Category: religious bondage

“Very Religious” Versus “True Holiness”

Sunday, May 24, 2015

“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind: And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24 KJV).

Is it merely religious, or truly holiness?

Recently talking among a group, I heard a person comment about a certain woman’s modest apparel. Another person replied, “Oh, yes, she is very religious!” (The implication, a common one, is a “religious” person dresses decently and acts respectfully.)

Ironically, it was “religious” people in the Bible who did some of the most disturbing things. Did not “religious” Cain murder Abel his brother (Genesis 4:1-15)? When Baal worship infected Israel, did not “sodomites” appear among the Jews (1 Kings 14:24; 1 Kings 15:12; 1 Kings 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7)? Did not the innumerable pagan priestess prostitutes who roamed Corinth’s streets at night “serve” Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love? (Hence, Paul urged lustful Christians in Corinth to marry in 1 Corinthians 7:2,9.)

Furthermore, Ephesians talks about “true holiness” (today’s Scripture). This implies that there is such a thing as false holiness. Anyone can appear to be set apart for God’s purposes, can be doing things that are noble and nice and noteworthy, but yet they are actually not serving the God of the Bible at all.

Remember Israel’s “very religious” behavior in Isaiah chapter 1. They would raise their hands, assemble for their festivals, offer animal sacrifices according to the Mosaic Law, visit the Temple, and so on. God said He was so sick of seeing such hypocrisy that He hid His face! They were not doing such things by faith. They did not believe His Word. They just loved to appear religious because it appealed to their flesh.

One day, when God calls His Christians home to heaven, we will see once and for all who is a Christian and who is not. Those who remain on earth will be manifested as “false holiness” (the “very religious” bunch). One can fool some of the people some of the time, but one cannot fool all of the people all of the time. And remember, no one can fool God any of the time! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Should Christians accept the practice of cremation?”

God on the Go

Friday, May 8, 2015

“And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16 KJV).

Saints, when we are “on the go,” God is “on the go” with us!

Society has millions of professing “Christians.” Many of them say, “I was born a Christian.” (?) Unfortunately, most of these people are unable to define the term “Christian.” They declare their denominational affiliation or membership in a local assembly, but that is all they know. They have not actually studied the Bible to learn about Christians. They have no idea who the Holy Spirit is or where He is. They talk like they know Him but they do not. They are not possessing Christians, and thus, not really true Christians at all.

If you have relied exclusively on the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, His finished crosswork as complete and final payment for your sins, you are a possessing Christian. Today’s Scripture says that you are “the temple of the living God.” The God of the Bible is not some dead idol of wood or stone. He is the living God, and He lives in us Christians. Chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians says that we who have believed the Gospel of Grace unto eternal life, are “the temple of the Holy Ghost.” The third member of the Godhead lives within us to guide and strengthen us.

As JEHOVAH lived in Israel’s Temple in Jerusalem in time past, so He lives in us Christians today. Contrary to popular belief, He does not dwell in church buildings: “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24). There is no manmade “house of God” today. God lives in us Christians, and we take God the Holy Spirit literally everywhere we go (even to the places of “ill repute”). Remember, friends, if we would not want to take the Holy Spirit into a place, we had better not take ourselves there either! 🙂

Leave Me Alone, I Am Comfortable!

Thursday, April 30, 2015

“Who hath believed our report?” (Isaiah 53:1a KJV).

No one wants to listen to you share the Bible? Now you know how Isaiah felt!

Browsing recently in a store’s “Christian” book section, I began a casual conversation with an elderly lady also looking. She claimed to have trusted Christ and I rejoiced. Then, we started talking about Bible versions and dispensational Bible study. I cautioned her how we should be so vigilant in this day of “itching ears.” She listened with interest, until… she began asking me about various popular modern-day Bible teachers and preachers (whose books stood on shelves before us). Once I gave her my assessment of those people’s theologies, she became increasingly resistant. She finally told me she was “not interested” in listening anymore. How dare I expose error and false teachers! She was so loyal to them and refused to hear anything contradictory. I wrapped up our conversation and she hurried off!

