When Believers Doubt What To Do?

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Life is at its weakest when there’s more doubts than trust; but life is at its strongest when you learn how to trust God in-spite of the doubts

Luke 7: 18-23    When Believers Doubt and what to do
 
The Wrong Expectations of Salvation and the Savior Lead to the Savior Rejection or doubt  and lost of faith

To get his doubt resolved he went to the Lord, which showed that he believed.
Doubt, honest doubt, is not a bad starting point. It’s just a bad finishing point

. “Are You the Expected One?” Expected One being a technical term for the Messiah, the Coming One. Are You the One?

After all that John had been told by God Himself, after all that had been revealed to John directly; certainly we wonder why he would ask the question.

Well we’re introduced to the fact that even the best of men, the greatest of men, the noblest of men, the greatest of men who had ever lived can experience doubt. And so we’re talking about doubt, believing doubt.

Whenever you run into somebody with doubt, they are believers. Doubt is an issue with people who believe.

So we’re not talking now about having all the evidence and not coming to a reasonable faith, we’re talking about an honest kind of doubt that serves you very well.

Now some of the great heroes of the faith were really pretty monumental doubters to start with.

THE STORY LIVE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AND HIS QUESTION TO JESUS?

“Are You the Expected One or do we look for someone else?”

To get his doubt resolved he went to the Lord, which showed that he believed.

Everything that John sort of expected to happen hadn’t happened. And I think John had a pretty clear picture of what should happen.

four things that contribute to this kind of doubt for us as for John.

first: personal tragedy.

 
second reason for his doubt, popular influences.

third  incomplete  revelation.

Fourth:  Wrong Expectation:

 

If you say to me you have doubts, then what I’m going to say to you

is go to the Scripture, because the revelation of God is clear.

Read the Word, learn the Word, know the Word, trust the Word.

False Religion is Demonic Energy

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All False Religions, All Idols, Are the Source of Demons i.e. Demonic
First Timothy 4:1-3   Charles e Whisnant, February 2016

“But the Spirit speaks explicitly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, (how?)

 

“Those who depart from God demonstrate an unbelieving heart.” And the heart is the issue.

All of this discussion really refers to a single word and that is the word apostate.

An apostate is someone who departs from the faith they know, the faith they understand and the faith which they previously affirmed. An apostate is not someone who never knew but someone who knew, not someone who never believed but someone who even on the outside believed, not someone who never behaved but someone who once behaved according to the revelation of God. But because the heart was never in it, because they never really knew God, they were lured away by the siren voices of the demons behind idols and false religious systems. They were led, it says in verse 1, by seducing spirits and the doctrines of demons to depart from the faith.

False religion is the playground of demons. Second Corinthians tells us that in chapter 11 Satan and his angels disguised themselves as angels of light and become the purveyors of religion. They call men to worship here or there, this system or that system, this idol or that idol, but behind the system and behind the idol are demons. Idols are more than just carved images. False religions are more than just systems of belief. They are demon-energized from the very start.

Leviticus 17:7 says that whatever men sacrifice to idols, they sacrifice to demons. Deuteronomy 32:17, Psalm 96:4-5, Psalm 106:36-39 says the same thing, all the gods of the nations are demons, demon idols.     First Corinthians 10,

An idol is not simply what it appears on the surface:

A false religion is simply the collection of ideas that it appears to be without understanding that behind it is

the energizing dynamic of fallen angels and a Satanic system of spirits who are through that means seducing people away from the truth into eternal hell.

Apostasy is demon seduction. Idol worship is demon worship. And false teachers are demon agents. And it is that clear in the Word of God.
First Timothy 4 launches into a discussion of the demonic force that comes against the truth.

The theme of the verse is this little phrase “some shall depart from the faith.”
The term “the faith” means Christian doctrine. Not faith in the sense of Christian believing but “the faith” in the sense of the content of what we believe.

