NT Canon: Sorry, We're Closed

Evaluating the Glory of God on Cape Cod's results and resources...

Just scrolling through the Facebook page of the Glory of God On Cape Cod to see if there has been a manifestation and I missed it.

Has there been one?

I mean like the one they are praying for, not the "ordinary" dealings of the Spirit. It has to be a lulu if it happens, 'cause that's what they're praying for.

Looking at their leaders' teachings, I see the continuance of the weird wedding of Old Testament scripture (intended for the backsliding nation Israel) applied to the part of the New Testament church which has yet to receive the Word: the New Testament canon is closed.

Prophetic prayer life is the newest thing being promoted as the solution to the churches ills. We're told it's "little known" and "generally overlooked". From MPOV, such neglect might be understandable, since it has little basis in the church teachings of Paul,

I often wonder why Christians are so enamored of "revelation" coming from all sorts of sources when they have not fully absorbed what God has clearly written out in His Book?

It's going to be awful difficult for a prophet of today to top what's coming down the pike in God's already revealed plan for the culmination of all things to His glory.

In fact, it's forbidden to try.

Revelation 22:18 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; 19 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.

Paul or Matthias?

The Apostle Paul Took Judas' Office, Not Matthias, and Why It's Important



The Apostle Paul took the place of Judas. This is true because:

1. there are only twelve Apostles of the Lamb. This is a distinct group, even though any messenger of God may be called an apostle. For instance, Barnabas was an apostle, but not an Apostle of the Lamb, one of the twelve.

2. The Bible reveals that the Apostles of the Lamb are only twelve and their office is fixed eternally. Revelation 21:14: Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

3. The twelve recognized their distinct calling, both individually and as a group. Peter knew they needed twelve Apostles, so went about remedying the situation. He seemed to forget that Jesus was alive and well and about to pour out his Spirit on them.

The entire truth of the church was not known at this time. Peter did not even know the Gentiles were included in the church until later (Acts, chapter 9). The full revelation of all things regarding the church was given to the Apostle Paul as (a secret now revealed, formerly hidden in God).

4. Peter made several mistakes in seeking to replace Judas. First, he forgot that Jesus Himself is the only one who selects His Apostles.

Next, he was incorrect in believing that an Apostle had to be an eye-witness to the resurrection to be an Apostle. Any Christian today can testify to the truth of the resurrection, yet none of us were there. Even the Apostles heard it first from the Godly women. Yet Paul did see the resurrected Christ, and more than once.

Then last of all, Peter used an Old Testament method of determining the will of God. This was especially crude when contrasted to the Promise of the Spirit, not yet received. Later on in the church experience, the Spirit revealed Paul to believers and to the earlier Apostles, who then acknowledged his office. Peter's premature action in forcing a resolution to a need instead of waiting on God to do it His way, is characteristic of Peter ... and us, as well.

5. Peter is later proven wrong in the hasty selection of Matthias, by the Lord's selection of Paul to fill out the number of the Twelve.

Acts 9:15: But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he (Paul) is a CHOSEN vessel of MINE to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."

Paul himself knew and claimed the office of Apostle: Galatians 1:1 Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), 2 and all the brethren who are with me...

Paul's works prove he is a true apostle...especially in the delivery of sinners from sin to Christ.

1 Corinthians 9:1: "Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord."

Acknowledging the Apostle Paul as the twelfth Apostle of the Lamb is important because:

1. It's always important to honor all of God's truth and the position Christ has chosen for men.

2. The ministry and teaching of the Apostle Paul to and in the church is of crucial importance in understanding Biblical Christianity. He is the Apostle to the Gentiles and the steward of the church age truth. We should recognize this all important church truth and as one brother wrote: "run all things (teachings) through the filter of Paul."

3. The Enemy still seeks to deny, disparage and cast doubt about the authenticity of the Apostle Paul and his scriptural teachings. Let us, conversely, understand and honor Paul's Apostleship and study his unique writings, given to him by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

4. The sinner needs Jesus to be saved from the penalty of past sins. The believer needs Paul to be instructed in how Jesus presently saves us from a sinful life. The church needs Paul to instruct us in how Jesus is going to save us from the Tribulation and deliver us into glorification.

5. The failure of church teachers of the past and present to allow Paul to occupy the place Christ has given him, is a major reason for untold misery and error in the church, throughout the centuries.

Christ's delegated authority as given to the Apostles is to be honored by believers just as one honors Him:
Matthew 10:14: "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."

