What must I do to be saved?

Let’s consider today what the Scripture says it means to be spiritual. Our pursuit is to first identify what it means so that we can intentionally seek to be more spiritual. Notice three specific ways mentioned in the NT.

(1) RECEIVING THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT. Being spiritual has to do with receiving the things of the Spirit. Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 2 and 3 that being spiritual is related to receiving the things of the Spirit. Read 2:9-3:5. It should be noted that he is writing to the Corinthians who were NOT spiritual, but rather fleshly and human-minded (see 3:3, 5).

Paul argues in 2:9-15 that the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) knows even the thoughts of God. The Spirit revealed the mind and will of God to the apostles so that they might know and teach these “spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” (2:13). He continues in verse 14 indicating that some are not able to understand the things of the Spirit “because they are spiritually discerned.” In contrast, he says, the “spiritual person judges all things…” (v. 15). So the spiritual person is able to comprehend the message of God. He is like the Thessalonians who Paul says accepted it, the Word of God, “not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God…” (2:13).

Since the Word of God is the product of the Spirit, we are spiritual when we receive and heed that Word!

(2) RESTORING THE ERRING. Paul says that restoring a brother who has fallen away is an activity of the one who is spiritual. He says in Galatians 6:1, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” The highest regard we can have for a brother is that he is right with the Lord. Those who are spiritual will seek to restore the wayward brother, so that his soul might be saved from eternal death (see James 5:19-20). May God grant us more courage and more love in this pursuit!

(3) OFFERING WORSHIP UNTO GOD. 1 Peter 2:5 says, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” It makes sense that offering spiritual sacrifices to God, giving Him the worship He desires, is from the one who is spiritual. Related to this, Paul says in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Those who are spiritual, sing spiritual songs unto God, to His honor and praise (see also Jn. 4:23-24).

Will you prayerfully consider one spiritual step you can take this week?

Daren Schroeder

Introductory information on the first letter to the Corinthian church.

In a book about Seal Team Six, one of the Navy Seals is quoted about their training.  He says, “The more we sweat in training, the less we bleed in war.”  This elite team is credited with the successful raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

As Christians, we are God’s elite fighting force. “Suffer hardship with me,” Paul wrote Timothy, “As a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Tm. 2:3). We are reminded that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood,” but our war is “against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ep. 6:12).

Our training consists of Bible study, prayer, worship, and fellowship with other “soldiers of Christ.” The more time we spend in training, the less we bleed in this spiritual war. Satan is “enraged” against the church and is “off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Re. 12:17). The sure way to lose a war is to not know you are in one. “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm” (Ep. 6:13) How is your training going? Or have you gone AWOL? Maybe it is time to re-enlist and get back in the fight.

-Dennis Doughty

INTRODUCTION:

This morning, I want you to put on your “imagination cap.” I want you to imagine that you are a Jew, living in the first century, just at the turn of the century. You can be married if you want to, you can have a family if you want to – after all, this is all imagination! But, you are a faithful Jew. You follow the law of Moses to the best of your ability, in every aspect of life. You live a moral life. There is a lot, a lot of immorality that is going on around you, but you still live a holy life. You sacrifice animals as you should. If you are male, you go to Jerusalem three times a year as the law requires.

Your parents were also faithful Jews. They taught you to listen to the Pharisees as they teach the law of Moses and review Israelite history but your parents also told you not to follow the example of the Pharisees. Too often, the Pharisees were politicians and they changed their behavior to fit whoever was in power in the governor’s office. Your parents took you to the synagogue every Sabbath day.

The Old Testament was not a book at that point; books will not be invented for maybe another 100 years. But there were scrolls on which the Old Testament had been written. Those scrolls were in the synagogue and those scrolls were read every Sabbath day. And, because your parents, and their parents before them, had been faithful Jews, then the substance of the Old Testament teaching could be repeated, nearly word-for-word by your parents and your grand-parents. In fact, if you had a pen and papyrus, you and your parents could probably write down much of the Old Testament simply by memory. There was no TV, radio, or cell phones in those day. No after school activities; nothing to provide distractions. So, nearly everyone’s memory was quite sharp, especially when it came to quoting large portions of the word of God.

