Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

_The Biggest Gamble
Apr 21st, 2020
Weekly Bible StudyHugh W. Davidson
Categories: Commentary;Exhortation;Bible Salvation

I had to go to the mall three or four days last week and was really surprised at the number of retired people who gather there every morning. I think there's probably around two or three hundred of them. A few of them go there to walk and the rest are just sitting around enjoying the fellowship with their morning coffee. The strange part was the ritual they seemed to follow as they got their coffee and then sat down in groups of anywhere from two to eight, most of them started scratching their lottery tickets. My personal opinion is that a lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math. I mean, your chances of winning anything substantial is about ten million to one.

All I could think of when I saw them scratching their tickets was: 'what an empty existence.' I mean, here are people who are closing in on the end of their days and yet they all seem to be focusing on winning a pile of money. As I watched them, I couldn't help but wonder, what were they trying to do? Are they hoping to enjoy it in the time they have left or leave it to their kids. I think most of their children would much rather have the memory of parents who loved them more than any amount of money to remember them by.

The people at the mall are an awful lot like the people in the Bible who came to Jesus in John 12 and their main concern was to show Him how good they were. And it is amazing when you think about it, all these people who had the chance to ask Him anything, all they wanted to do was to ask questions in order to show Him how smart they were. And rather than compliment them on their knowledge, or argue with their misunderstandings, Jesus ignored what they were asking and gave them both a word of encouragement and also a subtle rebuke when He told them to walk in the light, and then He warned them about the coming darkness.

You see, their unbelief wasn't based on the fact that they didn't understand what He was saying, or hadn't had enough of the truth, but they didn't believe in Jesus intentionally. I mean, they had decided not to believe. Their unbelief was an act of their will. I've seen people who've rejected the gospel and they said, "I'm sure it's true, but the cost is more than I'm willing to pay." So, now see, it's not a case of their not understanding or not believing what they heard, but it's that they were not willing to accept Jesus for who He is and what He demands.

So, these people, like many others rejected Jesus with their eyes wide open. After all, they heard His teaching and saw His miracles but they just didn't care. Do you know that there are thirty-six specific miracles recorded in the New Testament as well as a few places where it indicates that many more had been done that were not recorded. This tells us that Jesus performed miracles day after day and every miracle demonstrated that He was God. He showed His Lordship over the forces of nature as He walked on water, calmed the storms and told trees to dry up. He healed every kind of sickness and disability to the point that some Bible teachers believe that He totally eradicated disease in Israel during His three and a half year ministry. And then He demonstrated His power over Satan and all the evil spirits and finished off His ministry by showing that He had power even over death itself as He raised Lazarus. And so, the unbelief of these people was nothing less than deliberate. I mean, how can anyone watch all this happen and then say they don't believe. I think it wasn't so much that they didn't believe as much as it was that they wouldn't believe.

Their attitude of unbelief reminds me of Pharoah in the book of Exodus where it says he hardened his heart at the sight of the first of eight miracles that Moses performed and then during the last couple of miracles it was that God hardened his heart for him. And I think the same thing happens to unbelievers today. First, they refuse to believe and then in the end their hearts are hardened and they can't believe.

People tend to think strange thoughts as their hearts get hard. I've met a few who said things like, "Well, when I get to heaven I've got a thing or two to tell God about what He allowed to happen to me." And when someone says something like that their problem is certainly not a lack of faith. They believe there is a God and they believe they're to stand before Him.

Do you know what the problem with their logic is? They THINK they're going to get into heaven not because they believed in Jesus but because God owes them a free ride in order to pay them back for the miserable time they had on earth. They ignore the fact that God has provided a plan of salvation and they focus on the suffering they had to endure and how they think that God owes them something for all they had to go through.

Can you imagine what heaven would be like if all these bitter people were given a free pass based on what happened to them on earth? I mean, they'd spend all of eternity whining about how much they suffered and how unjust God was and the rest of us would have to be gracious and listen to them. Let me tell you folks that would not be heaven.

I think there is a time for everyone to respond to the message of the gospel because sooner or later God will say, "Enough is Enough." I have no idea when that is and personally, I don't think I'd want to try to find out.

John's Glorious View of Jesus (Part 3) Series on Revelation
Apr 21st, 2020
Exploring RevelationArt Sadlier
Categories: Commentary;Inspirational

I remind you that we are listening to John speaking about his view into Heaven of our Glorified Lord. John sees Christ walking up and down in the midst of His churches. We stated that there are at least seven things Christ is doing today as He walks up and down in the midst of the churches.

Last week we saw two of those things.

First - We see Him ever present with His church to empower and bless.

Second - We see Him interceding for His church as our Great High Priest.

Today we see a Third thing He is doing. He is in the midst of His church to purify it.

Now John moves from the priestly clothing of Christ, "And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle" (Verse13), to the Person of Christ, "His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters" (verse.14,15). In these verses we see the Lord of the church, purifying and purging His church.

The Lord of the church is serious about a pure church. He is totally committed to making His church pure. "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Eph.5:26,27). You can view that process underway in 1Cor. 11:30-32, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."

The Lord is merciful, gracious, patient and long suffering, but He will not allow unconfessed sin to continue in the life of a believer, nor in the life of the church.

Peter said, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" (1 Peter 4:17). Before a church can preach against sin, it must be pure itself. Before a church can preach repentance it must repent of its sin. That is a principle for both individual believers and for local churches.

Notice, the judge of the church is the Lord Himself. We see the purity and holiness of Christ in verse 14, this white of course speaks of His sinlessness, His absolute Holiness. "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity" (Hab. 1:13). Our Lord cannot, and will not tolerate sin, the unsaved will be consigned to Hell forever because of their sin.

