Category: spiritual warfare

Big Brother Versus Heavenly Father #2

Tuesday, November 5, 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!

Mankind was to have dominion over the earth for the glory of his Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ (Genesis 1:26-28). However, man willfully sided with the opposition, Satan, in Genesis chapter 3.

Approximately 2,000 years after Adam was created, God chose to create the nation Israel (beginning with Abram/Abraham in Genesis chapter 12), a nation that would do in the earth what man had failed to do for the last two millennia. It would be through this nation that God would regain His dominion and authority in earth; through Israel, God’s will for the earth would be accomplished.

Moses told Israel: “And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: and thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them” (Deuteronomy 28:13,14).

Israel was to be God’s chief nation in the earth, thereby dispossessing it from Satan, and exalting JEHOVAH above all the earth. However, Israel deliberately disregarded God’s Law and followed pagan idols. She fell into sin, and she broke the Old Covenant (Mosaic Law); that is, like Adam, Israel also sided with God’s adversary, Satan.

About 400 years after King David’s reign over Israel, Israel’s monarchy was lost to Gentile domination. At that time, the last of the Jews in Jerusalem were deported to Babylon (God’s response to Israel’s centuries-long wickedness, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 36:5-21). Israel lost her political strength, and this is one reason why earth’s governments are still corrupt.

Of course, God has not forsaken Israel forever, and government restoration of earth is still on His agenda….

Big Brother Versus Heavenly Father #1

Monday, November 4, 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 this world of increasing technology and communication, there is growing discussion about “government spying” and “government tracking.” Even some Christians fear making online purchases, owning “smart” cell phones, or even maintaining a Facebook account, lest “big brother’s eye” see.

Although prudent, this apprehension can—and often does—lead to extremes. Yea, such a mindset generates all sorts of peculiar behavior. Eventually, we will draw the curtains and huddle in dark corners of our homes, we will hide in underground bunkers, and we will relocate into the wilderness, jumping to safety just before the evil world system grabs us!

When the Christian is browbeaten by and swept into this paranoia (fueled by the “quality” news reports of the mainstream media), he or she is unwittingly playing into Satan’s deception. He or she becomes more focused on Satan’s world system, thereby failing to appreciate the deliverance that God has promised him or her in the Lord Jesus Christ! It seems like some Christians have more interest in their government coming to get them before their God comes to get them. This should not be, dear saints.

Have we forgotten about our security and victory in Jesus Christ that we so often proclaim? We are too busy thinking about this hopeless world to remember our hope in Jesus Christ, too depressed to have the joy of the Holy Ghost, and too disturbed to have the peace of God. Satan could not be happier; the Christian is helping further his policy of evil!

In today’s Scripture, the writer of the book of Hebrews reminds the believing Jews in the (future) seven-year Tribulation period that, although they are living in the worst period of human history, they should not fear the government of man. We would do well if we looked at this doctrine from Israel’s program, and notice the parallels in the program God is operating today….

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.

Arrayed in Hypocrisy

Thursday, October 31, 2013

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27,28 KJV).

“Looks can be deceiving” is not only true during Halloweentime, but confirmed year-round within Christendom.

Today is Halloween, when children dress up and feign themselves to be creatures they are not. Likewise, many church leaders today wear “Christian” garbs, but their ministries do not bring the Lord Jesus Christ glory and honor. They promote their denomination, and seek to perpetuate it, rather than serve and exalt the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The Bible manifests these who appear to be good, as “wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

In today’s Scripture, Jesus Christ exposed Israel’s corrupt religious leaders who misled the nation in His day. In His Parable of the Tares, Matthew 13:24-30,37-43, Christ explained how just as He had sown good seed (wheat, believing Jews) in Israel, Satan had also sown tares/weeds (unbelieving Jews). Tares resemble wheat; unbelieving Jews resemble believing Jews. The unbelieving Pharisees and scribes, for instance, looked like God’s people (believing Israel). Judas Iscariot was another example of Satan’s tares—the apostles never realized who Judas really was until it was too late!

But Satan’s counterfeit believers are not confined to Israel’s program. Today, within local assemblies of the Body of Christ, there are people feigning themselves to be Christians: For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

Beloved, beware of the church leaders who are arrayed in hypocrisy, “and avoid them” (Romans 16:17b). If their teaching does not agree with the rightly divided King James Bible, you have no business as a child of God to be listening to them.

*This is excerpted from a larger Bible study with the same name. The Bible study can be read here or watched here.

Impressionable Minds and Effectual Doctrine

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not” (1 Corinthians 10:23 KJV).

In light of Halloween tomorrow, we learn a simple lesson from Scripture today.

Innocent children arrayed in costumes going door-to-door and exclaiming, “Trick-or-treat!,” have never been taught that this “innocent looking” holiday is rooted in the spiritually toxic soils of Celtic paganism, devil worship, and superstition.

The “Harry Potter” franchise and Halloween downplay the gravity of devil worship. Our younger generations are receiving mixed messages from the Church the Body of Christ. Christians, rather than speaking against these atrocities, have become permissive regarding the activities that God hates. They remain silent, greatly reducing their impact on the world, and allowing the world to impact them! Ephesians 5:14-17 exclaims, “Wake up, O sleeping Christians, Wake up!”

God clearly forbade witchcraft in Israel (Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Micah 5:12). Witchcraft is sin, according to Galatians 5:20. God wanted Israel, His earthly people, to not participate in Satan’s policy of evil. They were not to mingle with the works of darkness. God wants the same for us, the Church the Body of Christ. Note how the Ephesians burned their spell books in Acts 19:19.

