyle. And if you are not saved, today is the day of salvation. Make your choice. May God lead you to Christ Jesus. Amen and Amen.

Posted in John, Sermons Preached | Tagged Christ, Following Christ, love, salvation | Leave a comment

Jesus Christ Our Example

Posted on September 6, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by Kubra Kısa: https://www.pexels.com/photo/view-from-a-window-16798486/

1 Peter 2:18-21 Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. 19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

The Big Lie Told From The Pulpits

Several years ago a horrible lie was pushed through the Protestant pulpits and seminaries, a lie that continues to this day. This lie caused a lot of harm. It basically said this:

“Salvation is a free gift of God. Once you are saved, you don’t have to do anything else. There is a second level of Christianity called “Discipleship” that you can choose to follow – or not. You’re still saved and have a free ride to Heaven no matter how you live your life.”

They may not have used those exact words, but that was what was preached. Using this formula, the “Church Membership Rosters” filled with members, and for a time the number of attendees rose. I actually saw one preacher do this – play along with me. “How many of you want to go to Heaven – raise your hand? All right, how many of you believe that Jesus died to save you from Hell, to give you Heaven? Raise your hand. All right, everyone who raised their hand is saved! Let’s praise the Lord!”

After a while though, the Churches began to empty out. Do you know why? Because if you’re going to Heaven no matter what you do in this life, you can be a serial killer or a rapist. You have no incentive to become a “disciple”, that second tier of Christianity, if everyone goes to the same place and gets the same reward. This is the reason that Hugh Hefner, when he died, was depicted as entering Heaven in numerous editorial cartoons. He and his Playboy Empire helped create a $10 Billion a year porn industry.

There is another reason (among a myriad of reasons) that “Two Tier Christianity” failed, and the Churches are emptying out. Many believe that once they were saved, that they would not only miss hell, but would also miss out on suffering. But that’s not true. All people suffer.

So called “Two Tiered Christianity” will not stand
through the fire of suffering.

One of my favorite Bible Teachers was Dr. Tim Keller, an ordained Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in America. Keller pastored the 5000 member Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York City. He wrote 34 Books on various Bible subjects. Though I didn’t agree with him on everything he wrote, he asked those who professed Christ:

1. Is There EVIDENCE OF GOD’S PRESENCE In Your Life?
2. Is There EVIDENCE OF SCRIPTURE Changing Your Life?
3. Is There EVIDENCE OF A GROWING APPRECIATION for God’s Mercy?

Listen to me, Beloved. If you are saved, YOU ARE SAVED INTO A FAMILY. If you are saved, YOU ARE SAVED INTO A KINGDOM. There are not two levels of Christianity, but one. Life will try your faith. Bad things happen to the best of people. Tim Keller died of Pancreatic Cancer at the age of 72, but he died praising God for His goodness. Tim Keller’s last words were these:

“There is no downside for me leaving, not in the slightest.”

Christians Will Suffer. Is God Present
With You In Your Suffering?

1 Peter 2:18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

Word Study: The Apostle starts with the word “Servants”. This is the Greek oikétēs, {pronounced oy-ket’-ace}, which means “a menial domestic, a live in maid or butler”. Jesus used this same word in:

Luke 16:13 No servant {oikétēs} can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

One of the lowest jobs a person could have is to be an oikétēs or a live in servant. This job was usually held by slaves, though it could be a very low paying position. The oikétēs did the lowest jobs, washing the feet of the master and his family, cleaning up after those in his or her charge, waiting on the Master’s family hand and foot. The word oikétēs speaks to those who are in a miserable job with little wage – a hand to mouth existence.

Word Study: The oikétēs is told to “be subject to your masters with all fear”, to willingly and respectfully serve them. He says, “not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward”. The word “froward” is the Greek skoliós, {pronounced skol-ee-os’}, which means “the crooked, the wicked, the surly or mean spirited”. Your level of service and your attitude is to be attentive, respectful, and patiently longsuffering toward the “master”, regardless as to how you are treated, or what you think you deserve. Though you are a “SERVANT” in this person’s employ, and though this person may treat you badly, you are nonetheless a “Child of God” in the House of God. You belong to God. You represent God. You represent the Kingdom of Heaven.

