Category: Bible study

333’s 1200th – Apprehended to Apprehend

Friday, September 12, 2014

“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12 KJV).

Dearly beloved, only by God’s grace, we mark our 1200th devotional today!

We pray and trust our clear and concise Bible studies these last 1200 days have been helpful and a blessing to you. Yes, much material was covered; still, there is much, much more profit to mine from God’s Word. Our purpose has been to teach you the Scriptures that you can understand them for yourself; in effect, we taught you so that you can now stand with us proclaiming to all the world the message of God’s grace to us in Jesus Christ.

Every attempt was made to daily quote God’s Word—word for word—as much as possible. Our goal in expounding those passages was to whet your appetite, that you study your King James Bible on your own. The verses and topics we discussed demonstrated that God’s Word is practical, trustworthy, and understandable, provided that we allow it to speak for itself instead of us forcing it to conform to a church tradition or doctrinal statement. “Rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15)—dispensational Bible study—is vital to Bible understanding.

Every person who has just trusted Jesus Christ as his or her personal Saviour, he or she is not skilled in God’s Word; this is not a sin as long as the saint grows in spiritual understanding. That individual knows how to be saved, the Gospel of the Grace of God, but that is all. We all have to start somewhere, and the Christian life starts with the Gospel, but it involves other sound Bible doctrine as well. As today’s Scripture articulates, we press onward in spiritual maturity. Even 30-plus years after his soul salvation unto justification, the Apostle Paul wrote that he was still trying to grasp exactly why Jesus Christ had saved him (perhaps read Philippians chapter 3 on your own today).

Saints, we still have much more growing to do, so God’s grace compels us to keep on in Him and His Word! Onward! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Why can I not get anything out of the Bible?”

The More Excellent Ministry #5

Friday, August 29, 2014

“For the love of Christ constraineth us… God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:14a,18bc KJV).

Our flesh is ever so weak, but Christ’s love—the unconditional love He has for us—drives us to push ourselves aside and think of others instead.

God never saves anyone to sit and do nothing. Romans chapter 6 is the simplest passage regarding Christian living, and when read with chapters 7 and 8, one unquestionably learns how the Christian life operates. (Read these three glorious chapters to get a blessing!) Father God wants us to let Christ live in us via the indwelling Holy Spirit taking verses we study and believe, and bringing them “to life” in our lives!

When we trusted exclusively Paul’s Gospel, the Gospel of God’s Grace—Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3,4)—the Holy Spirit instantly placed us into Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). That moment, we died with Jesus on Calvary’s cross and we were raised again with Him “to walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:1-6). We are “dead, freed from sin” (verse 7). Now, Jesus Christ’s life is in us; we are dead to self-living. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” (Galatians 2:20). We read in 2 Corinthians 5:15, the context of today’s Scripture: “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.”

In Matthew 20:28, Jesus Christ identified the more excellent ministry: “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” As His Father instructed, Jesus did not come to be served (self life), but to serve others (Christian life). Christ’s love for us drove Him to Cavalry’s cross, so His love for us—yea, for lost people—compels us to tell them of that love exhibited at Calvary: “For God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). 🙂

For Students This is Safe

Monday, August 18, 2014

“Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:128 KJV).

As a new school year dawns, let us awake unto spiritual truth!

Although the autumnal equinox is still over a month away here in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is finally beginning to wind down for most of us. Students—with long faces and deep sighs—have returned or are beginning to return to school. In the near future, I will return to college to hopefully complete my master’s thesis in geology this fall semester. As we students return to the classroom, we need to be particularly mindful of the following.

Firstly, learning in and of itself is not a sin. Moses was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22). Luke was a medical doctor (Colossians 4:14). Daniel and his companions were skilled in science (Daniel 1:4). Adam was the first taxonomist (Genesis 2:19,20). The God of the Bible is never against learning new things—remember, He gave us His Holy Bible so we can have plenty to learn for all of eternity!

Secondly, what the God of the Bible opposes is when we believe/trust ideas that do not seek our best interests, that contradict the way He designed our lives to function. Certainly, we Christians should never go around believing anything and everything heard and seen. Just because the professor, preacher, pope, or president says it is true, that does not make it so. Scientific consensus has been wrong before, religion has been wrong before, politicians have been wrong before. Much of the ideas that permeate our world today are wrong.

Lastly, there many wonderful, exciting ideas and concepts out there—medical advancements, technological breakthroughs, and so on—but there are equally detrimental ideas that will mess up your life—religious traditions, secular humanism, and other philosophies. Daily intake of the King James Bible rightly divided will cleanse our souls of the filth and foolishness that we hear and see day in and day out in this evil world system. We highly exalt God’s Word, we know it is right “concerning all things,” and we hate and ignore the error.

