When My President… I Didn’t Take a Knee

This is a good one to share:

When my president lied to me and claimed 4 of my comrades were murdered because of a video insulting Muslims…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president shipped pallets of cash to my sworn enemy…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president failed to identify Muslims as terrorists and Islam as an enemy of the state…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president claimed that a man who tried to kill another man who lawfully defended himself could be his son…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president defended a thug who bum rushed law enforcement…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president ordered businesses to spend unnecessary funds to appease a minority of people who need mental intervention far more than they need their own toilet…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president ordered that words ‘one nation under God’ be removed from the pledge of allegiance…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president lied to me and said I could keep my doctors and my premiums would go down…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president spent my tax dollars in foreign lands to interfere in their elections…I didn’t take a knee.

While my president sat by passively and enabled ISIS to emerge as a stronger force dedicated to spreading Islamic ideals by committing murder, rape and torture…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president allowed dictators and murderers to violate his red lines and continue to murder women and children with chemical gas…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president chastised law enforcement for their actions but ignored the violence in our streets…I didn’t take a knee.

When my president identified the weather as the greatest threat to America’s safety while Muslims worldwide are murdering innocent people…I didn’t take a knee.

While my president’s insistence that pacifism and reform in numerous areas of the globe would bring peace but instead led to the strengthening of those that seek to destroy us…I didn’t take a knee.

When the election of my president broke barriers never thought possible in America ended up being the high point of his eight years in office…I didn’t take a knee.

In all that time I never disrespected our Country, our Armed Forces and Veterans, or our Nation. I remained vigilant.

I didn’t take a knee. I got a new President.

#maga. (Unknown Author)

The First Commandment

Exodus 20: 3 (“You shall have no other gods before me. “)

If you remember our last discussion about whether the Ten Commandments seem narrow to you, we did find out that they point the way to a happy, fulfilled life if stated in a more positive way. Someone has said, “You may do what is wrong, but you never will make it work.” That’s a profound truth. The Ten Commandments are given by God to show us “what works.” 

What Does the First Commandment Demand of Us?

With that background we turn to consider the First Commandment—"You shall have no other Gods before me.” Note that the Commandments begin with God—not with man. We start with the vertical—not the horizontal—because until a man has a right relationship with God, his relationships with other men will never be right.

Even the order of the Commandments teaches us that God must come first.

We sum up this Commandment in three simple statements:

1. You must have a God.
2. You must have only one God.
3. Your God must be the God of the Bible.

God must be first. That’s where the Ten Commandments begin. Joy Davidman puts it this way: “Whatever we desire, whatever we love, whatever we find worth suffering for, will be Dead Sea fruit in our mouths unless we remember that God comes first.”

But what does this mean in a practical sense? What is demanded of us?

1) Loyalty. A man purchased a statue of Christ at an auction and put it in the living room. The next day his wife decided the statue belonged in a different room. When their five-year-old daughter saw her mother moving the statue, she blurted out, “Where are you going to put God?”

Great question. Where are you going to put God? That’s what the First Commandment is asking you: “Where are you going to put God? Will he have the first place in your life? Or will you stick him in some out-of-the-way place where he won’t cause any trouble?”

God must be first! That’s the message that rings out from Mount Sinai. He won’t play second fiddle. He won’t take second place. He must be first in your life. And that means loyalty to him.

In one of his books Chuck Colson tells of speaking to a group of Hindus in India. As he shared his testimony about Jesus Christ, he found them extraordinarily attentive. They smile and nodded and agreed with everything he said. Afterwards he commented to his hosts on how receptive his audience had been to the Christian gospel.

“Oh no,” they explained, “You don’t understand. To the Hindus Jesus is just one among many gods. To them, you “accepting” Christ is like them accepting another god into their list of gods. Jesus is just one of many gods to the Hindus.”

A few days later Colson spoke to another audience of Hindus and had a similar experience. But this time a Hindu scholar came up afterward and said, “I believe exactly what you believe.” Chuck decided to put him to the test. “I don’t think you really believe what I believe. When I say Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I mean he is God come in human flesh. He is not just one among many or even the best of many, but he is the one true God who appeared on earth in human flesh. You must give your complete and supreme allegiance to this Jesus Christ who came from heaven—to him and to no one else.”

The Hindu thought for a moment and said, “You’re right. I don’t believe what you believe. Now I must go home and think about the things you have said.”

