His Love Ministries
We spread the gospel to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten. Matthew 7:13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Episodes
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
1 JOHN 2:18–21 THE DOCTRINAL TEST OF TRUTH PART 1
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
Thursday Jul 07, 2022
In the first part of this chapter, John applies a character test; now he applies a doctrinal test to indicate the genuineness of his reader’s spirituality.
John has been dealing with the idea of light. God is light and Christians need to walk in the light. In this verse, John deals with the problem of counterfeits to light.
In these verses John answers that they may reassure themselves on the basis of their attitude toward the truth of God as revealed in Jesus. They can be certain of their salvation if they believe that Jesus is God incarnate and if they continue in that conviction.[i]
In this section John follows a threefold outline. First, he develops a contrast between the antichrists of his day and God’s true children, a contrast that is at the same time a contrast between falsehood and error (vv. 18–21)[ii]
It makes no difference what you believe, just as long as you are sincere!”[iii]
False Believers Depart from the faith v18-19
1 John 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
The words “little children” here mean a small child. John’s readers stand in need of a very steep learning curve. They are babes in the midst of raving spiritual wolves. They need the mature warnings of the apostle John. They needed to grow up spiritually.
1 Cor. 3:1 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.”
The “Antichrist” is someone who is against Christ. He also comes instead of Christ even now many antichrists have come,
At the time of writing 1 John, Christianity was not yet 60 years old yet “many antichrists” had already come. There were already many false teachers spread throughout the Roman Empire teaching things contrary to the Word.
Mt 24:24 For there shall arise false Christ’s and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect,
When John writes that “many antichrists have come,” he is not saying, then, that the final singular figure of antichrist is in the world, though, of course, that could have been a possibility. Rather, he is saying that the spirit that will characterize the final antichrist is already working in those who have recently left his readers’ congregations. The future antichrist will be a substitute for Christ, as much like Jesus as it is possible for a tool of Satan to be. Similarly, these Gnostic teachers appear to be angels of light but are actually satanic in both their works and outlook.[iv]
1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
This verse speaks to the issue of the antichrists of verse 18. They formally connected to the church but were never a part of the genuine body of Christ.
It is interesting to note, as Stott does, that 1 John 2:19 has an incidental but very important bearing upon two great Christian doctrines: the perseverance of the saints and the nature of the visible church. The bearing of the verse upon the first doctrine is seen in the statement that if the false teachers were really members of the body of Christ, they would have continued with other members of the body of Christ. This implies that perseverance is the ultimate test of genuine participation in the life of Christ. Those who are saved will persevere. On the other hand, the doctrine is not given in order to lull anyone into a false sense of security before God. As Bruce writes,[1]
2Pe 3:17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
1Pe 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
The second doctrine upon which the verse throws light is that of the church, for it gives warrant for a distinction between the visible and the invisible church. It must be granted that Christians should pray that the church be as pure as it is possible for the church on earth to be, and work toward that goal. But when this is said, it must at the same time also be acknowledged that the church on earth will always contain tares as well as wheat and that Christians must exercise the utmost care in how they deal with them. The great temptation, particularly for those who are most serious about the church and its doctrine, is to root up the tares. But those who incline to this must remember that in Christ’s parable (Matt. 13:24–30) it was precisely this course that was forbidden to the householder’s servants. They said, “ ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up [that is, the tares]?’ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.’ ” The time for separation was to be at the time of the final harvest when the wheat should be gathered into barns and the tares burned.
The implication of Christ’s parable and John’s statement is that some Christians are so much like non-Christians and some non-Christians so much like Christians that it is impossible to tell the difference between them in this life.
False Believers Deny the Faith v20-25
1Jo 2:20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
This is a spiritual lie detector
The effect of this anointing--it is a spiritual eye-salve; it enlightens and strengthens the eyes of the understanding:
Over against the antichrists who have left the church John sets God’s true children. These are distinguished by two essential characteristics: First, they have been anointed by the Holy One, and second, they all know the truth centered in Jesus Christ.[2]
More modern versions have it, namely, “you all know.” The point is not that Christians know everything. They certainly do not. But rather that all who are Christians at least know the full, absolute, and reliable truth concerning Jesus. Whatever their other doubts may be, they at least have no doubt regarding Christ’s person. Once again we should notice that John’s purpose in writing is not to impart fresh truth but rather to bring his readers to the point of using more effectively that which they already know.[3]
John 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
1Jo 2:21 I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
V21 Those who know the truth in any respect are thereby prepared to discern what is contrary to and inconsistent with it. Those that are well acquainted with Christian truth are well protected against anti-Christian error and deception.
FBI counterfeit bills
Principle: Truth and error always stand in opposition to each other.
Application: Truth and error are mutually exclusive in God’s economy.
Principle: Fakers eventually gravitate to their fundamental beliefs.
2 Peter 2:22 “But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’”
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Monday Jun 27, 2022
Monday Jun 27, 2022
and the pride of life
Ja 4: 16 “But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”
Pride involves both boastfulness and self-sufficiency. It is a willful independence from God, “I have enough resources in myself. I don’t need God.”
Ga 5: 26 “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
Ph 2: 3 “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”
is not of the Father but is of the world
God gives at least 5 strategies to fight against the world, the flesh and the devil.
1st He commands us to “flee.”
1 Ti 6:6-11 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.”
2 Ti 2: 22 “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”
2nd His command to deal with the “flesh” is to deny or not yield to it.
Ro 6: 12 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
3rd His command against the Devil is to “resist” him by submitting to God.
James 4:7 Jas 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
1 Pe 5: 9 “Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”
4th His command is to bring every thought captive unto the obedience of God.
2Cor 10:5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
5th His command is in Ga 5: 16 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. of the flesh,
The world’s values are short-lived (temporary) (2:17)
1Jo 2:17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
The world is a temporary system. God’s values endure into eternity
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
Mt 24: 35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
and the lust of it;
The person who dies with the most toys does not win!
Jim Elliot, the missionary martyred by the very people he was trying to reach with the gospel, said this; “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Co 3: 2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth”.
But he who does the will of God abides forever
The will of God is the best thing we can do with our lives.
1 Pe 4: 2 “…that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.”
The will of God is the true purpose for the life of the believer. Everything worthwhile revolves around God’s will. It should be the normal activity of the Christian.
Ep 5: 17 “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
Co 1: 9 “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding…”
Jesus did the will of God in Gethsemane (Mt 26:39). He prayed that prayer in the greatest crisis of His life. There is something more important than our personal welfare – the will of God.
1 Pe 4: 2that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”
Ps 40: 8 “I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”
abides forever
His point is that those who walk in fellowship with God enjoy doing something that will last forever. We want to be an asset, not a liability, to the cause of Christ in time for when we do that, it will last forever.
Notice the three reasons why we should not love the world. An absolute God cannot fellowship with a Christian who loves the world.
The love of the Father is not in him
For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world.
The world is passing away
2Co 5:18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation
Mt 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Mt 6:9 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
Mt 6:33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you
Mr 10:29-31 So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's,
Check out Part 2 of His Love Ministries latest podcast on what the Bible says about how to deal with temptation and where our love should be directed.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Monday Jun 20, 2022
Monday Jun 20, 2022
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Today’s message will deal with at least five ways to deal with temptation. Remember, we are at war and satan does not want us to win. He will pull every dirty trick in the book and use everything he has in his arsenal of weapons, but he can be defeated if we trust in God and don’t let the devil deceive us.
1Corinthians 10:13 tells us we don’t have to sin, but God will give us THE WAY OUT of temptation. It is up to us, if we are not ready to quit a particular sin, then God will not force us, He might chastise and discipline us, but when we are ready to overcome that sin, God’s power is available and we can win the battle because greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world.
We cannot love God and the world simultaneously (2:15)
1John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
The word “world” occurs 22 times in this epistle. There are four different words for “world” in the New Testament: 1) earth, 2) the inhabited world, 3) age or generation and 4) The devils system of values. John uses the fourth here.
The “world” is the Devil’s system of values.
1 Jn 5: 19 “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
Ja 4: 4 “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Worldliness is not taking pleasure in the natural realm for God wants us to enjoy the spectacular Grand Canyon. He wants us to enjoy sports and the symphony. Taking pleasure in the earth is not wrong but yielding to the values of this world violates our fellowship with God.
or the things in the world.
These are the material things of the world put at the core of our value system. Some Christians incorporate satanic integral systems of greed into their lives that advance the Devil’s evil ends.
PRINCIPLE: Greed is part of the satanic world system.
If anyone loves the world,
2 Co 5: 14 “For the love of Christ [Christ’s love for us] compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again, 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
This phrase begins the first of three reasons why we should not love the world. An absolute God cannot fellowship with a Christian who loves the world.
the love of the Father is not in him
The love of the world and the love of the Father are mutually exclusive.
2 Ti 4: 10 “…for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world…”
Ro 12: 1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
The system of values in the world are contrary to God’s values (2:16)
all that is in the world Is not of the father
We can condense the world system to a three-fold appeal:
Lust of the flesh Genesis 3:6, Eve Mt 4:1-11, Jesus
Lust of the eyes
Pride of life
Ro 6: 12 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.”
Once we become Christians, a titanic tug of war begins to take place within the Christian. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to win that war.
The “lust of the flesh” is the cravings and ambitions of the sin
The “flesh” refers the sinful nature, the sinful tendencies of humanity, the fallen condition of man, which is present in the body. There is an inclination to follow evil found in our flesh.
the lust of the eyes,
This usually takes the form of excessive materialism. This is the idolatry of possessions. It is not the actual consumption of sin but the contemplation of it that is in view.
Mt 29 “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”
The eye of the flesh wants to see more and more. It is never satisfied. That is why we want to “keep up with the Joneses”.
We want things that we do not need to buy things with money we do not have in order to impress people whom we do not like!
Job 31:1 "I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?
Pr 27:20 Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Monday Jun 13, 2022
Monday Jun 13, 2022
1 John 2:13 I write to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, Because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, Because you have known the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, Because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.
Young Men – Because you have overcome the wicked one… Those in process toward maturity, sound in doctrine, but not yet seasoned in the living out of the Christian life based on God’s Word. Able to overcome satan
The outstanding characteristic of a growing Christian is that they have victories over the satanic system.
The outstanding characteristic of adolescent Christians is that they know how to battle in the spiritual war. The Devil will try his utmost to put us in a state of spiritual retardation so that we never get to the place of victory. He will do his diabolical worst to keep Christians at the spiritual babyhood level. Some stay at spiritual childhood all their Christian lives. This is the way he works. Growing Christians learn how to ignore Satan’s attempts to brain wash us into believing his lies.
You just have to understand where Satan operates. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 13 to 15, it says, “Satan is disguised as an angel” of light.” He’s an angel of light. Satan isn’t the one running around making people sin. People sin because of the flesh. Satan is involved in false religious systems. 99.9 percent of Satan’s activity is in false religion. He is a liar and a deceiver. He works in the false systems, the false ideologies of the world. Don’t blame Satan for your sin. Don’t blame Satan for what your flesh is doing.
1Jo 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 1Jo 5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Young Men - Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.
Because you are strong, These young men developed spiritual strength.
God wants us to be as strong spiritually as we are physically. Some of us would land in the hospital if our physical strength were as strong as our spiritual strength. God wants us to be strong in Him.
Joshua 1: 9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Ne 8: 10 “Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Is 40: 31 “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
Is 41: 10 “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Ep 1: 19 “…and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power…”
Ep 3: 16 “…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man…”
Ep 6: 10 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
Ph 4: 13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Co 1: 11 “…strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy…”
2 Ti 2: 1 “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
2 Ti 4: 17 “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”
and the word of God abides in you,
The secret of the strength of young men was their knowledge of the Word of God and their ability to apply it to their experience. They did not waste and weaken their lives through sin. On the contrary, these young men disciplined and directed their lives by the allowing the Word to indwell their lives and center their lives in Christ.
Ep 6: 17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…”
PRINCIPLE: The basis of victory over sin is the Word of God.
APPLICATION: One of the foundations of Christian living is the application of the principles of the Word of God to experience. This is victory in God’s economy. This is the way to gain victory over the world system.
Ps 119: 9 “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. 10 With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 11Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!”
Some people take casual glances at the Word occasionally. They do not consistently see its principles so they cannot apply them to their experience.
1: 6 “… do not practice the truth. 8 … and the truth is not in us… 10 … and His word is not in us.”
Christians who develop attraction for the Word of God grow in the things of God. We must hunger, thirst and develop an appetite for what God has to say.
Dt 6:6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.”
Dt 11:18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”
Ps 1: 2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.”
Pr 7: 3 “Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Je 15: 16 “Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”
Je 20: 9 “Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name. But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.”
Job 23: 12 “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.”
Jn 15: 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Co 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
And you have overcome the wicked one
V14 Fathers
Fathers – The most mature Christians who have a deep, intimate knowledge of God
Jn 17: 3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
A person who takes a maximum number of principles from the Word of God and applies them to his experience along the way is mature. Many Christians refuse to grow up spiritually because they do not want to find the principles nor apply them to their lives.
Christians who truly confess their sins realize that God fully judged sins in Christ. Judgment of our sins occurred 2000 years ago on the cross. Confession accepts this by faith. It is not our emotion about the sin but our faith in what Christ did about the sin that matters to God.
This is when it’s not just warfare about the doctrine. This is when you understand what the hymn writer meant when he talked about being lost in wonder, love, and praise. This is when you get to the point where your soul is exhilarated in the knowledge of God. It’s not the parts anymore, it’s the sum of the parts. And in some ways, you’re back to the relationship again, only it’s fuller and richer and fully informed by sound doctrine, to know the author of that doctrine, to know the God who is behind it. It’s to deeply, intimately know God.
1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
One characteristic of a spiritual father is that they reproduce themselves. They lead others to Christ. Have you developed enough in the Lord that you lead others to Christ? Have you reproduced yourself in the faith even once?
1 Co 4:15 “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”
God characterizes mature believers as having 1) knowledge of the Word of God, 2) wisdom, 3) faith to apply truth to experience, 4) positioning their lives to the principle of grace (Quit pondering the past. In other words, stop dwelling on your past failures and those things that just didn't seem to go right for you.) and 5) maximum structure or discipline in their Christian experience.
2 Pe 3:18 “…but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”
Once a person becomes a Christian, they become a target of the Devil. The Devil is unscrupulous. He will try to stunt the growth of new Christians. New Christians are more defenseless than at any other time in their Christian lives.
That is why it is important for a new Christian to get into the Word of God quickly.
1 Pe 2:1 “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
Wednesday Jun 08, 2022
V12 Children- Here it speaks of all believers
Ro 4:7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, And whose sins are covered;
Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
Joh 19:30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
John 3:7 "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
Adopted as sons, John 8, Eph 1
Three levels of Spiritual Maturity
These three groups of people do not correspond to physical age or sex.
Job 32:9 says, “The abundant in years may not be wise.”
V13 The second series states the highest spiritual experience for each phase
Children – Because you have known the Father…. The word here means a small child.
These are new Christians that are family because they have been forgiven of their sins, but are not mature enough to deal with satan
Ephesians 4:13 and 14 says something about spiritual babies that’s serious. It says this: “Be no longer children” - verse 14, Ephesians 4 - “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming.” Now, there’s another thing about children. They’re affectionate and they’re drawn to relationships, but they have no discernment. So you tell your kids, “Don’t talk to strangers.” They’re easily deceived. They’re easily beguiled. They’ll tend to believe anything.
There is a newness of life, there is a wondrous familiarity, personal relationship with God. Little children are more regulated by their affections than their knowledge, isn’t that true? They’re more affected by their emotions, their feelings, than by information.
Some believers live in undeveloped childhood. Though they may be Christians for 20 years, they are still babes in Christ because they spend so little time in the Word of God. If they read the Bible at all, it is not to discover how they can change their lives. They do not connect their problems to the principles of the Word.
Spiritual babes are immature believers. These believers walk more out of fellowship than in fellowship with God. They zig then zag. They do not walk on a straight course of spiritual development. The one thing that characterizes their Christian life is instability. They rarely confess their sin. They close off their sins. They are afraid to face them. They may feel sorry for their sins but they do not genuinely confess them. All Christians at the minimum know God personally. Children don’t know much.
Young Men – Because you have overcome the wicked one… Those in process toward maturity, sound in doctrine, but not yet seasoned in the living out of the Christian life based on God’s Word. Able to overcome satan
The outstanding characteristic of a growing Christian is that they have victories over the satanic system.
The outstanding characteristic of adolescent Christians is that they know how to battle in the spiritual war. The Devil will try his utmost to put us in a state of spiritual retardation so that we never get to the place of victory. He will do his diabolical worst to keep Christians at the spiritual babyhood level. Some stay at spiritual childhood all their Christian lives. This is the way he works. Growing Christians learn how to ignore Satan’s attempts to brain wash us into believing his lies.
You just have to understand where Satan operates. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 13 to 15, it says, “Satan is disguised as an angel” of light.” He’s an angel of light. Satan isn’t the one running around making people sin. People sin because of the flesh. Satan is involved in false religious systems. 99.9 percent of Satan’s activity is in false religion. He is a liar and a deceiver. He works in the false systems, the false ideologies of the world. Don’t blame Satan for your sin. Don’t blame Satan for what your flesh is doing.
1Jo 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. 1Jo 5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Young Men - Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one.
Because you are strong, These young men developed spiritual strength.
God wants us to be as strong spiritually as we are physically. Some of us would land in the hospital if our physical strength were as strong as our spiritual strength. God wants us to be strong in Him.
