Category: God’s grace

For What Saith the Scriptures?

Sunday, December 15, 2013

“For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:3 KJV).

Today, arC Ministries is launching a new Bible Q&A website, and you are invited to participate!

A question rarely asked in Christian circles, “What saith the scripture?” is found twice in the Bible—today’s Scripture, and Galatians 4:30, “Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.”

God’s will for our lives is summed up in 1 Timothy 2:4, “[God our Saviour] Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” There are two issues here—soul salvation from sins and everlasting hellfire, and soul salvation from false teaching unto sound Bible doctrine. Firstly, God wants everyone to become Christians by trusting in and relying exclusively on His Son Jesus Christ and His finished crosswork at Calvary as sufficient payment for their sins. Secondly, God wants Christians to trust in and rely on the grace doctrines found in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon.

Amazingly, both occurrences of “What saith the scripture?” have a special application to us—each instance correlates to one of the issues in 1 Timothy 2:4! The question “What saith the scripture?” in today’s Scripture uses the Bible to answer the question of soul salvation from sins and everlasting hellfire (faith instead of works, “all men to be saved;” 1 Timothy 2:4). The question “What saith the scripture?” in Galatians 4:30 uses the Bible to answer the question of soul salvation from false teaching unto sound Bible doctrine (grace instead of legalism, “come unto the knowledge of the truth;” 1 Timothy 2:4).

The above summarizes our new ministry website, “For What Saith the Scriptures?” We desire you to have a clear understanding of how to have forgiveness of sins and justification unto eternal life, and for you to have a clear understanding of what God’s Word has to say about issues in your Christian life. We are honored to serve you in this additional capacity. Please visit that new site (http://forwhatsaiththescriptures.wordpress.com) and submit Bible questions, and pray for this new ministry endeavor.

A Refuge in the Storms of Life

Sunday, November 17, 2013

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13 KJV).

Here is an encouraging study for our dear Christian grace brethren in the Philippines….

We greatly rejoice in our Lord Jesus Christ, having recently received electronic reports that you, our Filipino grace brethren in Christ, are still accessing our online studies. You have survived the recent mega-typhoon, and you are now privileged with this opportunity of sharing the Word of God’s Grace with your kinsmen in the flesh, who need its hope and joy now more than ever. May you bring our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ, the Person whose grace now sustains you and whose peace now comforts you, to them, that they too can be equipped in Him to endure all of life’s trials, troubles, and tragedies.

Brethren, we cannot imagine what struggles you are facing, but rest assured, you are on our hearts, and you are in our thoughts and prayers. On behalf of the Christian grace believers here in the United States, I can assure you that we are sending donations to assist you in recovery.

Most importantly, we greatly encourage you to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1). The Apostle Paul—himself in a prison in Rome—wrote in today’s Scripture that he learned to be content, no matter what his circumstances:

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

Whether we have everything in the material world or we have nothing in the material world, we are still “complete in [Christ]” (Colossians 2:10). Our souls are still secure forever, and Christ has equipped us to handle all of life’s issues until we leave this world. Quoting a dear Christian brother, “You can endure because you will endure!” 🙂

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”

Big Brother Versus Heavenly Father #5

Friday, November 8, 2013

“…for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:5c,6 KJV).

Big Brother is watching; Heavenly Father is, too!

In Daniel 9:24-27, the angel Gabriel informed the prophet that, in addition to Israel being out of her Promised Land for 70 years (the Babylonian captivity of 606-536 B.C.), so that her land could be cleansed of sin, there would be 70 weeks of years (or 490 years) for her people to be cleansed of sin. Verses 25 and 26 say that 483 years were fulfilled before Calvary. The last seven years—God’s wrath, the “Tribulation,” or “day of the LORD”—should have occurred in early Acts (Joel 2:28-32 cf. Acts 2:16-21).

