Category: works-religion

A New Nature, A New Day, A New Life

Friday, January 20, 2017

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV).

Today, January 20, 2017, is important to my family for two reasons.

Firstly, my parents celebrate their 37th birthday in Christ! It was on this day in 1980 that they both trusted Jesus Christ and abandoned works-religion. They were rendered dead to their old nature and old life in Adam, and were given a new nature and new life in the Lord. Wow! Secondly, my family and I as Americans celebrate that the United States of America today ushers out one president, Barack Hussein Obama, and welcomes a new one, Donald John Trump. Nationally, we become dead to old procedures and politicking, and alive to new principles and policies. How exciting!

We Christians in America have long anticipated a day when we could get our country back to the things of God—a nation with more accountability and justice, more economic stability, a better educational system, amiable social relations, and so on. Granted, until Jesus Christ returns, there will be no perfection. We know that man can never solve every problem in this sin-cursed world. Still, our incoming president is currently our best option available, and the Bible would have us make the best choice possible. The United States electoral process must be upheld, and the silliness must stop: Mr. Trump won fair and square, and he will be inaugurated as per our Constitution. But, those who prefer the “old arrangement” continue to fight to try and keep it!

Similarly, the old sin nature in Adam constantly pops up in the life of a Christian. It seeks dominion over the Christian’s life, sins thereby produced. However, God the Holy Spirit should be the Governor of the Christian. We are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Ephesians 2:10). The old administration of sin and death is gone; we need not live in the graveyard, defeated and miserable! Saints, Romans chapter 6 says we are alive in Christ! We are “new creatures in Christ” (today’s Scripture)—now, we need to act like who we are!

Our United States of America is a new nation—let us act like the new country we are too! 🙂

Bible Q&A #340: “Did little boy Jesus know He was going to die on Calvary?”

Household Rules #12

Monday, January 16, 2017

“Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God” (Colossians 1:25 KJV).

And, just what is this “dispensation of God which is given to [Paul] for [us]?”

To repeat, some people hate dispensational Bible study. Modern English Bible “scholars” eliminate “dispensation,” therefore hiding the system’s biblical foundation. If they omit the term from Scripture, then they quite easily argue dispensationalism is false. However, while refusing to admit it, even they understand some dispensational boundaries. They know a dispensational boundary exists between an animal-sacrificing Old Testament Jew and us today. They understand animal sacrifices were God’s directions to Israel under the Law, not directions to us under Grace. They know God’s directions to Noah to build an Ark are Scripture, but not to us. Yet, they claim and follow other verses not to or about us. How silly!

Certain “church people” loathe dispensational Bible study—especially Pauline dispensationalism—because it prevents them from ripping out of context verses from Jesus’ earthly ministry and early Acts. They enjoy claiming the gifts of healing and tongues; they like the Beatitudes, Sermon on the Mount, and so-called “Lord’s Prayer;” they harp on Christ’s parables; they revel in water baptism, Sabbath-day keeping, and confession of sins. If they were to recognize dispensationalism as true, and apply it consistently in Scripture, then they would see only Paul’s doctrine as applicable to us (today’s Scripture; cf. Ephesians 3:2).

They dislike Paul since he was not sent to water baptize (1 Corinthians 1:17); did not have the gifts of healing and tongues his entire ministry (1 Corinthians 13:8-13; 1 Timothy 5:23; 2 Timothy 4:20); did not quote the “Lord’s Prayer,” Sermon on the Mount, or Beatitudes; did not emphasize confession of sins; directly opposed forced giving/tithing (2 Corinthians 9:6,7); and outright condemned Sabbath-day keeping (Galatians 4:9-11; Colossians 2:16). Paul emphasized grace rather than works. Thus, some groups have removed Paul’s “nuisance” epistles entirely from their Bible!

Dispensational Bible study—specifically, Pauline dispensationalism—threatens church traditions (works-religion). They must ignore dispensational boundaries in order to keep people working and striving in church programs and denominations. In doing so, they underscore Law, thus refuting the Gospel of Grace and hindering victorious Christian living….

Household Rules #11

Sunday, January 15, 2017

“Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God” (Colossians 1:25 KJV).

And, just what is this “dispensation of God which is given to [Paul] for [us]?”

