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This coming Lord’s Day, as the Lord allows, we will be reading and studying Acts 19:1-20 where Paul arrives at Ephesus during his third Missionary Journey. This is yet another one of those passages that must be understood in the light of the transitional nature of The Book of Acts! Since the key issue is ignorance of the Holy Spirit, I have entitled this week’s sermon, “The Holy Who?”

Apollos had not heard anything about Jesus beyond John the Baptists’ testimony that Jesus of Nazareth is the Lamb of God – the Messiah of Israel. Paul meets twelve men who have also not heard of the ministry of Jesus and of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Paul lays his hands on them and the basic pattern of Pentecost is repeated. As you read through these verses and pray to prepare your spirit for worship on Sunday, consider these principles we find in these verses:

A great problem is created when God’s people are ignorant about the Holy Spirit!

There were things that only the Twelve Apostles could do!

People rejected the gospel message even in the presence of these Apostolic miracles!

Some divinely-given abilities were strictly reserved to the Apostles, and those who tried to appropriate them for themselves paid an awful price!

God is also glorified in the humiliation of His enemies!

And, God is still in the business of radically changing people!

I hope you will read over this exciting portion of God’s Word and ask HIM to prepare your heart for the message this week! I hope you will get studied up, prayed up, and fired up over the opportunity to worship God together with your Church Family!

Feel free to email, FB, message, or tweet me any questions or comments you have about this upcoming sermon…

I hope to see you Sunday with a Bible in your hand, a smile on your face, and your family and friends by your side…

As the Lord allows, this coming Sunday, (3/4/12) we will continue through the eighteenth Chapter of Acts with a sermon on the subject… “How to ‘Patch Up’ a Preacher!” This is the story of Paul’s 3^rd Missionary Journey and the events at Ephesus.

We will meet Apollos, a mighty preacher of the Word, who still had some lessons to learn and how God used a humble tentmaker and his wife to correct his theology and increase his effectiveness! In other words, they patched him up!

There are three key lessons in these verses:

1. There is no time and no place where it is OK to quit serving God!

2. There is no time and no place where it is OK to tolerate error!

3. There is no time and no place where it is NOT OK to share the gospel!

I hope you will read over this exciting Chapter of God’s Word and prayerfully ask HIM to prepare your mind and heart for the message this week! I hope to see you Sunday with a Bible in your hand, a smile on your face, and your family and friends by your side…

I am thinking about starting a “Christian Classics Reading and Discussion Group”. I am trying to see if there are some interested persons who would want to be part of such a group!

The idea is simple. We would take about four to six books per year and read through them and have special times of discussion about them. The books will be true Christian Classics… “Mere Christianity” by CS Lewis; “Christianity and Liberalism” by J Gresham Machen; “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan, for example.

We would read a portion of the book each month and then meet and talk about the book giving our insights and the lessons we take from it. Obviously, I think this could be a real joy for booklovers and for anyone wanting to grow in their understanding of the Christian faith.

We will have a Facebook group for easy communication about the book… questions as they come up, etc. (You do not have to be on Facebook to be part of the group, it is just one more way to communicate!) Let me know what you think and if you would be willing to participate.

I can get the books at a reduced price for those who do not have them already. For example, “Mere Christianity” in paperback is about $10 each.

I am eager to hear from you!

Philippians 4:8 (ESV) “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Psalm 101:3-4 (NKJV) “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.”

To say the very least, I have never been a computer, “Geek!” After twenty-two years of owning and using a computer nearly every day; and even though I am now using a “state-of-the-art” laptop, I am still pretty much of a, “point and click” kind of guy. But, I have remembered a very important lesson that I was taught early on about working with computers: “Garbage In, Garbage Out!”

In the computing world, GIGO simply means that if I put the wrong information into my work, I am going to get wrong information out of my work. Simple. In computing, that is!

GIGO is not quite so simple in living the Christian life! The principle is clearly true: if we take “Garbage” into our minds, we are going quickly become garbage thinking and garbage living people!

We live today in a world that is saturated in its own filth! I could write pages and pages about the intellectual and moral garbage that the present American culture considers to be art and entertainment, but, that is not the point of this post. The point of this post is that if a person – including a Christian person – fills their mind with this rubbish, they should not expect to have a head full of beautiful and God-honoring thoughts.