Note:

The Apostle Paul is our role model in Christianity. He like us, had a sinful nature, but learned how to win the victory over it in order to live for Christ effectually. We do well to learn from him.

The Submerging Church

The Submerging Church

I look back on some 60 years of being a Christian. In that time, the church has been submerging into a cesspool of worldliness and wickedness, symptoms of its own spiritual weakness. I have seen believer after believer fall away from any profession of faith and some even into open sin of the worst kind. Even those who remain faithful seem to be only clinging to the sinking s...hip, with no strength to aid others who are drowning. THIS SHOULD NOT BE!

This weakness is directly attributable to the preaching and teaching of its leaders. Ignoring or lightly regarding Paul’s teaching concerning all doctrines to do with the believer and the church is to ignore Jesus Christ’s authority in appointing the Apostle to the Gentiles. Resisting Paul or failing to understand his role and revelation has allowed all types of humanism to adulterate the purity of the Word of God.

The current sad state of affairs has given occasion and boldness to the proponents of falsehood. Glitzy personality driven national “ministries”, driven by greed, have made tremendous inroads into true Christian churches. The ignorance of the basics of the Gospel has left the lambs vulnerable before the “roaring lion”, Satan. Believers feeding largely only on the latest Christian music are unable to discern the good from the bad and so are apt to build a tolerance for error in exchange for a spiritual high.

What is needed to strengthen the church is up to date preaching that is in line with the times, according to God’s prophetic clock. The exit of the church is imminent, and as soon as that breath-taking event happens, the Day of the Lord begins for all the unbelievers left on the earth. Jesus said this will be the worst thing that has ever happened on earth to any people. God’s wrath, fueled by His righteous rage against a world that has rejected His Son and His supreme sacrifice, will experience this Divine venting …and who shall stand?

Some, with no biblical basis, are teaching a great end time revival. Such teaching is exactly opposite of what the Word of God clearly states. (See Scripture below.)

Preaching the end time events now, while these cataclysmic things are about to break on an unsuspecting world, is the responsibility of the church! This doctrine preached and believed will clean up believers and result in a repentance commiserate with such powerful truth. This will engender a thirst for the truth of God’s Word in all matters. This thirst satisfied will cause growth in grace leading to the joy of the Lord in the believer.

1 Thessalonians 5 New King James Version (NKJV)The Day of the Lord

5 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.

5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. 6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

Getting the Rapture Right: What Are the Signs to Look for? None!

“Rapture” is a Latin term for the taking away of a large group of people from one place to another. An early translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, used the term and it is now the ordinary way of naming this great event.

The Apostle Paul is the source of the doctrine of the Rapture.
This is not surprising, when we accept that Paul was given the secret of God, never disclosed in the Old Testament. This secret was a mystery to everyone until Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, was allowed to open it to us. It was a detailed revelation of the make-up, offices, structure, development and departure of the completed Bride of Christ to meet the Heavenly Bridegroom in the air.

Romans 9-11 are Paul’s explanation of God’s sovereign right to offer salvation to the Gentiles. This would be a real shock to the Jews as they knew their distinctive calling by God to be His people. This was true, but had been perverted into a sinful nationalistic Godless pride that dishonored God and offended Gentiles. Paul’s explanation was meant to establish God’s faithfulness in the minds of all, and to reaffirm His righteousness in all His ways.

What is the Rapture?
It is the return of Christ for His Bride, the church, made up of born-again people. Christ will return in the clouds, just as He left, and call all living believers to Himself. Saints who died before this event will already be with Him in spirit form. Their bodies will be called out of their graves and instantaneously transformed into glorified form.

Living believers will not have to die, but will be transformed into the eternal state as they rise to join the saints and meet Christ in the air. So shall we ever be with the Lord. Christ then will usher us into Heaven, to His Judgment Seat, and then present us to the Father.
Who will go in the Rapture?

Every person who is born-again, whether living or dead. We are a spiritual body, and no part of the Bride will be left behind. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:13 (NKJV)

What about Christians with no visible “fruit” or who once seemed to love the Lord but have drifted away? Will they go? Yes. Salvation from the punishment of sin has never been based of the performance of any believer. Thankfully, eternal life has always been a gift, based on the sterling performance of Another, the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be no mistakes made, as God can read hearts, while we as humans can only see works. God sees faith in Christ in its embryonic form before it matures, just as He even knows how many apples a tree will produce at its planting.