1 Peter 2:19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

Word Study: The word translated “THANKWORTHY” is the Greek cháris, {pronounced khar’-ece} which means “GRACE”. When you do good to those who do bad to you, you are demonstrating Christ in your life. You are showing people what Grace looks like. This is what Jesus did for you. We are told in:

1 Peter 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

“For even hereunto were ye called”. This is the reason God called you. You were considered by all else to be less than or the least of these. The Bible says:

1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (NKJV) For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence

God called the weak. He called the broken. He called the lowly servant. Look at who Jesus Christ called to be His Apostles. He did not call rich people, or Bible Scholars, or Doctors of Theology, or great Rabbis. Jesus called fishermen. Jesus called despised tax collectors. Jesus called stewards. Jesus called merchants. Jesus told these men, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19).

We are called to imitate Christ.
We are called to model Grace as Jesus did.

If you “endure grief, suffering wrongfully”, then you are following in Christ’s footsteps. Jesus endured grief. Our Lord Jesus came from the glorious Throne of Heaven, down to this earth, to make us right with God. As Jesus went through this life the Bible says:

Hebrews 5:7-9 (ESV) In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. 9 And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him…

All of us have experienced suffering at times. We have all been placed in positions where we were brought low. Jesus went through the same things. Though Jesus never did evil, and was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), He was accused of being empowered by the devil. The Pharisee said:

Matthew 12:24 This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

They accused Jesus of blasphemy (Matthew 26:65). They plotted against our Lord, and told lies about Him, and mocked Him. Jesus told them:

Matthew 26:53 (ESV) Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?

Our Lord Jesus is the “Man of Sorrows”. Oh, how He suffered while on this earth. The Prophet said:

Isaiah 53:3-4 He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

How did Jesus respond when He – the “Beloved Son in Whom God the Father is well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; 17:5) – suffered as He did? Did He curse the Father? Did He rail at His tormentors? No. The Bible says:

1 Peter 2:22-23 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: 23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:

Jesus did not allow His pain to bring Himself into a state of sin. Being sinned against, He “did no sin”. Jesus did not lie nor hide in the gray shadows of the truth. There was no “GUILE {dólos, [pronounced dol’-os], deceitfulness, trickery} found in His mouth”. Jesus stayed within character, and continued to espouse the Word of God as truth. We are told that “when he was reviled, reviled not again”. How did Jesus use His mouth as the worst stage of His suffering?

Luke 23:33-34 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. 34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment {clothing} , and cast lots.

As Jesus hung naked and bleeding, making payment for your sins and mine, at no point did He curse His captors nor the audience who mocked Him. Jesus prayed for them.

Jesus epitomized Grace in how He suffered. We Who are His Children are to follow the same standard.

How did Jesus do it? He kept His focus on the bigger picture. He kept His eyes on the Father’s intent. We are told that when Jesus “suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him”.

Jesus gave the situation to His Father.
In His suffering, Jesus focused on the “big picture”.
He focused on our salvation.

The oikétēs or lowly servant focused on the miserable job or the hateful employer will let his emotions draw him downward into depression or hatred. He will, in time, look for ways to “get even” or to pay back the master for what he suffered. But the oikétēs focused on pleasing the Heavenly Father and glorifying the Son of God will praise the Lord in spite of the suffering. That oikétēs will trust that the Father is in control of all things, and that if the oikétēs do his part, that our God will do His part. The Bible tells us that “God is faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:9):

1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV) No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Our Heavenly Father is faithful. He is always right in what He proposes and good in what He disposes. Jesus trusted this, and so should we.

1 Peter 2:20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

Illustrate: If you suffer for something you did to yourself, there is no glory in that. Sometimes we purposely do the wrong thing, knowing to do better, and cause ourselves suffering. There is no GLORY in that. It’s like a comedian once said, “Doctors can fix all types of sicknesses and diseases. If you were born with defects, specialized doctors can fix you up, make you look like a movie star. You can fix a hair lip, or crossed eyes. But there’s one thing you can’t fix. You can’t fix STUPID”. When you do something STUPID, or against God’s commandment, you can bring misery to yourself – misery you deserve.

What does God want us to do? We are told that when we “do well, and suffer for it” if we “take it patiently” that this is ACCEPTABLE TO GOD. This is what God wants us to do. When we suffer, invite God into the suffering with us. Follow Jesus’ footsteps. The suffering is not without purpose, but God is giving you an opportunity to display what GRACE is.

Has The Scripture You Heard Today
Changed Your Life In Any Way?