This is a challenge for many Christians, including me, as we work our way through this sewer of depraved culture we call, “the real world.” Yes, we are called to be “in” the world, but we are not called to imbibe the world! Christians have to be in the world, (we are, in fact, commanded to go into the world) but we do not have to allow, “the world” to be in us!

So, the question is: how do we go out every day into this godless and immoral culture and yet keep it from saturating our thinking and living? Simple!

We need a strong offense! It is found in God’s Word! Philippians 4:8 (ESV) “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Proactively fill your mind with the Word of God, the things of God, and with thanksgivings to God! Read the Bible, meditate on the Bible, and memorize parts of the Bible!

We need a strong defense! It is found in God’s Word! “Psalm 101:3-4 (NKJV) “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.”

Stop watching and listening to godless junk! Stop focusing on and thinking about those things that dishonor God and damage your life!

Who knows… maybe Christians can redefine GIGO to mean, “God In, Glory Out!”

(Juliet) “’Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What’s in a name? that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, And for that name which is no part of thee Take all myself.”

–  William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet ca.1600

The First Baptist Church of Atwood is affiliated with, and works in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention! Every Southern Baptist Church is an autonomous (self-governing) body that voluntarily partners with the 42,000 other autonomous churches that make up the SBC.

The Southern Baptist Convention was born in 1845 amid the national controversy over slavery which led sixteen years later to the civil war. Unfortunately, the Baptist churches located in the South took the side of their states and their culture in this controversy. They have long ago publicly confessed this as sin and apologized to the Nation for this shameful past and for the many years of supporting those in the South who espoused segregation and opposed equal rights for African-Americans.

Over the past century, the Southern Baptist Convention has come to have churches and missionaries in every State of the Union and in over one hundred and eighty Countries around the world! In a very real way, the name “Southern” does not accurately describe these believers, who have now come to be the largest non-Catholic denomination in the world.

For several years now, there has been some discussion among Southern Baptists about attempting to find a new name for the denomination that better describes who they are now rather than just who they have always been. Few things have caused more emotionally charged talk than the idea of changing the name of the denomination!

At the Southern Baptist annual Convention this past summer, SBC President Bryant Wright appointed a task force to discuss this matter and bring a recommendation to the 2012 annual convention for discussion and vote. The Task Force recently completed their work and will bring their proposed recommendation at a meeting of the Executive Committee in February.

There is not much drama here. Since almost everyone on the Task Force is from the Southeastern states, I would be stunned if they bring a recommendation to take their beloved, “Southern” out of the name! (And even if they did, it would never pass.) By the way, they have already publicly stated they will not recommend taking “Baptist” out of the name.

I pastored the First “Southern” Baptist Church in Waukegan, Illinois for seven years. The Lord blessed the church with exciting growth over those years, but almost all of the growth was from people with either Southern Baptist or at least Southern backgrounds. I have already publicly stated that it is my personal opinion from this experience that having “Southern” in the name of a church in the Midwest is a real hindrance.

I believe it is a moot point. As I said earlier, I would be stunned if the Task Force recommended taking “Southern” out of the name of the denomination; and, I would be even more stunned if it was passed at the Convention in 2012.

And, what if they did? Would changing the name change the character of the denomination in any meaningful way? Probably not; but, it would help to remove an unnecessary barrier to those living outside of the south when they are seeking a church.

Dispensation #2 – Conscience! Genesis 3:6 – 9:19

The Dispensation of Innocence ended with the temptation and sin of Adam and Eve. Man had seen, and ought to have learned, that even in a perfect environment human beings rebel against God! Once that lesson has been demonstrated, God allows humans to follow the dictates of their own conscience, or moral reasoning.

The word, “conscience” is simply a compound word meaning, “with knowledge.” And the knowledge with which the conscience is equipped is the moral nature of God which is part of His image in mankind – but, which was marred in the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Bible.org points out on their website that there are several God-given functions of the human conscience:

1) It produces guilt. John 8:9-11; Romans 2:14-16

 2) It produces a need to repent. Genesis 4:1-4

 3) But, it cannot create righteousness in a person and it can be seared (made callous) by continually being ignored. Romans 3:10; 1^st Timothy 4:2

Human beings want to live by their own conscience, (let your conscience be your guide) because it can be calloused and overcome. It is impossible for the conscience to serve as a faithful guide for living because it was marred at the time of Adam’s and Eve’s fall into sin.

