The Christian Walk

"As we get nearer to Jesus - we get farther from the world! The world loses its attractions - and old sinful habits lose their power." James Smith

A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23

Hundreds and hundreds of times I have watched an austere old ewe walk up to a younger one which might have been feeding contentedly or resting quietly in some sheltered spot. She wold arch her neck, tilt her head, dilate her eyes and approach the other with a stiff-legged gait. All of this was saying in unmistakable terms, "Move over! Out of my way! Give ground or else!"

And if the other ewe did not immediately leap to her feet in self-defense she would be butted unmercifully. Or if she did rise to accept the challenge one or two strong thrusts would soon send her scurrying for safety.

This continuous conflict and jealousy within the flock can be a most detrimental thing. The sheep become edgy, tense, discontented and restless. They lose weight and become irritable.

But one point that always interested me very much was that whenever I came into view and my presence attracted their attention, the sheep quicklly forgot their foolish rivalries and stopped their fighting. The shepherd's presence made all the difference in their behavior.

This, to me, has always been a graphic picture of the struggle for status in human society. There is the eternal competition "to keep up with the Joneses" or, as it is now - "to keep up with the Joneses' kids."

In any business firm, any office, any family, any community, any church, any human organization or group, be it large or small, the struggle for self-assertion and recognition goes on. Most of us fight to be "top sheep." We butt and quarrel and compete to "get ahead." And in the process people are hurt.

It is here that much jealousy arises. This is where petty peeves grow into horrible hate. It is where ill-will and contempt come into being, the place where heated rivalry and deep discontent is born. It is here that discontent gradually grows into a covetous way of life, where one has to be forever "standing up" for himself, for his rights, "standing up" just to get ahead of the crowd.

In contrast to this, the picture in the Psalm shows us God's people lying down in quiet contentment.

One of the outstanding marks of a Christian should be a serene sense of gentle contentment.

"Godliness with contentment is great gain."

Paul put it this way, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," and certainly this applies to my status in society.

The endless unrest generated in the individual who is always trying to "get ahead" of the crowd, who is attempting always to be top man or woman on the totem pole, is pretty formidable to observe.

In His own unique way, Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd, in His earthly life pointed out that the last would be first and the first last. In a sense I am sure He meant first in the area of His own intimate affection. For any shepherd has great compassion for the poor, weak sheep that get butted about by the more domineering ones...(Phillip Keller) To be continued...

Have You Ever Been Alone With God?

The lives of others are examples for us, but God requires us to examine our own souls. It is slow work--so slow that it takes God all of time and eternity to make a man or woman conform to His purpose. We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves!

We don't even recognize the envy, laziness, or pride within us when we see it. But Jesus will reveal to us everything we have held within ourselves before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look inwardly with courage? (Oswald Chambers)

The Infinite Grace and Justice of a Holy God!

The Untold History of the Bible part (1)

The Law of Opposition

“To him who overcomes…” (Revelation 2:7)

Life without war is impossible in the natural or the supernatural realm. It is a fact that there is a continuing struggle in the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual areas of life.

Health is the balance between the physical parts of the body and all the things and forces surrounding me. To maintain good health I must have sufficient internal strength to fight off the things that are external. Everything outside my physical life is designed to cause my death. The very elements that sustain me while I am alive work to decay and disintegrate my body once it is dead. If I have enough inner strength to fight, I help to produce the balance needed for health. The same is true of the mental life. If I want to maintain a strong and active mental life, I have to fight. This struggle produces the mental balance called thought.
Morally it is the same. Anything that does not strengthen me morally is the enemy of virtue within me. Whether I overcome, thereby producing virtue, depends on the level of moral excellence in my life. But we must fight to be moral. Morality does not happen by accident; moral virtue is acquired.

And spiritually it is also the same. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation…” (John 16:33) This means that anything which is not spiritual leads to my downfall. Jesus went on to say, “…but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” I must learn to fight against and overcome the things that come against me, and in that way produce the balance of holiness. Then it becomes a delight to meet opposition.

