The Awesome WORD of GOD!!
2 Timothy 2:15 (King James Version) Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Without the Word, you cannot know Christ. (Jn. 8:31,32) Without the Word, you cannot grow in Christ. (II Peter 3:18) Without the Word, you cannot go to Heaven. (John 3:3,5)
"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." (Roman 10:17)
"Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." (Psalm 119:11)
"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." (Psalm 119:105)
"Order my steps in thy Words; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me" (Psalm 119:133)
THE CHOICE IS YOURS
Sundays at 9:30 A.M Wednesday 8-9 P.M. & Saturdays, 10 - 11 A.M
Wednesday Bible Study Notes
The 23rd Psalms
This psalm does not focus on the animal like qualities of sheep, but on the discipleship qualities of those who follow.
If you say that He is your shepherd why aren't you following Him?
Meet us at 8:00PM on Wednesday's for Bible class!
ALL ARE WELCOME!
Saturday Bible Study Notes
WHAT EVERY BELIEVER SHOULD KNOW!Do not depend upon your feelings for the assurance of salvation. Feelings are good, but feelings change. You need Facts, Faith and Feelings. The promise of God's Word, the Bible, not our feelings, is our authority. The Christian lives by faith in the trustworthiness of God and His Word. (John 14:21; I John 5: 9-11; John 5: 24; John 14: 15-21).
NOW THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED CHRIST, THERE ARE MANY THINGS THAT INSTANTLY TAKE PLACE THE MOMENT THAT CHRIST IS RECEIVED BY FAITH INTO THE HEART AND LIFE OF AN INDIVIDUAL.
1. YOU HAVE FORGIVENESS OF ALL SINS. ( Eph. 1: 7; Col. 1: 9-14; Acts 13: 37-39; Rom. 3: 23-26)
2. YOU ARE SAVED FOREVER. (John 3: 15-17; Jn.5: 24; 10: 27-29)
3. YOU HAVE PEACE WITH GOD AND ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. (Acts 13: 38, 39; Romans 5: 1; Philippians 4: 7)
4. YOU RECEIVE THE SPIRIT AND NATURE OF CHRIST FOREVER, (11 Peter 1: 2-4; Gal. 2: 20; Col. 1: 25- 27; Hebrews 13: 5,6)
5. YOU RECEIVE ETERNAL LIFE NOW!! (I John 5: 9-13) Nothing is temporary about our salvation. Live in the reality of this fact!!
6. YOU ARE BAPTISED INTO THE BODY OF CHRIST BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. (I Cor. 12: 13). A Divine act performed by God the moment we express faith in His Son for salvation.
7. YOU ARE SEALED IN THE BODY OF CHRIST BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. Sealing suggests safekeeping, ownership, and authentication: God identifies His own by the seal of His Holy Spirit. Rom. 8:9. "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."Eph.1: 13; 4:30; Rom. 8: 9-17; II Cor. 1: 21, 22."Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."
8. YOU ARE INDWELT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT FOREVER, AND WILL PRAY AND WILL GRIEVE HIM NOT. Eph. 4: 30. Any disobedience grieves the Holy Spirit. (Deut. 5: 31-33; 31: 29; His way is not difficult, (Is.30: 21; 35:8;) Desire His way, (Psalms 27:11; John 14: 6). Defile not the temple of God (I Cor. 3: 16, 17; 6: 19, 20). Man can't change what God has done: A perfect salvation!!
9. YOU ARE THE POSSESSOR OF AN INTERCESSOR IN HEAVEN. (I John 1: 9; 2: 1-6; Heb. 7: 25). All the help you need is already provided!! Christ.
10. YOU ARE THE POSSESSOR OF AN INTERCESSOR ON EARTH. The indwelling Holy Spirit. (John 16: 7-15; Rom. 8: 26, 27). Assurance in prayer!!
11. YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD: A present fact. (John 1: 12; I Jn.3:2). (Rom. 8:12-19) (Gal. 4:4-5)
12. YOU ARE A MEMBER OF CHRIST'S BODY. (I Cor. 12: 12-27; Eph. 1: 15-23.) A glorious intimate relationship not to be taken lightly.
13. YOU ARE A SAINT. (I Cor. 1:2; Rom. 1: 7; Psalms 11: 3). Saints are people who have been separated from the world and consecrated to worship and serve God: incentive to live righteously. Saints are to live holy lives (Ex. 19: 5,6; Lev. 20:7; I Thess. 3: 12,13; 1 Pet.1: 15,16).
14. YOU ARE A JOINT-HEIR WITH CHRIST. (Rom 8: 16, 17; II Cor. 6: 10 ;) A fellow-sharer of His glory now
15. YOU ARE AN AMBASSADOR OF CHRIST. (Matt. 28: 19,20; Acts 1:8; II COR. 5: 20)
16. YOU ARE A NEW CREATION (CREATURE). (II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4: 17-32; ).
17. YOU ARE A MATURED BEING. (Gal. 5: 16-26; Eph. 6: 10-18; Col. 3: 1-17; Rom. 12: 1, 2 ;). Transformed, equipped for every challenge!!!
