Category: church leaders

The Serpent’s Subtilty #6

Friday, September 19, 2014

“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” (2 Corinthians 11:3 KJV).

The Serpent is “subtil,” so the saint must be sagacious!

“Subtil” (“subtle”) means, “very intelligent, sneaky, ingenious;” a synonym is “sagacious.” In order to foresee Satan’s schemes and survive his attacks on our minds, we must recognize and remember the simplicity in Jesus Christ, those precious grace doctrines we learn from God’s Word rightly divided (today’s Scripture and its succeeding verse, verse 4).

Let us re-read verse 4: “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” Paul feared that the Corinthians would accept a false teacher, for a false teacher always quotes some Scripture to appear righteous (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)—Satan quoted just a few words of Scripture to appear good to Eve (Genesis 3:1) and Jesus Christ (Matthew 4:6; Luke 4:10-11).

Beloved, someone quoting Scripture does not automatically mean that Jesus Christ is leading or speaking through that individual. The Apostle Paul wrote, “If any man think himself to be a prophet [speaking on God’s behalf], or spiritual [led by God’s Spirit], let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37). If every professing Christian congregation actually believed that Paul is God’s spokesman to us, over 95 percent of the world’s pulpits would be vacated, the pastors and priests fired for fulfilling 2 Corinthians 11:3-4, exposed as “destitute of the truth” (1 Timothy 6:5)!!

Yea, even today, our Lord Jesus Christ is jealous over us. He wants us doctrinally pure, undefiled by (false) religion, false “gospels,” false “Jesuses,” false “spirits,” false “ministers,” false “bibles,” et cetera. Satan’s tactics have worked so well he has never changed them. As he did with Eve, he still counterfeits the truth. May we never abandon our King James Bible; our Saviour-Head, Jesus Christ; Paul, our Apostle; and 1 Corinthians 15:3,4, our Gospel, the Gospel of the Grace of God. What sagaciousness!

If Just One

Saturday, August 30, 2014

“…[B]rethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:” (2 Thessalonians 3:1 KJV).

God’s Word will have “free course”…even to be glorified in “just” one!

I was thrilled when a dear brother once contacted me asking how he should start his ministry. God’s Word had so filled his heart that he was almost bursting, so driven to tell someone—anyone—about the message of God’s grace to us in Christ. He expressed, “If [I] could assist even ONE person….”

It greatly delights a pastor, a Bible teacher, or a soul winner, to hear when even one person is saved unto eternal life or saved unto sound Bible doctrine, spiritual fruit of their ministry, who then reach others. Yet, Christians often give up in witnessing because “no one” wants to listen to God’s Word. (Actually, there is always at least one person somewhere who wants to hear God’s truth. Diligently seek him or her!). Beloved, we are not here to save anyone or to force any saved people to mature spiritually. They have free will, as do we. What we are here to do is reach out to them in love, meekness, and patience—share the Gospel of God’s Grace with lost people and dispensational Bible study with Christians. If you reach just one person, rejoice in Christ. Just imagine if every Christian reached “just one!”

An amazing thought is, the Lord Jesus Christ’s heavenly ministry—His ministry through the Apostle Paul—has lasted almost 2,000 years now. Just imagine, by God saving that one man, the resulting ministry brought the Gospel of Grace to billions of people, and millions upon millions were saved! Right up to our present day, the same Lord Jesus Christ is willing to use us to continue what He started nearly 20 centuries ago. If we each only reach just one, and the Lord continues to tarry, extending our dispensation long after we have passed on, the manifold testimonies of those our converts generations future, will be ours in which to rejoice when we meet all those precious souls in heaven!

And, yes, as you might have guessed, it all starts with “just” one! 🙂

Tossed To and Fro

Monday, July 21, 2014

“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;” (Ephesians 4:14 KJV).

Art thou “tossed to and fro?” To the King James Bible thou must go!

The following recent quotation from a church leader typifieth the dire spiritual condition of the average church leader and church member: “For years I bounced around between different translations, using one with my Sunday school students, one at the office (with multiple translations) and a King James version of the New Testament and Psalms that I read on my subway commute.” “Bouncing around between different translations?!” Today’s Scripture saith that this is the very opposite of what the Lord Jesus Christ desireth for His people!

