A People for His Name

Mi Oración por La Ofrenda – 5.17.15

May 18, 2015

Padre celestial, gracias por la gracia de nuestro Señor Jesucristo, que siendo rico, sin embargo por amor a nosotros se hizo pobre, para que nosotros por medio de su pobreza llegáramos a ser ricos. ¡Cómo te alabamos, oh Padre, por tu don inefable! Concédenos que nosotros te sigamos plenamente a ti, oh Señor nuestro Dios. Gracias por esta ofrenda. Te rogamos que bendigas esta ofrenda y la uses para tu gloria. En el maravilloso nombre de Jesús. Amén.

In Ministry, Prayer, Spanish

Did God Curse Adam and Eve After They Fell?

May 16, 2015

Genesis 3 records God’s judgments upon the serpent, Adam, and Eve for their roles and actions that led to the Fall of Adam and Eve. Genesis 4 then records how God judged Cain for murdering his brother Abel.

In rendering these judgments, Scripture records that God used the word “cursed” in the following statements in Genesis 3 and 4:

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Gen 4:11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand;

These verses show that God cursed the serpent and He cursed Cain, but Scripture does not say (at least directly) in Genesis 3 that God cursed Adam (or Eve)—God told Adam that the ground, and not he (or Eve), was cursed for his sake (Gen. 3:17). Does the fact that Scripture does not directly say here that God cursed Adam and Eve mean that He in fact did not curse them after they fell?

In Interpretation, Theology

How 2 Kings 10:29-33 Provides Vital Instruction for Fundamentalists

May 10, 2015

Some fundamentalists who rightly insist on the importance of biblical separation have allowed certain aspects of that teaching to govern their thinking in a way that causes them not to be fully God-like in their perspectives about and dealings with those from whom they separate. Second Kings 10:29-33 provides vital instruction to all believers that reveals what their perspectives and actions should be in such situations.

The Mixed Record of the Life of King Jehu

God anointed Jehu to be king over Israel and commanded him to execute God’s vengeance on the house of Ahab (2 Kings 9:6-10). The author of Second Kings chronicles at length how Jehu faithfully rendered that judgment on Ahab (2 Kings 9:11-10:17).

Jehu then “destroyed Baal out of Israel” (2 Kings 10:18-28). He displayed incredible zeal for God in eradicating the worship of Baal in this manner.

Remarkably, however, Scripture then records that Jehu did not depart from the sins of Jereboam (2 Kings 10:29, 31)! The biblical record of the life of King Jehu thus is a mixed record detailing the life of one who was very zealous for God in certain respects but also very sinful in other respects.

God’s Commendation of Certain Actions of Jehu in spite of Jehu’s Great Wickedness in Other Respects

Despite Jehu’s great sinfulness in continuing in the sins of Jereboam, Scripture records that God yet commended (and rewarded) him for the right things that he had done:

2Ki 10:30 And the LORD said unto Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.

This remarkable commendation from God is especially noteworthy because it is sandwiched between two statements of the great sinfulness of Jehu (2 Kings 10:29, 31) and is followed by the record of how God judged Israel for its continuing sinfulness (2 Kings 10:32-33).

How God Instructs Fundamentalists through 2 Kings 10:29-33

The biblical record of the mixed nature of Jehu’s life provides vital instruction to believers in at least two important ways. On the one hand, although Jehu had done well in serving God in certain respects, God yet recorded how Jehu was very sinful in other respects.

God also chastened him and his nation for their sinfulness. Fundamentalists should thus learn that it is God-like to point out the sinfulness of those from whom they separate—even if those from whom they separate are greatly serving God in some respects.

On the other hand, however, even though Jehu was horrifically sinful in following in the sins of Jeroboam, God still commended Jehu for what he had done well and even rewarded him for his faithfulness in doing what God had commissioned him to do concerning the house of Ahab. Fundamentalists should learn from this facet of the record of Jehu’s life that being God-like in our dealings with those we separate from also includes properly commending them for the right things that they have done in their service for God.

Conclusion

In separating from other believers, fundamentalist must be God-like by pointing out the great sinfulness of those believers and by properly commending them for whatever true good they have done for the cause of Christ. Doing so, fundamentalists will be God-like, just as the record of God’s dealings with Jehu teaches.¹

¹They will also be like Christ, who both called attention to the sinfulness of those who were in His churches and commended them for whatever good aspects there were to their lives (Rev. 2-3).

