Category: sound doctrine

Praying Like Elijah #1

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5:17 KJV).

Why did Elijah pray like this, what was so special about his prayer that God answered it, and how can we have our prayers answered of God?

A preacher recently said that his ministry has received over 93 million prayer requests through the years. He estimated that there were “several million” answers to prayer. Yet, what happened to the tens of millions of prayer requests that went “unanswered?” Did God not deem them worthy of an answer? If you were to survey Christians about their prayer lives, there would be an overwhelming response and great concern about unanswered prayer. For example, the aforementioned preacher discussed how he had even prayed over a lifeless girl’s body, and how God never did bring her back! Why is it that people often pray for one outcome and the very opposite occurs?

To further complicate the matter, Jesus said He would do “whatsoever” we asked in His name: “[13] And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [14] If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13,14). Matthew 18:19 is often appealed to regarding prayer: “Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” And yet, when two Christians join in prayer, believing exactly what Jesus said, the verses do not work the way one would expect. Why?

Can you see why unanswered prayer is such a sensitive subject? What was to be a blessing is now a burden! What is going on? Does the Almighty throw away prayer requests? If our prayer requests go unanswered, then why bother to pray at all? Elijah in today’s Scripture provides valuable insight into this most personal and most perplexing topic….

God’s Grace on Parade

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

“…But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20 KJV).

Today, especially here in southern Louisiana, the Catholic festival of Mardi Gras takes advantage of God’s grace. God’s grace abounds even when drunkenness, lasciviousness, and gluttony are committed overtly on our streets for religion. Because we live in the Dispensation of the Grace of God, they can flaunt their sin without being consumed by fire from heaven!

“Mardi Gras,” French for “Fat Tuesday,” is a day when religious people—professing “Christians”—lose self-control (excess alcohol, food, and partying). The following day, Ash Wednesday, they promise to live “holy” for the next 40 days (Lent). A priest will then place ashes on their foreheads proving that God forgave them for that riotous living. Blasphemy!

Regardless of all its biblical allusions (illusions!), Mardi Gras is still evil and anti-God. It was never Christian, originating from pagan Roman festivals, Saturnalia and Lupercalia (interestingly known for riots, drunkenness, gluttony, and fornication, and subsequent repentance).

The Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostles Peter and Paul, was clearly against Mardi Gras reveling and drunkenness (Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:18; 1 Peter 4:3). So why do professing Christians engage in the very activities that God the Holy Spirit condemned?! As Christians, we should “deny” the activities of Mardi Gras (Romans 6:11-15; Titus 2:11-15).

If I appear offended, I am. Mardi Gras, despite its godly façade, is offensive to the great God and my Saviour Jesus Christ! God’s grace continues to tolerate such foolishness from mankind. Man parades his sin, and God parades His grace, holding back wrath.

Are you a Mardi Gras reveler? I declare unto you the wonderful Gospel of the Grace of God. God did for you at Calvary what you could never do: “Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He was raised again the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Jesus Christ shed His sinless blood and died to put away all of your sins, Mardi Gras revelry included.

If you rest in Christ Jesus alone as your Saviour, God will save you forever, make a trophy of His grace, and then YOUR life will be God’s grace on parade!

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

God is Love

Saturday, February 14, 2015

“…God is love… God is love… We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:8b,16b,19 KJV).

The word “love” is used very flippantly in today’s world. Of the many who speak about “love,” few know what it is. On this Valentine’s Day, we offer sound doctrine from God’s Word to correct the misunderstandings of what love really is. What is love, according to God’s Word?

Today’s Scripture says that “God is love”—God does not simply love, but His very nature is love. What does that mean? In 1 John 3:16, we read: “Hereby we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us:” Our Apostle Paul put it this way: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God’s nature is love—selfless, self-sacrificing!

God’s Word defines love and charity in 2 Corinthians 12:15: “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.” Love is seeking the best interest of others, even if it costs you something (time, energy, resources, et cetera). Charity is love in deed (demonstrated, manifested in action). God loved us, so He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins. It cost God the Father His Son, and it cost God the Son His life. What a selfless act!

Our nature in Adam is selfish, but our nature in Christ is not. Paul declares, “the love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Corinthians 5:14). We who have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour, our Christian lives are driven and motivated by Christ’s love for us, not our love for Him. It is this unselfish love of Christ working in us that causes us to look on the things of others, to seek their edification and their benefit, not ours (Romans 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 10:24; Philippians 2:1-11). This will result in charity, our selfless actions reflecting that love of Christ (2 Corinthians 12:15).

As the lost world observes our Christian service, they will see, “God is love.”

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

In Evil Long I Took Delight #6

Friday, February 13, 2015

“To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26 KJV).

The final verse of John Newton’s classic 1779 hymn “In Evil Long I Took Delight” highlights today’s Scripture.

“Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.”