If we are concerned some are getting away with sin and slackness, remember, all believers will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to have their earthly works approved or disapproved. Only works will be judged there, not souls, as our sins were judged before at Calvary in the Person of Christ.

This is a great incentive to seek the filling of the Spirit daily that we might serve Christ in an acceptable manner. It’s pleasant to remember Jesus promised even the slightest deed done in His Name, (like giving a brother a glass of water) would be rewarded. How like Jesus, seeking the good, even in the least of us! (Pause for tears of gratitude here).

What are the signs to look for? How close are we?

There are signs for the Second Coming, which will be all about the redemption of Israel. This is in keeping with the manner in which God authenticated His messengers and His message to Israel in the past. God’s method explains the main reason Jesus did so many signs, wonders and miracles in His earthly ministry, as He presented Himself and the Kingdom to Israel in His first Advent. The last and final sign to Israel was His bodily resurrection. A sign does not require faith to happen, like a miracle does. The resurrection is thus a fitting sign and the last one to an unrepentant Israel.

The Rapture, in sharp contrast, is imminent, meaning it could happen anytime. It needs no signs, since the Bride has been made ready by the Spirit. The Spirit has also given us His Word on this event, so we need no sign. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15:51, expresses the faith that he would be in the Rapture while still alive. This was not an error on his part. It is always right to anticipate the Rapture until it happens or until we die.

If we die before the Rapture, we will instantly be with Christ and return in the sky when He does in that great event. Our dead bodies will be raised and transformed into a glorious resurrection body like Christ’s and our new nature will slip into its new, eternal home. Then we will watch with joy supreme as living saints, our brothers and sisters, are caught up to be with the Lord and us. They will be transformed into the glorified creatures we have just become, by the grace of God. They come to us without even dying. What a joyous time!

What wonder as our oft-tested faith is proven true in the wonder of His Presence…and so shall we ever be with the Lord!

Understanding this truth will put a lot of scripture into proper perspective. Which is a good thing, since knowing the future always relieves present pressure, especially when the eternal future is going to be so wonderful! Accepting this truth of the Rapture has benefits. It helps us focus on spiritual matters, is a present hope in the midst of trials, and is an incentive to purify our thoughts and lives by the surety of the Rapture. It’s called the Blessed Hope for a reason, and a special reward (crown) is promised for those who deliberately keep it in view. We are to comfort one another with this truth, not beat them with it!

How will I react to all of this before and when it happens?

1 John urges Christians to continue to develop their faith into mature faith. Those who don’t cooperate with the means of growth in grace (Scripture, prayer, fellowship, service) will understandably suffer some trepidation in anticipation of the Rapture. Yet when Christ does return and we see Him, we shall be like Him.

I take this to mean we will undergo a great change in our thinking, along with the wonders of the rest of our glorification. We will think completely like Christ about righteousness and purity. Earthly relationships will be seen in the light of eternal truth and our questions about lost loved ones and what might have been, resolved at last, to the glory of God.

The best result of knowing this Rapture is coming is to plant a new zeal in our hearts to pursue the scriptural Christ in our thinking, to really hear Him who loved us unto death and washed us in His own blood. This true hearing of His word includes the acceptance of all of God's Word, but Paul's teaching in particular when it comes to the church's earthly existence and Heavenly destination.

 It's my conviction the failure in diminishing his role and revelation in the plan of God is the cause of much confusion. Let us listen to Paul, just as we would listen to Christ if we would truly understand church doctrines to the glory of God.  
Christ will help us by His Spirit to live to honor Him and do something for Him, in some way, even today.

Compromise Leads To Slavery

Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?" (Judges 15:11)

I knew a man who was in WW 1, who told me the following story. The war was often fought from trenches, with Germans dug in on one side of the field of battle and our troops on the other. These battles could go on for weeks sometimes, and in this case, the opposing troops had worked out an unwritten "cease fire" on Sundays. Then one peaceful Sunday a new recruit showed up who knew nothing of the "cease fire" edict.

Spotting one of the enemy, he fired on him. The Germans were so outraged by this breach of the "peace", they unleashed every weapon they had on our guys. An understandable response in the light of the compromise.

The poor recruit! He thought there was a war going on and he was supposed to fight the enemy. But when he did, his own fellow soldiers turned on him and blamed him for rousing the enemy! These soldiers had lost sight of the larger purpose for the conflict and had compromised for the sake of a quasi-peace.