In Discipleship, Interpretation, Theology

What Does Hebrews 9:23 Teach?

May 6, 2015

Reading Hebrews 9:23 again yesterday morning, I was again struck with how the verse reads:

It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

What does it mean that “the heavenly things themselves [had to be purified] with better sacrifices than these”? Does it mean that heaven (where God dwells, not the sky or even outer space) had to be purified?

Certainly, human sin, starting with the sins of Adam and Eve, is incapable of defiling heaven. If this verse is teaching that heaven had to be purified, it would have to be saying so because it had been defiled not by any sin or sins of mankind but by the sinning of Satan and the angels that fell with him.

Do you think that this is the correct understanding of what Hebrews 9:23 teaches?

In Interpretation

Fundamentalists Should Lament the (Upcoming) Closing of Northland

April 30, 2015

Northland International University has announced that it will soon be closing.¹ How should fundamentalists, especially those of us who have strongly disapproved of the direction that the recent leadership of Northland has taken the school, respond to this development?

Like many other fundamentalists, I regarded it as a great tragedy when the recent leadership of Northland adopted the use of non-conservative music on the campus. Many fundamental churches who have given sacrificially for years to support Northland likely believe that the leadership has betrayed them.

Given what has taken place at Northland in these recent years, it would be natural for some to think that Northland is getting what it deserves for its departure from its conservative roots. Some of us who might be inclined to think that way might think that responding to the upcoming closing of Northland by lamenting that closing would be a strange response.

My recent reading of 2 Samuel 1:17-27, however, makes me think that lamenting the closing of Northland is a right response to its tragic downfall.

The Remarkable Record in 2 Samuel 1:17-27 of David’s Lament for Saul

In spite of David’s having been very good to Saul throughout the years that they had known each other, Saul, prior to his death, fiercely persecuted David for years and sought many times to kill him. David, therefore, would seem to have had great justification for hating Saul and for rejoicing that Saul would no longer be around to afflict David.

After learning of the death of Saul and Jonathan, however, David remarkably chanted a lament over the death of Saul:

2Sa 1:17 And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son:

¹⁸ (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.)

¹⁹ The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!

²⁰ Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

²¹ Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.

²² From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty.

²³ Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

²⁴ Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.

²⁵ How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.

²⁶ I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.

²⁷ How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

In this lament, David does not say anything about any of the evil actions of Saul! Rather, David only speaks positively of Saul and remarks of how Saul was “lovely and pleasant” in his life (2 Sam. 1:23; see also 2 Samuel 1:19).

He also extols him for his swiftness and strength (2 Sam. 1:23) and exclaims how Saul was a man of mighty exploits (2 Sam. 1:19, 21, 22, 25, 27). David then directs Israelites to weep over the demise of Saul because of his goodness to them (2 Sam. 1:24).

Application of 2 Samuel 1:17-27 to the Closing of Northland

I believe that it is not coincidental that God directed my attention to 2 Samuel 1:17-27 just a relatively short time before I recently heard about the likelihood that Northland International University would be closing. God has used this passage to instruct and challenge me about how I should respond to the tragic downfall of Northland.

Northland has produced many choice servants of Christ during its years of operation. Their excellent Christian character and living has commended the gospel to many lost people.

God has used Northland greatly for good in this country and the world for many years. The brethren at Northland have mightily served to advance the cause of Christ for many decades.

The upcoming closing of Northland International University will be a great loss for the people of God around the world. I believe that those of us who are fundamentalists should lament the closing of Northland, even as Scripture records that David lamented the tragic demise of Saul.

¹ See this statement on the university’s website.

In Discipleship

Mi oración por la ofrenda en un servicio español

April 27, 2015

Padre celestial, gracias por tu salvación y tu palabra.

‘Exaltado seas sobre los cielos, oh Dios; sobre todo la tierra sea tu gloria.’ [Sal. 57:11]

Padre celestial, te ruego que nos bendigas y nos guardes.

Hagas resplandecer tu rostro sobre nosotros, y tengas de nosotros misericordia.

Te suplico que alces sobre nosotros tu rostro, y nos des paz. [Num. 6]

Gracias por esta ofrenda.