It is common today to see beautiful jewelry crosses hanging around people’s necks and arms. They give us a false impression of Calvary. It was not a pretty sight to see the Creator God hanging, suffering, and dying for people who hated Him with passion unspeakable. Calvary was a cruel hill where Father God’s wrath against our sin, was revealed. The same wrath that lost people are facing in hell right this moment, the wrath that they will experience throughout the endless ages to come, it was that wrath that was poured out on Jesus Christ at Calvary. There was no anesthetic or dilution. Yes, it was a dark, glum, terrible place, but in such circumstances of apparent weakness and defeat, there was the most amazing victory to ever “grace” the planet.

The glorious aspect of the doctrine of “vicarious atonement” is that Someone else made us “at-one-ment” with Almighty God. The God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, so graciously took our sin debt away because we had nothing with which to pay! Moreover, He did not merely get us out of spiritual debt (forgiveness), but His resurrection was the receipt that the debt was gone. There was not so much as one sin to hold Him in the grave. Hence, the Bible says He was “raised again for our justification” (Romans 4:25). It was with Jesus Christ resurrected that we were raised again and declared righteous. Never again will God “impute sin” to us who trust Christ alone (verse 8; cf. today’s Scripture). Our spiritual debt has been paid! We are now alive “to walk in newness of life.” Now, instead of delighting in evil, we can joy in our identity in Christ! What a concept! 🙂

In Evil Long I Took Delight #5

Thursday, February 12, 2015

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24 KJV).

The fifth verse of John Newton’s classic 1779 hymn “In Evil Long I Took Delight” highlights today’s Scripture.

“A second look He gave, which said,
‘I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou mayst live.’”

Our God-given conscience makes us aware of our daily sins (Romans 2:13-15). We also know that there is a Creator God whom we will face in judgment (Romans 1:17-20). What will we do with those sins when we stand before Him? Can we open our wallets and purses and pay off God? Would He let us into His heaven if we simply showed Him our church-membership card, or our baptism record, or our confirmation certificate, or our annual-giving receipt? Religious people have been taught, “Yes!” If they can just give God something good, they assume that He will be happy with them and give them the grace to do good and make up for their wrongs.

Saul of Tarsus learned all about the “value” (nothing!) of his religious performance before God: “[8] Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, [9] And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:” (Philippians 3:8,9).

What are religious works before God? “Dung!” (How “flattering”—activity not done by faith in God’s Word to us is likened to waste product!) What are our righteousnesses before God? “As filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6)! God offers His forgiveness to us “freely by his grace” (absolutely no cost to us) because we have nothing with which to pay our sin debt (today’s Scripture). Jesus shed His sinless blood and died that we might be free from sin, redeemed, bought out of the slave market of sin. He shed His sinless blood and died, that we might truly live to not delight in evil….

Traveling on the “Highway” to Heaven

Saturday, February 7, 2015

“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Timothy 6:7 KJV).

Earthly modes of transportation and material carry-ons are not allowed on the “highway” to heaven!

Fulfilling his final wishes, 71-year-old George Swanson’s ashes were placed on the driver’s seat of his classic white Corvette. A crane then lowered the vehicle into a burial plot where it was covered with dirt. It is decaying in a Pennsylvania cemetery even today—20 years later! “George always said he lived a fabulous life, and he went out in a fabulous style,” his wife was quoted as saying. “You have a lot of people saying they want to take it with them. He took it with him.” It is a most bizarre burial, but there are plenty of others interred underground in their classic vehicles (or even buried sitting upright on their motorcycles or horses).

Dear friends, God has given us liberty to be buried as we wish—in whatever manner we want and with whatever favorite possessions we want. What He would have us understand is that it really makes no difference who we were in life or what we had. Any material possessions we have now will profit us nothing in eternity because we will leave these physical bodies and dimension behind (today’s Scripture). If all we believe is this life, and that there is no “next life,” we will most certainly do everything we can do to remain attached to here. If death is the end, we should surely make the end as grand as possible. But, if physical death is not the end, and the Bible says it really is not the end, then it makes no difference how our funeral was held.

At death, all we can really take is the Bible doctrine we stored in our inner man. Burial as paupers or princes is irrelevant; rags and riches alike will be left in the grave to pass away. The “road to heaven” is actually a “flight path!” As Christians, we will be carried spirit and soul by the Holy Spirit, arriving in heaven on a “first-class flight.” No extravagant burial can surpass that! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Must I maintain my fellowship with God?”

But It is Scriptural!

Friday, February 6, 2015

“But [we] have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully…” (2 Corinthians 4:2 KJV).

If only more religious leaders would join with Paul in today’s Scripture!

Recently, I watched a “Christian” television program in which the preacher cunningly said, “The Holy Ghost is telling me to instruct you to send us a $10 donation. We will mail you a vial of Israeli holy olive oil. Then, anoint the doorways of your house, your sick loved ones, and your business, and believe and receive God’s healing and wealth.” His wife then cleverly interjected to reassure their wary viewers, “It is Scriptural! James 5:13-15 says believers should call the church elders—that’s us!—and use anointing oil.”

Yes, if you want to be thoroughly confused, just watch TV preachers! This pastor and his wife, promising wealth and physical healing, were not practicing what they were preaching. The man was bald and wearing eyeglasses, and his wife had obviously had extensive cosmetic surgery. They were suffering the effects of old age—the “snake oil” they were peddling was not effective for them. They should use the oil themselves, receive God’s wealth, and then they would not have to beg for and extort donations from their television audience!