With that background, you knew that there was a Messiah coming. You knew that He would preach God’s message to the poor and that He would provide freedom from your Roman authorities. You knew that He would be anointed by the Holy Spirit and that He would give the Spirit of God to all those who would serve God. You did not know if the Messiah would be one person or two – a sect of the Jews who lived in the village of Qumran up on the shore of the Dead Sea believed there would actually be two Messiahs. But you knew that all the Jewish rabbis were not in agreement on that point.

You also knew that the Messiah (or Messiahs) would have a forerunner, a herald, someone who would announce the coming of the Messiah. But, you and your Jewish people had also waited a very long time for this Messiah. From the time Isaiah preached about the coming of the Messiah, it had been 700 years. It had been nearly 600 years since Ezekiel had predicted the coming of the Holy Spirit and around that time since Joel had predicted the coming of the Holy Spirit. Those men were regarded as prophets of God among your people and all the faithful Jews believed what those prophets were saying.

But, ever since Malachi came and preached about the forerunner of the Messiah, it had been 400 years without a single word from God. You still believed in God and you still believed that God had worked in the lives of your ancestors, going all the way back to Father Abraham and, yes, even to Adam. But, without any message from God, you wonder if and when God would ever fulfill His promises to establish His kingdom that would break and consume the Roman Empire, under the leadership of His Messiah. When?

THE ENTRANCE OF JOHN THE BAPTIZER – 3:1-4:

One day, you hear about a man named John who was preaching in the wilderness of Judea. John became very popular, especially with the common people. The talk was that John’s parents were both from priestly families. His dad, Zechariah, was from the family of Abijah and his mom, Elizabeth, was from the family of the great high-priest himself, Aaron, brother of the famous Moses. That would put John in the line of priests. The talk was that both John’s parents had the Holy Spirit of God. No one had had the Holy Spirit for the past 400 years, not since the prophets you heard read about every Sabbath.

But John did not choose to be a priest. John chose to be a preacher and he preached in the wilderness of Judea, outside of Jerusalem. People preaching in the wilderness was nothing new. They were mostly considered quacks. Mostly, they were just deceiving people and wanting to gain their own followers.

But this John was different. This John was not trying to make disciples for himself. He was teaching the Jews they needed to get their lives right with God, based on the law of Moses and the preaching of the prophets and he tried to get the Jews to follow someone else – a relative of his named Jesus from Nazareth.

You see, a big part of John’s popularity was the simplicity of his message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” As a faithful Jew, you knew what the word “repent” meant. It was used over a dozen times in the Old Testament. You also spoke Greek, ever since Alexander the Great took over Judea and Jerusalem and everyone started speaking Greek. You knew the Greek word for “repent” could have a broad meaning and a narrow meaning. In it’s narrow meaning, the word “repent” meant to “change your mind.” The Jews used it this way to say that if you wanted to be right with God, you had to “change your mind” about living your life your way and had to live life the way God wanted you to live.

But “repent” could also be used in the broad, general way to refer to the sadness and regret that you felt in your heart when you learned what sin was and that you, personally, had sinned. And the “change of mind” that resulted from that sadness and regret and the change of behavior that would result from that change of mind.

So here, this man named John appears on the scene and says that the Jews needed to repent and get prepared for that coming kingdom, the kingdom the great prophet Daniel had talked about nearly 600 years ago! What excitement.

Of course, there was also talk that John was the one who was fulfilling those prophecies made hundred of years ago by Isaiah: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight.” If John was, in fact, that messenger from God, then that meant that the Messiah would come soon! The Messiah represented the Lord God, Himself! That was exciting! And there is talk of this “kingdom” now! That was exciting too!

On the other hand, John dressed unusually. He dressed in clothes made a camel’s hair with a leather belt. His food, as you might expect living in the desert, was locust and wild honey. What John made everyone think about what that greatest of all prophets, the one, in fact, who never died, Elijah the Tishbite. Elijah famously won a challenge against 450 prophets of Baal. Could John do the same thing with the false gods of the Roman people?

RESULTS OF THE PREACHING – 3:5-6:

John’s preaching was simple. And John’s preaching was drawing a crowd. People were ready for a renewal. The Jews had become spiritually stagnant and they needed renewal and John’s preaching provided it. It gave them motivation and an incentive to repent of their sins.

So, multitudes of people were going out to him from the capital of Jerusalem. Folks in the whole region of Judaea were going out to hear him. People from villages all around the Jordan River were going out to hear him. They knew they were in sin. They knew that they needed to change their minds about how they were living and then change their behavior. They confessed those sins and, based on John’s preaching, they were being immersed in the Jordan River for the forgiveness of sin (Mark 1:4).

