April 30, 2005

If you could imagine a great mountain that has always dominated your landscape being uprooted and cast into the sea, wouldn’t the emptiness of your new horizon shock you?

That pretty well pictures the uprooting of Protestantism that has become strikingly apparent as Roman Catholicism has virtually taken over the public consciousness of this once-Protestant nation of the United States. Roman Catholicism once pervaded Europe for 1260 years, but toward the end of that period of reign the great Protestant Reformation burst into life and blazed through Catholic Europe. It dealt to the Papacy what the book of Revelation describes as a “deadly wound” (13:3). Multitudes joined the fearless public “protest” against the non-biblical doctrines and claims of the Papacy. Out of the giant upheaval one development was the formation of a new nation in North America that grew out of the revolted 13 colonies of Britain that were here. The stated purpose of its revered founders was to establish a nation without a king and a church without a pope. It has grown phenomenally into the one world power that is capable of fulfilling the rest of Revelation’s prophecy of the future of the newly healed and restored Papacy (vss. 11-18).

Now its national presence seems to be transformed into a Roman Catholic one. The world watches in wonder as the miracle of ages happens before our eyes: the “deadly wound [is] healed” (vs. 3), and this once humble nation that was “like a lamb” during its Protestant era is preparing to “speak as a dragon” (vss. 11-17 again). It will seek to revive the power of those 1260 years.

But wait a moment: a protesting Voice will yet “lighten the earth with [the] glory” of a true gospel message (18:1-4). It will be the confrontation of the ages.

April 29, 2005

A subscriber in Australia writes: “Can you please explain what Jesus means in Matthew regarding Peter being the rock. The Catholic Church believes he was the first pope.” In response we said:

“There are two words in Matthew 16:18 which must not be confused. “PETROS” is the Greek word for a pebble, a small stone that can be thrown around. That’s the name which Jesus gave Simon when He first met him (John 1:42). From the beginning, Jesus knew the wishy-washy character of Simon. By the time of Matthew 16 (which was near the crucifixion) Peter had distinguished himself for being brash and unstable, living up to that humble name Jesus gave him in an effort to prepare him for that night when Peter denied Him three times.

The second word in Matthew 16:18 is “PETRA,” which means a great outcrop of rock on which people would build a skyscraper. That’s the “rock” on which Jesus said He will build His church. Peter himself vigorously denies that he is the “petra” on which Christ builds His church (see 1 Peter 2:4-8). The Bible frequently identifies the Lord Himself as the “rock” or “stone” of our salvation (Deut. 32:4; 2 Sam. 22:32; Psalm 18:31; 95:1; 1 Cor. 3:11).

Our subscriber wrote back: “That was clear and beautiful. I will share it with my Catholic friends.”

April 28, 2005

We have two Mallard ducks that visit us each spring and autumn for a few days, a male and a female. I know them--they are the same ones. They’ve been coming for years. The female is the leader; she comes out of the pool and waddles up the steps and on to our kitchen door, and the drake waddles behind. I feed them some whole wheat bread (an expert tells me it’s okay), then she waddles back toward the pool, stands at the top of the steps, then flies into the pool; he obediently follows. He seems to want her to get plenty to eat, let’s her have first chance at each bite of bread I throw.

Two little creatures that God has made--true to each other! If the little papa could sing in drakish language, his song would be, “No Rose in all the World Until You Came . . . ,” or maybe, “Because God Made Thee Mine, I’ll Cherish Thee . . .” God implanted in his little duck soul that sense of fidelity to her. And in her little soul, it’s there, to him.

If your souls are burdened with marital discord, believe:

(1) it was God who brought the two of you together, in His infinite wisdom;

(2) it was He who made the two of you one;

(3) He will renew and deepen true love in your souls--if you let Him;

(4) no one in all the world can put the two of you “asunder” unless you choose to resist Him;

(5) what He does for two Mallard ducks He will do a million/million fold for you two.