In Jeremiah’s day, we read the LORD’S words: “[30] A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; [31] The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” (5:30,31). Paul told the Corinthians who enjoyed their false teachers: “For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise” (2 Corinthians 11:19). And then that great prediction of apostasy in the Body of Christ: “[3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [4] And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3,4).

Few Jews listened to the Prophet Isaiah’s preaching (today’s Scripture). Paul quoted Isaiah in Romans 10:16 to refer to his own unbelieving rebellious audience. We could quote it to apply to our ministries today. Many prefer to hear the lies of religion, and we give them their wish—they want it so and so we leave them be. Saints, be not discouraged. Some still want to hear the message of God’s grace, and His Word rightly divided. Let us continue for their sakes! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Did the 12 preach the Gospel of the Kingdom after Christ ascended?”

Another Jesus

Sunday, April 12, 2015

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached… ye might well bear with him” (2 Corinthians 11:3,4 KJV).

Who is this “other Jesus?”

The other day, I was sharing the Gospel with a dear man. As I began to introduce him to the Bible, he said that all Christian ministers, regardless of denomination, preached the same Jesus Christ. Their sermons all “sounded pretty much the same.” Dear friends, in today’s Scripture, Paul corrected such erroneous thinking.

If Paul admitted that he feared the Corinthians would accept someone who “preached another Jesus,” then surely, “preaching Jesus” is not necessarily good. For example, cults and world religions preach Jesus according to their theological bias; they do not present the full picture of Jesus Christ as found in the Holy Bible. They highlight His good deeds, remember His kindness, and admire His wise sermons. But, they do not see Him as the Son of God, the only Saviour. Furthermore, they may not even believe He was crucified and resurrected! Certainly, these people are “preaching Jesus” to some extent, but they are not preaching the Jesus of the Bible.

When Paul talked about “preaching another Jesus” in today’s Scripture, he was referring to someone who did not “preach Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery” (Romans 16:25). There are two ways to preach Jesus Christ using the Bible—according to prophecy (non-Pauline Bible books) and according to the mystery (Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon).

While most of today’s “Christian” preaching is derived from Matthew through John, we do not find our salvation in those books—Jesus did not die until the end of those books! If we want to learn Jesus Christ’s ministry today to us Gentiles, not His ministry to Israel (Matthew through John), we have to go to Paul’s epistles. There, we find Jesus Christ crucified for our sins, buried, and risen, to be the Head of the Body, for the purpose of reconciling the heavenly places unto Himself. That is Jesus whom Paul preached, and let us not embrace another Jesus!

When the Roll is Called Up Yonder #4

Saturday, April 11, 2015

“To die is gain…. Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” (Philippians 1:21,23cd KJV).

The chorus of James Milton Black’s classic 1893 hymn “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder” highlights today’s Scripture.

“When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.”

Religion’s “sin of presumption” forbids anyone from claiming or believing in assurance of immediately going to heaven upon physical death. Theologians argue, “No sinful person can enter heaven without first being cleansed.” Hence, a purgatorial state is speculated to exist: the “faithful” soul, post-death and pre-heaven, is allegedly tormented to atone for any un-paid sins (sounds like hellfire to me!). Dear friends, purgatory belittles—and ignores—the efficacy of Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork. Jesus paid for a Christian’s sins in full (Romans 4:1-8; Colossians 2:13), so why would the Christian have un-paid sins? Friends, religion never makes sense (frankly, purgatory does not make sense because it is a money-making gimmick).

Saint Paul undoubtedly knew where he was going upon death. He was not going to sleep in a grave, not going to “die like a dog and pass into non-existence,” and not going to suffer “purgatorial cleansing.” Paul affirmed, “We are confident [fully assured!!!!], I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8; cf. today’s Scripture). He had such confidence because Jesus Christ was reliable, faithful. Had Paul been relying on his works, he could not be confident. Yea, to rely on faulty works is sure to introduce doubt! Beloved, the payment for sin is Jesus Christ’s suffering at Calvary, not our temporary suffering in purgatory!

Brethren, whether the Lord happens to call our name in physical death, or calls our name while we are living at the time of the Rapture, up we will go to Heaven to meet our Saviour and be with Him forever. We will be there in Heaven because, at Calvary, He paid the “airfare!” Let us keep looking up for our flight! 🙂

Onward to Maturity!

