If Only One of God’s Sheep were to Perish!   

                                                    (Darvin Pruitt)

“My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish – ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand!” John 10:27-28

If only one of God’s sheep were to perish . . .
the purpose of God would be frustrated,
the power of God would be resisted,
the promise of God would be broken,
the faithfulness of God would be a mockery
and the Word of God proved to be a lie.

“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” Romans 8:38-39

There’s no cost of being a Christian in America!

(Leonard Ravenhill)

I went to a church not along ago, they got thirty acres. So what are their plans with it? They want their own football field and tennis courts. Dear God, do we go to church to learn to play tennis? God help the preachers!

We have such an accommodating Christianity today.

The best title of the professing church of God today, in my judgment, is “Unbelieving Believers.” There’s cancer in the church tonight!

At this grim hour, the world sleeps in the darkness–and the Church sleeps in the light.

You’ll never get me to believe that the church today believes in Hell.

We’re a million, billion miles away from New Testament Christianity!

I doubt if 5% of professing Christians in America are born again!

Entertainment is the devil’s substitute for joy. The more joy you have in the Lord, the less entertainment you need.

Is the world crucified to you–or does it fascinate you?

The apostles had no gold, but lots of glory. We have lots of gold, but no glory.
The book of Acts shows us the church before it became fat and short of breath by prosperity!

Who or what takes priority over God in our lives?

Where, oh, where are the eternity-conscious believers?

Where are the souls white-hot for God because they fear His holy name and presence and so live with eternity’s values in view?

There’s no cost of being a Christian in America!

I’d rather have ten people who want God than 10,000 people who want to play church!

Who Does He Think He Is?        

(Frank Hall)

“Is it not lawful for Me to do what I wish with what is My own?” Matthew 20:15

How dare people walk their pets on leashes to control them!

How dare parents force their children to obey their rules!

How dare employers insist that their employees do their jobs!

How dare governors rule over the people!

How dare policemen take criminals to jail without their permission!

How dare God have His way with His creatures!

How dare the Potter make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor!

How dare God love and hate whom He will!

How dare God the Father choose to save whom He will!

How dare God the Son die for whom He will!

How dare God the Spirit call whom He will!

How dare the Almighty have His way with all men, in all places, at all times!

How dare God save and damn whom He will!

How dare God judge us!

How dare God call us into question!

How dare the indisputable Sovereign of the universe do . . .   what He pleases,   when He pleases,   where He pleases,   how He pleases, and   with whom He pleases!

Who does He think He is – God?

“Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases!” Psalm 115:3

“I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths!” Psalm 135:5-6

“All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: What have You done?” Daniel 4:35

Searching For God

February, 2015 / Anthony Delucia

Have you ever played the Google Search Game? It’s where you start typing a phrase into Google and take a look at the search recommendations it gives back to you. The suggestions are based on actual searches done by others. For instance, if you go to Google and type in “Why do babies” into the search box; Google will suggest that you might be searching for, “Why do babies cry” or “Why do babies sleep so much” or “Why do babies drool”. Likewise, if you entered the phrase “Why do women”, then you’ll see more varied suggestions; from very serious ones like, “Why do women cheat” and “Why do women stay in abusive relationships” to more humorous ones like “Why do women play Peter Pan”.

But when you type in the phrase “Why does God”, then the suggestions are rather telling. Here are the suggestions Google recommended:

“Why does God allow suffering?”

“Why does God let bad things happen?”

“Why does God hate me?”

These questions pretty much sum up the entire collective depraved human heart as it exists in every nonbeliever right now. They show that people have no idea who God really is. They’ve been blinded to truth, and the gospel is but a word to them. But let’s see if we can give them some answers.

Why does God allow suffering?

Right at the outset, the question is flawed because it implies that God’s role is a passive one. Nothing could be further from the truth. God is active, not passive. In fact, God is the only one who is completely independent from everything else. God was not created, He is the Creator. From every star and every galaxy, to every atom and subatomic particle, as well as the forces that hold it all together; God created and maintains it all.

