Category: The Nation Israel

The Christ of God

Sunday, July 19, 2015

“He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20 KJV).

The King James Bible’s “New Testament” contains expressions such as, “The Christ of God,” “The Lord’s Christ,” and “His Christ.” Why is qualification needed? Why not simply read “Christ?”

Peter the Apostle declared in today’s Scripture, “[Thou art] The Christ of God.” The Holy Ghost told elderly Simeon that he would not physically die until “he had seen [Baby Jesus] the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). Israel and Rome conspired against the LORD (Father God) and “His Christ” (Acts 4:26)—that described Jesus’ crucifixion on Calvary. One day, this world’s kingdoms will become “the kingdoms of our Lord [Heavenly Father], and of his Christ [Jesus]” (Revelation 11:15). A voice in heaven will one day utter, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ” (Revelation 12:10).

To better understand the language of “God’s Christ” and “the Lord’s Christ,” we need Ezekiel chapter 28, the passage that describes Lucifer (Satan) before his fall into sin/pride. Lucifer was the “anointed cherub that covereth” (verse 14). “Anointed” in Hebrew is Mishiach (Messiah) and in Greek it is Christos (Christ). Now, please note the following. Psalm 2, verse 2, foretold in Hebrew: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed [Jesus], saying….” Acts 4:26, written in Greek, quotes it as, “The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.”

Every Berean Bible student knows Satan is the master counterfeiter. The Devil uses false prophets, false apostles, false teachers, and false brethren to counter God’s prophets, God’s apostles, God’s teachers, and God’s brethren. Satan causes us to concentrate on him (the false Messiah) and his policy of evil so we ignore Jesus Christ (the true Messiah) and God’s plan of glory! When our program concludes and Israel’s program resumes, Satan will come in the person of Antichrist, the epitome of prideful imitation (to be destroyed, thankfully). In the end, what Satan failed to do (lead creation in worship of the one true God), Jesus Christ, the Christ of God, will do!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Why did Jesus forbid others from preaching that He was Christ?”

Esteem Them Highly in Love

Friday, July 17, 2015

“And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. And be at peace with among yourselves” (1 Thessalonians 5:12,13 KJV).

Having attended a “virtual” (online) grace Bible conference for the last five days, let me share some wonderful divine insight!

When 26 Christian brothers value God’s Word rightly divided, they are thrilled to teach and preach it. When faithful men teach and preach God’s Word rightly divided, God’s people are edified, encouraged, and enlightened. No, we do not praise men, but we do praise the Lord Jesus Christ who worked in and through them to provide us refreshing insight into the world’s most marvelous Book! Today’s Scripture is the Holy Spirit’s insight. Those who labor among us and are over us—they are members of the Body of Christ like us but they are also leaders within that Body. We should “know” (recognize) them and “esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.”

A Holy Spirit-led man will recognize that the ascended Lord Jesus Christ gave the Apostle Paul a special ministry. He will preach a clear Gospel of Grace—Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork as sufficient payment for our sins—instead of “social,” “hazy,” “feel good” messages. He will teach from the pure Bible text, the King James Bible—not arguing with its readings, not “re-translating” Greek and Hebrew, not parroting denominational teachings and lauding scholarship.

No, he will not be like most church leaders today. He will not correct the Bible and then say, “I am a ‘Bible believer.’” He will not deny Jesus Christ as recorded in mystery and then tell us, “I am a ‘Bible believer.’” He will not say he is a “Bible believer” and then claim Israel’s passages for himself. He will not say he is a “Bible believer” and then force us under the Mosaic Law. He will not say he is a “Bible believer” and then mix prophecy and mystery. He will simply believe the Bible and encourage us to do the same. We thank God for such faithful men and we love them in Christ! 🙂

Knowing Your Christian Life

Thursday, July 16, 2015

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” (Colossians 2:6 KJV).

Yea, “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (verse 7).

Dear Christian brother or Christian sister, have you ever found it difficult to live the Christian life? You undoubtedly answered, “Yes”—just like all of us! How are you doing with keeping the Ten Commandments? Like all of us, you are not doing so well, right? You do your “best” during the day, but at night you reflect on the previous hours and you feel so rotten. Deep down, you know you are failing miserably. Is this the kind of life Father God wanted to give us in Christ? Were we not miserable enough in our sins before we came to Jesus Christ? Despair no longer!