During this time (approximately 1,000 years) humans, who were living by the leading of their fallen consciences, became worse and worse to the point that God said in Genesis 6:5-7, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”

So, the Dispensation of Conscience ends with God’s judgment upon mankind in sending the world-wide flood. Being a God of mercy, He spared Noah and his wife, his sons, and their wives to begin the human race again!

Dispensation (Lesson) One: In a perfect environment and with no history of sinful behavior, human beings rebel against the authority and commandment of God!

Dispensation (Lesson) Two: While being allowed to live according to the dictates of their conscience, human beings sear their conscience and devolve deeper and deeper into sin rebelling against the authority and commandments of God!

Next Time: (as the Lord allows) “The Third Dispensation” – Human Government.

Matthew 1:1-25

This is, of course, the Christmas Story – the Miracle of the Incarnation! Cf. Matthew 1:1-25; Luke 3:23-28; John 1:1-3, 14

Key Verses: John 1:14; Matthew 1:20-21; Luke 2:11

Jesus Christ is God come to earth in human flesh! And the reason He has come is to, “save His people from their sins.”

Jesus Ben Joseph of Nazareth is the only Jew alive today that has His genealogy intact to prove that He is a descendant, (and heir to the throne) of David!

This is the legal genealogy of Jesus to King David through Joseph. If this were the source of Jesus’ bloodline to David, Jesus could not sit on the Throne of David because of the curse on Jeconiah (Coniah) and his sons! Cf. Jeremiah 22:28-30

*Luke 3:23-28 is the genealogy (the bloodline) through Mary to David’s son Nathan. So, Jesus has both the legal right to David’s throne through His step- father Joseph and the birthright to David’s throne through His mother Mary!

God created Adam and Eve in a state that at least one of my former professors called, “unconfirmed creature holiness.” God placed them in a nearly perfect environment (remember that Lucifer was there) and gave them one simple command to obey:

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.  ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” ¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” ¹⁹ So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” ²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.²⁵ And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Genesis 2:15-25 (ESV)

As I said in the original post, dispensations are a specific period of time in which God deals with humans in a specific way. And, HE does so to teach us a specific lesson. What then is the lesson of this first of the seven dispensations?

Even in a perfect environment and with no history of sinful behavior, humans will rebel against God! Tens of thousands of people have argued over the years about that which we CANNOT KNOW… i.e., “why” God allowed Adam and Eve to sin. But, we DO KNOW that while HE DID ALLOW them to sin, HE did not compel – or even tempt – them to sin!

¹³ “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. ¹⁵ Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” James 1:13-15

 One of the great, and inescapable, mysteries of sin is that while God is not the Author of sin, HE did create at least two kinds of creatures that are capable of sinning against Him: angels and human beings. The existence of evil is the source of much anti-God sentiment in the world and much confusion and debate among believers.

God did create angels with the capacity to sin, and some of them did sin! Cf. Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28. He also created humans with the capacity to sin, and all of us sin!                      Cf. Romans 3:10

 Adam surely represented us perfectly when he sinned against the commandment of God! And, as RC Sproul says in one of his sermons, the fact that we do not like God judging us to be guilty because of Adam’s sin proves how well Adam did, in fact, represent us! If any other human had been in Adam’s place, they would have done exactly what Adam did! All humans are sinners by nature, by desire, and by continual practice! So much so that even if we lived in a perfect environment with no previous history of rebellion against God, when God gave us a command, we would rebel against the commandment and the One who gave it!

So here is the first lesson: we are sinners! Thankfully, God is a Savior! Cf. Isaiah 45:22; Luke 19:10

Once Adam and Eve had sinned, God took the life of an innocent animal and made a covering for their sin. In the same way, 4,000 years later God allowed sinful men to take the life of His Only Begotten Son Jesus to make an “atonement” or “covering” for the sins of sinful humans who would repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord! Cf. John 1:11-12; 3:16, 36; Romans 10:9-13; 2^nd Corinthians 5:21

Next time (as the Lord allows): Dispensation #2 – Conscience!

I have been thinking of doing this series for some time, but I realize that my current preaching schedule is not going to allow me to do this from the pulpit of FBC Atwood for quite a while. So, I am going to do it as a series of posts on this blog. As a side benefit, this will allow for questions and answers between me and the readers!

While this was also the subject of my doctrinal dissertation for Louisiana Baptist University in 1991-1993, (and some of my thoughts will be taken from that document) I am not – let me say this again – I am not interested in debate with other pastors or theologians. I am not going to try to debate back and forth with anyone who is not an active member or a currently attending prospective member of FBC Atwood.