Jeremiah 10:12-13

He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His direction. When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens: “And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”

John 1:3

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

God is always at work. Jesus Himself tells us this when He spoke to the Jews saying, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17). Nothing happens outside of God’s sovereign will. God is active, and God is acting, and God’s actions have purpose. That would mean that God does not allow suffering, He has a purpose for it. The better question would be, ‘What is God’s purpose for suffering?’. Next question…

Why does God let bad things happen?

The first thing you would have to ask here is, what do you consider a bad thing? How do you distinguish it from good things, and what is your standard for doing so? Another way you might find this question phrased is, ‘Why does God let bad things happen to good people?’. And again, I would ask how do you decide which things are good, and which things are bad? The Rich Young Ruler came to Jesus saying “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17), but Jesus answered him saying, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Mark 10:18). Paul reminds us of this in the book of Romans:

Romans 3:10-12

As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no not one.”

It would seem clear that the standard is God. God is good. There are no good or innocent people to be found on earth. All of us have turned away from God. Just as we’re told later in the book of Romans, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23). It’s sin that has come into the world; that has also corrupted all of creation. The sin of Adam, which has been carried all the way down to each and every one of us, is the source of all bad and evil things. All pain, all disease, all treachery, all hatred, all lust,.. all of these things are a result of our sin. And sin is what separates us from God, and so all our acts that are not done in faith are sin, and so, are also bad. That’s how you define ‘bad’. To ask why God allows bad things to happen is to ask why God doesn’t wipe us all from the face of the earth for continuing to disobey and turn away from Him with such spitefulness? Last question…

Why does God hate me?

There are many who would answer this question by saying, ‘God doesn’t hate you,.. He loves you!’. But we have to be very careful not to go outside what is defined for us in scripture. In fact, although the love of God is talked about in many ways; in most translations of scripture the phrase, ‘God loves you’ is nowhere to be found.

Many people would stop me here and bring up very popular verses like John 3:16:

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

But what is this verse saying? ‘God so loved the world’; “the world” doesn’t mean “all people”. We know that because we have the rest of the verse to explain “that whoever believes in Him should not perish”; which would mean that all those who do not believe in Him will perish in hell. It’s almost like me saying that I love baseball. That doesn’t mean that I love all teams and all players. Actually, if I were to say the phrase ‘I love baseball’, then the next question I’d likely be asked is, ‘What is your favorite team’?

God loves the world He created, but the world as He created it was a world without death or sin. It wasn’t until Adam and Eve broke God’s command that the curse of death came into it. But continue the verse, ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,’. God didn’t love the world to let those who live in it do whatever they want. He didn’t love the world, and so decide to forgive everyone of their sins. God so loved the world that He sent His Son Jesus Christ here, so that He could give His life, and take upon Himself the wrath that God had stored up for us. And why did God do this? “That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But read those verses carefully. “Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8), “whoever believes in Him” (John 3:16). Christ didn’t die to save everyone, but He sacrificed Himself so that “everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and [He] will raise [them] up on the last day” (John 6:40). Christ made it clear when He said “I am the good shepherd; and I know my sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14 & 15). So who are Christ’s sheep? Whoever repents of his sins and trusts in the name Jesus as the only way to salvation; those are His sheep.

Acts 17:30

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.

If God hates you, it’s because you do not believe in Him. You have turned away from Him and have disobeyed His commands. You hate Him. But if you’re reading this right now, and you know that I’m describing you, then God still commands you. Repent, and put your trust in Jesus. If you do that, you will be saved. If you will not believe, and reject the gospel, and reject Jesus, then you are condemned already.

Acts 17:31

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.

Romans 2:5-8

But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey truth, but obey unrighteousness – indignation and wrath

So what are you searching for? If it’s another excuse to disbelieve the promises of Him who is unchanging and unshakable; then I’m sure you’ll come up with something. But if you are truly seeking truth, and salvation, then look no further than Christ on the cross. Yes, there is death there, but there is life too. The question is, is it your death, or the death of Christ that leads to life everlasting? I’ll be praying for you.