Joshua 1: 9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Ne 8: 10 “Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Is 40: 31 “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
Is 41: 10 “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Ep 1: 19 “…and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power…”
Ep 3: 16 “…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man…”
Ep 6: 10 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”
Ph 4: 13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Co 1: 11 “…strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy…”
2 Ti 2: 1 “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
2 Ti 4: 17 “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 18 And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”
and the word of God abides in you,
The secret of the strength of young men was their knowledge of the Word of God and their ability to apply it to their experience. They did not waste and weaken their lives through sin. On the contrary, these young men disciplined and directed their lives by the allowing the Word to indwell their lives and center their lives in Christ.
Ep 6: 17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…”
PRINCIPLE: The basis of victory over sin is the Word of God.
APPLICATION: One of the foundations of Christian living is the application of the principles of the Word of God to experience. This is victory in God’s economy. This is the way to gain victory over the world system.
Ps 119: 9 “How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. 10 With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! 11Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!”
Some people take casual glances at the Word occasionally. They do not consistently see its principles so they cannot apply them to their experience.
1: 6 “… do not practice the truth. 8 … and the truth is not in us… 10 … and His word is not in us.”
Christians who develop attraction for the Word of God grow in the things of God. We must hunger, thirst and develop an appetite for what God has to say.
Dt 6:6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.”
Dt 11:18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”
Ps 1: 2 “But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night.”
Pr 7: 3 “Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Je 15: 16 “Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”
Je 20: 9 “Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name. But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.”
Job 23: 12 “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.”
Jn 15: 7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Co 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”
And you have overcome the wicked one
V14 Fathers
Fathers – The most mature Christians who have a deep, intimate knowledge of God
Jn 17: 3 “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
A person who takes a maximum number of principles from the Word of God and applies them to his experience along the way is mature. Many Christians refuse to grow up spiritually because they do not want to find the principles nor apply them to their lives.
Christians who truly confess their sins realize that God fully judged sins in Christ. Judgment of our sins occurred 2000 years ago on the cross. Confession accepts this by faith. It is not our emotion about the sin but our faith in what Christ did about the sin that matters to God.
This is when it’s not just warfare about the doctrine. This is when you understand what the hymn writer meant when he talked about being lost in wonder, love, and praise. This is when you get to the point where your soul is exhilarated in the knowledge of God. It’s not the parts anymore, it’s the sum of the parts. And in some ways, you’re back to the relationship again, only it’s fuller and richer and fully informed by sound doctrine, to know the author of that doctrine, to know the God who is behind it. It’s to deeply, intimately know God.
1Co 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
One characteristic of a spiritual father is that they reproduce themselves. They lead others to Christ. Have you developed enough in the Lord that you lead others to Christ? Have you reproduced yourself in the faith even once?
1 Co 4:15 “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.”
God characterizes mature believers as having 1) knowledge of the Word of God, 2) wisdom, 3) faith to apply truth to experience, 4) positioning their lives to the principle of grace (Quit pondering the past. In other words, stop dwelling on your past failures and those things that just didn't seem to go right for you.) and 5) maximum structure or discipline in their Christian experience.
2 Pe 3:18 “…but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”
Once a person becomes a Christian, they become a target of the Devil. The Devil is unscrupulous. He will try to stunt the growth of new Christians. New Christians are more defenseless than at any other time in their Christian lives.
That is why it is important for a new Christian to get into the Word of God quickly.
1 Pe 2:1 “Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.”
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Tuesday May 31, 2022
1 JOHN 2:8-11 THE TEST OF LOVE PART 2
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Tuesday May 31, 2022
V8 Again, a new commandment, Not New in time, but quality or kind
It Is New in Example
Which thing is true in Him…1John 4:8,16 God is Love
Joh 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. The phase “as I have loved you” is the key to the love that God expects of believers. It was mighty difficult for Jesus to love the disciples yet He loved them. Jesus loved them with a pure, undiminished love.
Joh 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
Mt 5:43 – 46 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
1Jo 3:11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
Ga 6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
1Pe 4:8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Jas 2:8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well;
1Pe 1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
1Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Jesus showed us how to love
Later on we will think about that great statement, “God is love” (1 John 4:8), but it is anticipated here. When one looks at Jesus Christ, one sees love come to life and demonstrated.
His righteous soul hated all sin and disobedience, but He never hated the people who committed such sins[1]
He went to the Blind, lepers, prostitutes, paralyzed, tax collectors
It is encouraging to think of Jesus’ love for the twelve disciples. How they must have broken His heart again and again as they argued over who was the greatest, or tried to keep people from seeing their Master
But Jesus died not only for His friends, but also for His foes! And as they crucified Him, He prayed for them: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Jas 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
In Christ we have a new illustration of the old truth that God is love and that the life of love is the life of joy and victory.
Luke 14:13 "But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 "And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
Gal 5:22 the fruit of the Spirit is love….
And in you
“Love one another,” John points out, was first true in Christ, and now it is true in the lives of those who are trusting Christ. Jesus Himself is the greatest Example of this commandment.
1Th 4:9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
1Jo 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.
The only person many of us love is ourselves. That is why we are ornery and mean as a rattlesnake. The philosophy is this, “Hurray for me and the devil go all the way to the rear
because the darkness is passing away
The darkness of not completely understanding all that God was doing in the OT and the coming of the Holy Spirit which enables us to do what He asks us to do.
Christ’s Incarnation brought a light into the world which can never be extinguished. The love He manifested and taught His disciples to manifest is a characteristic of the Age to come. It is the darkness of the present world and all its hatred which is destined to disappear forever (cf. 1 John 2:17a
1Th 5:5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
and the true light is already shining
This reminds us of the emphasis (1 John 1) on walking in the light. Two ways of life are contrasted: those who walk in the light practice love; those who walk in the darkness practice hatred. The Bible repeatedly emphasizes this truth.
When Christ was born, “the Dayspring from on high” visited the world (Luke 1:78). “Dayspring” means sunrise. The birth of Christ was the beginning of a new day for mankind! As He lived before men, taught them, and ministered to them, He spread the light of life and love. “The people who sat in darkness saw a great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matt. 4:16).
Joh 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."
Either the second coming of Christ or the victory of Truth over darkness such as in (John 1:5-9)
“the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov. 4:18).
V9 – The example of love…Says
It Is New in Experience (1 John 2:9–11)
Our passage continues the illustration of light and darkness. If a Christian walks in the light and is in fellowship with God, he will also be in fellowship with others in God’s family.
Hates – habitual hate It especially carries the idea of malicious and unjustifiable bad thoughts toward others – to detest. It is a sense of hatred without cause.
There is no gray area between light and darkness when it comes to God for He is absolute in His character
Ro 13:8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Joh 13:35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
The Christian life has two relationships: the vertical (Godward) and the horizontal (manward).
Contrary to popular opinion, Christian love is not “blind.” When we practice true Christian love, we find life getting brighter and brighter
No book in the Bible illustrates the blinding power of hatred like the Book of Esther. The
V10 - The believer who can love all believers under any circumstance is a believer who walks or abides in the light; that is, he fellowships with God. He fellowships with any Christian anywhere. He may not agree with every Christian but he fellowships with him nevertheless.
and there is no cause for stumbling in him - The Christian who loves does not cause others to stumble or fall. Christians who love are not obstacles to others. They do not say thoughtless things to others.
Hatred is a kind of internal “stumbling block” which can lead to disastrous spiritual falls. But the calamities to which hatred leads are avoided by one who loves his brother.
1Jo 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
A man who hates is like a man wandering aimlessly in the dark, he faces potentially grave dangers.[2]
V11 - Ga 5: 16 “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh… 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”
Wash one another’s feet (John 13:14).
Prefer one another (Rom. 12:10).
Be of the same mind one to another (Rom. 12:16).
Do not judge one another (Rom. 14:13).
Receive one another (Rom. 15:7).
Admonish one another (Rom. 15:14).
Edify [build up] one another (1 Thes. 5:11).
Bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2).
Confess your faults to one another (James 5:16).
Use hospitality one to another (1 Peter 4:9).[3]
the first tragic result: he lives in the darkness, though he probably thinks he is living in the light
becomes a cause of stumbling It is bad enough when an unloving believer hurts himself (1 John 2:9); but when he starts to hurt others the situation is far more serious
A third tragic result of hatred is that it retards a believer’s spiritual progress [4]
Thus far, we have seen the negative side of 1 John 2:9–11; now let’s look at the positive. If we practice Christian love, what will the wonderful results be?
First of all, we will be living in the light—living in fellowship with God and with our Christian brothers.
Second, we will not stumble or become stumbling blocks to others.
And, third, we will grow spiritually and will progress toward Christlikeness.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Monday May 23, 2022
1 JOHN 2:7-8 The Test of Love
Monday May 23, 2022
Monday May 23, 2022
True Christians Love others, Especially God’s Children
It Is New in Emphasis (1 John 2:7)
V7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment –
Love is the fulfillment of the Law Mt. 22:37-39
The Word Love is used 184 times in the New Testament
When we read in 1 John about “love,” the Greek word used is agape (ah-GAH-pay), the word for God’s love toward man, a Christian’s love for other Christians, and God’s love for His church (Eph. 5:22–33).[1]
The commandment to love one another is not new in time, but it is new in character. Because of Jesus Christ, the old commandment to “love one another” has taken on new meaning. We learn in these five brief verses (1 John 2:7–11) that the commandment is new in three important ways.
How is it possible for one commandment to stand head and shoulders above all the others? This is explained by the fact that love is the fulfillment of God’s Law (Rom. 13:8–10).
The commandment “Love one another” is the fulfillment of God’s Law in the same way. When you love people, you do not lie about them or steal from them. You have no desire to kill them. Love for God and love for others motivates a person to obey God’s commandments without even thinking about them! When a person acts out of Christian love he obeys God and serves others—not because of fear, but because of his love.
This is why John says that “Love one another” is a new commandment—it is new in emphasis. It is not simply one of many commandments. No, it stands at the top of the list![2]
The child is typical of an unsaved person. “We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).
Ro 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
When a sinner trusts Christ, he receives a new life and a new nature. The Holy Spirit of God comes to live in him and the love of God is “shed abroad in [his] heart” by the Spirit (Rom. 5:5). God does not have to give a new believer a long lecture about love! “For ye yourselves are taught of God [i.e., by the Holy Spirit within you] to love one another” (1 Thes. 4:9). A new believer discovers that he now hates what he used to love, and that he loves what he used to hate!
2Jo 1:5 And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment to you, but that which we have had from the beginning: that we love one another.
De 6:5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Le 19:18 'You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Jn 14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Jn 15:14 “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
V8 Again, a new commandment, Not New in time, but quality or kind
It Is New in Example
Which thing is true in Him…1John 4:8,16 God is Love
Joh 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. The phase “as I have loved you” is the key to the love that God expects of believers. It was mighty difficult for Jesus to love the disciples yet He loved them. Jesus loved them with a pure, undiminished love.
Joh 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
Mt 5:43 – 46 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
1Jo 3:11 For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
Ga 6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Joh 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
1Pe 4:8 And above all things have fervent love for one another, for "love will cover a multitude of sins."
Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Jas 2:8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you do well;
1Pe 1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
1Jo 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Jesus showed us how to love
Later on we will think about that great statement, “God is love” (1 John 4:8), but it is anticipated here. When one looks at Jesus Christ, one sees love come to life and demonstrated.
His righteous soul hated all sin and disobedience, but He never hated the people who committed such sins[3]
He went to the Blind, lepers, prostitutes, paralyzed, tax collectors
It is encouraging to think of Jesus’ love for the twelve disciples. How they must have broken His heart again and again as they argued over who was the greatest, or tried to keep people from seeing their Master
But Jesus died not only for His friends, but also for His foes! And as they crucified Him, He prayed for them: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Jas 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
In Christ we have a new illustration of the old truth that God is love and that the life of love is the life of joy and victory.
Luke 14:13 "But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. 14 "And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just."
Gal 5:22 the fruit of the Spirit is love….
And in you
“Love one another,” John points out, was first true in Christ, and now it is true in the lives of those who are trusting Christ. Jesus Himself is the greatest Example of this commandment.
1Th 4:9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;
1Jo 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.
The only person many of us love is ourselves. That is why we are ornery and mean as a rattlesnake. The philosophy is this, “Hurray for me and the devil go all the way to the rear
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Wednesday May 18, 2022
MINISTERING TO THE LEAST OF THESE
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Wednesday May 18, 2022
Everyone His Love Ministries reaches out to is locked up in some way. Some are locked up in bodies that don't work or the Nursing Home facility or in the wheelchair or bed they cannot get out of. We minister to youth who are locked up because of behavior problems or their parents and their cry is we want to have a “REAL FAMILY”. Other kids are locked up because of crimes. We reach those locked up correctional facilities; in addictions to drugs, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Jesus came to give us life and set us free and these folks are not free that we minister to, but we can set them free through Christ Jesus.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Monday May 16, 2022
1 JOHN 2:3-6 THE TEST OF OBEDIENCE
Monday May 16, 2022
Monday May 16, 2022
1 John 2:3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
True Christians Obey God’s Word
God wants us to know Him.
Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). The true grace of God teaches us “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12). So after setting forth God’s grace, John goes on to show that those who have truly experienced it will show it by living in obedience to His Word.
1 John is a book of assurance based on knowledge of the gospel and matching lifestyle of love and obedience (cf. The book of James).
You can know that you truly know Christ if you walk in obedience to His Word.
V3 Obedience is the outward visible proof of salvation
God wants us to know that we know Him.
By This or “these things” refers to all that John has written, which includes three tests of genuine faith: obedience, love, and sound doctrine.
John proposed a test whereby we can measure our practical knowledge of God (Father and Son, 1:3). He said, look at your response to God's revealed will. All believers know God to some extent (John 17:3).
Christianity is not just knowing about God or knowing certain doctrines or following certain moral precepts. It is essentially to know God. Jesus said (John 17:3), “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Christianity at its heart is, knowing God personally through Jesus Christ, who revealed God to us. If you do not know Him, you are not a Christian, no matter how correct your doctrine or how faithful your church attendance. You may have been raised in the church and you may always have adhered to Christian morality. But if you do not know God personally, you are not saved.
However some know Him more fully than others do (John 14:7-9, 21-23). John's point was that our personal experiential knowledge of God will affect the way we live, and the way we live, obediently or disobediently, will reveal how well we really know God.
In the parable of the sower, those represented by the rocky soil that received the word with joy certainly would have claimed to believe. The same would be true of the thorny soil. But only the fourth type, the good soil, brought forth fruit with perseverance (Luke 8:5-15). That parable shows that if a person truly believes, he will endure trials and root out the weeds of the world. But it takes some time to determine this. How can we know if a profession of faith is genuine, saving faith? Look at the fruit that comes from it. But fruit takes time to grow.
In 2 Peter 1:10, the apostle exhorts us to “be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; …” Why would anyone need to be diligent to make certain about this, if assurance is something that accompanies initial faith? Peter indicates that making certain about our calling and election is somewhat tied to our deeds subsequent to initial faith. He adds (2 Pet. 1:10-11), “for as long as you practice these things [the qualities that he has just listed], you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
This emphasizies that the Christians of these traumatized churches can have the full assurance of their salvation despite the false teachings they were hearing.
One of the evidences for true conversion is obedience to the Light (both Jesus and the gospel, cf. Luke 6:46). Even in the OT obedience was better than sacrificial ritual (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22; Jer. 7:22-23). Obedience does not bring or secure salvation, but it does evidence salvation. It is not the basis (cf. Eph. 2:8-9), but the fruit (cf.
The way that we know that we truly have come to know God is by walking in obedience to His Word.
Ro 2:8 but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness--indignation and wrath,
2Th 1:8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Pe 3:1 ¶ Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives,
1Pe 4:17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? (NKJV)
Joh 14:15 ¶ "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Joh 14:24 "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.
Joh 15:10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. (NKJV)
Mt 15:8 'These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.
Mr 7:6 He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. (NKJV)
Eph. 2:10
James 2:14-26
1Peter 1:13-16
Eph 2:2-3…Unsaved
Heb 12:5-11 – Discipline
Mt. 10:28 - "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
V4 False Christians –
1Jo 2:4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
2:4 "The one who says" This marks John's diatribe format.
Lu 6:46 "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?
If a person says he knows God intimately but is not obedient to the revealed will of God, he is a liar. Furthermore, God's truth does not have a controlling influence over his life (cf. 1:8, 10).
"I have come to know Him" The false teachers were claiming to know God, but were trying to separate salvation from godly living. They were separating justification from sanctification. They claimed superior (i.e., secret oral teachings from Jesus) knowledge of God, but their lifestyles revealed their true motives (Luke 6:43-45).
"and does not keep His commandments" This speaks of habitual lifestyle action. Our lives reveal our spiritual orientation (cf. Matthew 7; 1 John 3:6,9). 1 John 2:4 expresses the truth negatively, while 2:5 expresses the same truth positively.
"is a liar" There is nothing worse than self-willed deception! Obedience is evidence of true conversion. You shall know them by their fruit (cf. Matt. 7:15-23; Luke 6:43-45; 1 John 3:6,9).
John calls several religious people (teachers, preachers) liars (cf. 1 John 1:6; 2:4,22; 4:20). They are religious but not right with God (cf. Matt. 7:21-23)!