April 27, 2005

A question that perplexed the disciples of Jesus perplexes us today: Peter asked, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” The “sin” obviously was not an ordinary one: it was “against” Peter, something that wounded him personally. The apostle was mature enough spiritually to realize that “seven” is a complete number; it must be the limit for this difficult task.

The sin “against” him was so hurtful that Peter felt it threatened his personhood. Already he was beginning to sense dimly that Jesus was a “Forgiver”: little inklings of what led Him later to pray for His murderers, “Father, forgive them!” were showing through. Peter understood that it was his duty to forgive; but it was difficult to do! Nurturing resentment was so sweet to indulge in.

When Jesus enlarged the limit to “seventy times seven” He told about the enormously guilty yet forgiven thief who couldn’t forgive his debtor his trifling debt. He ended the little session with the blunt warning that His heavenly Father will not forgive us our “trespasses” if [we] do not forgive from [our] heart [our] brother his trespasses,” obviously those we feel are so “against” us (Matt. 18:21-35).

April 26, 2005

A strikingly beautiful little humming bird in his early morning exuberance crashed against my window and fell to the ground. Jesus tells us that His almighty Father in heaven, Ruler of the vast universe, saw when that happened, and experienced a pang of sorrow even as I did (Matt. 10:29). In that tiny little happening, He and I had a moment of fellowship together. If I had ever had a personal conversation with a national President, I would tell my grandchildren! Well, I can tell them of my little tete-a-tete with the heavenly Father when we two had something in common for a moment--sorrow at a little death!

You are to believe that because our heavenly Father is infinite, He thinks personally about you. You must say from your heart, “The Lord thinketh upon me” (Psalm 40:17). To “think upon” you requires considerably more personal attention than the little humming bird could get; the reason is that you have not only been created in the “image of God,” but you have also been redeemed by His Son. You absolutely MUST believe this, or you are not realizing what it means to believe in the sense of John 3:16.

With all the troubles and heartaches and disappointments you have known, you may think it very difficult to believe this stupendous truth; and to choose to believe it now may bring tears of repentance in your eyes, for you will very rightly feel ashamed that you haven’t believed it years ago. Very well, let them come. The One who “inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy” not only dwells “in the high and holy place,” but “also with him that is of a contrite and humble heart” (Isa. 57:15). He hungers for your fellowship.

April 21, 2005

There is a sin that God cannot forgive--not because He doesn’t want to, but because it’s impossible to. And the only reason why is because the sinner doesn’t want it to be forgiven. He has made the decision to cling to his sin forever. That is why it is called “unpardonable.” The Savior cannot force him to let go of it.

Is such a person happy after he has committed it? The common idea may be that no, he is very miserable. But it is more likely that he is remarkably carefree and lighthearted, always laughing, telling jokes, chuckling. He could be eternally smiling, even a sparkling personality. The Holy Spirit is no longer convicting him of sin! Jesus said that His first work with any of us is this: “When He is come, He will convict the world of sin” (John 16:8). The holy nerve of conscience has been severed, and the sinner goes on through life with no voice getting through to reprove him of wrong doing.

If the result of committing the unpardonable sin were a feeling of destitution, of woe, the sinner might desire reconciliation with God--which is what the Lord wants for him. The True Witness says to “the angel of the church of the Laodiceans,” “I would thou wert cold or hot.” If the “angel” were “hot,” he would be cooperating with the Lord Jesus; if he were “cold,” he would be shivering with extreme discomfort and would seek the heat.

The Laodicean “angel” cannot go on forever in a lukewarm state; something somewhere, sometime, will have to crack. For the “angel” to remain insensitive, lukewarm, is perilously close to a sin against the Holy Spirit.

April 15, 2005

What does the name of “Jesus” mean?

We are told in Acts 4:12 that there is salvation in no other name; Phil. 2:10 says that at last “every knee” shall bow to that name; Acts 3:6 says that name caused the man born lame to walk. Says the poet, “The name of Jesus is so sweet, I love its music to repeat.” But isn’t it time that we should learn what the name means? It’s more than mere emotion or tradition. There is dynamite locked in the very Hebrew name itself.