Te ruego que bendigas esta ofrenda y la uses para tu gloria.

En el nombre de Jesucristo. Amén.

In Ministry, Prayer, Spanish

A Vital Question to Consider: Are You Really Saved?

April 22, 2015

The following salvation and membership testimony was shared with me by someone who wants to remain anonymous so that the focus of the testimony would be entirely on the Lord. I encourage you to read it carefully and examine yourself to see if you are really saved.

During my teen years, after moving to a new city and my parents desiring to join an independent Baptist church there, I was directed down the Roman’s Road in the Scriptures and prayed the sinner’s prayer with my pastor. But frequently after that time, when reading Scriptures I felt a drawing by the Lord to the Scripture verse Isaiah 55:1, “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat; yea come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” The drawing power of that Scripture came time and time [again] during the following years, and I would think that I needed to draw closer to God, to re-dedicate my life to Him—but nothing changed inside. Seeing and hearing my peers at church discuss witnessing to their unsaved friends always put a hunger in my soul to be able to do the same, but I had not the words to say, a seeming inability to do so.

After some years passed following marriage and the Lord calling my husband to Bible school and directing him into a ministry, God graciously revealed what my continuing hunger was. One evening, specifically March 16, 1965, following God’s leading, my husband brought home from his study his large reel-to-reel tape recorder. He sat it on the kitchen table and told me to listen to the message on the tape preached by an evangelist, that it would be a blessing to me, and then went back to his study. The message concerned the evangelist’s own conversion after having been in evangelistic work for 18 years. The moment he stated God’s revelation to him of his own lost condition, my heart was pricked and I was stunned to realize that I, too, was lost. The unknown truth about my spiritual life was at last revealed to me.

Overwhelmed by the guilt and knowledge that all those past years I had not truly been who I thought I was (I actually did not know I was unsaved), and most of all with great sorrow over the fact that my husband unknowingly had married an unsaved person, I bowed my head and prayed for forgiveness and claimed Christ as my Savior. Joyfully, I called my husband on the phone and told him I had truly been born again—saved by the blood of Christ and my sins washed away! He told me that while he himself had been listening to this message on the recorder, the Lord had impressed on his mind “your wife is unsaved.” He then asked me if I would be willing to give my testimony in church the next morning.

At the end of that Sunday morning service, when the invitation was extended for anyone unsaved to answer God’s call for salvation, a hand went up and a 30-year-old lady stepped forward—the only daughter of one of the deacons, who in the providence of God, was visiting her dad that weekend from out of town (as she lived and worked elsewhere). She stated that she thought she was saved as a teenager but upon hearing my testimony realized her own lost condition and came forward to receive Christ.

Soon after that Sunday, I was baptized by immersion.

For a short time afterwards, I did wonder if my imagination had made up the fact that I had not been saved before and sought for assurance from the Lord regarding my salvation. He confirmed to me the reality of what happened in my life with verses from Matt. 7:21-23, causing me to realize with shock and sadness that there may be other people—friends, relatives, who will go out into eternity lost or who had departed this life, who all the while thought they were saved.

“Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven——-Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? [Taught Sunday School, worked in a ministry, even given a witness] And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” He also gave me two precious verses, Isaiah 32:17, “That the work of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever.” And lastly, 1 Cor. 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain.”

But for God’s grace, kindness and love, I had been in a position to go out into eternity lost and doomed—never knowing until too late my condition. Since that time, my heart’s desire has been to be used of God to help others see their need of Christ and that my testimony may be used by the Holy Spirit to touch the heart of an unsaved soul—perhaps there is someone here tonight who is right now in the position I was—you are traveling down life’s pathway completely unsaved under the false illusion that spiritually you are safe. Think on Matthew 7:21-23 again.

God brought me to [this city] to live, and He has given me the privilege of becoming part of a church that is winning and discipling people for the Lord’s glory and sending out laborers to other parts of the world to do likewise. I would like to be a part of [this church] to be used by the Lord as He directs and sees fit. “Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation and thy power to everyone that is to come.” Psalm 71:18.

In Testimony

What Jesus Wants Repeatedly Emphasized to His People in His Churches

April 21, 2015

Imagine that you go to church on a Sunday or Wednesday and hear that Jesus is going to come to your church and preach a week of meetings at your church. If that were to happen, what do you think Jesus would repeatedly emphasize in His week of meetings?