1 John 1:7 ‒ "If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in darkness, we lie"
1 John 2:4 ‒ "if one says, 'I have come to know Him, and does not keep His commandments,'" he is a liar
1 John 2:22 ‒ "Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ"
1 John 4:20 ‒ "if someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar"
1 John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
"but whoever keeps His word" This speaks of habitual lifestyle action.
Obedience is a crucial aspect of covenant faith. This is the central message of 1 John and James. One cannot say He knows God and yet reject both the living Word and the written Word by lifestyle sin (cf. 1 John 3:6,9)!
V5 Know – 26 Times – Speaking to the Gnostics
Keep – 10 Times
"By this we know that we are in Him" Here again is the emphasis on believers' ability to have a faith confidence in their relationship with God. The concept of our being in Him ("abiding," cf. 1 John 2:6) is a repeated theme of John's writings (cf. John 14:20,23; 15:4-10; 17:21,23,26; 1 John 2:24-28; 3:6,24; 4:13,16).
1Jo 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
2:6 "abides" The NT also declares that both the Father and the Son abide in us (cf. John 14:23 and 17:21). Notice that even in a clause which emphasizes assurance there is the need for, and implied warning, of "ought" (cf. 1 John 2:6, "abides in Him"). The gospel is a conditional covenant with rights and responsibilities!
V6 abides – remains or stays
John 15:4-10 – Vine and the Branches
"ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked" This is another emphasis on "true faith" as lifestyle faith (cf. James 2:14-26). Faith is not only a decision, but an ongoing personal relationship with Jesus that naturally issues in daily Christ like living. Eternal life has observable characteristics! This is parallel to 1 John 1:7. The goal of Christianity is not just heaven when we die, but Christlikeness now (cf. Rom. 8:29-30; 2 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 4:19; Eph. 1:4; 1 Thess. 3:13; 4:3; 1 Pet. 1:15)! We are saved to serve. We are sent on mission as He was sent on mission. As He laid down His life for others, so we too, must see ourselves as servants (cf. 1 John 3:16).
John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Wednesday May 11, 2022
30 SECOND DEVOTIONAL WILL YOU RECEIVE THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL?
Wednesday May 11, 2022
Wednesday May 11, 2022
Hi, I'm Marty McKenzie with His Love Ministries. At the Nursing Home the other day, a friend of mine was inviting residents to come to the church service, some would not come, so he said if he had some cake or something they would. You laugh, but I could offer you a car or money and you would take it, but how about the free gift of salvation. Would you take it? Eph 2:8-9 Says For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Jesus bought it on the cross and He offers it to you today. Will you receive the greatest gift of all?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Monday May 09, 2022
1 JOHN 1.7,9,2.1-2 THE TEST OF OBEDIENCE PART 2
Monday May 09, 2022
Monday May 09, 2022
Today there are many people who say they are Christians, they trust in Jesus and they are going to heaven, yet they still live in sin and do not intend to change. This verse says that a person that says he knows Jesus, but still habitually lives in sin is a liar and does not live according to the truth of the Bible. The bottom line is that if you live that way, you have not been saved, and you will not go to heaven.
Proverbs 28:13 says, “He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.”
Psalm 51:4, looking to God he says, “Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.”
So, the people who say you can be saved and live anyway you want have never been saved and will never make it to heaven.
The practice of concealing is a very refined art form among unbelievers. The practice of concealing sin, of covering sin, of redefining sin is characteristic of people who don’t know God, who, to borrow the language of John, are not in the fellowship. But that’s what they do, they cover and they conceal. Christians, on the other hand, are people who confess.
Here, to “walk in the darkness” means to sin habitually, the contrast being, not a sinless life (for John teaches that everyone sins, v. 8), but a progressive growth in godliness. Boice
But we must not miss the fact that his rebuke applies to anyone who claims to know God while at the same time treats either sin or the need for establishing and maintaining a moral life lightly. [1]
The first man said, “Sin, what’s that?” The second man said, “Sin? Oh, I don’t do that anymore.” Third man said, “Yes, there’s sin, I’ve never sinned.” He claims he’s never sinned. If we say we have not sinned, never, we have a problem here. It’s evident that you don’t know the truth. You don’t know the truth about the gospel and you don’t know the truth about sin. And they go together.
Col. 1:13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Eph. 5:11 “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.” If you say that you have fellowship with Him but you walk in the darkness, it’s a lie.
In verse 6, “They say they have fellowship with God, but they walk in darkness.” And so the first word that describes them is “darkness.” There is the absence of eternal life, characterized by the love of truth and the love of holiness.
1John 1:7 says But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. This is better translated since we walk in the light. This means we have truly been saved, we are habitually living according to the truth of the bible, we have a special bond with other believers because of the Holy Spirit that lives in us, and we are continually being cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.
He does not understand “walking in the light” to mean perfection. Rather, he means a genuine and continuous pursuit of holiness out of which increased fellowship with other Christians and confession of sin will come. It is this that must characterize all who know God. Boice
John is merely saying that one who walks in fellowship with God will find forgiveness for any sin that might enter his life. Since this forgiveness is already provided for by the sacrifice of Christ. Boice
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Rom. 8:31-34. The word “confess” means “to say the same thing.” To confess sin means to say the same thing about it that God says.
To understand the word “faithful” he must understand that God has promised to forgive sin when it is confessed to him. Thus, Isaiah wrote of God’s promise: “ Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord”. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool’ ” (Isa. 1:18). Through Jeremiah God declared, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more” (Jer. 31:34). Clearly, if God had spoken such promises and then had refused to forgive sin, he would have been unfaithful. But he is not. He is faithful to forgive in that he has promised to do so and He does.
The answer to the question of the justice of God in forgiving sins is found in Romans 3:20–28, where Paul explains how it is that God is both “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (v. 26 kjv). It is possible, he says, through Christ, who, being God and therefore having no sin of his own, was able to and did die for us. God punished our sin in Christ. Jesus became the “propitiation” for our sins, meaning that by him God’s just wrath against our sin was satisfied. It is interesting in this context that the word “propitiation,” used by Paul in Romans, is used by John just three verses further on as he enters more fully into a discussion of Christ’s work. Boice
You ask why do we have to confess our sins if God has already forgiven us. We can never lose our salvation, but we can mess up the relationship. If I slap you and ask you later to do something for me, I am sure you would say no. You would at least want an apology, it is the same with God, we grieve Him when we sin, and we need to ask forgiveness to restore our right relationship and place in His will.
To confess means to say the same thing about our sin as God does. We like to rationalize our sin. Others are conceited, but I respect myself. When others lose their temper, they are angry; me, I have righteous anger. Others are prejudiced; but I have convictions.” If someone else takes initiative, he is presumptuous; if I take initiative, I am creative. when I show indignation over something, it is righteous anger. The problem is not circumstance but sin. Nice labels do not change the poison inside the bottle. Don’t say God, I don’t know if I sinned or not, or if I sinned forgive me, but call it sin like God does. We need to admit and confess sin to be right with God.
John 1:29 “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’”
Heb. 7:25 “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those [believers] who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
2 Cor. 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
1 Peter 2:24 “…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness— by whose stripes you were healed.”
How does God provide for the sins of the saints? Through the heavenly ministry of Christ. We are saved from the penalty of sin by His death (Rom. 5:6-9), and we are saved daily from the power of sin by His life (Rom. 5:10). The word “advocate” means “one who pleads a case” and is the same Gk. word as “Comforter” in John 14:16.
Ro 14:23 “But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.”
First, If God’s light is really shining on us, we will rather say, as did Isaiah, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!” (Isa. 6:5); or with Peter, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8); or with Paul, “I am the worst [of sinners]” (1 Tim. 1:15). Boice
Second, if God is our light and if we walk in the light, we will be growing spiritually. The Bible will be becoming more precious, for God is revealed in it. We will love godliness. And we will be finding fellowship with God’s people more and more delightful and valuable.
Finally, we will also be finding it increasingly desirable to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, we will yearn to serve him, for we will know him more and more as the one who brought us out of the bondage of our darkness into his marvelous light. Wesley wrote of this desire:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night:
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light:
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
To follow Christ is the natural desire of the one whose life has been illuminated by him. Boice
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Nothing that John has written thus far can be taken as an endorsement of sin. But it is possible that some might misunderstand his statements and thereby reach that conclusion. Has he not argued that all men sin? “Well,” they might argue, “if sin is inevitable, why struggle against it? You will sin no matter what you do. So resign yourself to the facts.” Or again, has John not said that there is forgiveness for sin through what Jesus has done and, indeed, continues to do? “All right,” they might add, “why worry about committing sin? If God forgives it, the outcome is assured. As a matter of fact, why not sin more, for God can forgive more and get greater glory in such circumstances.”[1]
Ro 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
These things I write to you,
The first part of 1John 2:1 says My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. This says that if we know Christ as our Lord and Savior then we do not have to sin because God has given us the Holy Spirit to overcome sin, suffering, and temptation, but we sin because we are weak and want to. If you have not been saved, you are like Mic Jagger who says he is free, free to do what ever he wants. But I say to you and Mic, you are not free to not do what you want to do and no matter how hard you try you will never be able to change or break those bad habits without Christ.
One purpose of writing 1 John is that believers would have a means for addressing sin issues. This is an argument against the idea that Christians must engage in inevitable habitual sinful behavior.
John does not write so that his readers have justification for their sin (1:6,8,10) but that they might conquer sin.
Although Christians sin (1:10), they can conquer sin – “so that you may not sin.”
John writes with the purpose that his readers will have a safeguard against sinning. If we practice sin, we will become more skilled in it.
There is no sin in being tempted but it is a sin to yield to temptation
The last part of 1John 2:1 says And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If we are Christians we don’t look at salvation as a license to sin, but if we are truly saved, as we continue to follow Christ we will sin less and less as the pattern of our life. But He also tells us that when we do sin that it is Jesus our Advocate, our ally, our intercessor who defends us before an accusing devil and a Holy God that He paid for that sin on the cross and it can never be held against us.
Jesus is more than a Savior and more than Lord, He is our Advocate or Lawyer. He is with the Father and intercedes on our behalf to the Father. An advocate is someone called along side to help. An advocate comes to someone’s aid. Secular Greek used “advocate” as a court term to mean a legal assistant, counsel for defense. Jesus as our Advocate pleads our cause; He is our Intercessor.
The word “advocate” occurs 5 times in the Greek New Testament. Other occurrences translate it by “comforter.” All 4 of the other occurrences refer to the Holy Spirit.
We have a Defense Attorney in Jesus Christ and another Defense Attorney in the Holy Spirit. Jesus defends us against the accusations of the Devil because of our sin (Re 12:10). The Holy Spirit gives us the power to live the Christian life
1Jo 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
This means Jesus Christ died on the cross so that anyone who believes He died in their place, took their hell, and paid the penalty for their sins could go to heaven. The word propitiation means satisfaction and Jesus satisfied the legal demands that someone had to be punished and die for our sins. That is why when Jesus died, He said it is finished, it means He paid our sin debt in full and anyone who would call on Him for forgiveness would go to heaven.
Propitiator - the One who satisfies the holy demands of an absolute God
Propitiation refers to the full satisfaction of the absolute, holy and righteous character of God. The “Mercy seat” was the place of propitiation. In the New Testament it is the shed blood of the body of Christ.
Jesus as our Defense Attorney is His office but His role in propitiation is the satisfaction
Propitiation is a term of appeasement. Jesus’ death on the cross appeased the wrath of God against our sin. God must be just or consistent with Himself. He is absolute in His being and He can never compromise His character in any way.
Heb 9:22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
Romans 3:21-26 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
[1] Boice, J. M. (2004). The Epistles of John: an expositional commentary (p. 31). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Wednesday May 04, 2022
JOHN 1:14 THE WORD BECAME FLESH
Wednesday May 04, 2022
Wednesday May 04, 2022
The book of John has no birth narrative, no manger scene, no geneology, but John goes straight to the point in the first two verses of John 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. Then verse 14 says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.. He wants us to know that Jesus is God in human flesh. He is not a God as some of the cults say, but He is THE ONE AND ONLY GOD. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? If not, why not right now?
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Monday May 02, 2022
1 JOHN 1:6,8,10 THE TEST OF OBEDIENCE
Monday May 02, 2022
Monday May 02, 2022
The first two chapters deal with fellowship, and in them, John gives us the three tests of true fellowship. Note the contrast between saying and doing: “If we say...‘‘ (1:6, 8, 10; 2:4, 6). Too many times we are better at the “talk” than we are at the “walk”! In 1:1-4, John introduces his theme: Christ the Word who has revealed the Father. (See 1:1-14.) He explains that when Christ was here on earth, He was a real Person, not a phantom, and that He had a real body (Luke 24:39). The false teachers of John’s day were denying that Jesus had come in the flesh. If we do not have a real Christ, how can we have real forgiveness of sin? John is being a witness by telling what he had seen and heard (Acts 4:20). He explains that Christ was manifested to reveal God and to make possible our fellowship with Him. See also 3:5, 8, and 4:9 for other reasons why Christ came.
None of the other biblical writers tells us so much about what God really is as does the apostle John. All of them tell what he does. Some describe the glory that surrounds him. But John tells what God is in his true nature. He does this in three striking definitions: God is spirit (John 4:24), God is light (1 John 1:5), and God is love (1 John 4:8). It is a characteristic of these three definitions that the predicates occur without the definite article. We are told, then, not that God is the Spirit, the light, and the love or even, in all probability, a spirit, a light, and a love, but rather spirit, light, and love themselves. In this we have the broadest and most comprehensive definition of God that can probably be devised in human language.[1]
1John 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
1Jo 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
Sin is anything that displeases God, the breaking of His commandments.
The Test of Obedience (1:5-2:2)
1Jo 1:5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
John introduces us to the image of light (John 1:5). God is light, and Satan is the prince of darkness Lu 22:53 "When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.".
1John 1:5 tells us that the message the disciples heard from Jesus and that they are declaring to us is that God is light and in Him is found no darkness at all. In the Bible light speaks of truth on an intellectual level and righteousness on a moral level. Darkness on the other hand speaks of falsehood and sin. This means that God is perfectly holy and is the only source of real truth. It also means that He will never lie or do anything wrong. In a day of whatever feels good do it, God sets a standard that we can never meet on our own. This means that we can only approach God through the person of Jesus Christ.
He is holy and the source of all good. Boice
John 8:12 “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’”
2 Cor. 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Pilate, I find no fault in him
Consequently, when he says that God is light, he immediately denies that God is darkness. God is good; therefore, God is not bad. God is holy; so he is not sinful. Men may mix the two, as in many of the Eastern religions, in which all things, good and bad, unite in the One. But this is not John’s teaching, nor that of the Bible as a whole. In this viewpoint God emerges as that which is totally holy and therefore is totally opposed to all that is sinful and false. It follows from this that men must be holy if they are to have fellowship with him, as John now shows. Boice
To obey Him is to walk in the light; to disobey is to walk in darkness. Keep in mind that fellowship is a matter of light and darkness; sonship is a matter of life and death (3:4; 5:11-12). John points out that it is possible for people to say they are in the light, yet actually live in darkness. Note the “liars” here:
Notice that in all three cases it is the absence of the truth that is the issue. End of verse 6, they don’t practice the truth. End of verse 8, the truth is not in us. End of verse 10, His Word is not in us. This is speaking of gospel truth, saving truth. Nobody is saved, nobody is regenerated, nobody participates in salvation apart from the truth.
lying about fellowship, 1:6-7;
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
Today there are many people who say they are Christians, they trust in Jesus and they are going to heaven, yet they still live in sin and do not intend to change. This verse says that a person that says he knows Jesus, but still habitually lives in sin is a liar and does not live according to the truth of the Bible. The bottom line is that if you live that way, you have not been saved, and you will not go to heaven.
Proverbs 28:13 says, “He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy.”
Psalm 51:4, looking to God he says, “Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.”
So, the people who say you can be saved and live anyway you want have never been saved and will never make it to heaven.
The practice of concealing is a very refined art form among unbelievers. The practice of concealing sin, of covering sin, of redefining sin is characteristic of people who don’t know God, who, to borrow the language of John, are not in the fellowship. But that’s what they do, they cover and they conceal. Christians, on the other hand, are people who confess.
Here, to “walk in the darkness” means to sin habitually, the contrast being, not a sinless life (for John teaches that everyone sins, v. 8), but a progressive growth in godliness. Boice
But we must not miss the fact that his rebuke applies to anyone who claims to know God while at the same time treats either sin or the need for establishing and maintaining a moral life lightly. [2]
The first man said, “Sin, what’s that?” The second man said, “Sin? Oh, I don’t do that anymore.” Third man said, “Yes, there’s sin, I’ve never sinned.” He claims he’s never sinned. If we say we have not sinned, never, we have a problem here. It’s evident that you don’t know the truth. You don’t know the truth about the gospel and you don’t know the truth about sin. And they go together.
Col. 1:13 “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Eph. 5:11 “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.”
John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.” If you say that you have fellowship with Him but you walk in the darkness, it’s a lie.
In verse 6, “They say they have fellowship with God, but they walk in darkness.” And so the first word that describes them is “darkness.” There is the absence of eternal life, characterized by the love of truth and the love of holiness.
lying about our nature, saying that we have no sin, 1:8;
1Jo 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Gal. 6:3 “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
2 Chronicles 6:36 says there’s no man that doesn’t sin - no one - perfectionists included. John 8: Slave to sin, Romans 6
Now the man in verse 8, the if-we sayer there, he’s not confessing because he thinks he’s reached a state where he has no sin. If we say we have no sin, he recognizes that sin exists, he just doesn’t have any. So there’s really no sin for him to be concerned about. If he did have any sin, it was in the past. He’s reached an elevated position of enlightenment, which is what the Gnostics came to be known as, those who had ascended to the higher knowledge, and this group of people John is dealing with here were pre-Gnostic in their thinking.