Samson found himself in a similar situation. Israel was called to execute the judgment of God against the heathen nations that occupied the Promised Land. God had given the idol worshippers over 400 years to repent and now He was set to take vengeance on them. His patience had not profited them and no doubt He was filled with disgust and wrath at their horrible worship of idols that included the burning alive of their own children. Their denial of the true God led to such awful practices, even to the raising of some of their children to become temple prostitutes, both boys and girls.

Under Joshua's leadership, a good beginning of fulfilling the will of God had begun, but it faltered after the passing of that great leader. Instead of obeying God and possessing the land, Israel found themselves in bondage to their enemies in Samson's time. God used Samson in the role of the "raw recruit" to renew the battle and save Israel.

In Samson, they saw a demonstration of the power of God using a man as flawed as they were to defeat the enemy. As Samson seized on the new jawbone of an ass and slew a 1000 men singlehandedly, so the hand of God seized Samson, even in the rotting flesh of the old nature and wrought victories through the Spirit. This example is for all of God's people, so we know our weakness and waywardness can yet be overcome, so we too can be used of the Spirit of God.

Was Israel grateful that they had a new champion? No! Instead they blamed him for getting them into trouble with their "rulers"! What a terrible thing to do for the people of God! Calling their oppressors their "rulers" an allegiance which belongs to the true God alone. They had forgotten the God who freed them from slavery from the most powerful nation in the world. And the manner in which He brought about their deliverance..."with a high hand". They came out of Egypt supernaturally, with Egypt's gold as pay for their years of slavery. They came out, not to die in the wilderness through unbelief, but to go in and conquer and possess the land given to Abraham by God.

Do not compromise with the Enemy of your soul but believe God and fight with the word and the weapons of the Spirit as God leads and guides you. The war will not be over until Jesus takes the Throne of David in Jerusalem.

Author Notes Christians are going against the traffic of the world system which is headed for destruction. Compromise leads to disaster. Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.

The Blind Bind

12 But they (Samson’s Jewish brothers) said to him, “We have come down to arrest you that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.”
Comment: Weak, compromised, defeated believers are always trying to “keep the peace” and “not make waves” because they are not filled with the Spirit. We are told “do not quench the Spirit” yet many will seek to quench the Spirit active in God’s man…so beware. David had more trouble getting through detractors and well-meaning advisors... then he did with Goliath!

“Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

Comment: Samson still treated those as brothers who were weak and did not attack them to deliver himself. He is nobler than they in this incident, and allows them to bind him.

13 So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

Comment: Being themselves blind to the reality of spiritual conflict, weak believers want to comply with the Enemy rather than become winning warriors for God. They are so spiritual blind they would rather bind God’s man than follow him into battle.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his h
ands. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.

Comment: The philosophies of defeated men are snapped and superseded by the Spirit of God, just as Samson’s binding ropes were unable to restrain the power of God. With an unlikely weapon, God brings about His purposes. May He use our jawbones to His glory and praise in all the earth.

Let us beware of fleshy methods coming from compromised men of flesh seeking to restrain the demonstration of God’s power through His Spirit-filled men and His Holy Word.
Judges 15:12-14 (NKJV)

Podcast of New Man Radio: The Call of Paul _2

The Call of Paul _2

The Apostle Paul's Dovetailing of Israel and the Church

Romans 9.10,11 are used by the Apostle Paul to show us how God is saving the Gentiles, just as the Prophets said He would. Those same Prophets of the Old Testament had no understanding of how God was going to bring this about.

They knew nothing of the church that Christ announced and then later revealed, in detail, to the Apostle Paul. They knew what the Spirit testified to them about the salvation of the Gentiles, but not the how or when. This glorious mystery was revealed by Christ to Paul, who has been trying to explain it to us in 13 Epistles, as well as by his sacrificial life and death!

The fact of the church as a separate entity from Israel is often denied by many, but Paul tells us that the church was “a secret hidden in God” until made known to him and the other Apostles. It’s simple enough to see that the church can’t be in the Old Testament since its foundation is comprised of Christ Jesus, the Apostles and the New Testament Prophets. No foundation…no church; an easy deduction.

In these three chapters, the Apostle Paul’s message is that the church, made up of believing Gentiles and Jews, does not replace Israel or alter God’s covenants with His beloved people, Israel. This is very important, because God cannot lie, nor does His word contradict itself, as some erroneously teach.

