Leadership role on the ship

[rojoloco]

Rules To Live By - delivered 11/15/09

Our society is governed by rules. There are rules everywhere. We have speed limits. We have emissions. We have dress codes. Rules are the very foundation of almost everything we do in life. When we see a cop in our rearview mirror, we tend to be overcome by a certain sense of fear and we immediately look at the speedometer. This is a healthy fear of one who holds our money and driving privileges in his hands.

Why are we not this way with God?

When we break one of the laws put in place by human authorities, we look over our shoulder. When we break one of the laws put in place by the very One who created everything, we don’t even bat an eye. Do we feel God isn’t watching? Do we feel He doesn’t care? Perhaps we feel like nothing will happen to us and that we will get away with it.

Ask congregation what they think of when they hear the laws of God.
Read Exodus 20:1-17

While almost everybody has heard of the Ten Commandments, not everybody fully understands them. Many people take them as general guidelines for life as if they are merely for personal gain. This is utter blasphemy! It amounts God to nothing more than an advisor. While I do not plan on going over all of them, I would like to touch on a few.

You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

Many Christians do this day in and day out without ever realizing it. We do it with our cars, money, work, play, etc. We even do it with our sleep. Simply put, an idol is anything we place before God.

Ask congregation how often they have decided to put sleep over worshipping God.

Jesus gave up his life for us but we are often too tired to wake up for church on Sundays at home or we are too tired to stay awake for church on Sundays underway. I’m guilty of being tempted to go to sleep early and not do evening prayer on some nights but I know that is the selfishness in me trying to overcome God. Sleep is important and God will forgive you if you choose to go to bed instead. However, just because God will forgive you, does that mean it is the best choice? I’ve found that if it will lead to me having to ask forgiveness of God, it probably isn’t the best choice to begin with.

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

Walk the passageways and count the number of times you hear somebody taking the Lord’s name in vain. It is almost sickening. I hear everything from someone simply muttering the name of Jesus for no good reason all the way to someone cursing someone on God’s behalf. If we say the name of God, there needs to be a reason. No ifs, ands, or buts. To say the name of God without a Godly intent is to take His name in vain. To curse someone or something on God’s behalf is even worse because it is assuming the role of God and laying judgment.

Do not judge so that you will not be judged.

Judgment belongs to God and God alone. Who are we to assume such a role? Despite this, I hear it coming out of the mouths of Christians all the time. It is almost as if they are not even thinking about it. I can guarantee you they are not praising God most of the time. They are breaking the 2nd commandment of God. Again, why do we not even so much as bat an eye when it happens? Why do we not fear God?

You shall not murder.

Many people take this verse and recite it as, “You shall not kill.” This has been used by anti-military types who claim the military should not exist. The Hebrew word used for murder is ratsach. It is a general word that implies any kind of killing be it on purpose or accidental. However, we also see many places in Scripture where God actually commands Israel to kill everyone in a village and to spare no one. We have to look at the context.

Back in the Levitical Law days of old, there was a practice that was followed. Sometimes a husband would die without having produced children with his wife. If this happened, it was the responsibility of the husband’s brother to go unto the wife and produce children for her. However, these children would not carry on the line of the brother. They would carry on the line of the deceased husband.

Now Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the sight of the LORD, so the LORD took his life. Then Judah said to Onan, "Go in to your brother's wife, and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother." Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so when he went in to his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the LORD; so He took his life also.

Catholics claim that the reason Onan was struck dead was because he masturbated, effectively killing a potential child. The Protestant position is very different yet still falls under the same commandment of God. The Protestant position is that Onan was killed for intent behind his actions and not the actions themselves. He was selfish and deceiving. Verse 9 tells us that he knew the offspring would not be his. They would carry on the line of Judah in the name of Er. The first born was the one to receive the blessing. If the first born died, the blessing did not go to the second born. It went to the first born child of the first born. This means that had Onan given a child to Tamar, the blessing would have gone to that child. Onan was indeed greedy and selfish. He went on to deceive Tamar by allowing her to believe he would perform his responsibility. He had sex with her and then spilled his seed on the ground. In a sense, he basically raped her as we can be fairly certain she would not have consented to this had she known his intentions. He desired his brother’s wife while also desiring the blessing. He had sex with Tamar and left her without a child. Because of this, God struck him dead instantly. While the penalty may not have been because of the murder of a potential child, it most certainly did fall under the command of “You shall not murder.”

You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court;

Onan was guilty as charged. He performed an act of hatred toward his brother by denying him his rightful line as well as his rightful blessing. Onan was guilty of murder not because of the loss of a potential child but because of his hatred, selfishness, and greed. How often do we find ourselves committing murder? How often do we commit a wrongdoing against someone simply because we are annoyed by them or dislike them? As far as God is concerned, this is murder. Onan was killed for it. Why do we not even bat an eye?

You shall not commit adultery.

Ask a group of people to break this one down and you will probably get the same answer. Most people take it to mean monogamy. While this is indeed one meaning, and many people on this ship are guilty of it, it is not the only meaning.

You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY'; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

While I would hope none of us have ever cheated on our spouses by being with another woman or man physically, according to Scripture, mentally is just as bad. The Greek word used for “looks” is blepo. The usage in verse 28 does not refer to an accidental glance. While lustful thoughts may pop into our mind by even just a glance, the context implies much more than this. It implies a continuous stare with the intention of lustful thoughts. If one stares at a member of the opposite sex with the intention of lusting, adultery is not currently being committed. It says it has already happened in the heart. All sin stems from a sinful nature within us. If we look with lust, it is because our heart is vile and we fall prey to it. However, Christ has given us a new nature. We are no longer bound by our fallen heart. We have an option to turn away and not entertain it. It is not easy by any stretch of the imagination but it is still possible.

I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.

If lustful looking is so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose themselves with the desire to be looked at and lusted after…are not less but perhaps more guilty. In this matter it is not only too often the case that men sin but women tempt them to do so. How great ten must be the guilt of the great majority of modern misses who deliberately seek to arouse the sexual passions of young men. And how much greater still is the guilt of most of their mothers for allowing them to become lascivious temptresses.

As I said at the beginning, the Ten Commandments are well known by almost everybody although they are rarely understood in their full context. We only touched 3 of the 10. Ask yourselves how many of them you routinely fall short on. One can understand all of the Ten Commandments yet still fall short of one of the greatest commandments ever given.

So that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”

Ask congregation how often they boast in the Lord.

This is not something that most Christians live up to. We often boast about how we earned a promotion for our hard work. We boast about how we helped a group of people at church. We even boast about how much time we spend reading our Bibles. While all of these are great things, none of them are worthy of boasting.

But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

As Christians, we are commanded to do far more than observe the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are indeed to be observed but we have a much higher calling.

And he said to them, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

But we preach Christ crucified

We are called to worship and servitude. Too often, we become complacent and forget what God has called us to do. He has not called us simply to be good. He has not called us simply to love Him. He has called us to serve Him. How can we serve Him if we don’t even know what He wants us to do for Him? Thankfully, it is all outlined in His Word. He wants us to be out there teaching others. A fisherman does not sit idly as the fish swim by. They are actively casting their nets in an attempt to catch the fish. While we can do no catching of our own, if we allow God to work through us, you would be amazed what can happen! We are called to make disciples of all nations. How can we make disciples if we don’t even preach the Gospel to the lost? We are called to preach Christ crucified. Without the Truth of the death & resurrection of Christ, there is no hope. With this knowledge, why are we so casual about people moving closer and closer to eternal death? Even more so, why are we so casual about breaking the laws of God? How can we go day by day breaking His commands and walking in our own without so much as even batting an eye?
If you have found yourself in any of these situations, I urge you to follow 1 Corinthians 1:2.

To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

Call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and ask him to guide you in your walk. Ask him to show you how to live. Ask him to help you follow his laws. Ask him to truly be the Lord that you claim him to be by following the laws he has commanded you walk in.

 

[rojoloco]

Legalism vs. License - delivered 11/22/09

Last week I spoke on our insensitivity to the commands of God. We get the scare of a lifetime when caught by a cop but do not even so much as bat an eye when we know full and well we are already caught by God. The Bible has many examples of God punishing violators of His commands with the punishment of death yet even this does not make us blink. While God has His standards and His commands, we can be thankful that we also share in His love. It is His love that provides a certain sense of liberty.

Ask congregation if they believe Christ has set them free.

So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Christ has set us free. How do we know? It is because Scripture says so.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life;

and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

All men desire freedom. Dating back to the days of slavery, freedom has been something that is deeply sought after. In a Christian sense, there is only one way to that freedom and that is the Son, the Truth. Christ is the Truth and all who know the Truth will be free.

This freedom covers a few basic areas. The first we will touch on is the area of freedom from sin. Before Christ, we were all slaves to sin. We were all victims to the bondage of sin. We were bound by the chains of sin.

Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.

What is a slave? A slave is one who is bound to obey the will of his master. He has no say in and of himself. He simply follows orders. He is owned by his master. John not only says we get caught up in sin but goes so far as to say we were slaves to sin. In fact, he says if anybody commits a sin at all, he is a slave to sin.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Ask congregation to raise their hand if they have never sinned.

Not a single one of us can raise our hand. We are all guilty of sin. It is just in our nature to fall. There is only one man in history to have ever lived a sinless life and that is our Savior, Jesus Christ. According to John, which really means according to God as it is His written word, even one sin makes us a slave to sin. Not only are we a slave to sin but we have no desire to turn from it.

For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father

Slaves to sin are at war with God and serve Satan willingly. Slaves to sin hate God and want to do the desires of Satan. Satan does not set us free. He is the one who keeps his slaves bound. It is only through the Son that one can be set free and as we already covered…

So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

It is in Christ alone that we finally have our freedom.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Ask congregation what is meant by “law of the Spirit of life.”

Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

Ask congregation what is meant by “law of sin and of death.”

So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

We can see the Law is not to blame. The Law simply pointed out our sin. If there is no Law, one can never be guilty. The law of God is referred to as the law of sin and death because man is sinful and it points out exactly that. It is Christ who gives us freedom from the Old Testament law and gives us hope in faith.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

The commands of God are not merely suggestions. They are commands from Almighty God and they are to be followed. There are some religions out there who claim that if you follow these commands, you will go to Heaven. In fact, many claim that just by being a “good” person, you will go to Heaven. A common theme in my lessons recently has been salvation in Christ alone. Even though God has commands that are to be followed, they will not save.

Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."……… "Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are."

Even if it were possible to follow all the commands of God, we would still be in the same predicament we were in before we came to know Christ; slaves to sin. However, in Christ we have a sense of freedom. We have a sense of liberty.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

Commands are to be followed but when we fail, we can rest assured that we have an Advocate with the Father. Christ steps in the place of any judgment that would have come to us and allows us to remain in the Father. In fact, Christ is the One who secures our place with the Father and ensures we will never lose it. It is because we are not under the law of the Spirit of life that we have liberty. We are free to enjoy the things of life without fear of judgment.

On the other hand, liberty is not the same as license. While not being bound to the law, we still have obligations. For instance, we are not to be a stumbling block to others.

However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

This was written during a time when sacrifices to idols was common practice. The meat being sacrificed to idols was perfectly fine meat. In fact, it was some of the best meat because the pagans wanted to give their gods the best. Just as in Elijah’s day, not a thing happened with the meat offered to idols.

Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, "I alone am left a prophet of the LORD, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. "Now let them give us two oxen; and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it up, and place it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire under it. "Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, He is God." And all the people said, "That is a good idea." So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first for you are many, and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it." Then they took the ox which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon saying, "O Baal, answer us." But there was no voice and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they made. It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened."

Elijah’s was a funny man. Elijah was completely bashing their false god by going so far as to say he might be currently occupied. The Hebrew word used for occupied is siyg which implies a private place. In other words, Elijah was saying Baal might not be answering because he is using the bathroom. He was not surprised that nothing happened with the offered ox. In the same way, in 1 Corinthians, Paul was pointing out that there is nothing wrong with the meat offered up to idols. It was some of the best stuff out there and after the sacrifices, it was put up for sale in the markets. Newer Christians who were weak in their faith would turn away from this meat because of the negative connotation it held. Stronger Christians knew this was some of the best stuff and had no fear in purchasing it because of their liberty in Christ. Technically speaking, they had every right to eat that meat. It had no power as it was offered up to nothing. That was all the false gods amounted to; absolute nothingness. The meat was as good as any. However, this was becoming a problem. The liberty of the stronger Christians was becoming a stumbling block to the faith of the weaker Christians. It was going against their very conscience.

John MacArthur uses a great analogy to explain the difference between the liberty of a mature Christian and the restrictions of an immature Christian.

A small child is not allowed to play with sharp tools, to go into the street, or to go where there are dangerous machines or electrical appliances. The restrictions are gradually removed as he grows older and learns for himself what is dangerous and what is not. God confines His spiritual children by conscience. As they grow in knowledge and maturity the limits of conscience are expanded. We should never expand our actions and habits before our conscience permits it. And we should never encourage, either directly or indirectly, anyone else to do that.

Not only are we to not be a stumbling block to others but we are also not to try to be our own version of James Bond. He had a license to kill. We do not have a license to sin.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be!

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.

We are never to use liberty as license. There is a fine line that must be followed. We are to follow the commands of God while also honoring our liberty in Christ. To neglect God’s commands is to act as if He does not matter. To neglect our liberty in Christ is to act as if Christ is not all sufficient regarding our salvation. Both Paul and James give very good instruction on how to walk that fine line comfortably.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

Love God. Worship God. Obey God. Have liberty in Christ but never abuse it to the point of using it as license. The law of liberty does not give us liberty to sin at will. It gives us liberty to obey a God that we were incapable of obeying while in a state of hatred towards Him. Walk in the Spirit, become an effectual doer of the Word, and take comfort in the Advocacy of Christ in our eternal reconciliation to the Father.

 

[rojoloco]

Here is the most recent lesson to date. The people seemed like they were prepping to be offended as soon as I said the title. In the end, they were all deep in thought and said it is something that they think really helped them to understand a lot of issues they were confused on in their faith. It was VERY well received.

The Hatred of God - delivered 11/29/09

God has many attributes. He is loving. He is kind. He is good. He is righteous. He is strong. He is almighty. He is everlasting. The attributes of God are eternal aspects of Him that do not sway to one side or the other based on external circumstances. Many people take these attributes and forget another aspect of God.

Ask congregation who has heard of the love of God.

While God has His unswaying attributes, He also has His traits. The trait we are going to focus on tonight is the hatred of God.

Ask congregation who has heard of the hatred of God.

Hatred is not an attribute of God. As we discussed, an attribute is something that does not vary depending on an external force. God is all loving but He is not all hating. However, just because He is not all hating does not mean He cannot hate. God’s hatred is but one of His many traits. His hatred is not all defining but is rather in response to the existence of sin. If sin were to not exist, God’s love would remain but His hatred would not. As I said, we are going to discuss His hatred. We are specifically going to cover the topic of God’s hatred toward not just sin but toward the actual sinner.

We have all heard the saying, “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.” While it sounds nice and tickles the ears, have we ever really thought to stop and question this age old Sunday School teaching? I am here to say confidently that God does hate sin but he also does hate the sinner. God does not hate the sinner just for the sake of hating him. He hates the sinner because of the sin found in him. I know many of you are probably scratching your head and saying that is unbiblical but look at the following verses:

There are six things which the LORD hates,
Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that run rapidly to evil,
A false witness who utters lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers.

The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do iniquity.

The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.

Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED."

