Scriptural Response To False Teachers

I've been reading Walter Martins book, "Kingdom of the Occult." It is absolutely amazing to me how many cults have used the name of Jesus but twisted it to fit their own ideologies. There have been so many of these cults throughout the centuries its no wonder so many people are confused as to what to believe. Here are just a few of them:

• The Ancient Magick Jesus


• The Mystical Kabbalist Jesus


• The Jupiter and Mars Jesus


• The Full Moon Jesus


• The Masonic Jesus


• The Great White Brotherhood Jesus


• The Sleeping Prophet Jesus

And there are dozens more. I'm not going to get into them now or what they all believed. Just suffice it to say that the Jesus they believed in was not at all the Jesus of the Bible.

We as a church need to do a much better job at teaching the truth of God's word to people so they know who the real Jesus Christ is and why He came. So what should our response be when we come across the doctrines of false teachers or false religions?

Our response should be Scriptural.

Jesus Christ, in the true essence of His being, cannot be changed by man's whimsical or capricious desires. The doctrine of Christ's immutability, which refutes all of man's changes to his nature, is clearly laid out in Hebrews 1:8-12

But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

10 And,

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”

God, the Father, addressed these statements to Jesus Christ, His Son. He quoted Psalm 102:25-27 directly applying these words to His Son. He was saying that Jesus created the heavens and the earth, He remains, He is the same and He will never fail. These facts, coupled with Hebrews 12:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever," give ample support to the immutability of Christ's nature.

When those within the cults, the occult or any false religion reinterpret Jesus, they directly contradict Scripture.

"A Christian who understands Christology, as grounded in the new Testament texts, should have no difficulty exposing the errors of man's twisted Jesus. There is only one true Jesus, so any "other Jesus" must be labeled false. (Galatians 1:6-9). In crafting their corrupted image of Him, these false teachers betray themselves and reveal that they know nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ." - Walter Martin

Although Christians differ on many lesser doctrines there are a few core doctrines that one must absolutely believe if he considers himself to be a follower of Jesus Christ:

1. There is only one God who exists and there are no others.


2. Jesus Christ has always existed from eternity past and always will exist.


3. Jesus Christ is God. He is the second person of the Trinity, wholly co-equal, co-substantial and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit


4. He became God incarnate on Earth through the miraculous conception of the virgin Mary and was declared Lord and Christ at His birth.


5. Jesus is the Christ, and no others can be "a Christ." He lived a sinless life. He vicariously atoned for our sins through His death upon the Cross. He rose from the dead in the same body as was crucified, yet it rose as a glorified immortal body. He ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the glory of God. He will personally return for His Church in the same manner in which He left.

The Bible explicitly teaches that no gods exist except the true and living God. Deuteronomy 6:4 states, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the LORD is one!" Isaiah added that no God existed before or after Him, "Before Me there was not God formed, nor shall there be after Me." (43:10). The psalmist expressed the same doctrine in Psalm 86:10, "You alone are God." Since occultists and false teachers often portray Jesus as one among many gods, then we can rest assured in the biblical testimony that there is only one God.

(Taken from Walter Martin's book, Kingdom of the Occult)

What is True Saving Faith

So you want to be a Christian? Maybe you feel you'd just like to give this Jesus thing a try and see if its for you. After all these "christians" seem to be having all kinds of fun in their big churches and their sure does seem to be a lot of money floating around. So, you think, maybe this Christianity stuff won't be to bad. It looks easy and even fun. Right? Wrong.

If you want to be a Christian. A true Christian. Not like the false teachers you see no TV. I'm talking about a real true born again believer, you must:
"Transfer the ownership of all that you are and all that you have to all that He is." - Steve Lawson

What does this mean?

It means, "your life is no longer your life, it is His life. Your time is no longer your time, it is His time. Your possessions are no longer your possessions they are His possessions. Your future is no longer your future, it is His future for you. Your treasure is no longer your treasure, it is His treasure."

You cannot buy these terms of peace with your money because you don't have enough money. Instead, it is purchased with the total complete surrender of your life to Christ." -- Steve Lawson

This is what true Christianity is all about. Are you ready?

