Nebuchadnezzar and the Turtle?

So, I was reading today about a mental health advisory board that had one of its members who identifies as, ‘They/Them/Turtle’! Yes, you read that correctly, ‘Turtle’. Anyhow, when I read this I thought to myself, “What is our world coming to?” This would be the same day that a committee in the Congress of the United States made the news for a dispute in a session where one congressman called another out for not having any ‘decency’ because the other referred to a sitting congressman, who is a man claiming to identify as a woman, as ‘Mr. So and so’: the committee had to be closed and now it is a major news item. I wonder what you would call a ‘turtle person’, “I now call on ‘Them turtle”?  As I pondered my question about the state of the world I was reminded of what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, “There is nothing new under the sun”, Eccl. 1:9, and sure enough I remembered the story in Daniel about Nebuchadnezzar. 

Albeit, Nebuchadnezzar’s (Neb’s) situation that we are going to look at has a much different lesson for us than what the ‘world’ would want us to think today, it is nevertheless a very good lesson for those of us who they would call, ‘extremist’, or ‘right wing fanatics’, or, ‘the Christian right’, yada-yada. You see, what is happening in the world today by those who think of themselves as ‘progressive’, or, ‘enlightened’, is in the same vein as Neb’s dilemma he found himself in. Let’s take a look at the account from Daniel as King Neb has had a dream and has called in Daniel to interpret it for him:

Dan 4:24-37 (LSB) “this is the interpretation, O king, and this is the resolution of the Most High, which has reached my lord the king: [25] that you be driven away from mankind and your place of habitation be with the beasts of the field, and you be given grass to eat like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven; and seven periods of time will pass over you, until you know that the Most High is the powerful ruler over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever He wishes. [26] ‘And in that they said to leave the stump with the roots of the tree, your kingdom will endure for you after you know that it is Heaven that rules with power. [27] ‘Therefore, O king, may my advice seem good to you: break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.’ [28] “All this reached Nebuchadnezzar the king. [29] “At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. [30] “The king answered and said, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal house by the strength of my power and for the glory of my majesty?’ [31] “While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is said: the kingdom has been removed from you, [32] and you will be driven away from mankind, and your place of habitation will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you know that the Most High is the powerful ruler over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever He wishes.’ [33] “Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was accomplished; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws. [34] “But at the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes toward heaven, and my knowledge returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. [35] “And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can strike against His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ [36] “At that time my knowledge returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my high officials and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my kingdom, and extraordinary greatness was added to me. [37] “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”’

So, there is the account from Daniel about what happened to the King and I hope you can see a couple of things that I believe are so pertinent to what we are looking at today. 

First is that the King was warned by a well meaning, yet ‘truth’ telling government official. Oh, yes, for those unfamiliar with the book of Daniel, he was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar as a head of state earlier in Neb’s reign. So, this head of state, who has the ‘floor’ of the King’s palace, states truthfully what is going to happen to the King if he doesn’t turn, repent, and do right things so maybe the judgment on his sin won’t happen. Wow! I’m sure if Daniel had been in the session of congress we spoke about he would have been severely reprimanded and ‘censured’ for his ‘insensitive’ and blatantly ‘un-decent’ words! But, not in King Neb’s court. No, the King listens but forgets (or ignores) the warnings, sends Daniel back to his job, and after a year we find him walking on his palace roof, admiring all that ‘he’ has accomplished with words that would have sounded like, ‘Me, Myself, and I, have done all this!” Tune up the praise band, “Me,me, me,..”  And then the next thing happened.

Due to King Neb’s highly developed sense of self-esteem, and his low developed sense of esteem for anyone else- even God Himself- we see that “as the word was in the kings mouth”, he heard a voice from heaven pronounce the judgment of the dream and immediately he was ‘driven’ away from mankind and became ‘like’ a beast of the field, eating straw and living in the grasslands. His hair grew long and his nails became like eagle talons (it seems that I remember an eccentric rich American years ago whose nails did this!). I thought it interesting that the word used for ‘cattle’ is actually used for ‘bull’ in the plural- so, I wonder if Neb’s  ‘pronouns’ would have been Bull/they? Anyhow, I’m not sure, but it appears that Nebuchadnezzar stayed in his cognizant ‘mind’ during this time because he remembers all that happened to him, he was simply a human that was driven from humankind and was identified with the cattle on the hills. Today this would probably be celebrated and actually used as an example of what it means to ‘really find your true self’, but not in Neb’s day, and what we are going to see, it wasn’t a good thought of as good by Neb either! 