Christianity brings not only the Presence of God, but it also modifies your life as you study God’s Word. Jesus bore up under suffering because He knew that what He suffered would conquer death and bring salvation to us. The Scripture says:

Hebrews 2:9-11 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. 10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Jesus “TASTED DEATH FOR EVERY PERSON”. He died for the sins of the world. He did that so the He could “bring many sons unto glory”. To come to Jesus in faith is to REPENT, and to RECEIVE HIM as He is – both LORD AND SAVIOR of His people. Did Jesus die on that Cross just to bring us to Heaven? NO! We read:

1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Jesus Christ, who is Perfect and Unbroken, was broken on Calvary to fix us. Because He died for our sins, we are ourselves “dead to sins”. The Apostle Paul said it this way:

Romans 6:1-2, 6, 11-18 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

We who are saved, are now sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. We do not serve sin, but serve righteousness. We who are His “SHOULD LIVE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS”. If you are saved, you were saved INTO a FAMILY. If you are saved, you are saved INTO a KINGDOM.

We’ll end with this:

1 Peter 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

We live close to our Great Shepherd. We look to Him. We trust in Him, no matter what may come. Do you know Him? If now, please call upon Him now. REPENT, and turn to the Master. Give your broken life to Him, and He will make you whole. Amen and Amen.

Posted in 1 Peter, Sermons Preached | Tagged Following Christ, Jesus Christ, love God, salvation | Leave a comment

The People Of God

Posted on August 30, 2023 by bibleteacherorg

Photo by MART PRODUCTION: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-person-people-woman-7218327/

1 Peter 2:9-10 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; 10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Opening: In the days before the Internet, when people had no cell phones nor smart phones, when “cable television” was the only clear television you could watch, people listened to a strange device called the “radio”. When I was young, working with my dad in the upholstery shop, we listened to the radio as we worked. I didn’t stop periodically and fiddle my thumbs over a glass covered square, intensely mesmerized and hypnotized by pictures of some one elses life. We listened to radio. We enjoyed music. We also enjoyed radio personalities. We didn’t have “Shock Jocks” who spouted irreverent and blasphemous things. We had one man who spoke on ABC News Radio. The things he said made you think. His voice reached 24 million people each week. That was a lot prior to the Internet.

His name was Paul Harvey.

One of his greatest broadcasts was in 1965 simply entitled, “If I were the Devil”. Listen to this:

“If I were the Prince of Darkness I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I’d have a third of it’s real estate, and four-fifths of it’s population. But I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree………………THEE. So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the CHURCHES first. I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve, “Do as you please”. To the young I would whisper that “the Bible is a myth”. I would convince them that man created God, instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is square. And the old, I would teach to pray after me, Our Father – which art in Washington. And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies. … I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills. If I were the Devil I’d soon have families at war with themselves, Churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves. Until each in it’s turn, was consumed. … If I were the Devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions. Just let those run wild! Until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door. Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing. … Soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the Houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute Psychology for religion and deify science. … If I were the Devil I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg, and the symbol of Christmas a bottle. If I were the Devil I would take from those who have, and give to those who wanted, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. What will you bet I could get whole states to promote gamblingas the way to get rich. I would caution against extremes in hard work, in patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on TV is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the Devil I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing.”

Paul Harvey died in February 2009, and this broadcast is about 58 years old. Many of you have never heard it. When I heard it again the other day, it could be broadcast today and be just as applicable. What the Devil did 58 years ago, he did 580 years ago. As Paul Harvey said, if he were the devil “I’d subvert the CHURCHES first”. That is what’s happening in America. It’s been going on for years.

The devil has enticed Churches and Christians to fall away from following God’s Bible in order to become more “culturally sensitive”. Instead of pleasing God we want to please the “seeking soul”. That’s not our calling!

In an article entitled “What’s Behind America’s ‘Great Dechurching’?” John Stonestreet and Shane Morris of the Colson Center Breakpoint note:

“U.S. church membership, as a percentage of the population, is now at a record low—down more than 20 points in the twenty-first century. … the Southern Baptist Convention, America’s largest Protestant denomination, lost half a million members last year … ”

Why is this happening? The article goes on to note what I’ve believed for years. I want to read you what they wrote:

“If Christianity is merely a kind of hobby or weekly pep talk designed to enhance psychological well being or career success, then we can find better stuff on YouTube or Spotify. Why make time for this type of church every week?

But what if Christianity is a way of life, the thing it’s all about. What if it demands our allegiance? What if following Christ restructures our priorities and pursuits, our beliefs and our behavior—including career, family, and even personal identity?

Everything else in our society directs our gaze inward, to ourselves, our feelings, our priorities, and our problems—as if every individual is the center of his or her own universe. Churches that accept and even participate in this idolatry may be leading millions away from Christianity, not by demanding everything of them but by demanding nothing.”

