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

 

THE COMFORT OF BEING 'LUKEWARM'! [THE PATH DEVOTIONS]

“"And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. 'So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. 'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. 'Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent. 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me. 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"” (Rev 3:14-22)

Hi everyone,

Wow, that passage from Revelation really speaks to a church that has the confidence that they are on the right track, and yet, God says that they are ‘wretched, and miserable and poor and blind and naked’- not a very accurate self-assessment! So, what can make a ‘church’ so confident that they are doing good, when in reality, God sees them in such a disgusting light? One word: Lukewarm. God hates the ‘lukewarm’ churchgoer: He wants us to be Hot for him, or ‘cold’ against Him. Why? Because ‘lukewarm Christianity’ leads people to death (eternal or relational) by its works based religion, its moralistic deism, or it’s ‘easy believism’ (words without conversion): all void of a true relationship with The Savior due to a misunderstanding and misapplication of Scripture. For those who have drifted into ‘lukewarmness’, He says for them to open their spiritual eyes, and, He is using discipline to try and guide them back into True relationship with Him. For those who are lost, He is knocking at the door, saying, ‘open your spiritual ears and hear the knocking so you can open the door to a relationship with Me’. In both cases, God wants a relationship, not a stagnate, lukewarm ‘religion’. 

Many in the church today have either drifted into some type of ‘lukewarm Christianity’ with a moralistic bent or a situationally ‘purpose driven religion’; or, have been led by false teaching into a ‘lukewarm comfort’ and false assurance while having an unconverted and unrepentant heart. That is what this last couple months of instruction about false teaching has hopefully helped us to see: these dangers are all around us and could very well be in our midst. Let’s all be diligent in our own walk with God to stay Hot and remember that we have in our possession the ‘salve’ of Truth to give to those around us who have become ‘lukewarm’, so they can see clearly the relationship they need with Him; or, by the power of the Gospel, direct the ears of others who don’t yet know him to the sound of Him knocking so they can open the door and experience the ‘radiant heat’ of His presence for the first time!

This Sunday we will be completing our study on the doctrine of ‘The Church’ and then finishing with a look at scriptural warnings specific to false teachers like those we may be familiar with or heard about. Until Sunday, I will leave you with a reading from A.W. Tozer that is really relevant to our discussion about Mankind and the Church. 

Enjoy, and See you all Sunday!

Randy

Quote from, "Experiencing The Presence Of God" by A. W. Tozer -

"I have noticed that in recent years a serious error has developed among religious people in general. I fear that its focus is on what I will call a Christ-less nature mysticism. This is even invading what is termed as the evangelical church. When the fall of the year comes around, these nature mystics imagine a little man with a paintbrush painting the leaves, and some get very watery eyed about this. Again, in the spring, when the frogs begin to make their music in the little ponds, man’s thoughts turn to love and the kind of things the poets write about. That is very dangerous, because if it is cross-less —without redemption, without Christ and without a proper reconciliation—it can be deadly. Yet, there are churches spending millions of dollars on fabulous buildings, but the congregation never hears a thing, year in and year out, about reconciliation. 

Today’s church faces the danger of a cross-less Christianity. A preacher will get up in front of the congregation and talk so piously about the “Great All Father.” Or he might say, “This we ask in the spirit of Jesus.” He did not ask it in the name of Jesus, but in the spirit of Jesus. He was a nice fellow, not wanting to offend anybody and surely too nice to embrace the cross. This does not represent the biblical focus of Christianity. We must get back to the idea of a priesthood. We must get back to the idea of God on one side and man on the other, and the two of them alienated from each other. This alienation is not by the fault of God, but by the fault of man. We must get back to a sacrifice and a priest who can come between God, who is holy, and man, who is unholy, and bring the two of them together. That is priesthood."

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Are You Serious?

“There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” Proverbs 16:25 NLT

I guess what prompted me to write this is that I have been hearing a lot of statistics lately that are alarming. Things like, ‘30% of our high school students in Christian families think that gay marriage is acceptable.’ Or, ‘Over 30% of high school students in Christian families believe that living together before you marry is a legitimate way to see if two people are ‘right’ for each other.’ I hear that many of the people that are confessing Christians, believe that there is no conflict between being a practicing homosexual, or having sex outside of marriage, and the Bible. What I have to ask myself when I hear such claims is “Are you serious?” And I don’t mean that remark in the common vernacular that means, “You’ve got to be kidding?” I mean it as it is written, “Are you really serious when you make those claims?” The reason I say this is that I think there must be a disconnect between what ‘Confessing Christians’ are saying and what they really know to be true; or, we have many christians that don’t take the Word of God (The Bible) seriously. 