This “immersion” was not something totally new. There were Jewish sects who immersed themselves in order to become a member of that sect. But what people were really thinking about was the practice of the Jewish priests who had to wash in that bronze laver before they could enter the temple. This immersion John was preaching was something similar to that – He was preaching that if you wanted to be prepared for this kingdom the Messiah was going to establish, you had to be immersed for the forgiveness of sins.

In the crowd, one day, you and your whole family saw so many passages from the Old Testament coming together in the preaching of John, so you all decide you will also be immersed in the Jordan River to have your sins washed away. That was a great day, a feeling of newness, of refreshment.

PHYSICAL RELATIONSHIPS DO NOT APPLY – 3:7-10:

You and your family went out many days to hear John preach and you were anxious to see this Messiah whom John kept talking about.

But one day, groups from the two largest Jewish sects went out to hear John preach – a group from the more strict Pharisees and a group from the more liberal Sadducees went out to hear John. You could feel the tension in the air. You knew these Pharisees and Sadducees were not happy with John’s preaching and behavior because when he preached against sin, everyone knew that these Jewish leaders were the epitome of sin. The question is, what is going to happen?

What did happen? Well, John was just as plain with the religious leaders as he was with everyone else, part of the reason why so many people liked him. John preached the truth, even to power. He called the religious leaders a “brood of vipers!” Wow! How blunt can you get? Then John challenged them: “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” A coming wrath? There were lots of warnings in the Old Testament about the wrath of God. God’s wrath was also indiscriminate, as indiscriminate as John’s preaching. God’s wrath was poured out on lots of nations in the Old Testament: the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, the Babylonians, the Persians. Would John preach about the wrath of God being poured out on the Romans? Is that going to be the work of the Messiah?

But here, John warns the Pharisees and Sadducees – the religious leaders – about God’s coming wrath. Could that mean that God’s wrath was coming agains the nation of Israel? That also happened several times in the Old Testament. In fact, the prophets said that both the Assyrian exile and the Babylonian exile had been the result of God’s wrath against His people, your people, the nation of Israel. Now John is warning of another exhibition of God’s wrath on His people?

But your nation is the nation of Israel. Jacob was your father. Abraham was your father. Your people were promised by God to be a blessing to the world. That was the promise God had made to Abraham, your illustrious ancestor.  What about this coming wrath?

John tells his audience to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Again, you knew what that meant: Feel sorry for your sins; change your mind about how you are living; then change your behavior. That is “fruit” that is “in keeping” with that changed mentality.

But then John gets to the heart of your thoughts, almost as if he could read your thoughts about being a descendent of Father Abraham. John preached: “Do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.”

Wow! So being a descendent of Abraham is not a prerequisite to being a member of this new kingdom? Really? You can be a member of the Messiah’s kingdom without being a member of the Jewish nation? You had heard talk about that in the prophets – that the Messiah’s kingdom would be a universal kingdom.

But then John interrupted your train of thought one more time – “The axe is already laid at the root of the tree; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

By saying that the axe is already laid at the root of the tree suggests that this wrath of God is already prepared. It sounds like God is already making plans to bring about this wrath, this judgment on your people. No wonder John is preaching so fervently that everyone needs to repent, to bear good fruit. Otherwise, they will be cut down and thrown into the fire – both individual Jews who do not repent and the whole Jewish nation if sufficient numbers do not respond to God.

JOHN’S PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH – 3:11-12:

While it was certainly eye opening to hear what John had to say about your nation, the next words out of his mouth were another reason for excitement: “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

The Messiah again. Oh how excited you are that you might very well get to meet the Messiah! How wonderful He will be; how wonderful He is! If John was having such an impact on peoples’ lives by preaching as He is doing and the Messiah is even greater than John! Wow! You could not wait to see, meet, and listen to this wonderful Person.

And John says he was baptizing with water for the purpose of repentance – here’ the fifth time you’ve heard John mention repentance – but the Messiah would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. You were familiar with the prophets’ messages about the Messiah bringing the Holy Spirit on all of God’s children. Isaiah preached about it (32:15; 44:3). Ezekiel preached about it (36:26-27; 39:29). Joel preached about it (2:28-32).  When the Holy Spirit comes, people would be able to prophesy again! Just like in the Old Testament – sharing the message of God with the people around them! And when the Holy Spirit comes, people would have a new motivation, a renewed motivation to serve God – they would have new hearts and new spirits.