The Preeminence of Christ

Turning Point Community Church

BFG Lesson

5/23/2010

Colossians 1:15-20

“The Preeminence of Christ”

Verse 15

In this incredible section of Scripture, Paul set forth the absolute supremacy and Lordship of the Second Person of the Trinity. Previously (vv. 13-14) the apostle had announced that, through this One (Jesus), God the Father had rescued believers from the “domain of darkness” and fully redeemed and forgiven them according to His great mercy. Here in these verses the nature and identity of this Savior and Lord are more fully revealed. Paul employed two major claims regarding Jesus:

First that Jesus is the “Image of the invisible God.” And second that He is the “first born of all creation.”

• First, Jesus is “the image of the invisible God”—The use of the word “image” conveys the truth that Jesus is the only perfect representation and revelation of God to men. This is the same idea that is expressed in other passages such as Hebrews 1:3—“He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.” To say such a thing about Jesus was to claim nothing less than His full divinity and unique role as the visible expression of God. The words of the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) are especially clear on this same point, declaring Jesus to be “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”

• Secondly, Paul stated that Jesus is the “first-born of all creation”—This phrase is speaking of the preeminence of Jesus over all of creation. The use of the term “first-born” expresses the special place of priority occupied by Jesus, somewhat like the status enjoyed by the first-born sons in Jewish families. However, the difference here is that the Son, being co-eternal with the Father, had no beginning and, therefore, His status and place of privilege is infinitely greater. Scripture teaches us that Christ was eternally begotten of the Father and not created. That He is the “first-born” manifests the truth that He is the Lord and King of “all creation.”

Now, some false teachers, as you can imagine, will take this verse completely out of context and suggest that the Lord Jesus is Himself a created being and therefore in no way could He be God.

Although, false teachers use verse 15, (especially in the KJV) to teach that Jesus was a created being, error can usually be refuted from the very passage of Scripture which the cultists use. That is certainly the case here.

Verse 16

Verse 16 clearly states that the Lord Jesus is not a creature, but the very Creator.
This passage teaches us that Christ created all things.

Pastor Roy at Riverbend Community Chruch, preaching on this very passage states, “That the word “created” comes from a Greek term, and the Greek term that is used here speaks of Direct Creation, producing something out of nothing. The Latin uses this word Xlahlo to speak of this as well.

Christ did not invent something that had already existed in its parts. He created something that was not in existence. And He did this by the word of His mouth. This is the mighty power of Christ.

In fact the whole Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit were engaged in creation. We know this because the book of Genesis says, ‘let Us make man in our image.’ So we see the whole Godhead involved in this creation. So the word ‘created’ here means to create out of nothing, to make something that did not previously exist.

This is unlike scientists today who run around saying, “I created this,” or “we created that.” The truth is they created nothing. Because, they started with something, a material element of some kind. Its like the story of God and the scientist.

‘There was a group of scientists, and they were all sitting around discussing which one of them was going to go to God and tell him that they didn’t need him anymore.

‘One of the scientists volunteered and went to tell God he was no longer needed. The scientist says to God: “God, you know, a bunch of us have been talking, and we’ve come to realize that we don’t need you anymore.

I mean, we’ve been coming up with great theories and ideas, we’ve cloned sheep, and we’re on the verge of cloning humans. So as you can see, we really don’t need you.”

‘God nods understandingly and says, “I see. Well ok, but
before you go, let’s have a contest. What do you think?”
‘The scientist says, “Sure. What kind of contest?”
‘God replies, “A human-making contest where we make a human being.” ‘The scientist quickly agrees, “Sure! No problem.”
‘The scientist bends down and picks up a handful of dirt and says, “Okay, I’m ready!” ‘God shakes His divine head and says, “No, no, no…you go get your own dirt.”’ (Rev. Henry Stone)

You see, everything we have, from our bodies, to our clothes, to the food we eat – comes from God. Homes to hobbies, cars to kids, everything we have, every breath we take, comes from God. The truth is, we never had our own dirt.