First, what does it NOT mean? It does not mean “Jesus would like to save,” or “perhaps He will save,” and it does not mean “He offers to save.” The simple Hebrew meaning within the word is “Jehovah saves.” Here’s what He is, not what He would like to be: He is a Savior. His proper title was recognized by the believing Samaritans (they got there before the Jews did!): “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42). He gives, not merely offers, His flesh “for the life of the world” (6:51).

Furthermore, He is not a co-Savior, sharing the job with any one else, least of all ourselves. You and I can’t share the honor! He “saves to the uttermost,” that is, not part-way and then leaving us to finish the job (Heb. 7:25).

This makes some people nervous; they’re afraid that if we say He saves completely that we’re going to get lazy and not do “good works.” But they don’t realize that when one appreciates what it cost the Savior to save us, when the dimensions of His sacrifice are realized, the human heart is so moved, so “constrained” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15), that the result is total dedication to the “One who died for us and rose again.” There is no end to the “good works” that His agape will forever “constrain” us to do. While Jesus saves, we have something to do, but it’s better to say we have something to believe. John 3:16 mentions no part we have to play in effecting our salvation other than to believe, which means “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Rom. 10:10). We let Him save us; we stop resisting Him. You are drowning in the ocean and the lifeguard saves you completely, at the risk of his life. Do you cooperate with him? Yes, otherwise you drown. Do you help save
yourself? No. You don’t give him a dollar tip and walk off proud of yourself; you thank him for the rest of your life, and you walk humbly ever after. Not one person eternally saved will talk about his own accomplishment. There is a song the redeemed will sing that we can begin to sing now (Rev. 5:11-13).

April 14, 2005

Gargantuan spiritual upheavals are rare events in world history. The worldwide Flood of Noah was a universal geological event but it was also preceded by a spiritual rebellion against God that was of epic proportions. Another was the coming of the Son of God as the world’s Savior two millennia ago when the world again rebelled against God and rejected and crucified His Messiah. But that horrible world event also was counteracted by the rise of genuine Christianity as the apostles fanned out around the world proclaiming a message that was called “the Gospel.” The Messiah had forgiven His murderers!

Another cataclysmic upheaval in thinking came in the great Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Wars have always come and gone; seismic political conflicts throughout history have been a dime a dozen; but public confrontations with God have seldom coalesced into world events that captured universal religious attention.

We have just witnessed one. The simple but vivid language of the last book in the Bible describes it as an all but universal spiritual upheaval: “all the world wondered” (Rev. 13:3-8). The gathering of the crowds in Rome was phenomenal; the de facto union of church and state was boldly evident as “the kings of the earth” knelt before the corpse of a man who claimed to be the Vicar of the Son of God--in other words, “Vice-president of Jesus Christ Inc.” The kneeling luminaries included three United States Presidents, something beyond the imagination of two centuries of U. S. history.

Look into that book of Revelation; we are thrust right into the middle of it. From now on, world history is on a wild ride.

April 13, 2005

Let me ask the question: Who do you think you are? (I’m asking myself that question!) Jesus had to wrestle with that same question all His life on earth as our Savior. The first inkling that He knew who He was came at the age of 12 when He asked Mary and Joseph in the Temple in Jerusalem, “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49).

The problem surfaces in the temptations in the wilderness after His baptism at the age of 30: “IF, IF, IF . . . Thou be the Son of God . . .!” (Matt. 4:6ff.). Matthew seems to be the one most aware of this problem that Jesus constantly wrestled with. Satan wouldn’t let Jesus alone even as He hung on His cross in His last hours: “IF Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross”! (Matt. 27:40).

So, I conclude, if the divine Son of God in our human flesh or nature had to wrestle with this problem in temptation, don’t be dismayed if you find yourself wondering who you are! Are you a scullery-maid or a ditch-digger in the Father’s house, or are you a prince of the realm? Do you have a right to hold your head high, or is Satan correct when he demeans you and seeks to destroy your self-respect?

