The war that began at Eden when Satan deceived Eve is a war that the people of God continue to wage. A great victory has already been won by Jesus Christ. Satan is defeated, and our personal victory is assured if we fix our eyes on the captain of our salvation. For God’s people to…
The first rule of understanding the meaning of any passage is to explore its context. Matthew 7, which contains the teaching against “judging,” is the final section of Jesus’ sermon. Jesus contrasts the expectations of the Pharisees with the true standards of righteousness that He expects from those who are His disciples. Jesus’ does not…
How do we identify who are the “dogs” and “pigs” and how do we know the false prophets? Ans: by exercising righteous judgment that Jesus commends and commands. John 7:24 reads, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” What is this “righteous judgment”? Fortunately, he explains the answer in this text….
“ Judge not, that you be not judged.” This phrase taken from Matthew 7:1 is often used in response to any comment that is thought to be an attack. Associated with the response would be some response like, “Who are you to judge me?” or “Jesus told us never to judge people, only to love…
1 Thessalonians 3:5 reads, “So when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter somehow tempted you and our toil had proven useless. The thought expressed in verse five is that Paul was afraid that somehow or perhaps something bad might happen as a…
“Stop being afraid (so the emphasis in the Greek text), I am the first and the last, and the living one; I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and Hades” (Rev.1:17-18). Consider that the expression “Alpha and Omega” is applied to the Father in…
Let’s examine this model by applying two biggest decisions we can make in life. In this way, we can illustrate the way we make decisions, today. The first decision we make where God has given us some principles to guide us is in whom we marry. We will start by illustrating the use of God’s…
It appears very clear that even among saints of the first century and apostles who were commissioned to preach the gospel, supernatural guidance was not the normal activity of the day. Instead, there were supernatural occurrences that were directly tied to the spread of the gospel by those chosen for the spiritual growth of the…
The reason for this survey of divine guidance in Acts is to find similarities between the biblical accounts or examples of God’s guidance in the first century and the claims of God’s guidance, today. Just for the record, the fact that something is not mentioned doesn’t mean that it didn’t exist. It’s not provable, however. …
Matthew 28 records what is known as the Great Commission. The command given to them was to make disciples. Attached to this command is the participle phrase, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Question: Who are they to baptize? Would-be disciples or disciples? The text teaches that disciples are…