So what is it that King Nebuchadnezzar learned from this dream turned into reality? And what can we learn from it? It’s all in Nebuchadnezzar’s words after he is ‘restored’ to his throne, just listen to verse 47 again:

Dan 4:37 (LSB) “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”

Do you see it? The reason that he was torn from his position and fell into a state of ‘false identity’ with the bulls on the hills, was that he was full of pride and he didn’t recognize and honor the King of Heaven as God! And notice the warning that we can end with, it applies to all of us, “He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” You see, it isn’t that only those mentioned in the beginning of this post are the only prideful ones that are shaking their fists at God- whether, like Neb, they acknowledge it or not- all of us at times can slip into that kind of rebellion. And it isn’t only ‘those’ sinful acts that are called into account, all types of sin are despicable before the King of Heaven! However, the difference is the repentant and believing heart. If someone believes in the King of Heaven through Jesus His Son, then he will confess his sin, repent of his sin, and return to obedience of the faith found in scripture that Yahweh calls for. Now, there may be times or seasons of sin for some, but the unbelieving, flagrantly rebellious, who flaunt their sin as a badge of honor and by virtue, shake it in the face of Yahweh God, these shall be held accountable just as Nebuchadnezzar was. 

Now, we don’t know if Nebuchadnezzar ended up as a committed believer in Yahweh- history doesn’t seem to show this; however, if you are reading this and are in your own ‘grassland’ with ‘dew’ on your back, then there is still time for even a ‘bull’ or a ‘turtle’ to repent before the King of Heaven and become the actual Man or Woman that God designed you from the womb to be. 

Randy

THE WORD FROM THE MANGER

 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” 

(John 1:1-14, NKJV)

Hello everyone, 

I was trying to remember if I had ever heard a Christmas sermon from John 1 and couldn’t remember hearing one. So I went to YouTube and found that there are some, but not many based on John 1 compared to Matthew or Luke’s gospel accounts (at least on YouTube!). 

Well, I don’t know what you think after reading the first 14 verses above, but I think that not only is this the ‘essence’ of ‘why’ Christ was born, but actually gives us the ‘backstory’! I mean, jus look at ‘who’ this baby was that was born: He not only existed before all things but was actually the ‘creator’ of all things. Have you ever looked at a picture or manger or movie of the nativity and when you saw the baby Jesus thought to yourself, “Wow, there is the Creator of All things!” If not, maybe now you will- I know I will! And then if you follow the ‘story’ here in these 14 verses you see His announcement come by His messenger, John, and then in verse 14 you have the great statement about his birth, “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” then you can probably hear the heavenly host singing, “And we beheld His Glory, the Glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth.” Again, I have to say, Wow! That’s an amazing ‘nativity story’ isn’t it? Let’s try and remember exactly ‘Who’ we are celebrating this Christmas: The Word made Flesh, Jesus, Creator of All! Amen.

Until next time, Merry Christmas! 

Randy

HOW MUCH LONGER BEFORE…?

“For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” (Heb 9:24-28)

So, do you all ever watch, read or hear some of the news about things that are going on in our world and just think to yourself, ‘How can this go on much longer?’ It seems that not a day goes by anymore that some ‘new’ or ‘outrageous’, sinful, something is thrown at us by a ‘them’ or ‘they’, pardon the pronouns- at least ‘thrown’ or ‘stuffed’ is how it feels! But then Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, “That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, "See this, it is new"? Already it has existed for ages Which were before us.” (Ecc 1:9-10) So, I guess I’m wrong when I think that there couldn’t have ever been a time as sin filled as this as a matter of fact, the time that Jesus was on the earth, in the Roman empire, may have had this time beat. I mean, right around the time Paul and Peter were being beheaded, Nero, the ‘ruler of the world’, the ‘son of a god’, was getting married to a boy! Wow, looks like Solomon, uh, God is right, He always is! You see, ever since the fall in the garden of Eden, mankind- everyone-  has been corrupted by Sin: the result being the sins that each of us were guilty of before God, deserving of His wrath and punishment just as guilty as anyone committing one of the ‘newsworthy’ sins you and I gasp at every day! But Jesus died to atone, to forgive us (and them) of our sins, to cleanse us, and to justify us (and them)  before God, when we (they) believe in Him. And then to put His seal on the redemption, He rose from the grave and sent us the ‘seal’, the ‘guarantee’, of The Holy Spirit. Our ‘Sin’ has been taken care of, nailed to the cross in Jesus.  Our ‘sins’ we will war and struggle with while in this body, but when that day comes Glory! So, while you watch a ‘world gone crazy’, remember, there is hope for mankind, but that hope will only be found in Christ. 