Holiness is the balance between my nature and the law of God as expressed in Jesus Christ….Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest).

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is really a condensed study of the Bible's view of the Messiah-who he was, what he represented and why he had to come to Earth. Even to this day, if one is a proficient Bible student, the song's lyrics reveal the unfolding story of the Messiah. For the people of the Dark Ages-few of whom read or had access to the Bible-the song was one of the few examples of the full story of how the New and Old Testament views of the Messiah came together in the birth and life of Jesus. Because it brought the story of Christ the Savior to life during hundreds of years of ignorance and darkness, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” ranks as one of the most important songs in the history of the Christian faith.

To sing a song and not feel the power and majesty of its meaning trivializes both the music and the lyrics.

The first verse of the song is taken from Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23. It introduces Emmanuel-“God with us”-and Israel held captive on a dark and sinful Earth.

Isaiah 11 serves as the theme for the verse that begins “O come, thou rod of Jesse, free" (in some translations this is called the "Branch of Jesse"). In it the rod of Jesse represents Christ, who is the only one who can defeat Satan and bring eternal life to all those who follow him.

“O come, O Dayspring, come and cheer” presents the image of the morning star, a concept that can be traced back to Malachi 4:2. In this verse, the song states that the coming Savior will bring justice, honesty, and truth. He will enlighten and cast out darkness as "The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in His wings.”

The lyrics then turn to "O come, thou key of David," a reference to Isaiah 22:22. The words in this verse explain that the newborn King holds the key to the heavenly kingdom and there is no way to get into the kingdom but through Him.

WAKE UP CHURCH!

DO YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THE TRINITY IN ORDER TO BE SAVED?

Question:
A Mormon asked me this question a number of years ago, and through the years here at church, I’ve asked a number of people this question, and I wanted to get your opinion. Can you become a Christian if you deny the Trinity?

Answer:

I would answer, "No." If you don’t believe in the Trinity, then you don’t understand who God is. You may say the word “God” but you don’t understand His nature. Second, you couldn’t possibly understand who Christ is--that He is God in human flesh. The Incarnation of Christis an essential component of the biblical gospel, as John 1:1-14 and many other biblical passages make clear. To deny the Trinity is to deny the Incarnation. And to deny the Incarnation is to wrongly understand the truegospel.

In saying that, I realize that such an answer is going to not only impact people that you may have witnessed to (like Mormons), but it also applies tosome in the broader Pentecostal movement, called United Pentecostals or "Jesus-Only" Pentecostals. Such individuals hold to a kind of modalism, where God is sometimes in the mode of the Father orthe mode of the Son or the mode of the Spirit, but He’s never all three at the same time. That too is a deficient and heretical view of the Trinity. It denies the distinct Personhood of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The same question sometimes arises about the Virgin Birth. I think it is possible for a personto become a Christian before learning about the details of theVirgin Birth, thoughthat personwould certainly assume that Jesus Christ must have had a unique birthsince He is both God and man. But, if someone knows about the Virgin Birth and says, “I deny the Virgin Birth,” then he is simultaneously denying the deity of Christ, and also the Trinity. Such a person betrays the fact that they do not understand the gospel, and therefore cannot have truly been saved.  (John MacArthur)

Doctrine Matters

"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctifed," Hebrews 9:14

"Therefore being justifed by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," Romans 5:1.



The Reformed Faith and Confession: Introduction

The Reformed faith is rooted in the Reformation of the church which began with Martin Luther's nailing of the ninety five theses on the door of Wittenburg church in October 31 1517. The seminal doctrine of the reformation for Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and the other reformers was justification by faith alone. This is the truth that we are righteous before God in Christ who is our righteousness. That righteousness is imputed to us by or through faith, which is the instrument of God's grace to justify the sinner in his conscience before God.