The Mosaic Law was not given forever; that dispensation was not meant to operate into eternity future. It was only given to Israel temporarily—namely, to prove to her that God would make her His people. The Jews could never do enough to please God: their religious efforts were utterly futile. Their nation would only exist because of God’s work. Although the Law was given to Israel, it showed all nations to be “guilty before God” (Romans 3:19). “Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (verse 20). Chapter 3 proceeds to explain how there came a dispensational change—Law to Grace. With that new dispensation came a new Gospel!

Another one of the major “household rules” in effect today is we are under grace, not law (Romans 6:14,15)—that goes for initial justification before God, a right standing before Him to go to heaven, as well as for daily Christian living, practical sanctification. Our performance will never measure up to God’s perfect standards. However, Jesus Christ’s performance at Calvary does please God. The Gospel of the Grace of God, Paul’s Gospel, is most clearly and succinctly defined in 1 Corinthians chapter 15: “[1] Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you…. [3] For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; [4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

We have a sin problem, friends, and commandments cannot help us. Thus, Jesus Christ died for our sins, shed His blood to pay for those sins, that by simple faith in Him and Him alone, we can join the Church the Body of Christ (Ephesians 2:1-22), the Holy Spirit can baptize us into Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13), all because of what Christ did, not because of our religious works….

A Life That Will Please

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 KJV).

Today’s Scripture tells us who alone can live a life pleasing in God’s sight!

Everyone does “good” deeds. Yet, doing “good” is not necessarily good. For instance, people often do “good” just to receive praise/reward, make up for their wrongs, feel good, et cetera. Furthermore, despite our “good” deeds, we have plenty more bad ones! Pride, lying, evil thoughts, being a false witness, and being contentious are some of the things the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Mankind cannot even keep 10 simple rules from God. However, religion continues to urge us to keep seven sacraments, utter various prayers, give assorted offerings and “tithes,” attend numerous feasts and festivals, and perform sundry other tasks to “hopefully” please God and avoid hellfire. Whether we attempt to keep a church’s laws, our laws, or God’s laws, our flesh is far too weak to ever measure up. Just look at what God’s religion did to Israel—how much worse some man-made religion does to us!

As Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul was a Pharisee, a religious leader of Israel. He was a nitpicker concerning Law-keeping, and yet, after his soul salvation, he admitted that all of his religion was “but dung” compared to Jesus Christ’s righteousness (Philippians 3:3-11). Even for the Christian, to live a perfect life is impossible (read of Paul’s miserable existence in Romans chapter 7). Paul had to forsake his vain religion and learn today’s Scripture: the Christian life is NOT the performance of the Christian, but the Lord Jesus Christ living and working in the Christian, as the Christian walks in an intelligent understanding of God’s Word to him or her!

If we trust a Saviour who will save—the Lord Jesus Christ—and trust a Book that will teach—the King James Bible—we can redeem the year for the great God and our Saviour, “who loved [us], and gave himself for [us]!” 🙂

Redeem the Year!

Sunday, January 1, 2017

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15-17 KJV).

What great advice for 2017!

Despite 2,000 years of Bible schools and seminaries, 2,000 years of a completed Bible canon, 2,000 years of Bible reading in churches, several decades of “Christian” television and radio, and just over a decade of widespread use of “Christian” websites, how sad that Bible ignorance is still quite extensive (it is as if God never gave His Word to start with!).

Frankly, the Church the Body of Christ needs to wake up! The verse previous to today’s Scripture says, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (verse 14). Paul, loosely quoting Isaiah 60:1, reminded us that the spiritual ignorance that gripped Israel in Isaiah’s day seized Christians in his day—and it still grips Christians 20 centuries later. Feel-good sermons, enjoyable “worship” services, and rites, rituals, and ceremonies will NOT solve this problem—they exacerbate it!

“[God] will have all men to be saved…” (1 Timothy 2:4a). Do you want this New Year to count for God’s glory? First, you need to get saved from sins and hell! You need to become a Christian by trusting in and relying on Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as sufficient payment for your sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4). That is only part of God’s will for you, for 1 Timothy 2:4b continues, “[God] will have all men… to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” Now, God’s will for your Christian life is daily, personal Bible study to renew your mind, so your faith in those verses can cause God to work in your life—it will be His life, thus making you “perfect [spiritually mature], throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

Today’s Scripture urges us to buy back the time Satan has robbed from God (time created for God’s glory). By faith, we need to make that time glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by applying His Word, particularly Paul’s epistles of Romans through Philemon, to our lives. Have a good year in Christ! 🙂

You can download our free “One-Year Bible Reading Schedule.”