We hear it at the beginning of Psalm 24.1-2: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” Hard to miss that phrase, isn’t it: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof – meaning, “everything in it.” God owns it all.

In verse 16, we learn that all things – the whole universe – was created not only by Him but through Him and for Him. Each of these prepositions conveys a different thought.

First of all we read that “by Him all things were created.” Here the thought is that the power to create is in His being. He was the Architect. Later in the verse we learn that all things were created through Him. This speaks of Him as the Agent in creation. He is the Person of the Godhead through whom the creative act was performed.

Also, all things were created for Him. He is the One for whom all things were created, the very goal of creation. So Paul stresses here that the creation exists for the glory and sovereign purposes of Christ. Meaning, Jesus is the very goal of creation. “Everything exists with a view to His glory, and so is subservient to His eternal purpose”. A similar point is made by Paul in Romans 11:36—“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”


The Gnostics taught that there were various ranks and classes of spirit beings between God and matter, and that Christ belonged to one of these classes. In our day the Spiritists claim that Jesus Christ is an advanced spirit of the sixth sphere. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that before our Lord came into the world, He was a created angels and none other than the Archangel Michael!

Here Paul vigorously refutes such absurd notions by stating in the clearest possible terms that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator of angels – in fact of all beings whether visible or invisible.

John MacArthur states: “He is the precise copy, reproduction, and replica of God, He is the very substance and essence of God, He is the radiance of God's shining glory in human form. That's why He could say in John 14:9, "If you've seen Me you've seen the Father."

This means that Jesus was the originator, designer, and agent of creation. This verse stresses the fact that “Jesus conceived of creation and its complexities. Creation was His idea”. Paul made it clear for his readers that the creation in its totality, including the “heavens”—the invisible world of spiritual beings—and the “earth”—the visible, physical world—were brought into existence by Christ, through Christ and for Christ.

Verse 17

In verse 17 Paul tells us that Christ is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” An interesting thing to note here is that Paul states, He is before all things,” not He was before all things.”

The present tense is often used in the Bible to describe the timelessness of Deity. The Lord Jesus said for instance: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” This of course is speaking in the present tense – He still IS. He didn’t say, “before Abraham was, I was.”

Not only did the Lord Jesus exist before there was any creation, but also “in Him all things consist.” Or “hold together.” This means, not only did He create the universe and everything in it but He is also the Sustainer of the universe. He controls the stars, the sun and the moon.

The Universe

The whole universe, the whole kosmos, was made by Jesus Christ. I mean, just think about that for a minute. Its mind boggling. The sun is inconceivably massive. The sun is 93 million miles away. If you could bore a hole in the sun and start dumping a bunch of earths into it, you could put 1,200,000 earths in it and still have room for 4,300,000 moons. And, get this, the nearest star, Alpha Centuri, is five times bigger than our sun.

Beetljuice, no not the movie. Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis) is the second-brightest star in the constellation Orion and one of the brightest stars in the sky. It is a supergiant star, reddish in color, and over 600 million miles in diameter (almost 1,000 times bigger than the sun). If Betelgeuse were at the center of our Solar System, it would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It is 520 light-years from Earth. Its actually a distance that is measured in quad-drillions miles away. I have no idea how far that is but I’m guessing its pretty far. Its further than California. Now that is a big star!

Now consider this. Even while Jesus was here on earth, in human form, He was still holding the universe together in the palm of His hand. He was still the one who was controlling the laws by which our universe functions in an orderly manner. That is just a mind blowing thought.

Verse 18

Paul now changes focus a little bit here in verse 18. He goes from Christ the Creator of all things to Christ the Head of the body the church.

As we know, the head is the part of the body that controls all things. Its where our thoughts and knowledge and wisdom lie. The church is like a body and Christ is its head.

Certainly all the thought processes are contained in our heads, in our minds and those thought processes are what give us direction to all that we think, say and do. And that simply illustrates the fact that Christ is the source of all truth, all knowledge, all wisdom, all growth and all guidance in His church. He is the head of the church.

Secondly, he says He is the beginning. He is the beginning of the church. The church is the creation of Christ. He is the source of its existence.