Unfortunately, teachers of the past and present have failed to see the true meaning of these chapters and have gotten bogged down in endless speculations, complicated by their misunderstanding of election.

The true purpose is to show that God has every right to extend His mercy to the Gentiles, even though Israel is His beloved, eternal nation. Saving Gentile sinners as a work of God may not be difficult for some to grasp, but you must put yourself in the shoes of a proud Pharisee for a moment. From the time you were a child on your father’s knee, you have been told you are special, one of God’s chosen people.

You have heard the amazing story of how God picked the Jewish nation from all of the others to love and through which to display His power to all the earth. You grew to revel in your kinship to Abraham, a name revered and respected by all. Your pride in your nationality and religion grew as you heard about the miraculous deliverances from slavery in Egypt. You admired Moses, even as children today admire sports stars. You grew in zeal for the Law, the Temple and the rituals of the Mosaic system. You knew that you were special in the eyes of God and all others, the outsiders, the Gentiles, were dogs.

Suddenly, a false Messiah appeared, doing signs and wonders by the power of Satan to deceive the people. You raised your voice in protest and rejoiced that he was brought to justice. Then you found that many were saying he was alive! A large number of your Jewish people had accepted him as the Messiah and now…to top it all off…Gentiles were being added to what you now view as another Jewish sect! What can be the meaning of all this?

Romans 9, 10, 11 explains how both Israel and the church all fit into the grand plan of God, who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to save us, Jew or Gentile, through faith. 

Here is a summation passage from Romans 11:28-32: ²⁸ Concerning the gospel they are (Jewish leaders, unbelievers) enemies for your sake (through their hard hearts, Christ was rejected until the church is born, formed, and flown in the Rapture),

but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. NOTE; all Israel is the elect nation, but not all are saved. Election always has to do with purpose and nothing to do with predestination to salvation. Please see Paul speaks here of these hardened Jews as part of the Elect…yet they certainly aren’t saved)
 ²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. ³⁰ For as you (we Gentiles) were once disobedient (unbelieving) to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, (their rejection of the Messiah through unbelief delayed the coming Kingdom and allowed us Gentiles to be saved and made members of the church, His body)  

³¹ even so these (unbelieving Jews) also have now been disobedient (unbelieving), that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. (even though Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles, he longed for his unbelieving Jewish brothers to be saved; so should we!)
³² For God has committed them all (unbelieving Jews…and Gentiles by extension) to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.

Verse 32 is proof that salvation is not determined by predestination, but by faith in Christ. These unbelieving, hardened Jews who were willing to reject Christ and see Him crucified, can yet be saved if they simply believe the Gospel.

Paul’s misunderstood statement in Romans 9 that God will have mercy on whom He will is more fully seen here as wanting to have mercy on all, even those who crucified His Son! Paul’s earlier point was intended for the Jews to show that God has every right to extend His mercy to the Gentiles.

 

 

Paul, Christ's ambassador in chains.

 

 

 

Hijacking the Bible Study

Dennis Clough

Hijacking the Bible Study
Sometimes the leader of a Bible study will encourage participation by saying, "There are no 'dumb questions', so feel free to ask anything."

Well intentioned as this statement may be, it sometimes leads to taking the "Bible
study" far from its intent: learning and understanding the scriptures.
In this incident, Jesus was teaching the multitudes some heavy duty scriptural doctrines concerning Heaven and Hell, faithfulness and death.

One of the crowd was so caught up in his own world that he couldn't hear what Jesus was saying. But since people were giving attention to the Teacher, he tried to hijack that power for his own purposes. Perhaps his brother was in the crowd also and it seemed like a good idea to use Jesus and the power of "religion" to get what he really wanted.

Christ would have none of it, rebuked the man and used the incident to teach the danger of a lust for riches. Don't let your Bible study veer away from the scriptures in a misguided attempt to "minister" to the felt needs of those who desperately need to hear what Jesus is actually saying. "Gentle" Jesus embarrassed this presumptuous man for his own good and the good of His hearers...and us.

Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation?

2 Peter 1 has many encouragements in it for Christians to mature and show the fruits of righteousness in our lives. The encouragement stems from our eternal position in Christ, and there simply is no threat of eternal condemnation to believers ever, in the writings of the Apostles. 

Yet many of us know some who have started well by putting their trust in Christ and then fallen by the wayside, wandering far from what we can legitimately expect of one trusting Christ. It is very easy to use their bad example to promote something far worse; the teaching that a born-again Christian can after all, be sent to Hell.