There is no law “Thou shalt not celebrate Halloween,” yet notice today’s Scripture. Although they are not explicitly forbidden, some activities harm others and ourselves. They are inconsistent with our identity in Jesus Christ. Thus, we avoid those activities. If an activity does not bring glory, praise, and honor to God Almighty (the Lord Jesus Christ), it is devil worship. Satan wants you to worship something other than the one true God.

We desperately need our young people to realize the weightiness of sound doctrine, especially regarding the occult, witchcraft, et cetera (and its most subtle forms like Halloween and Harry Potter). God Almighty instructs us to educate them with sound Bible teaching. We know that God’s Word will “effectually work also in [them] that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). God’s Word will reach their minds, we just need to plant and water, sowing it into their minds, and let God take care of the rest.

*Excerpted from a larger Bible study with the same name, which can be read here.

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….

Shallow #4

Friday, October 25, 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!

Man’s fall into sin resulted because of his deliberate disregard for God’s Word. What was the result of this fall? It did not take very long for the degradation of human marriage (Adam turning on his wife, Eve), the decline of the family (Cain murdering his brother, Abel), and the collapse and nearly complete obliteration of human civilization (the wicked world destroyed in the Great Flood). We will briefly focus on the last two events.

Cain refused to bring the blood sacrifice that God commanded, so when his brother Abel confronted him, Cain murdered Abel (Genesis 4:1-7; Hebrews 11:4; 1 John 3:12). Not only did Cain reject God’s Word to him that Abel spoke, but Cain was unconcerned about his brother and he showed no remorse when God asked him where Abel was (see Genesis 4:8-15).

In Genesis chapter 6, some 1,600 years after the Fall of Man in Eden, we read: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (verse 5). Here, the human population may be as high as four billion, and nearly every soul is cooperating with Satan’s policy of evil. Amidst this worldwide corruption and violence (verses 11,12), we find one man, Noah, “a just [righteous] man and perfect [upright] in his generations, and [he] walked with God” (verse 9).

Of all the billions in the world, God commissions Noah to build an ark, in order to save the animal species and the human seed-line. There is a worldwide flood coming, and for 120 years, Noah preaches God’s Word to the world (Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:18-20; 2 Peter 2:5). Instead, they ridicule and ignore God’s Word through Noah. As Noah constructs the huge ark, the world just continues—gleefully and deliberately—in its wickedness….

Shallow #3

Thursday, October 24, 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!

In the moments following Adam’s consumption of the forbidden fruit, he and Eve realized that Satan’s policy of evil was infiltrating creation. “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked” (Genesis 3:7). They knew what happened as a result of their abandonment of God’s Word. The effects of sin were felt immediately.

On the very day of man’s fall, we see the cessation of Adam and Eve’s perfect marital relationship. Man’s perfect relationship with his Creator also vanishes. When the LORD God asked Adam if he had eaten of the forbidden tree, Adam replied, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Genesis 3:12).

Adam has now turned against Eve. Notice how he blamed Eve for his deliberate mistake in following her in her ignorance! Eve was tricked, and so she ate; however, Adam knew better and he ate anyway. Also, see how Adam shifted the blame from himself, to Eve, and ultimately, to God—“the woman whom thou gavest to be with me.” Adam blamed God for his sinful action because God had given him Eve. Again, recall, “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:14).

We must not look down upon Adam. To this very day, we all, at some time or another, deliberately reject God’s Word, sin, and then blame someone else—often God! Yes, Genesis chapter 3 is the best authority on human psychology!

As time passes, Adam and Eve have sons, Cain and Abel, with Cain eventually and unapologetically murdering Abel in a fit of religious rage (Genesis 4:1-15). Here, we see the breakdown of the family. By the time we get to Noah’s day, 1,600 years later, there is worldwide wickedness (Genesis 6:1-8). Now, we see the breakdown of civilization….

Shallow #1

Tuesday, October 22, 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!

Society, even here in our beloved “Christian” America, is becoming increasingly secular humanistic. Secular humanism is an outlook/worldview that boasts, “We humans are good enough to solve our problems, without God and His Word.” Secular humanists emphasize man and ignore God. There is no regard whatsoever for the Creator’s will: the only issue is what does mankind think is right, acceptable, and good. How did mankind ever get to such a pitiful condition? What would ever cause such a frail, short-lived creature—made of mere dirt!—to exalt himself to such a deified position?

Let us be clear about three points:

  1. CREATION: Man’s original spiritual and moral decay could have been avoided had he not willfully rejected his knowledge of God (just like the Christians referenced in today’s Scripture). We can, and later will, appeal to the Scriptures to see man’s spiritual and moral decline… less than a week after his creation!
  2. CIVILIZATION: The significant cultural transformation—the willful rejection of the knowledge of God—that we are witnessing today is nothing new (recall the Christians referenced in today’s Scripture). What is happening today in the United States and all nations is something that God has seen many times over. He is not surprised, and neither should the Bible student. We can, and later will, appeal to the Scriptures to see Israel’s spiritual and moral decline.
  3. CHURCH: The professing “Church” has repeatedly—and in many cases, deliberately—rejected their knowledge of God (just like the Christians referenced in today’s Scripture). This is nothing new, either, as God has seen it many times over. He is not surprised, and neither should the Bible student. We can, and later will, appeal to the Scriptures to see the professing “Church’s” spiritual and moral decline.

The serious Bible student can recognize a pattern in the three above points, which we will now carefully dissect….