So in giving us instruction on this matter of apostasy, there are six features behind the scenes as we look at apostates

Number one, is there predictability

Secondly, in understanding the apostates, their chronology

Thirdly, we learn another thing about apostates, their source.

Number four, we must also recognize not only the source but the teachers.

Let’s look at their teaching, number five

That brings us sixthly to their error. What is the error of such apostasy, such false teaching?

If We Were To Have A Biblical Christian President in 2016

What would be nice is to be smart enough to know what God knows in this matter. If we follow Biblical principles, we might not be able to vote for anyone. So are we to vote then? Apply principles of who is a Christians is and we might come to the conclusion that none of them are. So does the Bible tell us that we are to vote for a President anyway? Are we to render to Caesar what is Caesar and what is God render to God?

Joseph Caryl 1602-1673 taught on the book of Job 24 years. These sermons take up 12 volumes, but they total 8000 pages.

Is America a Christian nation?  Would God want a Christian man in the White House?  We do not have a Christian nation, and a Christian President who would govern with Christian Biblical principles would not accomplish those principles.    The Supreme Court would and has overruled many Biblical principles already. 

A few Biblical principles to be put forth by a Biblical Christian President

Sunday would be the Lord’s Day and all activities would have to be scaled back so that all people would attend a Bible Believing, Gospel Preaching, Christ centered, Holy Spirit filling Church. (Amen by the way)

All people would have to give 10% to the Lord’s work. And the other 90% be used for the glory of the Lord.

There could be no divorce, no lying, no cheating, no fooling around by anyone.

All people would have to live by Romans 12:9-21.

There will be no more abortions.

There will be no acts of homosexuality.

There will be prayer at the start of every event by a Christian believer in the government. 

There will be no separation of Church and State, they all will be one.

The Bible would have to be the center of all decisions, with a good theological theologian giving the right interpretation.

Any act or action or decision that is not found to be Biblical would have to be judged by the Supreme Court of Jesus Christ.

The system of any government, nation, state or city, must apply to right principles and not based on lies.

 

So November comes and Trump vs. Clinton are the choice!   Is there a right in please.  But I would vote for Trump before Clinton. 

 

A false religious teacher is more dangerous to the soul of men eternally  than a President who is not a Christian. 

Rivers of Joy Baptist

Alan and Angie Harris Early Times

If We Were To Have A Biblical Christian President in 2016

What would be nice is to be smart enough to know what God knows in this matter. If we follow Biblical principles, we might not be able to vote for anyone. So are we to vote then? Apply principles of who is a Christians is and we might come to the conclusion that none of them are. So does the Bible tell us that we are to vote for a President anyway? Are we to render to Caesar what is Caesar and what is God render to God?

 

Is America a Christian nation?  Would God want a Christian man in the White House?  We do not have a Christian nation, and a Christian President who would govern with Christian Biblical principles would not accomplish those principles.    The Supreme Court would and has overruled many Biblical principles already. 

A few Biblical principles to be put forth by a Biblical Christian President

Sunday would be the Lord’s Day and all activities would have to be scaled back so that all people would attend a Bible Believing, Gospel Preaching, Christ centered, Holy Spirit filling Church. (Amen by the way)

All people would have to give 10% to the Lord’s work. And the other 90% be used for the glory of the Lord.

There could be no divorce, no lying, no cheating, no fooling around by anyone.

All people would have to live by Romans 12:9-21.

There will be no more abortions.

There will be no acts of homosexuality.

There will be prayer at the start of every event by a Christian believer in the government. 

There will be no separation of Church and State, they all will be one.

The Bible would have to be the center of all decisions, with a good theological theologian giving the right interpretation.

Any act or action or decision that is not found to be Biblical would have to be judged by the Supreme Court of Jesus Christ.

The system of any government, nation, state or city, must apply to right principles and not based on lies.

 

So November comes and Trump vs. Clinton are the choice!   Is there a right in please.  But I would vote for Trump before Clinton. 