Let us be honest, it seems logical, and even fair, that defectors should lose their salvation. It would be simple justice if such were the case. We, however, are under grace. Justice was executed at Calvary, for us. God's character is at stake in promising free salvation to all who believe and eternal life as a present possesion. God is not a man that He should lie.

Yet there is still something for the Christian to fear and that is failure to grow in grace. Admonitions for Christians never use loss of salvation as the basis of their warning but rather the loss of blessing and future reward.

The truth is that many have"lost their salvation", in the sense of "working out their salvation with fear and trembling". In other words, their sanctification, the process where God grows His children into a practical holiness here and now, has gone off the rails. The scripture speaks of this as the "shipwreck of faith."

Peter describes the problem of altered spiritual growth in 2 Peter 1:8: "For if you possess these (Christian virtues) qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."

Please note that Peter does not say these are non-believers or that such have lost their "no condemnation" standing with God. God is true to His promises, whatever any man does.

Rather than thinking that believers who fail are lost, let us see Peter's words as a warning and encouragement to us. Any of us can fail...we can forget that we've been cleansed by the blood...and therefore go into a spiritual blindness that keeps us from seeing what God has planned for those who love Him.

Losing our Heavenly vision causes us to focus only on our immediate life. If persisted in, this life style will be the cause of losing what we might have gained by continuing to grow in grace. The Prodigal son returned to the father, but he still had wasted his inheritance and would never get it back.

Peter's words are for our good so that we don't stop growing and so that we will receive the rewards of a good Servant of Christ at the Bema seat. Not the least of these rewards is the Savior's commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

No Condemnation Ever

"No Condemnation Ever"


 


    Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns?

It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. (Romans 8:33, 34)

No one has the right or the power to bring an accusation against any Christian in order to condemn a believer in Christ. It is God Himself, who alone is worthy to condemn sinners, who has already done the justifying! There is no power higher than God. This is our guaranteed salvation which can know no "deal breaker".

Certainly Christ Himself will never condemn the weakest believer, since it is He who died for all of our sins. The righteous charges against us were placed on Him. God looked on His sinless Son as though He were a sinner and emptied His cup of righteous indignation, boiling with His pent-up wrath against sin, directly on the open soul of the Lamb of God.

In a spiritual agony far beyond the physical pain of the cross, Christ's agonized cry showed the depth of His separation from God. "My God, my God...why have you forsaken Me?"

Bear in mind, that until He appeared as our substitute before God, He always called Him "Father". On the cross, bearing our sin, He calls the Judge of the universe, God. So will every unrepentant, Christ-rejecting sinner in that final day.

We who believe need to meditate on this sacrifice to end all sacrifices offered for us. Those who believe not, need to heed the warning...if God did not spare His own Son who came before Him with sin on Him, where will you find mercy if you die in your sins?

He also rose from the dead as evidence that our debt to God's holiness has been fully paid. He is our Living receipt before God, testifying to the glorious truth, our sin debt has been paid in full!

While no charge can be brought against us that would ever reverse our salvation and find us condemned after all, we are not above being corrected for our actions. Some have taken God's eternal justification as a completed present sanctification. Yet sanctification is the process of God's righteousness, imputed to us when we were justified, being worked out in our daily lives.

Therefore, we should not balk at any correction, no matter how poorly ministered, and dismiss it as condemnation. This is spiritual foolishness. Every Child of God will be trained and corrected by God. This is one of the marks of our relationship with our Father and is intended for His glory and our good. Correction of temporal behavior is not to be misunderstood as eternal condemnation. Hebrews 12

Three Big Surprises (Romans 9)

Three Big Surprises

 

1. Paul was stunned to find that the one he thought was a false Messiah, and who he thought was dead and buried, was now speaking to him from Heaven as Jesus, the Lord.

2. How amazed the disciples in Damascus must have been to find their well-known persecutor among them as one who loved and worshipped their Lord!

3. How astonished were the unbelieving Jews to find their former leader and ally preaching Jesus as the Christ in the synagogues!





Paul asked two questions of Christ:

1. "Who are You Lord?" Christ responded, "I am Jesus..."

2. "What do You want me to do?" Christ responded, "Go..."


These questions should be asked of God by every person. Learn first, through the Scriptures, who Jesus is, and then serve Him as He unfolds His plan for your life through the scriptures.