John 11:25

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

Amen!!

They Always Leave a Sting!    

(William Nicholson, 1862)

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain!” Philippians 1:21 At death, the Christian gains pleasure without pain. “You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand!” Psalm 16:11. Hence pain will never follow pleasure it will never be experienced at all. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away!” Revelation 21:4

In this sinful world, there is no perfect enjoyment. The sweetest cup of earthly bliss, has always more or less of the drops of the ocean of bitterness mingled with it. The brightest day of joy, is invariably followed by the dark night of sorrow. This world is a barren wilderness, and contains neither the fruit of the garden of Eden, nor the milk and honey of the land of promise. Here the pleasures of sin are but for a season and they always leave a sting!

But in Heaven, pleasures will be pure, holy, exquisite, and eternal ever yielding satisfaction and joy. To die and enter Heaven, will be gain indeed!

Do Catholics Possess Life Eternal?

by Richard Bennett on 2015-02-19

In my 48 years as a Catholic and my 22 years as a Catholic priest I believed in the Catholic Church. Consequently I thought that as I had the Sacraments by means of which, when I died, I would have everlasting life. Like other priests, I taught the people that once they were faithful to the Church as Catholics and died in the state of “sanctifying grace,” they would go to heaven. With deep respect for these who have been so misled, I now write on the topic of Catholics and eternal life. As an Irish Catholic, I remember the grip that Catholicism had on my own soul; in a sense, it was second nature to me. So it is with sensitivity that I write on a Christian’s relationship with God the Father and a Catholic’s relationship with the Holy Father in Rome.

A Christian’s relationship with God the Father is a crucial topic. Jesus Christ declared, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”¹ Not to know and believe in “the only true God” is to be deprived of “life eternal.” However, a Catholic is first required to believe and know that the “Church is the mother of all believers.” This is because, according to the Catholic Church’s official teaching, “‘Believing’ is an ecclesial act. The Church’s faith precedes, engenders, supports and nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers. ‘No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother’”(Para 181).²

Consequently, a Catholic in daily life willingly has a relationship with “the Church as Mother” replacing what ought to be a relationship with God as his adoptive Father. The essence of this substitution is obvious when a devout Catholic refers to the Pope as “Holy Father.” In fact, the Catholic news agency, Zenit, normally calls the Pope the “Holy Father.”³ And for most Catholics, the term the “Holy Father” usually means the Pope.

The Concept of God as Father:

It is noted that in Scripture the word “Father” was on the lips of the Lord Jesus no less than one hundred seventy times. Christ Jesus spoke of God distinctively as Abba Father.⁴ In Scripture the same concept, “Abba Father,” is explained to the believer in these words, “for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”⁵ Beholding the Father’s love by the intimate title of “Abba Father” gives the true believer the deep sense of being loved personally as a child of God.⁶ The Lord Jesus Christ offered the following prayer for all those who would genuinely believe in God as their Father, “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.”⁷

In contrast, the official law of the Roman Catholic Church speaks of the necessity of submitting one’s highest faculties, that of mind and will, not to God the heavenly Father, but to the Supreme Pontiff in Rome. Thus, the official law of the Roman Catholic Church states, “A religious respect of intellect and will, even if not the assent of faith, is to be paid to the teaching which the Supreme Pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate on faith or morals…”⁸

However, the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”⁹ One cannot serve two sovereigns, for the Lord’s command contradicts that of the Pontiff. A man cannot be impartial between two masters who are incompatible and demanding total allegiance. The necessity of a choice arises. So a Catholic ought to decide who indeed is his or her Lord!