The Greek word translated “tossed to and fro” in today’s Scripture is kludonidzomai. It is related to the word, “raging of the water” in Luke 8:24 (the offshore storm Jesus calmed), and “he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed” in James 1:6 (describing a double-minded man). Today’s Scripture portrayeth such imagery—a soul violently pushed around in one direction by one doctrine, another doctrine coming along and forcing the soul to drift in a totally different direction (repeat cycle).

Not surprisingly, one reason why church members abandon Christianity is because of the Bible versions issue: they know not what to believe and simply recant the Bible altogether. The King James Bible believer is not the troublemaker; those who ridicule God’s preserved Word in English and attempt to supplant it with 200 (!) contradictory counterfeits are the ones causing the confusion and ignorance.

Dear readers, God gave us His Word so we could have soul stability; Satan wanteth to take it from us so we can fall for his error. Beloved, modern Bible translators and publishers want to make “a quick buck” at the cost of your souls, so do not let them! Settle thy feet on the rock of the King James Bible rightly divided…. all else is sure to “wash out to sea!” 🙂

When the Church Confers

Friday, July 18, 2014

“…[G]ive attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:13).

Having attended a grace Bible conference via the internet these last six days, I devote today’s devotional to reflecting upon it.

Anytime we meet with like-minded believers in Jesus Christ, it should be the most enjoyable experience this side of heaven. Moreover, when two-dozen Holy-Spirit-filled, knowledgeable yet humble, preachers of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ, teach from the King James Bible rightly divided, the lost will hear the Gospel of Grace many times over, and the saints will be greatly edified many times over.

The conference was a very refreshing time for people who were confused about soul salvation unto justification and eternal life, and an equally encouraging time for Christians who needed either establishment or stabilization in sound Bible doctrine. No one went home without hearing the Gospel of God’s Grace (Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork as sufficient payment for our sins), no one went home without hearing about proper Bible study (Paul’s apostleship to us), and no one went home without having heard about the infallibility and reliability of the King James Bible. What they do with that information is their decision, not ours.

In accordance with today’s Scripture, attendance was indeed given to reading, exhortation, and doctrine. Attendance to “study[ing]… rightly dividing the word of truth” was certainly given (2 Timothy 2:15); attendance to believing those verses, however, that is the hearer’s prerogative. Those who did trust the Gospel presented, they passed from death to life; those who believed the sound Bible doctrine presented, they were liberated from denominational yokes and prisons, and Bible perversions. Yea, some heard more sound Bible doctrine in six days, than they heard in all their lives in “church!”

Such a conference of sound Bible doctrine redounds to the Lord Jesus Christ’s glory alone, it resounds throughout the heavenly places, and it abounds in the hearts of us who believe. O, the manifold grace of God to all mankind! O, the manifold grace of God that enables us in Christ to tell all of lost mankind about that manifold grace of God to them! 🙂

NOTE: I highly recommend the 2014 Grace School of the Bible Summer Family Bible Conference to you. You may access its archived videos and MP3’s here.

Your “Home” Grace Church

Thursday, July 3, 2014

“These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:14,15 KJV).

Searching “to no avail” for a local grace church? (Search no more, for you already know its address!)

Replying to yesterday’s devotional, one of our readers emailed me. Like so many we hear from, she voiced her discouragement and asked where she should “go to church” when no pure local church could be found! My family and I were in a similar predicament years ago, until I heard a Christian brother and ministry coworker say, “Walk out your front door, stand in your front yard, turn around, and voila—your local grace church building!” 🙂

Until organized religion began to dominate Christianity during the first few centuries A.D., and construction began on elaborate cathedrals and other monuments to man’s “goodness,” God’s people met in homes. We read about the “church” that met in Rome in Priscilla and Aquila’s house (Romans 16:3-5)—note, not Peter’s house! Scripture also mentions the “church” in Nymphas’ house in Laodicea (Colossians 4:15), and the “church” in Philemon’s house in Colosse (Philemon 2).

In Paul’s ministry, a “church” was not a building, for the God of the Bible lives in Christians instead of manmade structures (Acts 17:24). “If therefore the whole church be come together into one place…” (1 Corinthians 14:23)—the “church” is not the place, but the Christians in the place. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16).

As King James Bible-believing, Pauline-dispensational Christians, we are God’s church. Our homes are where the “church” meets! If we have no teacher or pastor, we can locate sound grace Bible study material and utilize it (you are more than welcome to use our studies). We have no desire to attend “worship services” that abound with denominationalism and religious tradition, so we stay at home with our Bibles and invite any like-minded Christians to join us!

