God Requires Faith Hebrews chapter 11, verses 5 & 6 tell us; “By faith, Enoch was taken up, so that he should not see death; And he was not found, because God took him up; For he obtained the witness that before his being taken up, he was pleasing to God. And without faith, it is impossible to please, for he who comes to God, must believe that…
What Exactly is the Grace of God ? Ephesians 2, verses 8 & 9 tell us, “For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast.” What exactly does it mean, when it says, “By grace you have been saved”? The simple answer is actually given…
A Verse Out Of Context There was a well-known preacher named Johnny Ramsey, who’s passed on now. But Johnny had a saying that he liked to use, and that is; “A text, taken out of context, is a pretext”. A clearer way to put it is; “A verse of scripture, taken out of it’s context, becomes a pretext”. A “pretext”, is a reason given as justification for something,…
Should We Pray a Sinner’s Prayer ? There are countless people who have been told, that they can be saved by believing in Jesus Christ, and by praying the “sinner’s prayer”. The problem with this is that the bible never tells us such a thing. The bible does indeed tell us several things, that we must do to be saved, but saying a “sinner’s prayer” is not one…
The Narrow Way Jesus said, in Mathew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow, that leads to life, and few there be who find it.” The apostle John wrote in 2 John, verses 9-11, “Anyone…
The Collection For the Saints In our previous lesson, we talked extensively about 1 Cor 16:1-2. We saw how these verses dealt specifically with the collection of money to send to the needy saints in the Jerusalem congregation. The key phrase being.. “..concerning the collection which is FOR the saints..” And we noted that those verses do authorize two things. First, it authorizes us to have…
The Stairway to the Temple The stairway of Ahaz is mentioned twice in the old testament. Once in 2 Kings 20:9-11, and again in Isaiah 38:8. Ahaz was the king of Judah from 735 to 715 BC. But he wasn’t a very good king. He basically aligned himself with the nation of Assyria, and he adopted the worship of foreign idols, and he even lost control…
There’s Power in the Blood I’d like to call your attention to the words of 1 John 1:6-7. “If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanses us…
“Study to show thyself approved..” 2 Tim 2:15 How willing are you to study the bible? Not just to read the bible, but to study it? I know how encouraging it can be to just pick up the bible and to read God’s word. But how willing are you to really sit down and study? God wants us all to be willing to go beyond what …
The Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Lost Son There’s a story in Luke 15:4-7, telling of a man who had 100 sheep, but had lost one of them. And he searched and searched until he found it. And when he found it, he gathered his friends and neighbors together and said; “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.” V-6 Then V’s…
The God and Father I’d like to show you from the bible, how God in His entirety, is our Father; and how every aspect of God, is also our Father. The word God, refers to the entirety of God; All the aspects of God, all in one. While the words, the Father, and the Son, and the Word, and the Spirit, all refer to individual aspects of…
The Gospel, the basics of Salvation “Now I make known to you brethren, the gospel, which I delivered to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved; If you hold fast to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” “For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received; That Christ died…
Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. And by the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done.” Gen 2:1-2 “Then God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it, He rested from all his work which God had created and made.” …
“Perfect love casts out fear”. Those words are part of 1 John 4, verse 18. What does that mean? “Perfect love, casts out fear”. Does that mean that if you could love “perfectly” that you’d never be afraid of anything in your life? Does that mean you won’t be afraid of snakes and spiders, or afraid of the dark, or whatever it is that you might…
Capernaum and Hades In our previous study, we had looked at an example of how hades was used in a figurative way, in Mathew 11:23, where Capernaum, who was “exalted to heaven” would be “brought down to hades”. Now we’re going to see how hades is again used in a figurative sense in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, from Luke 16:19-31. We’ll just examine a…
Hades, the Unseen Realm The word translated “hades”, is the Greek word hah’-dace. The meaning is.. “to not see”, or in other words, “unseen”. It means “the unseen realm”. Hades is the unseen realm where spirits live after being separated from the body at death. Our spirits are still living beings, they are souls, even after they leave our bodies. We’re told in Ecclesiastes 12:7, …
What is Religion ? Religion typically involves the belief in a god, doesn’t it? Mono-theism is the belief in ONE god, such as the God of the bible. Poly-theism, is the belief in MANY gods, such as in Hinduism, which is idolatry. And then there is Human-theism (or Humanism for short) which is basically the belief that man is his OWN god, which again is idolatry. …
Tempted by Lust James 1:14-15 says, “But each one is tempted when he is enticed and drawn away by his own lust. Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished (or completed) it brings forth death.” We’re told in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death.. but the free gift of God, is eternal life in Christ Jesus…
The Spirit of Fear Please listen to 2 Timothy 1:7.. “Indeed, God has not given us the spirit of fearfulness, but of power and love and self-control.” The word translated “fearfulness” in this verse, is only found this one time in the bible. The exact meaning is.. “timidity, fearfulness, and cowardice”. The word seems to imply a lack of confidence in one’s self. There’s another Greek…
What does the bible teach about fear and doubt? Fear and doubt, do tend to go together. Fear produces doubt. When we become fearful, we become doubtful. We can become doubtful about a lot of things, but the worst thing that can happen, is that we become doubtful about God. Most people are aware of the story in the bible about how Jesus walked on the…