Verse 8, “If we say we have no sins, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” This is really worse in some ways than the first claim. The first people sort of redefined life without sin.
This is in some ways worse. This is someone who says, “Well, it does exist, but it doesn’t touch me.” This is a step up from the level of pride of the people in verse 6. This is the person who says, “I don’t have any sin, it’s not a part of my life.” The first category of people may have felt that sin was there, but only in the physical, this person says I don’t have any sin - no sin.
James 1:22, being doers of the Word.
lying about our deeds, saying that we have not sinned, 1:10;
1John 1:10 says If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
has a reason to repeat these things. There are some people who just redefine sin and say it’s the light when it’s the darkness, there are some people who think they’ve reached the point of enlightenment where they don’t sin, and then there are some people who think they’ve never sinned. And if you say you’ve never sinned, you just made God a liar. Why? Because God says all Sin
Many people think they have never done anything wrong, or at least nothing that would send them to hell. James 4:17 says Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. We live in a day of tolerance that defines sin, as what we think is right or wrong, but the Bible is our standard. If we realize we are not good enough on our own to get into heaven we can trust Jesus Christ and God will save us. Otherwise we are calling God a liar and rejecting His Holy Bible.
I remember I was talking to a woman about Christ and she told me she never sinned. I told her the Bible says in Romans 3:23 we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But she had been deceived and thought she had no need of Christ since she was not a sinner. How about you? Do you think you are good enough to get to heaven on your own? Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life. You need to ask God to forgive you and save you because Jesus died on the cross for your sins, that’s the only way to get to Heaven.
John 12:50 "And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."
Ps. 14:2–3 The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there are any who understand,
Who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.
How does God provide for the sins of the saints? Through the heavenly ministry of Christ. We are saved from the penalty of sin by His death (Rom. 5:6-9), and we are saved daily from the power of sin by His life (Rom. 5:10). The word “advocate” means “one who pleads a case” and is the same Gk. word as “Comforter” in John 14:16.
Ro 14:23 “But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.”
First, If God’s light is really shining on us, we will rather say, as did Isaiah, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!” (Isa. 6:5); or with Peter, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8); or with Paul, “I am the worst [of sinners]” (1 Tim. 1:15). Boice
Second, if God is our light and if we walk in the light, we will be growing spiritually. The Bible will be becoming more precious, for God is revealed in it. We will love godliness. And we will be finding fellowship with God’s people more and more delightful and valuable.
Finally, we will also be finding it increasingly desirable to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, we will yearn to serve him, for we will know him more and more as the one who brought us out of the bondage of our darkness into his marvelous light. Wesley wrote of this desire:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night:
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light:
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
To follow Christ is the natural desire of the one whose life has been illuminated by him. Boice
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
[1] Boice, J. M. (2004). The Epistles of John: an expositional commentary (p. 28). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
[2] Boice, J. M. (2004). The Epistles of John: an expositional commentary (p. 31). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Wednesday Apr 27, 2022
JOHN 1:12-13 BUT AS MANY AS RECEIVED HIM
Wednesday Apr 27, 2022
Wednesday Apr 27, 2022
In John 1:12-13 John begins to tell us how even though the people that He created did not know Christ when He came into this world and that His own special people the Jews did not know Him nor receive Him either; that as many as received Him will be saved. In other words, it is the ones who by faith alone ask God to forgive them on the basis of what Jesus did on the cross will be saved. He tells us how these who ask for forgiveness for their sins will become the children of God and the fact that man cannot be saved by any human effort of good works, mental effort of the will, or birthright, but only by the grace of God.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Sunday Apr 24, 2022
1 JOHN 1:1-4 A BIBLICAL VIEW OF JESUS
Sunday Apr 24, 2022
Sunday Apr 24, 2022
Written to combat Gnosticism. A Preoccupation with deliverance from the flesh dualistic view of man [matter was evil and spirit was good]. · Matter is inherently evil.
It was Peter’s task to talk about the kingdom of God, Paul about the church of God, but John is concerned with the family of God, to bring them back to the basics of truth. He was a net mender
One is in the passage just read, Verse 4. “And we are writing this that your joy may be complete.”….Answers the fear of loneliness
Then in Chapter 2, Verse 1, he says, “My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin.”… the problem of guilt.
And in Chapter 2, Verse 26, he gives us the third reason: “I write this to you about those who would deceive you.”… that we might be free from deception.
In Chapter 5, Verse 13, he gives us the fourth reason: “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”… I am writing this to assure you” – that you might find security,
At the close of this letter John tells us, “He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life,” {1 Jn 5:12 RSV}.
1John 1:1-4 is a defense of the authenticity of the humanity of Christ, or the Test of Believing that Jesus has come in the flesh
1Jo 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 1Jo 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
He talks about A relationship, a fellowship, and a joy that follows.
A relationship
V1 John does not refer here to the absolute beginning of creation (Ge 1:1) but to the beginning of the message of Jesus Christ to the apostles
Luke 24:39 “Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” 40 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.”
The “Word” is Christ manifested as God’s message. He reveals God.
Hebrews 1: God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
“Of life” means life-giving. Jesus is both the messenger and the message. The message and the messenger are identical.
V2 2 Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
A fellowship
V3 Entering the eternal life of the Son will produce two results: 1) fellowship with fellow believers, and 2) fellowship with the Father and the Son.
A Definition of fellowship
There is, first of all, a partnership, i.e., the sharing of mutual interests, mutual resources, mutual labor together. God and I, working together, a partnership.
All that I have is put at his disposal.
But it is not only partnership, there is also friendship. Friendship and partnership together spell fellowship. Have you ever thought of this, that God desires you to be his friend?
John 15:15 Jesus said to his disciples, “I have not called you servants, but I have called you friends,”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
Jesus shows us the life that man is intended to live – a continual dependence upon the life of the Father. Look at the earthly life of Jesus and this is exactly what you see. He keeps saying, “I don’t do these things, it’s not I who accomplishes these works, it is the Father who dwells in me,” {cf, John 14:10}. He is continually reminding people that he says only what the Father is saying through him that they are not his words, he simply looked to God and trusted God to be working through him, leading him to think the thoughts and to say the things that God wanted him to say. In doing this he expressed exactly the mind of God. It is that life that John is talking about, a new way of living, a new way of reacting to situations in dependence upon God.
And that is what makes a Christian, to share the life of God by relationship to a Person, the only Person who has that life, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
A Joy That Follows
V4
Then, when you have fellowship, you have the third thing that John mentions. These things we are writing, he says, “that your joy may be full.”
Joy is a kind of quiet inner excitement and this is what results when we really experience the fellowship that John is talking about. When we discover that God is actually
When we discover that God is actually using us, it is the most exciting and joy producing experience possible to men.
Jer. 15:16 Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.
There is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness depends on what happens; that is, it depends on circumstances. If our circumstances are good, then we are happy. However, if our circumstances are poor, then we are unhappy. However, joy is independent from circumstances. Circumstances cannot affect our relationship with God.
Song…It’s real, it’s real, thank God it’s real
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
JOHN 1:10-13 BUT AS MANY AS RECEIVED HIM
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
Thursday Apr 21, 2022
In John 1:10-13 He tells us the fact that Jesus created everything and He came to earth, but the people He created did not know Him and recognize Him when He came. Not even His own people, the Jews recognized Him nor many received Him as their Lord and Savior. What a shame. Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.) Please listen to the warning of this passage as it tells us working and willing ourselves into Heaven, just cannot be done.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
Thursday Apr 14, 2022
Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. In these verses, Paul stated the content of that message concerning faith. Confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord is mentioned first to conform to the order of the quotation from Deuteronomy 30:14 in Romans 10:8. The confession is an acknowledgement that God has been incarnated in Jesus (cf. v. 6), that Jesus Christ is God (Yahweh – the self-existent One). Also essential is heart-faith that God raised Him from the dead (cf. v. 7). The result is salvation. The true order is given in verse 10: For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified (lit., “it is believed unto righteousness”), and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (lit., “it is confessed unto salvation”).
Yet these are not two separate steps to salvation. They are chronologically together. Salvation comes through acknowledging to God that Christ is God and believing in Him.
The normal chronological order is that one believes and then acknowledges his or her belief (i.e., confesses; cf. v. 10; 2 Cor. 4:13-14).
"Confess" means to say the same thing about something as someone else does (Gr. homologeo; cf. 1 John 1:9). In this context, it refers to saying the same thing about Jesus Christ as other believers in Him do. It is an acknowledgment of one's faith in Christ. Obedient Christians in the early church made this confession verbally and in water baptism, as we do today (cf. Matt. 28:19-20).
Notice in verse 10 something that's very basic. The word "righteousness" is equated with the word "salvation." They are referring to the same thing. With the heart man believes unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. It doesn't take a great scholar to figure out then that righteousness equals salvation, salvation equals righteousness. You confess unto righteousness, you believe unto salvation. You believe unto righteousness, you confess unto salvation. They're synonymous.
In the early church the phrase, "Jesus is Lord" was one of the most common and simple expressions by which believers confessed their faith in Christ (cf. Acts. 2:36; 1 Cor. 8:6; 12:3; Phil. 2:11). It is a confession parallel and very similar to Israel's basic confession of faith in Yahweh: "Yahweh our God is one Lord" (Deut. 6:4, the Shema). In the Roman world, faithful citizens were increasingly being expected to acknowledge that Caesar was Lord (divine). So the original recipients of this epistle, especially, had to face the issue of who really is divine, Jesus or Caesar.
We take it that, for Paul, the confession that Jesus is Lord meant the acknowledgment that Jesus shares the name, the nature, the holiness, the authority, power, majesty and eternity of the one and only true God." Paul is speaking of the fact of the lordship of Christ, which is the very cornerstone for faith, something without which no one could be saved."
The fact that Jesus is Lord (God and Savior) became clear when He arose from the dead (cf. v. 7). Jesus' resurrection was the proof that He really was the divine Messiah, God's Holy One (cf. Ps. 16:10-11). Belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ meant belief that Jesus is Lord.
Ro 1:3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Ac 8:37 Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
Mt 10:32 "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
The contrast between mouth and heart needs to be observed. But we may not tone down the importance of confession with the mouth. Confession without faith would be vain (cf. Matt. 7:22, 23; Tit. 1:16). Likewise faith without confession would be shown to be fake. Our Lord and the New Testament in general bear out Paul’s coordination of faith and confession (cf. Matt. 10:22; Luke 12:8; John 9:22; 12:42; 1 Tim. 6:12; 1 John 2:23; 4:15; 2 John 7). Confession with the mouth is the evidence of the genuineness of faith and sustains to the same the relation which good works sustain (cf. 12:1, 2; 14:17; Eph. 2:8–10; 4:1, 2; James 2:17–22).
1Jo 2:23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.
Belief in Jesus Christ in one's heart results in acceptance by God (i.e., imputed righteousness, justification, and positional sanctification). Testimony to one's belief in Jesus Christ normally follows and normally is verbal. Paul was describing the normal consequence of belief. Witmer wrote that the confession is to God. One's confession that Jesus is Lord would be to God initially (i.e., expressing trust in Christ to the Father), but most interpreters have believed that the confession in view goes beyond God and includes other people as well. This seems to be a reasonable conclusion since the confession is to be made with the mouth.
Righteousness has to do with what we become. Salvation has to do with what we don't become. Righteousness has to do with what we receive. Salvation has to do with what we don't receive, punishment. Righteousness has to do with entering into blessedness. Salvation has to do with escaping cursedness. Two great terms describing two sides of God's saving work.
When you're saved, you receive a new kind of life. What kind of life? Righteous life, holy life.
Ro 4:22 And therefore "it was accounted to him for righteousness." 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Ac 13:29 "Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. 30 "But God raised Him from the dead. 31 "He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. 32 "And we declare to you glad tidings--that promise which was made to the fathers. 33 "God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus.
Verse 32 he says, "We declare unto you good news, glad tidings, the promise which was made to the fathers, God has fulfilled the same unto us their children." How did God do it? "In that He raised up Jesus again." In other words, he says God's promises are all fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acts 16:30, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved.’" But what were they to believe? What was the point of their faith? What was it about Jesus Christ that they were to accept?
You say, "Well, Paul must have told them something. What did he tell them?" Well, what did he do to them immediately after this? Verse 33, "He took them the same hour of the night, washed their stripes and was baptized." The jailer took care of them and he was baptized. What does baptism signify? When you go down in the water and you come out, what's that an identification with? The resurrection of Jesus Christ. They must have gotten very clearly the message of resurrection.
Acts 17:30, "God commands everyone everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained concerning which He has given assurance unto all." How did God give assurance to all that this in fact was the Messiah, that this in fact was the Lord that this in fact was the judge and the coming king? How did He do it? "In that He raised Him from the dead, raised Him from the dead." That's the key.
1 Peter 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." And you can read the whole fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. The resurrection was the ultimate approval, substantiation, verification of the ministry of Christ. It showed that He indeed was God in human flesh, able to conquer death, hell, Satan. It showed that He had lived a perfect life for death had no right to hold Him. There was no sin for which He must pay. It showed that He conquered death, all of that, that the Father approved of His work on the cross and took Him out of the grave and set Him at His own right hand. Philippians 2 tells us that He humbled Himself, took upon Himself the form of a man, found in fashion as a servant. And He went through all the suffering that He went through and then it says God has Highly exalted Him, given Him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.
The resurrection was the Father's stamp of approval. An infinitely holy God put His stamp of approval on the work of Jesus Christ. That is what you say when you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead
Back to Romans 10 — that you believe in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you're saying something that's far more than just believing in an isolated event. In essence, what you're saying is that you believe that this is the incarnate God who came into the world, God in human flesh, lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary death, went into the grave and conquered death, came out the other side having purchased salvation for us, is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, and someday will come again as the Father's appointed judge and King to judge men and to rule the world forever. That's all bound up in the resurrection.
If Paul had picked any other event, it wouldn’t have been as significant as this. The resurrection says He is Son of God. The resurrection says He is Messiah, He is Savior. He is the ultimate Lamb, the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is the perfect one, the sinless one, the one exalted at the right hand of God, the one to be the judge, the one to be the King. The only Savior, the judge of all men, the conqueror of death, the coming King, the eternal monarch of glory; all of that is bound up in the resurrection. And that's what we're called to believe.
In other words, you couldn’t say, "Well, I believe that Jesus rose from the dead. It just doesn't matter to me." No, that's not the kind of belief we're talking about. It's when your heart affirms all that the resurrection is intended to affirm. Affirming that the resurrection of Jesus was a historical fact won't save you. It is when you see in the resurrection the divine verification of all that Jesus claimed to be and do, that's the issue, it's believing that.
The Greek word in one form or another for faith and believing is 484 times in the New Testament. That's a lot of times. It's the key to salvation.
John 8:30 Jesus is talking to the population there, the area around Jerusalem. And He says things to them about Himself, about the Father. Then in verse 30, "As He spoke these words, many believed." Well there wasn't any resurrection yet so they couldn't believe that. What did they believe? Well they believed He was a prophet, they believed His words were true. They believed that He was a messenger from God. They believed He was a miracle worker. They believed He was a teacher. Whatever. But Jesus said to those Jews who believed, "If you continue in My Word then you're My real disciples." Something more than believing, right? There's continuing. In other words, it isn't enough that you've accepted Me as a miracle worker, or that you believe I'm a teacher from God, you've got to continue to believe everything else that I have to say about Myself. And that's what cut them out.
There are people who believe Jesus is the Son of God. And they may believe that He died on a cross and that He came out of the grave. But that's not saving faith because it doesn't imply that they embrace in the deepest part of their being all that His work meant. Do you understand that? All that it meant. All that it implied. In John 2 it says some people believed but He didn't commit Himself unto them because He knew the heart of man and He knew what their thinking was. And it wasn't adequate. It wasn't sufficient. James talks about the kind of faith that is dead faith. Because it has no product. What kind of believing is this? Well it's superficial believing. It's shallow believing. It doesn't encompass everything. And that's why in Romans 10 Paul says you must believe in the fullest sense from the deepest part of your person that God raised Him from the dead. In other words, all that that implies must be believed.
Believes means an ongoing condition not a one-time event of belief. True faith is a way of life.
Saving faith consists of three elements:
Mental - The mind understands the gospel and truth about Christ
Emotional - one embraces the truthfulness of those facts with sorrow over sin and joyfulness over God's mercy and Grace
A volitional or voluntary submission of the sinners will to Christ and trusts in Christ alone as the only hope of salvation.
CONFESSION VERIFIES AND CONFIRMS THE FAITH OF THE HEART.
Jas 2:19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
Lu 4:33 Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, "Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy One of God!"
The words of Thomas are very familiar to us, when he sees Jesus he says "My Lord and My God." “God” has to do with deity, “Lord” has to do with sovereignty. And if they both meant the same thing then he was repeating himself. “Lord” is the word that indicates sovereign power, sovereign control. “God” is the expression of deity.
The point is that the true heart that really believes, understands the fullness of who Christ is and willingly submits to His authority.
In the book of Acts, He is called “Savior” two times and “Lord” 92 times. And in the whole New Testament the word, "Lord" appears 634 times. “Savior,” appears 24 times, and never before “Lord,” but always after 116 times. God and Savior twice. Therefore, the context here of Romans 10 fits right into the standard understanding of this word kurios, that it is a word of sovereign ruler ship.