 

A false religious teacher is more dangerous to the soul of men eternally  than a President who is not a Christian. 

The Sweetest Name I Know

Beware Of Christians Who Go My Feelings

Apostasy & Godlessness: Amos 8:11, First Timothy 4:1-3; Second Timothy 3:1-5 and Matthew 34:12

All False Religions, All Idols, Are the Source of Demons i.e. Demonic
First Timothy 4:1-3

Let’s open our Bibles this morning to 1 Timothy chapter 4. As you know, we are studying this great epistle of Paul to Timothy and we are coming back to it after a little bit of a break. Looking at chapter 4…I want to read to you the first five verses so you’ll have in mind the theme of our message today. Paul writes:

“But the Spirit speaks explicitly that in the latter times some shall depart from the   faith, (how?)

giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,

speaking lies and hypocrisy having their conscience burned with a hot iron,
forbidding to marry and

commanding to abstain from foods which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by them who believe and know the truth, for every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.”

The key to this passage is the simple phrase in verse 1, “Some shall depart from the faith.” The rest of the passage describes elements of such a departure. Some shall depart from the faith.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 25, there is the story of a king, a king of Judah by the name of Amaziah. He was the son of Joash and the father of Uzziah who was king during the time if Isaiah the prophet. Amaziah reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. Scripture says of him, initially, he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but now with a willing or perfect heart. He functioned in accord with the religion of Israel on the outside. He knew it. He understood it. He behaved by its ethics, but not with a perfect heart. He had a heartless external religion.

He performed his religion only on the outside. His heart knew not God on the inside. So soon he was lured away into idolatry. That same chapter, 2 Chronicles 25:14, says he began to worship the gods of Edom to which he bowed down and burned incense. His life ended tragically. He was murdered by his own people. And the closing comment in verse 27 is that Amaziah turned away from following the Lord.

Departing from the faith is nothing new. It happens today. It happened in the church at Ephesus where Timothy was when Paul wrote. It happened in the history of Israel with everyone from kings down to peasants. There are always people who will understand intellectually, who will behave externally according to the revelation of God but who have no heart for that. In Hebrews 3:12 it says, “Those who depart from God demonstrate an unbelieving heart.” And the heart is the issue.

All of this discussion really refers to a single word and that is the word apostate.

An apostate is someone who departs from the faith they know, the faith they understand and the faith which they previously affirmed. An apostate is not someone who never knew but someone who knew, not someone who never believed but someone who even on the outside believed, not someone who never behaved but someone who once behaved according to the revelation of God. But because the heart was never in it, because they never really knew God, they were lured away by the siren voices of the demons behind idols and false religious systems. They were led, it says in verse 1, by seducing spirits and the doctrines of demons to depart from the faith.

Do I need to remind you that all false religion and all idols propagate demon doctrine and are energized by seducing demon spirits?

 

False religion is the playground of demons. Second Corinthians tells us that in chapter 11 Satan and his angels disguised themselves as angels of light and become the purveyors of religion. They call men to worship here or there, this system or that system, this idol or that idol, but behind the system and behind the idol are demons. Idols are more than just carved images. False religions are more than just systems of belief. They are demon-energized from the very start.

Leviticus 17:7 says that whatever men sacrifice to idols, they sacrifice to demons.

Deuteronomy 32:17, whatever men sacrifice to idols, again, they sacrifice to demons.

Psalm 96 verses 4 and 5,

Psalm 106 verses 36 to 39 says the same thing, all the gods of the nations are demons, demon idols.

First Corinthians 10, Paul says those of you who come to the table of the Lord and then go worship at some pagan religious shrine, you cannot serve the table of the Lord and the table of demons. False religious systems and all idols are simply focal points for demon activity, for lying seducing spirits to purvey the doctrines of hell.

An idol is not simply what it appears on the surface:
You cannot be unsophisticated in comprehending this fact. You cannot imagine for a moment that an idol is simply what it appears on the surface to be, or that a false religion is simply the collection of ideas that it appears to be without understanding that behind it is

the energizing dynamic of fallen angels and a Satanic system of spirits who are through that means seducing people away from the truth into eternal hell.