That’s the issue, isn’t it? Jesus Christ must have the first place in your life. He will not share his glory with anyone or with anything. He must be first—not simply the first among many or the best of the rest—but he must be pre-eminent in all things. 

2)  Honesty. The First Commandment calls us to personal honesty concerning our ultimate allegiance. Here’s a simple test. Take five minutes this week to get alone in a quiet place and answer these questions: Who or what is my god? What am I dedicating my life to? Where have I placed my ultimate allegiance? What things in life are most important to me?

If we are honest, some of us will not find it easy to deal with those questions because they probe at a difficult and deep level. You say, “Jesus Christ is my God.” Is he really? Does he have your full allegiance? Is it possible that while claiming to worship Jesus Christ, you are in truth worshiping an entirely different set of gods?

—Your business could be your god.
—Your career could be your god.
—Your education could be your god.
—Your social set could be your god.
—Your family—yes, even your children—could be your god.

Think about the way you spend your money, the way you spend your leisure time, the things you daydream about when life gets dull.

What’s a god? It’s anything that provides your ultimate source of meaning and happiness in life. How easy it is for everyday concerns to be elevated to godlike status, even by religious people who go to church every Sunday!

Everyone has a god! Even the atheist has made a “god” out of his belief in no god. Everyone looks to someone or something for meaning and happiness and fulfillment in life. The First Commandment is God’s way of saying, “Make sure you look at me first. Give me first place in your life.”

3) Repentance. Repentance! What does repentance have to do with the First Commandment? Everything!

—"No other gods”     —"No substitutes”      —"No cheap imitations”        —"No silence”

No silence! Yes, this commandment demands not only inner loyalty, but outward allegiance.

What is there to repent of? 

—Our moral cowardice                                            

—Our complicity with evil
—Our tendency to substitute human gods for the true God
—Our failure to speak out when God’s name is blasphemed
—Our silence in the time of crisis.

We kill babies in America. Where is the church of Jesus Christ? If He were here, would He be silent? Would He look the other way? How can His people remain silent while the unborn are slaughtered?

“Repent,” says the Lord. “Change your evil ways. You are my people, yet you have turned away from me. I must have first place in your life.”

4) Courage. It wasn’t easy for Moses to bring these words to Israel. The people lived in a world filled with false gods:

—Isis               —Moloch        —Baal       —Astarte        —Ashtoroth

Ancient names to us; daily realities for the Israelites. They lived in a world that offered them a god of fertility, a god of the harvest, a god of the sun and a god of the moon. To them, this call to pure monotheism was a call to reject the world they saw around them every day.

Courage! That’s what it takes to say no to the false gods.

We take these words so lightly. But God is deadly serious when he says “No other gods.” He means it!

Exclusive? Yes!         Intolerant? Yes!         Non-pluralistic? Yes! Jealous? Yes!       

Biblical religion is all of those things. Thus it is that true religion always runs against the spirit of the age. Here in America we have made a trinity of false gods:

Diversity          Tolerance       Pluralism 

These are false gods! And we have bowed down before them!

Writing in the aftermath of World War II, Elton Trueblood looked back to those few brave German Christians who had the courage to oppose Adolph Hitler. When so many others went along or simply kept silent, a few, a courageous handful, would not go along with the majority. Trueblood asked the question, “What made these people different? Why did they say no when everyone else said yes?” His answer was simple: “They had the First Commandment.”

That made all the difference. When you have the First Commandment, when you take it seriously as a way of life, you find the courage to stand against the crowd.

Let’s wrap up this first message with four simple points of application.

First Steps to New Life

1. We desperately need the Ten Commandments because we have drifted far from God’s design for life.

2. Because the drift has been personal, the return must be personal.

3. The return begins with a personal commitment to put God first in everything.

4. When we contemplate our lives in light of the First Commandment, we are driven to the cross of Jesus Christ. We understand our primary reliance on God’s Grace.

Romans 10: 4 says that “Christ is the end of the law for all who believe.” There are many ways to understand that verse, but it means at least this much: When we read the Ten Commandments and when we begin to examine our lives in light of God’s high demands, we are driven to the cross of Christ.

Life begins when you come to Jesus Christ. Until then you are merely existing. The First Commandment says, “Put God first and you will find life.”