God does indeed hate sinners. Those verses listed above are not about God hating the sin in the world. They are clearly talking about sinners. We were all sinners at one point. We were all lost. We were all spiritually dead and separated from God.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Thankfully, God loved us enough to send His son to die on the cross so that we could be reconciled to Him.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

People often use this passage (in conjunction with John 3:16) to say God loves everybody in the world. This simply is not the case. If it were, the verses I read above would be lying to us. God cannot love everybody and hate people at the same time. It is not possible. Paul was speaking to believers in the book of Romans.

among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We cannot apply these words to the world because Paul specifically states they are for believers in Christ. What can we draw from Romans 5:6-10?

1) Christ died for the ungodly
2) while we were yet sinners Christ died for us
3) we shall be saved from the wrath of God

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son

This is a very true statement. God loved the world. We were once in the world. He loved us in the world enough to offer a way to bring us back to Him. That way was through His Son. Christ did not die for everybody in the world. He died for us while we were still in the world. He died so that we may be able to come out of the world, die to ourselves, and become a new creature in Christ.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
At this point, we are saved from the wrath of God. I do not believe God hated us while we were still sinners. Romans 5:8 tells us that God loved us while we were still sinners. If God hates all sinners, how is this possible? It is because God does not hate all sinners. He hates those whom He has not called to Himself. It is the ones that God has no intention of calling that He hates. Yes, He hates them. Read the first 3 verses I gave if you still do not believe God hates anyone. Again, God does not hate all sinners (because He loved us while we were still sinners) but He does very much so hate the rest of the sinners of this world. As I said in the beginning, this is not because of who the person is but because of the sin found within him.

How can I possibly back this up? I find Romans 9 helps to clear it up and put things in a proper perspective.

So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

I do not believe the love of God is relevant to all. We are merely clay. God is the potter. Before the foundation of the world, He chose some to be vessels fitted unto honor. He chose others to be vessels fitted unto dishonor. God has His purpose. God has His Will. God has His plans. Who are we to question how He has made us or what He has made us into? Who are we to question God if He chooses to harden our heart?

The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.

Nobody seeks after God with their own heart. It is only the elect that God ordained before the foundation of the world that He loves. Yes, they are sinners but they are sinners that fall under God's love. It is at this time only that the love of God even comes into play. Before this point, we were all merely clay.

There are some out there who take random verses to try to disprove the existence of the hatred of God toward anybody. They try to say that God loves all unconditionally and that His hatred does not exist. They take single verses to go as far as to claim that none will go to Hell and that all will be saved. We touched on this a few weeks ago in a previous lesson. They take verses such as 2 Peter 3:9.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

That verse does not say anything about the call of God nor does it speak of all of humanity. It speaks of the Purpose of God.

The word used for the “wishing” is boulomai
The word most often used for the Call of God is kaleo

Boulomai is most often used when referring to the purposeful Will of God (Lk 22:42).

saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done."

It is not used to speak of general wants, desires or wishes. It is used to speak of decrees with purpose! Even more, we must look at the verse and not just focus on the one word.

Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

Peter wrote this letter to the Church. What do we see in the verse shown above? I'll show it again:

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

This verse is directed toward believers. It is encouragement for believers everywhere. It is reaffirming God's love toward us, the Elect, whom He chose before the foundation of the world just as a potter forms clay. None of the Elect from Romans 9 will perish as we covered a few weeks back in our series on Calvinism.

Since we know the word boulomai is used to refer to God's purposeful Will, we can safely believe it is not saying God purposefully Wills that all will be saved and none go to Hell. Since the Greek here does not refer to the Call of God, we can safely believe it is not saying “all men are called but only certain ones are saved” as is a common belief of today. It says God purposefully Wills that none will perish. How can this be if we know people will in fact perish? It is because Peter was not speaking of the entire world. He was speaking of and to believers. No believer will perish so be encouraged and have faith in the Truth. Peter is reassuring us, as believers, that God will not let us perish. We will not have to face His wrath.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God demonstrated His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We were still in the world when Christ died. We were lost. God demonstrated His love toward us and none of us, who are called by God, will perish. It is not speaking of the entire world. It is referring to us while we were still in the world as sinners.

While we are on the subject, let’s break down 1 Peter 3:18:

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

Just as the "us" in 2 Peter 3:8 refers to believers, it points to the same crowd in 1 Peter 3:18. The death of Christ was not in vain. It was to reconcile the elect of God. Christ died for the sins of us once and for all and we will not face his wrath or perish.

God does not hate all sinners. God does not hate those whom are His elect. God hates those that will be going to Hell. He does not hate sinners that will be called to Him. While we were yet sinners God demonstrated His love toward us. On the same token, those whom He has not elected, God does indeed hate and has promised to destroy with His wrath.

Let’s review what we have covered up until now:

1) The Bible gives specific details on the fact that God does indeed hate sinners.
2) The Bible says God has purposefully willed (not called) that none should perish. We know many will perish so we must either count the Bible as contradicting or we must seek to find the context. In this case, the context is believers.
3) Bible says God loved believers while we were yet sinners. It is still very clear that God hates any sinner whom He has not called.

Romans 9 says not all are called.

All have sinned. Yes, believers are inclusive in Romans 3:23. Even if you wanted to say Romans 3:23 must follow the same “us/we” rules and claim it is only referring to believers, we know unbelievers sin. This is why they are going to be judged by the wrath of God. Again, all of Scripture must be taken into account. The implication of "us" is indeed written in many verses while being directed toward believers only.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you (remember, it was written to believers), not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

Now the question remains as to why Christ died for all sins if some people are not going to be covered. I don't believe he did die for all sins. I believe he died for all the sins of the ones that God has called or will call at some point in the future. This is the Limited Atonement that I recently taught on in the series on Calvinism. As to whom those people are, we have no idea. We are to preach Christ crucified. We are to be a bondservant to God. He tells us to do it and we gladly accept the task on unconditional terms. A bondservant is in a state of constant servitude but it is not out of hate while only pretending to love. Slaves had the option of leaving their master after a certain amount of time had passed. They had the choice to leaving or they could stay with their master for life. This was a lifelong choice. There was no going back. There was no leaving this state of constant servitude should they change their minds down the road. A bondservant would stay with their master if they truly loved their life and their master took care of them. Mary is described as a bondservant of the Lord. She did not hate God while only pretending to love Him. She truly loved Him and was glad to be a servant to Him for the rest of her life. In this way, we give glory to God and He works through us when and how He chooses. Witness unconditionally and let God decide who He calls according to Romans 9.

 

[rojoloco]

Here is my most recent lesson. We actually had 6 of us there last night. I was excited about that. I was wondering what kind of response I would get being the nature of the topic but everybody took it in and let it soak. They said it made sense even though it was something that America doesn't like the idea of.

Joy In Sorrow - delivered 12-6-09

Grief and sorrow is a part of our every day experiences. It feels like it is impossible to go one full day without feeling upset or sorrowful about something. We feel sad when someone hurts us. We feel angry when someone offends us. We feel depressed when we feel like everything is wrong and out of our control.

Deployment is a time when a lot of people start to feel the impact of grief. In fact, I know quite a few people who are on antidepressants just to get through the days because they feel the stress is too much to bear. Not only do these people have to face the stresses of deployment but they also have to do it during the holidays. It’s no wonder people get stressed and depressed.

Ask congregation if they ever feel depressed.

Grief, sorrow, and depression are nothing new. Charles Spurgeon was a great Biblical teacher from the 1800’s. He often preached to audiences larger than 10,000 people at a time. Despite how strong a Christian this man was, even he suffered from depression on a daily basis.

Fits of depression come over the most of us. Cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.

Spurgeon would often get so bad that he would be out for months at a time. Grief, sorrow, and depression are very real things that must be addressed. In fact, we see much of it in Scripture.

But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

All things are wearisome;
Man is not able to tell it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor is the ear filled with hearing.
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.

Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

But Jacob said, "My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If harm should befall him on the journey you are taking, then you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow."

For my life is spent with sorrow
And my years with sighing;

My sorrow is beyond healing,
My heart is faint within me!

One man in the Bible suffered more than most. His name was Job. Job was a righteous man who loved God. Despite this, Job lost it all.

a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked and took them. They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you." While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you."…………… Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes.

Job lost his animals, his servants, his children, his wealth, and his health. His wife was nagging him and his friends were trying to make him believe he did something wrong to deserve it. In actuality, there was never a response more Godly than Job’s.

He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there the LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God……………Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Even though Job was praising God, this does not mean he was not suffering. In fact, an entire chapter of the book of Job is dedicated to him cursing the day of his birth. He was at the point where he wish he had never been born.

Read Job chapter 3.

Grief, sorrow, and depression are not things to be ashamed of. They are natural feelings. As we have seen, many Godly men throughout Scripture suffered from bouts of depression. In fact, even Jesus had to deal with depression and grief.

And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me."

The problem is not in the depression. The problem lies in the way many people go about dealing with it. At the beginning I said there are many people on this ship who are on antidepressants to help them deal with the stresses of the ship. This is because they are focusing on the temporal instead of the eternal. They focus on a cultural practice instead of Biblical guidance.

My own wife is currently struggling with antidepressants. She went on them after she gave birth to our daughter. All the hormones were rapidly leaving her body, I left for deployment 5 days after the birth, she had 2 kids to deal with, and she had never been on her own. She came down with a serious case of postpartum depression. She didn’t know where to turn so she did what most people do. She turned to psychiatrists and medication. I had the same stance then as I do now but I was seen as the ignorant husband who didn’t know what he was talking about. Here we are a year and a half later and she now has a strong desire to come off of the medication. The problem is that her body has become dependent on them. Without them, she has a very hard time going through each day. Despite this, she is still trying.

Ask congregation what antidepressants are meant to do.

Antidepressants are not meant to heal. In fact, there is no healing power to them whatsoever. Just as Tylenol is meant to mask the symptoms of a headache, antidepressants are meant to mask the symptoms of depression. Tylenol functions long enough to get you through the pain and then you stop. Depression lasts a lot longer than 8 hours. It can take months, years, or an entire lifetime to heal from it. Antidepressants simply mask the symptoms to help you cope with it. In and of itself, this does not seem to be a problem. However, if we look at it a bit further, we can see there is more to it.

Depression brings about sadness, anxiety, grief, and a lack of control. Anybody in their right mind would desire to get rid of it. Antidepressants are one way to deal with it. However, antidepressants also cause addiction and dependence. Thankfully, we have another alternative; an alternative that one could only hope to be addicted to.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;

Notice that it does not say the “fruits” of the Spirit. It says the fruit. It is singular. There is only one fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is made up of each and every trait mentioned in Galatians. If one is truly focusing on God, he will embody love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control all at the same time. If one is already portraying these traits, why is there a need for medication?

As it stands, our culture has become dependent on antidepressants. It is to be expected for a non-Christian. They have nothing to focus on but the temporal of this world. As a Christian, we have a much greater hope and calling. We have the eternal. We have the Spirit. Why then do we often get so caught up in the temporal and forget about the eternal? Why do we forfeit our fruit of the Spirit and seek a replacement in the temporal? A band named Skillet has some great lyrics regarding to matter.

You're better than drugs
Your love is like wine
Feel you comin' on so fast
Feel you comin' to get me high

You're better than drugs
Addicted for life
Feel you comin' on so fast
Feel you comin' on to get me high

Feel you when I'm restless
Feel you when I cannot cope
You're my addiction, my prescription
My antidote

You kill the poison
Ease the suffering
Calm the rage when I'm afraid
To feel again

There are many types of depression. Some is purely mental. An example of this would be of someone who just feels overburdened and doesn’t see a way out. Other people suffer from a physical form of depression. My wife would fall under this example. It is caused by a chemical imbalance in the body which leads to swaying emotions that are stronger than normal. Some say there is a need for antidepressants to counterbalance the chemicals in the body. They claim that without the meds, the body is broken and will not heal properly. It sounds like a decent point except for the fact that Scripture is clear that we do not need them to portray love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self control. These things should come from the Spirit. To seek them elsewhere is to replace the Spirit and claim that He is not sufficient.

I am not anti-medication. Medication can be a great tool. It saves people from disease. It saves babies from premature death. It prevents illness in the form of immunizations. It can relieve temporary physical pain until the body gets over an illness. All of these are wonderful things. I am only against replacing Christ with something else. The world has done this in our schools. The world has done this with holidays. The world has done this with religions. Now the world has infiltrated the medical field by deceiving millions of Christians into believing they must have something other than the Spirit to portray the fruit of the Spirit.

For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

It is not something that anyone can claim to be easy. Indeed, it is a very difficult challenge. It is so much easier to hop on the bandwagon and seek out the medication instead of digging through the trenches of one’s soul to seek out God. As I stated earlier, Charles Spurgeon would be out for months on end at times due to his depression but he continually sought after God to provide him with the relief promised in Scripture. He was truly a man of God who knew the promises of God and accepted no substitutes for the sake of ease and comfort.
Not only does Scripture tell us what we can have and how to get it, it also tells us how to cope during bouts of depression to ensure we still rely on the Spirit and stay focused on God.

casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

When you feel down or anxious, you have instruction. We are never left alone to ourselves. God is always with us. Furthermore, we have His Word. We have clear instruction. Let your requests be made known to God. Cast all your cares on Him. Trust in Him. Focus on Him. Let Him provide you with the promise of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
We may not always know why we are suffering. Job certainly did not know why he lost all that he did. We get an inside look into his life that he never had. Despite this, he praised God and never let his focus turn off of Him. Furthermore, we have more promises that should bring us an even greater hope.

All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.

We have been promised a light at the end of the tunnel. Whether that light is here on Earth or in Heaven above, we are promised it nonetheless. Eventually, all sorrow yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness and all grief will be turned into joy. Keep God at the center of your focus and allow Him to bring you His promises through the Spirit. It is okay to grieve so long as we do not take our eyes off Christ.

 

[shipwrecksoul]

Too Many Replies Heh Heh

Someone said in one of these replies that it is grace, regeneration, and *then* faith.

Hey I thought it was conviction Mercy grace regeneration growth?

This is all made possible through faith.
Our honest dealing with our offense towards an Holy God. Our own conscience tells us. Do we want to ignore him when he deals with us?

PS. with all these big giant stupendous words in the previous posts I feel this is a job for superman, just kidding. How you all are speaking Is this not supposed to be the simple plan of salvation, the opportunity made possible by the death of Gods own Son Jesus?

But to reply to this post
Most pastors, I do talk from experience, do not want to relinquish their control to the Spirit of God, really. Remember they fear losing their influence, agenda and prestige in the church, a battle for them, as well as their paycheck whether it be $40,000 a year or $150.000 a year.
I was in one church that started something new for their church and about a year later the pastors asked the man responsible for this New thing to come and give a conference on it. When all was said and done and all the church Pastors left I remember hearing ALL the deacons say, Hey thats Not the way we are doing it in our church.
But no one had the backbone to approach any pastor about this for fear of losing
Their place in the Ship!
Most want control not the control of the Spirit in the workings of leadership on a ship.

 

[rojoloco]

Well, here is the lesson I gave tonight. My lessons are normally only 7 pages long in Microsoft Word. This one was 15 pages. I was going to split it off at the middle and continue next week but the guy told me he'd like me to continue so I did. I only had 1 person there tonight. It was awesome though. At the beginning I told him how the last time I had only one person, that person told me she felt like the message was meant for her. Anyway, this time I feel the same way. It may not have been the message but the time after was priceless. He had some questions for me. He had been struggling with the idea that a sinner such as himself could ever be saved. Despite this, he has been coming to church every Sunday that I hold service underway and he has even sent me e-mails with questions. Tonight, after service, I walked through the Gospel with him and he wanted to pray with me. He asked Jesus into his life and it sounded so heartfelt. I feel it was just him tonight for a reason. Quality over quantity was never truer than it was tonight. So here is the lesson I gave. Enjoy!