More reason for excitement! The Messiah was almost here. The Kingdom was almost here. The Holy Spirit with all of His blessings was almost here! All they had to do was repent of their sins and be patient for God to reveal the Messiah!

But what about this “baptism in fire”? What about that? John went on to elaborate on that: “God’s winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Ah, so that’s the reference to the baptism with fire – its referring again to God’s wrath against the nation of Israel, against their capital, Jerusalem. Men all over the country side used a winnowing fork – it was used to toss the wheat or barley into the air and the husk, the chaff, would blow away and the grain would fall back to the ground. So John is warning again of that coming judgment on Jerusalem – if the Jews did not repent.

Well, you and your family had repented; you had confessed your sins; and you had been immersed in the Jordan River for the forgiveness of your sins. You were ready for the coming Messiah. You just prayed that everyone else would also get ready.

CONCLUSION;

If you had stayed there and listened to John preaching, eventually you would have seen Jesus of Nazareth come to John to be, Himself, immersed in the Jordan River to complete His righteousness.

And you would have lived to see fulfilled everything John had preached – including the establishment of that kingdom on the Day of Pentecost after Jesus rose from the dead and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

Now, that kingdom, which now exists on earth as the church of Christ, is going to be completed in heaven where it will include those faithful Jews in the Old Testament and it will become the “eternal kingdom” mentioned by Peter in 2 Peter 1:11.

Just as it was necessary for the Jews to repent of their sins in order to be prepared for the coming of the kingdom, we, too, must repent of our sins in order to be prepared for the eternal kingdom. In fact, since we sin on a frequent basis, it is better to say that we always need to have a repentant heart so that as soon as we do sin, we’ll make it right.

Take home message: Regret your sin. Reform your heart. Refocus your life. Be prepared for the eternal kingdom.

Paul Holland

INTRODUCTION:

Mount Augustus in Western Australia’s Golden Outback is supposed to be the world’s largest rock. It covers an area of 18 1/2 square miles and rises 2,815’ above the surrounding plain. The central ridge is nearly 5 miles long.

God is first called a “rock” in Moses’ song he led just before he died and the Israelites crossed into the promised land. The song is found in Deuteronomy 32 and in verse 4, Moses sings: “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.”

Rocks were used in the desert for a few different reasons: large rocks provided shade; they provided a hiding place; they could also be an indication that water was nearby. There were several reasons why, then, biblical writers would refer to God as a “rock” and the book of psalms are full of such references and we see several references in the prophets.

Here in Deuteronomy 32:4, Moses associates several attributes of God with the picture of Him as a rock: perfection, just, faithful, righteous, upright. Moses will refer to God as a “rock” several times in this song: verses 15 (“Rock of his salvation”), 18, 30, and 31. Then, in verses 31 and 37, Moses will say that other peoples also have a “rock” in whom they trust but their rock does not provide the benefits as the Rock of Israel, the God of heaven.

In the year of our country’s birth, a British man named Augustus M. Toplady wrote a song directed at the Rock: “The Rock of Ages.” As we begin a new series of lessons this year on “Sermons from our Favorite Songs,” we begin with this song. The initial stanza of this song was published in a magazine, The Gospel Magazine, in October 1775. He wrote the hymn for an article in the same magazine in March 1776. That article dealt with the impossibility of man paying for his own sins.

I’m not sure how he reckoned it, but Toplady estimated that if a man should live to be 80 years old, he would commit 2,522,880,000 sins.

Keep your song books opened to this song as we consider the message of Toplady, designed to help the Word of Christ dwell in us richly.

THE CLEFT ROCK – Exodus 33:17-23:

Verse 1 – “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, from Thy riven side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and pow’r.”

It seems this verse, which sets the stage for the whole message, is based on an event from the life of Moses recorded in Exodus 33. The Israelites have created a golden calf and worshiped it while Moses on the top of Mount Sinai, receiving the Law. It completely disheartened Moses that his people so quickly turned their backs on the God who had just brought them out of slavery in Egypt. Many of those very people are punished by God for their idolatry.

Moses had offered to die in their place, to have his name erased out of the book of life (Exo. 32:32). But, Moses could not die for others when he had his own sins. God did promise “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of my book” (32:33). Because Israel was so guilty of sin, God told Moses that God could not go with Israel as they left Mount Sinai to go to the Promised Land. God would send a divine Messenger who would lead Israel (32:34).