St. Augustine put it well when he said, “Our hearts are made for Thee, O God, and we will not find rest, until we come to rest in Thee.” The First Commandment says, “Put God first and you will find rest.”

The first step to life is to take the First Commandment seriously. And the first step in the First Commandment is to consider your life in light of the cross of Christ. Embrace the cross. Put Christ at the center of your life. Confess him as Lord and Savior.

There are nine other commandments but they will do you no good unless you remember that Jesus Christ comes first.

Amen.

WE ARE STARTING A NEW SERMON SERIES - 10 Commandments

INTRODUCTION

INTRO to the Ten Commandments

Exodus 20: 1-17

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

We live in strange times, don’t we? A recent Gallup Poll revealed that 84% of Americans believe that the Ten Commandments are a valid guide to life. That’s encouraging until you realize that another survey revealed that only 30% of those polled could name 3 of them.

Before we go any further, how many can you name? Fill in the blanks below with a word or phrase that summarizes each Commandment:

1st Commandment                      (Thou no gods shalt have but Me)
2nd Commandment                     (Before no idol bend the knee)
3rd Commandment                      (Take not the name of God in vain)
4th Commandment                      (Dare not the Sabbath to profane)
5th Commandment                      (Give both thy parents honor due)
6th Commandment                      (Take heed that thou no murder do)
7th Commandment                      (Abstain from all that is unclean)
8th Commandment                      (Steal not though thou be poor or mean)
9th Commandment                      (Make not a willful lie nor love it)
10th Commandment                    (What is thy neighbor’s do not covet)

For thousands of years and many generations the Ten Commandments were considered a standard part of a good American education. Children learned to recite all ten—usually long before they started school. If for some reason they didn’t, poems such as the following were used to help them remember:

The sad reality is that most American children grow up and know next to nothing about the Ten Commandments but everything about gay and transgender rights. Sadly the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional many states laws  requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in public school classrooms. Such a law was a violation of the First Amendment because it unnecessarily entangled church and state. The fairest comment upon that decision is that the men who wrote the constitution would be utterly amazed by that conclusion.

Our founding Fathers assumed that all children in every classroom would learn the Ten Commandments because they regarded their work as resting on that legal and historical foundation that went all the way back to Mt. Sinai. To use the constitution against the Ten Commandments would have seemed ludicrous to them. Unfortunately, we live in a day when the ludicrous has become the law of the land.

Why DO WE Bother With the Ten Commandments? It is against that general background that we begin our study of the Ten Commandments—by recognizing that Jews and Christians alike hold them as the greatest moral code ever given to mankind.

Yet even Christians ask “We’re not under the law, are we?” “Don’t give me that Old Testament legalism.” “Ugh! I remember having to memorize the Ten Commandments when I was a child.”

For those who don’t know about the Ten Commandments, or for those who know and don’t think they matter much, let me offer four answers to the question, “Why bother?” 

1) They Provide an Objective Standard of Right and Wrong. We live in a day when the very concept of objective morality is being questioned. “It may be right for you, but how do I know if it’s right for me?”

Once the concept of an absolute standard is thrown away, then we are left with nothing more than dreamy idealism ("We are the world") or hard-fisted pragmatism ("Might makes right") or democratic populism ("The majority rules") or technocratic elitism ("I went to college. Let me make the rules.").

Archimedes said, “Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the world.” The lever long enough is not the problem; we need a “place to stand.” If you want to move the world, you have to stand outside the world. That’s the problem with using human feelings and majority rule as a basis for determining right and wrong. They will never provide a secure “place to stand.”

You need something—or someone—who himself stands outside the world. That Someone can only be God himself. 

2) God Spoke All These Words. And that brings us to Exodus 20:1, the often-overlooked preamble to the Ten Commandments, “And God spoke all these words.” In our attempt to get down to the “good stuff” we rush right over these words as if they were a kind of ancient copyright notice. We flip past the title page to get to the first chapter. But that’s a crucial mistake because these words tell who is speaking.

“God spoke all these words.” Who is speaking here? God! What did he say? “All these words.” So where do the Ten Commandments come from? God!

These are not “Ten Suggestions for a Better Life” or “Ten Ways You Should Consider” or “Ten Habits of Highly Successful People” or “Ten Ways to Climb the Ladder” or “Ten Ideas That Might Work For You.” No!