Tit 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
2Pe 1:1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
Salvation is to believe that He is all of that and to affirm that you take your place under His sovereign ruler ship.
Demons believe the right stuff, but have no capacity to submit to the lordship of Christ. That's why the Bible in Romans 1 calls it the obedience of faith. It is faith that leads to obedient submission to the lordship of Christ.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Tuesday Apr 05, 2022
ROMANS 10:5-8 RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW vs. RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH IN CHRIST
Tuesday Apr 05, 2022
Tuesday Apr 05, 2022
Romans 10:5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "The man who does those things shall live by them." 6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or," 'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW vs. RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH IN CHRIST (5-15)
Ro 10:5 For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "The man who does those things shall live by them."
That is to say, Moses speaks of the righteousness which is of the law and defines what it is and he also speaks of the righteousness of faith. For the former Leviticus 18:5 is quoted and for the latter Deuteronomy 30:12, 14
If a Jew or anyone is to receive righteousness by keeping the demands of the Law, that would be human achievement; it would not be from God. However, a Jew or anyone would need to keep the entire Law perfectly all his life—an impossible task
James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
But then Paul also quoted Moses in support of his righteousness-by-faith position centered in Christ as “the end of the Law” and the means by which righteousness is available for everyone who believes. It does not seem appropriate that Paul was merely borrowing Moses’ words and applying them to something foreign in Moses’ thought. This says that righteousness by faith is not a new concept, but had been proclaimed to Israel by Moses.
Paul quoted from the Old Testament to prove to his readers that they did not even understand their own Law. He began with Leviticus 18:5 which states the purpose of the Law: if you obey it, you live.
“But we did obey it!” they would argue.
Galatians 3:10 "For as many as are of the works of the law,” as many people as want to live by the works, as many people want to live by law, want to be self-savers, “are under the curse." They are all accursed. "For its written, cursed is everyone that continues not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." So if you've ever not done something you ought to do, or ever done something you should not have done, you're out, you're cursed.
“You may have obeyed it outwardly,” Paul would reply, “but you did not believe it from your heart.” He then quoted Deuteronomy 30:12–14 and gave the passage a deeper spiritual meaning.
The theme of Moses’ message was “the commandment” (Deut. 30:11), referring to the Word of God. Moses argued that the Jews had no reason to disobey the Word of God because it had been clearly explained to them and it was not far from them. In fact, Moses urged them to receive the Word in their hearts
When we think of the truth expressed in Deuteronomy 30:12–14, we can see the appropriateness of the use of this passage to show that the same principles over which the Jews stumbled are the principles which verify to the fullest extent the truth of the passage from which the apostle quotes.
De 5:29 'Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever
De 6:5 "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.13:3
De 30:6 "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.). The emphasis in Deuteronomy is on the heart, the inner spiritual condition and not mere outward acts of obedience.
Involves the mouth and the heart (6-8)
Ro 10:6 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down from above) 7 or," 'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
The material in Deuteronomy was part of Moses’ charge to the generation of Israel about to enter the land of Canaan. This exhortation was the conclusion of Moses’ prophetic description of God’s dealing with Israel. Blessing was promised for faith and obedience, and chastisement would result from rejection and disobedience. If Israel forsook God, Moses said, she would face worldwide dispersion and affliction. When the people then finally do turn to God in faith, He will restore them to blessing, prosperity, and prominence among the nations (Deut. 30:1–10). The point of Moses’ exhortation (Deut. 30:11) is that the generation to whom he was speaking had the message (it was very near you and in your mouth, Deut. 30:14) and they could respond by faith (in your heart, Deut. 30:14) and walk with God in obedience. Since the Israelites in Moses’ day had the message, they did not need to ask that it be brought down from heaven or that someone “cross the sea to get it” (Deut. 30:13). Instead, the word (Moses’ instructions) was “near” them (Deut. 30:14).
De 30:10 "if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Jews were trying to do the impossible. They were trying to ascend to heaven. That's what a works system does; save yourself, get up, and crawl up to heaven on your own. Descend into the deep.
Those are two Jewish proverbs. In fact, to be high and afar off was a Jewish way of saying something is unattainable. Thou art high, it says of God, that art very high. It says of the wicked, God sees them afar off, that is there's no way to reach them. To the Jew to be high in the heavens or deep in the depths, to ascend to heaven, to go down to hell was to do what was impossible. So he reaches back to Deuteronomy 30 and says Moses says that the righteousness of faith is not available just for those who can do the impossible. It's available for anybody. It's right there.
Paul assures us that the intent of this passage in Deuteronomy is a call to faith. He even calls it in Romans 10:8 the word of faith. It is a call to a heart response. It is a call to faith. It is the obedience of the heart that he is after, not just some external behavior. A call to faith, a call to a true heart relationship to God in Deuteronomy, is based on the covenant of grace. Deuteronomy is not simply a call to legal externalism; it is a call to respond in faith to a covenant of grace.
De 9:4 "Do not think in your heart, after the LORD your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out from before you. 5 "It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 6 "Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
It is better, therefore, to take the statement as implying that the Jews are saying Jesus never came down from heaven and the preceding question as the taunt of unbelief. What Paul is insisting on is the accessibility, the nearness of revelation. That Christ came down from heaven and tabernacled among men is the most significant proof of this fact. We dare not say: who shall ascend to heaven to find the truth? For this question discounts the incarnation and is a denial of its meaning. In Christ, the truth came to earth.
Ro 10:7 or," 'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
The other statement: “that is, to bring Christ up from the dead” (vs. 7) should be interpreted as a denial of the resurrection. The question: “who shall descend into the abyss?” echoes the same kind of unbelief as that of verse 6. It is to the effect: who shall go down to the abyss to find the truth? The abyss as representing that which is below is contrasted with heaven as that which is above. The question, as the language of unbelief, discounts the significance of Christ’s resurrection. The second phrase means that Jesus went to the realm of the dead and returned to life again. We do not need to go down to the abyss to find the truth any more than we need to ascend to heaven for the same purpose. For as Christ came from heaven to earth so also did he come again from the lower parts of the earth and revealed himself to men.
Eph 4:8 Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men." 9 (Now this, "He ascended" --what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)
1Pe 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
In effect, Paul indicated that the same truth applied to his generation, with the added fact that Christ had come in the flesh (John 1:14) and had been resurrected. Therefore there was no need for anyone to ask to bring Christ down (in His Incarnation) or to bring Christ up from the dead; He had already come and had been resurrected. The message of righteousness by faith in Paul’s day was “near” his readers (available to them) and this was “the word” (rhēma, “saying”) of faith he was proclaiming (rhēma, “the spoken word” is also used in Eph. 5:26; 6:17; 1 Peter 1:25). Thus the gospel, “the word of faith,” is available and accessible
Isa 45:19 I have not spoken in secret, In a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek Me in vain'; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
Ro 10:8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
Verse 8 is the affirmation of what is the burden of Deuteronomy 30:12–14 and is, with slight alteration, quotation of verse 14. Paul now specifies what this word is: it is “the word of faith, which we preach”. So the word of Deuteronomy 30:14 is applied directly to the message of the gospel as preached by the apostles. “
The word of faith” is the word to which faith is directed, not the word which faith utters. It is the word preached and therefore the message that brings the gospel into our mouth and heart.
Deut 30:10 Original Context if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 11 "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 "It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?'
Paul gave us the spiritual understanding of this admonition. He saw “the commandment” or “the Word” as meaning “Christ, God’s Word.” So, he substituted “Christ” for “the commandment.” He told us that God’s way of salvation was not difficult and complicated. We do not have to go to heaven to find Christ, or into the world of the dead. He is near to us. In other words, the Gospel of Christ—the Word of faith—is available and accessible. The sinner need not perform difficult works in order to be saved. All he has to do is trust Christ. The very Word on the lips of the religious Jews was the Word of faith. The very Law that they read and recited pointed to Christ.
God doesn't scorn the lost soul by mocking him with an offering of salvation that is utterly unattainable and expecting him to go on an impossible quest.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Wednesday Mar 30, 2022
JOHN 1:8-9 JOHN IS NOT THE LIGHT, BUT HE CAME TO TESTIFY AND REVEAL THE TRUE LIGHT
Wednesday Mar 30, 2022
Wednesday Mar 30, 2022
In John 1:8-9 we see that John is not the light, but he came to be a legal witness of Jesus who is the light. Light always stands for (the revealing of God’s holiness and holy attributes) truth, righteousness, purity, and holiness. Darkness stands for error, falsehood, and immorality. He then tells us how Jesus gives light or reveals Himself to everyone who has ever been born. This shows us that everyone has an opportunity to hear the Word of God and be saved if they want to. This makes everyone responsible and if we go to hell, it’s because we made a choice to not know the God who has revealed Himself.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Sunday Mar 27, 2022
ROMANS 10:1-4 ISRAEL’S REFUSAL OF GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS
Sunday Mar 27, 2022
Sunday Mar 27, 2022
Romans 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS CHAPTER
1) To see the importance of combining zeal with the right kind of knowledge
2) To understand that Israel had plenty of opportunity to heed the gospel of Christ, but for the most part they had rejected it
SUMMARY
As Paul continues to explain God's dealings with the nation of Israel, he repeats his expression of love towards them (1). Though as a nation they had plenty of zeal, unfortunately their zeal was not according to the right kind of knowledge (2). Thus they rejected the righteousness of God while trying to establish their own righteousness through the Law of Moses. But Paul explains that Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and has brought it to an end (3-4).
The righteousness God now offers is based upon faith in Christ, not keeping the Law. It involves not the accomplishment of some great feat (like ascending to heaven or descending to hell), but such things as confessing Jesus as Lord and believing that God raised Him from the dead (5-10). As foretold by Scripture, it is offered to all, both Jew and Gentile (11-13). And it is offered through the medium of preaching the Word (14-15).
The problem with the nation of Israel, then, is that not all of them received the gospel message, even when they had ample opportunity (16-18). But as Moses predicted, the day would come when God would provoke Israel to jealousy by another people, who Isaiah said did not seek God yet found Him, while Israel was constantly rebelling against Him (19-21).
The theme of this chapter is Israel’s present rejection. Paul moved from divine sovereignty (Rom. 9) to human responsibility. He continued the theme of righteousness introduced at the end of the previous chapter (Rom. 9:30–33) and explains three aspects of Israel’s rejection
You would think that Israel as a nation would have been eagerly expecting the arrival of their Messiah and been prepared to receive Him. For centuries they had known the Old Testament prophecies and had practiced the Law, which was “a schoolmaster” to lead them to Christ (Gal. 3:24). God had sought to prepare the nation, but when Jesus Christ came, they rejected Him. “He came unto His own [world] and His own [people] received Him not” (John 1:11). To be sure, there was a faithful remnant in the nation that looked for His arrival, such as Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25–38); but the majority of the people were not ready when He came.
How do we explain this tragic event? Paul gives several reasons why Israel rejected their Messiah.
PAUL'S EXPRESSION OF CONCERN FOR ISRAEL (1-4)
That Israel be saved, for they have zeal but not real knowledge (1-2)
Ro 10:1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
They did not feel a need for salvation (v. 1). There was a time when Paul would have agreed with his people, for he himself opposed the Gospel and considered Jesus Christ an impostor. Israel considered the Gentiles in need of salvation, but certainly not the themselves. In several of His parables, Jesus pointed out this wrong attitude: the elder brother (Luke 15:11–32) and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9–14) are two examples. Israel would have been happy for political salvation from Rome, but she did not feel she needed spiritual salvation from her own sin.
Ro 10:2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
They were zealous for God (v. 2). Ever since Israel returned to their land from Babylonian Captivity, the nation had been cured of idolatry. In the temple and the local synagogues, only the true God was worshiped and served, and only the true Law was taught.
So zealous were the Jews that they even “improved upon God’s Law” and added their own traditions, making them equal to the Law.
Paul himself had been zealous for the Law and the traditions (Acts 26:1–11; Gal. 1:13–14).
Ac 22:3 "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today.
Ga 1:13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. 14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers
it was as if Paul had been considering himself a 100-watt light bulb, surrounded by people who were only 75-, 60-, and 25-watt light bulbs. But, when Jesus appeared to him, the righteousness of Jesus was like the brightness of the sun. When Paul realized that, he gave up trying to create his own righteousness and instead placed his faith in Jesus, which was the only sensible thing to do.[i]
But their zeal was not based on the right kind of knowledge; it was heat without light. Sad to say, many religious people today are making the same mistake. They think that their good works and religious deeds will save them, when actually these practices are keeping them from being saved. Certainly many of them are sincere and devout, but sincerity and devotion will never save the soul. “Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:20).
Through ignorance, they seek to save themselves by the Law, and do not submit to God's righteousness in Christ which brings an end to the Law (3-4)
Ro 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
They were proud and self-righteous (v. 3). Israel was ignorant of God’s righteousness, not because they had never been told, but because they refused to learn. There is an ignorance that comes from lack of opportunity, but Israel had had many opportunities to be saved. In their case, it was an ignorance that stemmed from willful, stubborn resistance to the truth. They would not submit to God. They were proud of their own good works and religious self-righteousness, and would not admit their sins and trust the Savior. Paul had made the same mistake before he met the Lord (Phil. 3:1–11).
The godly Presbyterian preacher, Robert Murray McCheyne, was passing out tracts one day and handed one to a well-dressed lady. She gave him a haughty look and said, “Sir, you must not know who I am!”
In his kind way, McCheyne replied, “Madam, there is coming a day of judgment, and on that day it will not make any difference who you are!”
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
They misunderstood their own Law (vv. 4–13). Everything about the Jewish religion pointed to the coming Messiah—their sacrifices, priesthood, temple services, religious festivals, and covenants. Their Law told them they were sinners in need of a Saviour. But instead of letting the Law bring them to Christ They worshiped their Law and rejected their Saviour.
Ga 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
The Law was a signpost, pointing the way. But it could never take them to their destination. The Law cannot give righteousness; it only leads the sinner to the Saviour who can give righteousness.
Christ is “the end of the Law” in the sense that through His death and resurrection, He has terminated the ministry of the Law for those who believe. The Law is ended as far as Christians are concerned. The righteousness of the Law is being fulfilled in the life of the believer through the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:4); but the reign of the Law has ended (see Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14). “For ye are not under the Law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14).
Ga 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Mt 5:17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19 "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Wednesday Mar 23, 2022
JOHN 1:4-7 THE LIFE AND THE LIGHT THAT JESUS CHRIST REVEALS TO ALL MEN PART 2
Wednesday Mar 23, 2022
Wednesday Mar 23, 2022
In John 1:4-7 we see that Jesus is the source of all life, not only physical, but spiritually also. John lets us know that this life is the light which stands for the revealing of Christ to men and that "Jesus Christ is " THE WORD, the one who supplies the truth that shows us that the way we live is not right in God’s eyes. He also tells us the light shines in the darkness and this means that unholy man cannot understand the holiness of God, nor can it defeat Him. Have you seen the truth of Jesus Christ and trusted Him? Then why not trust Him today?
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus has got you.
Sunday Mar 20, 2022
ROMANS 9:30-33 THE BASIS OF GOD’S CHOICE: FAITH VS. NO FAITH
Sunday Mar 20, 2022
Sunday Mar 20, 2022
I. THE BASIS OF GOD'S CHOICE: FAITH vs. NO FAITH (30-33)
GOD’S ACTIONS ARE CONSISTENT WITH HIS REDEMPTIVE PLAN VERSES 30-33
Though they had not actively been looking for it (30a)
Yet many have attained righteousness through faith (30b)
FOR THE GENTILES (30)
Once again Paul asked his familiar rhetorical question, What then shall we say? (cf. 4:1; 6:1; 8:31; 9:14) preparatory to his summation of this situation[1]
Ro 1:17; 4:11; 10:20
The unbelief of Israel does not violate the prerequisite of God. And what is the prerequisite of God for a relationship to Him? What does God require from us to be related to Him? What's the one word? Faith.
This section is a welcome balance to the heavy dose of sovereignty we've been exposed to because this section talks about our responsibility, human responsibility, faith, faith. It puts us back in the divine tension where we're more comfortable, right? We get too heavy on the end of sovereignty and we really get confused, we really start bearing some heavy loads. And we need another side of that tension, that human responsibility, that faith. We need that apparent paradox, we need that balance again.
Now these are mutually exclusive things, the absolute and utter sovereignty of God planned before the world began, all worked out according to His plan, and our faith and our responsibility. They're mutually exclusive. They appear to us to be contradictory and opposite. They are in truth, however, not. It's just that our minds are too limited, we can't perceive it. In God's mind they have perfect harmony.
Paul moves from divine sovereignty to human responsibility. Note that Paul did not say “elect” and “nonelect,” but rather emphasized faith. Here is a paradox: the Jews sought for righteousness but did not find it, while the Gentiles, who were not searching for it, found it! The reason? Israel tried to be saved by works and not by faith. They rejected “grace righteousness” and tried to please God with “Law righteousness.” The Jews thought that the Gentiles had to come up to Israel’s level to be saved; when actually the Jews had to go down to the level of the Gentiles to be saved. “For there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22–23). Instead of permitting their religious privileges (Rom. 9:1–5) to lead them to Christ, they used these privileges as a substitute for Christ.[1]
Now Paul's been saying the Jews have no claim on salvation. . Only a remnant was supposed to be saved. So we're not surprised at that. It's no change in God's promise. It's no violation of His person and it's no alteration of His plan. And now he says what we've been waiting to hear. It was also their own fault. That's right. It was also their own fault. And if you can't figure how those two go together, just be happy that you're like every other person who ever faced this doctrine. We can't figure it out either. We just believe it.