Gifts of the Spirit - delivered 12/13/09

God has not left us to fend for ourselves. In every believer, He has bestowed a special gift. These gifts are known as the gifts of the Spirit. Each one is special in its own unique way.

Ask congregation if they have heard of the gifts of the Spirit.

For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.

While others are listed in Scripture, we will focus on the ones above. We can see that the gifts include:

1) wisdom
2) knowledge
3) faith
4) healing
5) miracles
6) prophecy
7) distinguishing of spirits
8) speaking tongues
9) interpretation of tongues

The truth is always important. In fact, John 8:32 tells us that the truth will set us free. It is my hope that after this lesson, we will all have a better understanding of these gifts as well as an understanding of the errors of many churches today in their private interpretation of the gifts.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit………But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

The gifts are not something that we pick and choose. They are given by God and God alone. He has a plan and He gives each gift as He wills. We are to seek out what it is that He has given to us so that we can better serve Him but we are not to seek out specific gifts in hope that He will bless us with them at a later date. We are given our gifts at the moment of salvation.

For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit,

The Greek word used for “word” is logos. It refers to a speaking ability. The Greek word used for “wisdom” is sophia. It refers to the ability to put God’s Word into practical use. Pastors, counselors, & encouragers are all people who would probably possess the gift of wisdom as they all speak practical advice from Scripture to others.

and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit;

Once again, I can see the word logos being used. Because of this, we know that the gift of knowledge is another speaking gift.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

Only one led by the Spirit can understand the things of the Spirit. While this is true of all believers, some have been gifted with the ability to dive in deep, exegetically extract the knowledge of Scripture, and relay it to others. This is a gift of teachers. I believe I personally have been gifted with teaching as well as with knowledge. We can also safely say one who has the gift of a word of wisdom also has the gift of a word of knowledge as one must know the Word of God before they can speak of it. The 2 are very similar yet quite different. The gift of a word of knowledge is the ability to relay the knowledge in a spoken manner while the gift of a word of wisdom is the ability to apply it practically in day to day use while also instructing others how to do so.

to another faith by the same Spirit,

This gift of faith is not the same faith that brings salvation. Every believer has this gift.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

Saving faith is indeed a gift. Do not be mistaken. The only reason we are saved is because God, in His grace, gifted us with saving faith. Despite this truth, this is not what Paul is speaking of in verse 9. The spiritual gift of faith is the ability to trust God more than most people.

and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

We can see a differentiation. Saving faith is our belief in Christ which is granted us in the Spirit. The spiritual gift of faith being referred to above is one who trusts in the power of God through prayer. It is one who trusts in the goodness of God in times of adversity. It is one who trusts in the sovereignty of God in times of confusion.

But Jesus, aware of this, said, "You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread?

This seems to imply that there are varying degrees of faith. While all believers have the fullness of saving faith, some have more faith than others regarding trusting the promises of God. Those with the spiritual gift of faith will be a step above the others in this area. This is not something to brag about but rather, something to put into practice to edify the Church. This person, through their trust in God, can encourage other believers through their actions. In their steadfastness, they can encourage others to stand firm. In their calmness, they can encourage others to cast their anxiety on God. They can be a living example of Philippians 4:13.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

I believe the apostles had the gift of faith as did all the other martyrs throughout history. It takes a lot of faith to stand up for God in the face of death and speak unashamed that Jesus Christ is Lord.

and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

The spiritual gift of healing was the ability to fully heal someone. This is not the same as doctors. Doctors heal through modern medicine as well as the study of the body. Those who were gifted with healing simple said it and it was so.

Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.

When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: "HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES."

Notice what it says in Matthew 8:17.

This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: "HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES."

The very purpose of the gift of healing was in order to fulfill Scripture. While the previous gifts are all permanent gifts, there were some gifts that were temporary. This is one of a few that we are going to discuss called the “sign gifts.” The gift of healing was meant to be a sign. Jews saw Gentiles as being a lower class that God would never look upon. Jesus commonly taught of the Gentiles being grafted into the vine. Salvation was no longer limited to Jews only. Imagine the response when they saw Gentiles healing people in the ways described in the above verses. The blind could see. The paralyzed could walk. The dead were brought back to life. All of these things were done to authenticate the message of the apostles. Today, the Word of God has already been authenticated. We are no longer in the transition period from the old covenant to the new covenant. We are no longer given the gift of healing as its purpose has been fulfilled. God may still heal if He chooses to do so but that power is no longer gifted to believers to perform themselves.

and to another the effecting of miracles,

This is another one of the temporary gifts. The gift of miracles was not meant for boasting nor was it meant to edify the Church. They were meant to authenticate the apostolic message just as healing did.

Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

Even the miracles and signs produced by Jesus were not for the purpose of showing off or personal gain. They were produced in order to authenticate the apostolic message and confirm the name of Christ.

The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.

After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles

The gift of miracles has a purpose of confirmation. It confirmed the authenticity of the apostles. It confirmed the authenticity of Christ. Today, we have God’s complete Word with full authority. We no longer need the confirmation because we are out of the transitional period. Because of this, the gift of miracles has ceased to exist. It fulfilled its purpose.

These miraculous gifts were part of the credentials of the apostles, as authoritative agents of God in founding the church. Their function confined them distinctly to the apostolic church, and they necessarily passed away with it.

and to another prophecy,

Prophecy is one that has been cause for much confusion over the years as well. We think of a prophet as being a man who can tell the future. While this was often the case in the Old Testament, this is not the case today. Prophecy is not one of the temporary gifts. It is a permanent gift of God that He continues to give today. However, it is a very different office today.

The Greek word used for prophecy is propheteia. It simply means to speak forth or to proclaim truth of God. There were indeed many times in the Old Testament where God used prophets to speak newly revealed truth that had previously been concealed. This was divine revelation. However, this was not the primary purpose of the gift. The primary purpose of prophecy was to speak forth publicly of God in a profound manner. Sometimes it was new revelation while other times, they only reassured people of truth that was already revealed previously.

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book;

We have God’s complete revelation. It ended with the revelation of John in the book of Revelation. If one claims to have a newly revealed Word of God, it must be recorded and added to Scripture just every other bit of prophetic words were. God’s revelation is not meant for just a specific area of believers. His Word is applicable to all believers everywhere and He made it available to us all in Scripture. No one is to add to Scripture. His divine revelation has ended and is complete within Scripture.

The gifts of knowledge and wisdom go hand in hand. Both of those gifts accompany today’s prophecy. Today, one with the gift of prophecy is able to know and share God’s revealed word through the gift of knowledge while also being able to apply it through the gift of wisdom.

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;

If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment.

The spirit of prophecy is to testify of Jesus. That testimony is found in Scripture. If one claims to be a prophet, he needs to teach from Scripture and proclaim the testimony of Jesus found within. He is not to add to Scripture by proclaiming a new word but is to speak forth the already written word through his special gift.

and to another the distinguishing of spirits,

This is a very special gift in a day of deception. It is the unique ability to be able to tell the difference between the authentic and the counterfeit.

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Satan is a liar. He is the father of lies. He does his hardest to twist the Word of God and lead people astray. He often takes sound doctrine and adds a slight twist to it so that it is believable enough but still false enough that people will go away from the Truth. We discussed some of these things last week.

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.
This is something that we are all called to do as believers in Christ. We should all be searching the Scriptures. However, one with the gift of the distinguishing of spirits has a built in alarm system so to speak. They hear something false and it sounds the bells and whistles. I often feel this way when I hear people speak. Something just sounds off about it and it prompts to me either speak out or to search the Scriptures myself. More often than not, I find that indeed the person was taking it out of context or was speaking a lie. One with the gift of discernment will often recognize a false teaching though those around him see nothing wrong with it.

to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.

Tongues is the most controversial gift out of them all. Many people believe it has continued into the present day while many others believe they ceased upon the completion of God’s Word. I fall into the latter category in the belief that they have ceased. Before we can get into whether not they still exist, we first need to look at their purpose.

So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers;

That sign is clarified in Isaiah 28. The whole purpose of tongues was as a sign of judgment to unbelieving Israel during the transition period of old to new covenant when the Gentiles were being grafted in. It was seen as outlandish that a Gentile would possess anything of God. After all, the Jews were God’s chosen people. This was the sign of judgment that 1 Corinthians 14:21 quotes.

BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME

Tongues were always real languages. Had it been gibberish, the Gentiles would have looked insane. This would not have been a sign of judgment on Israel as they would have looked at the Gentiles as being lower than they already viewed them. They were real languages that authenticated the work of God in them.

All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.

And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

I already stated in 1 Corinthians 14:22 how it says tongues are a sign not to those who believe but to unbelievers. Keep this in mind.

For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.

One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.

This is not a praise directing people to speak to God in a private prayer language as is the argument of every Charismatic I have ever spoken with. It is the exact opposite. First of all, we see Paul is telling of the greatness of prophecy because it edifies the Church. Tongues were not meant to do this. Tongues were not even primarily for the believer. They were for the unbeliever's benefit. If tongues were meant to be a prayer language, why would Paul so boldly state that they are not for the believer? As with the other temporary sign gifts, the gift of tongues was meant to authenticate the apostolic word.

Furthermore, let's go back to verse 2. It says that one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Many Charismatics take this to mean they can pray to God in a private prayer language that is not meant for men. However, further examination of the text refutes this theory.
It clearly says the man who does this speaks mysteries. He speaks things he does not understand. In a sense, it amounts to futile babbling that he only hopes is making it to God in some cohesive manner on the other end. Also notice that the spirit is speaks of is not the Holy Spirit but rather, the spirit of the man.

Charismatics make the claim that the private prayer language is meant for self edification and not for others. In verse 22, Paul says tongues are not meant for the believer. This is strike 1. Furthermore, we know that tongues need to be understood in order to have any edifying effect whatsoever. Verse 2 does say that tongues edifies oneself while prophecy edifies the Church. Paul was being sarcastic here. We see sarcasm being used all throughout this epistle such as 4:8-10 and 14:16. The Corinthians desired the "wow" gifts for selfish reasons. There was a sense of satisfaction in them knowing that they had what they thought to be the greater gifts that everyone could see. He was pointing out their selfishness. There was no actual edifying going on. They just had a sense of self satisfaction in their “achievements.”

But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?

Unless there was interpretation, there was no profit. If there is no profit, there is no edification. If there is no edification, there is no point.

So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church.

The Corinthians desired gifts that could astonish. Paul was instructing them to take this zeal and apply it to the edification of the Church instead of toward selfish desires that are not of the Spirit.

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.

Paul is saying that to pray in tongues as a private prayer language (as they were apparently doing even back then) is in vain. Paul goes so far as to say it is unfruitful. If there is no fruit, there can certainly be no edification. Paul doesn't just leave it as being unfruitful for the Church as he differentiates in other passages. He plainly says it is unfruitful period. Unless the one speaking can understand it, there is no fruit. This is because his mind is unfruitful. I've actually heard Charismatics claim that freeing the mind is the goal. Paul says the exact opposite. He does not continue by saying to let your mind run free and pray an unknown tongue to God hoping that He will understand it and edify you. Paul says instead he will pray not only with the spirit but also with the mind. One can only pray with the mind if he understands what he is praying.

Therefore let one who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

Notice it does not say pray that someone can interpret. It says for the speaker to pray that he can interpret. This was more sarcasm. Paul knew they were speaking gibberish and he challenged them. If they weren't going to stop, at least pray that they can interpret their own nonsense.

but if there is no interpreter, he must keep silent in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God.

This is another one used by Charismatics to claim they can pray to God in an unknown private prayer language. I have already given more than enough evidence that there is no such thing as a private prayer language because it is unfruitful, unprofitable, and has no edifying value whatsoever. In turn, the praying to God mentioned in verse 28 can only mean in their own language. If they felt compelled to speak in tongues but there was no interpreter, instead let that man remain quiet and pray to God with value in his own language.

Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed";

Many Charismatics say that they have experienced it so it can't be false. Well, the above verse should refute this in full. Apparently, some were claiming to speak in the Spirit yet they were saying, "Jesus is accursed." In the same manner, just because someone has claimed to experience the gift of tongues does not mean it is valid if it is outside of the framework of Scripture and goes against the very rebukes of Paul.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

Upon first glance, it appears that prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will all cease together at some point. However, further study shows different timelines. The Greek word used for cease is pauo. It means to simply cease to exist or to run out much like a battery that loses charge. It just dies off. The Greek word used for done away is katargeo. It implies an external force putting a stop to something. It sets tongues apart from the rest. It says prophecy and knowledge will be done away but tongues will cease.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

Here we can see knowledge and prophesy being together again. However, notice tongues is not found. Let’s look at it again.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.

The gifts of knowledge and prophecy will be done away with the coming of the perfect however, tongues is not mentioned because it will have already ceased to exist beforehand. Some say since it does not list the other gifts, we can’t come to this conclusion. However, it was speaking of all three (prophecy, knowledge, and tongues). It mentions all three of them, differentiates the way tongues will go, and then mentions the 2 that will still be around.

I do not believe the perfect is the completion of Scripture as things are still far from perfect. I do not believe the perfect is the coming of Christ for the same reason. I believe the perfect to be when I get to Heaven. Only at this point will all things be perfect. Until then, the gifts of knowledge and prophecy will remain. We know the gift of tongues will have ceased to exist sometime before then. It is a matter of figuring out if that time has already come or if it will come sometime in the future. I hope I have given enough Scripture references to show how it is over and how the sign of judgment has already been delivered.

Tongues served well to show that Christianity, though begun in the cradle of Judaism, was not to be distinctively Jewish...Now that the transition [between Old and New Covenants] has been made, the sign of transition has no abiding value in the life of the church.

Today there is no need for a sign to show that God is moving from the single nation of Israel to all the nations. That movement has become an accomplished fact. As in the case of the founding office of apostle, so the particularly transitional gift of tongues has fulfilled its function as covenantal sign for the Old and New Covenant people of God. Once having fulfilled that role, it has no further function among the people of God.

Regarding the signs gifts being temporary, Scripture itself attests to it.

After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles

The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.

We covered earlier that the sign gifts were meant to authenticate apostolic teaching. These verses seem to indicate that the sign gifts had already faded away. It is as if he is telling a story of the past to tap their memories and keep them going strong. They had been shown. It had been confirmed. It was not a current ongoing confirmation by signs and wonders but rather a past tense instance of something that had already taken place and was no longer.

Since these gifts and signs did cease, the burden of proof is entirely on the charismatics to prove their validity. Too long Christians have assumed that the noncharismatic must produce incontestable Biblical evidence that the miraculous sign gifts did cease. However, noncharismatics have no burden to prove this, since it has already been proved by history. It is irrefutable fact admitted by many Pentecostals. Therefore the charismatics must prove Biblically that the sign gifts will start up again during the Church Age and that today's phenomena are this reoccurrence. In other words they must prove that their experiences are the reoccurrence of gifts that have not occurred for almost 1,900 years.

If you ever get into a discussion of the sign gifts with a Charismatic, you will doubtlessly hear the question, “But have you ever experienced them?” or perhaps the statement, “You can’t comment on something you have never experienced.” As we covered earlier, we are all called to prove all things through Scripture. If this can’t be done, we are to reject the experience as invalid. God will never give us something that is outside of Scripture but Satan just might throw a twisted half-truth our way. Be diligent in your study of the Word and ask God to show you what He has gifted you with so that you may edify the Church.