We will continue this Sunday in our study about defending our faith by knowing the scriptures, with the doctrines of Mankind (regeneration) and the Church. Once again we will go through scripture- but I have added some questions- they are attached to this email so you can get a head start if you want to. I am also adding below a reading by Oswald Chambers and after that  a two part video series by John MacArthur on being 'Self-deceived'.

Enjoy everyone, and see you Sunday! 

Randy

"My Utmost for His Highest, Updated Edition" by Oswald Chambers -

"The Nature of Reconciliation 

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 

“Sin is a fundamental relationship”it is not wrong doing, but wrong being”it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins”the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power. The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross. A man cannot redeem himself”redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life."

Start reading this book for free: https://a.co/2joV1BN

John MacArthur, “Self-deceived” Part 1 and 2

https://youtu.be/b47CJlE-ut0

https://youtu.be/Ztj_jyOPTVg

“CAN YOU USE MY DIRTY HANKY?”

THE ONE VERSE THAT DESTROYS

 "WORKS SALVATION"

I have written in another blog post about one verse that destroys the macro-evolution theory. Well, here it goes again, there is also one verse in the Bible that, if taken seriously, would seem to put to rest the notion that any good thing I do can ‘merit’ anything toward my own salvation; or, would destroy the doctrine of  a  ‘works salvation’ or 'works righteousness'. 

Before I get to the verse I would like to explain what is being referred to as ‘works salvation’ so there is no question as to what is being said. By ‘works salvation’ I am describing the doctrine that is widely held by most all other religions and cults outside of mainstream reformed, evangelical Christianity- in this post I am addressing only the Christian doctrine of ‘works salvation’. This doctrine would hold to the belief that in addition to Christ’s death on the cross for the remission (putting away) of sin, and His atoning sacrifice, there are ‘acts’ or ‘works’ that one who believes in Jesus  must do to 'earn' or 'assist' in his or her salvation. These works that are done give merit to an individual and help procure their eternal salvation by not only manifesting the individuals sincerity but also by satisfying or indulging the sin debt owed on a daily basis subsequent to their initial belief in Christ as savior or acceptance into a system that they believe will ultimately save them. This merit, or righteousness, that is bound to the individual by these ‘works’ can obtain the individuals salvation, or release from punishment due as a result of their sin; however, immediate sin will affect salvation and can even separate an individual from God so that salvation is not possible. Thus, you will find that some formal ‘act’ of repentance or penance whether by acts of contrition or confession ‘must’ be done to bring one back into favor with God and once again procure salvation. I believe this is a good, though not perfect or thorough, description of what is being referred to in this post as ‘works salvation’.

Now to that verse, that one verse that simply destroys the doctrine of any type of ‘works salvation’. The verse referred to is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah:

Isaiah 64:6- “We have all become like one who is unclean,and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” ESV

Did you pay special attention to the words that were underlined? Those are the words that destroy the doctrine of ‘works salvation’. “But wait”, you say, “that can’t be what it means, I mean, surely my good works are worth something, right? You must have taken Isaiah’s words out of context!” Good point. Context is always ‘King’, so let’s take a look at the context before we get into the meaning of the verse.

In this section of Isaiah the prophet is bringing the word of the Lord to a nation (Judah) that has experienced a time of prosperity under King Uzziah and Jotham due to extensive building projects and relative peace. It was during this time and with the influence of some allies with nations that didn’t serve the Lord that we find Isaiah giving out this word. Some commentators believe that starting in chapter 63 you have a prayer of captivity and in chapter 64:1-12 you have a prayer of the remnant; nevertheless, it is recorded for us as the word of God from Isaiah's pen. You see, the people of Judah had turned their hearts away from God during this time of prosperity in Judah and begun to serve ‘other gods’ along with the Lord. They would still perform their ‘religious duties’ but their hearts were far from God: this type of  'religion' sounds eerily similar to what we have going on in the United States, doesn't it?  Because of this deep sinfulness of their heart (and ours), God called them out and lets them know that he is not ‘fooled’ by their false worship and service but rather is appalled at them for it (just like He is not fooled by us or our false worship).

