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Paul, in answer to the question proposed, would say faith is but folly if Christ did not rise from the dead. “For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” (1 Cor. 15:16-17 NKJV) If Christ did not rise from the dead what hope do we have as we grow old and face the inevitable? Are we but animals? The evolutionist would say yes we are only animals and talk l…
led Christians Will Not Accept If Miracles Have Ceased–the Implications Lincoln’s Tomb and Jesus’ Tomb Abortion Luke 1 – All You Need to Know Non-Offensive Christianity Ghost Hunting and Consulting the Dead Bible Authority, Foot Washing, the Holy Kiss, and Head Coverings Christianity, Homosexuality, and Gay Marriage When Did Obedience Become Legalism? Healing For the Brokenhearted Better to Have Never Been Born Though He S…
In 1 Cor. 15:29 Paul says, “Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?” (NKJV) It is said by commentators that there is broad disagreement as to what is being referred to by the phrase “baptized for the dead.” It is common to find in most commentaries an extended discussion of the verse with much more space being devoted to it than there is to the average…
Honestly Deceived The Pleasures of Sin Better to Have Never Been Born Jesus and the Furnace of Fire Willful Sin–Can Anyone be Saved? More on Willful Sin–Can Anyone be Saved? Three Attitudes That Destroy the Hope of Salvation Disobedience to Jesus Must a Man Seek God Indifference – The Great Destroyer Looking Down Your Nose Ghost Hunting and Consulting the Dead Christianity, Homosexuality, and Gay Marriage The Wicked Shall be Tu…
e Father (see John 3:16-17, John 8:16, 1 John 4:14, 1 John 1:3). In Rom. 4 we are told our faith will be accounted for righteousness. “It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.” (NKJV) Who raised Jesus from the dead? God the Father (more on this later). Man must believe not only in the Lord Jesus but also in God the Father of Jesus. (3) One must believe the truth, not error. Paul st…
Over the course of time just about all of us are confronted with the reality of suffering and abuse not just on newscasts but in our own personal world where we live day by day and experience life up close. Why are small precious children abused? Why do many of them from all outward appearances not have a chance from the get go due to the circumstances they were born into? Why do old people often get in such horrible conditions as you find th…
aised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (NAS) We learn from this passage two things found in the gospel and thus things that must be believed. (1) Christ died for our sins. (2) He was resurrected from the dead. We will discuss each. We will not discuss his burial for it has never been an issue about which men have doubted. One must believe that Christ died for a purpose, to accomplish a goal–he died for our sins. He …
e in doing so. Much is made about the faith people have. What I have observed over the years is that many who speak of their faith seem to have a faith that by all outward appearances has driven them to do nothing. It is as dead as a door nail by all outward measurements. Many who talk about their personal faith cannot even make it out to worship once a week but they are saved by faith. But, the response is made you are judging, you do not kno…
gave the account of the rich man and Lazarus both in Hades although in different parts of it? The rich man was in torment while Lazarus was comforted. As you recall the rich man wanted Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to his brothers so they would be convinced to change their lives so they would not end up where he was. What did Abraham tell him? “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded eve…
h but that is also the place where “we died with Christ.” When we arise from this death we “should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4 NKJV) and “present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead.” (Rom. 6:13 NKJV) We have been “set free from sin” (Rom. 6:18 NKJV) but when? When we died to it, “For he who has died has been freed from sin.” (Rom. 6:7 NKJV, see also Rom. 6:2) When …
the ghost his blood was then shed in Bible parlance. John, in John 19:33-34, in speaking of what happened while Jesus was on the cross but after his death said, “But when they came to Jesus and 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.” (John 19:33-34 NKJV) To me this event, the piercing of his side, had symbolic import…
nd Christ (Acts 2:36). So, faith is essential to salvation. Where there is no faith salvation is impossible. We must always remember, however, that “faith without works is useless.” (James 2:20 NAS) “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26 NAS) Thus in John 12 we find a group of believers who could not be saved. “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in him but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing him, lest they should…
of hearing with the physical ear but of heeding the words or put another way of obeying those words. The next verse, verse 25, makes this clear. “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25 NKJV) The dead spoken of here are not the physically dead but the spiritually dead and the meaning is not that just by hearing Jesu…