In addition to being head of the body, Paul declared that Jesus is “the beginning, the first-born from the dead.” Having been raised from the dead never to die again, Christ enjoys the supreme position as Lord over life and death itself. With this announcement, Paul made it clear that “Jesus entered the world of sinners, endured their punishment, and rose victorious. Thus, in Christ, there is a new order of existence. It is a resurrection existence.”

Now, we must be careful here to emphasize that this does not mean that the Lord Jesus was the first to rise from the dead. There were cases of resurrection in the OT as well as in the NT. But the Lord Jesus was the first to rise from the dead with a glorified body. And he rose as the Head of a new creation – the church.

The purpose of the resurrection—“that in everything he might be preeminent.”—was to make it explicitly clear that Jesus was and is exactly whom He claimed to be. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:4, the resurrection was the mechanism by which Jesus was declared “with power” to be the eternal “Son of God” and King of the universe.

All this to show that the Lord Jesus has a double preeminence – first in creation, and then in the church. God has decreed that in all things HE may have the preeminence. What an answer this is to those who, in Paul’s day, and in ours as well, would seek to rob Christ of his deity, and to make of Him only a created being.

As we read, “that in all things He may have the preeminence,” it is only proper that we ask ourselves, “Does He have the preeminence in my life??”

Verse 19

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”

Here Paul continues to declare the identity of Jesus and, in particular, His work of redemption and reconciliation. Before speaking of His ministry to those alienated from God by sin, the apostle once more expresses Christ’s deity as the Son of God. Here Paul spoke of Jesus as the One in whom “all the fullness” of deity resides.

And, that this was due to the “Father’s good pleasure,” meaning that in eternity past, the Triune God determined that “the human Jesus would be God, sharing all the properties, characteristics, and prerogatives of God himself.” Thus, the One who, according to Philippians 2:8 was “found in appearance as a man,” was not one “merely endued in a special way with the Holy Spirit, but is rather the dwelling place of the very essence of God”

These ridiculous Gnostics were pumping out this stuff that God kept reproducing these emanations out of Himself one after another in an infinite long line. They were teaching that Christ was a kind of halfway point to God, a necessary link in the chain. But there were other, better links on ahead.

Paul says, NO! Christ is Himself the complete fullness of deity and at the Father’s good pleasure. In Him all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell.

All the powers of deity, all the attributes of deity, verse 3 of chapter 2 says, "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," verse 9 says, "All the fullness of deity." He is the fullness of God's essence, God's glory. And it's in Him and Him alone. And that is to say if somebody comes along after this and says, "I'm God," don't believe it. He needs no supplement. He has no rivals. There are no more revelations. It's in Him and Him alone that God has put all the fullness of His own deity because it pleased Him to do that.

Verse 20

In verse 20 we see that the One who took on human flesh is the One who came to “reconcile all things to Himself” by means of His very “blood” which was spilled on “His cross.” This highlights the fact that human sin has resulted in cosmic effects, not only alienating men from their creator, but also bringing the created order under the divine curse (cf. Rom. 8:20-22). Yet, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross decisively put an end to the power and destructive effects of human rebellion. By means of His violent death and bodily resurrection, Jesus “made peace” between God and men.

But why? Why did Christ come into the world? - To save sinners. To go to a cross, to shed His blood through death, to pay the price for sin in order that He might present you to God holy and blameless and beyond reproach. He came to gather a redeemed humanity to take back to God. He came to reconcile men and the whole universe to make peace where there was animosity between man and God. He came into the world to save sinners.

That's why He was to be called Jesus. He came to bring reconciliation between sinners and a holy God. He came to remove the curse of the universe and to reconcile the universe to its original intended created purpose. He came so that He might gather together men and women like you and like me and present them to God holy and blameless and beyond reproach. He came to save us from sin and bring us to God, to reconcile the lost. He took our flesh in Him that we might become holy as He is holy.