That is the context: a sinful, prosperous nation, turning away from God in their hearts while still maintaining their 'religious duties' and a prophet bringing the word of God to them in answer as to why He is not delivering Judah as he has always done in the history of the nation Israel. And God answering the question with the reason: He will answer the prayer of the righteous, yet 'all' are unrighteous! It appears we have a dilemma here doesn't it?

Now let's pick up the study in chapter 63 with the people asking ‘Where is God?’ and recounting how even though from the beginning and through the Exodus, God was with them and delivering them even at times when they turned on him. They don't understand why God isn't 'delivering them now' so they are asking and seemingly pointing a finger at God in verse 17 as the reason for their sin:

‘O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?’ ... and asking Him to "look down from heaven and see,..."  ESV

As we enter chapter 64 we see the writer, Isaiah, asking the Lord to not just 'look' but to tear open heaven, make the mountains quake as a fire is kindled, and come down so the people of Judah will turn back to Him – fire would be that purifying fire of God’s loving judgment on the people of Judah’s sinfulness which is being manifested in daily life and religion as well as judgment on the nation’s that are leading them away. By the time we get to the verse in question, 64:6, we see that Isaiah is putting himself alongside the rest of the sinful people of Judah exclaiming in verses 5 and 6,

“You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” ESV

Notice the intentional removing himself from ‘…him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways…’ Why would Isaiah the prophet include himself with those whose 'righteousness are like a polluted garment." if he didn't believe it to be so? He wouldn't have! He believed that even his 'works' his 'good works' were detestable to God. Why? Because he knew and believed the underlying premise of the prayer that he just lifted up to God- and this is the main point of all that we have been discussing so far: everyone's works, no matter how 'good' you may think they are, are a filthy, polluted, garment before God's perfect righteousness! And let me speak to the words that are used for 'polluted garment' ,or, 'filthy rag' as used in many translations. These words  are from the Hebrew words that mean, 'defiled' or more literally 'menstruation rag or cloth'. So, what Isaiah intentionally says about himself as well as everyone else (the Hebrew is also in the plural) is that any 'good work' that we try to give to God out of our own effort is like handing God a dirty 'menstruation rag'; you might as well say, "Here God, you can use my dirty handkerchief", but worse! So you can see, that works that are done out of our own effort are repulsive to God no matter how good we may think they are!

Now, there are other verses in the Bible that speak to the same 'Reformation doctrine' (Grace alone by Faith alone); however, none so vividly as this one verse in Isaiah. Now, you may be saying,  "That's all well and good for the 'Old' Testament, how about the New Testament, show me something from the New!" Well, there is one verse that also demolishes the 'works righteousness' belief in the New Testament, but before we get to that verse let's look in the book of Romans, 7: 18-19:

For I know that nothing (ouk) good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not (ouk) the ability to carry it out.  (19)  For I do not (ouk) do the good I want, but the evil I do not (ouk) want is what I keep on doing (prasso).  ESV

What we need to notice in these verses are the two Greek words, ouk and prasso. Ouk is an absolute negative which is translated by none, nothing, etc. and has the meaning of absolutely not; prasso, translated as 'doing', has the meaning of habitually doing or practicing over and over again. So, the verse would read like this if the words were translated with their complete meaning:

"For I know that (absolutely nothing good at all) dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but (absolutely no) ability to carry it out. For I do not (do anything at all, absolutely none) of the good that I want, but the evil I (absolutely do not want to do) is what I keep on doing (habitually doing and practicing over and over)."

The importance of these verses from Romans can't be understated: in ourselves, we cannot do anything good. If you read the entire 7th and 8th chapters (actually all) of Romans you will find that the only answer to the dilemma of this 'indwelling sin', this 'total moral depravity', is Christ. Jesus is our only answer and we will see how when we examine the New Testament verse that demolishes 'works salvation', so lets move on to Ephesians 2: 8-10:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  Eph 2:8-10 ESV

There it is. Are there other places in the Bible that we could use as a foundation to our argument? Absolutely, many of them. But this section of Ephesians chapter two completely destroy any of the self-works salvation, or, works righteousness type of false doctrines that many have bought into. If you have bought into the doctrine that when you die you will be ushered before the gates of heaven and your works will be 'weighed' in the balances and if your good outweighs your bad- you've made it, your in, heaven is now your home! Or, if you are involved in any kind of religion that requires some demands on you to perform good works or deeds that will somehow give you merit to either get to heaven or be released from some punishment, you have also bought into the lie of 'works righteousness'. As should have been obvious from the verses that we dissected above, no one, not any except God alone, who came wrapped in flesh (John 1:14), has been able to have any righteousness of their own and certainly cannot claim any merit or right standing before a holy God- see Rom 10:3-4:

For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. (4) For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.  ESV

So, let's do a little dissecting of the verses from Ephesians as we wrap up beginning with verse 8:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,  Eph 2:8 ESV

Even though this verse speaks for itself, I think it would be good to take a look at a few of the words before moving on to verse 9. Grace: Grace in this instance is the Greek word charis, which means gift, or a gracious act on the heart. Saved: is the word sozo which has the meaning of saved, delivered or protected. Faith: the word pistis which means moral conviction, reliance or trust. Not: this is the word studied above, ouk- an absolute negative. Gift: the word doron which means sacrifice, gift or offering. Putting it all together we could read the verse like this:

"For by this gracious gift you have been delivered, saved and protected through conviction and trust. And this (deliverance) is absolutely in no way your own doing; it is a sacrificial offering and gift of God."

Now let's move on to the next verse:

"not a result of works, so that no one may boast."  Eph 2:9 ESV

We start once again with the word Not: ouk- absolute negative. Result: ek which has a meaning that derives from origin and is best translated 'out of'. Works which is the word ergon, the meaning is toil, effort, or act. No one: is the word tis which means some or any person. The other word meanings are what they appear. So, the verse can be:

"Not in any way out of effort, toil or act, so that no one (or any one) may boast."

And now we move to verse 10:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.  ESV 

Once again let's magnify a few words. We Are: is the single word esman which is a plural and means all of us. Workmanship: is the word poiema which has the meaning of product, thing fabricated or thing made. Created: the word ktizo which means fabricated or manufactured. In: is the word en and means on or by. For: is the word epi which is a word of superimposition of what has been distributed or given out. Works: is the same word ergon as studied above. Prepared Beforehand: this is one word in the Greek, proetoimazo, which has the meaning of preparing in advance. Should Walk: is the single Greek word paripateo which means to walk all around or be occupied with. So let's see how this verse can be translated:

"For all of us are the fabricated design, built and manufactured by Christ Jesus and superimposed with the good works, effort and toil, which God prepared in advance, that we should completely walk all around in them."

When you go back and put these verses from Ephesians all together you will see that we (all of us that are saved) are not saved by anything at all that we have done. Our salvation and deliverance is only by the gift and grace of God and not by any works, acts, effort or toil that we do; so there can be no boasting at all in 'our' good deeds. No, we are saved by God's grace and the 'good works' that 'we' do are completely the works of God that he has created before we were created so that he could superimpose these works; could apply these works onto us like the caption that is superimposed over a movie or photograph, so that once we were saved we could walk completely in the works that God prepared for us. These are the works that will last for all time, His works!

So, what have we learned through this study. We have learned that anything that we (any of us) consider a 'righteous deed' or our own 'righteousness' is considered completely worthless and even appalling to God. We have learned that, whether in the Old or New Testament, when consistently and contextually studied and interpreted, salvation from evil or salvation to heaven is in no way attributed to any of our own works. We can neither save ourselves or assist in our salvation from evil or to heaven. We have seen that any 'good works' that are done by men which have any merit before God are only those works that were created by God ahead of time and then placed upon individuals (superimposed) as He chooses. That we (any person) cannot establish a righteousness of our own because we don't have righteousness of our own and any rightness or righteousness that we may have can only come from Christ Jesus. As a matter of fact, a good summary of what we have learned can be taken from a scripture in 2Corinthians, so let me close by quoting that scripture:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (18) All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; (19) that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (20) Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (21) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."  2Co 5:17-21 ESV

Randy

THE THREE "I's"

 THE THREE "I's"

2Ti 4:3-4 (NAS95) "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths."

Hi everyone, 

Wow! Another week flying by- at least for me it has been- at any rate, I hope you  are all having a blessed and joy filled week. 

I’ve been thinking about Scripture and the Gospel a lot for quite a while now, and I am more convinced than ever that what we have been learning about false teaching being ‘heretical’ (that’s a  ‘hard’ word but I think appropriate) when it comes to belief in Scriptural Inspiration, Inerrancy and Infallibility (3 I’s) and the teaching of the True Gospel (doctrine), is essential to keeping us ‘on the Path’ of the obedient walk of discipleship (the daily, sanctifying, glorifying, life we will live until Jesus comes.. or we go!). We have been looking into this issue the last couple weeks, but this week we will ‘separate’ the Gospel into two parts- Man and Jesus- because the Gospel has to do with both, and false teaching will distort both of these ‘doctrines’. I can’t wait to go through this with you on Sunday. 