Frankly, you are not walking in Jesus Christ as you received Him. You came to Him by faith in the Gospel, in His finished crosswork as sufficient payment for your sins, but you have not appropriated that crosswork on a daily basis. Yes, you still live like you are in Adam. You are not thinking clearly. You are walking in your own abilities to manage sin, and we know that we cannot get rid of sin. It requires God’s power to put away sin—He did it at Calvary and you can do it at Calvary too!

Our life and sustenance is found in Jesus Christ and His perfect sacrifice, not in ourselves, religion, intellectualism, et cetera. We must be stabilized in the grace doctrines of Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, lest Satan deceive us and defeat us. We must be taught the King James Bible rightly divided. Once we learn and trust God’s Word, God’s way, it will burst forth from us in song and thanksgiving. The misery from religious futility will vanish! The confusion from false teaching will disappear! Dear saint, do not let Satan rob you of your joy in Christ. Do not let him steal your knowledge of who you are in Jesus. Take your stand by faith in these simple verses and let the indwelling Spirit do the rest! 🙂

Our latest Bible Q&A: “What is the Lord’s will for my Christian life?”

NOTE: Having expanded upon the “Original 7 studies” for the third time, our fourth foundation (studies #1501-#1507) is now installed. Onward we press in maturity… and to #2000! 🙂

Knowing Your Apostle Paul

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

“For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office” (Romans 11:13 KJV).

Yea, “…Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity” (1 Timothy 2:5-7).

I once asked a Roman Catholic priest about the “Petrine papacy.” While readily admitting that Jesus Christ sent Paul to us Gentiles (today’s Scripture), he preferred to follow Peter— “I do not care what the Bible says!” He wanted to follow Israel’s Apostle Peter. Never would anyone take “sacred tradition” from him. To abandon the centuries-old fallacy of “Pope Peter” was out of the question!

Christendom’s greatest error is the failure to learn where to go in the Bible to get our “mail” for today. Matthew through John is robbed of the Beatitudes, the so-called “Lord’s Prayer,” and the miracles (the “What-Would-Jesus-Do?” crowd). The Psalms and Proverbs are carelessly isolated. Almost all gravitate to the Book of Acts, especially chapter 2, Pentecost, and the other “Holy Ghost encounters.”

Prophecy said God would bless Gentiles through redeemed Israel (Genesis 12:1-3; Isaiah 60:1-3; Isaiah 61:6; Zechariah 8:20-23). With Israel refusing to convert in early Acts, God could not reach Gentiles. So, with Saul of Tarsus’ (Paul’s) conversion in Acts chapter 9, God instituted a program that He had kept secret since the world began. Salvation would come to us Gentiles through Christ’s shed blood without Israel!

Romans 11:11,12: “[11] I say then, Have they [Israel] stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. [12] Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?”

Through Paul’s Gospel—Jesus Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He was raised again (1 Corinthians 15:3,4)—we have access to God by faith. May we study Romans through Philemon to learn through Paul’s ministry what God expects of us as members of the Church the Body of Christ!

Knowing Dispensational Bible Study

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

Yea, “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness” (verse 16).

When you look at the professing church, so-called Christianity, do you wonder why there are so many varying ideas? Why the major and starkly different views about salvation from sins, water baptism, confession of sins, end-times, tithing, spiritual gifts, prayer, Sabbath-day keeping, and living as a believer on a daily basis? Amazingly, the Bible teaches assorted views about all of these topics!

In heaven, there will be no such confusion, denominationalism, lost people pretending to be Christians, and false teachers. In heaven, how will God settle all the confusion? Simply put, He will use today’s Scripture, applying it to every issue and belief. He will thus rid the Body of Christ of “profane and vain babblings,” its doctrinal ungodliness!

Throughout human history, God has spoken different things to different people: these various sets of divine instructions are “dispensations.” The doctrine that God wants us to believe and follow today is “the Dispensation of the Grace of God” (Ephesians 3:2). Our dispensation was given to the Apostle Paul, God’s spokesman to us (Romans 11:13). We must “rightly divide the word of truth,” taking special care to separate Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, from the rest of the Bible. In Paul’s 13 books alone, we find our doctrine, identity, duty, walk, and destiny as members of the Church the Body of Christ. Via the mystery program (Romans 16:25,26), God will use us in the heavenly places for His glory (Ephesians 1:20-23). The remaining 63 Bible books are the prophetic program (Acts 3:21), God’s plans to form and use Israel for His glory on the Earth (Exodus 19:5,6). We study all of the Bible, but we do not confuse ourselves with Israel. We do not grab her verses and force them into our dispensation.