See our archived Bible Q&A: “What Scriptural advice can you give me for the New Year?”

By the way, I recently wrote and released a 45-page special Bible article, “The 2016 United States Presidential Election: A Bible-Believing, Grace Perspective.”

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing #5

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:14-17 KJV).

The final verse of the classic Christmas carol highlights today’s Scripture.

“Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King!”

Religion has done an excellent job (wrongly) teaching us that God likes to rehabilitate humans—that He wants to make us quit doing certain things (“fleshly”) and make us start doing other things (“churchy”). What a very shallow, and actually a false, perception. God wants to do much more than what we could ever do by ourselves.

For good works to reign in our lives, God has to kill us! As sinners, in Adam, we are dead in our trespasses and sins, no life in ourselves (see today’s Scripture). Nothing we can do in our own strength will ever change our (sinful) nature in Adam. However, God offers us death to Adam and a new identity through Christ at Calvary. When we trust that Jesus Christ died for our sins, in God’s mind, we died to sin, too. Christ did not simply die for us but as us. Romans chapters 5 through 8 describe the victory is in Christ, not in Adam or in ourselves. Success is by the power of the Holy Ghost working with the grace doctrines we study and believe, not in our struggles to do right. And so, “Christ [is] formed in [us]” (Galatians 4:19).

Something about which the angels cannot sing, but we can, should, and do! 🙂

To Know Your Christian Life

Monday, November 28, 2016

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6,7 KJV).

Friend, may you come to know your Christian life as God wants you to know it!

Sadly, the average Christian is burdened, confused, frustrated, and miserable. What do we expect, since the average local church does not teach true Christian living anyway? Two primary passages seen as guidelines for Christian living are The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. However, these verses were never spoken to us Gentiles and are not God’s operating system for the Church the Body of Christ. They are God’s Word to the nation Israel under the Law! We must go to Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, for God’s instructions to us Gentiles under grace. The Holy Spirit said, in Ephesians 3:2, “the dispensation of the grace of God” was committed to the Apostle Paul, that he teach it to us. We should not go to Israel’s verses and try to force them on us.

Two Bible books that could help so many Christians are Paul’s epistles to Rome and Galatia. Romans is the foundational book of grace thinking and grace living; Galatians is the correctional book for legalistic (Law-keeping) people to be re-oriented toward grace thinking and grace living. Most Christians need to learn Romans and Galatians! Romans 6:14 says: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” If you are not grace-oriented, you will be legalistic and disorientated! Rather than Law, God’s grace teaches us how to live and gives us victory over sin. Paul writes in Titus 2:11,12: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world….” (Sin is not who we are in Christ!)

Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

For more information about Christian living, you may see: https://forwhatsaiththescriptures.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/lords-will-for-christians/.

NOTE: Having expanded upon the “Original 7 studies” for the fourth time, our fourth foundation (studies #2001-#2007) is now installed. Onward we press in maturity… and to #2500! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “How was Paul ‘rude in speech?’”

To Know Dispensational Bible Study

Saturday, November 26, 2016

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

Friend, may you come to know the proper system of Bible study as God wants you to know it!

To refute the position of “Bible only” (and bolster “Bible and tradition”), Roman Catholics complain resorting to Scripture alone only leads to confusion and thousands of Protestant denominations. They argue “Sacred Tradition” must be employed to “correctly interpret” Sacred Scripture. (Of course, they ignore the profound ignorance, worse confusion, and innumerable splits within Romanism!) No, there is nothing wrong with “Bible only.” (“Bible and tradition” is faulty because these two competing authorities end up as “tradition only!”) If you use Scripture as it instructs you, recognizing and esteeming the Holy Spirit’s teaching ministry, you will understand it.

Many years ago, two verses helped me grasp the Holy Scriptures. Acts 3:21 first: “Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” There is something God has “spoken… since the world began” (since Adam was placed on Earth). The Apostle Peter’s ministry involved this prophetic program. Now, Romans 16:25: “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,….” In stark contrast to Peter, the Apostle Paul declared his ministry involved the mystery program—truth God “kept secret since the world began,” but then revealed to Paul so he could teach us Gentiles (Romans 11:13). This eliminates the majority of Bible confusion!