did Sarah. “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude–innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.” (NKJV) Rom. 4:19 tells us Abraham “did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was …
Here are some links to what I consider to be some great sites I highly recommend. Christian Courier (This site is owned and run by Wayne Jackson who does the writing found on it. I don’t know where you would go to find more scholarly Christian articles on the web. The man does his homework which means he does extensive research before he starts writing. All of this will be readily evident to you once you read an article or two of his. …
Emmaus, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” (Luke 24:18 NAS) That was said before the disciples generally knew that Jesus had risen from the dead but one wonders if much the same could not be said of Saul in the days of which we speak. Are you the only one who does not know of the miraculous events occurring here in the name of Jesus Christ? Yet, Saul was an hon…
7 NKJV) “Glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good.” (Rom. 2:10 NKJV) Are works involved in one’s salvation? Sounds like it to me. James says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26 NKJV) Is a man saved, can a man be saved, by dead faith? To ask is to answer. Jesus said, “I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.”…
an now found himself in torments due to his ungodly life. He makes the plea to father Abraham to send someone to his living brothers that they might repent. “And he said, ‘No father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:30-31 NKJV) In recounting this Jesus gives his endorsement …
Why men become unfaithful varies from man to man. The faith of Demas failed because he loved the world; the faith of Diotrephes failed because he loved the preeminence; the faith of the man I am about to talk about failed because of fear. Of course, there is a sense in which faith never fails. It is the man who fails, fails to have faith in sufficient strength to remain faithful. It is a challenge to all men to develop a strong faith. Paul, i…
ly with giant oak trees and quiet as cemeteries generally are, very well kept. It was for me a melancholy occasion. The tomb, or mausoleum, was dark and quiet and one felt as if he was indeed in the presence of death and the dead. I could not help but think how long it has been and how many years Lincoln’s body has already lain there. The same could be said of many of the graves in the cemetery outside the tomb. Many have been dead for years …
ger matter and especially if they prove inconvenient or troublesome. I love God. I will be saved. How do you know? My heart tells me so. Just as long as your heart tells you so it makes it so? Well, Jacob felt Joseph was dead, felt it in his heart, but that did not make it so. “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9 NKJV) People head to death and judgment with a faith built…
d guest along with others which included his disciples (Matt. 26:8), and Martha, Lazarus, and Mary (John 12:2-3), the latter three being a brother and his two sisters. This was the same Lazarus that Jesus had raised from the dead (John 12:1, 9). While Jesus was reclined at the table, according to the custom of the time, Mary comes up behind him with a flask of fragrant oil (John 12:5), burst it open, and anointed both his head and feet with the…
n by works if they want to, that is their choice, but the wise man will obey and not seek salvation without obedience. To seek salvation without obedience is to seek salvation without any real faith. “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26 NKJV) and things that are dead no longer have life and are ready to be buried. Willful disobedience manifests a lack of faith and is rebellion. God’s gifts and grace, in the context of the subject of which…
st all reason and common sense. Miracle after miracle, miracles that cannot be denied, are performed before their very eyes and yet they cannot believe. He raises Lazarus from the tomb, from death to life, after he has been dead 4 days (John 11:39). How is that possible? When he performs all these miracles it is obvious God is with him. Nicodemus says, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that yo…
e living God.” (Matt. 16:16 NKJV) Jesus then says, “on this rock I will build my church.” (Matt. 16:18 NKJV) It was by the resurrection that Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God with power … by the resurrection from the dead.” (Rom. 1:4 NKJV) Thus one must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for our sins and was raised from the dead. Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the foundation upon which the church was built “For no o…
221; (Rom. 5:1 NKJV) We all accept these passages and this teaching but too often people do not consider or give thought to what faith is. Do these passages define faith? Do they tell you whether this is a living faith or a dead faith as per James? Is it an obedient faith or a disobedient faith? Is faith just a matter of the mind alone, a belief held, or is it more than that? The texts do not tell us. The assumption is we know what faith is …
;s command he was, you get to choose: (a) justified by faith (b) justified by works. Let me ask another question. What if Paul had refused to be baptized to wash away his sins? Would his faith have been a living faith or a dead faith? When you answer that one you will know why you will find baptism in a proper exegesis of Eph. 2:8-9. The way Eph. 2:8-9 is commonly understood today it demands a dead faith for there will be no baptism to wash …