The Wafer Versus The Loaf

Sunday, June 8, 2014

“For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27 KJV).

In today’s Scripture, the Apostle Paul demonstrated that all church leaders should not neglect to tell their congregants all of God’s counsel.

Recently, I listened to a now-saved minister expose the absurdities that he learned in seminary (“Bible cemetery”), while he was in training to become a church leader in a major “Christian” denomination, a cult he served for decades. By God’s grace, the dear man came to realize that his “good” works were nothing in God’s sight: he came to understand and trust the totality of Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice for his sins.

Having left that rank spiritual darkness that he was in for many years, he looks back and sees just how lost he really was back then, how he was on his way to hell, how he was so misled, even though he faithfully read the Holy Scriptures to his congregations for all those years. As per his denomination’s instructions, he meticulously followed their “approved” reading schedule of Scripture. Despite all those many years of (repetitive) sermons, he actually read what amounted to a mere five percent of the entire Bible, to all those precious souls in his church! He sees how he was only allowed to read the verses that agreed with the denominational system; they simply ignored the Bible passages that conflicted with their church!

Dearly beloved, there are hundreds of thousands of “churches” worldwide that are just like this, literally spiritually starving their millions upon millions of members, depriving them of the entire counsel of God, yet giving them just enough morsels in order to fool them into believing they are hearing everything that God has spoken to them.

In light of the spiritual darkness all around us, let us never take for granted our soul salvation from our sins and works-religion, our rightly divided King James Bible, our local grace assemblies, and the faithful saints who serve our Lord Jesus Christ in sharing the message of His grace with all the millions upon millions who desperately need it. May we choose the loaf, and reject the wafer!

Holding Fast the Faithful Word

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

“Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (Titus 1:9 KJV).

What does “holding fast” mean in the Scriptures?

Let us briefly survey other Bible passages that shed light on the concept:

  • The Lord Jesus said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24; cf. Luke 16:13).
  • Paul instructed us to “support the weak” (1 Thessalonians 5:14).
  • God speaks to Satan of Job’s “holding fast his integrity” (Job 2:3), and Job said, “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go” (Job 27:6a).
  • Before Jerusalem’s destruction, the LORD asked through the Prophet Jeremiah, “Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return” (Jeremiah 8:5).

As we see, God’s definitions for “holding fast” are “refuse to return,” “hold to,” “support,” “not let it go.”

Satan, as his Hebrew name suggests, is “adversary,” and he has an arsenal of weapons he uses against God and His people. God the Holy Ghost wrote the Holy Bible with the intention of educating us at to what He is doing in the heaven and the earth, and what Satan is doing to frustrate His purpose and plans.

Therefore, in today’s Scripture, one of the characteristics of the bishop (frequently called “pastor”) is that he should not relinquish the rightly divided Word of God that he was first taught in his earlier years as a Christian. He should hold firm God’s Word, dispensationally studied, understood, and believed, that he may save others from Satan’s policy of evil and its deception (1 Timothy 4:16). The bishop will face intense opposition and criticism (today’s Scripture), but he must not surrender his rightly-divided Holy King James Bible for “easy-to-read” perversions and denominational systems.

Saints, let us always be mindful of the faithfulness of our King James Bible rightly divided, that it is worthy of our trust. May we “not let it go!” 🙂

Heart Service #11

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17 KJV).

Today’s Scripture is the key to being delivered from and guarded against today’s apostate Christendom.

Christendom’s greatest blunder has been to willfully disregard Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, and prefer other Bible books and/or extra-Biblical church tradition. Beloved, once we abandon Paul’s epistles, we have nothing but the Bible’s legalistic (Law-keeping) passages—almsgiving, food restrictions, water baptism, fasting, tithing, prosperity prayer promises, confession of sins, Sabbath-day and feast-day observances, et cetera—the very practices and ceremonies Christendom loves. No wonder Christendom avoids Paul—the doctrine God revealed through him does not profit their denominations (yea, that doctrine would literally bankrupt their systems instead)!

In the books of Romans through Philemon, Paul, “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:13), tells us what the risen, ascended, and glorified Lord Jesus Christ has to say to us on this side of Calvary’s cross (not in the Old Testament); in this, the Dispensation of Grace (not the Dispensation of Law); as members of this, the Church the Body of Christ (not the nation Israel); in this, the mystery program (not the prophetic program); and in this, God’s heavenly plan (not His earthly plan). Dispensational Bible study—“rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)—allows us to recognize the passages that describe how the Christian life operates today.

