Saturday, March 28, 2009

Father I pray that they all may be one.

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:20-21

In this passage of scripture we find our Lord and Saviour bowing and praying to the very same Father we all pray to everyday. Jesus knowing the events of what was about to happen (that main event being His death) knew He was soon to be separated from the men He had just spent most of three years with and had loved with a very deep love. Jesus prayed for them that the Father would keep them and help them, however not only they but He prayed also for us, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;” V. 20. I personally find this a very spirit lifting thing that my Lord who was just about to suffer the greatest pain and death in the history of mankind took the time to pray for me. Jesus prayed for many things here for His disciples and for the future believers, but there is one single point that lifts itself from the pages of my bible as though it is more important than the others in this prayer, “That they all may be one…” V. 21. I think it deserves our time to investigate these words because one of the single most important things in a believer’s life is to understand the word of God. Unity among the independent churches is a very difficult thing today but unity among the brethren is even more difficult. I am convinced that this prayer was not for a single church although only one single church existed at this time, but was for all of the elect of God. It was the prayer of the man Christ Jesus (that would be His human side because His Deity side as the Son of God would never need to pray) that prayed to the Father for unity for those He was about to give His life for, and that they could be as one as they (the Father and the Son) are one. Paul said in Ephesians 4:3 “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The word “Endeavouring” means – to make an effort to – now I know there are some who would say “this is simply to the church, so Paul was speaking to the church here” and this is true however Paul went on to say “One God and Father of all…” he also said there is one faith, one Lord, and one calling, which leads me to believe this is more of a Christian commandment than simply a church commandment. Paul said to “make an effort” to find unity among the brethren. We cannot find unity with our brethren if we seek to find issues to separate us. It seems there are some who work harder to find the ways of separation than they are those who find ways to unite. Beloved our churches are very much to be kept pure; the Lord tells the churches to cleanse themselves of leaven in which I am a strong believer of, however the Lord never told us to make enemies of other beloved brethren. We are to work hard to find spiritual grounds in which we can find an area of unity instead of seeking to find ways of separation. Beloved none of us are infallible and none of us are 100% in line with truth. If you take 10 good sovereign grace Baptist Pastor’s and match them thought by thought chances are great that all 10 differ on something. Beloved I commend those of us who try to live the scriptures word by word but we still have to allow for some disagreement.

Jesus prayed for unity among the brethren and Paul said to make an effort to bring about this unity and not with just the church but also with our other brethren. The writer of Acts said Acts 4:32 “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.” Beloved in a time when believers allow almost everything to cause separation maybe it is time we work a lot harder to find common ground to fellowship.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Rest With Us!

2 Thessalonians 1:5-7 “Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: (6.) Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; (7.) And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,”
Beloved I know times are hard for the churches and as long as we continue to praise the Lord our God in spirit and in truth times will continue to get harder. God has not forgotten the pain and suffering that Christians have gone through for more than two thousand years and really all the way back as far as man has gone. It is truly a thing to glory in that God has chosen us to suffer for His name sake. Paul tells the church here suffering is “Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God,” How could this be? How could it be a “manifest token of the righteous judgment of God” to suffer persecution? Beloved God has never allowed His people not to suffer in this world. If we were to look back all through the bible we will see suffering and pain brought upon God’s chosen people. I know there are some who proclaim that it is not God’s will that we suffer, but they are totally misguided on the word of God and need to study more or maybe come to know Jesus Christ as their Saviour. God’s people have never not suffered in this world and while there are several reasons for this, one is this world is not our home and God wants us to be constantly reminded of this by the hatred the world has for us believers. Beloved this is an ungodly world and we simply do not fit. This world is everything we are not and this is why we have abortions, Gay marriages, untamable children on our streets, and Etc. Will a time ever come when these things are no longer a part of the world, NEVER. Beloved this is the world, they are lost and very evil and going to hell, and they are not going to change because only God can change an evil heart. However, even with this being said never forget that those who bring persecution on God’s people will suffer greatly for their evil deeds. We see in the tribulation period great pain brought on mankind, even such as has never been seen before and this is the judgment of God on an evil world. Beloved God does not forget, He will repay them for their sins and that final payment will be eternal destruction in the lake of eternal fire. 2 Thessalonians 1:8 “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:” Not knowing Jesus Christ as their Saviour will land them all in hell but greater eternal punishment will be for their hatred of God’s children and churches.

The Lord through Paul went on to tell us in verse 7 “And to you who are troubled rest with us…” indeed rest with us when they mock and persecute God and His chosen few. Beloved God has the final word and He has told us what that will be and it is eternity in hell. So when the world in our children’s text books lie about Jesus being a Palestinian, or that God is not the true God, or when America murders unborn babies, or allows homosexuals to marry, or etc. it is just who they are. And as America becomes a more Socialist Nation worse times will arise for Christians and more persecutions for us and the churches are on the way and I say “…rest with us…” beloved God is not going to stop them, He is going to let them rot in their sins until the tribulation period and then eternal destruction. Beloved rest with us until “…when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,” V. 7 This will be the last good day this world ever sees and then comes tribulation. Please let me warn those who are lost, the anger of God is a terrible thing and everyone who is not saved will suffer God’s great wrath, please think and trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour and then you also can “…rest with us…”.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name

Psalms 29:2 “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.”

I must ask this question, why do you attend church? I know it sounds rather strange to answer this question, however would you please ask yourself that question? I am saddened to know there are some who attend worship services for other reasons than to “worship the LORD”. So go ahead and ask yourself that question and give some thought before you answer yourself. I would like to know the answer and see if it truly matches why the Lord told us to attend worship. The Lord told us to “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name;” that is to recognize Him as a sovereign God, that is to recognize the sermon in every worship service is from God to you and me. The word of God was written to us beloved for several reasons but the most important reason was so we could in a correct way understand how to worship Him. The Lord wants our focus on Him and Him only, so if anything distracts you from that worship you have failed to give the Lord His due glory. Psalms 89:7 tells us “God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.” Beloved I would venture to say God is not greatly feared or reverenced in most church services today. Today most church services are about everything except reverence and fear of the Lord. Most churches today fail to teach about a sovereign God and without a sovereign God He cannot be truly feared. The sovereignty of God teaches that He is able to do what He pleases and how He pleases, it also teaches that He and He alone saves sinners and without Him saving them they (no matter how many decisions they make) will never be saved. Just because one goes to church does not mean they will ever be saved. I must say it is my belief that most churches today are a house of foolishness rather than a house of fear and reverence of God. Ecclesiastes 5:1 “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.” The Lord tells us here that it is better to hear, that is it is better to stop all of the foolishness and hear the word of God. I know a former pastor that the song director and some of the men of that church told him the song service was more important than the sermon was so he must shorten his sermon, beloved those men were fools. There is nothing more important in a worship service than a sermon delivered by a man called by God to do so, period. The song service has its place but not over the sermon that the Lord has sent to the church by His called man.

“worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” That is in the beauty of who He is and not as to what we want Him to be. God is most beautiful when uplifted in His sovereign grace and not placed as a god who cannot accomplish His own will. Our God is strong and able, and beloved that makes Him most wonderful in every way. There is nothing that makes my blood pressure rise more than to hear some clueless preacher say “God cannot change our will”. Beloved God changed my will and many times in my life and if you are saved He has changed your will also. Beloved let me close on this note, if your pastor refuses to uplift the Lord as a sovereign God always doing the counsel of His own will Eph. 1:11 then may I suggest you find another church because the one you are in now does not fear and reverence the Lord.