Saturday, March 26, 2011

What is simple faith?

James 2:14 “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”

The question so many other denominations always ask Baptist is can faith alone save you, well the answer is, absolutely not. Anyone can have faith; anyone can generate faith in their minds, which is not salvation. Therefore it is so very true faith alone cannot save you, but neither can works! Do a bible search on the words works and salvation and you will not find one single time that works is mentioned in relationship to saving one single lost sinner. In fact this is what you will find; “Not of works...” Ephesians 2:9 – “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight...” Romans 3:20 – “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.” Romans 11:6 – The Apostle Paul spent the first seven chapters of the book of Romans detailing every aspect of how it was impossible to be justified by works. However on the other side of this subject I would like to speak to those so-called Baptist that are not truly Baptist because they have never stood on Baptist doctrine. Faith alone cannot save a sinner from eternal damnation! Baptist (true Baptist) have never believed that a lost sinner can be saved by faith alone, and never will. James asked “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works…” the answer is nothing! However Faith in Jesus Christ as our Saviour is enough. Faith alone is nothing, billions upon billions of people through time past have believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but few have believed that He is their Saviour. Faith alone, a choice, decision, or simply a sinner’s prayer confessing faith could never be enough because salvation is much deeper than simple faith, it is the eternal work of God. God before the world began predestinated us to be saved, God before the foundation of the world chose us as His beloved children, God before the foundation of the world elected to accept the sacrifice of the Son of man as acceptable payment for all of these elect’s sins, God sent His beloved Son incarnate in the Son of man to die for out sins on the cross as payment in full, God sent the Holy Spirit to prick our hearts and to lead us to the saving grace of God, and God sent His Holy Spirit to give to us sufficient faith to believe that our Saviour’s blood was sufficient for us to be holy in His sight. So no, simple faith is not enough to save a lost sinner, and neither is a simple choice, or a simple decision, or a simple prayer. Therefore just as James concluded simple faith does not save a lost sinner, God does!

Now back to the rest of the religious world, works has no part in salvation no more than simple faith does. Since the scriptures never conclude works for salvation then the thought must be and is rendered mute. James did not say that works was a part of salvation; he said it is a result of salvation. And that is because God has saved our souls from eternal hell and since He has, He gave us the ability to righteously serve Him by our works, and every real Christian has this ability and has theses works of righteousness. If you do not then you are a product of simple faith and not true faith handed down from God Himself. If you have simple faith then it is time to have real God given faith which comes by trusting Jesus Christ to be your Saviour. “Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” John 6:29

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Priest Were To Blame, And Pastors Are To Blame Today.

And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. (2.) If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. Malachi 2:1 – 2

This next Friday thru Sunday I will be one of the many speakers at the Northside Baptist Church in Oakdale, La. I will be speaking twice once Saturday morning and again Sunday morning. The two sermons that I will focus on is the fall of the Israelites and the rise of the Gentiles as found in Romans chapter 11. Without giving away to many details about the sermons there is one single point I would like to share with you all before these sermons are preached and that is the fall of the Israelites. Paul wrote in Romans 11:8 “(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.” Verse 8 is a deeper explanation of verse 7 which says “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded” To explain this in simple terms and as short as I can, Paul actually said that God has put the Israelites into a “spirit of slumber” blinding their eyes and deafening their ears that they cannot see nor hear the word of God even “…unto this day”. Meaning God has chosen not to use “…unto this day”. With this being said what was it that caused God to choose to put His first love (humanely speaking) the Israelites on the back burner and use the Gentiles? Well the book of Malachi gives us seven reasons and all seven are their sins against God. We will cover all seven of these sins at the Bible Conference; however in this article we will only cover one. That is their crime of “cheating God”. How did the Israelites cheat God? It was in their sacrifices they were offering lame and blind animals when God commanded they offer only their best. However the Israelites themselves were not the only ones to blame here, the Priest were also to blame because they had turned their heads and allowed the bad animals to be brought to the alter. Verse 2 of our text says “If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the LORD of hosts…” By the Priest turning their heads and allowing these bad animals to be sacrificed they were not serving the Israelites nor God in being a watchman over the people therefore allowing without warning these Israelites to cheat God. There is an old saying “if the cat is away the mice will play” and while the cat was there they refused to see the mice playing. When there are no standards or laws then society is in disarray and nothing is done right and when nothing is done right then God is not happy. Therefore with this sin and many others, God chose the put the Israelites on the “back burner” and use the Gentiles and as history has proven it was a wise choice on Gods part, which it always is. Now lets equate this to today while we do not have Priest as they did we do have Pastors and the Pastors are the “overseers” of the Lords churches. Now if the Pastors act like the Priest of old then should we expect a different result? No, we should not. Pastors fail God when they turn their heads to sin and allow the mice to play. Pastors are to blame when they turn their heads to sin in order to build churches. We as Pastors are the overseers or the watchmen of the Lords churches and we will be held responsible when the church fails. “…saith the LORD of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.” verse 2. Pastors, do not think you are blessing God in turning your heads or closing your eyes to sin, the Israelites did not and neither will today’s churches and pastors if we do not follow Gods will. So when Pastors say ignorant things like “we are a non judgmental church” what they are saying is; sin as you please but please come to church, and beloved that is cheating God. 1 Corinthians 5:7 “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:” Galatians 5:9 “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”