Just as we trusted Paul’s Gospel—Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as the fully-satisfying payment for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4)—to be saved from everlasting hellfire, so we trust in it to be saved from daily sins. When Jesus Christ resurrected, He was raised to give us new life, eternal life (Romans 6:1-23, the context of today’s Scripture), life “filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:11). We are righteous before God in Christ; by Jesus Christ’s resurrection life, God will produce fruit in our lives to reflect that identity. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the Person who (literally!) “brings to life” the life of Jesus Christ in our lives….

Ear Service

Thursday, April 24, 2014

“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; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3,4 KJV).

Jesus Christ rebukes apostate Christendom with these same words even today.

Today’s Scripture is particularly important at such a late date in this the Dispensation of the Grace of God. These verses are not only true today, but they have been true ever since this dispensation began with the Apostle Paul nearly 2,000 years ago. Beloved, what a sad commentary. The professing Body of Christ had already abandoned the grace doctrines committed to them through Paul—while the Apostle was still living (1 Corinthians 3:16-20; Galatians 1:6-11; 1 Timothy 1:3-11,18-20; 2 Timothy 1:15; 2 Timothy 2:14-18; et al.)!! How much more today?!

The Holy Bible is a very offensive book. Written to us sinners about us sinners to point us sinners to the Saviour of sinners (Jesus Christ), it is thus hated, rejected, avoided, and ridiculed. Thus, the professing church has largely fallen into the trap of making the Bible, especially the Gospel of the Grace of God, palatable, more “acceptable.”

Consider today’s “social gospel,” “health and wealth gospel,” and “lordship gospel.” For example, “Make Jesus the Lord of your life, and He will bless with you material riches and remove all your sicknesses and problems.” Or, “Jesus came to help you to get to heaven, so you just give your heart to Him, follow Him as best as you can, and He will welcome you into His heaven.” Dear readers, these adages are pleasing to the ear, but they have no saving power whatsoever!!

The “preaching of the cross” is “the power of God” to us who believe and are saved (1 Corinthians 1:18). Jesus Christ’s crosswork to fully pay for our sins—His death to put away our sins, and His literal, physical resurrection to give us sinners new life—is offensive to humanists and macabre to liberals, but what wonderful news to us Christians, whose sin debt is paid in full, whose ears are tuned to God’s truth, and whose hearts believe it!

Eye Service

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

“But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi” (Matthew 23:5-7 KJV).

Jesus Christ rebukes apostate Christendom with these same words even today.

Religion (Christendom) teems with people performing ceremonies, rites, and rituals to gain God’s attention and acceptance. However, Christianity focuses not on what we do for Jesus Christ, but what Jesus Christ did for us at Calvary, and what He will do in and through us if we, by faith, allow Him.

In today’s Scripture, Jesus condemned the religion of His day. Judaism was once the pure religion that JEHOVAH gave to Israel through Moses. In the 1,500 years since Moses, Israel’s religious leaders had polluted that God-given religion. Israel’s clergy were generally divided between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, although the Pharisees dominated (according to verse 2, Jesus is speaking mainly of them in today’s Scripture). Law-keeping was not about honoring JEHOVAH God who gave it, but rather rule-keeping for rules’ sakes. In fact, they added to the 600-plus laws God had given!! They largely preferred man-made rules, “the commandments of men” (Mark 7:1-13; cf. Colossians 2:8). Israel was burdened by and buried in laws (Matthew 23:4; Acts 15:10; cf. Galatians 4:9)!!!

The Apostle Paul admonished Christian servants (employees) not to work with “eyeservice” (Colossians 3:22-25). It was not to be showy, put-on, eye-catching work done diligently just for the sake of praise; it was to be honest, genuine labor from the heart, whether someone was watching or not.

In today’s Scripture, Jesus exposed how the watered-down “Jews’ religion” (Galatians 1:14) enabled Israel’s religious leaders to brag about their “broad phylacteries” (large boxes that held many scraps of “paper” with Old Testament verses on them, worn on the forehead or wrist). They loved to wear special clothing (long robes with large fringes; Luke 20:46), to be seen and praised of men because of their “long prayer” (Matthew 23:14), to be commended for their “pious” appearance and dedication.

Beloved, avoid those who make such “a fair shew in the flesh” (Galatians 6:12)!