That we are righteous before God by faith, means also that salvation is solely of the Lord. It is a free gift, and not of works. It is grounded in the truth of sovereign grace, for faith is not a new work on the basis of which man is righteous, but a work of grace in man, by which God imparts the blessings of salvation. The expression "by faith," or "through faith" refers to the instrument of grace. It does not mean as this truth is corrupted today "because of faith." To teach that man is righteous because of believing, is the heresy of salvation by works repackaged. Faith is a blessing of salvation, bought in the cross, and applied by the Spirit
Rome taught and continues to teach the error of salvation because of faith and the works of faith. It is Rome that teaches the cross is only a provision, a treasury of merits, upon which men by their faith and works draw and which is made available by a repeated sacrifice in the mass. It is to these errors that the reformers responded.

It is this same error of salvation by works, a conditional or provisional salvation offered to man and depending on the will, decision, act or works of the sinner in some form for its reception which pervades so-called evangelicalism. Such doctrine is not protestant. It is not evangelical. And it is not reformed. It stands at odds with the truth of Christ's perfect and finished atonement and of justification by faith in him. "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified," Hebrews 9:14. Those sanctified by Christ's atoning death are God's elect, whom God effectually regenerates and calls unto faith and righteousness by faith in Christ.

It is exactly this truth of salvation by grace alone, which the genuine reformational doctrine of justification by faith represents. It is the gospel. Against it stands the doctrine of salvation by the works of man and his righteousness, which is the false doctrine of the Pharisees of Jesus' day. Jesus himself warns us against it, when he says, "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees," and has in view their doctrine, Matthew 16:6, 11, 12. It is this corrupting leaven which repeatedly seeks to corrupt the life of the Christian church.
The truths of justification by faith and of sovereign grace are inseparable. They stand at the heart of every reformed confessional standard, both the Reformed continental standards: the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession of Faith, and Canons of Dordt and the Presbyterian standards the Westminster Confession and Larger and Shorter Catechisms. The purpose of the Reformed confessional standards is to maintain that truth as the personal confession of believers and the corporate confession of the churches over against the false leaven of salvation by works

One of the Scariest Moments in the Bible

Walking in the Spirit

The only consistent way to overcome the sinful desires of our human nature (the flesh) is to live step-by-step in the power of the Holy Spirit as He works through our spirit.

Galatians 5:19-26

The works of the flesh are these:  Adultry, fornication, uncleaness, lewsness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkeness, reveleries.  Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The fruit of the Spirit are these:  Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Those who are in christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Where to Find Comfort and Encouragement in the Psalms

When you feel abandoned - Psalms 10
When your world seems to be falling apart - Psalms 46
When you are afraid - Psalms 23; 91
When you feel guilty - Psalms 51
When your family gets on your nerves - Psalms 127; 128
When you are facing a daunting challenge - Psalms 27
When you are discouraged by the apparent prosperity of the wicked - Psalms 37; 73
When you do not feel very thankful - Psalms 107
When you feel as if God has forgotten you - Psalms 139
When you are tempted to lose faith in God - Psalms 62
When you have
lost your eternal perspective - Psalms 90
When you feel like you are barely hanging on - Psalms 86
When you are wondering what God expects - Psalms 15
When you want to know God better - Psalms 42; 63
When you need to be reminded of the goodness of God - Psalms 103
When you need to recommit yourself to serving God - Psalms 116
When you need wisdom - Psalms 119
When you need a reminder of God’s mercy - Psalms 136
When you feel like celebrating - Psalms 95-100

WARNING: The Book of Revelation was intended to be heard and obeyed, not to be tampered with. The person who either adds to or takes away from its contents will receive from God the strictest punishment, a punishment with eternal consequences. This terrifying warning is even stronger than that of Deut. 4:2 and Prov. 30:6.

Rev. 22:18,19…”For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

Take heed, if you are giving the Book of Revelation a “private interpretation.” A private interpretation comes from the fables of men looking for sheep to follow them, and men selling their books, and is NOT based on what the Scriptures say. The Book of Revelation is interpreted for us through what is contained in the Old Testament and Christ’s fulfillment of everything that is contained in the Old Testament via the New Testament. Scripture interprets itself. We MUST NOT go beyond what is written. There are NO private interpretations.

"Work Out" What God "Works In" You..."