 

[rojoloco]

Here is the one I recently gave. It sort of piggybacks off the last lesson.

Gifts To Edify

Last week we spoke on the gifts of the Spirit. We learned what each gift was designed for. We learned that there were temporary gifts meant for authentication as well as permanent gifts meant for edification. Tonight, we are going to focus on the importance of edification and how the gifts interact.

Ask congregation what edification is.

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.

The Greek word used for edification is oikodomeo. It literally means to build up or to erect. The verse above is telling us that we are to help build up others and not just please ourselves. It implies a selfless act of love. In fact, the connotation of the above verse even implies a sacrificial act.

There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

First, let’s recap the temporary and permanent gifts.

Temporary

1) healing
2) miracles
3) tongues

Permanent

1) word of wisdom
2) word of knowledge
3) prophecy
4) distinguishing of spirits
5) faith

Healing, miracles, and tongues were all used to authenticate the apostolic message. We saw they were limited in many ways and were even spoken of in the past tense of the later-written epistles as if they had already ceased to exist. However, we also saw the permanent gifts seemed to have a very different purpose. While the temporary sign gifts were for the unbelievers benefit, the permanent gifts seem to have a further reach within the Church.
What good is a building if its walls are falling down? Structural integrity and support are vital to a building’s strength and longevity.

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

We can see the primary purpose of Spiritual gifts is for building up the body of Christ. They are for the edification, the oikodomeo of the body of Christ.

I spent a great deal of the last lesson speaking on tongues and helping to explain how their use was as a temporary sign gift toward unbelievers. As stated last week, many Charismatics make the claim that tongues is a private prayer language that is to be sought after. One of the verses they use to make this claim is 1 Corinthians 13:1a.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels

The claim is that Scripture clearly states there is a special language of angels that we can speak in. Some have made the claim that this is not only a private prayer language but possibly even the very basis of tongues. I showed last week how every instance of tongues in Scripture was a known language. This alone should rule out the theory of angelic languages. Furthermore, every instance in Scripture of an angel speaking was in the native tongue of the people in whom they were speaking to. To top it all off, the surrounding verses in 1 Corinthians 13 paint a very different picture.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Paul knew there was no way to know all the mysteries of God or have all knowledge. This is why he wrote, “we know in part and we prophesy in part.” Despite this, he still wrote about knowing all mysteries and having all knowledge as an option. He writes of moving mountains with faith. While this one may seem legit since he is referencing a quote by Jesus, further study of the text in Matthew 17:20 shows that it was not literally saying a mountain would move. Jesus was using those words to make a point. It is also safe to assume Paul would not really give all he had to the poor as he needed things to survive on his own. He traveled a lot. Same goes for him offering his body to be burned. That is an absurd thought. Paul was using hyperbole to make a point. If every other point Paul is bringing up is clearly hyperbole, doesn’t it stand to reason that the tongues of angels is hyperbole as well? To throw one real thing among a list of exaggerated points doesn’t make any sense. The reason it doesn’t make any sense is because this is not the case. Paul is not condoning speaking in an angelic tongue. In fact, he is doing the exact opposite.
The Corinthians were selfish. They loved showing off. They desired the sign gifts so that they could show off to one another. This is evident by Paul’s writing to them.

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills………But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary;……… All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.

It is no secret that the Corinthians were seeking sign gifts. They thought highly of the sign gifts because they were visible. They thought less of the other gifts because they appeared to be less honorable. However, Paul tells them to seek the greater gifts. This says 2 things. One, the sign gifts were not the better gifts after all. Two, God grants them as He pleases so seeking after them is futile. Paul telling them to seek the greater gifts was yet another form of sarcasm that you can find all throughout his epistle. His point was not for the people of Corinth to seek gifts but rather, to accept what God has already blessed them with because they all have a purpose in the kingdom of God.

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

Paul spends much time speaking against the misuse and counterfeiting of the sign gifts that was taking place. However, his primary goal is not to belittle the Corinthians but to build them up. This is why he spoke so much on love and edification. The Corinthians were lacking greatly in this area. They had selfish desires, sought after attention, mixed pagan beliefs into their faith, and thought less of any gift that appeared to be less honorable.

What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
If we continued to read, we would see Paul lays out the proper guidance for tongues. Remember, at the time 1 Corinthians was written, tongues was still an active gift. The problem was the misuse and even counterfeiting of this gift in the Corinthians church. In their services, they were all speaking at once, all speaking different things, and not interpreting any of it. It was utter chaos. There was no edification. This is why Paul says, “Let all things be done for edification.”

A few weeks we spoke on legalism vs. liberty regarding meat sacrificed to idols. Strong Christians knew that it was perfectly fine to eat this meat as the idols had no power because they were false gods. However, newer Christians would see this and, because they had just gotten out of these pagan practices, thought it was sinful to eat the meat.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies………However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.

Edification is key. There are many things we have liberty to enjoy in Christ. However, there are a few things that we should take into account.

1) Will it cause another to stumble?
2) Will it distract from our focus on God?
3) Will it edify another?

If we are tearing down others at their own expense while building ourselves up using Christ as a covering, we are wrong. All things are lawful but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful but not all things edify.

So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.

Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.

The only way to properly build up one another is in love. When Paul ends chapter 12 with, “And I show you a still more excellent way” it is love that he is speaking of.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails;………But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Ask congregation what they think love means.

In English, we are very limited as we only have one word for love whereas the Greeks had four.

1) Agape – selfless, sacrificial, caring, enacted
2) Eros – romantic or sexual
3) Philia – close friendship or brotherly love
4) Storge – affection of family (i.e. parents toward their children)

The Greek word used in the passage above is agape. We rarely practice agape love. It just isn’t in our nature to do so. We often feel philia, eros, or storge but agape normally isn’t in the picture. This alone is the answer to many of our problems. We often hear 1 Corinthians 13 read at weddings. It is referred to as the Love Chapter. Unfortunately, most brides and grooms at the altar have no idea what it is they are really pledging to one another.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

In all things, practice agape love toward one another. It is not just saying the words but requires acting it out. Do not seek gifts that you wish you possessed. Instead seek the gifts God has already blessed you with so that you can better serve His church. In all things seek to edify as this is agape love enacted.

 

[rojoloco]

Here is the one I gave last night for the Christmas Eve service on the ship. I honestly thought more people would show up. There were only 5 of us there. When it ended, I went down to berthing and saw what was so important. They were watching UFC on the DVD player.


A Reason To Celebrate

Christmas is a time of rejoicing. It is a time for family to be together. It is a time for opening gifts. It is a time for seeing others open gifts. It is a time for setting our diets to the side. It is a time to relax. While it has become all these things, it is really so much more.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

The birth of Jesus was not your average trip to the hospital. In fact, there was nothing normal in it at all. Even from the beginning, it was unique. It begins by telling us that Joseph was engaged to be married to Mary. In those days, marriages were arranged most times. The groom or his family paid a price to the bride’s family. This cost covered expenses of the wedding ceremony as well as other areas. The betrothal, or kiddushin, was actually enough to legally bind the bride and groom in marriage. Despite this, they did not have sexual relations for quite some time to come. In some cases, this could span the course of even a year. This would not normally occur until the marriage ceremony, or huppah, took place. They were already in the betrothed stage but had not yet come together in a sexual sense as is indicated in the text.
Despite this, we find that Mary was found to be with child. Joseph’s natural reaction was that he had been cheated on. There were a few options with him at this point.

If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor's wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

Old Testament Law, which they were under, states Joseph had every right to take Mary out in public and stone her to death. If her adulterer was ever to be found, he would join her in death by stoning. Should he not desire her death, he could have at the very least made her ashamed for the rest of her life by leading a life marked of adultery. However, notice that Joseph does not appear to harbor any anger or resentment. He did not desire to publicly shame her or have her stoned. He was not only a righteous man. He also loved her. This love is evident by the fact that he desired to put her away secretly. Remember, they were already legally married although the ceremony and the consummation had not yet taken place. The word used for “send her away” literally meant a secret divorce. He loved her enough that despite being “cheated” on, he desired her safety. He would divorce her secretly and buy her some time before the public realized what had happened. However, God had other plans.

But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."

Joseph was afraid and rightly so. He assumed he had been cheated on as they had not had sexual relations yet she was pregnant. He was to have her stoned to death under the Law yet he still loved her and cared for her safety. He was about to lose his wife before the ceremony could even take place due to adultery. This, in turn, would embarrass him as well. God took all these fears and put him at ease. He sent an angel to Joseph to appear to him in a dream. This one spot in Scripture is a very important passage. He tells Joseph that Mary did not cheat on him and that the baby was actually conceived of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, being a righteous man, would have known Scripture very well. It was not simply casual reading for them. It was a way of life filled with study and memorization from childhood. The angel quoted Isaiah. The virgin birth was actually prophesied some 650 years prior. Furthermore, the name prophesied by Isaiah was Immanuel which means “God with us.” This name means more than they could have guessed. Not only is God with us but he literally came to be with us in the flesh.

And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Imagine the relief that must have followed upon waking! Scripture does not say he deliberated in what to do. It says he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and he took Mary as his wife. The ceremony, or huppah, took place. At this point, he had every right to have sexual relations with his wife. Despite this, we are told they refrained from doing so. We are told he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son. It is safe to say he did not refrain from natural marriage relations forever as the text says that it was only until she gave birth. Not to mention, Scripture gives the names of other children of Mary. However, Jesus was different. While Joseph was his legal father, his natural Father was of Heaven above. The baby’s name was Jesus and according to the angel, he was going to save His people from their sins.

No, Jesus was not just your ordinary pregnancy and birth. He was unique in every way. It had to be so in order to fulfill the prophecy declared all throughout the Old Testament. Jesus matched every single prophecy and not one was overlooked. This is because he is who the Bible claims him to be; God in the flesh sent not to condemn the world but to save it.

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning…… All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, "Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him."……. For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet……. They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots.

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"

And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, "He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One."

So the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."……….. Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing."

And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots.

He keeps all his bones, not one of them is broken.

So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him;

Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

I do not speak of all of you I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'HE WHO EATS MY BREAD HAS LIFTED UP HIS HEEL AGAINST ME.'

While we are all on this Earth trying to live our lives, Jesus came to this Earth to die for our lives. This is the real reason for the season. Presents and family time are fun and can even be an important time of togetherness but we should never let it overshadow why it is we even have a season to celebrate. It is because of this one baby boy bon under the most peculiar of circumstances so that we might one day have eternal life through Him. I urge you all to ponder this thought as we prepare to celebrate the most important birthday party is all of history.

 

[rojoloco]

My latest lesson is irony at its finest. I wasn't sure what to teach on. I had a few ideas but nothing concrete. I wanted to continue in 1 Corinthians primarily. I had already taught on chapters 12-14. Chapter 15 only made sense. However, I also wanted to teach a lesson that would piggyback off my Christmas Eve lesson. In the end, chapter 15 was the route I decided to teach. I started reading it to get a feel for what I would be teaching on and to compile my thoughts and notes. I had 2 choices to make initially. I chose one of them. Now, it turns out both paths were the same thing. 1 Corinthians 15 teaches about the resurrection. For Christmas Eve, I taught on the birth to death of Christ. Now I will be teaching on the death to life of Christ (and subsequently, our own). I get to keep with my numerical plowing through 1 Corinthians while also teaching the subject I really wanted to teach on. It's crazy how God works things like that at times. I'll be giving this one tomorrow.

From Death To Life

The other day, for Christmas, I spoke on the birth of Christ. We began 650 years prior when it was prophesied and continued on to his death. We learned that the whole reason Christ came to this Earth was to die so that we might live. While we covered the timeline of life to death, tonight we are going to cover death to life.

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last.

And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT." Having said this, He breathed His last.

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

We all know the basics of the story of Jesus. We hear of his birth every year at Christmas. We all know he was sinless and that he died for our sins. While I don’t plan on beating a dead horse tonight, I would like to get into a few more details that are often overlooked by your average Christmas and Easter churchgoer.

Ask congregation if they have ever stopped to ponder the crucifixion.

It was a brutal form of death. Nails were driven into your wrists and feet. You would be forced to support your body weight on either the nail in your feet or hang by the nails in your wrists. After a little while of hanging by the arms, cramps would begin to occur. The cramps would cause your chest muscles to go numb. It would be possible to breathe in but breathing out would be next to impossible. The cramps and flaming of the muscles would make it difficult to even use your legs to alleviate some of the breathing difficulties. The buildup of carbon dioxide would finally ease the cramps which would then make it possible to lift with your legs using nothing but the nail in your feet as leverage. While the pain was unbearable and it was a challenge just to breathe, this alone was not what would normally kill the person. After some time, a guard would come up and break the legs of the person hanging. This would extinguish his ability to press up with his legs so that he could breathe. While already dealing with muscles on fire and scourged flesh, he would now have to endure the pain of broken legs and the thought of knowing he would have no way to breathe. He would hang by his arms until the cramps came back. He would breathe in but not be able to breathe out. He would then die of asphyxiation.

Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

While the thieves hanging on either side off Jesus both had their legs broken, Jesus was already dead. There was no need to break his legs to speed up the process. As we covered at the Christmas Eve service, this was a fulfillment of prophecy that no bones would be broken. However, we also see that Jesus apparently had enough energy to speak in a loud voice and speak his last important words. They were not mere whimpers or whispers. They were loud and bold so that everybody could hear. Why then did he die so much faster than the other two? Was he weak? Not at all! If anything, it is because he was stronger than anybody could ever be. While the thieves were at the mercy of the soldiers and the cross, Jesus was at the mercy of no one but himself.

And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?"

"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again This commandment I received from My Father."

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

It was not the cross that killed Jesus. Jesus was only on the cross because he knew what had to be done. He could have called more than twelve legions of angels to put a stop to it. To get a better idea, a legion was roughly 6,000 soldiers. In other words, Jesus said he could have instantly called more than 72,000 angels to use at his disposal. However, that was not his purpose for being on this Earth. We know from Matthew 26:38 that he was deeply grieved and had the fear of the pain he was about to go through but this did not stop him. He had a mission and there was only one way to accomplish it; death by crucifixion. Again, we see Jesus telling his disciples that nobody could take his life from him. The Father had given him the authority to lay down his own life. Matthew 27:50 aligns with this perfectly as it says Jesus yielded up his spirit. He laid down his own life and yielded up his own spirit. He did not die before the others due to being weaker. Died before the others because he chose the time at which he would yield his spirit. He fulfilled the Scripture by going to the cross, fulfilled the Scripture by speaking his final words, and yielded up his spirit at a time of his choosing to finish the fulfillment of Scripture regarding his death.

When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth." The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

other than for this one statement which I shouted out while standing among them, 'For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today.'"

These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them:…………"Heal the sick, raise the dead,

There were some during the apostolic age who rose the dead. They were given this authority by Christ himself. While being miraculous, the resurrection of Christ was very different.

"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."

All other resurrections were performed by someone else. Christ did not need someone else. He resurrected himself. So what exactly took place during the resurrection?

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

First, we see he appeared to quite a few people. At one point, he even appeared to 500 people at once. If over 500 people came up to you declaring they saw Metallica live at a concert, would you not believe that there was a Metallica concert? It only stands to reason that if so many people make a claim and testify to being eye witnesses to this claim, it probably happened. Why then did so many people disbelieve still?

Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Even with all the eye witness accounts, many still refused to believe it and thought it was crazy talk. Paul, going with their reasoning, tells us that if this is true, we are all to be pitied as we have been teaching a false god and some had even died for this false god and were cut off for all of eternity. Thankfully, it does not end there. He continues in verse 20 with:

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

Paul says Christ is the first fruits. The first fruits of a harvest was a sample brought to the priest as an offering to the Lord. The farmer was not allowed to harvest the rest of his crops until after this offering had been made. In the same way, there was no resurrection until the first fruits had been brought forth. Christ was the first fruits. He alone made it possible to be raised unto eternal life with the Father. Many people teach of Christ. They say all you have to believe is that he was the son of God. The movie The Passion of the Christ portrayed the death of Jesus. Catholics wear a crucifix around their neck as a reminder of what he did for them on the cross. This is all fine and dandy but alone, it amounts to nothing. Without the resurrection, there is no salvation. This is why an empty cross is a more accurate symbol and is actually the one used by Protestants. As my old pastor used to say, a hole in the wall to represent an empty tomb would be the most accurate of all. Christ is no longer on the cross. He is no longer in the grave. As important as his death is, his resurrection is even more so.

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.

This is something I missed for the longest time. Although I had read Matthew countless times, I never really noticed it although it is a huge event. The dead came out of their graves and went into the holy city. Imagine seeing your dead relatives come up to you one evening to talk. You look around and see your neighbors are being visited by their dead relatives as well. It is absolutely amazing. I have no idea how I never really saw this in Scripture. How could I skip this part in my brain? While it may look like all this happened upon the death of Christ, we need to carefully look at the text. It speaks of the death of Christ, moves into people rising, and then goes back to speak about the death. This almost appears contradictory to the teaching of Christ being the first fruits. The thing to pay attention to is in verse 53. It says, “and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” Christ raised himself and appeared to many. In the meantime, there were others who had previously died and were now walking into the holy city. Talk about amazing! One other thing to notice is the fact that all who had previously been resurrected, died again at some point. They were brought back to life in an earthly sense but this was temporary. At some point, they would die again. They had surely been resurrected but not in the same sense as Christ. He was now in a glorified and eternal state that we will all one day see.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive……Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

We can see there will be a literal changing of the body upon the resurrection. It calls our physical body perishable and mortal whereas our next body will be imperishable and immortal.

who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."

The doors being shut refers to them being locked. Jesus had just been crucified and the disciples feared they would be next. They were frightened and in hiding so they locked their doors. Nevertheless, Jesus appeared in their midst. There are some out there that teach our glorified body will be able to pass through walls since Jesus somehow appeared inside a locked house. I do not necessarily subscribe to this theory as it is not what the text says. It simply says he stood in their midst.

Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.

While I can’t confidently teach that Jesus could pass through walls, I can say he could do something even great. First, it alludes to the fact that he could hide his appearance and make himself appear differently to people. Second, it says he vanished from their sight. I think a better interpretation of his standing in their midst despite a locked door is that he just appeared. Just as he could vanish, he could reappear somewhere else. He did not have to pass through a wall. He just appeared where he wanted to be.

who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

According to Philippians 3:21, we will all have this same glorified body upon our resurrection.

Not only do we have a physical resurrection and change to look forward to someday. We also have a spiritual resurrection. The difference is that one happens the moment you become a believer in Christ and receive the gift of saving faith while the other will take place at a later time.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

Before Christ, we were spiritually dead. After Christ, we have a newness of life. We become regenerated and renewed. A band called Decyfer Down has a great chorus that speaks of dying to oneself and living in Christ.

I am so alive, since you took my life
I'm walking dead now, only you remain
I take the life you gave, I walk from the grave
I'm walking dead now, I am not afraid!

It is not speaking of a physical death but rather a spiritual one. We must die to ourselves and be raised in Christ. This is the symbolism represented at baptism. We go under as if we are being laid in a grave upon death. We come up cleansed as if being resurrected in the new life of Christ. Baptism is a representation of what occurs at the moment of salvation. The day will come when we will experience this in the physical as well but it is only because Christ did it first to make it all possible.

1 Corinthians 15 closes out with encouragement:

but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

We’ve already won and we have something great to look forward to so stand fast in all you do and trust in the Lord.

 

[rojoloco]

Here is my most recent one. I will give it tomorrow evening. I'm sure there will be many who will disagree with it despite the fact that it is in the Bible. In fact, a guy I work with is really bothered by me teaching on this. He goes to a church with a female pastor and he sees nothing wrong with it. We'll see how it goes. Either way, I'm not afraid to teach on it.

Gender Neutral?

Much has changed over the years. The cultural view of women has gone from lower class to upper class, lower quality to higher quality, feminine to feminist, etc. It is a subject that always seems to be changing depending on the times we are in. The same can be said for men. However, there is one constant that we can depend on. We can look to God’s Holy Word for the answers.

The Bible is not silent when it comes to the roles and responsibilities of men and women. Unfortunately, many Christians choose to skip over those parts in favor of what the world teaches. As Christians, we are called to be in the world but not of it. Instead of conforming our views to the world, we are to conform them to Christ. The only way to do this is by conforming our views to that of Scripture.

Ask congregation what they believe the roles of men and women to be.

1 Corinthians has a lot to say on the subject of men and women. In fact, it has so much to say on the matter that many in the church today, corrupted by the world, refuse to acknowledge it as truth. They teach that it is sexist and was only for a particular culture. They teach that to follow the same practice today would be to take 10 steps back in the progress we have made regarding women’s rights. The problem is that these people have no idea what Scripture really says. The bigger problem is that they are forsaking the truth in lieu of worldly wisdom and are threatening a design that God created. The simple truth of the matter can be found in 1 Corinthians 11:3.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

Paul apparently knew this was an issue that he had to carefully explain. We can see it in his wording of, “But I want you to understand…” We can see a sense of importance but we also see a sense of sensitivity. It was a touchy subject but it needed to be taught. As with back then, it is a touchy subject even today. Nobody wants to hear that because it sounds sexist. However, further examination shows a much different story. Instead of being sexist, it is actually an honor.

If we left it at saying man is the head of every woman, it would be incomplete. It goes on to say God is the head of Christ. If the Bible were putting down women, one would have to conclude it is putting down Christ as well. Christ was a wonderful leader but he was also the ultimate role model in submissiveness. He was submissive to the Father unto the point of death! Through his submissiveness, salvation is possible. Here, we see submissiveness being painted in an entirely different light from what the world describes.

Furthermore, it says Christ is the head of every man. God submits to nobody, man submits to Christ, and woman submits to man. All have a very important purpose in their submission. As we already covered, Christ submitted to the Father for the purpose of salvation and reconciliation. Tonight, we are going to get into the roles of man and woman regarding submissiveness and headship.

Christ was submissive to the Father yet men are to submit to him. This is because he holds absolute authority.

And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Not only does God have a plan as outlined in verse 3, we are also commanded to show a sign of our roles.

Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head. But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved.

We see the basic concept here is that man is to remain uncovered while praying or prophesying yet women are to remain covered. At first, this can seem a little confusing. To fully understand it, we need to look at the bigger picture.

Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering.

We can clearly see women are being described as having a natural covering of their long hair whereas men are not. In the same way, this is the idea behind the symbol of a covering. Some form of head covering was to be used by women as a symbol of submission. While this is seen as ludicrous in America today, many places in the world still subscribe to this practice. When I went on a mission trip to Ukraine, this was a part of the briefing. The women out there wear a covering, often a cloth wrap, around their head. It is out of the ordinary when someone does not do this. The purpose of verses 4 to 5 telling men not to wear a head covering and women to have their head covered is another way of telling us not to cross over into the roles of the other gender. It is disgraceful for a man to take on the role of a woman and vice versa. The head covering is the woman’s outward symbol of submission within the church under God.

While it may not seem like a big deal to us, Paul makes it known to be a very big deal.

But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head, for she is one and the same as the woman whose head is shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.

To get the full effect, we need to understand what a woman with a shaved head meant. A woman with a shaved head was a sign of a prostitute. It was meant to be a public symbol of shame. Much the opposite, a head covering is meant to be a public symbol of honor and obedience. If a woman desires to not have her head covered in church, let her shave her head and look like a prostitute. If she does not want to look like a prostitute and be associated with prostitution, let her cover her head. It was as simple as that.

This leads us to question why only women had their head covered if both women and men are submissive to some higher authority. The answer to this one is also found in Scripture.

For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake. Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

Simply put, man is made in the image of God whereas woman is made in the image of man. God is the Supreme Authority. He submits to no one. Men are made in the image of God. We submit to God but we do not wear a head covering. Our gender alone symbolizes our role. Man is proof of the glory of God and what He can create. However, women are made in the image and glory of man and what can be created from man. While it sounds sexist, it is still God’s plan and we know God is good in all ways. We see in verse 10 that it says a woman should have her head covered because of the angels.

Ask congregation what they think “because of the angels” means.

Angels are created beings meant to worship, submit to, and serve God. That is their whole purpose for existence. They are used by God in any way He chooses. However, in the beginning, a third of the angels decided to follow Lucifer. Lucifer desired to be God and he convinced many angels to follow him. This was the ultimate act of disobedience and refusal to submit to authority. As a result, Lucifer and the fallen angels were cast out of Heaven by God. This should be remembered by all. It should always be in the back of our mind to show the importance of submission. Because of the incident that took place in the beginning, always submit to the authority placed over you and do it gladly.

So far this entire lesson makes God out to be a male chauvinist. This couldn’t be any further from the truth.

However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.

It was important for Paul to teach on this as well. It is very easy to get carried away with the previous verses and take on a position of a master with his servants. This is not the design God created. While it is true that woman was made from man and is the glory of man, without woman, man would cease to exist. She has a very important role that God has blessed her with. Equality was important even back then.

John MacArthur has a great way of explaining the importance of headship and submission among men and women in the church.

[Paul] makes no distinction between men and women as far as personal worth, abilities, intellect, or spirituality are concerned. Both as human beings and as Christians, women in general are completely equal to men spiritually. Some women obviously are even superior to some men in abilities, intellect, maturity, and spirituality. God established the principle of male authority and female subordination for the purpose of order and complementation, not on the basis of and innate superiority of males. An employee may be more intelligent and more skilled than his boss, but a company cannot be run without submission to proper authority, even if some of those in authority are not as capable as they ought to be.

Just because man is placed over woman in headship does not mean man is better. It just means that is the way God designed it and we are to follow it because it is His will. Unfortunately, many men and women fall short in this because of the world’s influence. Satan has crept into the Church in many ways and this is yet another one of them. If he can’t take something out of Scripture, he will try his hardest to get people to misinterpret it so that they will think it no longer applies and was strictly cultural. This is the belief of many female pastors today.

Ask congregation what they think of female pastors.

The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says.

Many have taken this to mean that women are not allowed to speak in church at all. Because of this, they either look down at women or take the passage to be invalid today. We must never take a single verse and attempt to interpret it on our own. We must always take Scripture as a whole. Let’s look at the entire passage in context.

For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.

We can see it is not saying women are to remain silent in all forms. We can clearly see it is referring to prophecy. However, if you will remember, 1 Corinthians 11:5 tells a woman to have her head covered if she is going to prophesy. Why the apparent contradiction? It is because people fail to properly interpret what is being said.

First of all, if you will remember our recent lesson on spiritual gifts, you will recall that prophecy was not just telling the future but was actually a gift of proclaiming publicly the truth of God and was not limited to new revelation but was often the already existing Word. Women are not prohibited from speaking out and teaching the Word. If you look again, 11:5 does not mention the church. It is speaking in general. There is nothing to prohibit a woman from teaching. In fact, women are all over the Old and New Testament with teaching examples. Women are free to teach all women studies. They are free to teach children. They are free to minister alongside their husbands as Aquila and Priscilla did in Scripture. However, in accordance with chapter 14, a woman is never to be in that position when placed over men in a church environment. She is to subject herself to man. If she desires to speak forth in a church environment for the purpose of edifying the church and teaching the church, let her do it at home with her husband. The concept of female pastors, which is becoming more and more accepted, is a highly unbiblical concept.

Even the people of Corinth apparently thought it was a cultural thing Paul was teaching as he felt the need to squash this idea.

But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no other practice, nor have the churches of God.

It was not just something that belonged to another region. It was not something that belonged to another time period. Paul says if anyone is inclined to be contentious, if anyone desires to argue his teaching as cultural, there is no other practice in all the churches of God. Every single church of God practices these things. Obviously, the church in Corinth was a valid church of God. What Paul is saying is that anybody who claims to follow God should incorporate these practices into their local body as well. It was not a standard of man in a local church. It was a standard of God that He set forth for the Church as a whole to follow. We may not like it because of our culture but it is still the Word of God regardless and as stated in the beginning, it is not a sign of dishonor but rather, a symbol of honor.

This honor carries over into marriage as well.

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

This is another area that is horribly misinterpreted as well as avoided in today’s culture. Wives look at it and say nobody can tell them what to do or control them. Men look at it and think the have absolute control over their wives in all things. Both of these are erroneous. In fact, Paul clarifies this with a very strong stipulation.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.

Husbands are to love their wives just a Christ loved the Church. Christ loved the Church to the point of death. In a recent lesson, we covered the different types of love in the Greek language. The type of love portrayed here is agape love. It was totally selfless and sacrificial. This is the same type of love we are to have for our wives. We are given authority over our wives so that we may flourish; not have a servant. We are to love our wives just as we love ourselves. In fact, we are to love our wives greater than we love ourselves just as Christ loved the Church greater than himself.

Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

In many polls over the years, a simple question has been posed: “Would you rather feel loved or respected?” The majority of men say they would rather feel respected while the majority of women say they would rather feel loved. Typically, a man feels loved when he has genuine respect while a woman feels respected when she feels genuinely loved but it does not work the other way around for either party. These results are not surprising. In fact, they were not surprising even during the time that Paul was writing to the church of Ephesus. This is why it does not tell men to respect their wives and for wives to love their husbands. Women are to respect their husbands through submission in all areas. Husbands are to love their loves sacrificially and ensure she feels it and is taken care of. Through the love shown by the husband, the wife will have a desire to submit because she will know she is taken care of and that the authority is not being abused. The results of the poll are based on our emotional responses and needs. These are controlled by nature itself. It is only when our culture gets in the way that we reject nature to look for an alternative way. Unfortunately, these alternative ways will fail.

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Again, in God’s eyes, man and woman are equal. There is nothing in His plan that makes one superior to the other. They are not independent of each other. There is simply a design of authority and submission that must be followed in the Church if we claim to be followers of His Word. Stop trying to find another way and look at Scripture for what it is in the proper light. God created an order and He saw that it was good. Who are we to say otherwise?

 

[rojoloco]

Here is the lesson I will be teaching on this coming Sunday. Enjoy!

Where Did He Go?

Tonight, we are going to take a break from 1 Corinthians to discuss a subject that has been cause for much controversy. We always say that God loved us so much that he gave His son to die on the cross but how many of us really stop to think about it? We all know Jesus died and rose again three days later but most people don’t really think about the time in between.

Ask congregation what where they believe Jesus went when he died.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

The simple fact of the matter is that not only did God send His Son to die on the cross but He also sent His Son to Hell for three days. Now, I want to clarify when I say Hell. I am not referring to a place of torment that we know it as. In English, we are very limited in our wording as we covered in a previous lesson regarding our 1 word for love versus the 4 words in Greek. When I say Hell, I am actually referring to Hades, the Greek abode of the dead. As a whole, Hades did not refer to a place of suffering nor did it refer to a place of peace. It was simply the storage location, or abode, of the dead.