There is a fascinating parable (or illustration) in Galatians 4:1-7. It tells of this barefoot boy running around the huge estate where even the slaves boss him about and tell him, “Go home to your Mommy!” But when this lowly kid grows up, slaves, watch out how you talk! He becomes the heir to the estate, your boss! So, says Paul, as long as we don’t know who we are, don’t know our true identity, all the devils in hell can torment us and boss us around; but when you are ready to believe that “in Christ” you are adopted as a son and you are indeed the lord of the estate, your spiritual or psychological servitude is at an end. “Even so we, when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world. But . . .” we have been redeemed, we have received the adoption of sons, and God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.

Read it, please: Galatians 4:1-7. Believe it and tell the devil and all his evil angels, “Begone!”

April 12, 2005

Have you ever had the experience of someone hating you because you were right? And they have falsely accused you? It’s painful. You can’t hate them back, and be a Christian yourself; you MUST love them. Neither should you be a wimp, a doormat for people to walk over. That’s not healthy self-respect for your God-given integrity of person.

Read the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:11, 12: “Blessed [happy] are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.”

Persecution began with Cain killing Abel because Abel was righteous and Cain was not (Gen. 4:8). All through history, God’s true prophets have always been reviled and persecuted by God’s professed people. Jesus spoke of this to the leadership of God’s true church in His day--the leaders of the Jews, the scribes and Pharisees. In Matthew 23:13-39 He fixed on them the guilt of all the murders committed in the world from A to Z, from the murder of Abel to that of one Zechariah, who was murdered in the very temple itself in Jerusalem, between the porch and the altar, his blood spattered on the stones of the pavement, blood which could never be cleaned away. Yet this Zehariah was murdered some 800 years before Christ’s day. How then could the Jewish leaders in Christ’s day be guilty of a murder committed long before they were born? The answer is--corporate guilt.

Now we are coming to the end of time, and the last generation will be judged for all that has happened in previous history--either in repentance for the sins of the world, or in crucifying Christ afresh. Some who now preach will become persecutors; and some who now persecute will become converted like Saul of Tarsus. The Good News is that today we can choose to stand on the right side!

April 11, 2005

Another question that perplexes people is how to understand Galatians 5:17 which says: “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Everybody knows about this unending conflict. The “flesh” is our fallen, sinful nature that all humans inherit from the fallen Adam which is in constant war against the Holy Spirit. Everything that the Holy Spirit inspires us to believe or to do, the flesh resists, 24 hours a day. The “flesh” per se never gets converted; the heart is converted, and we can receive “the mind of Christ,” but the “flesh” stays fallen until Jesus comes.

There are two ways that this verse is understood: (a) the flesh is stronger than the Spirit, so that means you cannot do the good things that you want to do. Those who take this dismal view see Romans 7:15-17 as a comment on it, where Paul says “What I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” If Paul teaches us that the Holy Spirit is not as strong as our sinful flesh, can you think of any worse News than that? Surely that shouldn’t be called “Good News”!

But there is (b) which understands Paul as saying that the Holy Spirit is 24 hours a day “striving” against the flesh; and if we “walk with the Holy Spirit” (Gal. 6:16), then we CANNOT do the evil things our sinful flesh constantly prompts us to do! The Holy Spirit wins the battle 24/7.

The context of Paul’s sad comment in Romans 7 is 8:1-4; don’t skip it!

April 10, 2005

The question haunts Christians everywhere: “Is it easy or is it hard to be saved? Are we correctly representing the Lord Jesus if we tell people that following Jesus is the difficult way to choose?” Many people, especially youth, have somehow gained the impression that to be a genuine, true Christian is the hardest thing anybody can do, and for sure Jesus tells us we must “strive to enter through the narrow gate” (Luke 13:22), and we must “compete” as “in athletics” (2 Tim. 2:5), and according to the NIV in Matt. 7:14 Jesus said His way is “difficult” (the KJV says “narrow,” and that is the correct meaning of the Greek word there; it is not “difficult”).

On the other hand, Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 that His “yoke is easy,” and His “burden is light.”