God spoke all these words—therefore they have lasting moral authority.
God spoke all these words—therefore we don’t have to wonder about his intentions.
God spoke all these words—therefore we must take all of them with utter seriousness.
God spoke all these words—therefore we must give these words our primary attention.

What, then, do we find when we come to the Ten Commandments? Here at last is an objective standard for right and wrong. Here at last is our “place to stand” upon which we can make proper moral judgments. Here at last is a universal set of moral principles.

—They have never been repealed.
—They have never been surpassed.
—They are as valid today as they were 3,000 years ago.

(There is a another reason why we ought to pay attention to the Ten Commandments.)

3) They Regulate Christian Behavior. At this point we enter a theological minefield. In what sense do the Ten Commandments regulate Christian behavior? “Pastor, I thought we weren’t under the law nowadays.” You are right. We’re not “under” the law but “under” grace.

But note the next sentence carefully: Being “under” grace does not cancel the Ten Commandments. They are always a code to live by for every human being in God’s creation.

Let me state the matter as clearly as I can. We are not saved by keeping the Ten Commandments. I think Paul settles that matter conclusively in the book of Romans. No one will get to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments because no one can keep them perfectly!

But that’s only half the story. Although we are not saved by the Ten Commandments, we are kept safe by them.

Let me illustrate. Suppose that up in the mountains of Colorado a terrible storm sweeps away a narrow bridge over a steep gorge. A traveler happening along in the middle of the night sees what has happened and constructs a makeshift sign: “Bridge out! Danger!” An hour later a man comes along who has had too much to drink. Thinking the handmade sign is a joke he drives on around the curve only to discover too late that the bridge really is out, plunging to his death on the rocks below. Why did he die? He died because he ignored the warning sign.

The Ten Commandments are like that warning sign. They are God’s way of saying, “Warning! Danger Ahead! Bridge Out!” We ignore them at our own peril.

One little boy came home from Sunday School bubbling over with excitement. “What did you learn today?” his mother asked. “ Wow, Mom, We learned all about the 10 Commandos!” He’s right! The Ten Commandments are really God’s Ten Commandos who keep us safe and point the way to happiness.

And that brings me to the fourth reason we ought to study the Ten Commandments.

4) They Point Out God’s Road Map to Happiness. It may seem odd to connect the Ten Commandments with happiness since 8 of the 10 commandments are stated in a negative fashion. “Thou shalt not … Thou shalt not … Thou shalt not … Thou shalt not …” Some people read that and think that maybe God doesn’t have a sense of humor, that he’s a crotchety old man sitting in a rocking chair in heaven just looking for a chance to throw a lightning bolt down and fry a sinner.

Somewhere I read the story of a newspaper editor who told one of his reporters to rewrite the Ten Commandments. After a few minutes the reporter came back with one word scratched in huge letters on a piece of paper: DON’T! And that’s their image of God—"No, no, no, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t have any fun, don’t enjoy life, if you enjoy it, it’s probably wrong.” People think that a God of love would never say no!

Love Means Saying No!

Nothing could be farther from the truth. If you love someone, you’ll love them enough to say no! A few years ago a young man came in to see me. He told me that one of the reasons he didn’t want to become a Christian is that Christianity is such a negative religion. He also said that he found it incredible to ask teenagers to abstain from sex until they were married. How could God ask anybody to do a thing like that?

I asked him if he saw one of his daughters playing in the middle of Route 40, he wouldn’t stand back and say, “Well, kids will be kids. If they want to play in the street, there’s nothing I can do about it.” What kind of parent would do that? No, he would shout to his girls, “Don’t play in the street.” If they complained, he would pick them up and carry them out of the street. Is that unloving? Is that unkind? As the man said, “If I love my daughters, I’ll say no!”

Sometimes you have to love people enough to say no!

That’s what God is doing in the Ten Commandments. He’s loving us enough to say no. We may not understand it, we may not see it right now, we may think that our way is better, but God who sees all things and knows how life is supposed to work, gives us these commandments as a way of being happy both now and forever.

There’s another way of looking at this. Suppose we turned the commandments into beatitudes. They would look something like this:

Blessed are they who put God first.
Blessed are they who need no substitutes.
Blessed are they who honor God’s name.
Blessed are they who honor God’s day.
Blessed are they who honor their parents.
Blessed are they who value life.
Blessed are they who keep their marriage vows.
Blessed are they who respect the property of others.
Blessed are they who love the truth.
Blessed are they who learn the art of contentment.