Despite having never sinned, Jesus was viewed as having the sin of the world on him. Obviously, he wouldn't be able to enter into Heaven while viewed in this state by the Father. The only other place for him to have gone during those three days was Hell. Imagine how happy Satan must've felt when he thought he had triumphed only to be proven wrong a few days later. Ever wonder what Jesus went through during those three days? If we really stop to think about it we can see that God loves us beyond our comprehension!

Some may ask why God would send His only begotten Son to Hell for even one day let alone three. I’m not one to guess why God set up the timeline the way He did but I am willing to bet the three days wasn't meant to "work off" any sin as if he were in some form of purgatory.

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.

Jesus bore the sins of the entire world. He was condemned as guilty and unsanctified despite having committed no crime. Because of this, He died and went to Hell. God's timeline said three days later he would rise. I don't know why He picked 3 days but He did and that's that. Jesus' judgment was Hell just as any other’s would have been. God had His plan for Jesus to rise. After he had risen, he was no longer viewed as being filthy with sin. He had already died and received judgment. Now, Jesus was alive for the second time. It was an entirely new life. It was a life that would never again see the sting of death.

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,

As it is appointed unto man once to die. Jesus had defeated death, risen from the grave, and visited his disciples one last time before rejoining his Father in Heaven. I say rejoined because he was there since the beginning.

To understand why Jesus went to Hell, we must understand the reasons people go to Hell:

1) They do not trust in Christ as their savior. They do not believe that he was the Son of God that died on the cross for our sins and rose again on the third day.
2) They cannot enter Heaven blemished with sin.
3) They have not asked Jesus to be the ultimate sacrifice for them and cover their sin as it happens.

A friend once attempted to prove this wrong by saying it was the blood of Christ that washes away our sins. In and of itself, this is correct theology. The point he was trying to make was that since Christ had already shed his blood, he no longer had a need to go to Hell because his blood covered it all while he was still on the cross. The same argument was used for the thief on the cross. The problem with this is that the new covenant wasn't established until Jesus had risen from the dead. The thief on the cross died under the old covenant as did anybody else that died within those three days. We can believe Jesus was who he said he was all we want but unless we also believe that he conquered death by rising from the grave on the 3rd day then one is not truly saved. That is a vital part to our salvation!

Jesus did not have to deny God or himself. The reasons I gave previously were all reasons why men go to Hell. Numbers one and three cover number two now that he is raised but since that had not happened yet, Jesus was still stuck with number two. Yes, he had already died but he had not yet risen. He died just as any other man under the old covenant. It was once he had risen that the new covenant began and he was brought up into Heaven.

Now that we have a Biblical understanding of what the requirements of entry into Heaven are, we can focus on the Biblical support for Jesus in Hell.

(Now this expression, "He ascended," what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)

for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

“Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s Bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.’”

During the times of Jesus, it was a normal belief that Hades was located deep within the Earth. Hades was broken into two parts. There was a place of torment and a place where there was peace. Before the death and resurrection of Christ, the faithful went to a temporary holding place of peace. The unfaithful went to a place where there was torment and suffering. This temporary holding place was not purgatory. It was not meant to work off the sins of the flesh. We also know Heaven is a place of eternity and not merely temporary. This place was meant to act as a holding area for those Old Testament saints awaiting the death and resurrection of Christ so that they might gain access to Heaven. This place was known as Paradise, or Abraham’s Bosom. Those with faith were in Paradise and those without faith were in Gehenna.

Some have tried saying Matthew 12:40 was probably speaking of a cave or a tomb in which Jesus’ body was kept. This is not even remotely close to being accurate. The tomb of Jesus would have been more of a cave. The heart of the Earth is hardly a hole in a mountain. The word used for ”heart” is the Greek word kardia. It was used in the sense of being the center of the Earth and to say the entire Earth comes from it. Kardia is certainly not being used to speak of a tomb. It speaks of the center of the Earth. The kardia of the Earth is referencing Hades.

We all remember the story of the thief on the cross. Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” The thief went with Jesus, as well as all the rest of the Old Testament saints, to Hell. Yes, they went to Hell. No, they did not go to Gehenna. As Jesus told us, they went to Paradise; the non-torturous part of Hades, the abode of the dead.

What do we know as of now?

1) Jesus was in the grave for 3 days.
2) Jesus descended into the lower parts of the Earth.
3) Jesus was going to be in Paradise the day of his death.
4) Jesus was in the heart of the Earth for three days and three nights.

Based on this information, we can see Jesus spent three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth. Since this was the exact same amount of time his body was in the grave, we can conclude that if he were in Paradise on one of those days, Paradise would have to be in the heart of the Earth. The only way to Heaven is through the Son. It is not simply a belief in the Son that grants us access. It is belief in who the Son is as well as belief in what took place in the death and resurrection. Before this process was complete, man had no way into Heaven. It was not until the resurrection that Paradise was relocated into Heaven and all the saints from that day forth could share in the Glory of God in Heaven.

In which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient,

What exactly did Jesus do during his three days in Hell? 1 Peter makes mention of Jesus proclaiming the Truth to the spirits in prison. These spirits were characterized as being disobedient. The Old Testament saints that went to Abraham's Bosom certainly were not disobedient. Their obedience & faithfulness was the thing that saved them. They just had to wait for Christ before they could enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Verse 19 also says the spirits were in prison. Prison is a place where you go as a result of wrongdoing. You break the law and you go to prison. The demons and disobedient people of the world both broke the law of God. As a result, they would have been imprisoned in Hell awaiting the final judgment of God when all of Hell is cast into the lake of fire.

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into Hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

The fallen angels are in prison. The NASB uses the word "pits" but, if you look, the KJV uses the word "chains" in their translation. The Greek word for this was seira. It literally meant a line, rope, or chain. The fallen angels, as well as disobedient people, are in chains in prison. While some translations use the word “saints” instead of “spirits” in 1 Peter 3:19, this is why I do not believe Jesus preached to the saints at all. I believe this is yet another area of mistranslation that only leads to poor doctrine and theology. I feel the NASB is spot on when it uses the word spirits.

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Jesus conquered death. Death no longer has any hold over a Christian. Sure, we will all die. The difference is that we will live in Heaven because we have been reconciled to God through Christ. Christ is the only way to Heaven. What of the people from the Old Testament? Did they go to Heaven? I would have to say no. They performed sacrifices but this was a continued action. Christ cannot be compared to an animal. He is called the Lamb of God but he was so much more than that. No mere animal could cleanse the way Christ did. I fully believe the Old Testament saints went to Paradise as a place of storage awaiting the death of Christ. Even more, I believe they stayed there until the resurrection. It was not until Jesus rose from the grave that he truly defeated death.

Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "

This has commonly been misinterpreted to mean Jesus had to remain pure and did not want anyone to touch him. The problem with that interpretation is that it is in direct contradiction with John 20:27 when Jesus told Thomas to touch his wounds. In truth, Jesus was telling Mary not to cling to him. He was telling her to not expect his presence to continue for much longer for he had not yet returned to the Father but would soon be doing so. This brings me to my point. Jesus rose on the third day. Up until this point, he had not yet returned to his Father. He had not rejoined God in Heaven yet. Well, where was he then? He was in Paradise during this time. After the third day, he rose from the dead, saw his apostles along with hundreds of others, and joined God in Heaven.

Looking back, we see a few things:

1) the kardia of the Earth is Hades and not a hole in a mountain.
2) Jesus preached to the spirits in prison.
3) the spirits in prison are the fallen angels and those who rejected God.
4) Jesus had not yet returned to the Father (John 20:17).

The very basis of the disbelief in Jesus going to Hell for 3 days is:

1) People do not want to believe Paradise was a section of Hades.
2) People refuse to believe Jesus (being God) could go to Hades.

There is no Biblical evidence stating that Jesus did not go to Hell. On the other hand, the Biblical evidence is stacked saying he did. Ask yourself these questions: If he had not yet returned to the Father, where was he those 3 days? What spirits in prison was he preaching to? Why would they speak of the center of the Earth?

If he was in a tomb that whole time, he would not have been able to preach to anyone. This is another sign that the kardia of the Earth is not speaking of the tomb of Jesus. Jesus was preaching to the spirits in prison. He was in the kardia of the Earth while doing it. He had not yet returned to the Father. That only leaves one place and it makes perfect sense Biblically.

The doctrine of Jesus in Hades is a very Biblical teaching and a very accurate teaching. I do not believe he went there to suffer in pain. I believe he went there as a result of the sin of the world being on him. It was the same reason any of the other Old Testament saints went there. They placed their faith in God but they still had sin on them. Jesus was spotless up until the point that he became the ultimate sacrifice and took the sin of the world upon himself. He then went to Paradise and rose three days later, defeating death.

 

[shipwrecksoul]

Most of what I read here today I can say "I'm on-board on this ship of truth."
BUT
Except for parts of the apostles creed.
--I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,-- its said in Gods word that Jesus made the world, without him nothing was made. So in light of Gods word we have error Here.
and
--the holy catholic church;-- Only the body of believers constitutes a church Not a name of a church. So again in the light of Gods word we have error here as well. We as individuals, believers who have been born again, are known as Gods temple where his Spirit dwells.

1Ti 1:19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

 

[rojoloco]

SWS, I'll comment more on the creation part in a bit but I did want to comment on the catholic part. Notice that it is not capitalized. It is a lowercase "c." The literal meaning of that word is simply "universal." The catholic church is God's universal Church of believers, both Jew and Gentile. This is preached all throughout Scripture. I'm guessing you just didn't know what it meant and thought it was referring to the Roman Catholic Church. Actually, to avoid confusion, a modernized version of the creed reads "the holy universal church."

 

[rojoloco]

Most of what I read here today I can say "I'm on-board on this ship of truth."
BUT
Except for parts of the apostles creed.
--I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,-- its said in Gods word that Jesus made the world, without him nothing was made. So in light of Gods word we have error Here

I said I would come back to this and I totally forgot. Anyway, it's nothing major but I wanted to direct you to Genesis 1:26.

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."

Here, we see God making man. However, upon closer inspection, we see more than one person being presented. We see the words "Us" and "Our" being used. We see, at a minimum, the Father and Son being presented here. While all things were made through Jesus, they were also made through the Father. The Apostle's Creed is not erroneous. It just isn't all inclusive. However, it was meant to be a baseline creed so it accomplished all it set out to be while also being free of error (though not divinely as the Scriptures are).

 

[shipwrecksoul]

I said I would come back to this and I totally forgot. Anyway, it's nothing major but I wanted to direct you to Genesis 1:26.

Originally Posted by Apostle’s Creed
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost.......
and also ,I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;.......

You did not include Jesus as the creator rojoloco.
"Let us make man in our image"
And you wrote, connected, the Catholic church as the Holy Ghost.

 

[rojoloco]

You did not include Jesus as the creator rojoloco.
"Let us make man in our image"
And you wrote, connected, the Catholic church as the Holy Ghost.

I most certainly did nothing of the sort. If you read my post, you would see that the RCC has nothing to do with the apostles's creed. The catholic church they are speaking of in the creed is the universal church made of up all races, Jew and Gentile. It is a lowercase "c" being used as an adjective and not a proper noun as you are taking it. As for Genesis 1:26, it says Us and Our because it is the Father and Son together creating the world. When the apostle's creed says the Father made it, it is not wrong. It is just incomplete...which was their whole point when making it. It is a blanket statement that was not meant to cover all the specifics. The Father did indeed create all things. The fuller truth is that the Son was present and creating as well.

 

[rojoloco]

Here is my latest one. It is the first time in 3 weeks because we were enjoying port visits the last 2 Sunday's. I'm excited to get back in there and do it.

Mission field or family?

Tonight, I want to bring something to the table that has confused many people over the years. It is a topic that has differing views. It is a topic that many people feel they know the basics of but fall short when asked for an explanation. The subject is whether Roman Catholicism should be considered a valid option. The subject is whether Romans Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ or if they are the mission field. I want to let it be known that nothing said tonight is meant to belittle anybody else as a person. It is simply meant to inform so that you will never again be without an appropriate response when presented the question this lesson is named after.

Ask congregation what their answer is to the question in the title.

Beginning in 1985, there was a movement. This movement was called Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT). In 1994, there were many people of both Protestant and Catholic belief who signed an official document. The purpose of the ECT is to work together for the common good. Although they may have their differences, they believed they were following the same Christ. Instead of fighting each other, they desired to work for the common good and share Christ to others. On the surface, this seems like a great idea. If we all worship the same Christ, why not work together? It was a joint effort to stop treating each other like the mission field. However, this simply is not possible regardless what piece of paper is signed so long as each party holds their beliefs unwavering. There are simply too many irreconcilable differences.

To realize why it is impossible, a Protestant must only look at their own name. The key word is protest.

Ask congregation if they know what they are protesting.

The protest that was cause for the birth of Protestantism was the protest of the Catholic Church. There are some very clear things being protested among us Protestants. In fact, the Catholic Church had some very strong things to protest as well toward us. In the 1500’s, over the course of 18 years, a council took place to put together an official statement. This assembly was known as the Council of Trent. Protestantism was gaining popularity in the way it held dear to Scripture alone (Sola Scriptura) and did not place Church Tradition on the same divine level. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, puts them on an equal level.

. . .the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.

The Council of Trent had a purpose to put a stop to Sola Scriptura Reformers. They declared 125 anathemas in this attempt. Dictionary.com defines anathema as, “a person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction.” In other words, the Catholic Church gave 125 different ways a Protestant can be eternally cut off and cursed by God. We are going to review a few of those ways tonight and then learn the truth.

If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.

In other words, if you believe you are justified by faith alone and that there is no work we can possibly do to justify ourselves, you are eternally cursed and cut off from God.

because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

The Law does not justify us. If anything, it does the exact opposite. It shows how there is nothing we can do to justify ourselves. It shows our total depravity and dependence on God. It gives us knowledge of sin. It shines light on sin so that we can see it for what it really is and how impossible it is to be justified apart from God or by anything else other than God.

lf any one saith, that a man once justified can sin no more, nor lose grace, and that therefore he that falls and sins was never truly justified; or, on the other hand, that he is able, during his whole life, to avoid all sins, even those that are venial,- except by a special privilege from God, as the Church holds in regard of the Blessed Virgin; let him be anathema.

Canon 23 says it is possible, indeed likely, to lose your salvation. If you say it is impossible to lose your salvation and that one who falls away from the faith was never truly saved to begin with, be eternally cursed by God.

They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.

and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

Salvation is not something which is here today and gone tomorrow. It is eternal. What good is eternity if it is only temporary and always changing? The answer is that it isn’t. Thankfully, Scripture promises something quite different. It tells us that a man who has obtained salvation through faith will remain secure in his salvation. If he departs from his faith, it was to show that he never had faith to begin with for nobody can snatch us out of the Father’s hand and Christ will not lose a single one of his sheep.

If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema.

The Council of Trent declares that good works are not merely the fruit of a Christian but are actually a method of obtaining justification. If you believe the former and not the latter, you are eternally cursed by God.

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

If good works are more than just fruit and do indeed justify, why is it that Paul so clearly states otherwise? Paul tells us we are to not be subject to a yoke of slavery. By putting our faith and hope of justification in works, we are binding ourselves to them. We are hoping we will perform well enough so that we might one day be considered justified. Paul rebukes the Galatians for this. He calls them foolish to think something that was started by the Spirit could be made perfect by our own doing in the flesh. Justification is by Christ alone. Those whom He calls, He justifies. Our own works have nothing to do with it.