He shows that unbelief was their responsibility and due to their own unbelief and their own rejection, they were guilty and they were judged on the basis of their own guilt. Ro 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;
There's no article here, that Gentiles who followed not after righteousness, who didn't pursue it, diōkō, to run swiftly after something, to run earnestly endeavoring to acquire it. That the people who never even chased it, who never even pursued it got it.
"What does he mean by that?" Just this, Gentiles are without God, without hope, without the Word of God, empty, abandoned to their sinful life. Read Romans 1, given over to lust, given over to evil, given over to reprobate mind. You think that the Gentiles, you think the mass of people in the world are pursuing the true God and His righteousness?
How to be right with God is not the main pursuit of the world, is it? The world is not madly trying to get right with the true God. And here is the world, all these Gentiles, who weren't pursuing it and when the gospel came, far more of them believed it than the Jews did.
Paul says isn't that shocking that the Gentiles who never even pursued righteousness as a way of life attained it. Galling to the Jew to hear him say this, by the way. But when the gospel came, that's exactly what happened.
Why? Here's the answer to the question I gave you at the beginning. Because the greatest obstacle to salvation is self- righteousness. You understand that? Because you can't get saved if you don't know you need it, right? And that's what hung up the Jews. They thought they were already righteous. You see, they had spent their whole life pursuing a right relationship with God through their own efforts. So when the gospel came and condemned their sin, it did not compute because they thought themselves righteous. So the Jews rejected, except for a small remnant, small remnant.
The Gentiles who followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, How did the Gentiles get saved? How did the Gentiles come to righteousness?" Sovereign election; God chose them before the foundation of the world. That's not what it says. It says, they attained to righteousness, watch this in verse 30, the end of the verse, even the righteousness which is by election. Is that what it says? No. Which is what? Faith. Aren't you happy to see that? Doesn't that relieve some of the pressure? Now you're back in balance again, aren't you?
He says this, "Even the righteousness (should be) which is by faith." Did they get it by works? No. Does he talk about sovereign election? He's now turned a corner and he's talking about human responsibility. He says, "Hey, the Gentiles who never even as a way of life pursued a right relationship with God got one by faith." Believing, that's the heart of the gospel, beloved. That's the heart of the gospel. Go back through Romans, chapter 1 verse 17, chapter 3 verse 21, verse 22, verse 28, verse 30, chapter 4 verse 3, verse 9, verse 10, verse 11, verse 12, verse 16, 17, 18, 19, all the way to 25, chapter 5 verse 1, chapter 10 verses 3, 6, and 10, on Philippians 3:9,
How many places can you read in the Bible where the writer talks about salvation by faith? It's the heart of the gospel. We are justified by faith. And there's the human response. The Gentile got it not because he was elect, but because he believed. That's the balance of human responsibility.
FOR ISRAEL (31-33)
Though diligent for the Law, did not have the attitude of faith (31-32a)
31 but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
Ro 10:2; 11:7; Ga 5:4
Verse 31: "But Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness."
Did they do that? The word "law" means principle, or standard. They pursued the principle of righteousness. It was a way of life, we must be righteous, we must be righteous, we've got to do this and not do that and do this and not do that. And they had all this countless prescriptions pursuing the principle of righteousness, pursuing the standard of righteousness incessantly as a way of life they did that. And they did it all by what? By works. Proud-hearted legalists pursuing self-righteously a right relationship to God and it says they went after the law of righteousness and they did not attain it. They didn't get it.
32 Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law
You say, "They weren't elect, weren't chosen." It's not what it says. You say, "Why didn't they get it?" Verse 32, that's what Paul says, why? Why didn't they get it? Because they sought it not by what? By faith." That simple. There is salvation by seeking with faith, not pursuing by works. I'm going to get better, I'm going to do better, I'm going to act better, I'm going to think better, I'm going to talk better and God will like me better and then I'll be okay with Him.
No, it's saying, the only thing that you can do to be saved is to believe that you can do nothing to be saved and cast yourself on the mercy of God.
Some of the Gentiles did that, great numbers of them. A few Jews did. But Israel, who all their life had pursued a standard of righteousness, never got it because they sought it not by faith. But it says, as it were, "by the works of the law." They tried to get it by law keeping, by their own abilities. In fact, a gracious, merciful salvation given as a free gift was an offense to a self-righteous Jew, because it said none of your works matter, none of your works count and he couldn't handle that. That's why they rejected Jesus with such anger, such bitterness, such hatred because they were so offended that all their life-long of all these righteous deeds added up to Zero and when they looked at the cross and they were told this man is dying for your sins, the cross was to them what? First Corinthians 1, foolishness, foolishness, it offended them, it offended them.
Paul says, "Well, they didn't get it because they didn't believe. And the Gentiles got it because they believed. And that's how you get it, by believing." And that's the perfect balance to the sovereignty of God.
Now Paul wants to sort of affirm his point so he does what he's done through the whole chapter, he quotes two Old Testament prophetic texts. One prophet, two texts. He quotes from Isaiah 8:14 and Isaiah 28:16. Verse 32, the end of the verse, "For they stumbled at that stumbling stone." That's drawn from Isaiah 8:14. Isaiah predicted that they would stumble on a stumbling stone. That's right. He predicted it. So we're not shocked. We're not surprised that the Jew didn't believe because Isaiah said they stumbled at the stone. And that's what they did. Jesus came and said He was the cornerstone, didn't He? The chief cornerstone, but for some He was a stone of what? Stumbling, a stone of stumbling.
The Isaiah 8:14 passage directly refers to God. God is the stone in Isaiah 8:14. In the New Testament, Christ is the stone. What does that tell you about Christ? He's God. Another affirmation of His deity. For 1 Peter 2:8 affirms that Christ is that stone over which the Jews stumbled.
And therefore stumbled over Christ, as foretold by Isaiah (32b-33)
32bFor they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
Lu 2:34; 1Co 1:23
33 As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
Ps 118:22; Isa 8:14; 28:16; Mt 21:42; Ro 10:11; 1Pe 2:6-8
Paul closes out the chapter with a reference to one other text in Isaiah, Isaiah 28:16, and he combines it with his Isaiah 8:14,15 passage. He just puts them together. "As it is written from Isaiah 28:16 and 8:14 to 15, Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense and whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed." He puts those together. Jesus Christ for some is a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. He offends. He causes people to fall over. And the stumbling stone can have, I think, the primary imagery of they trip over Him. They don't notice His significance. That's one element of it.
The other one is that He gets in the way of their pursuit. He's bothersome. He's an irritant. The rock of offense, He offends them. Christ came and He caused them to stumble in their self-righteous pursuit. He confronted them and they tripped all over the place and He offended them.
But whoever believed on Him shall not be ashamed. What does that mean? Well, a better way to translate that, comparing it with Isaiah 28:16 would be "shall not be fearful." I like that. Shall not be fearful. Whoever believes, whosoever believes, how did this get in Romans 9? Whosoever believes... Did Paul convert to Methodism at the end of the chapter? Did he get Arminian? Whosoever? That's the balance. Whosoever believes has no reason to fear. He'll cause some people to stumble. He'll cause some people to be offended. And He will be a crushing and a smiting stone in judgment. But for those who believe on Him, whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed.
The issue then is faith. Do you believe or don't you believe? That's the issue. You must decide about Christ. You're going to run along saying, "I'm okay, I'm okay the way I am, I'm okay." And Christ is going to get in the middle of your road and going to say, "No you're not. You're a vile, wretched sinner and all your righteousness adds up to is filthy rags and you can't get to God by your own works." And He's going to make you stumble in the path. And He's going to offend you. And you can just be offended and call it all foolishness and try to get around it and pursue it and then He's going to be a smiting stone, the Bible says, in judgment. Or, you can say, "Hey, I believe it." And if you believe it you have nothing to what? To fear, no judgment to fear.
So justification by grace through faith is true. And the unbelief of Israel doesn't in one sense violate God's promise, His person, His plan or His prerequisite. His prerequisite has always been the same. We're saved by Faith. There is a remnant because God chose a remnant. There is a remnant because it is only a few who believe. And that's the way God knew it would be and that's the way He planned it to be and that's the way it works out, so it doesn't do away with the truth of the gospel.
Lessons:
1. You can pursue God, without finding God if it is done in the wrong way and not by faith, but by works.
2. God has not abandoned Israel even though only a remnant are saved
3. The church is like Israel, there are only really a few, a remnant that are truly saved
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
30 SECOND DEVOTIONAL THE LIFE AND THE LIGHT THAT JESUS CHRIST REVEALS TO ALL MEN PART 1
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
Wednesday Mar 16, 2022
John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. John begins to tell us that Jesus is the source of all physical and spiritual life. He also lets us know that this light is the holiness God gives man and that this Logos (THE WORD "Jesus Christ") is the one who supplies the truth that shows us that our way of living is sin. But the evil of man cannot understand the holiness of God, nor can it defeat Him. He also shows us that John is the witness that was testified of in Malachi 4:5 and that he came to tell us who Jesus is. John is not the light but was sent to bear witness so that we might believe in Jesus Christ who was sent to be the Savior of the World per John 3:16. CF: Colossians 1:15-17
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Romans 9:24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 25 ¶ As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved." 26 "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God." 27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved. 28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."
GOD’S ACTIONS ARE CONSISTENT WITH HIS REVELATION (24-29)
Not of Jews only, as foretold by Hosea (24-26)
24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
God’s plan always was for Gentiles to be saved.
Isa 11:10 "And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious."
Isa 42:1 "Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
Isa 42:6 "I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles,
Isa 49:6 Indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"
Isa 60:3 The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.
Ro 3:29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
25 As He says also in Hosea: "I will call them My people, who were not My people, And her beloved, who was not beloved."
Hosea chapter 2 and you will see it in verse 23. In the middle of the verse, Then I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they shall say, 'You are my God!'"" Now that's essentially what Paul refers to. It is a paraphrase. It is not a direct quote, it's a paraphrase. He alludes to this particular text. But I want you to see the meaning of it by going back to chapter 1. Hosea was a prophet, a very wonderful man, a very loving man, a very forgiving man, a very gracious man. Verse 2 says, "The Lord said to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of harlotry, children of harlotry for the land hath committed great harlotry departing from the Lord."
Now we don't know whether she was a harlot when he married her but she became one. And Hosea sort of lived out a parable as his wife was a harlot to him, so Israel was a harlot to her husband, God. And his life is a living parable of the relation between God and Israel. "So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, conceived, bore him a son, called his name Jezreel." You know what Jezreel means? Scattered, means scattered. She had another child, verse 6, call her name Lo-ruhamah, means not pitied, I have no pity for that child. Had another child, verse 9, boy, Lo-ammi, not my people, for you are not My people and I will not be your God.
These represented God’s abandonment of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrian Captivity and Exile (Hosea 1:2–9).[1]
So here is Hosea, he marries a woman, she becomes a prostitute. She gives him three kids, one named "scattered," the other named "not pitied," and the other named "not My people." Now what do those names have reference to? God's attitude toward adulterous Israel. The children of adulterous Israel are scattered and not pitied and not the people of God. That's what it's saying. They are not any longer My people. They're not My people. So Israel was not God's people. The relationship was severed, even in the time of Hosea. And Hosea 2:23 just simply points that out. They're not My people, not My beloved.
In Hosea 2 God is going to bring them back. There's a beautiful picture beginning in verse Ho 2:14 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her. Ho 2:19 "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; 20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD.
Hosea says this, Israel is going to become not the people of God but some day brought back to being the people of God. That's what it's saying. Obviously The prophet was referring to the rejection by Israel of God. And then the judgment that came on them and the restoration. And he lived to see that. He lived to see that northern kingdom conquered by the Assyrians, devastated by the Assyrians. The people of Israel became, in a very real sense, not the people of God. What does that mean? God took His hands off and they were scattered, weren't they? And there was no more pity for them.
Ho 2:2 "Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Jer 3:8 "Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.
2Ki 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
2Ki 17:18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.
Eze 23:9 "Therefore I have delivered her Into the hand of her lovers, Into the hand of the Assyrians, For whom she lusted.
Now when you read in verse 25 of Romans 9, "I will call them My people who were not My people and call her beloved who was not beloved," you know what he's talking about, don't you? He's talking about Israel. There's no other way to explain it. He has to be talking about Israel because that's who Hosea is talking about. Now when you read in verse 25 of Romans 9, "I will call them My people who were not My people and call her beloved who was not beloved," He's talking about Israel. There's no other way to explain it. He has to be talking about Israel because that's who Hosea is talking about.
Isa 2:4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.
Jer 23:6 In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Jer 31:33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Jer 30:3 'For behold, the days are coming,' says the LORD, 'that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,' says the LORD. 'And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.'"
Jer 30:10 'Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,' says the LORD, 'Nor be dismayed, O Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar, And your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, And no one shall make him afraid.
Isa 41:13; 43:5; 44:2; Jer 3:18; 46:27-28
11 For I am with you,' says the LORD, 'to save you; Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, Yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, And will not let you go altogether unpunished.'
This important because what it means is that the prophets of old saw that Israel would enter into unbelief. So listen, when Hosea wrote, that had an immediate historical fulfillment, didn't it? As the people were severed from God, and carried off into captivity from which eventually God brought back the southern kingdom and a remnant of the northern kingdom. So the prophecy was historically fulfilled in the restoration after the Babylonian captivity. But that was only the first and historical fulfillment. There was yet a future prophetic perspective. And Paul here identifies it with the unbelief of the Jews during the time of Christ. He says, "Look, we are not surprised now when we see Jewish unbelief and we see them separating themselves from God and we see them denying the gospel. We are not surprised now when they enter into unbelief and sever themselves from God. Because Hosea said that that's the kind of people they were. And Hosea saw it in the immediate sense and the Spirit of God saw in the very words He gave to Hosea the future sense."
So the Holy Spirit applies through Paul what Hosea saw historically to the time of Christ. And the Israel of Christ is also a prostitute, also a harlot who has abandoned God and forsaken God. And the truth was in 70 A.D. what happened to them? Scattered, not pitied and not My people. The whole historical scene took place again at the devastation of Jerusalem when the Jews were scattered. And have they suffered? Have they suffered? It's as if God does not pity them, isn't it? They're not His people for this period of time.
And so when we read the passage in Hosea then, we say yes, God anticipated the unbelief of Israel both in Hosea's time and here the Holy Spirit tells us even in the time of the apostle Paul, the time of Christ. So the unbelief of Israel doesn't violate God's plan, it does what? It fits it. It's a tremendous thing. It fits God's plan. Israel is not now the people of God. They are a not pitied people. They are a scattered people.
No it's not permanent, look back at verse 25 again and see what it says. "I will call them My people who were not My people and her beloved who was not beloved." It even refers to the time of restoration, doesn't it? It even refers to the time when they'll be called back. Israel is not now the people of God but they will be. Look at chapter 11 verse 1. "I say then, hath God cast away His people?" I mean, is this permanent? "God forbid." Verse 2: "God hath not cast away His people." Look at verse 26 in the same chapter. "And so all Israel shall be (What?) saved." And verse 27 says, "For this is My covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins."
In other words, those who are not now a people will become a people. Those who are not now beloved will become beloved. But the point of the text is just to show you that for the time we are not surprised at the unbelief of Israel. We saw it historically. And that historical unbelief became prophetic of the unbelief that exists since the time of Christ until their belief comes during the time of the tribulation prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. So we're in the time when Israel fulfills the prophecy of Hosea. They are a scattered, not pitied, not My people.
Now Peter refers to this same idea, this same concept in 1 Peter 2:10. He refers to it indirectly and identifies it with the church. And that's kind of an interesting thing. I don't think he directly quotes Hosea, in my opinion. I think he alludes to the same concept only in this case it's the church. Now listen to what I say. Because we also were a scattered, unpitied people who were not the people of God when we were saved, right? That's right. So Peter applies the same principle to us, for Gentiles outside the covenant are a scattered, unpitied people without a relationship to God.
How can Peter take something clearly referring to Israel and apply it to the church?" Very simple, are you ready for this? When Israel becomes scattered, unpitied and has no relationship to God, they're just like the Gentiles, right? They're just like the Gentiles, no difference. Jew and Gentile in unbelief are equally not God's people, are equally not pitied by God in a special covenantal way, are equally scattered and unsaved. And so Peter sees the general truth of the state of Israel as a general truth also true of the Gentiles.
So, Hosea directly applies the prophecy historically in his time. Paul directly applies the prophecy in his time. And Peter indirectly associates the concept with the identification of the church as a no people become the people of God.
26 "And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God."
Now just notice in verse 25 that there's a beautiful set of terminologies, "My people, My people, My beloved," and the end of verse 26, "sons of the living God." Beautiful terms. The Lord's going to bring those people back. Now Paul while he's in Hosea comes to another verse and quotes it in verse 26, "It shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not My people, there shall they be called the sons of the living God." Now he got that out of chapter 1 verse 9 of Hosea where it says, "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured nor numbered, it will come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people, it shall be said to them, You are the sons of the living God."