Apostasy is demon seduction. Idol worship is demon worship. And false teachers are demon agents. And it is that clear in the Word of God

Valentine’s Is or Should be About Jesus!!!

I understand that the popular celebration of Saint Valentine’s Day was orchestrated by the greeting card companies.  Flowers, candy, red hearts and romance…..

 

Valentine’s Day use has made business at Union Mills bakery busy with all the cookies and cakes.  Close to 4,000 cookies have been made this week.

 

I know the history or some of it by reading the Wikipedia, which you can read if you would like.  Interesting story about the man named Valentine. 

 

The first time the day became associated with romantic love was in the 14th century, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.   Then in the 18th century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, and sending greeting cards (known as “valentines”) .

Remember from the first grade getting “valentines” for every one in the class.

 

Oscar Wilde is reported to have observed: “Everything in the world is about sex, except sex.  Sex is about power.”   Which is the same as to say that everything in the world is about power.  And Mr. Wilder was certainly right in his assertion, though he was right in a way he could not have imagined.

The reality is that we live in a world of symbol and sacrament, wherein everything points to something else.

EVERYTHING POINTS To Christ

John 4:7-14…

John 4:31-34

Mark 8:11-21

Hardly  are the blind given sight or the lame strength without the Lord perceiving deep spiritual significance in the act.

 

And when Jesus was on the edge of one of His greatest miracles of all, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, He is still not content to let the miracle merely stand on its own two feet.  But Jesus insists on making that act, too, a symbol of something greater: “I am the resurrection and the life” John 11:25.

Why it is, after all, that Jesus is so adept at teaching in parables, but that He sees life as supremely parabolic?  Were Jesus to respond to Oscar Wilde, we might imagine Him saying: “Obviously everything in the world is about sex, except sex.  Sex is about me.”

JESUS IS ROMANTIC: (If we might use that term in a good sense)

Everything in the world is surly about Jesus: every story in the Bible leads to Jesus, every event significant in proportion to its proximity to the great Event; every holiday, sacred or secular, is holy precisely became it is a day. And certainly romance is included in the scope of everything in the world that is about Jesus Christ the Lord.

 

Yes I said “romantic” and all that is included under that term belong to that divine lover (Biblical term if I might add)  Can I say that all the red roses, all the red cookies, all the red hearts, in a sense should be in symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Christ is the One whom we should love and give our affection to the most)

All our affection toward Christ as He is the One who not only invites us to Himself, but by His Spirit sovereignly draws His beloved to Himself.

 

I know it seems to be a little uneasily with us to use the image of Christ as a romantic person. But if you will note we have been well instructed in its companion image of Christ as a husband from Ephesians 5.   Where we are informed of a marriage between us and Christ.  This romantic courtship is biblical if we just drop the worldly view of sex, and romance.  The intimacy that has so been blurred by the world, but in the spiritual sense is just what we as believers should have with Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

 

Of course there is the Song of Solomon which is all about sex and romance and in a sense is a few of our true love for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Note if you will the romance of Jesus at the wedding at Cana,  see Jesus acts in a sense of Valentine, when He filled the empty cups with wine.  Some would say that the wine was really not important but only the wedding vows. But we must say that there is nothing secondary with what Jesus did that day.  Everything in the world is about Jesus. 

If we see deep enough, we see that Jesus sees the truth more clearly than anyone, He once again employs again that habit of seeing the world symbolically (a habit learned, no doubt, from the Father), as He perceives in the wedding feast a dim reflection of His own eternal romance.  This romance, will be seen in time with the reality of Jesus death on the cross and the price of our redemption paid for my the wine of the new covenant, His blood.

So maybe if we who are Believers who really love the Lord in a very special way, should see that maybe this event that we all seem to get caught up in, see it as a day that we might remember the romance that our Lord was engaged in when He God became man and lived and died and rose again for our redemption.