Paul must never be harmonized with the rest of Scripture. Romans through Philemon, his epistles, are not to be conflated with Israel’s verses (the rest of the Bible). Christendom has experienced much trouble through the centuries because it mixed Israel and the Body of Christ, mixed law and grace, mixed heaven and earth, mixed prophecy and mystery, mixed Peter and Paul. They have not “rightly divided”—or properly separated—the dispensations (sets of instructions) God demands we differentiate. The problem is not with Scripture—it is with those misusing it!

For more information about dispensational Bible study, you may see: https://333wordsofgrace.wordpress.com/whats-dispensational-bible-study/.

To Know Your Purpose

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Ephesians 1:9,10 KJV).

Friend, may you come to know your purpose as God wants you to know it!

How sad it is that some people literally spend their whole lives looking, looking, looking (!) for meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. Perhaps they even reach the end of that earthly existence disappointed, having not a stiver of meaningful information more than they started their quest! However, they diligently and frantically explored various avenues—fame, education, money, professionalism, sexuality, entertainment, religion, friendships, science, “inner searching,” marriage, parenthood, and so on. Throughout, their minds and hearts were spun around and rendered senseless with myriads of conflicting ideas and downright fallacies. Having ignored the Holy Bible, they looked in all the wrong places!

Since the living and true God is God, He can withhold information. “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God….” (Deuteronomy 29:29). Since we are creatures, not Creator, certain knowledge has been withheld from us. We can search all we want, but we have no such capacity in and of ourselves to grasp it (even if we could find it!). However, the verse continues: “but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Daniel 2:47 is a pagan king admitting the God of the Bible, JEHOVAH God, is “a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets….”

Today’s Scripture says God has made known unto us “the mystery [or secret] of his will.” He purposed in Himself that we might have a purpose. The God of the Bible wants to make His Son, Jesus Christ, the Head of everything in the universe. His secret will for us is that He wants us to glorify that Son in the heavenly places. The Holy Bible is very clear that we do this first and foremost by becoming members of the Church the Body of Christ!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “What is the Sabbath day—Saturday or Sunday?”

Increasing Unto More Ungodliness

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness” (2 Timothy 2:15,16 KJV).

If you do not “rightly divide the word of truth;” you will embrace “profane and vain babblings;” and “ungodliness” will increase, increase, INCREASE!!

One reference book on religion says, “The existence of many religions, albeit sects, confused him, however.” That poor man confessed: “…[T]he teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passage of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.” He was “in utter confusion,” wondering which group to follow. (He was already in one denomination.) “God” and “Jesus” then appeared to him and told him that “none” of the religions were right, that all of them were “corrupt.” Joseph Smith thought he finally solved his dilemma of “which group to join”—he started the Mormon Church! (And then he became hopelessly baffled when he joined it!)

What a real shame! Since Christendom has utterly failed to “rightly divide the word of truth” for 20 centuries, denomination after denomination has arisen. They now number in the tens of thousands! Frankly, the Roman Catholic Church would have never started had the Word of God been consistently rightly divided from the first century onward. The Mormon Church would have never started. The Baptist Church would have never started. The Presbyterians, Lutherans, Assemblies of God, Churches of Christ, Nazarenes, Episcopalians, Seventh-Day Adventists, Methodists, Christian Scientists, would have never started!!

Had professing Christians never abandoned the doctrine taught by God’s “apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13), the Apostle Paul, in the Books of Romans through Philemon, they would have never gotten into the mess in which they are. Alas, they grabbed verses to and about Israel, tried to make them fit us Gentiles, and made God’s Word burdensome, nauseating, and repulsive for billions through the ages! We would hate to be in the shoes of those people when they stand before the Lord Jesus Christ in judgment, having to give an account for all those “idle” (empty, worthless) “words” (Matthew 12:36,37), such “profane [wicked] and vain [empty] babblings [gibberish]!”

REMINDER: The 2016 Slidell Grace Bible Conference, being held just north of New Orleans, is only one month away! Speakers are Richard Jordan, John Smith, and I (Shawn Brasseaux). Please refer to the attached flyer for all the details: https://arcministries.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/2016-slidell-gbc.pdf. We’d love to have you come! (Videos will be uploaded to YouTube later this year.)