"Work Out" What God "Works In" You..."work out your own salvation...for it is God who works in you..." (Philippians 2:12-13)

Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a nature that renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do. When the Lord initially comes in contact with our conscience, the first thing our conscience does is awaken our will, and our will always agrees with God. Yet you say, “But I don’t know if my will is in agreement with God.” Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time. What causes you to say “I will not obey” is something less deep and penetrating than your will. It is perversity or stubbornness, and they are never in agreement with God. The most profound thing in a person is his will, not sin.

The will is the essential element in God’s creation of human beings – sin is a perverse nature which entered into people. In someone who has been born again, the source of the will is Almighty God. “…for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” With focused attention and great care, you have to “work out” what God “works in” you – not “work” to accomplish or earn “your own salvation,” but “work it out” so you will exhibit the evidence of a life based with determined, unshakable faith on the complete and perfect redemption of the Lord. As you do this, you do not bring an opposing will up against God’s will – God’s will “is” your will. Your natural choices will be in accordance with God’s will, and living this life will be as natural as breathing. Stubbornness is an unintelligent barrier, refusing enlightenment and blocking its flow. The only thing to do with this barrier of stubbornness is to blow it up with “dynamite,” and the “dynamite” is obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Do I believe that Almighty God is the Source of my will? God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it.
(Oswald Chambers – My Utmost For His Highest)

Powerful Testimonies From Former False Converts

WHAT'S NEXT TO DO?

I believe that perhaps there is so much apostasy in the church today it’s because the church (organized denominations) is busy doing its own thing and it has lost all discernment and as a result of that has drifted away from the will of God and HIS purpose! Faith has been given to individuals and as individual believers we must learn from God and stop being spoon-fed in church buildings and seeking after personalities. They are feeding the saints pabulum (baby food), and in some cases POISON! The poison comes mixed in with the baby food, just a little at a time so as not to detect it. Jesus said in Matthew 16:6, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.” He was talking about the religious LEADERS, folks!  The following was written by Oswald Chambers many years ago.  God's truth does not change.  I pray that God would give ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.  Did you join a church so that you would have something to do on Sundays and to acquire new friends and have a good time.  If that was your motivation for doing so, then the time has come for you to really sit down and examine yourself.


Be determined to know more than others. If you don’t cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to cut them to send you out to sea. Everything in your life should be afloat upon God. As you sail out on His sea of purpose, your eyes will be opened. If you are following Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy and always tied to the dock. You have to get out into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself—begin to have spiritual discernment.

When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know more. Look back on times in your life when you have become disinterested spiritually, and you will find that it goes back to a point where you did not do something you knew you should do. You did not do it because there seemed to be no immediate call to do it. But now you have no insight or discernment, and at a time of crisis you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-controlled. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to continue learning and knowing more.

The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own opportunities to sacrifice yourself, and your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken for discernment. It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1—2. It is much better to fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than it is to perform great acts of self-sacrifice. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice…”(1 Samuel 15:22). Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been. “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know…” (John 7:17).

Believers in Grace

by Bill Randles

Do you remember the social and moral revolution of the 1960s? The youth movement of the left was destined to break all the rules and liberate society from the dreary bondage of the past. They were going to show us how to do it the right way! As an anthem from that day proclaimed, “All the world over so easy to see, that people everywhere just want to be free.”

Isn’t it ironic that those same revolutionaries, now come of age, have created a society that is vastly more restricted than the one they worked so hard to undermine? We now live in a “brave new world” in which every aspect of daily life is hyper-regulated, speech is scrutinized to the point of absurdity, and even thought is criminalized (hate crimes laws)!

Although they have, in large part cast, off the shackles of any fear of God, they have a rigid concept of “righteousness”: they are very religious about global warming, population control , a woman’s right to choose (abortion), tolerance of all religions (except of course evangelical Christianity), woman’s liberation, transgender acceptance, and multi-culturalistic dogmas.