For those that know what the Bible teaches and yet hold to a different stance on subjects like those mentioned above, I have to ask you, why do you call yourself a Christian? I’m not trying to be mean, I’m asking a serious question. Maybe to be clear we need to define what is meant by ‘Christian’*. This gets into an even deeper hole of un-clarity due to the word ‘Christian’ having so many interpretations in our society. Some may say that a christian  is one who is raised in a christian home, they don’t hold to any particular belief but consider themselves christian because they aren’t Hindu, Buddhist or Islamic. I believe that many of us in the United States hold to this type of belief- they say they are christian, but they cuss a blue streak, don’t attend church (many do which is even more puzzling), believe that you get to heaven if your good outweighs the bad, get drunk, are full of hateful prejudice… you get the picture: they think that being raised in a ‘christian’ home is what makes you a christian even if you don’t actually understand what the Bible teaches about what it means to be a real Christian. 

Others are of the more ‘new age’ christian church, even though they may not consider themselves ‘new age’ and may attend a Catholic, Baptist or any other christian church’. These are those who say that the bible is one holy book out of many, and that we christians believe it to be true (but not The Truth); and, they say, there are other paths to god. They know what the bible says, or to be more precise, what they believe the bible says, but they evidently don’t think it’s serious when it speaks of belief in Jesus as the ‘only way’ to gain heaven or eternal bliss after death; and by contrast, was saying that if you don’t believe in Him as the only way to heaven, then you will go to an eternal hell. They see the different paths to god  in each of the different religions and truly believe that each one ‘must be convinced in their own mind’ of what ‘real truth’ is. Maybe you remember the infamous words of the one who sentenced Jesus to death, Pilate, “What is truth?” Well, I guess according  to the new christian, Pilate had his truth too!  Now this approach would be good if it wasn’t for one thing: the Bible and the Truth- I know, you are saying that is two words, and you’re correct in the number, but if you know the Bible- take a look at John 17:17- then you will see that the Bible (Word) is Truth! 

You see, the Bible says that there is only one way and one Holy and True word of God; it doesn’t give any alternative or wiggle room. The Bible in essence teaches that you either believe it as truth or not: it is an ‘either or’ proposition, not a ‘this and that’ proposition. So, you see, if the Bible is true (it either is or not) then my beliefs or your beliefs don’t hold any weight if they don’t align with what the Bible teaches: we are like someone trying to row a boat away from the middle edge of the Niagara Falls; even though ‘you think you can’, you are going over the falls! Now, you have the choice to either believe the Bible or not, but not to take only the parts you want and still consider yourself a Christian in the true biblical sense: the Bible doesn’t give you that option and neither did Jesus. 

Let’s get back to the question, “Are you serious?” Are you actually serious about Jesus, the Bible (his Word), and belief in an afterlife as the Bible teaches: The Truth? If you are then you will need to ask yourself the other question, “Do my beliefs line up with the Bible?” If you have truthfully examined your belief system in light of the Bible and can say that you hold to the truth of it, great! If you don’t know, then you need to read the Bible for yourself (don’t let someone else answer this life-determining question for you) and see if the Bible’s teachings are what you believe. Don’t look at the Bible and try to find a verse here and there to substantiate ‘your’ beliefs, but actually read the context of the Bible and see if what you believe is actually taught in the Bible. Remember, it is an ‘either or’ proposition, you either believe the Bible or you don’t. At the very least we need to be honest with what we actually believe and why we believe it. Yes, the Bible has some hard teachings that we may not like, however, if it is true then I accept even those things that I don’t like or don’t make sense to me as the true Word of God; or, I reject the Bible as the true word of God and say so, I don’t pick and choose those things I like even though the Bible itself doesn’t give me that option. I am honest with myself and others. At any rate, you don’t want to come to that day when, like we all will, you close your eyes in this life for the last time never having given any real time considering what Jesus said; what the Bible said; and, do I believe it? You may think it doesn’t matter, but, I sure wouldn’t want to leave this question unanswered, do you?

So, are you serious? If you are a Christian, are you serious about your belief in the ‘entire’ Word of God? If you’re not, then maybe you need to be more serious about if you really are a ‘Christian’ or not. It’s time for us all to examine ourselves and ask that question:

“Are We Serious?”  

“1You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!”  2 Timothy 3: 1-5 NLT

"(2) I have previously said when present the second time, and though now absent I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again I will not spare anyone, (3) since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. (4) For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you. (5) Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?"  2Co 13:2-5 NASB95

*The use of Capitalization or not throughout the article is intentional.