Although Christ’s reconciling work is sufficient for all mankind, it is only effective for those who avail themselves of it. Eventually all things will be reconciled, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

This refers to the animal creation, and to inanimate things that have been defiled by sin. However, it does not refer to Satan, to other fallen angels, or to unbelieving humans. Their eternal doom is clearly pronounced in the Scriptures.

Reconciliation is not said to extend to “things under the earth.” There is a difference between reconciliation and subjugation. The latter is described in Philippians 2:10, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.”

All created beings, even fallen angels will eventually be compelled to bow to the Lord Jesus, but this does not mean they will be reconciled.

Unfortunately there is a false teaching out there that teaches a Universal salvation. Namely, that Satan himself, fallen angels, and unbelieving men will all be reconciled to God eventually. Verse 20 here in Colossians limits the extent of reconciliation by the phrase, “things on earth or things in heaven.” Things under the earth are not included.

Conclusion

One thing I want you to remember about this passage of Scripture and we’ll close with this – is a quote from John MacArthur that I think beautifully sums up this entire passage. He says:

Every one of those statements that is made from verse 15 through verse 20 is absolutely exclusive. They are true of Him (Christ) and nobody else. And the sum of them all is at the end of verse 18 where it says that He is to have the first-place in everything. No one else is the image of the invisible God, No one else can be the first-born of all creation. No one else can be the creator of things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible. No one else sits over the thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities. No one else is before all things and holds all things together. No one else is the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the first born. No one else has all the fullness of deity dwelling in Him to the pleasure of the Father. Those are all absolutely exclusive statements. And what they tell us is that Jesus Christ is utterly unique. There is no one like Him. He is beyond everyone else. He is infinitely beyond everyone else.”

So as we go about our daily lives this week lets remember to ponder the question: “Is Christ preeminent in my life today??”

God bless

Rob

A Spurgeon Devotional - May 14, 2010

Thoughts On The Last Battle

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 15:56-57

While the Bible is one of the most poetical of books, though its language is unutterably sublime, yet we must remark how constantly it is true to nature. There is no straining of a fact, no glossing over a truth.

However dark may be the subject, while it lights it up with brilliance, yet it does not deny the gloom connected with it. If you will read this chapter of Paul's epistle, so justly celebrated as a masterpiece of language, you will find him speaking of that which is to come after death with such exaltation and glory, that you feel, "If this be to die, then it were well to depart at once."

Who has not rejoiced, and whose heart has not been lifted up, or filled with a holy fire, while he has read such sentences as these: "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Yet with all that majestic language, with all that bold flight of eloquence, he does not deny that death is a gloomy thing. Even his very figures imply it. He does not laugh at it; he does not say, "Oh, it is nothing to die;" he describes death as a monster; he speaks of it as having a sting; he tells us wherein the strength of that sting lies; and even in the exclamation of triumph he imputes that victory not to unaided flesh, but he says, "Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

C.H. Spurgeon

For further Meditation: Death is no laughing matter, but for the Christian it need not be a crying matter either. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14)

HE IS RISEN!!!!!!

Praise the Lord!!

As this is the greatest day in the history of the world! Because Christ arose from the grave and defeated death, we who are sinners can now freely approach the Throne of Grace in repentance and faith and receive eternal life. There has never been, nor will there ever be again, so precious a gift.

Below I've taken a few different passages of Scripture and tried to encapsulate the true Easter story for everyone. Not only has He risen from the dead but He will one day soon return to call all of His elect home. Enjoy the verses below. Then turn up your speakers as I've embedded a couple of video's from the Accapella Christian group, GLAD. If you love Accapella singing, these guys are the best and these two songs are a real blessing. They follow right along with the Easter theme. Enjoy

"Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead, and behold, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him. See, I have told you." Matthew 28:1-7

"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped Him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, 'All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Matthew 28:16-20

"And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into Heaven as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into Heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into Heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into Heaven"
Acts 1:9-11

Praise God!! Now scroll down, turn up your speakers and enjoy some great Easter music from GLAD.

God bless and have a great Easter.

Rob

WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS

And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?"
And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many."
"And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."
"Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved."