For now, I want to leave you with a teaching by Alistair Begg that dives right into this subject we will be looking at- "The Apostles Teaching".  It was either this one or a John MacArthur sermon, "You Can Trust Scripture"- Had a hard time choosing so I will just include the link to both for those of you who would really like to take some time to look into what true ‘doctrine’ means and why should we ‘trust’ the Bible? I will also include the transcripts for those who would rather read than listen. 

Enjoy, and see you all Sunday!

Randy

Alistair Begg

https://youtu.be/RZA5K6RifF4

John MacArthur

https://youtu.be/VILPlRcmfXc

DON'T BELIEVE EVERY SPIRIT!

 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1Jn 4:1-6)

Hi everyone,

Hope you all are having a blessed week! In the passage from 1 John, he says that ‘every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.’ And, every spirit that doesn’t is ‘of the antichrist,..’ So, it must be pretty significant that one ‘confesses’ that Jesus came in the flesh, but why? 

What was happening doctrinally during this writing of 1 John is what the apostle John was addressing. At this time there was a ‘false teaching’ being pushed in the church that said all ‘flesh’ was totally sinful and only the spirit was not sinful, because of this, it was being falsely taught that Jesus could not have ‘come in the flesh’ or he would have been sinful. Trying to ‘justify’ their own twisted thinking, they were teaching a false doctrine so significant that the apostle thought it needed to be addressed. This teaching of which I speak was called Gnosticism- and in John particularly, a form of twisted Gnosticism introduced by a heretic named Cerinthus. Cerinthus was putting his twist on ‘who’ Jesus was during the time of the apostle, and John was refuting his teaching. Cerinthus actually taught that Jesus was born in the flesh by Mary and Joseph, that he had such a superior knowledge (gnosis) that the logos (Spirit of wisdom) came on Jesus at his baptism (symbolized by the dove) when he became ‘Messiah’ (Christ). When Jesus faced suffering and death the Spirit left Jesus and the body died but the Spirit of Christ lives on. So, what John is saying here is that if you believe that Jesus Christ didn’t ‘come in the flesh’- that He is, and was, both God and man- then you are believing an antichrist teaching and are of the antichrist! John took false teaching seriously, and so should we. 

This is why the past couple months we have been studying some of the present day ‘antichrist’ teachings and what scripture has to say in its own defense! Yes, that’s correct- scripture, God’s Word, will defend itself; that is why it is so important for us to know the Word- it is only by God’s infallible, inspired and inerrant Word that we have the sure foundation to stand on against any and all false teaching. The warning is just as pertinent and serious today as it was in John’s day! We will wrap up this teaching Sunday as we look at scriptures that describe false teachers and talk about the warnings and how they apply to our lives in today’s church. I’m attaching below a Steve Lawson bible study that covers this portion of 1 John 4 and speaks about false teachers in the church. 

Enjoy, and talk to you all this Sunday!

Randy

First a reading from A.W. Tozer in ‘The Purpose of Man’. 

“You are a mirror of the Almighty, and this is the reason you were created in the first place. This is your purpose. You are not created so that you might only take something over here and put it over there—work. You were not created only that you might develop your brain so that you can speak with a cultured accent—education. Neither are we here to enjoy ourselves, even the pure pleasures of life. Nor are we here for the thrills life brings. All the holy prophets and apostles teach that man fell from his first estate and destroyed the glory of God, and the mirror was broken. God could no longer look at sinful man and see His glory reflected. Man failed to fulfill the created purpose of worship to his Creator in the beauty of holiness. He forgot this, forfeited it by sin and is busy now finding other things to fill that emptiness. It is terrible what people will look to if they lose God. If there is no God in their eyes, then they get something else in their eyes; and if they do not enjoy worshiping the great God Almighty that made them, they find something else to worship. If a person does not have God, he has to have something else. Maybe it is boats, or maybe it is money, amounting to idolatry, or going to parties or just simply raising the devil. They have lost God, and they do not know what to do, so they find something to do, which is why all the pleasures in life have been invented.”

And why false teaching appeals to so many!

The Bible Study: Steve Lawson  1 Jn 4:1-2

https://youtu.be/JZWp-eUYW8s