If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema.

In other words, if you believe the blood of Christ fully cleanses and does not leave some form of spot or blemish in which we must purify ourselves of in the fires of purgatory, you are anathema.

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

and in Him you have been made complete,

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins;

We are forgiven of all of our transgressions. Christ canceled out all of our debt. He rescued us from the domain of darkness; from Hell. While we are not to sin, even if we do, we have an Advocate in Christ. That is in the current tense. We currently have an Advocate making intercession for us at all times. Every little thing that might be held against us is nailed to the cross. As a result, we are fully justified and are left spotless before the eyes of God.

If any one saith, that the sacrifice of the mass is only a sacrifice of praise and of thanksgiving; or, that it is a bare commemoration of the sacrifice consummated on the cross, but not a propitiatory sacrifice; or, that it profits him only who receives; and that it ought not to be offered for the living and the dead for sins, pains, satisfactions, and other necessities; let him be anathema.

To understand, the Catholic Mass would be similar to our communion. Another name for it is the Eucharist. In other words, if you do not believe that communion is a sacrifice of Jesus, you are condemned. If you do not believe that communion is profitable for the dead as well as the living, you are damned. If you do not believe that communion is a means of propitiation, you are cursed. If you believe communion to be merely symbolic and not the imparting of grace, you are eternally cut off from the Father. Here are some quotes from official Catholic teaching:

The mass is the sacrifice of the new law in which Christ, through the Ministry of the priest, offers himself to God in an unbloody manner under the appearances of bread and wine. The mass is the sacrifice of Christ offered in a sacramental manner...the reality is the same but the appearances differ.

Their catechism clearly teaches that the mass is a sacrifice of Christ. Now the question remains as to what they mean by sacrifice. Thankfully, they answer this question:

A sacrifice is the offering of a victim by a priest to God alone, and the destruction of it in some way to knowledge that he is the creator of all things.

Based on those 2 statements alone, we can clearly see the mass is the sacrifice of Christ, their victim, which a priest offers up to God countless times over and over again to purposefully destroy him on the altar. Unfortunately, there is more.

The sacrifice of Christ the only Mediator, which in the Eucharist is offered through the priests' hands,

How is it that they can possibly be proud to claim something so vile and disgusting? The Roman Catholic Church attempts to use Scripture to back itself up but it fails miserably. They use verses such as Matthew 26 and Luke 22.

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

Instead of taking this as a command to perform communion on remembrance of the death of Christ, the Romans Catholic Church teaches that Christ was passing on a sacrament to the apostles and their succeeding priests and was giving them the power to transform the bread and wine into the literal flesh and blood of Christ. As we read, they do not teach that it is bread and wine but rather, literal flesh and blood that only appears to be bread and wine although the bread and wine is no more.

This is where the priest comes into play with his sacrifice. He goes to the altar where the bread and wine await him. He lifts it up to the sky in the action of raising it to God. He then brings it down and offers it to the people. According to their teaching, it is not bread and wine that he offers up but is literally Christ being sacrificed by the priest under the appearance of bread and wine.

The Catholic Church does not deny that Christ alone is our propitiation. However, with their teaching of the Mass, it allows them to claim propitiation in the act of the priest for it is Christ being sacrificed.

For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,

According to Scripture, Christ died once for all. There was no need for countless reoccurrence as was the habit of the priests. We are told the repetitious sacrifices are in vain as they can never take away sins. We are also told that Christ died once for all so who is it that the Catholic priests are sacrificing? It is bad enough that they claim to sacrifice Christ countless times over but it is even worse that they are lifting up someone other than Christ since we know Christ was only sacrificed once and that was by God. Once was sufficient. Once for all. Who are they lifting up in their worship because it is not our Lord. The whole concept of the Mass is an extremely anti-biblical, pagan, and dare I say, Satanic practice.

The Catholic Church will deny their claim that they re-sacrifice Christ over and over. They do this because the claim of repetitious sacrificing completely goes against the Scripture that says he was sacrificed once for all. They instead say that they are simply re-presenting the sacrifice of Christ. Despite these claims, this is not what they teach.

For it is in the liturgy, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, that "the work of our redemption is accomplished”

The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice

By their own admission, they go against Scripture. However, they will never claim error because they believe they are preserved from such. They can never be wrong in their doctrine or dogmas. They clearly teach a sacrifice of Christ and will never recant these teachings for to do so would crumble the whole system. If one thing is admitted to be wrong, how many countless other things are wrong as well? Again, if Christ is not being sacrificed over and over again (as per the Scriptures), who is it that they are lifting up week after week all over the world?

If any one saith, that, by the Catholic doctrine touching Justification, by this holy Synod inset forth in this present decree, the glory of God, or the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ are in any way derogated from, and not rather that the truth of our faith, and the glory in fine of God and of Jesus Christ are rendered (more) illustrious; let him be anathema.

In other words, if you disagree with even one jot or tittle of the declarations and teachings of the Catholic priesthood, you are eternally cut off from the glory of Heaven, eternally cursed by God, and are destined for Hell. I must be in big trouble then because I denounce every single one of those and I have the Truth of Scripture to bring me confidence in these matters.

One may ask if the Catholic Church still holds to these teachings. Wouldn’t it be highly possible that they would have renounced these absurd teachings so many years after the Reformation? It is clear the whole purpose of them was to scare people from leaving the Roman Catholic Church during a time when so many were converting to Protestantism. Despite this, the Roman Catholic Church still clings to each and every one of the teachings of the Council of Trent. In fact, it was only about 50 years ago that Pope John XXIII affirmed them. To say otherwise is to go against the very core of Catholic teaching.

but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.

I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

They teach that they are Christ’s one true church and that they are preserved from error. They claim the truth abides with them and that they will never teach doctrinal error because the gates of Hell will not overpower Christ’s Church. Because of this, nothing they declare as doctrine, dogma, anathema, or especially ex cathedra will ever be wrong. As a result, instead of preserving the truth, the have done nothing more than preserve error upon error under a system of works.

I only taught on a few of the decrees from the Council of Trent. According to the Roman Catholic teachings, a few other things that will get you booted to Hell include:

1) Rejecting the Apocrypha as being the inspired Word of God
2) Saying baptism is not a requirement for salvation
3) Claim infant baptism is wrong
4) Believe confirmation is just a ceremony and not a sacrament that imputes grace
5) Deny penance
6) Deny the priesthood
7) Deny the doctrine of purgatory

Where exactly does the grace of God ever come into play in all of these preposterous claims?

The Mass is the sum and substance of our faith.

If the Mass is the substance of faith, the Catholic Church does not have saving faith. The Mass lifts up someone they call Christ but is not actually Jesus. It worships a counterfeit and makes sacrifice after sacrifice of this counterfeit Christ. Again, how can this be the substance of faith? It follows after a system of legalistic works that teach you can earn your salvation as if by merit so long as you follow their rituals and make payment on time. It teaches that there is some other way of justification and some other source of propitiation and then place it at the feet of the priest who lifts it up to a false god. No, the Catholic Church cannot be considered a valid alternative. It can not even be defined as a Christian denomination any more than Mormonism or Jehovah’s Witnesses can be. Their counterfeit Jesus is not an all sufficient Savior but merely a person who helps them to save themselves.
Just keep in mind that not all people in the Catholic Church fully affirm its teachings. Some people know the truth for what it is but do not see the harm in staying in the Catholic church they grew up in. Being in a local Catholic Church is not the same as being a follower of the Catholic teaching. If you know anybody in this predicament, I urge you to speak with them of the importance of leaving. While it may seem harmless, I hope the examples brought to you tonight can show how it is far from it. It is very dangerous and we need to understand why. It is the mission field through and through.

 

[rojoloco]

Here is my most recent one. It is a continuation from last week. There were 7 of us there. That is the largest turnout so far. I was stoked! It was interesting because we actually had a Catholic come to the Protestant service. Talk about a shock to the system! Overall, it went quite well. Due to our schedule, we won't have another service for 4 weeks. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy! Doctrines of Error Last week, I spoke on some of the differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. We learned that Roman Catholicism is not a valid alternative nor can it be considered a denomination of Christianity. We reviewed their own declarations from the Council of Trent as well as the Catechism. Tonight, we are going to focus on what Scripture has to say regarding some of the other doctrines and dogmas of the Catholic Church. As was the case with last week, this is not meant to belittle anyone simply because they have a different faith from ours. It is simply meant to point out the differences from a Scriptural perspective to further your understanding of Truth. It is as John Calvin said:

I neither hate you nor despise you; nor do I wish to persecute you; but I would be as hard as iron when I behold you insulting sound doctrine with so great audacity.

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.

As always, my goal is to teach the Truth of Scripture in the Light of Scripture alone. Sola Scriptura! Our first area we are going to touch on tonight is the doctrine of purgatory. Ask congregation to explain the basic concept of purgatory.

All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of Heaven.

If you die in the love of God but possess any stains of sin, such stains are cleansed away in a purifying process called Purgatory. These stains of sin are primarily the temporal punishment due to venial or mortal sins already forgiven but for which sufficient penance was not done during your lifetime.

According to Roman Catholicism, all men die with a stain of sin. The only exceptions to this are infant babies who have been baptized and the saints who were deemed exceptionally holy. All others are blemished with sin even till the point of death. As a result of this, one can not enter into the joy of Heaven until they have been purified. This purification is as by fire. Catholicism does not rely primarily on Scripture for this doctrine. It is a doctrine that stems from their own teaching which they refer to as Sacred Tradition. It is also a doctrine that comes from the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha is included in the Catholic bible but it is not found in the Protestant Bible. They can be used as history lessons but they were written by fallible men and are not to be included among the inspired Word of God. However, they have attempted to fit it to Scripture by referencing various passages. One passage in particular is from 1 Corinthians.

If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

In essence, the doctrine of purgatory teaches that one is to live a good and holy life but that they will eventually end in a state of sin with the need to be purified by fire and cleansed from the stain. Before I get into the doctrine of purgatory as a whole, I’d like to touch on a few other areas. Those areas are penance and indulgences.

Like all the sacraments, Penance is a liturgical action. The elements of the celebration are ordinarily these: a greeting and blessing from the priest, reading the word of God to illuminate the conscience and elicit contrition, and an exhortation to repentance; the confession, which acknowledges sins and makes them known to the priest; the imposition and acceptance of a penance; the priest's absolution; a prayer of thanksgiving and praise and dismissal with the blessing of the priest.

The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship." Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament.

In other words, penance is a part of the process of reconciliation. We become reconciled to God through a string of actions on our part. We earn the grace of God by the works that we complete on this Earth. According to Catholicism, the proper way to be reconciled to God is by being greeted and blessed by a priest, reading Scripture in public, and confessing our sins to a priest. It is by this method that one can attempt to achieve a state of holiness so as to reduce the amount of time they have to spend in purgatory. After all, isn’t the goal to get to Heaven as soon as possible? All of this ties into indulgences. While penance is the active process of sanctification and obtaining holiness and good graces of God, indulgences are the method of obtaining forgiveness for sins already committed. It is not actually a way of obtaining forgiveness of the sin itself but rather a method of spiritual stain removal. Penance is preventative whereas indulgences are corrective. Like penance, indulgences are meant to reduce the amount of time one has to spend in purgatory. This is done by drawing from what is knows as the Treasury of the Church. Just as the Roman Catholic faith is based upon works, these same works are stored in a heavenly storehouse where merit can be drawn from by members of the Church. However, all drawings of indulgences are given through the Church by its priests through official sacraments. Now that we have an idea of what penance, indulgences, and purgatory are, let’s look at Scripture to see what the Word of God says. Penance and indulgences are both a form of works based salvation. It denies the atonement of Christ and places it in the hands of the priests. Regarding penance, the Catholic Church tells us we can perform works to earn justification and be considered righteous.

For what does the Scripture say? "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS."

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,

nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. Scripture is very clear when it says we are not saved by our works nor is there anything we can do to justify ourselves. It is by faith alone through the blood of Christ. We are not justified by penance and indulgences. We are justified by his blood. The doctrine of penance and indulgences clearly detracts from the atonement provided in the blood of Christ. It removes the sufficiency of Christ and amounts it to nothing more than a fraction of plan of salvation. I’ll have you know, John battled a type of people similar to this. 1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. John was combating a particular type of crowd in his day. That crowd was the Gnostic movement. They taught a secret knowledge that was pertinent to salvation that only they could reveal. John speaks boldly and bluntly in his use of the word “know.” He wanted the readers to understand that there was no hidden knowledge regarding salvation. It was cut & dry. They could KNOW whether or not they were saved. They could be confident! The Roman Catholic Church functions in much the same way. They say outside of the Catholic Church, there is no preservation from error. They say outside the Catholic Church, one cannot be saved. Sure, this is not the spoken word taught today but it is to be understood so long as they affirm the declarations of the Council of Trent that we went over last week. They teach that they have a hidden knowledge that is preserved within their church (that they claim to be Christ’s only Church). It is only through the priests that this knowledge and revelation can be shared and experienced. It is modern Gnosticism in more ways than one. Not only are indulgences unbiblical, they were also created as a money making scandal. In the early Church, indulgences were often sold to the people. The people would bring the priests money and the priests would then offer up indulgences on their behalf. These indulgences would often be purchased for the dead in a hope to speed up their time in purgatory so they could enjoy the joy of Heaven. Indulgences were sold in the form of time periods. There were basic indulgences sold during the Mass that would shave time off of purgatory for basic sins. Then there were more expensive indulgences offered by bishops. These would only be available to certain people in higher financial standing. Of course, if it meant getting to Heaven faster, isn’t it worth it to give some money? You can’t take it with you after all right? On top of all of that, the quality of the pardon varied based on the motives of the priests. If they didn’t have the proper attitude while performing the sacrament, the quality was reduced. Of course, they were collecting money from people so the sacrament was not considered null and void. It was just reduced in effectiveness. Some time would still be shaved off purgatory just for going through with the act. Because a man’s heart is only known by God, it made sense to keep going over and over just in case. On top of that, nobody knew how long a man would spend in purgatory. Again, it only made sense to keep paying for indulgences in hopes that you would free your dead loved ones from the fires of purgatory as well as avoid having to go there yourself. As long as you pay, you can enjoy the joys of Heaven in an expedient manner. So long as you perform works in the Church, purgatory will go by much faster than for others. However, if you really care about the others, you can help them out by paying some more. This is the grim reality of how it all started. Things may have changed over the years but the roots still remain. All of this leads to the concept of purgatory and how it completely bashes the concept of grace and forgiveness in Christ. Since we already covered the basics of what purgatory is all about, I now want to go over the Scriptural response.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

As Christians, we have no fear of going anywhere but Heaven. Paul had no fear of death. He knew the moment he left his body, he would be at home with the Lord experiencing the joy of Heaven.

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

The Greek word used here is teleo. Regarding monetary matters, the word was used to refer to a payment of debt. Christ was saying that all debt was considered paid in full. Through his blood, there is no more debt. Why is it that the Catholic Church teaches otherwise?

And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,

This verse looks like it could almost be used to justify purgatory. Isn’t it saying there is judgment after death? Can’t it support the notion of God judging us to an intermediate place of purgatory to be cleansed of the stain of our sins? Most certainly not! That is what the blood of Christ perfected. Remember in the beginning when we went over 1 Corinthians 3:15 regarding fire?