Dearly beloved, one of Christendom’s greatest blunders is to assume “Scriptural” equals “God’s will for me.” Suppose a Jew in Moses’ day claimed, “Moses, I hate following these kosher food laws that God had you write in Leviticus chapter 11. You wrote in Genesis 9:1-4 that I can eat anything I can catch. It is Scriptural to eat all animals! I will follow those instructions instead!” This Jew, although “Scriptural,” would be outside of God’s will for him. He would be ignorant of the dispensational change: Genesis chapter 9 was for Noah to follow, not Israel!

Let us not handle God’s Word deceitfully. Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, are God’s Word to us as Gentiles (Romans 11:13): our dispensation, set of divine instructions, is Paul’s epistles (Ephesians 3:2). We must be both Scriptural AND dispensational. Beloved, if you bear those simple verses in mind, you will spare yourself much confusion, extortion, headache, and heartbreak!

Aged, But Strong, in the LORD

Thursday, February 5, 2015

“…I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in” (Joshua 14:10,11 KJV).

How could Caleb, despite his old age, be so bold?

Recall Israel’s rebellion entering the Promised Land with Moses (Numbers chapters 13 and 14). For 40 days, 12 Jewish spies scouted its landscapes. Ten spies reported back to Moses with a very negative report: “We cannot overcome the giants in the land.” They contradicted JEHOVAH’S promise to give them victory over all Gentile inhabitants. However, two spies—Joshua and Caleb—believed God’s Word.

Numbers chapter 14 continues: “[6] And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh… rent their clothes: [7] And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. [8] If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. [9] Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.” Israel still refused to enter Canaan, and thus wandered in the desert for 40 years!

Fast-forward to today’s Scripture. Caleb is now 85 years old… and still ready to fight the Gentiles to possess the land that God has given him! The verse following today’s Scripture reveals Caleb, despite agedness, is confident that the LORD will give him victory! “Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.”

Like Caleb, a wise man will rely on his Almighty LORD, not his weakly flesh!

The Middle Verse of the KJB

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

“It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man” (Psalm 118:8 KJV).

What, or Who, is literally at the very heart of the King James Bible?

The King James Bible has 31,101 verses. Verse number 15,551—the middle verse—is today’s Scripture: “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.” If you notice, there are 14 words in this verse, and the middle words are “the LORD” (six words preceding and succeeding). Modern versions, because they remove dozens of verses from the Bible text, do not have today’s Scripture as their middle verse. Their middle verse does not urge us to put our trust in the LORD and avoid trusting man. Nay, the modern version translators want us to trust their judgment, that they have improved God’s Word (when they have done any but!).

If you listen to the average Bible teacher or preacher, read the average Bible commentary, or use the average study Bible, you will be advised to doubt the readings in the King James Bible. Scholarship, driven by the minds of lost people, always has a “better translation” than the one the Holy Spirit already chose. There is a constant push to make the King James Bible “more scholarly,” more agreeable to theologians and textual critics. Dear friends, if we say that we are not interested in opinions, but only interested in what the Bible says, then it is silly to offer opinions about what the Bible should say instead, and it is even more foolish to accept opinions about what the Bible should say instead.

Today’s Scripture is one example of the fact that we should leave the King James Bible’s text alone. We do not need to “correct” it with “new” manuscripts that its translators rejected centuries ago as false. We do not need to remove any of its passages, phrases, words, or letters just to suit the pet doctrines of degreed religionists. We should not put our confidence in man, but in “the LORD.” Our King James Bible is an amazing Book, so let us trust in “the LORD” and His Word to us English-speaking people. There literally is nothing better! 🙂

His Blood Be Upon Us… Not!

Monday, February 2, 2015

“And when they had brought them [the apostles], they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us” (Acts 5:27,28 KJV).

Did not Israel’s religious leadership remember that they condemned themselves long before the Lord’s apostles did?

Several months prior to today’s Scripture, Jesus’ trial occurred: “[24] When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. [25] Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children” (Matthew 27:24,25).

Luke 23:20-24 supplements Matthew’s account: “[20] Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. [21] But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. [22] And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. [23] And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. [24] And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.”

At Jesus’ trial, Israel’s religious leaders cried, “His blood be on us, and on our children!” Today’s Scripture says they now, nearly a year later, are recanting their “guilty plea.” Now, they pretend to be innocent! In today’s Scripture, Israel’s high priest admits he greatly objects to the apostles’ preaching that Israel killed Messiah Jesus (cf. Acts 2:22-24,32,36; Acts 3:12-18; Acts 4:10-12). Rather than admitting wrong-doing, they blame-shift and say the apostles’ message is flawed. Peter, in the verses following today’s Scripture, again reaffirmed Israel did indeed kill her Messiah (verses 29-32).

Friends, do not be surprised when lost people—especially religious people—tell you they are “not that bad.” Israel’s religious leaders tried to use the same “escape-hatch” with the apostles. Let us not be discouraged, but preach God’s grace in love, meekness, and boldness! 🙂