Have a wonderful school year in our Lord Jesus Christ! 🙂

NOTE: You may also see our study “The Spirit-Filled Student.”

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Must Christian women wear head coverings?”

Three On Your Side

Friday, August 15, 2014

“If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31b KJV).

Saint, although no one may be at your side, you can rejoice that there will always be three on your side!

  • GOD THE HOLY GHOST IS FOR YOU. Romans 8:26,27: “[26] Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. [27] And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” God the Holy Spirit takes the sound Bible doctrine you have studied and believed, and works in you to cause you to pray more effectively regarding matters that you could not otherwise adequately express in words.
  • GOD THE FATHER IS FOR YOU. Romans 8:31,33: “[31] What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? [33] Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” God the Father looks at Jesus Christ’s blood, and sees it rather than your sins. You are innocent in God’s sight because you are in Christ!
  • GOD THE SON IS FOR YOU. Romans 8:34: “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Jesus Christ has taken Father God by the hand and you by the hand, and joined you both together forever. As 1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

When you feel alone, like the whole world is against you, like there is no one on your side, when all your friends and “Christian” brethren have left you, Romans chapter 8 says that the three Persons of the Godhead are all for you! All the power that generated creation from nothing, is on our side! Who cares who may leave—or come against—us?! 🙂

Twenty-Six

Thursday, August 7, 2014

“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16 KJV).

By God’s grace, I celebrate my birthday today!

In this sin-cursed world, life is ever so fragile—it can be gone in an instant. In this sin-cursed world, life is ever so brief—it will be gone in an instant. With every passing year, I recall an aged Christian’s words to me some years ago: “Life goes by even quicker when you reach my age!” (Our older readers probably heartily agree with her.) Whether young or old(er), every Christian needs to be mindful that this earthly life is just one grain of sand compared to the “beach” of eternity future. This truly sobering thought will certainly cleanse our minds of the limited, deceptive, polluted “here-and-now” attitude.

As a dear brother and friend in the ministry often says, “All the healing claims aside, the death rate is still one a piece!” Thankfully, there is life beyond this earthly one, but we can enjoy that eternal life today. By simple faith alone in Jesus Christ’s death, bloodshed, burial, and resurrection, we can approach God the Father, and have Him deal with our sins in full forever. In Christ, we can enjoy the very life of God Himself right now. We can enjoy fellowship with Him right now when we take His written and preserved Word, the King James Bible, and study and believe it rightly divided. His Word will cause us to look beyond these things that are seen to see (by faith; Hebrews 11:1) the things that are not seen, not the temporal things of this world but the eternal things of the next (2 Corinthians 4:18).

As today’s Scripture affirms, with each passing year, our outer man grows older, weaker, and slower, but with each passing year, our inward man—provided that we daily study and believe God’s Word rightly divided—is growing stronger and stronger in God’s grace. Beloved, may we never take this earthly life for granted, and we who are in Jesus Christ, may we never take our eternal life for granted either! 🙂

Beyond Our Comfort Zone

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12 KJV).

Our Christian lives are really not our own, so may we remove ourselves from our “comfort zone!”

The “comfort zone” is “a situation where one feels safe or at ease.” How many professing Christians, yea how many true Christians, are “too comfortable” to be “bothered” with witnessing and Gospel-tract distribution? Beloved, let us not be selfish! “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:7,8; cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19,20).

From the time He began His ministry near age 30, to when He laid down His life at Calvary three short years later, Jesus Christ accomplished every single work that His Heavenly Father required of Him (John 17:4,8; John 19:30). However, His fellow man hated Him beyond words. Most all of Israel’s apostles are assumed to have died martyrs’ deaths. Right up until his execution, the Apostle Paul labored fervently for the sake of the Gospel of Grace (2 Timothy 4:6-8). As a dear friend in the ministry quips, Paul first inspected the jail whenever he entered a city because he knew he would probably be “checking-in” there that night! The Lord Jesus and His saints stepped out of their comfort zone, risking and losing their lives for Father God’s will. Intense opposition and persecution did not deter them.

Rather than just sitting around condemning the lost world for behaving like the sinners they are, Christianity needs to study their Bibles rightly divided and learn God’s truth so they can tell it to others. We have Jesus Christ, the only key to mankind’s sin problem. As people who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, it is our privilege and responsibility to share Him with others. Absolutely, this means jeopardizing our social status, friendships, acceptance in the family, and yes, our lives. Sure, they will dismiss as crazy, shun us, perhaps imprison or kill us, but at least we cared enough about them that we told them the truth! 🙂

Unappreciative Apostates

Sunday, July 20, 2014

“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images” (Hosea 11:1,2 KJV).