Who are we to believe--those who represent Jesus as telling us His way is “difficult,” or those who tell us He says His yoke is easy and His burden light? The two positions are as far apart as the east is from the west.

There is a mountain in the West that had a steep road going up. Model T’s had trouble climbing it, they found it “difficult.” No one could honestly deny that the road up Pike’s Peak was “difficult.”

But if someone installed a V-8 engine in the Ford, it could zip up the mountain road with “ease.” Is the missing factor our lack of understanding what Paul calls “the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5, 14)?

April 9, 2005

All who have awakened spiritually to comprehend something of the great controversy that rages between Christ and Satan, are disturbed. They are concerned as they see that same great controversy raging in the hearts of loved ones. Maybe it’s their children who are caught up in the rebellion against Christ that permeates the teenage world. The battles night and day are as intense as the struggle Christ had to endure in Gethsemane when He threw Himself on the ground sweating drops of blood. In His agony He sobbed as He prayed, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup [My coming cross] pass from Me.” Then as the hours dragged by, in agony of soul He cried, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:39).

That was the destiny hour of the world, yes of the universe itself: should He let Satan win? It wasn’t the physical torture that He dreaded, no; it was the horror of hell. Not the Fahrenheit temperature of the lake of fire, no; eternal separation from life and light, eternal exile from the smile of His Father. (I read in yesterday’s paper of a criminal facing 40 years in solitary confinement; “it’s hell,” he wailed in court.) The human soul of Jesus, yes, His divine soul, recoiled from the anguish that is the essence of hell--self-condemnation to the uttermost (He was in process of being “made to be sin for us who knew no sin,” 2 Cor. 5:21).

If your teens are going wild beyond your control, question: have they seen those same tears in your eyes? Have you done what those wonderful disciples of Christ did not do--“watch with [Him] one hour” in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:40)?

We teach our little children to sing “Jesus loves me, this I know,” and they are so sweet; but all they can do is sleep through Gethsemane.

April 7, 2005

The question came up in a Bible class: “Why does the Bible say that ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself,’ when the world has not been reconciled to Him? It’s still in rebellion against Him?” (2 Cor. 5:19).

That’s profound! If we say that the world was legally “reconciled” by Christ’s sacrifice on His cross (that’s when “God was in Christ, reconciling the world”), then the question comes up: “What does it mean to be ‘legally reconciled’ when experientially the world is not reconciled?”

(1) If the alienated world were honest and understood what Christ accomplished, it would be reconciled because that revelation of the justice and love of God “in Christ” was complete. No lingering question was left: Christ’s self-emptying love was so total that He “poured out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12), “emptied Himself” like you drain an empty bottle dry (Phil. 2:7), “tasted death for every man” (cf. Heb. 2:9), and in that way He died the “second death” for the entire world (cf. Rev. 2:11; 20:14). Therefore He is not “imputing [our] trespasses unto [us]” (2 Cor. 5:19 again).

(2) That’s enough to “reconcile” any alienated person who is honest! Therefore, it was an “objective” reconciliation accomplished; the truth is there waiting for any honest person to see it and believe, and in
that way “BE reconciled.”

(3) The “subjective” reconciliation takes place in the next verse when you and I “beseech” people, “ministering THE WORD of reconciliation,” pleading, “Be YE reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). The “legal” or “objective” reconciliation then becomes “subjective,” or  “experiential.”

April 6, 2005

It’s an enormous cataclysm of humanity that has taken place over the past 26 years. It amounts to the greatest spiritual earthquake since the sixteenth century, when the Protestant Reformation swept through Europe and dominated the beginnings of the American Revolution.  The Founding Forefathers of this nation vowed to establish here a government without a king, and to have a church without a pope. George Washington strongly opposed any infiltration of the papacy in the affairs of the new nation. The only Roman Catholic president ever elected bent over backwards in his insistence not to mix his religion with his political leadership of the nation; he was heart-dedicated to the American Constitutional principle of religious liberty and separation of church and state. He vowed not to let his church influence his political leadership.