ge date is down the road a few weeks. Their hearts have been changed but not their status, not until the marriage ceremony is performed. Christians are married to Christ. “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another–to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.” (Rom. 7:4 NKJV) But, one is not married until he/she is marr…
ched among men beginning on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Jesus, in speaking to his disciples after the resurrection, said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But …
s from a living faith and is far more than mere mental assent. (2) There are two types of faith–the kind that leads a person to take action on his beliefs (a living faith) versus the kind that is merely mental assent (a dead faith). The latter kind can never save. James says, “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?” (James 2:20 NAS) Later he says “faith without works i…
, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31 NKJV) After his resurrection while meeting with his apostles Jesus said, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repenta…
s not necessarily imply that the one action preceded the other. Paul, in Rom. 10:9, puts confession before faith, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (NKJV) Do you think Paul meant to imply that confession is to come before faith? How would that work? How could Jesus be Lord if God did not raise him from the dead–if you did not believe t…
hout hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” (NAS) Beginning with Abraham if a male child w…
hout hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” (NAS) The passage begins with the phrase “in him.” …
but many, of our problems are mild compared to those in the first century churches of Christ described in the Bible and which we have gone over in this article. [It is not mine to judge things like whether or not a church is dead or lukewarm, etc. God only can judge those things. I am only talking about problems one can observe outwardly without attempting to look into the hearts--a thing we are prohibited from doing.] If one is unhappy with t…
tself, their church, not in scripture. There is no need for anyone to get mad over me saying this. It is established fact. Their church doctrine overrides scripture. Where does one find in scripture the idea of praying to dead saints just as an example? I have got time. I can wait but it is certain I will be dead before you find the passage teaching such in your New Testament. When one takes the position Luther took one cannot complain too …
tudied here? One thing that sticks out to me as I look back over the list–the name Christ or God is given in all the references found (the Lamb is Christ in the Rev. 21:9-10 reference, Christ was the firstborn from the dead in the Heb. 12:23 reference). What is the point? The church built by Jesus does not belong to you or me or man. It is his and he is the one that is to be honored. When we give a church a man’s name, or give a church …
ieve what the scriptures teach about Jesus–who he was, what he accomplished for us–but faith also commits us to believe the man himself, believe what he said, and act on it. If faith does not lead to action it is dead faith (James 2:17). James says it is “useless.” (James 2:20 NAS) Even in this world as regards worldly matters how can we say we have faith in a man when we will not take the man at his word? The faith the Ephesians h…
e same as rewriting the Bible. Does one want to attempt that? It is awfully easy to overlook a plain statement of scripture in Rom. 6 bearing on this subject. We overlook it because our practice is to bury things already dead and not to bury things in order to put them to death. However, if we read Rom. 6:2-8 carefully, maybe needing to read it two or three times and paying special attention to verse 4, we see we are buried in baptism to ki…
e without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” (NKJV) Forgiveness of sins is found in Christ. Salvation is…
w that I might live to God.” (NKJV) He goes on to say “if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” (Gal 2:21 NKJV) And in Rom. 7:4 “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another–to Him who was raised from the dead.” (NKJV) And, then, in Gal. 3:24-25 he makes it clear enough that an older elementary school stud…
blic schools many, many years. How many students have there been over the years who if they gave it any thought at all thought they would easily far outlive me as I was the teacher and they were the students. Some have been dead for many years now already. Just about every year there are two or three who generally very suddenly and without warning are gone often the result of car accidents but sometimes other things as well. Jeremiah, in anoth…
if we had miracles today people would believe and would automatically become Christians strong in a steadfast faith. I am satisfied Demas saw miracles. I am sure Paul spoke about seeing Jesus after his resurrection from the dead. Yet, finally in the end it made no difference with Demas. It made no difference with the children of Israel who came out of Egypt with Moses. The miracles did not matter. If their faith failed ours can too. Sin do…