Hosea 2:14 “Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” That does sound like a little romance, don’t you think.

 

And February 14th this year of 2016 does fall on Sunday, and what a wonderful day to show a romance to a lovely Lord Jesus Christ. 

Heaven’s Perspective on the Cross: Substitute

Heaven’s Perspective on the Cross: Substitute

Heaven’s Perspective on the Cross: Substitute
Isaiah 53:4-6; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18
Code: B130926
by John MacArthur  http://www.gty.org/Resources/Print/Blog/B130926
What was the point of Christ’s death?
Depending on whom you ask, you could receive a variety of confused and conflicting answers. Even within the church, many people are inclined to look at the life and death of Jesus through their own skewed perspective of what it means to them.

But in order to understand the full weight and meaning of Christ’s death, it’s important to understand what it means from heaven’s perspective. What did the Lord’s death on the cross accomplish in terms of God’s eternal plan?
So far in this short series, we’ve seen that Christ’s death was a sacrifice and a submission. Today we’ll see that it was also a substitute.

The New Testament is rich with substitution language when it comes to Jesus’ death. Hebrews 9:28 says He was “offered once to bear the sins of many.” The apostle Peter described Christ’s substitutionary death in his first epistle with these words: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). In 2 Corinthians 5:14, Paul puts it bluntly, saying “One died for all.”  For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;

 
 

Of course, all those passages borrow language from perhaps the most definitive text on the death of Christ—Isaiah 53. Often called the first gospel, Isaiah 53 goes into explicit detail about the Lord’s substitutionary sacrifice, centuries before He was even born.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-5) http://biblia.com/bible/nasb95/Isaiah%2053.4-5

4 Surely our 1griefs He Himself abore, And our 2sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, 3Smitten of bGod, and afflicted. 5 But He was 1pierced through for aour transgressions, He was crushed for bour iniquities; The cchastening for our 2well-being fell upon Him, And by dHis scourging we are healed.
1 Or sickness a Mt 8:17 2 Or pains 3 Or Struck down by b Jn 19:7 1 Or wounded a Is 53:8 Heb 9:28 b Is 53:10 Ro 4:25 1 Co 15:3 c Dt 11:2 Heb 5:8 2 Or peace d 1 Pe 2:24 1 Pe 2:25
http://biblia.com/verseoftheday/image/Is53.4
 
Surely he has borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

 

In fact, verse 6 of Isaiah 53 couldn’t be plainer about the substitutionary aspect of Jesus’ death: “The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
Theologians refer to Christ’s death as a “penal substitute,” an unfamiliar concept in our therapy-oriented society. Today legal punishment is rarely about making restitution for a crime. Most often, punishments are focused on vengeance for the victims or rehabilitation for the criminals—and about making us feel better in the aftermath. We’ve clouded the idea of fixed standards and penalties for breaking those standards.

But that’s exactly how God’s law works. His standards are fixed as a perfect expression of His holiness, and any violation of those standards demands a specific penalty—death. Paul referred to death as “the wages of sin” (Romans 6:23), and it’s a telling way to describe it. Death isn’t the result of a divine vendetta. Sin earns death. And all sin must be punished.

In fact, all sin will be punished. No sin goes unpunished—it can’t. God’s law demands a penalty. Without that penalty, His perfect law ceases to be perfect. Christ didn’t erase or ameliorate the penalties of our sins. He paid them in full.
What’s more, He paid those penalties in an astoundingly short time. In just three hours, Christ exhausted the wrath of God—wrath that would have been poured on us, individually, throughout eternity if not for His substitutionary death. He suffered an almost infinite punishment to satisfy God’s law and purchase our forgiveness.

The penalty for our sins wasn’t waived—it was poured out on Christ as He willingly took our place. His body was broken and His blood was shed on our behalf—”the just for the unjust” (1 Peter 3:18)—as a perfect substitute.