My theory is that they are so religious, although godless, because people are made in the image of God and must have some kind of religion. Furthermore, they are raised in America, where once a vast Christian consensus permeated our society and its institutions. It is for this reason that there has developed among the secular elite a “godless righteousness.”

The idea of any accountability for the sins enumerated in the ten commandments has been cast off, but they have their own tablets of stone. “Thou shalt not, ever, ever, make a moral judgment,” “Thou shalt not smoke (in public or private),” “Thou shalt support all forms of abortion,” “Thou shalt not claim any absolute truth,” “Thou shalt not think western civilization is any better than any other culture,” and so on and so forth.

It has often been pointed out that as long as these pieties are observed, it doesn’t really matter what a person does as an individual. All personal indiscretions are excused as long as these positions are held.

The real sins, which have proliferated and intensified as a result of the sexual revolution of the sixties (i.e. the rampant fornication, the destruction of marriages, homosexuality, adultery, abortion and pornography) affect the consciences of those who practice and promote them whether they believe in God or not. One cannot escape the psychological trauma of these evils by just dismissing the concept of a God or a binding personal morality.

That’s part of the reason why the Left has developed an alternative morality, to try to feel good about themselves, to assuage their conscience. They have to assure themselves over and over again that they are all right, because they support Cause x, and wear the ribbon in solidarity of Cause Y. They are good people, on the good side regardless of their personal immorality.

In short, godless righteousness isn’t individual – it is collective. As long as you hold to the positions of the Left Wing, you are “in right standing” regardless of your personal failings. This is why the counter culture has always shamelessly championed people like Che Guevarra, a mass murderer, Albert Kinsey a known fraud and pervert, and other personally sordid fellow travelers. As long as they hold to the dogma, it doesn’t matter.

The tragedy is that this righteousness is a sham and will be found to be as helpful as Adam and Eve’s fig leaves on the day of Judgment. It may feel good to “be in the right” with the culture – there is no doubt a certain satisfaction in it. But there is no way that “godless righteousness” can heal the troubled conscience. Is this why this generation needs so much valium? There is no possibility that “godless righteousness” can take away the shame of sin, and it certainly will not reconcile anyone to the true and Holy God.

There is a true righteousness, a right standing that can be obtained before God, but only as a gift to be received from Him. The good news is that what God demands, perfect righteousness, God provides for us, as Scripture says, “For he [God] hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

A Good Soldier of Jesus

"Christians will sin, but they will walk in repentance. They will not walk in rebellion as a way of life. Therefore, when we see professing Christians getting worse and worse in their apostasy, we must conclude that they are to be excluded from fellowship and exposed as wolves in sheep’s clothing if they are confronted and they do not repent. On the other hand, if we do confront these men about their sin and they do repent then we must accept that and include them in fellowship as long as they remain in that repentance."

A Good Soldier of Jesus

Your Will be Done!

Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. - Matthew 6:10

God’s Word reveals three aspects of His will. First is His will of purpose—His sovereign, ultimate plan for the universe. “Surely, just as I [God] have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand” (Isa. 14:24; cf. Eph. 1:9–11). It has been within God’s purpose to allow sin to affect the world for a time. But that situation will end precisely according to His plan and foreknowledge.

Within God’s will of purpose is His will of desire. This will is more specific but not always fulfilled in the present age. For example, Jesus desired His people, the Jews, to be saved. However, only a relative few believed in His message. Jesus prayed, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together … and you would not have it!” (Luke 13:34). Like the Jews, most Gentiles are also unwilling to come to Christ for salvation (John 5:40; cf. 1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).

Third is God’s will of command, which is His desire that believers obey Him fully, as only they of all people can, with the help of the Spirit (see Rom. 6:16–18). Pride is the great enemy set against all of God’s will. But for us to obey His will, we must forsake self-will and “prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2; see also v. 1).

Ask Yourself

Understanding the many-layered aspects of God’s will is not nearly as important as being obedient to every aspect you do know. Don’t you long for His purpose, desire, and command to be met with full acceptance in your own life? Submit to Him in some new way today. Conform to His will.

(Daily Readings by John MacArthur)