Moses knew that if God did not lead Israel, then there was no hope for Moses himself. Moses was discouraged and distraught at the whole situation. So, to encourage Moses, we have this dialogue between God and Moses that transpires in Exodus 33:17-23. Let’s read this text and note its importance and then we’ll see how it applies to Toplady’s hymn.

“The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.” Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

There in the cleft of the rock, God blessed Moses with the ability to see a part of God’s glory, to encourage him. Toplady uses this event to portray the protection that we receive through the blood of Christ. The only Gospel writer who mentions the blood of Christ in the context of the crucifixion itself is John, which he does in 19:32-34: “So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.”

Here’s the picture, then, that Toplady portrays in his first verse. We stand in the cleft of the Rock, finding in God a hiding place from the sting and punishment of sin. In the cleft of the Rock of God’s love, we are hidden by the blood of Christ that flowed from His side on the cross.

That blood provides a double cure for sin, a cure for the guilt of sin and a cure of the power of sin. To say that we have no guilt for sin is the define the biblical word atonement.

THE EMPTY SACRIFICE – Titus 3:3-7:

I did not see any specific references to an Old or New Testament text in verse 2 but the ideas presented are certainly biblical: “Not the labor of my hands Can fulfill the Laws’s demands; Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for sin could not atone, Thou must save and Thou alone.”

I suggest a succinct biblical foundation for those thoughts can be found in Paul’s message to the young preacher Titus in 3:3-7:

“For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” [Here Paul argues the same way as Toplady writes in his hymn. There is no good thing that we can do to merit / deserve eternal life. There is no way we can live perfectly, sinlessly, fulfilling every single expectation God has of us – every minute of every day our whole life. We cannot save ourselves. But we continue Paul’s thoughts…

“But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,” [The “washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” is a reference to our immersion into water, into the blood of Christ. Baptism is an act of our faithful obedience but more than that, it is an act of God through which He puts to death our sins and makes us holy and pure in His eyes.] Back to Titus…

Referring to the Holy Spirit, Paul writes: “whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Toplady reminds us in his verse 2 that even if our zeal for God knew no “respite,” no rest or relief, that is, even if we never ended our zeal for God and we were always hot, on fire for evangelism and faithful works, and Toplday goes on: “could my tears [for my sins] forever flow…” If I cried Lake Superior full of tears for my sins, it would not cleanse a single sin, “all for sin could not atone.”

Only Christ and Christ alone can save.

THE FOUNTAIN OF CLEANSING – Zechariah 13:1:

In verse 3, Toplady will eventually portray the forgiving blood of Christ as a fountain. That imagery comes likely from an Old Testament minor prophet named Zechariah. Zechariah is living at a time when Israel was discouraged because of their 70-years in exile and they were back in their homeland but their temple laid in ruins, a constant reminder that it was destroyed and they spent 70 years in exile because of sin.

From Zechariah 9-14, Zechariah has four prophecies of the coming of Jesus Christ and while 13:1 is not a prophecy that is quoted in the New Testament, it would be easy for us to see that Jesus is the subject of this verse: “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.”

David refers to God as a “fountain” twice in the Psalms: a fountain of life (36:9), and a fountain of Israel (68:26). God refers to Himself as the “fountain of living waters” in Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13.

So let’s look at Toplady’s third verse: “Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to Thy cross I cling.” That was really the message of our sermon last Sunday: Jesus: Pure and Simple. In 1 Corinthians 2:2, the apostle Paul wrote: “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”

Toplady goes on: “Naked, I come to Thee for dress; Helpless, I look to Thee for grace. Vile (extremely unpleasant!), to the fountain I fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die.”

Toplady’s song is a song that finds refuge and hope in the God who is the Rock. That Rock provides defense, shade, hope from the bite of sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. We have to come to grips with the fact that we cannot earn our salvation. All we can do is come to Jesus with the humility to do what He tells us to do and then find joy in the salvation He offers.

Take home message: God hides us from Satan through the blood of His Son. With empty hands, offer Him your heart in faith and obedience. The fountain of His love will cleanse your sins.