fact, it ought to be that way all through life but often it is not. Yes, “the Judge is standing at the door!” (James 5:9 NKJV) He is expecting you. He “was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead.” (Acts 10:42 NKJV) The day is appointed (Acts 17:31). Christ will be there. You will kneel and confess that Jesus is Lord and answer for your life. Are you ready? If not what are you going to do about it? S…
gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.” In Acts 5:12 Luke says, “And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people.” (NKJV) Both Peter and Paul raised the dead through the power of God. Philip worked miracles in Samaria. Paul spoke of preaching the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum with “mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God.” (Rom. 15:19 N…
ve in Jesus. Their emotions ruled them, over rode all reason, and ended up destroying them. There was no reasoning with them. The miracles of Jesus were to them like water off a duck’s back. So Lazarus was raised from the dead. So what? But that is the mind set you get into when you are dealing with emotion based (or should I say “emotion ruled”) religion. You will never change a person whose religion is based on emotion for reasoning with…
n then must confess his faith in Jesus as the Christ, the son of God and Savior of the world. Rom. 10:9-10, “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (NKJV) Those in John 12:42-43 were condemned for this very failure, “Nevertheles…
apparently perfect health while asleep on a couch at the age of 33. The autopsy found no apparent cause of death. According to the autopsy report she ought to be alive but she is not. When your heart quits beating you are dead no matter what state of health you may think you are in or your doctor says you are in. An impenitent heart is a choice. A hard heart is a choice. God knows a man’s heart. Peter said at the Jerusalem council in…
the trouble he had in Asia, “we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.” (NKJV) Paul speaks as though he was pretty much prepared to die at that point in time. We can get to that point, to a point where we basically have given it all we can give it, done all we can, and have come to the e…
here on misunderstanding) of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith and thus feel that any requirement of obedience for salvation is tantamount to salvation by works. James tells them “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26) but it is a hard doctrine for them to swallow. He says, “A man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24 NAS) No one can work their way to heaven. Our works would nev…
ly to have done our duty before God and man when our time to depart this world has come? We need to do that for we read of those who did not do it in Paul’s day, certain widows, of whom he says, “She who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.” (1 Tim. 5:6 NKJV) The teaching of Jesus is clear–life is to be lived in service to God and man and not for pleasures. (2) The second time we find the word “pleasures” in the New Testament is in …
:5 NKJV) When word was sent back to David as to how the battle had gone the first thing David wanted to know was, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” (2 Sam. 18:29 NKJV) When he was told that was not the case, that Absalom was dead, the Bible gives us some of the most heart wrenching words ever uttered by a father. “O my son Absalom—my son, my son Absalom—if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!” (2 Sam. 18:33 NKJV) The Bible …
t to read it that way. But let us look at some other passages that, relating to the new birth, are even clearer. “Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom 6:4 NASU) When do we walk in newness of life (hint – born again, the new birth)? When we have been baptized. Take a look at 2…
us look closer at Peter’s statement about Jesus sitting on David’s throne. Acts 2:29-31 (read paying special attention), “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit …
Abel, the son of Adam and Eve, is the first person listed among many in Hebrews chapter 11 commended by the Holy Spirit for their faith. Of Abel it is said, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” (Heb. 11:4 NKJV) Men have long been troubled by this passage trying to figure ou…
n false information or misunderstanding and yet be so strong that one is firmly convinced that the error he believes is the truth. Because of the evidence presented to him (misinformation) Jacob was certain his son Joseph was dead, killed as he said by “a wild beast”. (Gen 37:33 NAS) He was fed disinformation and with good reason, based on the information he was presented with, believed that which was false. Why would he disbelieve? D…
a part of the gospel. Paul’s gospel included faith and baptism as a part of gospel obedience. Do not be lead astray by those who teach otherwise for it is the obedience of faith that saves. Faith without obedience is dead. …
any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing thi…
d Cornelius Be Faithful to the Lord–The Conversion of Lydia The Conversion of the Philippian Jailer Gospel Obedience at Corinth The Mysterious Eloquent Evangelist What is Baptism (The Sprinkling Hoax) Baptized For the Dead Peter’s Preaching and the Apostle’s Preaching Is Holy Spirit Baptism the Baptism That Saves? The Truth So Called Christians Will Not Accept Denominationalism’s Sin Against Peter Audio Sermons (by W…