Israel is not the only nation in history to abandon the one true God….

I recently read that, according to one poll, 10 percent of Americans read their Bible daily. While this is most assuredly not shocking (we know the reason for the rapid moral decay!), it is a troubling reality. The first book ever printed here in the United States was the Bay Psalm Book, the Bible’s book of Psalms in English (printed in 1640). Now, the Bible is the least of most Americans’ daily concern!

A nation once known for its Bible missionaries, Bible-teaching universities, and Bible-supporting legal system, now has “better” things to offer the world than Jesus Christ—“education” and entertainment. Just as sure as Israel rose for God’s glory, and fell when she abandoned Him, so our great American nation will surely fall in due time (yea, the current deterioration is just a precursor!). We should truly thank God that, unlike Israel of old, we live in this the Dispensation of Grace, and His grace is temporarily withholding that wrath (2 Corinthians 5:18,19)!

Today’s Scripture is JEHOVAH’S testimony through the Prophet Hosea about how much Israel’s God loved her. He had rescued her so miraculously from Egyptian bondage, that she would forever serve Him in the land that He had given her forefathers. Israel was to be God’s “son,” a nation of people who would not only know God’s will, but who would also delight in accomplishing it with Him; out of the riches of His grace, He would bless them immeasurably, spiritually and materially. Yet, Israel refused; they did not want God’s love, God’s commandments, God’s will. Instead, Israel became a spiritual prostitute, worshipping and serving pagan idols, their own will. (Sound familiar?) Not too long after Hosea preached, the Assyrians and Babylonians took Israel away!

Yea, Israel’s history confirms, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psalm 9:17).

Cain Came and Brought Shame #1

Sunday, June 22, 2014

“And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD” (Genesis 4:1 KJV).

Can you identify the very significant phrase our King James Bible contains in today’s Scripture, and why it was said?

Unfortunately, modern English translations water down today’s Scripture (like they do with countless other verses!). The NIV, representative of the modern English “bibles” and their underlying (and corrupt) Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, complete with an extra wresting by minds polluted with textual criticism and its vain theories, reads in today’s Scripture: “Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, ‘With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.’” (And this is “more scholarly” than the “archaic” King James Bible?!)

It is a very subtle rewording, but, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man,” notice how God’s Word is retranslated so that it exalts Eve—Eve did it with God’s “help!” Friends, we sinners do not need God’s “help” to do anything; we sinners need God to do everything for us!

However, unlike many (if not nearly all) of the modern Bible translators, we are people of faith, and we have God’s Holy Spirit to teach us. We do not look at the Bible with unbelieving minds and eyes and “correct” it when it does not make sense to us. God’s preserved Word in English, the King James Bible, says exactly what He wants it to say, and how He wants it said. Re-translation causes us to miss subtleties in vocabulary and semantics; if we simply leave the King James Bible alone and just believe it, it will correct our thinking and cause us to appreciate a seemingly insignificant doctrine.

Indeed, it takes some thoughtful study (which Bible readers rarely do!), but there is something special being communicated in Eve’s words as found in our “old” King James Bible. Take this time to consider why Eve said what she did, and, in the coming devotionals, we will discuss why she said, “I have gotten a man from the LORD….”

A Prophet in the Wilderness #1

Monday, June 9, 2014

“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:1,2 KJV).

Why is John the Baptist “preaching in the wilderness?”

Dearly beloved, throughout church history, there has been much Bible reading, but very little thoughtful Bible reading. The primary results of this mishandling of Scripture are the tens of thousands of opposing denominations. There is still extensive Bible-skimming throughout Christendom: just enough verses to maintain “old” groups and form “new” ones (cf. Romans 16:17), just enough verses to have a “form of godliness” (cf. 2 Timothy 3:5), more than enough verses to constitute “wresting” (perversion) (cf. 2 Peter 3:16), and more than enough verses to make God sick (cf. Isaiah 1:11-15).

Anyone can read, write about, and speak about the Bible (people have done it for thousands of years). However, it takes a special someone to understand the Bible—it takes someone who has God’s indwelling Holy Spirit, for He alone understands the Bible. Let us thoughtfully read 1 Corinthians 2:11-14:

“[11] For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. [12] Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. [13] Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. [14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Most assuredly, the above passage is extremely insulting to people who have attended Bible college or seminary for many years, and learned everything but how to study God’s Word properly. Dear friends, secular education is not the key to Bible understanding; divine education is the key to understanding the Bible!

With the above information as background, let us proceed to carefully consult the Scriptures to understand John’s wilderness ministry….

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!