Matthew 24:3-12

When I look out at our world today it seems to me that we are very close the the return of our Lord. When you look at what Jesus told His disciples in the above passage, you can really see these things coming to pass today.

In this passage Jesus mentions 3 things we need to look out for and they are the following:

• Increased Deception


• Increased Conflicts


• Increased Lawlessness

First - We see an increase in deception: There are many today posing as Christian leaders who are leading many people astray with false doctrines and false prophesies. One person who comes to mind was a guy, just this year, by the name of Todd Bentley who was leading something called the Lakeland Outpouring right here in Florida.

He talked about having a spirit guide/angel called Emma. He also talked about speaking with Jesus. He claimed to have the gift of healing. Yet when all was said and done, instead of glorifying the name of Christ, he had inflicted a great amount of harm against the name of Christ in the eyes of the world. He ended up divorcing his wife thereby hurting his family not to mention all his deceived followers. Yet the most amazing thing to me is that there are still people who defend him saying what a great man of God he is.

"See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many... And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many." Mt. 24:4-5, 11

As far as I'm concerned, there was never anything Godly about Todd Bentley or his ministry - ever. He never preached about sin and repentance, instead everything with him was self centered. In fact if you watch some of his video's on You Tube, you'll never see him open a Bible. He never warns the sinner about a hell to avoid; instead, he preached another gospel. Instead of patting this false prophet on the back, his followers should have been calling him out and rebuking him so that he might repent and turn to Christ for forgiveness.

That the church would put forth a charlatan such as this and line up behind him as one of its leaders, just shows the sad state of the Christian church today. If Johnathan Edwards or Charles Spurgeon could see this they'd roll over in their graves. Today's church is, unfortunately, no longer morally grounded on the Word of God. Instead, like a wicked generation it seeks after signs and wonders and none will be given it.

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance too their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths." 2Tim 4:3-4

This is the Deception that more and more churches are falling for today.

Second - Increased Conflicts: We see an increase in conflicts world wide. I was listening to a recent sermon by John MacArthur and he had some great statistics showing how conflicts are increasing around the globe over time:

Historians have recorded all significant conflicts and grouped them as follows:

1. 70 Major Conflicts before Christ


2. In the first 1000 years after Christ there were 50 major conflicts.


3. 500 years after that, there were 100 major conflicts


4. 300 years after that, there were 250 major conflicts


5. 200 years after that, there were 500 major conflicts


6. In the last 4 years there have been 20 major conflicts

As you can see, the history of man has been marked by constant conflict and as time goes on things just get worse and worse. I think Pastor MacArthur puts it best when he says, "the only peace you can find in man's history is when he stops to reload."

Third - Today we definitely see in increase in lawlessness. Man in his infinite wisdom took God out of schools back in the 1950's and today we are reaping the rewards of what we've sewn.

Today we have generations of kids who are completely disrespectful to anyone in authority and fewer and fewer of them know who the true God of the Bible really is. We have legalized the inhumane murder of the innocent unborn and called it "freedom of choice." Like Genna Jessen said, "if the rights of women are so important than what about the rights of the baby?" Unfortunately today, the blood of millions of innocent babies is on our hands, and we wonder why God is removing His hand from our nation.

Then instead of recognizing the homosexual lifestyle for what it is - an abomination against the Lord, we have instead legitimized it by calling it an "alternative lifestyle." Yet God tells us in Romans 1:18-32 that not only has He given them over to these degrading passions and a depraved mind but even those who approve of this practice are worthy of death.

Everything in this generation today is backwards. Today we call evil, good and good, evil. When you have your very own courts of law twisting the Constitution to make it say that which was never intended just to suit a small minority of people you know we're in trouble. It's because of this continued confusion that I feel the Lord will be returning very soon.

The Gospel of John - Part 17

THE CRUCIFIXION

Without a doubt, the greatest crime ever committed by man. But praise Jesus for allowing Himself to go through this for the sake of His elect.

The Gospel of John - Part 11

John 11:17-57 - Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. One of the greatest scenes in all of Scripture. Nothing more need be said.