However, rather than wrath, the ascended Jesus Christ poured out His grace and peace on Saul of Tarsus, his chief enemy on earth. In Acts chapter 9, Saul was saved, and was ordained of Christ as the Apostle Paul. The program that God had been operating—Israel’s prophetic kingdom program (Acts 3:19-21)—was interrupted. Jesus Christ’s earthly kingdom is still awaiting fulfillment.

From Paul’s salvation onward, God began to form a body of people, the Church the Body of Christ, who would govern the heavens for His glory like Israel would do on earth (Ephesians 1:20-23; Ephesians 2:6,7; Colossians 1:16-20). The Bible calls this the mystery program, which God had kept secret until He revealed it first to Paul (Romans 16:25,26). We, living in the Dispensation of the Grace of God, are actually living in an interim time period between the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel’s prophecy.

The program that God is operating today has nothing to do with Israel’s prophetic program; our current dispensation, the mystery program, revealed first to the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 3:1,2), is totally isolated from Israel’s program. Hence, earth’s governments remain corrupt: God’s program to restore them is currently postponed so He can operate our program to restore the heavenly governments to Himself.

Howbeit, before we discuss God’s present-day dealings with mankind, let us see the resumption of Israel’s program….

Strength in Weakness

Saturday, November 2, 2013

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 KJV).

When you realize God’s grace is all that you have, then you realize that God’s grace is all that you need!

Yesterday, I visited Brother “G.” for the first time since his wife of 55 years died Wednesday. He knows that she is present with the Lord, but understandably, he is lost without her. In his own words, “I know the verses, but they seem like ‘just words’ right now.” In his own strength, he cannot make it; but God’s grace is more than enough to get him through it.

Beloved, knowing the verses is easy, but applying them to life is hard. Our old sin nature rejects God’s Word, as the Apostle Paul delineated in Romans 7:22,23: “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

Paul, as a saved individual, took pleasure in God’s Word in his spirit (spiritual body). However, he still lived in a physical body—“the body of sin” (Romans 6:6)—that was genetically related to Adam (the origin of man’s anti-God nature). You are strongly encouraged to read Romans chapter 7 in its entirety, but suffice it to say that Paul labored in vain to live the Christian life in his own strength. Sin would defeat him every time, and he lamented in verse 24: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

The solution to this “flesh-walking” is Romans chapter 8: “walking after the Spirit.” We study the Bible rightly divided for ourselves, and no matter what circumstance in life, we, by faith, allow the indwelling Holy Spirit to then work in us using the verses that apply to those specific circumstances. We are weak; Jesus Christ is strong. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13). In Christ, we are equipped to handle every situation, good or bad, and He will live His life in us if we let Him.

Shallow #8

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:34 KJV).

If the professing “Church” is to impact our culture as the Lord Jesus Christ intended, then it had better recognize today’s Scripture as applicable to it!

Many professing Christians often criticize lost people for living like lost people. Paradoxically, these very Christians are saved people usually living like lost people. Beloved, when the professing “Church” takes its Christian ambassadorship for granted, and lives like the world, we need not wonder why lost people exclaim, “The Bible is irrelevant, irrational, and outmoded!”

Beloved, if we Christians are not living in accordance with God’s Word, how can we expect lost people to do it? If our attitudes and actions do not reflect God’s grace and values, then how will the lost world ever see their need for Jesus Christ as personal Saviour? They will not! The lost world observes the hypocrisy, shallowness, and silliness of much of Christendom and they want nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ!

When Paul wrote today’s Scripture to Christians in the 1st century, he could have just as well been writing to Christians in the 21st century. Like the Corinthians, today’s average Christian is spiritually asleep, living contrary to the identity and life he or she has in Christ (2 Timothy 2:24-26). Why? The typical Christian church is not teaching sound Bible doctrine; rather, it too is totally oblivious to what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing today. Today’s Scripture admonishes, “Awake to righteousness, and sin not!”