Salvation Is A Gift Of God BUT…

Beloved, Christianity is not merely “Fire Insurance” for the day you die. Jesus Christ is the “Gift of God” (John 4:10) given to the lowest of us. The “Gift of God” cannot be purchased with money (Acts 8:20). The Bible tells us:

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

God gave His Son to us as His Gift to us. When we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior – which He is – we receive with Him NEW LIFE. We are BORN AGAIN, and SPIRIT INDWELT. God gives us membership in the Family of God. The Scripture says:

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

You are saved by RECEIVING the GIFT OF GOD, our Lord Jesus Christ. You call upon His Name, surrendered to the Cross. When you do so, then…

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

I heard one preacher put it this way: “We are not saved THROUGH our good works, but by surrendered faith in Christ Jesus. But we are saved UNTO good works”.

Salvation Changes Your Citizenship

1 Peter 2:10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Here Peter quotes what God said in

Hosea 2:23 (NKJV) … I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

God did this in the Old Testament with Israel. God came to Abram – who would one day be Abraham – and promised a Nation would come from his seed, and that this Nation would bless the whole world (Genesis 12:1-3). When God established Israel on the Day of Pentecost, He told her:

Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (NKJV) The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; 8 but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Israel was nothing before God called it. Then it was His People. As His people, Israel was to follow Him. As God called Israel, God called the Church. God did not call us to His side because we were “special” or “better”, but because God made a promise to Abraham our forefather. God sent His Son Jesus through Israel – born of a Virgin – born to make payment for our sins. Before we met Christ we walked in darkness.

Ephesians 2:2-3 in time past ye walked according to the {ways} of this world, according to {the devil} the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now {works} in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our {way of life} in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Before Christ, we were NOT the people of God. We satisfied “the lusts of our flesh”. We practiced “You do you”. We fulfilled “the desires of the flesh and of the mind”. We pursued the things that made us happy. But NOW we are the people of God. We are not bound to darkness, to the ways of this world. Listen Beloved:

Colossians 1:13 (ESV) He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

We belong to Jesus, not the darkness. The devil is not our master!

Romans 13:12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

We belong to Jesus, not the darkness. We live to please our Lord. Jesus said,

John 8:12 (ESV) … I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

What we who are now Christians WERE was lost. The lost walk through this life without Christ. But now …

Ephesians 5:8 (ESV) For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…

If you are LOST, walk as the LOST. That is your place. But if you are SAVED, walk in the LIGHT with Jesus. Live as He lived. Love as He loved. Follow God’s Word. If you can SIN and not be bothered by it, YOU ARE STILL LOST. The Bible says:

1 John 3:8 (ESV) Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

God raised up Moses to lead Israel out of slavery to Egypt. God raised up Jesus to lead the Church out of slavery to sin. Just as Israel left Egypt, we who are saved leave sin.

The Four-Fold Change That GRACE
Brings To The Saved

1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;

In the Bible, numbers have meaning. The number four is the number of REST. It is the fourth commandment that states:

Exodus 20:8-9 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work:

When God called Israel out of 24/7 slavery, a life with absolutely NO rest, He gave them the gift of one day of rest in each seven. This was a great blessing! So four is the number of rest. God says four characteristics are true of His people:

you are a chosen generation

You, dear Christian, are special to God. He said:

Isaiah 43:20-21 … I {the Lord your God} give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

Where there is no water, where the lost would die of thirst, God provides water for His people. We are chosen to be blessed of Him. But we are also chosen to bless Him, to praise our God. We are a “chosen” people. Jesus said:

John 15:16 (NKJV) You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.

Jesus called us to Himself. Jesus “first loved us” (1 John 4:19). When we heard the Gospel preached, the Holy Spirit came and took the chains of sin from our eyes. Jesus bid we come, and hearing the whosoever will of the Gospel (Matthew 16:25; Mark 8:34-35; Luke 9:24; Revelation 22:17) we came. Jesus chose us, and we grabbed His hand and walked with Him – and walk daily with Him. Jesus told us as His people that …

John 15:19 (ESV) If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

We are not to receive the accolades of the world. If the world recognizes you as the “best place to worship”, perhaps you are not in the right place. We do not cultivate the hatred of the world, but loving the Lord and His Word, we will be hated and mocked.

you are a royal priesthood

When God first called Israel to His side, He told Moses in

Exodus 19:6 (ESV) … you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.