The Lord will not tolerate unconfessed sin in the lives of His people, nor in His church. We are told in 1 Jn. 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

In 1 Cor. 11:30-31, we see the believer's very life is in jeopardy if he continues in unconfessed sin, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

"His eyes were as a flame of fire", (vs.14). Sin cannot escape the all-seeing eye of Christ. He sees the secrets of the heart, He sees behind closed doors and the fire of Christ's judgment will fall on unconfessed sin. Both the individual believer and the church collectively will not escape the Lord's chastening for failure to deal with sin. We see in chapters two and three that some churches lose their candlestick. (their status as a church) because of unrepented sin.

"And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace". The Lord is in the midst of your church, walking up and down in your midst, ready to trample on unconfessed sin. He will spare neither you nor your church any stroke, no trouble, no heartache, no sickness or distress to bring you to the place of repentance. Do you see how serious Christ is about a pure church?

Why is it so important? Unconfessed sin comes between Christ and His people, it prevents His love and His mercy and grace and His presence from being our portion. How quickly and completely he will cleanse and forgive our every sin if only we will turn from it.

I would like us to observe something important before we leave these verses. We have here a description of our Glorified Lord. No one knows what our Lord looked like during His physical presence on earth, the Bible gives no details whatsoever. We know our Lord did not have long hair. Paul said, "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him" (1 Cor.12:14). Paul would not have said that if Christ had long hair, remember Christ appeared unto Paul.

By the way, all of the Roman statues of men dating back to that era, had short hair.

Every picture of Jesus is a fraud and a misrepresentation of Him. Those pictures must grieve our Lord, if you want to be pleasing to the Lord, you might want to remove from your walls any pictures you may have of Him.

Fourth - We see Christ speaking authoritatively to the church. "And His voice as the sound of many waters" verse 15. I believe John is implying that the voice of the Lord was like the pounding of the surf on the rocks of Patmos.

His voice is the voice of authority, the voice of power. The same voice that will one day speak and the graves of all the ages will open up and thrust out their victims. It is the voice of Christ speaking to His church, speaking through His Word, speaking by His Spirit, speaking with authority.

The great tragedy of the hour is that much of the Evangelical Church no longer hears the Word of God as its final authority. Sound Doctrine (the teachings of Christ) is no longer of primary importance, in many churches it has little or no place, this is the rejection of the Words of Christ.

The seeker friendly, purpose driven church, is following a man-made program for the church that is nothing less than the rejection of the purpose and pattern of Christ for the church, as found in His Word.

Churches are FILLED TO OVERFLOWING, easy believism is welcomed by the natural man. Salvation without repentance and a change of life, is the desire of every unregenerate heart at some point in their lives, you can build a church on that, but it will not be the church of Jesus Christ. The end result is that those churches will lose their candlestick, and will cease to be the Church of Jesus Christ.

When we get to Revelation 2 and 3, we will see Christ removing the candlesticks of those church that depart from His Word. We go back constantly to Mt.7:21-23.

The church is called out of the world, it is called to be separate from the world, to go outside the camp bearing His reproach. It is warned not to love the world, the church is not to bring the world into the fellowship of the church.

The church is to go out into the world and preach the Gospel, win men and women toChrist, baptize them and bring them into the fellowship to be discipled. To reverse that plan of our Lord is to bring the tares in among the wheat and to bring leaven into the loaf, it will destroy the church.

Today, I believe much of the Evangelical Church is in the late stages of apostasy. The problem began some years ago when the Word of God began to be marginalized, the church stopped listening to her Lord. Entertainment took the place of teaching sound doctrine, pragmatism took the place of our Lord's plan for the church. Bigness became more important than orthodoxy and faithfulness.

If we are to have any hope of experiencing the blessing of God in our churches and our lives, we must once again make the Word of God our only rule of faith and practice. It must return to the center of our lives and church and everything we do. John 14:21, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."

Do not look for revival without preparing the ground, and paying the price that revival requires. Genuine revival is not a short-cut to a church getting thoroughly right with God and His Word.

...shew the Work of the Law Written in Their Hearts, Their Conscience Also Bearing Witness - Romans
Apr 21st, 2020
Morning MeditationF. B. Meyer
Categories: Commentary;Inspirational;Book Study

This is a great announcement, and shows how God can judge men who have never heard of the Bible or the Decalogue. The latter is engraven on their hearts, and is witnessed to by conscience.

Conscience is an original faculty. We are no more called upon to investigate its origin than the mathematician to inquire how the mind can add, or multiply, or divide; or than the artist to ask why we can appreciate the beautiful. It is part of the make-up and constitution of our moral nature. The word ought lies behind conscience, investing it with the certainty and irresistibleness of the throne of God.

Conscience is the judgment-seat of God set up within our nature. You may always know when conscience speaks. She never hesitates, or questions, or pronounces on the expediency of a course; but, as any case is presented to her, she pronounces absolutely and directly upon it as right or wrong. And as she speaks, she anticipates the verdict of the great white throne.

Doubtless conscience may be impaired in its action by long neglect, or by the determined preference of human maxims as our rule of action; but it is always liable to resurrection when the voice of God is sounding. The office of the minister, like "Old Mortality" in the story, is to go through the world, chisel in hand, clearing the inscriptions of the law from the grit of growth which has rendered them almost illegible in too many cases. The Prince, in the old fairy story, sounded a blast at the gate of the Sleeping Palace, and broke the spell, so that all its inmates sprang up into alert vitality; and similarly the Spirit of God, through the Truth, appeals to the human conscience, which is His ally in the heart of man.