Sunday, April 6, 2015

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up in him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:14,15 KJV).

Friends, it is not God’s best for us to remain in elementary Bible principles. We need to grow up eventually: we must progress from basic concepts to deeper thoughts, from ineptness to proficiency.

Weeks ago, I observed my little nephew’s baseball team practicing. All near seven years of age, he and his teammates were clumsy in hitting, catching, and throwing the ball. Still, they diligently practiced. Since then, they have won a championship—beating three opposing teams in one day! When I considered their development, I was reminded of today’s Scripture. God wants us to be “workmen” (2 Timothy 2:15), not children. We should be growing in the Bible, becoming more skilled in His Word, more equipped with sound doctrine (2 Timothy 3:16,17), just as an athlete trains hard to win the game. Our Adversary, Satan, wants us to remain unskilled, unpracticed in God’s Word, that we not stifle his work.

Sadly, some grace people refuse to spiritually mature. They want only basic grace teaching. They remain fumbling “in practice,” too unskilled to move to an actual “game,” let alone a “championship.” They single out one basic grace Bible teacher and listen to no other grace teachers. Certainly, we have to start somewhere in the Bible, but to go no further in the Scriptures than the (basic) one who taught us, is to wrong ourselves and those we reach.

If we would study the Bible for ourselves, and not merely rely on one grace Bible preacher or teacher, the results would be amazing. We would learn from others, we would also learn from our own studies, and then we could teach others both what we learned from others’ studies and what we learned from our own studies. Unfortunately, some Christians do not get very far in the Scriptures their whole lives. They are unable to teach the Bible.

Onward to maturity, that religion’s cunning ministers not deceive us!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Was the Holy Spirit really given in John 20:22?”

Many Adversaries

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

“But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries” (1 Corinthians 16:8,9 KJV).

With ministry opportunities come ministry oppositions!

Recently, I spoke with a Christian sister whose pastor-husband (a brother and ministry friend) just held a grace Bible conference at their local church. She explained to me how they had encountered opposition: a local denominational preacher had learned of their grace meetings and he held “competing” meetings at his church, so that his people could not check out the grace conference nearby! While speaking with her long-distance, I encouraged her with today’s Scripture.

The Holy Spirit had been working mightily in and through the Apostle Paul for the last 20 or 25 years. Pagans who had never before heard of the one true God were suddenly turning to Him and abandoning their idols. In Ephesus, recorded in Acts chapter 19, Paul’s preaching was beginning to threaten the income of the local idol-makers (verses 22-41). Now that people were becoming Christians by trusting Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour, they no longer needed the religious trinkets of heathenism.

“[26] Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia [Turkey], this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands: [27] So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.” In the next several verses, the silversmiths who made silver shrines for Diana the pagan goddess, started a riot and the mob nearly overwhelmed and killed the Apostle Paul!

Even today, we encounter lost people—and even fellow Christians—who refuse to give up their traditional teachings, lest the funding for their religion be eliminated. They see the Bible verses that delineate the message of grace and God’s Word rightly divided, but lest their denominational system fall apart, they fervently cling to their water baptism, tithing, supernatural experiences, confessions, prayers, et cetera. Dear friends, let us lose our tradition, but let us not lose heart! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Why was Saul of Tarsus’ name changed to Paul?”

Boasting Excluded

Saturday, March 28, 2015

“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith” (Romans 3:27 KJV).

How plain—there is no room in Christ for boasting!

We all have pride (not to mention those “proud to be humble!”). Hence, God wisely planned there would be no such bragging when it comes to the Gospel of Grace. In His grand design of the plan of salvation for this the Dispensation of Grace, He only requires one thing: “[23] For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; [24] Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [25] Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; [26] To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

“Believing in Jesus,” or trusting in (relying on) Jesus, is the only requirement to have eternal life and go to heaven today. Today’s Scripture: “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” In this Dispensation, there is no physical circumcision, water baptism, Law-keeping, Sabbath-day observance, repentance, or confession of sins, necessary for salvation. The principle today is “of faith,” not “of works.” “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (verse 28).