Moreover, as the Lord Jesus Christ deeply treasured the word “Father,” He gave this commandment, “call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”¹⁰ This is the essence of the message of the Lord concerning our Father in heaven. Thus, the Father in heaven is worthy of worship, and a true believer will speak the words, “The Holy Father” for God alone! Nonetheless, the Church of Rome teaches that her pope is called “Holy Father.” For example, the Vatican website announced regarding Francis I, “Address of the Holy Father” in the Vatican Gardens Sunday, 8 June 2014.¹¹

The Lord God is Sovereign:

God is all-loving, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. The Lord God is sovereign with complete, supreme, and universal power of all things, in heaven and on earth. Even on the topic of the sovereignty of God, Papal Rome’s claim is stated in the following official words, “For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.”¹²  Thus, the Roman Pontiff attributes to himself the sovereign rule of the entire Church that belongs to the Lord God alone. Let us make no mistake, the Catholic Church throughout its history has persistently and arrogantly assumed and appropriated to itself the offices of the Heavenly Father. For example, Pope Boniface VIII in 1302, in the Papal Bull “Unam Sanctam” decreed, “Furthermore we declare, say, define, and proclaim to every human creature that they, by necessity for salvation, are entirely subject to the Roman Pontiff.”¹³ The papal arrogance is blasphemy of the highest order!

God the Father’s Love in Salvation:

God the Father’s love always achieves its purposes, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love … that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”¹⁴ The design and intention of God the Father was that salvation should come to sinful man in and through Christ Jesus. Emphatically, grace in its most proper sense is free as given, a gift from heaven. Thus, as Scripture says, sinners are saved by grace; it is “the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”¹⁵ The reign of sin is overcome by the reign of God’s grace, as the Scripture says, “even so might grace reign!”¹⁶ The abundance of grace far surpasses the evils of sin. Once a believing sinner trusts upon Christ Jesus as his only surety and substitute, he discovers that not only is he freed from his sins, but also he is made to “reign in life.” As Scripture states, “for if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.”¹⁷

Attempting to imitate this, the Roman Catholic Church claims that its sacraments are necessary for salvation. Its official teaching states the following, “The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation.”¹⁸ Thus, the Catholic Church presents her seven physical sacraments – mediated through her – as the means of obtaining the grace of the Holy Spirit.¹⁹ The Vatican’s pretense is to present her symbolic sacraments as the efficacious cause of salvation. These enticing ways to obtain salvation are but the age-old temptation of looking to physical performances and human works to gain favor with God. Such teachings as these come under the eternal curse of perverting the Gospel of Christ.²⁰ Nevertheless, to administer her seven sacraments, the Catholic Church ordains priests of whom the she states, “Priests have received from God a power that he has given neither to angels nor to archangels…God above confirms what priests do here below.”²¹ In the New Testament, no sacrificial priests are mentioned, only elders and pastors.²²

Thus the Catholic Church’s man-made belief system is a catastrophic imposition on the souls of men and women. However, the true Gospel lays before each person the solution that is ample to face all evil. The power of it is strong enough to raise people up to life, peace, and heaven itself. The same Gospel causes the Lord’s redeemed people to rejoice in the glorious grace that flows through His own plan of eternal life. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”²³ The eternal Son of the Father has life in His own essence and person as the Word of God.²⁴ From Him eternal life is given to each true believer, both here and in heaven.²⁵ However, the Catholic Church teaches that God’s grace comes through the Roman Catholic sacraments.²⁶ Anyone who believes in the Catholic sacramental system and places his or her soul’s trust on ceremonial proceedings is not trusting on Jesus Christ alone.

A Catholic Believes in the Mass i.e. the Eucharist:

At the heart of Roman Catholicism is the Mass or Eucharist, described by the Second Vatican Council as “the fount and apex of the whole Christian life.” Rome claims that the Mass is a sacrifice and that the sacrifice of Calvary and the Mass are the same; namely, “one single sacrifice.” Thus she teaches, “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: ‘The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different.’ ‘And since in this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and offered in an unbloody manner…this sacrifice is truly propitiatory.’”²⁷

To propose a bloodless sacrifice is a contradiction in terms.²⁸ A bloodless sacrifice is a senseless inconsistency that can have no purpose other than to deceive. The Lord’s Supper is not a sacrifice; it is a memorial. The bread and wine are tokens symbolizing the body and blood of the once and for all sacrifice of Calvary. A true believer eats the bread and drinks the wine to remember Him and His atonement with thanksgiving and praise until He returns. Again what a different relationship there is in the faith of a true believer regarding the Lord’s Supper and the belief of a Catholic regarding the Mass or Eucharist. There can be no more remembrance of sin against a true believer, either to shame him now or to condemn him hereafter. The sacrifice of Christ was once for all time. Its power is eternal. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”²⁹ Jesus Christ the Lord procured a perfect, eternal salvation for one who truly believes in His finished sacrifice. Not so for the poor Catholic who persists in depending on a so-called, “divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass.”