Enjoy

Rob

The Gospel of John - Part 10

Part 10 begins in Chapter 10:1 with Jesus reiterating to the Jews, two of His "I Am" statements. First, that He is the Door, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the Door of the sheep" - verse 7 and again in verse 9 He says, "I am the door. If anyone enters by me he will be saved..." Then in verse 11 Jesus tells the Jews, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

Later Jesus is in the temple during the Feast of Dedication when he tells the Jews, "I and the Father are one." - verse 30. To the church today this doesn't mean much but what Jesus is saying here is that He is God. The Jews certainly knew what He meant because they picked up stones to stone Him for blasphemy.

Part ten then concludes with the beginning of the story of Lazarus which we'll see in the next part - part 11

Enjoy and God bless

Rob

The Gospel of John - Part 9

Here in part 9 we have the complete story of Jesus' healing of the blind man. If you're a TurningPoint member you're aware the Pastor David has been preaching through the Gospel of John. It wasn't long ago that he preached on this very passage.

If you recall, Jesus' disciples ask Him in John 9:2, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" We learned that the answer was neither; instead he was born blind so that, "the works of God might be displayed in him." - verse 3.

From there we see the Pharisees grill the blind man and try to get him to call Jesus a sinner because He healed him on the Sabbath. But the ex-blind man gets fed up with this and I believe is moved by God when he says to them in verses 30-33, "Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing."

Enjoy this incredible passage of Scripture. God bless.

Rob

Believing is Seeing

I just wanted to share with you something from Pastor David's sermon this morning that really struck me. Again this week we were back in the Gospel of John 8:48-59.

Pastor David again talked specifically about verse 51 where Jesus says, "Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."

Of course, as we've been learning, that is really an amazing statement. Yes, our bodies will die but for those of us who are saved it will be like stepping gently into the next life. No matter how violent are physical death is, our spiritual selves will be transported immediately into the presence of the Lord.

But this was not the thing that really got me today. Instead it was something Pastor David said almost as an aside that really struck me today. It was when he said, "...you've probably heard the saying, 'seeing is believing?' Well actually it should be the other way around. It should be 'believing is seeing.'"

Wow! I never thought about that before but when he said that I thought, how true for the Christian. You know how sometimes your eyes can deceive you? You think you see something one way and it turns out to be something totally different.

Its for this very reason that eye witnesses at a crime scene or accident can't always be used as solid evidence in a court of law. If you think about it, if you have 4 people standing on a street corner and they all witness the same accident, you'll get 4 different accounts. That's probably why when people say they saw a UFO or a ghost, most of the time its really easy to explain it away as some other natural or man made phenomina.

But how true for the Christian that believing is seeing. As Scripture says, before we are born again, we are dead in our tresspasses and sins. Eph. 2:1 This death means we are completely blind to spiritual things and cannot see until God regenerates our hearts and removes the scales from our eyes.

No verse in Scripture speaks to this more clearly than 1Cor 2:14 which says:

"The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned."

Exactly! Why can an unspiritual person not see? Because he does not believe. And the only way he will ever believe is if he is first drawn to Christ by the Father.

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." John 6:44

"...This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father." John 6:65

That's why when any unsaved person reads the Bible, yes they are able to understand the words and grasp the meaning of the text. But they will never be able to see the spiritual meaning behind the text. NEVER - unless God first opens their eyes through salvation.

I'll never forget when God removed the scales from my eyes. I had just recently been saved and I opended up a Bible and started reading a passage I had read many times before and all of a sudden I almost literally felt the blindfold drop off my eyes. All of a sudden I was seeing things in the words I had never seen before. I wept for a long time that night in utter amazement at what I was seeing now that I believed.

Folks, when you read the Bible is it really just words on a page? Does you heart not feel an emotional stirring of joy and a sense of conviction when you look at God's word? If your reading of Scripture is dead as a door nail, let me encouage you right now to come to the Lord in prayer, repent of your sins and ask Him to reveal Himself to you in a new way. If you do, believe me, the next time you seek Him out in His word, you too will be utterly amazed and you'll come to realize that Believing really is Seeing.

May God bless you richly.

Rob