Saturday, March 5, 2011

I’m Sorry Who Exonerates Whom?

“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” Psalms 2:4

I was reading our local newspaper this week and was brought to laughter after reading this headline: “Pope’s book exonerates Jews for death of Christ” and almost became unconscious in laughter. Wouldn’t this be like this headline: The fox exonerates the wolf for eating the chickens”? Both will rob the chicken house and eat the chickens so this would be like the guilty exonerating the guilty. I immediately had to ask myself, who does this man think he is, who is he to exonerate anyone? My question to Mr. Pope Benedict XVI is who is going to exonerate Catholics for the murder of the fifty million Baptist and Christians during the “dark ages” (a period between 550ad – 1700ad)? People fled for a new land, a land free of persecution when America was discovered, so what persecution were they fleeing from, Catholicism! And so now a few hundred years later we find that the new Pope has found a heart, well this looks like a prime example of what a wolf in sheep’s clothing looks like. Now to the most logical question, who gave this man the authority to exonerate the Jews for crucifying Christ Jesus? Isn’t that in the hands of God and therefore in the hands of the Man they crucified? John 5:22 - 27 “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: (27.) And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.” Beloved please understand the Catholics and most of those involved in reformation crucified millions of Baptist and other Christians that refused the recant their faith and join Catholicism. This is not disputed, not even with the Catholics themselves. The Pope also added that this is the reason for so much anti-Semitism today, and he is correct. Should people hate the Jews because they crucified Jesus Christ? NO! The Jewish nation is Gods chosen nation just as the Gentile Christians are Gods chosen people, and neither should be judged by man nor persecuted by man. It is true that their have been much unjust persecution against Gods chosen nation, but I cannot believe when Pope Benedict XVI says this was the reason for the Holocaust, no more than I can believe he can exonerate them. Hitler would have crucified Christ if he had the chance, this sort of anti-Semitism was just German hate for Jews period, and Christ had nothing to do with it because I cannot believe Hitler had any love for Jesus Christ.

Now please heed this warning The Jews are Gods chosen nation and one day soon will raise again and carry the word of God once again but this time believing that Jesus Christ is their Saviour. They are still loved of God and for anyone to hate them or harm them is a crime against God. In fact lets look at it from this point, God ordained the Jews to reject and to crucify Jesus Christ. That’s right God ordained it. It was appointed that Christ Jesus die for the sins of man and therefore God chose His chosen nation for this task. “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:” Acts 2:23 The Jews rejecting Jesus Christ was no mistake God ordained it. Therefore to blame the Jews for crucifying Christ is wrong and ignorance of the scriptures. With all of this being said God does not need Pope Benedict XVI to exonerate the Jews because soon Jesus Christ Himself will exonerate a remnant of them. Romans 11:5 “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”