After almost 2,000 years, the Body of Christ should have a firm understanding of its mission, doctrine, duty, walk, and destiny. Alas, even today, many Christians still “have not the knowledge of God” (today’s Scripture). The people who should know God’s Word and should let it work in and through them, are just as ignorant of God’s will as the lost world is. What a shame!!

Beloved, may we study and walk by faith in Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, God’s Word to us, that our understanding of it be not shallow, and that we not reject it as many have done. 🙂

Shallow #7

Monday, October 28, 2013

“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:34 KJV).

If the professing “Church” is to impact our culture as the Lord Jesus Christ intended, then it had better recognize today’s Scripture as applicable to it!

The Scriptural record demonstrates that, by the opening years of the first century A.D., the LORD God has dealt with the most wretched, rebellious, unbelieving race of creatures in all of His creation. Some 4,000 years since creation, and God’s will in the earth (His earthly kingdom) is still not accomplished.

When He offers Israel her Messiah-King (Jesus), the Person who alone can redeem her from sin and Satan, and who alone can cleanse her of her sins, Israel demands His crucifixion (John 19:15)! Even into the early Acts period, Israel is still unrepentant. She continues to intentionally reject God’s Word to her, as the Prophet Stephen testified: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye” (Acts 7:51). Shortly after Stephen spoke these words, Israel stones and murders him; national Israel has now committed the “unpardonable sin” of Matthew 12:31,32, and thus (temporarily) falls before God.

In Acts chapter 9, God implements a plan that He has kept secret in Himself since the world began (Ephesians 3:1-11). He saves His chief enemy in the earth, Saul of Tarsus, commissions him as Paul the Apostle, and sends salvation to the Gentiles without Israel’s kingdom (Romans 11:11-13), thus beginning a new agency, the Church the Body of Christ, and His purpose and plan for the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:20-23).

And so, we (finally!) reach the context of today’s Scripture. Unfortunately, members of the Body of Christ are just as sinful and ignorant of God’s Word as the billions who lived during the previous 4,000 years (or 6,000 years if we include the present-day). Sin abounds in Corinth, in the lives of these Christians (read 1 Corinthians). Today’s Scripture, sadly, applies to many sincere Christians today. Religious tradition and the world’s “wisdom” have polluted their souls and corrupted their minds. Consequently, they too have rejected God’s Word to them… often, deliberately….

Of the Light, Not of the Night

Monday, October 14, 2013

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him” (John 3:1,2 KJV).

Why do you suppose Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night?

Today’s Scripture, excerpted from the Bible’s most recognized passage, involves a Pharisee asking Jesus questions to which he should already know the answers. Nicodemus is a religious leader who studied the Old Testament Scriptures, and yet he is totally ignorant of the spiritual rebirth that Israel needs because of her biological link to Adam (the Old Testament prophets discussed this “heart circumcision” in Deuteronomy 10:16, Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 4:4, Jeremiah 31:33, et cetera).

Space prevents an in-depth discussion of John chapter 3, but here, we want to briefly discuss why Nicodemus has come to Jesus “by night” (today’s Scripture). John 7:50 confirms, “he that came to Jesus by night.” Nicodemus is sneaking about at nighttime, lest his colleagues see him talking with Jesus. He knows that if he is seen in public in broad daylight speaking with Jesus Christ, he will lose his reputation, livelihood, income, everything.

John 12:42,43 are an excellent commentary as to how the Pharisees treated those who confessed Jesus as Messiah: “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”

Sadly, like Nicodemus, many church leaders today “creep about in shadows,” too fearful to publicly stand up for God’s truth. They avoid embracing a “King James only” position, lest they be considered “unscholarly.” They withhold the fact that Paul’s epistles are written to and about us, lest they be called “unorthodox.” They dare not speak about the sins of the world, lest they be deemed “unloving.”

Saints, may we boldly stand in God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ, unapologetically preaching Him from God’s Word, the King James Bible, rightly divided! 🙂

A Fruit-Bearing Gospel

Sunday, October 13, 2013

“[The gospel] Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:” (Colossians 1:6 KJV).