The current outpouring of national adoration for John Paul II has been phenomenal. The once Protestant nation has become overwhelmingly Roman Catholic in public sentiment. It can be safely said that never has any nation in history so reversed itself within one generation. A world wonders.

Meanwhile, beyond all excitement and glitter of pomp and wealth, the words of the Bible quietly speak to those who reverence its message. Never has the book of Revelation spoken more eloquently than now.  Now note the next cataclysmic event to absorb world attention: the message of that “other angel” of 18:1-4 that must and will “lighten the earth with glory.”

April 5, 2005

There is a very sober warning in the Bible that it seems is easy for us to forget. It’s in Rev. 14:9-12. “If any person worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his right hand or in his forehead, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God . . .” Then chapter 15 goes on to speak of those who have met this great challenge and have accepted that third angel’s message, and have “gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name” who stand on the sea of glass singing the song of the Lamb forever and ever.

In fact, the entire Book of Revelation is concerned about this issue--the mark of the beast. Chapter 7 describes that same group who sing the song of the Lamb as those who have received the seal of God, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. In the Bible, a “seal” is interchangeable with a “mark.” So the Book of Revelation tells us that in the last days just prior to Jesus’ return in the clouds of heaven, the entire population of the earth will be divided into two groups: those who receive that “seal of God” and those who accept that “mark of the beast.” Pretty serious, isn’t it? This requires VERY careful study.

Revelation 13:8 says that “all that dwell upon the earth” will worship the beast with the sole exception of those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. It’s another crisis which in principle is the same that the people faced when Jesus was here on earth. They were divided into two groups--those who believed He was the true Messiah as He claimed, and those who rejected Him. He asked them, “What think ye of Christ?” (Matt. 22:42). They HAD to decide!

And so today, you and I HAVE to decide between the mark of the beast and the seal of God. But the issue is far, far deeper than a superficial, skin-deep outward sign. “The third angel’s message in verity” is the true message of righteousness by faith; it will lead to receiving the seal of God. A false, legalistic view will lead to the mark of the beast. It’s time for serious study!

April 4, 2005

The phenomenal power to reach hearts that Jesus exhibited in His early ministry was not due to some special psychological gimmicks that He knew, nor was it due to a magnetic, super-Hollywood personality. He was a quiet person (Isa. 42:2), “meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:28-30), very ordinary looking (Isa. 53:3); sad people identified with Him (vs. 3), you would meet Him in the street and never turn your head (vs. 4).

But He understood and proclaimed Gospel Good News! (Mark 1:14). That means He articulated its “truth” of justification by faith--all that Paul proclaimed later in Galatians and Romans Jesus compressed into His sermons in Galilee. The “power” was in His idea of agape that exuded from every thought, word, and look and action. The way Mark tells it we could get the idea that His sermons were what we call dry “doctrine” but they were like a lightning storm compared to the usual “doctrinal” sermons the people were used to hearing (vs. 22; well, Paul’s sermons were a close second, too).

Jesus was absorbed with the New Covenant promises of Genesis 12:2, 3 and He wanted to connect every Old-Covenant-saturated human He met with those “better promises” (Heb. 8:6). “He knew all humans, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man”(John 2:24, 25). In other words, He simply adapted the New Covenant promises to each individual the Father let Him meet or whom He saw briefly in the crowds who came to hear Him. Yes, a fun career! Never a trace of boredom for Him!

Now He invites you to reduplicate that soul fun in your own career. That means you’d better get well acquainted with what is the “doctrine” of the Good News in the New Covenant.

April 2, 2005

Have you ever been tempted to doubt you belong in God’s house? Does He consider you a homeless outsider? When you feel sinful and unworthy and have fallen short, you wonder. One day a Bible writer (who, we don’t know!), came to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem feeling guilty and unworthy to enter in. Then he saw a sight that encouraged him: a little sparrow had made its home in some little nook or cranny in the most holy section of the Temple, right near the sacred altar. There it was, twittering in joy, laying its eggs and rearing its young in that part of Solomon’s glorious temple where even the ordinary priests had no permission to enter! In fact, only the great high priest of Israel was permitted to enter that twice-sacred spot, and that on only one day in the entire year. And there was the little sparrow, totally unconcerned about the stay-away rules of Leviticus, confident of a welcome in the house of the Lord!