Thus, not one person can brag, “I out-gave you to get into heaven! I out-prayed you, I out-joined you, I out-attended you, I out-did you, blah, blah, blah.” Either we have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, or we have not. Thus, those in Christ are equal (heaven-bound), and those outside of Christ are equal (hell-bound). Those who are in Christ have believed Him equally and are secure in Him equally—there are no “more-saved” or “less-saved” Christians.

Ultimately, not only is boasting excluded, but worry is, too. We did not get into Christ because of our works; thus, we cannot be put out of Christ because of our works. What a marvelous salvation! 🙂

The Five W’s of Denominationalism

Thursday, March 26, 2015

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8 KJV).

Beware of the “five W’s of denominationalism!”

Beloved, be careful, Satan’s “ministers of righteousness” are lurking (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). They aim to pollute your mind and cause you to forget that you are “complete [lacking nothing] in Christ” (Colossians 2:10)! Religion’s five-step plan will take a Christian’s mind off of God’s provisions for them given in Christ Jesus, and it will keep lost people’s minds focused on themselves and their efforts to make themselves accepted before God:

  1. Win ‘em! — They convert “unchurched” people to their denomination. Very rarely is a clear Gospel presentation given. Usually the person is still lost, still going to hell, although who appears to be going to heaven because he or she is now a “churched” individual.
  2. Wet ‘em! — They water baptize them, putting their names on the church membership roll. There are ever so many people in the world basing their eternal salvation on a water ceremony. One day, they will learn what a failure that “salvation” is!
  3. Work ‘em! — They give them various rules and regulations to follow for God’s acceptance: “x” number of daily prayers, a very thorough confession of sins, holy book reading, obligatory holy days or feast days, generous almsgiving and other “donations.” Even the clergy have difficulty remembering and obeying all those ecclesiastical laws!
  4. Whip ‘em! — They punish people who do not perform as the denomination demands: excommunication, shunning, threats about how God will curse them, how they are disobeying God or blaspheming His name or Spirit, et cetera.
  5. Watch ‘em! — They watch to see if their members straighten up or if they need more church discipline. They may send scouts to spy on suspicious members. If someone is caught “out of line,” it is time for another strike with the “whip!”

Oh, what a “weak and beggarly” system religion is (Galatians 4:9)! Oh, but what a strong and rich system grace is! We are accepted before God by simple faith in Jesus Christ! Friends, may we not let religion rob us of such clarity and simplicity! 🙂

Let Him Alone!

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

“Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone” (Hosea 4:17 KJV).

Let us hear and follow these wonderful words of wisdom from Hosea of old!

As a Bible teacher, I assure you there is no greater thrill than to teach the precious words of God to open hearts, and to see those words work effectually in those who believe them (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Some people are so eager to hear the wonderful words of God that they will sit down and let you teach them for hours and hours on end. They are starving spiritually, and oh, how you are so burdened to give them as much spiritual food as possible! As someone starving would grab handfuls upon handfuls of food and force-feed themselves, these precious souls never seem to get enough verses. They make ministry so rewarding and delightful.

On the other hand, you get the exact opposite type of feedback from others as well. You could teach them God’s Word for years, but they have no interest in anything spiritual. As in the days of Jesus Christ’s preaching in the flesh, you will meet people who have “gross” (callous) hearts and ears “dull of hearing” (Matthew 13:15). Eventually, Jesus stopped preaching to national Israel, and confined His ministry to smaller crowds. He taught for three years and look how many Jews He converted—only 120 believers in Jerusalem in Acts 1:15!

In today’s Scripture, JEHOVAH God told the Prophet Hosea not to bother preaching repentance to Ephraim (the northern kingdom, Israel). After many decades of idolatrous kings, the nation was too far gone. The Assyrian armies were coming for Ephraim, God’s judgment was imminent, and they were beyond hope. “Hosea, do not waste your breath!”

What did Jesus say about the Pharisees who were offended by His preaching? “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Matthew 15:14). Paul wrote, “If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant” (1 Corinthians 14:38). Once people resist us sharing the Bible with them, we need to move on instead of twisting their arms. Beloved, we need to use our time wisely, speaking to those who do want to hear! 🙂