Who said the Ten Commandments are too negative? They aren’t negative at all. Turn them over and you find the ten most positive statements about life ever written.

Some people call the Ten Commandments narrow because there’s no wriggle room.

Well, in one sense they are narrow in that they forever rule out such things as murder, adultery, hatred, stealing and lying. If that’s being narrow, then we need all the narrowness we can get.

Are the Ten Commandments narrow? Yes, but so is every runway in the world. No passenger wants the pilot to miss the runway and land in a field. How would you feel if the captain announced over the intercom that he was bored with landing at the Regional Airport so he had decided to land on the Route 81 Interstate Freeway?

Listen, when you are up in the air you want a narrow-minded pilot. You don’t want some creative fly-jock who’s going to land on the freeway. You want a narrow-minded guy who’s going to land on that same strip of concrete every single time. Boring? Maybe, but that narrow ribbon of pavement is really the broad road that leads to a safe landing.

Same thing about human relationships – they need standards that apply to everyone. That’s why the 10 commandments are not outdated and never will be.

Amen.

A Tale of Two Churches :  By Sean Gooding

Published on: June 15, 2017 by RRadmin7

Category:General Articles, Sean Gooding

Matthew chapter 13:24-30 (continued)

“Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.’

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Last time we discussed the Parable of the Sower. We talked about our responsibility to share the gospel of Jesus in any and all ways possible. We talked about the importance of saturation and the fact that the only part of the equation that we had control over was that amount of “seed” that was sown. We could not control the soil, nor could be control the external forces like birds or thorns that would come up and choke the seed.

What we needed to do was to make sure that we saturated the soil of all kinds so that the good soil would do its job and produce good fruit. Tell people about Jesus. Tell them about their sin, their need for salvation, their Savior and their redemption that has been paid for in the blood of Jesus.

I will remind you that when we began this chapter weeks ago we were told by Jesus that parables were expressly for us in this age to reveal things to us that were hidden from the Jews. This was all done so that they as a nation would reject Jesus and that He would die on the cross. Jesus exposed things to His disciples about the kingdom of heaven that even the Old Testament prophets wished to understand yet these things were hidden from them.

You and I have the power through the words of God (the Bible) and the Holy Spirit living in us to understand the deep and hard teachings of Jesus. The very things that made the Jewish religious leaders scratch their heads will make our eyes widen with excitement.  Today we will look at another parable and see how it applies to us.

The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Verses 24-30

This is a sobering parable, one that exposes to us the truth about our advisory the devil.  The kingdom of heaven is like this; two men and one field.  One man owns the field, notice “he sowed good seed in HIS field.”

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1).

God owns the earth. God has sowed His good seed in the earth.  He has sent His Son and His Holy Spirit to call men to repentance and billions upon billions have accepted the call but the evil one, the man’s enemy, Satan has also sown seeds in the world.

Tares and wheat look a lot alike. They grow the same way in the same soil. The difference is that wheat always produces a crop. Tares just grow. They use up the resources from the soil that the wheat could have used and they are very hard to tell apart. Notice that the farmer warns the workers not to try to “weed out” the tares because in doing so they can harm the wheat as well.

But once the time of the harvest has come it will be easy to see what the tares are and what the wheat is.  One will bear a crop and the other no crop at all.  This is important to know, the persons who are truly of the Lord, those who have been redeemed and who have honestly accepted Jesus as Savior will ALWAYS bear fruit. There will be traits of their redemption that are clearly visible at the harvest.

The true church and the false church will almost be indistinguishable as they grow together in this the Gentile age. But as with everything in life the true church will be known by its fruit. What is the fruit of the true church? One will be its doctrinal stand; there is no church without doctrine.

What does the true New Testament church believe? Doctrines like:

Jesus is God (John 10:30, “I and my Father are one”).

God created the heavens and the earth in SIX literal days (Genesis 1-2).

Jesus actually died on the cross and was buried (Matthew 27:45-61).

Jesus rose from the grave BODILY (Matthew 28: 9-10, they held Him bodily).

That salvation is by GRACE only, no one can work their ways to heaven (Ephesians 2:8-9).

That ALL men are born sinners (except Jesus of course), Romans 3:10).

We deserve death and hell (Romans 6:23).