Paul Holland

Much of what we know of the lives of others and of the world is curated. The view we are given, by whatever source is giving it, has carefully selected, organized, and presented the view for us. Our news sources carefully craft the images and messages they present to garner our attention. They don’t show you everything. They select and organize the bits and pieces and present them to you to give you the view they want you to have. Social media is much the same. Individuals choose and organize what they want you to see. Some take great pains to make sure only the best images of themselves are shown. We all do it to some extent. We all present our lives to the world as a “curated” presentation, carefully selecting, organizing and presenting what gets seen and what doesn’t. We do it every day, all day, picking and choosing what is seen and what is not. As we build this facade, the curation of our lives can actually deepen. We must become even more careful to present the right “face” in public. We must be even more careful to maintain the appearance that everything in our lives is going so well – because it certainly appears to us that everyone else’s lives are. The cycle grows. We become more guarded, more closed, or worse we start to believe our own curated story.

This isn’t just a problem externally. We curate our spiritual lives as well. We often only let the best parts show to others. Sometimes we even deceive ourselves into thinking that our spiritual lives are what we are attempting to project. James dealt with this in his letter to the early church when he states “Prove yourself doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves” (James 1:22). We can delude ourselves into thinking that our spiritual lives are in good standing with God simply because we are willing to hear what He has to say from time to time. “I attend worship without fail. I go to Bible classes regularly. I read my Bible every day.” These are good things, but they can represent only a curated view of our spiritual lives. Are we actually living out, day to day, what we hear? Are we proving ourselves to be doers or just hearers? James uses the illustration of a man that sees his “natural face” in the mirror (1:23-25). In his example, Scripture is the mirror, and when we look at ourselves in it we see ourselves with all of the facade striped away (Hebrews 4:13). Now, equipped with the real view of our life that Scripture provides, the question becomes are we going to correct the things that need correcting? The man in James, walks away forgetting what he saw. He simply returns to the old curated view of his life. That delusion will cost him his soul.

No one is suggesting that we need to expose the raw details of our lives to the world through social media. What we are suggesting is that we must all understand that there is a curated view of our life and there is the real, unfiltered view of our life that God shows us through His word. We need to look into that mirror and seek to make the changes that are needed. We need to implant His word in our life and DO IT. If we do, it has the power to save our soul.

Michael Hite

“The one who desires life, to love and see good days, must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good; He must seek peace and pursue it” (I Peter 3:10-11)

Why BACK to the Bible?

1. .The Bible is the very word of God – All scripture is profitable, II Tim 3:15-17; Sum of thy word is truth (all of it), Ps 119:160, Do it, John 8:31-32.

2.Teaches us about – God – He created us, Gen 1:1-2; Jesus is the Word who was in the beginning, John 1:1-3; 14, 17.

3.Teaches us about Jesus Christ -He is God who is with us, Isa. 7:14; Matt 1:23; John 1:1-3.

4.Teaches us about Salvation – I Tim 1:15; the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John 1:29, 36; Jesus (the Beloved) accepts us, Eph 1:6.

5.Teaches us about God’s grace, Eph 2:5, 8; II Tim 1:9.

6.Teaches us about the Lord’s church – never a denomination – the church – His church, Matt 16:18; His blood purchased the church (us), Acts 20:28-32; Eph 5:22-25.

7.Teaches us “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all,” Eph 4:4-6.

8.Summarizing: By going back to the Bible and hearing God’s word, Rom 10:17;responding to His grace in faith, Eph 2:5, 8; repenting of sins, Acts 17:30; being baptized into Christ, Acts 2:38; 22:16 and continuing to grow and walk in the light,
II Pet 3:18; 1 John 1:7 we go forward with Christ.

by Ivy Conner

Read the text carefully.

It has often be said that a brother may not take a brother to court under any circumstance based on our text for today. Is that true? Is that what Paul was seeking to teach in 1 Corinthians 6? Let’s consider this matter within the context.

The quibbles at Corinth were to the degree that brother took brother to court. From a study of this lengthy letter, we know that many Christians were yet infants in Christ (see 3:1), the body of Christ was divided (see 1:10-13), and selfishness and sin permeated the church. The first half of chapter 6 is yet another testament to the immaturity amongst the saints at Corinth.

While there are some difficulties in this passages that we will not be able to explore, there is enough clarity laying on the surface to suit our purposes. What we see is that Paul is making an argument from the greater unto the lesser. The saints will judge the world (v. 2). The saints will judge angels (v. 3). His argument is: If they have the ability to judge the world and angels, how can they not take care of trivial matters amongst themselves? (see v. 2). Paul suggests that surely they have a brother in the church who can help settle little personal disputes (v. 5).