God That Destroys Faith Based on Deception–Gen. 37:31-33 Faith in the New Testament–Different Meanings How Was Noah Saved Through Water? He Feared Though He Slay Me Why Men Do Not Believe Did Christ Rise From the Dead or is Faith Folly? Audio Sermons (by Waymon Swain) Faith–What it is And What it Does (Part I) Faith–What it is And What it Does (Part II) Test of Faith What Faith Is and Does Why We Believe in God Why I Am…
e without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” One is not and cannot be buried by sprinkling or pouring. Phillip and the eunuch both went “down into the water” (Acts 8:38 NKJV) and “came up out of the water.” (Acts 8:39 NKJV) They …
e will find baptism. “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this…
sted, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.” (Heb. 11:17-19 NKJV) That is trust (faith) in God to the utmost degree. It is a faith we all need to develop but note one thing about this faith–note…
stituted during the observance of the Jewish Passover meal. The observance of this meal was commanded of God as a memorial for what he did on the night when he brought the children of Israel out of Egypt. That night he struck dead the firstborn of the Egyptians while passing over the homes of the children of Israel who had sacrificed a Passover lamb and put the blood on their two doorposts and the lintel. One can read about the institution of the…
urch calls itself Christian and feels good about itself amounts to about 2 cents if that much. The measuring stick is not man nor men (singular or plural) but the word of God. Even Sardis had a name but Jesus said they were dead (Rev. 3:1); the majority of them like the people in Isaiah’s day had defiled their garments (Rev. 3:4). There is only one way to know and understand God. One must become a faithful and diligent student of the word of G…
speaks of Christ’s coming, and of “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God” (Heb. 9:14 NAS) and speaks of its ability to “cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Heb. 9:14 NAS) No one has ever become a Christian who has not first had to deal with his/her conscience which was convicting them of sin. Clean, clear consciences do not lead men …
ys a matter of God’s grace, not man’s works, but if the parable of the talents does not teach the necessity of works along with faith for salvation I do not know what it teaches. James says faith without works is dead (James 2:26) and I have not argued with him like so many do. Nothing matters with regards to salvation if you take away God’s grace and the blood of Jesus for without those there will be no salvation period. How…
early as it turned out. Early but not adequately prepared. Being unprepared in one aspect of one’s life is enough to ruin the whole thing. So I have faith. What if I do not have works? James says, “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26 NKJV) The Christian life is a balanced life. In what area is one to be unprepared? Is it in faith, in works, in love, in worship, in longsuffering, in self-control? Where are we to be unprepared? This…
really our friend? I told my children when they were growing up that one of the worst things that happens with adulthood is that when you reach that point there are few who are willing to tell you the truth even when you are dead wrong. When we are growing up we have parents, teachers, and other adults who do not hesitate to jump in and let us know we are in the wrong but once a man or woman reaches adulthood suddenly no one is friend enough to…
all sincerity of heart the Lord adds you to his church. This adding is to the church universal which consists of all true Christians all over the world wherever they are found and consists both of the living and of those now dead but who died as faithful Christians. Paul, in writing to Timothy, speaks of “the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” (1 Tim. 3:15 NKJV) He told Timothy he was writing “so that you ma…
t you, if you are honest how about you? Yes, we are saved by grace for we are undeserving of salvation. Grace is often defined as unmerited favor, the unmerited favor of God toward man, and that hits the mark pretty close to dead center. When one knows he is a sinner he knows that on his own merits he does not deserve salvation. I have often thought I needed to be punished, could almost wish I could do it myself. There is no thought of deserv…
e as we are today (Gen. 6:8, Heb. 11:7). He was moved so much by faith that it instilled within him “godly fear” (Heb. 11:7) and put a diligent work (or obedience) ethic into his life. James says, “so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26 NKJV) which is exactly where Noah would have ended up without the works. There is a difference between a work of obedience to God’s command and a work that merits salvation. The Bible condemns the lat…
pentance is thus required of man for salvation (Acts 2:38). A third condition is a confession of Jesus with the mouth. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.” (Rom. 10:9-10 NKJV) The final condition one is met with before it can be said he has entered th…
erely and be willing to obey him if he is to have hope that God will look favorably upon his prayer. We know God always heard Jesus’ prayers. Jesus himself said, speaking to the Father prior to raising Lazarus from the dead, “I know that You always hear Me.” (John 11:42 NKJV) Elsewhere he says, “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” (John 8:2…