Jesus is the ONLY means of salvation (John 14:6).

Baptism is done on people who are already saved, they accept that Jesus is the Christ and can say so for themselves (Acts 8:34-40).

That one DOES NOT need to be baptized to go to heaven (Luke 23:39-43).

The Bible is without error and inspired breathed by God (2 Timothy 3:16).

In our days a true church should have a stand on marriage (we did not always have to make this stand); Jesus explained what constitutes a marriage in Mark 10:6-7 and in many other verses.

A true church should have a love for God and those around them (Matthew 22:37-40).

We could go on and on, but you have here a basic statement of what a New Testament church should believe and teach. No man in a New Testament church should receive worship; no one should bow to him, kiss his ring or treat him as if he is infallible. Only God is God and He does not give that position to anyone else.

Even the true angels refused to accept worship from men, (Revelation 19:10) and even Peter refused to let men worship him (Acts 10:26), these things are very important as we near the end of the church age. We must be vigilant and not leave the truths that have been handed down to us from the word of God for millennia. We are not to be part of the last day church that “departs from the truth, settling for fables” (1 Timothy 1:4).

Another important fruit of the New Testament church is that we are looking for a return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are engaged in building a kingdom, but not an earthly kingdom filled with the world’s riches and its goods. We are laboring to prepare a people for the Lord to call to Himself soon.

As we approach the Lord’s return the one sobering “fruit” will be that the Lord’s churches will live and lead their people to live expecting the soon return of Jesus to call us to meet Him in the air.  In contrast the “tare” churches will deny the soon return of the Lord 2 Peter 3:3-13:

“Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance,

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

The true church will be looking to exit this earth; the false church will be looking to save this earth. The true church will worship the Creator; the false church will worship the creation. To which group do you belong?

The Fate of the Two Churches, Verse 30

One will end up in the fire and the other in the Lord’s store house—His barns. One will be destroyed and one will be preserved. God knows who are His and he will make sure that none of His get harmed or hurt during the time of harvesting. But make no mistake the false church will end up in the fire. 

There are only two ends; one is with Jesus and the other without Him. There is no in between, no purgatory, no reincarnation and no simply dying and lying in a grave. One either goes to heaven or hell:

“And just as it is appointed for people to die once and after this, judgment” (Hebrews 9:29).

In the account of the rich and Lazarus we are told that the rich man died and was in torments in flames.

“The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades” (Luke 16:22-23).

These things are not pleasant to talk about. People without Jesus do not go to a “better place.” We hear these things in the hospital and at funerals as we try to appease the hurting family and friends. Hell is real, just as real as heaven. We need to stop apologizing for warning people about the truth.

People don’t want to hear that hell is real. But that is our job, our mission here on earth to tell them that hell is real and that they are going there without Jesus. They don’t need to do anything to go to hell; they are born on the way there. They need to repent and turn to Jesus to stop the obvious end.

A Real and Deliberate Enemy, Verse 25

The enemy came and sowed tares amongst the wheat. We have been sold a bill of goods about the devil being this comical character with the red suit and pointy horns. Or we have been sold this idea that the devil is some bumbling fool. This is so far from the truth that it is sad really. 

Notice that he builds a false church that looks just like the Lord’s true church. This takes careful planning and an understanding of the Bible. He needs to be close without being too close.

Too many of the Lord’s people do not understand that our adversary is a formidable warrior against whom even the great angel Michael needed help when fighting over the body of Moses (Jude 9). Lucifer is described as an angel who was very beautiful and was special to God.

“You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked” (Ezekiel 28:17).

This guy had it all. But he became proud and God brought him down. He is a very intelligent creature and his best attack has been to convince the masses that he does not exist or worse, he exists but is a fool. We forget that we are at war. Too many of the Lord’s churches have forgotten that Satan is real and that he is wise. He knows how to bring confusion and division into our churches, our homes and our lives.

He is actively working, never sleeping pushing towards the end while we seem to be on cruise control not really engaged in the battle.  Well folks make no mistake the devil is engaged and will be right to the end.  It will literally take Jesus showing up in the clouds, Revelation 19 to stop him. 

Take a lesson from the devil, we should we working for the kingdom of heaven with the same fervor that his minions are working for the kingdom of hell. Let us get off our spiritual butts and do the job.

“We must do the works of Him who sent Me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

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