As today’s Scripture teaches, God’s Word never returns to Him void.

Verse 23 says the Gospel of God’s Grace had reached the Colossians, as well as the whole then-known world, via Paul’s ministry: “…the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister….” The Gospel “[brought] forth fruit” in that it accomplished God’s intention.

Isaiah 55:10,11 affirms: “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

Read 1 Corinthians 3:9: “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” God is a farmer, and Christians are His crops. Once Paul and his ministry coworkers had preached the Gospel of the Grace of God, Christ’s finished crosswork as sufficient payment for one’s sins, the Holy Spirit used those words to convict lost souls of their need of that salvation through Jesus Christ. Some, though not all, who heard Paul’s Gospel believed that message and trusted it alone for soul salvation.

“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6,7). Like the Corinthians, the Colossians had believed Paul’s Gospel once they heard it (today’s Scripture). They recognized God’s grace “in truth;” they knew what Paul preached was true and they gained an understanding of everything that God could do for them through Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork.

May we, by faith, let the Gospel bear fruit in us.

Consider Your Ways, Israel! #5

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

“Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes” (Haggai 1:5,6 KJV).

The Jews have built their houses, but they are apathetic that they have not finished JEHOVAH’S….

Thus far, we have seen the Scriptures that demonstrate the complacency of the post-exilic Jews living in Jerusalem and Judaea. They had forgotten about JEHOVAH’S unfinished Temple because they had forgotten about JEHOVAH. In His mercy, grace, and longsuffering, He sent prophets to preach His Word to those Jews, to the intent that they would see their error and turn to Him.

The Jews considered their ways, and they believed the Word of God that Haggai and Zechariah the prophets preached to them. “And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel…” (Ezra 6:14; cf. Ezra 5:1,2; Haggai 1:12-15). God’s Word encouraged them and, by faith, they finished the Temple about four years after construction resumed under Darius the Persian king (Ezra 4:24 cf. Ezra 6:15). As an interesting historical side note, circa 500 years later, Herod the Great refurbished that Temple, which Temple existed during Christ’s earthly ministry, and which Temple the Romans destroyed in A.D. 70.

Although these Scriptures were not written to us or about us, we can appreciate them in their rightful place in God’s inspired Word. Moreover, there are parallels to these Scriptures regarding the Bible books written to us and about us—Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon. In the next 10 studies, two companion devotional arcs, we will look at how these Scriptures from the books of Ezra and Haggai help us to better understand and appreciate the purpose and plan that the Lord Jesus Christ has for us….

Where Was God? #7

Friday, September 20, 2013

“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1 KJV).

One of the most common questions ever asked….

Jesus Christ said of Israel, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe” (John 4:48). Signs, miracles, and wonders are the nation Israel’s birthright: in Psalm 74:9, Israel confesses they are “our signs.” Paul wrote, “For the Jews require a sign” (1 Corinthians 1:22a).

Rather than seeking visible and audible proof of God’s working today—angelic visitations, miraculous healings, financial deliverance, “small still voices,” et cetera—we walk by faith. When writing to and about us in this the Dispensation of Grace, Paul wrote, “(For we walk by faith, not by sight: )” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus Christ stated, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

Where is God during tragedies? He is working in and through us Christians using His Word, that those troubles not destroy us. The way God intervenes today is by directly (yet invisibly) working in our inner man: He takes His rightly divided Word that we study and believe, and His indwelling Holy Spirit uses it to transform us from the inside out. Read 1 Thessalonians 2:13: “…the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

God gives us strength (Philippians 4:11-13) and grace to bear those troubles (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Philippians 2:13: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Paul prayed: “That he [God] would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16). See 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, is exiled today. He is sitting at His heavenly Father’s right hand in glory. Until He returns to earth and deposes Satan and his minions, this “present evil world” will continue as is (Galatians 1:4; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4). Let us remember that we have hope: we Christians are not here forever, and while we are here, the Lord is in us and here with us! 🙂