Every Israelite was to be a Priest before God. A Priest is someone who stands between God and man. The Priest represents man to God, and God to man. A Priest offers sacrifice to God on behalf of the people. A Priest shares the Word of God to the people without modification. Israel was to be a nation of Priests. But when Moses went up on Mount Sinai to receive the Law from God, while he was on the mountain Israel created an idol and began to worship it. When Moses came down the mountain, he cried out:

Exodus 32:26 Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

Since only the “sons of Levi” stood with Moses, the Levites became the Priests of Israel. The Rulers of Israel were from Judah, which made Judah royalty. In Israel, it was impossible to be a royal priest. You were one or the other, or neither. But in the Church Age God changes things through Christ.

When you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, you become “children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). God is King of Kings, and as His Children you are Royalty! We are “sons and daughters of God”, members of the Royal Family. But Jesus Christ is the “High Priest of our profession” (Hebrews 3:1), our “Great High Priest” (Hebrews 4:14-15). Jesus is a “high priest after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 5:10). Because the Son of God (royalty) made us sons of God (royalty), and because Jesus is our High Priest we are priests.

As Children of God and Priests through Christ, we live to please our God, and to lead others to Him.

You are an holy nation

We as Christians are imitators of our Father. When God called us to salvation, He called us from the company of the lost to His side. We have previously read:

1 Peter 1:15-16 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

Many are leaving the Church behind because they see no real difference between the professing Christian and the atheist. We are called to be

Ephesians 5:1-5 … followers of God, as dear children; 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. 3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; 4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Jesus tells us to love as the Father loves (Matthew 5:48; Luke 6:35-36; Matthew 5:45).

you are a peculiar people

Word Study: The word translated “PECULIAR” is the Greek peripoiēsis which means “a purchased possession, a valuable property that one is jealous over”. You are valuable to God because of the price He paid for you. God the Holy Spirit indwells you (Ephesians 1:14). The Blood of Jesus Christ was shed for your sins. God will not long allow you to wander. You belong to Him. You are called to walk “in His marvelous light” (vs 9). C.H. Spurgeon wrote:

“EVERYTHING about a true Christian is marvelous. He is a marvel to himself, and a marvel to all who are round about him. Mere professors—men-made Christians—people who have made themselves Christians by their own free will apart from the Spirit of God, have nothing marvelous about them. You can make professors of that sort by the score, and you can see them dissolve by the score, for what man made, man can unmake, and what is merely natural has its season, like the leaves on the trees, and by and by, it withers away because its time to fade has come. But a true Christian is a God-made man, a twice born man, and he is a partaker of the divine nature. He is a mass of marvels, for he is dead, and yet he is alive, he is one who lives here, and yet his life has gone away up yonder, he is one who is a citizen of earth, and yet his citizenship is in heaven. He is a true man, but he is more than a man, for God has lifted him up above the level of other men, given him a life which other men do not possess, revealed to him secrets which others do not know, and prepared for him a place into which the ungodly can never enter.”

The only thing that can make a Christian unmarvelous is sin in their lives. As we come to the Lord’s Table, know that salvation is a free gift unto good works. Those saved do not live as unbelievers live. We are God’s children. We are God’s family. Do not believe that you can go back to Egypt and be a child of God. You either belong to Jesus – or you belong to the devil.

May God lead you to the everlasting arms of Christ. Amen and Amen.

Posted in 1 Peter, Sermons Preached | Tagged Following Christ, love God, salvation | Leave a comment

Today The Day of Salvation
February 2026

M T W T F S S

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Our God Is Always Faithful

The Devil Fought It, But God Is Faithful!

The Devil Sought Our Damnation,But God Our Salvation

Why Does God Bring Water Baptism In At This Point?

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Two Wrongs Never Make A Right!

Jesus Refers To The Law By “It Is Written”:“Ye are gods”

When God designates a steward, that steward represents God. In that sense they are little “g” gods. The little “g” god relies on the Word of God, not on themselves.

If God Appointed Judges & Leaders And Called Them Lower “g” gods, Then Why Is It Blasphemy For Jesus To Declare Himself God As His Works Prove He Is?

We Are Not Big “G” Gods – EVER!

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Many of us, like Adam, choose to followthe created rather than the Creator.

Live Your Life For Jesus Christ

Every person has a BC. The believer has an AD.

Everyone Suffers In This Life: Ensure You Suffer Well

Who will be in Heaven? Those who lived to please the King of Heaven while on this earth! If you live for hell on this earth, you need not expect Heaven beyond it!

Suffering Well Requires We Keep OurEyes On Our Shepherd

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Jesus is THE Door to life, both eternal and abundant.