If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Upon death, there will indeed be judgment from God. For the unsaved, this judgment will end in eternal death and suffering of Hell. For the saved, this judgment will result in eternal life with the Father. However, our works will be judged as well. They may not play a part in our timeline from death to Heaven but they most certainly affect our rewards in Heaven. Instead of attempting to find out the meaning of 1 Corinthians 3:15, the Roman Catholic Church invents a meaning in order to make it fit their pre-existing doctrine of purgatory. It is dangerous practice to invent doctrine and then make Scripture fit. If it is not explicitly in Scripture, it is to be excluded. Again, Paul is not saying one must be purified in purgatory. He is relating the common method of purification to our reward. In those days, fire was the method of removing the dross. Dross is all the waste product of metals being purified in fire. Let’s look at the entire passage.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

Notice it is not saying that a man must perform works or else be saved through the fires of purgatory. It is saying that we will have eternal reward in Heaven. One day the judgment of God will come to all. The atoning blood of Christ is the only thing that can save. This will be the first step. Among Christians, however, there is yet another judgment. This judgment will determine the eternal rewards in Heaven.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;

so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;

Outside of Christ, even our greatest works are as filthy rags. In the Hebrew, this literally meant the rags used to catch the bloody flow of a menstruating woman. However, when we have Christ as our foundation, those works take on a whole new meaning. They may not purify us, speed up entrance to Heaven, or work off past sins of others but they do indeed build up treasures in Heaven.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

In the day of judgment, all of our works will be burned up. The only ones to remain will be the eternal works in Christ. These works are described as being of even higher quality than gold. Gold will burn away but works in Christ will remain forever. Gold will burn away. How then can money be used to buy pardons? Notice the final statement though. It says, “If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” Yet, even this is not referring to fires of purgatory. As we already covered, we have complete justification and forgiveness of debt in the atoning blood of Christ. It is telling us that even a man with no works will be saved but it will be by the skin of his teeth. Imagine a man being surrounded by fire. The firefighter comes in, grabs the man, and makes a dash for the only exit. The firefighter wraps the man in his coat to avoid being burned and plunges into the flames toward the door. If not for the firefighter, this man would have died in the judgmental flames. In the same way, even if a man has saving faith but has only a few works in Christ to go along with it, he will be spared from the fires of judgment simply by being clothed in Christ. His eternal reward will be small but salvation in Christ was still accomplished.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

We are justified by faith alone. The Roman Catholic Church teaches we must work for justification, work for Heaven, and experience suffering by fire in order to reach Heaven.

According to Romish theology, all past sins both as respects their eternal and temporal punishments are blotted out in baptism and also the eternal punishment of the future sins of the faithful. But for the temporal punishment of the post-baptismal sins the faithful must make satisfaction either in this life or in purgatory. In opposition to every such notion of human satisfaction Protestants rightly contend that the satisfaction of Christ is the only satisfaction for sin and is so perfect and final that it leaves no penal liability for any sin of the believer.

Christ said it himself. It is finished! Roman Catholic teaching does not believe this and, in turn, adds to the gospel.

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Anything added to the Gospel is a false gospel. Anything that adds to the finished work of Christ is a false gospel. A false gospel is to be condemned. As I said in the beginning:

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.

And again, as John Murray so accurately puts it:

This polemic against Romish blasphemy is just as necessary today as it was in the Reformation period. The atonement is a completed work, never repeated and unrepeatable.

 

[rojoloco]

Here is my latest lesson. It closes out my last 2 lessons while also getting into a new subject that I thought was important based on some recent discussions with people on the ship. The lesson was slightly shorter than normal because I played a video after I was done that went along the same lines. The video is titled "Bennie Hinn: Possessed By Devils?" Anyway, enjoy the lesson.

Proceed With Caution

Over the last couple services, I have spoken on the differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. We covered much of the teachings of the Catholic Church by using their own writings and then compared them to Scripture. The undeniable conclusions is that there are too many irreconcilable differences and that the Catholic Church is to be viewed as the mission field in desperate need of the Gospel and teaching of the doctrines of grace. Tonight, we are going to move away from this area in particular and cover a much broader subject. That subject is the danger of false teaching and the importance of sound Biblical doctrine.

By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness:
He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

Our faith is based on Christ and the Word of God alone. Despite this, there are many out there who teach contrary. Not only are there other religions but there are also those who claim the title of Christianity yet teach something that Scripture refers to as “doctrines of demons.” To get a better idea as to what these doctrines of demons are, we are going to see what Paul had to say to Timothy on the matter.

by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,

Those who teach doctrines of demons do so without conviction. They believe their lies completely. They have given in to the demonic influence and lies of Satan to the point where they no longer see the line between truth and heresy. This is sort of where the last couple sermons come into play. We covered the irreconcilable differences between Catholics and Protestants such as works versus grace, the priesthood, the Mass, the re-sacrificing of Christ over and over again, penance & indulgences, as well as others. These are all false doctrines that fly in the face of Scripture but use the Traditions of the Roman Catholic Church to support themselves. I was kind in calling them false doctrines. Scripture is not so kind.

men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

Both of these are doctrines that the Catholic Church holds near and dear. The priesthood is not allowed to marry. Of course, this was not always the case. The Roman Catholic priesthood was once allowed to marry without issue. Later, rules were imposed barring unmarried priests from marrying but allowing already married priests to remain married. Of course, it didn’t take long for that to change. Another rule was imposed forcing married priests to divorce their wives which caused many of them to be cast out and become street walking prostitutes just so they could survive. This is all the grim history surrounding the Roman Catholic Church. Why would they forbid marriage? Even Peter was married and he is the one they claim to be their first Pope.

Along the same lines, the Roman Catholic Church also teaches that you cannot eat meat on Fridays. Granted, this is most commonly enforced only during Lent, there are still many Catholic Churches that have extended this practice to include every Friday of the year. According to Catholic teaching, eating meat on a Friday during Lent is considered to be a mortal sin.

So, I state it again:

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,……….men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

As I said, Scripture is not so kind. It specifically calls these teachings of the Catholic Church to be doctrines of demons. They are lies straight from the pits of Hell as are the other doctrines we covered in our last 2 lessons. Again, this is not an attack on Catholics but it is indeed a brutal attack on the religion that has perverted the Gospel and doctrines of grace in favor of a doctrine of legalism and tradition of men. Some say I am too harsh. I say I am not harsh enough. There is a very real danger to false teaching. It was the very first verse I quoted:

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

We are called to draw people to Christ, not to draw them away from him. False teachers present a very real danger to the Church body.

And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many.”

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.

False teachers are compared to a pack of savage wolves that tear apart the Church body and do not spare anybody.

Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

That one sounds a lot like the Pope doesn’t it? Sitting high on the throne, making people kiss his ring, taking on the title “Vicar of Christ” which literally means one who acts as a substitute. The Pope has taken on the title of a substitute Christ. One can’t display themselves as God any more than this even if they tried.

and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.

The fact that false teaching is such a danger makes the need for Godly teachers all the greater. Teachers have a very high calling and an even higher responsibility to teach the Truth with accuracy.

Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.

In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.

True teachers are always feeding on the Word of God. We are always diving head first into Scripture in order to gain a better understanding of the Truth. We act as the Bereans:

Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Scripture is the only true litmus test. If it is not found in Scripture, it is to be rejected. If something contrary or in addition to Scripture is taught, the teacher is to be rejected and shunned. Scripture is what equips us for every good work. It is what makes us adequate. Its purpose is for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. Sola Scriptura! By Scripture Alone!

Scripture is plain that not everyone is to desire to be a teacher. This does not let everybody else off the hook. We are all called to search the Scriptures daily. In fact, this is what John tells us all to do in order to know the Truth.

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.

The first place we should start in testing the spirits is to see what their basic teaching is regarding Jesus. Do they teach of him being 100% man while also being 100% God or do they teach something contrary. Peter says if they confess Christ is God in the flesh, that teacher is from God. However, we must realize that there are many other perversions. One can easily claim Jesus was man and God yet then detract from who he really was by diminishing his role. Again, the Catholic Church does this repeatedly by diminishing the doctrines of grace and refusing to accept that Christ died once for all through their re-sacrifice over and over again during the Mass. This only reinforces the importance of knowing Scripture and being able to recall them during those crucial moments. This can only be done by daily examination and study.

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.

The spirit of Truth will teach from the Word of God. The spirit of error will reject the Word of God by either adding to it or detracting from it. Scripture tells us what will become of this man:

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

As a teacher, I am held to a very high standard and I do my best to ensure the accuracy of what I teach.

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

-----------------------

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[rojoloco]

Here is my most recent one. I will be delivering this on this coming Sunday. As always, let me know what you think.

Main Character or Supporting Cast?

The last month has been spent covering the dangers of false teaching as well as covering some of the false teaching out there in ministry. Tonight, we are going to cover an even greater subject. It is the subject of salvation. Even more detailed, it is the subject of how much of a part God plays in it. Is He the main character in this play or is He just a supporting cast member who cheers us on in our quest for eternity? My hope is that by the end of the lesson, you will know with certainty who the composer really is.

Ask congregation what role they believe God plays in salvation.

The answer really is a simple one. God is not only the composer but He also orchestrates the entire play. He came up with the concept, wrote the script, designed the set, directed the show, and closed out the credits with two words: JESUS CHRIST!

Who is responsible for individual salvation – God or the person? Put another way, “Did God sovereignly elect us and save us? Or did He act in accord with what He knew we would do?” In other words, “Who makes the first move?”

There are many today who place God at the forefront in their speech yet their doctrine reflects otherwise. Many say God is in control of all things yet then yield this control in favor of their own control. These people make the claims that God calls and makes possible salvation but we must do the rest of the job on our own in order to make anything legitimate. Sadly, this is not what Scripture teaches.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

It is by God’s doing and by God’s doing alone. We are going to cover some of these areas from a Scriptural standpoint tonight to see what it is exactly that God does while orchestrating His plan that came from eternity.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens,…………..who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

There are some out there who teach that God chooses people based on His foreknowledge of what they would choose of their own doing. In other words, they believe God makes salvation possible but then leaves it up to the individual person to accept it or reject it. They agree that there is an Elect but they say this election was based on the free will choice of the individual. In other words, God looked into the future, saw the choice man would make, and then elected him to be one of His own down the road in His own good timing. With this school of thought, it gives man something to boast about. It says that man made a righteous choice, man accepted a universal offer, man stepped up to God, and man essentially saved himself. It is compelled to teach that God does not save but only makes a way to save. Either that or it must say that God does the saving but only if we allow Him to which places us over God in the sense that we start telling Him what is acceptable and what is not. Furthermore, if salvation is only based upon God’s foreknowledge of the choice of man, where did the saving faith come from to begin with? It certainly wouldn’t have been initiated by God if He is only reacting instead of initiating. This is clearly not the Truth.

because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

As the Scriptures point out, there is nothing in us that would ever choose God. Before salvation, we were hostile toward God. We were children of wrath. We saw the things of God as foolishness. In essence, we hated God and had no desire to turn to Him. Even if we didn’t consciously hate God, our actions proved otherwise. We were at war with God and most of us didn’t even know it. Therefore, we know God’s foreknowledge was not of an action we would make as the only possible action we could have made was to continue rejecting Him. As a result, we must continue to look and see what the true context of “foreknowledge” really is.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

We see here that everyone whom God foreknew, He also predestined. By itself, one might be able to argue that salvation is based upon God’s foreknowledge of a choice. However, that is the problem. It is a doctrine that stands alone. When used in context with other Scripture, we see an entirely different meaning. The word used for “foreknew” is the Greek word proginosko which simply means to know in advance. However, the Greek word used for predestined is proorizo which means to ordain in advance. Did God simply ordain something that He saw in the beginning? Again, this is impossible because, as pointed out in the above verses, every part of our being was against God.

this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

Everything hinges on the election of God; His predetermined plan. All Scripture is saying is that God had full knowledge of what was going on. God is omniscient. He knows all things. He was well aware of the plan He was setting in place. He knew it in advance because He ordained it in advance. The two phrases go hand in hand and actually share the same interpretation of each other.

For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you

Notice Scripture says that Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world. If we follow the same school of thought that many people do, we would be forced to say that this passage means nothing more than Jesus was known by God in advance. However, we know that there is much more to the meaning of this phrase.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,

God did not merely know the Son in advance. He ordained what would happen in advance. We also see that Jesus knows his own in an intimate way that goes beyond the normal bounds of general knowledge. The same is said in Jeremiah where it speaks of foreknowledge on an intimate level before even being in the womb. In other words, those whom God foreknew on an intimate level in advance, He also predestined.

God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

Notice it says nothing about God foreknowing a choice. It specifically speaks of God foreknowing the individual. Of course, God knows every person inside and out so it cannot be speaking of a general knowledge. It is differentiating this by referring to the intimate knowledge that God foreknew of His Elect before the foundation of the world when He ordained His plan. This concept is also found in Romans 9.

And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,

For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy……… So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.

God prepared His Elect beforehand in order that we could share in His glory through an intimate relationship with Him as the Father. All of this was from Him and our own choices had no bearing on anything because our choice was bound by our nature of wrath.

Now that we have clarified the proper relationship between God’s foreknowledge and His predestined plan, let’s go back to the beginning and move on from there.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

Every single part of salvation is accredited to God. We are going to touch on a few of the actions God initiates and completes regarding the plan on salvation.

God wills

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even 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.

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,......also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,

Nothing is outside the will of God. The only reason we have salvation is because God willed it in the beginning. He ordained it to be so.

God draws

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.

God grants

And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father."

God calls

so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

God appoints

When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

God predestines

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,.......also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,

God prepares

And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,

God causes

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

God chooses

knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you;

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love

God purposes

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus:

God delivers and transfers

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,

God saves

who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

God makes us alive

even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

God pours out His Spirit

whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

God brings us forth

In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.

God justifies

and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God sanctifies

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God glorifies

For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

As we can see, God is at work in all areas of salvation. He is the initiator as well as the accomplisher in every aspect. All glory is to be given to Him. We have absolutely zero room for boasting as we had nothing within us to save ourselves. Because of this work that God performs in us and around us, we can truly come to understand the plan of salvation.

That plan consists of calling, regeneration, faith, repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, and glorification.

In a nutshell:

First, we are called by God. He then regenerates us and gives us a nature of Christ. At this point, we are saved because we have been renewed. Upon this transformation, we immediately gain faith and cling to Him just as a newborn clings to his mother and father. It is at this point, and only at this point, that we now feel guilty of our past nature and confess it before God whereas before, we embraced the evil. Upon this point, we are justified of all wrongs because we now have an Advocate in Christ. We are then adopted into the family of God where we can cry Abba, Father. As new creatures in Christ we are fully sanctified and cleansed by the atoning blood of Christ. Those who belong to God and are given to the Son will persevere until the end for no one can snatch us out of the Father's hand and Jesus will not lose any that are given to him. Upon our entry into Heaven, we will then be glorified in our heavenly eternal state with God.

Ask congregation if they still feel the same way about the role they believe God plays in salvation.

For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

But HE WHO BOASTS IS TO BOAST IN THE LORD.

Always remember, it is God who gets the credit. Outside of His will and plan, there is no salvation. To say we initiate our own salvation is to take glory away from God and apply it to ourselves. To say God is compelled to give us something if we ask for it makes God our servant and takes glory away from Him. To say God is only reactionary based on our choices removes His sovereignty. It is to say we are more powerful than God and that He must bend to our decrees and desires. This also robs God of His glory by giving it to ourselves. We have no reason to boast. Every single part of salvation was composed and orchestrated by God. Everything we have is only because we received it by a God who gave it to us.

Soli Deo Gloria! Glory to God alone!