Of course, Jesus is not Himself going to come preach at any church, but we can know something about what Jesus wants emphasized in messages in His churches by noting what He repeatedly talks about in the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3. In messages to three of the seven churches, Jesus spoke six times about a key figure that is active in Christian churches:

Rev 2:9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

¹⁰ Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

Rev 2:13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

Rev 2:24 But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Based on this biblical data, we can be confident that Jesus wants preachers and teachers in His churches continually to make His people mindful of the nefarious activities of Satan! Let us learn from these passages that we must keep this emphasis before God’s people continually.

In Exhortation, Preaching, Theology

A Widespread, False Assertion about Corinthian Prostitutes and Paul’s Teaching about Head Coverings

April 18, 2015

Have you ever heard that Paul taught the Corinthians that it was shameful for women to cut their hair short or shave their heads because that was what the prostitutes in Corinth did? Pastor Minnick recently pointed out that Gordon Fee, who is a highly devoted egalitarian, wrote in his standard commentary on First Corinthians that there is zero historical evidence for that idea!

Here is what Fee has written about this very widespread false explanation for why Paul wrote what he did:

“It was commonly suggested that short hair or a shaved head was the mark of Corinthian prostitutes . . . But there is no contemporary evidence to support this view (it seems to be a case of one scholar’s guess becoming a second scholar’s footnote and a third scholar’s assumption).”¹

The apostle Paul did not teach what he did in 1 Corinthians 11:5-6 because Corinthian prostitutes cut their hair short or shaved their heads. For a superb treatment of why Paul did teach what he did about head coverings and much more, I encourage you to listen closely to this recent message by Pastor Minnick: Harmonizing 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14.²

¹ Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians in NICNT, 511

² For clear biblical evidence that shows that Paul is speaking about an external head covering, see my post Haman, Head Coverings, and First Corinthians 11:1-16.

What Is Hair as the Hair of Women?

Does God Care about the Length of Hair a Christian Man Has?

The Teaching of “Nature” (1 Cor. 11:14-15)

In Interpretation, Mount Calvary Baptist Pulpit, Quotes

How a Noteworthy Statement by King Solomon Helps Put Certain Limitations in a Right Perspective

April 13, 2015

First Kings 4:29-34 highlights the surpassing greatness of the wisdom that God gave King Solomon:

1Ki 4:29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.

³⁰ And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

³¹ For he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: and his fame was in all nations round about.

³² And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.

³³ And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.

³⁴ And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom.

These breathtaking statements relate the remarkable breadth and depth of wisdom that God gave to King Solomon.

In the very next chapter, however, we read that King Solomon sought out the services of Hiram king of Tyre to render necessary service for the building of a house for God’s name (1 Kings 5:1-6). In fact, Solomon himself declared that the Sidonians were uniquely skilled in a way that none of the Israelites was:

1Ki 5:6 Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants: and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt appoint: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.

From this statement by Solomon himself, we learn that the superlative wisdom that God gave Solomon did not extend to the skill of cutting timber!

The greatness of Solomon’s wisdom, therefore, included the skill of discerning what areas he (and all the others around him) was not especially gifted at and the skill of accurately assessing who had the skills that he himself lacked. From this noteworthy statement by King Solomon, we should learn that an important facet of living our lives wisely to the do the will of God in our lives is to recognize what areas God has not gifted us in and to avail ourselves freely of the services of those whom He has gifted in those ways.

Moreover, we should not feel that we are somehow stupid or unmanly or lacking if we are not able to do some specific tasks well, as many others may be able to do them. If someone who was so immensely gifted supernaturally by God as Solomon was yet lacked a high degree of a specific skill involving manual labor, we who have not been directly blessed by God to any degree comparable to what Solomon was have no need to feel ashamed or inadequate because we are not particularly skillful in doing certain or even many manual tasks well!

In Discipleship, Exposition

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The Mixed Record of the Life of King Jehu

God’s Commendation of Certain Actions of Jehu in spite of Jehu’s Great Wickedness in Other Respects

How God Instructs Fundamentalists through 2 Kings 10:29-33

Conclusion

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The Remarkable Record in 2 Samuel 1:17-27 of David’s Lament for Saul

Application of 2 Samuel 1:17-27 to the Closing of Northland

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