A Catholic Prays not to Christ Jesus Alone but also to Mary and the Saints:

A true believer looks to Christ Jesus as the one mediator, “for there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”³⁰ The splendor of the Gospel is that the believer’s heart is set on Jesus Christ, the fountain of life. A Catholic, however, will also pray to Mary and their declared Saints. This is because the Catholic Church officially teaches, “Communion with the dead. In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead… Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping “them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.”’³¹

The Bible teaches that God alone is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Thus, He alone hears prayers, He is the all Holy One; in a word, He is God alone. Prayer directed to the dead, and not the Lord God alone, is consummate blasphemy! Calling up or invoking the dead; i.e., necromancy, is strictly forbidden in the Bible.³² As the One great true High Priest, Jesus Christ completely satisfies all the intercessory prayer service that a true believer needs; as Scripture states, “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”³³ Again, a poor deluded Catholic who persists in following the Roman Catholic tradition of prayers to, or invocations of the dead, has no biblical warrant for being heard by God the Father. Scripture asserts that in seeking other mediators, Catholics reject the unique redemptive office of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the sole mediator of the covenant of Grace appointed by the Holy Father.³⁴

Conclusion:

In Scripture, the believer looks to Christ Jesus as “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”³⁵ The splendor of the Gospel is that the believer’s heart is set on Christ, the Fountain of life, where the believer drinks more and more deeply of the rivers of pleasure that are at Christ’s right hand. Eternal life is to be found only in Christ Jesus, His perfect life, and Him being an all-sufficient sacrifice. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”³⁶ This is the true focus, because a believer learns more and more consistently to look always to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for life. How completely different this is from the goal and destiny that Papal Rome holds out to people. Rome directs her people, and mankind in general, to look to physical sacraments and her ruling hierarchy that uphold her sacraments. However, the biblical Gospel does not involve looking to physical signs; rather, believers are to follow the biblical injunction to look “unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”³⁷ He is the author and finisher of their faith: its beginning and end. “Looking to Jesus” is to trustfully keep one’s heart and mind stayed upon Him. In Him is grace. He is the Fountain of all grace and supplies all the needs of each believer. The believer’s life is drawn from Christ, and directed to Him; he is its initial principle and the final end of it. True life is that which is lived in personal, intimate communion with Christ, as the Apostle Paul so eloquently stated, “For to me to live is Christ.” It means that as a person is justified by the All-Holy God alone, he is to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, taking Christ’s yoke upon him and learning of Christ, so that he drinks deeply from God’s Written Word and begins to follow what the Scripture says, rather than devising his own ways.

The Lord faced the sincere and devout Pharisees with a very strong word. They were looking to their leader and chief, Caiaphas, the High Priest. The Lord said to those Pharisees, “if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins.”³⁸ Like the Pharisees, many present-day Catholics look to the Pope. And likewise today, as with the Pharisees, if any Catholic continues to recognize the Pope as “Holy Father,” he is, in fact, denying the true Father and Son.”³⁹ He who persists in his sins, will likewise die in his sins. The Lord Jesus Christ died in place of the true believer. His life and finished sacrifice alone are the ransom for the believer. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”⁴⁰ This was the price demanded by the All-Holy God in order that His justice might be satisfied in the forgiveness of sins. As a result of this payment, the true believer on Christ Jesus alone is freed forever from sin and Satan. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”⁴¹ Such a gift of God engages our hearts in deep gratitude as we proclaim, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”⁴²

by Richard Bennett | http://www.bereanbeacon.org