Jesus Is THE Good Shepherd Who VoluntarilyLays His Life Down For His Sheep

Jesus is not only GOOD, but He is theSHEPHERD of God’s people.

Our Shepherd Is Not Only Our PROVIDER And PROTECTOR, He Is Our POTENTATE

Do you know what a sheep is called who will not follow the Shepherd? Lamb Chops!

“Faith obeys. Unbelief rebels. The fruit of one’s life reveals whether a person is a believer or an unbeliever.”

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Is Your Foundation FLESH or SPIRIT?

The Christian Mind Submits To Spirit And Word

The Fruit Of The Spirit Looks Like This

“You Christians will stand before God as if you are Christ, because Christ stood before God as if He were YOU! He paid for our sins.”

Christians Do Not Fight Fire With Fire

You Bring A Blessing Or A Cursing On Yourself Based On The Fruit You Allow In Your Life

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This Is Why Peter Addresses The Woman First

Women Have A Massive Amount Of ControlOver Their Own Husbands

Don’t Miss The “Likewise” Again!

A man who abuses or neglects his wife has no respect for his own life, much less hers.

Beloved, if we would fix America, we must get back to the Bible. We must stop listening to woke philosophy and silliness. We must heed the Lord our God, submitting our lives to Him.

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The Double Amen Emphasizes Truth

Have you ever thought about what “amēn” means?

You Can Only Lawfully Enter The“Sheepfold” By The AMEN Door

The “Sheepfold” is the place where the owner of the sheep stored the sheep in safety. There were two types of sheepfolds. There was the sheepfold in town, and the sheepfold out of town and near the pasture.

The Door to God’s sheepfold is not my abilities, but that which my Jesus has done for me. He is the Door!

Remember That We Mentioned There Are TWO Sheepfolds That Every Shepherd Had?

God is the Hedge around His people. He is our Sheepfold. He saves us, and loves us, and protects and cares for us. And Jesus is the Door of this Sheepfold.

There are two Sheepfolds: That in Eternity, In Heaven, and that on Earth. Jesus Is the Door to both Sheepfolds!

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God Can Heal Anything But Self Righteousness

We have created a false god, an image of the true, in what we think is our image and in our likeness. God is not like what we want Him to be. God is as He is. God does what He does for a purpose. He is God, and we are not.

Those who KNOW they are right will never entertain the notion that they need Jesus, the Son of God.

Separating The Once Blind Man From The Blind Pharisees, Jesus Asks A Simple Question

Jesus is the unique Son of God. He was MADE Perfect Man, but has ALWAYS been the Son of God.

This Once Blind Man Shows Us ThePROGRESSION Of Saving Faith

Jesus did not MAKE HIMSELF anything. He is THE Son of God. His works proved His profession.

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The Big Lie Told From The Pulpits

So called “Two Tiered Christianity” will not stand through the fire of suffering.

Christians Will Suffer. Is God PresentWith You In Your Suffering?

We are called to imitate Christ.We are called to model Grace as Jesus did.

Our Heavenly Father is faithful. He is always right in what He proposes and good in what He disposes. Jesus trusted this, and so should we.

Has The Scripture You Heard TodayChanged Your Life In Any Way?

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Salvation Is A Gift Of God BUT…

Salvation Changes Your Citizenship

The Four-Fold Change That GRACEBrings To The Saved

As Children of God and Priests through Christ, we live to please our God, and to lead others to Him.

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David Buffaloe

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Today The Day of Salvation

The Devil Sought Our Damnation,
But God Our Salvation

Jesus Refers To The Law By “It Is Written”:
“Ye are gods”

Many of us, like Adam, choose to follow
the created rather than the Creator.

Suffering Well Requires We Keep Our
Eyes On Our Shepherd

Jesus Is THE Good Shepherd Who Voluntarily
Lays His Life Down For His Sheep

Jesus is not only GOOD, but He is the
SHEPHERD of God’s people.

Women Have A Massive Amount Of Control
Over Their Own Husbands

You Can Only Lawfully Enter The
“Sheepfold” By The AMEN Door

This Once Blind Man Shows Us The
PROGRESSION Of Saving Faith

So called “Two Tiered Christianity” will not stand
through the fire of suffering.

Christians Will Suffer. Is God Present
With You In Your Suffering?

We are called to imitate Christ.
We are called to model Grace as Jesus did.

Has The Scripture You Heard Today
Changed Your Life In Any Way?

The Four-Fold Change That GRACE
Brings To The Saved