God will end the confusion one day, but His Word rightly divided allows us to end the confusion right here and right now! Will we be brave enough to toss out our denominationalism, fickle opinions, and traditions of men, and embrace God’s pure Word?

For more information about dispensational Bible study, you may see: https://333wordsofgrace.wordpress.com/whats-dispensational-bible-study/.

Knowing Your Purpose

Saturday, July 11, 2015

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11 KJV).

Yea, “For by him [the Lord Jesus Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him” (Colossians 1:16).

Usually, the origin of life is reduced to a naturalistic, rationalistic “random mutations resulting in molecules to man,” or “primordial soup to highly-evolved apes.” However, when we come to the Bible, there is absolutely no room for mindless evolutionary theory and universal unpredictability. The heavens and the earth did not suddenly appear without cause or design. Unless we have a mind game to play in order to ease our guilty conscience, we will simply believe today’s Scripture. All things were created by and for Jesus Christ.

The word “things” here in the context are positions of government. It was in God’s grand design to make offices of government to control the heavens and the earth. Angels were created to function in heaven and humans were to function on earth. That entire unit was to operate to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator (Ephesians 1:9-11). However, Lucifer led an angelic rebellion to corrupt heaven with sin and he influenced Adam to corrupt earth with sin.

In the Bible, God formed (and will form) the nation Israel to restore His authority in the earth (Exodus 19:5,6). Today, however, God is forming the Church the Body of Christ, which He will use to reconcile the heavens to Himself (Ephesians 1:20-23). Our purpose today, until heaven, is to glorify Jesus Christ on earth.

Nevertheless, our sin problem must be dealt with first. We need to be redeemed from Satan’s control and his policy of evil. Dear friend, you can spend your earthly lifetime looking for meaning, value, and security in fame, fortune, drugs and alcohol, education, sex, to no avail. You have a hole in your heart, a void that only Jesus Christ can fill. Search no further than your Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ!

* NOTE: Tonight, July 11th, at 7PM Central U.S. Time, the 2015 Summer Family Bible Conference will begin in St. Charles, Illinois. This grace Bible conference will continue until Thursday, July 16th. It will be streamed live online, so you are highly encouraged to join us for two-dozen wonderful studies in the King James Bible rightly divided! For times, topics, speakers, and the video feed, visit http://understandgrace.com/conference/summer-family-bible-conference/.

333’s 1500th – Renewed Minds

Thursday, July 9, 2015

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1,2 KJV).

Praise our Lord Jesus Christ! We have reached yet another ministry milestone!

For 1500 consecutive days now, God’s Word has renewed our minds daily. (Today’s Scripture was the text for our 100th study. Since then, we have had 1400 Bible studies.) It has been quite a learning experience, has it not? The Holy Spirit Himself has taught us His Holy Word. Scholarship, denominational doctrines, and all the rest were not the issue. Hence, we have had God’s Word work in our lives for His glory. Remember, there is no power of God apart from the rightly divided Word of God. We cannot make God do something He is not doing today, but we can learn and rejoice in what He is doing today.

These past 1500 days, faithful Father God has saved us from a wide range of doctrinal errors. We allowed Him to teach us through the Apostle Paul what He wants us to do. Also, we allowed Him to use the rest of the Bible to teach us how He has used the nation Israel and will use Israel yet future.

Dear readers, it has been our privilege to share with you what “little” we have learned, that you may share with others what you have learned. As we are witnessing great social changes and an unprecedented moral deterioration, we need to remember that we are not here to change the culture. This world is headed toward the seven-year Tribulation. It will not get better until Jesus Christ returns. Until He does, we need to be faithful in teaching and preaching these precious truths to others, that they may be rescued from this evil culture as well.

Now, to the glory of God’s grace, we open our fourth 500-study unit…. 🙂

Four Verses to Bible Understanding

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 KJV).

This is the first verse in Bible understanding. What are three others?