It's kind of interesting because he simply paraphrases Hosea 2:23 but he does a direct quote of Hosea 1:9. It's almost verbatim quote. And again this text affirms the same thing. Look at verse 26 of Romans 9 "It will come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, You are not My people." Where was that place? Where was it said to them, "You're not My people?" Every place, they were scattered. "In that place it will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God." In other words, you who were scattered will be re-gathered, Hosea 1:9 says. And that happened historically. After the captivities God gathered His people back from the lands of the Gentiles. They were re-gathered to be called again the sons of the living God. And that, by the way, is a title that stands in opposition to sons of idols, sons of dead gods, sons of no gods, sons of dumb gods that can't talk and deaf gods that can't hear and blind gods that can't see. We are sons of the living God. It's such a great phrase, isn't it? Not some dumb idol.
So please note that the use of Hosea's prophecies is not particularly to emphasize Israel's restoration, though that appears in the prophecies that He'll call them back to be His people, His beloved sons of the living God. The particular point in using the prophecies is to show that a future restoration of Israel demands a falling of Israel, right? You don't have to restore what hasn't been lost. And the point is that Paul is saying we're not shocked by Israel's unbelief, quite the contrary. We expected it because God promised their restoration from that unbelief. So when you look at the gospel being presented and you ask yourself the question as I have been asked by Jewish people, if your gospel is true, why didn't the Jews believe it? I say it was planned in the prophecy...in the plan of God that the Jews would have to be restored from unbelief so we're not surprised they've entered into unbelief from which they'll be restored.
Have they gone into that unbelief and become a scattered, not pitied people without a relationship to God except for a few? Is that true? Then if we've seen that come to pass, what else must we see come to pass? Their restoration. And I fear that many Bible students are willing to see Israel enter into the prophesied unbelief but refuse to let Israel be restored. And you can't pick prophecy apart like that.
But only a remnant of Israel, as foretold by Isaiah (27-29)
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, The remnant will be saved.
Then Paul chooses another prophet, Isaiah, verse 27. And the similarity between Hosea 1:9 and 10 where his mind has been and this particular quote out of Isaiah no doubt link together, probably he was thinking, meditating on the Hosea passage and it triggered his thought directed by the Spirit to Isaiah. So in verse 27 he quotes Isaiah 10:22 and 23, right in that section. "Isaiah also cried out,” very strong word, krazō, to cry out, even sometimes to scream, “concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea," now that's exactly what it said also in Hosea 1:9 so that's why I think in his mind he linked those two. It says, "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea (A remnant shall be saved. What's a remnant. You ever buy a remnant? It's not the whole thing, is it? It's a piece, it's a small piece. Isaiah prophesied in Judah under Uzziah, began about 760 B.C., prophesied for about 48 years and he cried out to the people, he cried out to them that though you number as the sands of the sea, though there are many Jews, only a small piece will be saved, only a small group will be saved, only a remnant will be saved.
So, Isaiah saw the unbelief of Israel, too. He saw that not all Jews were going to be saved. Now I think Isaiah again, like Hosea, historically was looking at a very near fulfillment. Isaiah was looking at the near conquest, looking at the captivity, looking at the enemy who was going to come historically and haul the people away. He was looking at something that was imminent on the historical calendar. But what the Holy Spirit had in mind was not only that but something future as well. For out of all of the Jews in the time of Christ, only a few believed. And out of all the Jews since the time of Christ, only a few believe, just as it was in the time of Isaiah.
So the events of Jewish history observed by Hosea and observed by Isaiah are pictures, prophetic pictures of the events about the time of Jesus Christ and the presenting of the gospel and the age in which we live when the Jews have also rejected God and been severed from Him, scattered. There were only a few, by the way, who were saved out of the Assyrian conquest, just a few. And they sort of typify the few who are saved in this age.
28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."
verse 28 goes from Isaiah 10:22 to 23, the same passage, "For the Lord will execute His Word upon the earth thoroughly and quickly." God's going to judge Israel and it's going to be thorough judgment and it's going to be a fast judgment, fast, complete. Isaiah promised that a fast judgment was coming on Israel, a thorough judgment was coming on Israel and very few would escape that judgment.
Romans 9:28 probably refers to God’s work of judgment during the Tribulation, when the nation of Israel will be persecuted and judged, and only a small remnant left to enter into the kingdom when Jesus Christ returns to earth. But the application for today is clear: only a remnant of Jews is believing; and they, together with the Gentiles, are the “called of God” (Rom. 9:24)[1]
Amos has a most fascinating picture of this, Amos 3:11. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "An adversary shall be all around the land; He shall sap your strength from you, And your palaces shall be plundered." 12 Thus says the LORD: "As a shepherd takes from the mouth of a lion Two legs or a piece of an ear, So shall the children of Israel be taken out Who dwell in Samaria-In the corner of a bed and on the edge of a couch!
when a shepherd is out with his sheep, if a lion came and got a sheep, the shepherd would run and try to get the lion to release whatever was in his mouth because he had to give it to the man that owned the sheep for whom he worked so the man would know he hadn't been stealing the sheep. If he comes back in and says, "Hey, I lost two sheep," and the guy says, "How did you lose them?" "A lion ate them." He says, "Prove it." And the guy reaches in his little bag and pulls out a leg, he's going to say you proved it, and shows the teeth marks. And the demonstration of what Amos is saying is that Israel is in the mouth of a lion and when God reaches He's going to get just a little bit that's left, snatching it out of the jaws of destruction. Small number of Jews were to escape the great Assyrian conquest, and that's exactly what happened. The rest entered into the judgment of their unbelief and their rejection of God. And so it will be prophetically in the time of Christ that only a small group will be rescued while the vast number of Jews will enter into the judgment of God on them that reject Him.
Paul's point is that Israel's rejection of the gospel is no violation of God's plan. It was predicted. It was predicted by Hosea, predicted by Isaiah and even dramatized historically. So is the plan interrupted? No. The plan is Fulfilled, just on schedule.
Now he's not done with Isaiah, he wants to quote Isaiah one more time in verse 29. This is where this section wraps up. Follow it. " Isaiah said only a remnant. He changes remnant to seed, means the same thing, a remnant, a small group, seed, a small thing, just a little bit
29 And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah
The objective of this reference, like the former reference from Isaiah, is to demonstrate that God planned it all. And He planned that not all Israel would be saved, not all Israel would be exempt from judgment. The Jews of antiquity face tremendous judgment. And the Jews at the time of Christ face tremendous judgment because the Jews of antiquity rejected God, the Jews of the time of Christ rejected God. The parallels are obvious. And the only reason any of us is saved, the only reason any of us is saved, look at verse 29, is because the Lord of Sabaoth left us a remnant. The Lord of Sabaoth left us a small seed.
Why is He called the Lord of Sabaoth? That means hosts, marvelous contrast. Isaiah 1:9, Lord of hosts means Lord of everything. The hosts are the angels, the stars, the heavenly bodies, the planets, Lord of...Lord of the much, Lord of the many. And he says by contrast, "The Lord of the much and the Lord of the many and the Lord of the hosts has chosen a seed." And if it hadn't been that, all of us would have ended up like what? Sodom and Gomorrah. How did they end up? In judgment, judgment so severe that to this day we can't find out where those cities even were. We don't have any idea where they were. They were literally buried in utter devastation, never to be recovered or discovered, utterly destroyed. They became a byword for complete destruction. We would all be destroyed if it weren't that God, the God of everything, had chosen a small seed.
So he draws from Hosea and he draws from Isaiah Old Testament proof that God in the plan planned that not all Israel would be saved. The Jews would enter into a time of great unbelief, be scattered, not pitied, and not the people of God. And out of it there would be a small remnant. And so, when you look at the time of Christ and you say, "Well, if this is the true gospel, why did all the Jews reject?" You can say because that's the way the prophets said it was to be, that was the plan. And the only reason any believe is because the Lord of Sabaoth chose to leave a seed. And again would you please note? Paul makes his point using Scripture.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
30 SECOND DEVOTIONAL WALK WORTHY OF YOUR CALLING
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
Thursday Mar 10, 2022
Ephesians 4:1-2 says I, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, Paul is telling us to live in a way that is pleasing to God in spite of what life has dealt us. The world is looking for the real Christians today the ones who are humble, that don’t seek revenge, and love others even though they don’t deserve it, because none of us do. 1Pe 2:20 says But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. How do you react when mistreated, will the world see true Christianity in action?
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Romans 9:19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" 21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
The rightness of God’s choice
God's right to choose the objects of His mercy and His wrath (19-23)
Paul replies with a parable about the potter, borrowed from Jer. 18:1–6. God is the Potter, and the nations of the world (and their leaders) are the vessels. Some are vessels of wrath that God patiently endures until their time of destruction.
Ge 15:15 "Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. 16 "But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."). Others are vessels of mercy that reveal His glory. Paul then quotes Hosea 2:23 and 1:10 to show that God promised to call a “people” from among the Gentiles, a people to be called “children of the living God.” This is the church (see 1 Peter 2:9–10). He also quotes Isa. 10:22–23, showing that a remnant of Jews would also be saved (see Isa. 1:9). In other words, God’s purpose in election makes it possible for both Jews and Gentiles to be saved by grace. Neither Jew nor Gentile could be saved any way other than by the grace of God.[1]
19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"
Paul posed the question in this verse and then answered it in the verses that follow.
John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"
In other words, it is blasphemous even to question, not to mention deny, God’s right to hold men accountable when they are captives of His sovereign will.[1]
In the first place, it is presumptuous for human beings, the objects of divine judgment, to sit in judgment on their Judge. Judging is God's prerogative, not ours. Creatures have no right to complain about their Creator's behavior.
It is obvious from Paul’s wording that the ones who might be asking such questions would not be seeking God’s truth but rather self- justification. Attempting to excuse their own unbelief, sinfulness, ignorance, and spiritual rebellion, they would be apt to accuse God of injustice.
But because human understanding is so limited, even sincere questions about God’s sovereign election and predestination ultimately must go unanswered. As already noted, it is one of the many truths about God that we must accept by faith, simply because He has revealed it in His Word.[1]
Man and God. The first contrast is more apparent in the Greek text than in English, for the verse begins with the words “O man” and ends with the words “the God.” Yet it is apparent enough in English. You and I are mere men and women set over against the God who made not only us but all things. It is ludicrous for creatures as small, ignorant, impotent, and sinful as we are to question the propriety of God’s moral acts. We may not understand what God is doing in any particular case. In fact, most of the time we will not, because ‘my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord” (Isa. 55:8). We can ask God to explain what He is doing, if He will. But for us to suggest that he is wrong in what he does is patently absurd.
What is formed and he who formed it. The contrast between man and God, the first, stresses the insignificance of one and the greatness of the other. This second contrast brings in another matter, namely, that we are mere creatures—God is the Creator—and therefore everything we are and have comes from him, including even our ability to ask such questions.
Robert Haldane is particularly wise in the way he deals with this matter. “Any wisdom the creature possesses must have been received from the Creator; and if the Creator has the power of forming rational beings, must he not himself be infinite in wisdom? And does it not insult the Creator to pretend to find imperfection in his proceedings? … The reason and discernment between right and wrong which he [man] possesses is the gift of God; it must, then, be the greatest abuse of these faculties to employ them to question the conduct of him who gave them.”
Once again, we must stress that “Paul does not here speak of the right of God over his creatures as creatures, but as sinful creatures, as he himself clearly intimates in the next verses.”[1]
Men are not lost because they are hardened; they are hardened because they are lost; they are lost because they are sinners.
21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
Who are we to argue with God? This is a logical argument. God is the Potter and we are the clay. God is wiser than we are and we are foolish to question His will or to resist it. (The reference here is to Isa. 45:9.) To be sure, the clay has no life and is passive in the potter’s hand. We have feelings, intellect, and willpower, and we can resist Him if we choose. (See Jer. 18 where this thought is developed.)
But it is God who determines whether a man will be a Moses or a Pharaoh. Neither Moses, nor Pharaoh, nor anyone else, could choose his parents, his genetic structure, or his time and place of birth. We have to believe that these matters are in the hands of God.
However, this does not excuse us from responsibility. Pharaoh had great opportunities to learn about the true God and trust Him, and yet he chose to rebel. Paul did not develop this aspect of truth because his theme was divine sovereignty, not human responsibility. The one does not deny the other, even though our finite minds may not fully grasp them both.
The illustration in this verse clarifies the inappropriateness of this critical attitude. Clearly Israel is in view as the vessel in the illustration (cf. Isa. 29:16; Jer. 18:6). Israel had no right to criticize God for shaping her for a particular purpose of His own choosing. Really, Israel had nothing to complain about since God had formed her for an honorable use. Obviously, the same is true of individuals.
The Reason for God’s choice
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
God has every right to act gloriously in such judgment, but He has, by His mercy, endured with much patience a world of sinners. He has endured their unbelief, rejection, hatred, blasphemy, and iniquity, while patiently allowing time for repentance (cf. Ps 103:8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
Ex 34:6-7; Nu 14:18; De 5:10; Ne 9:17; Ps 86:15; Jer 32:18; 2 Pet. 3:9).[1]
Ezekiel 18:1-6 deal with the nation Israel as do all the other passages related to this verse
Isa 29:16 Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; For shall the thing made say of him who made it, "He did not make me"? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, "He has no understanding"?
Isa 45:9 "Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' Or shall your handiwork say, 'He has no hands'?
Isa 64:8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand. 9 Do not be furious, O LORD, Nor remember iniquity forever; Indeed, please look-we all are Your people!
Eze 18:23 "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?
People prepare themselves for destruction by pursuing sin (ch. 1; cf. Matt. 7:13; 1 Thess. 2:15-16; 2 Thess. 2:3;
Php 3:18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame--who set their mind on earthly things.).
Passive verb in 22 and active in verse 23 which means God does the action on salvation but not the lostness in verse 22
Paul had in mind those in Israel who had opposed the gospel in his day. God was patient and merciful with them (cf. 2:3-4; Acts 2:38; 3:19-20; 2 Pet. 3:9).
God has His purposes (vv. 22–24). We must never think that God enjoyed watching a tyrant like Pharaoh. He endured it. God said to Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people … and have heard their cry … for I know their sorrows” (Ex. 3:7).
The fact that God was long-suffering indicates that He gave Pharaoh opportunities to be saved. The word “fitted” in Romans 9:22 does not suggest that God made Pharaoh a “vessel of wrath.” So, it should read: “fitted himself for destruction.” God prepares men for glory (Rom. 9:23), but sinners prepare themselves for judgment. In Moses and Israel God revealed the riches of His mercy; in Pharaoh and Egypt He revealed His power and wrath. Since neither deserved any mercy, God cannot be charged with injustice.
Ultimately, of course, God’s purpose was to form His church from both Jews and Gentiles (Rom. 9:24). Believers today are, by God’s grace, “vessels of mercy” which He is preparing for glory, a truth that reminds us of Romans 8:29–30.[1]
The Results from God’s Sovereign choice
23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
Ex 14:31 Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.
Those who believe the gospel are those in whom God will display the riches of His glory, not His wrath.
These vessels include both Jews and Gentiles (cf. 1:16; 2:10-11; 3:22).
God allowed sin to enter the world not only to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known but also to demonstrate the riches of His glory by bestowing His grace upon vessels of mercy (cf. Eph 2:6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,).
These are people, which He prepared beforehand for glory. In this instance, the Greek verb rendered prepared is in the active voice, and the subject doing the action is specifically God (He). The great work God did in saving us puts His glory on display before all angels and all men (cf. Rev. 5:9–14).[1]
Believers are saved without any merit or work of their own, in order that God may have a means of displaying His glory, which is seen in the grace, the mercy, the compassion, and the forgiveness that He alone grants to those who come to Christ.[1]
Men fit themselves for hell; but it is God that fits men for heaven."
2 Pet. 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.[1]
Lessons
Do we have a right to question God’s ways?
a. Habakkuk is the doubting Thomas of the OT and asks God so many questions
b. Is the question sincere or insincere? Insincere questions are sin
2. Is man truly free if God still sovereign?
3. What is the process whereby someone develops a hard heart?
Sin is the reason we harden our hearts
Rule and reign of Christ in 1Th 2:10-12 God sends a deluding influence
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
THE BOOK OF JOHN TELLS US THAT JESUS IS GOD
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
Wednesday Feb 23, 2022
The Gospel of John was written by the disciple that Jesus loved using seven key signs that show that Jesus is God in human flesh. John does not give us any genealogy, no birth narrative, no manger scene, he just cuts to the heart of the matter when he introduces the book with the statement that in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. And if that is not enough in verse two he repeats it again. John was written so that we would know that Jesus is God and that we might believe and be saved as it states in Chapter 20:30-31. Have you trusted in Christ and Him alone for your salvation?
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Sunday Feb 20, 2022
ROMANS 9:14-18 HE HAS MERCY ON WHOM HE WILLS, AND WHOM HE WILLS HE HARDENS
Sunday Feb 20, 2022
Sunday Feb 20, 2022
Romans 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! 15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." 18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
BELIEVERS ARE THE OBJECTS OF GOD'S MERCY (14-19)
The question of fairness arises whenever someone makes a choice to favor one person or group over another. Paul dealt with the justice of God in doing what He did in this section.
Paul reverts to the diatribe style, with its question-and-answer format and references to a dialogue partner, that he has utilized earlier in the letter (see 2:1—3:8; 3:27-31; 6—7)."
Salvation is only possible only through His Mercy (14-16)
“God is unjust if He chooses one and leaves another!” ignorant people often say. But the purpose of God goes beyond justice; for if God did only what was just, He would have to condemn all of us! Paul uses Moses (Ex. 33:19) and Pharaoh (Ex. 9:16) as proof that God can do what He wishes in dispensing His grace and mercy.