Even beyond the relational problems in the church, was the fact that these problems were being flaunted before the world! This was truly a “defeat” (v. 7). Christians, and the Lord’s church, are to be a beacon of light, shining forth in a dark world (see Mt. 5:13-16). Instead, the church at Corinth was parading its problems before that world! Paul suggests that the Christian should rather be wronged than bring shame upon the church (see vv. 7-8).

Is Paul suggesting that it is always wrong to go to court against someone who is a brother in Christ? Before directly answering that question, please understand that my answer is not at all intended to be the ideal. We all know what the ideal is. The ideal is that these brothers work out their own problem (see 5:21-26), or at least have a wise brother to help them in this pursuit.

First consider that the admonition in this text is similar to the safeguard that Paul issues concerning the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11. The Corinthians had made a divisive mockery of the Lord’s Supper. Some feasted, while others went hungry (see v. 21). Paul’s admonition is to just eat at home (see vv. 22, 33-34). In the context Paul is not arguing against eating together as Christians, but he was arguing against the divisiveness amongst the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is not making an argument that it is always wrong to take a brother to court, but once again, he is arguing against a very divisive spirit which is the theme of this correspondence (see 1 Cor. 1:10).

Further, though it would be a last resort, and never the desire of the child of God, there may be the occasion where justice demands a Christian bring a brother to court. Paul, in what he taught in our text, was not seeking to provide “sanctuary” for the rebellious child of God. If Christians are subject to the governing authorities, and they are (see Rom. 13:1-7), then it would not make sense for Christianity to provide “refuge” for lawbreakers. Neither should it be supposed that going to court with someone is necessarily an “unloving” thing to do. On rare occasions, it may be the right thing to do for the sake of justice.

In fact, if one were to suggest that under no condition can a Christian go to court against a Christian, he actually may find himself opposing an allowance Jesus made. In Matthew 19 Jesus teaches that in the case of a Christian’s spouse being sexually immoral, the faithful spouse has the right to divorce for that cause and remarry another (see v. 19). Of course, this would necessitate going to court.

One of the final admonitions of Paul in this letter is found in 16:14 where he says, “Let all that you do be done in love.” If all of us would commit ourselves to living by that, most church problems would so quickly fall by the wayside!

Daren Schroeder

The details of the establishment of the church Jesus promised to build are recorded in Acts chapter two. The rest of that book is a record of the preaching of the gospel and the establishment of churches (congregations of the church) during the first thirty years of her history. Documents in the first century began with the writer identifying himself at the beginning of the document. Luke is the writer of Acts, but only identifies himself indirectly at the beginning of this book. Acts begins with these words, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). He implied that he had written another letter to a man named Theophilus. That letter is the Gospel according to Luke.

That Gospel begins, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:1-4).

Notice that Luke wrote from the investigation he had done. Notice also, that others who had been at the beginning had handed down what they had seen as eyewitnesses. Luke was not an apostle, therefore he did not get his information as an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry nor at the time the apostles received their information, but because he wrote Scripture, he was guided by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Just because he gained information by investigation does not mean his information is inferior to what the apostles wrote. He was guided by the Holy Spirit to write just as they were.

Not only did he write from his investigation, but he also wrote about the spread of the gospel because he was there when much of it happened. In the book of Acts notice the “we” verses. When personal pronouns are used it indicates that the writer was present when those events occurred. The first “we” verse is recorded in Acts 16:9-10. Here Paul and his traveling companions arrived in Troas and Paul had a vision of a man wanting him to come to Macedonian to preach. Luke records, “Immediately we sought to go into Macedonia” (Acts 16:10). Paul’s mission team arrived in Philippi, but when they left, Luke stayed behind. Acts 17:1 speaks of the group leaving Philippi but says, “Now when they had traveled…” (Luke was not with them). He does not join Paul’s team again until six or eight years later when he returns with Paul to Jerusalem (Acts 20:4-5).

Notice also the details that Luke gave are recorded in a chronological order (Luke 1). The other three Gospels are not recorded in chronological order. Because of this, Luke is a good book to begin studying the Life of Jesus because one can follow His life chronologically. It would also appear that Acts is also in chronological order since it is a history of the spread of the gospel. (More Facts from Acts later).

Wayne Burger