Be Ye Harmless As Doves!

Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

I have over the last couple of weeks had an email exchange with a person known only as Dsa Dsa. I know nothing about this person, and sadly this person knows nothing about Baptist. Dsa first emailed me to let me know that Baptist do not read their bibles and due to that they know nothing about God and are basically ignorant. I emailed Dsa a reply to attempt to find out why he/she had such a hate for Baptist and witnessed to this person about salvation in Jesus Christ, because I was concerned about them going to hell. Dsa returned an email to me and said they did not believe in hell and if I would read my bible I would know that. I returned an email to Dsa and warned them hell is a real place and if they did not believe in Jesus Christ that would be their eternal home. Dsa returned my email with the following disturbing words, “why would god let people burn and have pain forever and ever when it says in the bible that he is the god of love? I just wonder if you realy understand the bible. becuse i have seen what you do to for example people that died in aids. a group of baptists standing beside their grave and have signs against people that have sex or something. that is just rong. you dont do something like that..” This is Dsa’s exact last email unedited. First this person knows nothing about Baptist, there are many different kinds of religious organizations that call themselves “Baptist” for example you have many different kinds of “Independent Baptist”, the “SBC”, the ABA, the BMA, and etc and none of them believe exactly the same. Baptist are not like most religious organizations i.e. the Catholics where we have one leader and the rest follow him i.e. the Pope. We are Independent Baptist and are not associated with any other church or organization. We make the bible our rule of law and no man on earth has control of the Lord’s church except Him. I have no idea who Dsa is referring to in their email except maybe the notorious radicals themselves the radical Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas whom are NOT Baptist. Just because a religious organization such as Westboro Baptist Church calls themselves Baptist does not make them Baptist. The only way to tell if a Baptist church is truly Baptist is to look at their doctrinal belief and church history because many who call themselves Baptist do not even know what real Baptist believe. It sickens me to drive down the street and see some of the pathetic signs in front of some of these so-called Baptist churches. Let’s get back to Dsa, We as real Baptist do read our bibles and hell does exist and if you would read your bible you would also understand that it is a real place. Next we as Baptist do not protest, we do not wish evil on the persons that are homosexual or anything else. We as Baptist trust the Lord to control all things and if God allows it to happen who are we to attempt to change it? Dsa, you said if God is a God of love then how can He allow someone to go to hell, this is an age old question and mostly asked by lost people. God is a God of love however God hates sin and God also hates the sinner because they rebel against Him and God told Adam if he ate of the forbidden fruit he would surly die. If you would read Revelations you could get a better understanding of God’s wrath on mankind in the future. The love of God is this, God loves those who trust in Jesus Christ as their Saviour, but not everyone who lives on the earth, and if you would read Romans (as well as other places in the bible) you would see sin put man against God and God punishes sin. As far as Aids and other disease we as Baptist do not enjoy a gay person contracting Aids or any other disease and a real Baptist would never go to a grave and carry signs condemning their life’s actions. We as Baptist are a loving people and try to be as “wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” We do not judge the actions of the world; we stand up for our own rights and the rights of God but not in judgment of this world. God will judge this world and their sinful actions. However Dsa in closing this article, we as Baptist will pray for you that God will have grace on you to give you a true understanding of his word.

Repentance and Faith

"Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Acts 20:21

Paul was telling these folks that this was his main message, repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as it should be with all Ministers today. These two words (repentance and faith) are two words that confuse a lot of folks in our time. We must understand repentance toward God is not salvation in itself, in other words repentance never saved one single soul, it is faith toward Jesus Christ that delivers salvation to the unworthy soul. The word repentance simply means “a turning around or a reversal” and there is nothing about a turning around or reversal that delivers salvation. Faith toward Jesus Christ is the point of salvation because it is faith in Him that can save; it is faith that His blood is strong enough to wash away all our sins. Since repentance is not the same as saving faith therefore it is not a saving factor. However when we look at the word repentance we do see a great significance to it. When Paul said “repentance toward God” we see that it is God who we owe repentance toward, it is God that we have so greatly sinned against and it is God that we must turn from the wickedness of this world and began to follow and worship. We have all offended God all of our life by living in iniquity and are guilty of crimes against Him. We repent toward God because it is He who can give a pardon for sin, since it is He who we have sinned against it is Him who we owe our repentance too. True repentance can only exist once we have an understanding of our sins against God, just to acknowledge repentance is not repentance in itself. We must ask why is there repentance, and the answer must be “because I have sinned against God and want forgiveness”. The Lord tells us that a true worship of Him is a spiritual thing between God’s Spirit and your heart, John 4:24 and therefore repentance must be a spiritual thing between you and God whom you have sinned against. A simply acknowledgement of repentance in your mind or through your mouth is not enough, just as a simple acknowledgement of saving faith is not enough. It must be from the heart or it is not real to God and therefore there is no pardon of sin.

Repentance is not real unless there is a true turning from sin, Job 36:10 “He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.” What good is there in repentance if there is no turning from sin? Doesn’t the word by definition mean a turning around? It is our faith in Jesus Christ that makes repentance possible. The sinner on his own will never repent to God because the sinner has nothing inside of him to cause this repentance.

Isn’t Our Saviour Indeed Wonderful?

Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. John 5:8

Isn’t our Saviour so wonderful? He is so full of grace and mercy that our feeble minds simply cannot contain the full knowledge of just how wonderfully full of grace and mercy He is. Here in John 5:5 – 9 we see a man that had suffered a great sickness for thirty – eight years and until he met our Saviour he must have been in great misery for those thirty – eight years. Here we see Jesus come to him and knowing his illness and suffering Jesus asked him “Wilt thou be made whole?” what a question for the Lord Jesus to ask, not in doubt of the mans answer but in demand that this man was going to rise and walk. This is the very grace and mercy our Saviour has, never asking in doubt. Grace and mercy is making someone whole in their greatest time of need just as our Lord did with this man and as He also did for you. I did not ask Jesus to die for my sins, because I was not alive just over two thousand years ago when He gave His life on that cross for my redemption. It was by grace and mercy that brought salvation to me just as it was grace and mercy that made this man whole. Jesus did not die in hope we would come to know Him but already knowing that in due time I would be saved. I know that it is because of this grace and mercy that I was delivered at all from sin and I know in this life and the life to come I will never be able to thank the Lord enough or praise His name enough for what He has done for me in making me whole. We see this man in out text in verse 15 telling what Jesus had done for him “The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.” He was not ashamed of Jesus nor did he refuse to give Jesus the credit for what Jesus had done. Jesus told this man in verse 14 “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” Beloved this is the very same thing Jesus told us after saving our souls, sin no more. We are not allowed to sin and if we do then great sickness can also come upon us. However the truth being we are sinners by nature and because of that we will sin, does not excuse the sins we purposely do. If you have sin in your life bring an end to it or else you may suffer great sickness because of it.