Nobody deserves God’s mercy, and nobody can condemn God for His choice of Israel or His bypassing of other nations.[1]
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!
The apostle first flatly denied the charge that God is unjust. God cannot be unjust because He is God
As soon as Paul asks the question, “What then shall we say? Is God unjust?” he answers by an emphatic denial: “Not at all!” It is the strongest denial he can muster. The King James Bible has “God forbid!”[1]
15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion."
Paul quoted Exodus 33:19 to show that God’s mercy and compassion are extended according to God’s will and not man’s will. All of us deserve condemnation—not mercy.
The reference in Exodus 33 deals with Israel’s idolatry that occurred in chapter 32 while Moses was on the mount receiving the Law. The whole nation deserved to be destroyed, yet God killed only 3,000 people—not because they were more wicked or less godly, but purely because of His grace and mercy.[1]
"The grace of God has been spoken of in this Epistle often before; but not until these chapters is mercy named; and until mercy is understood, grace cannot be fully appreciated."
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
God is under no obligation to show mercy or extend grace to anyone. If we insist on receiving just treatment from God, what we will get is condemnation (3:23).
Just as Pharaoh was the object of His Wrath (17-18)
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth."
God said He raised Pharaoh up. God had mercifully spared Pharaoh up to the moment when He said these words to him, through six plagues and in spite of his consistent opposition to God. God did not mean that He had created Pharaoh and allowed him to sit on Egypt's throne, though He had done that too. This is clear from Exodus 9:16, which Paul quoted.
The NASB translation of raised you up makes this clear by translating Exodus 9:16, ". . . for this cause I have allowed you to remain." Pharaoh deserved death for his opposition and disrespect. However, God would not take his life in the remaining plagues so his continuing opposition and God's victory over him would result in greater glory for God (cf. Jos 9:9 So they said to him: "From a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of the LORD your God; for we have heard of His fame, and all that He did in Egypt;
Ps 76:10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; With the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself. Here is another example similar to the one in verse 15 of God not giving people what they deserve but extending mercy to them instead.
Paul then quoted Exodus 9:16, using Pharaoh as an illustration. Moses was a Jew; Pharaoh was a Gentile; yet both were sinners. In fact, both were murderers! Both saw God’s wonders. Yet Moses was saved and Pharaoh was lost. God raised up Pharaoh that He might reveal His glory and power; and He had mercy on Moses that He might use him to deliver the people of Israel. Pharaoh was a ruler, and Moses was a slave; yet it was Moses who experienced the mercy and compassion of God—because God willed it that way[1]
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens
This statement summarizes Paul's point. In chapter 1, the apostle had spoken about the way God gives people over to their own evil desires as a form of punishment for their sins. This is how God hardens people's hearts. In Pharaoh's case, we see this working out clearly. God was not unjust because He allowed the hardening process to continue. His justice demanded punishment. Similarly, a person may choose to drink poison or he may choose not to, but if he chooses to drink it, inevitable consequences will follow.
"Neither here nor anywhere else is God said to harden anyone who had not first hardened himself."
God's hardening does not, then, cause spiritual insensitivity to the things of God; it maintains people in the state of sin that already characterizes them."357
Before leaving this section, we need to discuss the “hardening” of Pharaoh (Rom. 9:18). This hardening process is referred to at least fifteen times in Exodus 7–14. Sometimes we are told that Pharaoh hardened his heart (Ex. 8:15, 19, 32), and other times that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27).
By declaring His Word and revealing His power, God gave Pharaoh opportunity to repent; but instead, Pharaoh resisted God and hardened his heart. The fault lay not with God but Pharaoh.
The same sunlight that melts the ice also hardens the clay.
God was not unrighteous in His dealings with Pharaoh because He gave him many opportunities to repent and believe.[1]
God speaks to what was going to happen
Ex 4:21 And the LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. (NKJV)
Ex 7:13 And Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said.
Ex 7:14 So the LORD said to Moses: "Pharaoh's heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go.
Ex 7:22 Then the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments; and Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said.
Ex 8:15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the LORD had said.
Ex 8:19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had said.
Ex 8:32 But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go.
Ex 9:7 Then Pharaoh sent, and indeed, not even one of the livestock of the Israelites was dead. But the heart of Pharaoh became hard, and he did not let the people go.
Ex 9:12 But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses.
Ex 9:34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants.
Ex 9:35 So the heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the LORD had spoken by Moses.
Ex 10:1 Now the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him,
Ex 10:20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.
Ex 10:27 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go.
Ex 14:4 "Then I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD." And they did so.
Ex 14:8 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with boldness.
2Ch 36:13 And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God; but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD God of Israel.
"Neither here nor anywhere else is God said to harden anyone who had not first hardened himself."
"God's hardening, then, is an action that renders a person insensitive to God and his word and that, if not reversed, culminates in eternal damnation."
God's hardening does not, then, cause spiritual insensitivity to the things of God; it maintains people in the state of sin that already characterizes them."
We say boldly, that a believer's heart is not fully yielded to God until it accepts without question, and without demanding softening, this eighteenth verse.
Paul did not mention the fact that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, which Moses stated in Exodus. Paul's point was simply that God can freely and justly extend mercy or not extend mercy to those who deserve His judgment.
"The reconciliation of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is beyond our power. The Bible states and emphasizes both, and then leaves them. We shall be wise if we do the same."
Lessons
It’s foolish to test God’s patience
It is unbelief to doubt the love of God
One day you will stand before God. Do you know Him as your Savior?
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
THE BOOK OF JOHN TELLS US THAT JESUS CREATED EVERYTHING
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
Wednesday Feb 16, 2022
In John 1:3 We see that Jesus created everything. Have you considered the wonderful ways our world works together, the beauty and order of it all. I remember the food chain the solar system, and the hydrological cycle from school, but it really comes alive when you see the beauty and wonder of it all by looking at it through the lens of the Bible. This verse helps you to see the world through the lens of creation rather than the lie of evolution. When you see a watch you know someone made it, it is the same with everything in our world and universe, without a creator it would not exist and it amazes me how you could see it all and believe that it HAPPENED by chance.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
ROMANS 9:7-13 WHO ARE THE TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD PART 2?
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Sunday Feb 13, 2022
Romans 9:7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called." 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son." 10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac 11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), 12 it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger." 13 As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."
7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called."
The first example shows that God made a sovereign choice among the physical descendants of Abraham in establishing the spiritual line of promise.
God was choosing which nation He would bless not individuals
Ishmael, born to Hagar (Gen. 16)—and the six sons of Keturah as well (Gen. 25:1–4)—were Abraham’s descendants but they were not counted as Abraham’s children (“born ones”) in the line of promise. Instead, as God told Abraham (Gen. 21:12), It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned (lit., “in Isaac seed will be called to you”). Paul repeated the principle for emphasis in different words: It is not the natural children (lit.,“the born ones of the flesh”) who are God’s children (“born ones of God”), but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring To be a physical descendant of Abraham is not enough; one must be chosen by God (cf. “chosen” in Rom. 8:33) and must believe in Him (4:3, 22–24). God’s assurance that the promise would come through Isaac, not Ishmael, was given to Abraham: At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son Gen. 18:10 from the LXX[1]
He distinguishes between the seed of Abraham and children. Children here refers to those who enter into salvation, those who enter into covenant blessing, those who enter into the promise, life eternal. He says just because you are the seed of Abraham — that's a phrase that has to do with racial identity — just because you're Jewish, just because you descend from Abraham doesn't mean you are a child of salvation, doesn't mean you're a child of blessing, doesn't mean you're a child of promise, doesn't mean you are a child of God.
Here is his illustration. "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Now this is most important. Because we know that everybody who descended from the loins of Abraham is not automatically in the covenant, everybody descending from Abraham is not automatically in the promise, everybody descending from Abraham is not automatically in salvation blessing, and the best way to prove it is to go right back to Abraham and look at his own biography. Who was the first son born of Abraham? Ishmael, he was a son of Abraham. But Ishmael was excluded from the promise. He was excluded from the covenant. The second son and the first legitimate son born of Sarah was Isaac. And Isaac was included. Was Isaac better? Did he earn it? No, it all happened before Isaac was ever born or Ishmael. It was the calling of God, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called."
Paul's argument is very simple. Ishmael and Isaac demonstrate that God never intended all those naturally descending from Abraham to be a part of the line from which the covenant blessing came.
The point is, God is selected one nation to be the people whose line contained the promised Seed Jesus.
Ishmael did not go to hell based on these scriptures, so he was not predestined to hell because he was not chosen of God
Ge 25:8 Then Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
Ge 25:17 These were the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred and thirty-seven years; and he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.
Ge 35:29 So Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Ge 49:33 And when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.
Nu 20:24 "Aaron shall be gathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the water of Meribah.
Nu 20:26 "and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son; for Aaron shall be gathered to his people and die there."
De 32:50 "and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be gathered to your people, just as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people;
8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.
It starts out "that is," which indicates to us that he's giving us a further explanation. "That is they who are the children of the flesh," that is equal to the phrase "Abraham's seed" in verse 7, or the seed of Abraham. Those who are physically descending from Abraham, these are not the children of God, that's equal to the children of verse 7.
In other words, just being physically from the loins of Abraham does not mean you're a child of God. "But the children of the promise,” that's another way to say the children of God, or the children of verse 7 “are counted as the seed."
Who are the true children of God? It's the children of promise. They're called that because they were called by God to receive the promise of salvation. They are considered the true seed. They are regarded as the recipients of promise. And Isaac is the illustration.
It was not all the natural children of Abraham that God had in mind when He spoke of blessing Abraham's seed uniquely. It was only of the children born supernaturally in fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham about seed that He was speaking, namely, Isaac's descendants.
Isaac is a perfect illustration of a believer because he was born by a special act of God, he was born by supernatural power, and he was born according to a divine promise. He's a picture of anyone who is redeemed.
9 For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son."
The word of promise was given in Genesis 18:10, "And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. That's the word of promise, Verse 14: "Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son." The word of promise is repeated, verse 10. It's repeated in verse 14. And here in verse 9, "This is the word of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son," quoted right out of Genesis 18:14. That's the promise. Sarah shall have a son. Not Hagar shall have a son, and not Keturah shall have a son, Sarah shall have a son. And so God is selective. Isaac was born at a special time, born by the special power of God, and born by the promise of God. He is the child of divine choice as God acts in human history.
Just as it is said of Ruth that she was uniquely set by God in a special place, chapter 1:6, just as it is said of Esther that she had come to the kingdom for just such a time as that, just as the Bible tells us God acts through various human beings at special times in history, just as it says of Christ in Galatians 4 that He came at appointed time in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made unto the law and so forth, so it is that in the right moment in the right time by the right choice God chose to give a child of promise, Isaac. And this is all just an illustration, simply pointing out the fact that God is selective.
It's very difficult for the Jews to accept this because what it says to them is that within the Jewish race there are some that are to be the children of the promise, not all. So wholesale Jewish unbelief doesn't make us panic like God has overturned His promises.
God has always worked through a remnant, a saved minority.
10 And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac
But there's even a stronger illustration here in verse 10: Rebecca was the daughter of Bethuel, remember, from Padan-Aram, chosen as a wife, as a bride for Isaac. You remember that great story of how the servant went to find a bride for Isaac. Genesis 24. And she was to be the bride. And she came back and was the bride. And according to Genesis 25, she gave birth. And you remember, she gave birth to twins, Genesis 25. You can read it in verses 19 to 24. Their names were Jacob and Esau. And from those two God chose one through whom would come the line of promise and the one was whom? Jacob. Esau was first born and he should have had the right of primogenitor (the first born privileges), which meant a double blessing and double respect. But God chose Jacob, and what it means is God is selective. And He's not only selective but sometimes He chooses what doesn't seem to be the way you should choose. He has that sovereign right.
So when Rebecca had conceived by one, that's one man, that is by our father Isaac, jump to verse 12, "It was said to her," verse 11 is a parenthesis, "It was said to her, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’" Who said that? Who said that? Genesis 25 says God said it. God says I choose Jacob. I choose the younger to be set over the elder. And that was against the normal course of life. But that was God's choice.
Now if you read Genesis 25 you find a lot of interesting things about these two men, Jacob and Esau.
11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),
According to God's purpose, whose choice was not based upon works (11)
Esau was the one who was first born. He was not chosen of God. And his life confirmed that, didn't it? You see, when God chooses that's only part of it. God rejected Esau as the line of promise. And Esau also rejected God. And you can be sure that God only rejects those who reject Him and only chooses those who choose Him. That's the divine mystery.
12 it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger."
The other one was Jacob, he was the younger. And verse 12 says that the text said the elder shall serve the younger. You can read it in Genesis 25, God said that. The elder is going to serve the younger. He bought the birthright from Esau. He received the blessing. Oh, he received it by deception, didn't he? He pretended to be Esau. His mother put him up to it. Stupid. What would Rebecca do that for? She knew God said the elder will serve the younger. She knew God said Jacob is the one I choose. Why do you do that? Why don't you trust God if He says it's going to be that way that He'll make it happen without being a deceiver? Isn't it sad the way people take things into their own hands? His mother put him up to it in spite of the Word of the Lord. All they had to do was wait and God would have worked it out that he received the blessing, but they tried to deceive and get it on their own. Consequently, poor Jacob had a life of pain and sorrow and trouble.
Jacob did seek God. He's the one who wrestled with an angel and out of that wrestling God changed his name from Jacob to what? To Israel. And he did seek God. He had a heart for God. But he suffered because of his sin. He was chastened by the Lord. He was hated by his brother. His life was full of pain and sorrow. But he did seek God and there was a righteousness in him. And he was God's chosen child. So the point that Paul is making is the same point only he's using a different illustration. When it came to Jacob and Esau, God made a choice, too. So it shouldn't be surprising to us that all of the Jews don't believe. All of Abraham's sons weren't chosen as children of promise nor all of Isaac's either.
13 As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."
"The strong contrast is a Semitic idiom that heightens the comparison by stating it in absolute terms."
it is evident that in this case the word hate means to love less, to regard and treat with less favor. Thus in Gen. 29: 33, Leah says, she was hated by her husband; while in the preceding verse, the same idea is expressed by saying, “Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah,” Matt. 10: 37. Luke 14: 26, “If a man come to me and hate not his father and mother,” &. Joh 12:25 "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
That is a direct quote from Malachi 1:2-3. "I hated Esau, laid his mountains and his heritage waste." He hated Esau. Verse 2, I love Jacob. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. Now listen carefully. I do not believe that this is a primary reference to the individual Jacob and the individual Esau. I don't think that's the point. Because that's never said in the Old Testament. That is never uttered in the book of Genesis. God never says when those young men are born, "I hate Esau." He never says it during the life of Jacob and He never says it during the life of Esau. There's no such statement made. In fact, it is probably nearly a thousand years later when the prophet says, "Esau have I hated." And the Esau of His hatred is the idolatrous, pagan kingdom of Edom that's come from the loins of Esau. And the Jacob He loves is the Israel, the Israel of God, His people, His nation, the people of blessing.
Lessons
God did not base His election on the physical. Therefore, if the nation of Israel—Abraham’s physical descendants—has rejected God’s Word, this does not nullify God’s elective purposes at all.[1]
God chose Jacob before the babies were born. The two boys had done neither good nor evil, so God’s choice was not based on their character or conduct. Romans 9:13 is a reference to Malachi 1:2–3 and refers to nations (Israel and Edom) and not individual sinners. God does not hate sinners. John 3:16 makes it clear that He loves sinners. The statement here has to do with national election, not individual. Since God’s election of Israel does not depend on human merit, their disobedience cannot nullify the elective purposes of God. God is faithful even though His people are unfaithful.[1]
We cannot explain the relationship between man’s choice and God’s purpose, but we know that both are true and are taught in the Word.[1]
We cannot help but admire Paul’s burden for Israel. His words remind us of Moses in Ex. 32:31–32. Do we have that kind of a burden for lost souls? Christ loved us so much He became a curse for us.
Keep in mind that the election discussed in Rom. 9–11 is national and not individual. To apply all the truths of these chapters to the salvation or security of the individual believer is to miss their message completely. In fact, Paul carefully points out that he is discussing the Jews and Gentiles as peoples, not individual sinners.
Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten.
hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions
25 YEARS OF MINISTERING TO THE FORGOTTEN
Please help us reach out to those the World has forgotten. Everyone we minister to is locked up in some way, shape, or form. Those in Nursing Home facilities are locked up in bodies that do not work, in a wheelchair or in a bed. We minister to children and youth who are locked up because of behavioral problems. Some have told us, “We want to have a Real Family”, because their parents have lost or given up custody of them. Other kids are locked up because they have committed crimes. We also minister to those locked up at the jail/prison; to those locked up in addictions to drugs, alcohol, depression, and suicidal thoughts; to those locked up in a variety of other things that keep them from becoming who Jesus wants them to be. He came to give us abundant life, joy, and set us free, and these people that we minister to are not free. Our desire is to show them whatever their background, no matter what they have done, to see how much God loves them; We seek to help them receive forgiveness and freedom from their sin in Jesus Christ. We minister in the local area of Savannah, Georgia and surrounding Effingham and Chatham area. We have recently expanded our ministry to the Lexington/Columbia SC area. We do over 700 services every year. We hope and pray that you will support us in some way so we can continue our mission. Go to His Love Ministries.net and Click on the Donate Now button or send it via regular mail to PO Box 1881 Lexington, SC 29071. We hope and pray that you will do that. Thank you and God bless you.
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
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