Many great and godly intellectuals have defended this theological position far, far better than I ever could. So, for the benefit of those who want to debate or argue these points, I recommend you read the works of, (and make contact with) Dr. John MacArthur or Dr. Charles Ryrie!

I am working to present this biblical teaching to the members of the Church who God has called me to serve. Let me begin with what I consider to be a very important statement:

I do not believe that any specific structure of biblical prophecy is of such importance that one’s salvation depends on a proper understanding of it! Nor, in my opinion, does it rise to the level of those doctrines agreement upon which would be necessary for believers to worship and work together in a local church. Therefore, I consider them to be tertiary in nature, which is something that we ought to be interested in, and for which we should strive for a correct understanding; but, not something over which we should break fellowship.

With this understanding, let me begin!

I believe in dispensational premillennialism for two specific reasons: first, I believe that the Christian Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and divinely preserved Word of God; and, second, I believe that the Christian Bible clearly reveals a divinely-decreed and revealed plan and purpose for the ages that forms a basic structure for understanding the message of Scripture. I believe that basic structure is dispensational premillennialism!

Dispensational premillennialism is not a “doctrine” it is a “school of interpretation!”

Let me define the words. By “dispensation” I mean a specific period of time in which God deals with people in a specific way in order to teach a specific lesson. While I certainly do not agree with everything that has been said or written by those who claim to hold this view, I do find that I am in basic agreement with the seven dispensation view espoused by John Nelson Darby and C. I. Scofield.

By “premillennialism” I mean that school of thought that holds that the second coming of Jesus Christ will be marked by a return of Jesus Christ in the clouds called the rapture; a seven-year period of tribulation on earth; the second advent of Jesus Christ to earth followed by a literal one-thousand year kingdom rule on this present earth; followed by a final rebellion, the Great White Throne Judgment, and the onset of the eternal state.

NEXT TIME: Genesis 1 to 5: The first dispensation – Innocence!

Read ahead and Remember: Questions are always welcome!

Jesus is the God Who listens to His people!

“Pray without ceasing.” (1^st Thessalonians 5:17 ESV)

Contrary to popular belief, 1^st Thessalonians 5:17 is the shortest verse in the Bible! Most of us have been taught that John 11:35 “Jesus wept” holds that distinction, and it is true – in the English language! But, since the New Testament is written in Koine Greek, the shortest verse in the Bible – in Greek – is 1^st Thessalonians 5:17. It is one Greek word that means, “Unceasingly pray.”

We are thinking in these devotionals about Who Jesus is. We have already written much about this question, but I want to focus today on the reality that Jesus is a living Being Who listens to His people!

I would love to know that if I send a letter to the President of the United States he would read it; or, if I called him he would take the call and listen to what I have to say. Fat chance! I can, however – as can you – speak directly with the Creator God of the Universe any time and any place I so choose. WOW!

When Christians describe speaking to God, we call that prayer. I have often said that I do everything else I do better than I pray. And, it is sadly true that I do almost everything else I do more often than I pray. Whether it is a time of formal prayer, or just casually speaking to Him, praying is nothing more than speaking to Jesus.

So, how should a Christian speak to Jesus?

1) Continually! Our theme verse today tells us that we should pray without ceasing. That does not require that we never do anything else, but it admonishes us to continually be in an attitude of prayer, continually aware of His nearness to us, and be focused on Him all of the time.

2) Reverently! Remembering Who He is ought to give us a sense of awe and respect. Yes, He is our Brother, but He is the One True and Living God. We do not need to fear to speak with Him, but I believe a proper attitude of prayer considers Who He is at all times.

3) Assuredly! He tells us that He hears us. He knows our every thought and hears our every word.

4) Expectantly! Jesus hears every prayer from His people and Jesus answers every prayer of His people! Many times I think that He has not heard my prayers, but scripture is clear that He does hear them.

My problem is that if He does not respond how and when I want Him to respond, I assume that He did not hear my prayer. My problem – and I am sure others feel the same way – is that Jesus does not answer every prayer the same way. Sometimes He answers directly; sometimes differently; sometimes He answers by denying our request; and, sometimes He delays His answer to accomplish His will in our life.

Jesus Christ is alive! He hears us when we speak to Him. He answers us according to His will and for our ultimate good. Jesus is the God Who hears his people when we speak to him.

Sola Deo Gloria!