When one scans Christendom’s thousands of contradictory denominations, one is more likely to forsake the Bible because all hope in understanding it is abandoned. Faith destroyed, people grow angry with God. Some may turn to atheism, agnosticism, or some other Bible skepticism. They may embrace other world religions.

Dear friend, today’s Scripture and two of its companion passages will save you a literal lifetime of apostasy, burden, confusion, and disappointment. Yes, these verses are largely unknown—hence the widespread confusion!—but they will help you if you let them. Your Bible understanding will be totally revolutionized. Many years ago I experienced it and countless others testify that the following is the key to Bible understanding.

We are to “study” and “rightly divide” the Bible (today’s Scripture), but what does “rightly divide” mean? Rather than running to a commentary, a Greek lexicon, or a priest or preacher, we can go to God Himself. Peter preached in Acts 3:21: “[Jesus] Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” Contrast this with what Paul wrote in Romans 16:25,26: “[25] Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, [26] But now is made manifest….”

Father God kept some information secret (“mystery”) while He was revealing other information (“prophecy”). In Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, God finally revealed the secret. Outside of Paul’s writings, that secret is still a secret. Therefore, Paul’s doctrine starkly differs from the rest of the Bible. Paul is our apostle (Romans 11:13) and Jesus Christ gave him “the Dispensation of the Grace of God” so he could give it to us (Ephesians 3:1-3). Let us study all of the Bible, but let us mainly focus on Paul’s writings to understand and do God’s will for us today!

Liberated to Serve

Saturday, July 4, 2015

“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13 KJV).

Today, as we in the United States celebrate the 239th anniversary of our nation’s independence, we invite our Christian brethren worldwide to rejoice with us concerning our freedom in Jesus Christ.

When we proclaim Romans 6:14—“Ye are not under the law, but under grace”—people tend to assume “loose living.” Does “grace living” really mean we can now live any way we want? Lest anyone be misled in that regard, God the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to write in the next verse, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid [May God never let that happen!]” (Romans 6:15). Grace living is not Law-keeping, but it certainly is not Law-breaking either.

God still cares how we live, albeit He is not operating the “weak and beggarly” system of “bondage” (Law) that He once did with Israel (Galatians 4:9). God proved to the entire world that since Israel could not keep His commandments perfectly, no other sons of Adam (the Gentiles) could either: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them [Israel] who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world [Gentiles] may become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19).

We sinners cannot keep the Law. However, God in His grace provided us a way to escape that condemnation by sending Jesus Christ to offer Himself on Calvary’s cruel cross to pay for our sins. By simple faith in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as the fully-satisfying payment for our sins, we can now be “made the righteousness of God in [Christ]” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We can be delivered from the penalty of sin (hell and the lake of fire) and the power of sin (flesh-walking).

Why are we Christians free? To selfishly live any way we want? NO! Today’s Scripture says we are liberated to now serve others, especially our Christian brethren, just as Jesus Christ selflessly served His Father and selflessly died on our behalf. That is grace living!!!!

Please see our 2011 Fourth of July Bible study “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land,” which can be watched here or read here.

Faithful Father Forecasts Furious Fire

Thursday, July 2, 2015

“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure” (Psalm 2:4,5 KJV).

Frankly, faithful Father forecasts furious fire!

Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Because the God of the Bible is so longsuffering, unsurprisingly, sinful mankind takes advantage.

The Apostle Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:7-9: “[7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. [8] But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [9] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Simply put, the longer we delay in retaliating, our “threats of retribution” are dismissed as fake. When God promised wrath on wicked mankind, He did not immediately act. It takes a long time for God to get angry, but watch out when He does because His anger does not dissipate with the passing of time. Father God never breaks His Word—concerning both grace and wrath. That anger that He felt against the world 2,000 years ago is the anger He will have yet future. Peter’s words could have been fulfilled 20 centuries ago, when Jesus Christ could have come back and utterly destroyed His enemies in righteousness indignation.

Yet, today, that wrath is delayed—not because it was not real or because God was bluffing, but because God is longsuffering. The program that contained that wrath is momentarily delayed. Our Dispensation of Grace is operating, holding back the wrath! One day, today’s Scripture will be fulfilled. May we come now by faith alone in Calvary’s finished crosswork alone, that God not be displeased with us when He decides to pour out that long-prophesied (and long-delayed) wrath!