Then the poet wrote Psalm 84: “How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord, Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord. . . . Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young, a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God” (vss. 1, 3, 4).

It is possible that Jesus had that poem in mind when He told the disciples, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:29, 30). If you own a home and if your soul is generous, you will enjoy making visitors feel welcome. It will be fun for you. Jesus says, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). That word translated “pleased” means that it’s fun for the Father to do that! He enjoys welcoming sinners to His house. It’s constantly “open house” night and day. “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come!” (Rev. 22:17). Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened” (Matt. 11:28). “Burdened” with what? More than carrying sacks of cement or office work! “Burdened” with sin, convictions of selfishness, vain regrets.

“Blessed [happy] are those who dwell in Your house” (Psalm 84:4). You are invited; come as you are, don’t try to dress up first. For once the Pharisees were right, “This Man welcomes sinners!” (Luke 15:2).

April 1, 2005

What Paul Tells Us in Galatians
(A Bible Study)
 

1. He warns against a false gospel opposed to “the truth of the gospel” (1:6-12; 2:5, 14).

2. Paul’s understanding of that “truth” forced him to contend with the leadership of the church of his day. His understanding was more clear than that of the apostle Peter, or James (1:16-20; 2:12-14).

3. The “all men” who are sinners are not put right with God by any good thing they can do, but “by the faith of Jesus” (2:15-19).

4. Honest human hearts identify with Christ on His cross. As with Him, the natural result is: self is crucified. The slightest taint of legalism “frustrates the grace of God” and denies the cross (2:20, 21).

5. The alternative to “the truth of the gospel” has to become a form of Spiritualism. “The hearing of faith” is a heart-appreciation of the Good News in the gospel; it works miracles (2:1-5).

6. All believing humans repeat the experience of Abraham’s unbelief followed by his learning to believe (2:6-14).

7. “The curse” of the law is not obedience to it but disobedience. Christ’s experience on His cross was that “curse,” the horror of our second death (3:10-14).

8. The law was written in stone because of Israel’s old covenant unbelief; but that does not invalidate God’s promise in the new covenant to write it in the heart (3:16-21).

9. The law written in old covenant stone served as a policeman driving Israel under legalism until they should come back to Abraham’s experience of justification by faith (3:22-29).

10. All who live under a sense of condemnation and fear are like the barefoot boy bossed about by slaves on the ranch, while born to be the heir of the estate (4:1-3).

11. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception denies the truth of Christ’s full genetic identity with our fallen human race, which is necessary for true redemption from sin (4:4-7).

12. “The third angel’s message in verity” is the full liberating truth of the new covenant (4:16-31).

13. Salvation by faith cannot be understood unless faith is understood as that which “works by love [agape]” (5:1-6).

14. Proclaiming “the truth of the gospel” always brings persecution on its proclaimer (5:11, 12).

15. The genuine liberty inherent in true faith never produces license (5:13, 14).

16. The Holy Spirit is stronger than the “flesh” with all its sinful addictions. Therefore, if one understands and believes Paul’s “truth of the gospel,” he finds it easy to be saved and hard to be lost (5:16-18; compare Matt. 11:28-30; Acts 26:14).

17. To “walk in the Spirit” is to believe He is holding on to your hand, not vice versa (5:18-25; compare Isa. 41:10, 13).

18. We cannot truly help someone else unless we can sincerely put ourselves in his place (“there but for the grace of God go I”) (6:1-6).

19. The final mark of the beast will be “persecution for the cross of Christ.” “The truth of the gospel”  as it is in Galatians will therefore be part of the final “loud cry” that will lighten the earth with glory (6:12, 13).

20. To understand and believe this gospel of the cross delivers one from captivity to worldliness in all its forms (6:14).