THESE PRECIOUS FACTS ARE THE FOUNDATION OF OUR FAITH: STUDY THEM, CHERISH THEM, WALK IN THEM, AND YOUR JOY WILL BE FULL.
The Works of The Flesh.
Galatians 5:19-21. The Works of The Flesh.
This is an ugly brood of sensual sins, religious sins, social sins and personal sins.
Sensual sins: Adultery, Fornication, Uncleanness, Lasciviousness.
Adultery: One of the most destructive sins of our day. One of the primary causes of the ravaging breakup of homes is adultery.
Sex has been pictured as a river. It is a good and wonderful blessing when kept within its proper channel. A river that overflows its banks is a dangerous thing.
Adultery is the breaking of the marriage vows, and more often than not leads to the breaking of hearts, homes, and the breaking of persons.
Fornication: means sexual intercourse between a man and a woman not married Uncleanness: sexual sins including pornography: Moral impurity that soils our lives and separates us from God. Its broader meaning includes all that defiles us and detracts us from right relation from God, thus from right living.
Lasciviousness: It has been defined as "readiness for any pleasure". It is often used for lewdness and sensuality, but also applies to unrestrained violence, a calloused, runaway passion for pleasure at any cost, desire and lust that cares nothing for what others think.
Religious sins: Idolatry: worship of idols (this includes money and anything that takes the place of God. We create God in our own image, according to our own desires, constructing our theology to rationalize and justify the way we want to live.
Witchcraft: Magic and witchcraft was one of the most dangerous competitors of Judaism and then to early Christianity. It was human nature's effort to control God, to compel God to fit into its plan and do its bidding. Horoscope gazing replaces prayer. (drugs are used in all heathen religions) Another form of sorcery, directly against God. Hatred: Enmity, opposed to God and men, especially in religion.
Variance: given to strife, contentions and quarreling, especially in the Fellowship. Social sins: Emulations—rivalry, jealousy, the sins of self-assertion and pride that destroy community. Paul was addressing the church, there was special emphasis on the fellowship of the body which was threatened by hatred, contention, jealousy, outbursts of wrath. Unity within the church was and is absolutely essential. Paul pleaded more than once that that unity be preserved. "That the peace of God rule in your hearts (Co1.3:15).
Wrath evidences a hot temper. Strife is the sign of little cliques in the church that hurt the cause of Christ. This stems from rival ambition in the church, groups wanting special recognition, the desire of some to do their own thing: This destroys unity in the church. Envy: means to harbor malice or ill will. It is call the greatest of all diseases among men. It begrudges what another has. In envy one may not want what the other person has, but one does not want the other person to have it.
Envy leads not only to jealousy but to an embittered mind: Prov. 27:4. "Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous: but who is able to stand before envy?"
Envy has often led to murder: Cain killed Abel because of envy. The Jews delivered up Jesus to be crucified because of envy (Mt. 27: 17,18).
Murder is the wilfull taking of the life of another. God decreed the death penalty to the one who wilfull takes another's life (Gen. 9: 5,6).
Personal sins: Drunkenness and Revelings: These are twin "flesh works" having kept company with each other from the beginning of civilization. Lives maimed and snuffed out in auto accidents caused by drunk drivers rival the devastation of war. Families disrupted and destroyed by drink are at its highest in years.
Needs of children gone unmet because of money spent on alcoholic beverages, are stark evidence of their damning effect.
Notice that Paul concludes this list of the works of the flesh by "and such like", which means that there are many others he could have mentioned.
"They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." "Which do" indicates continuous action. If you can continue to live in sin, you are in a dangerous position. It means you are not a child of God. The only ones that stay in the pig pen are pigs. If a son gets there, he will be very unhappy until he gets out.
The Struggles of The Two Natures
In these verses we have clearly depicted the struggle between the old nature (the flesh) and the new nature (the spiritual man), which is the common experience of Christians everywhere.
And this conflict is a war to the death. There can be no cessation of hostilities until we are called home to glory. A truce is out of the question. Appeasement policies are futile. We may as well recognize the situation at the outset.
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." (5:16)
Herein lies the key to conquest: not through the terrors of the law, but through the Spirit of the Lord will victory over the flesh be won. The injunction to "Walk in the Spirit" implies power of choice on the part of the Believer, whether to submit to the bondage of sin, or to enter into that freedom in the Spirit, which is rightfully his as a child of God.
True, the old nature has not been eradicated, but its power over the soul which is trusting in Christ for salvation has been broken. Putting it figuratively, "the dogs have been chained"; they are no longer at large; but if we fail to keep our distance, or carelessly or deliberately give occasion to sin, we have ourselves to blame for the consequences.
We have the privilege of "Walking in the Spirit"; but we are not compelled to do so; it is a voluntary matter. Approaching the subject from another angle, many a follower of Jesus Christ fails of living a truly victorious life, because they try to study and prescribe for their own symptoms instead of giving the Holy Spirit the right of way in their lives, and letting Him minister as only He can in the treatment of hidden roots of moral and spiritual ailments.
It is to be noted that the main way to triumph over the old nature is not so much a matter of negative repression, as of positive possession of the boundless resources of grace available through the Spirit. There is no more effective way to fortify ourselves against the lusts of the flesh than to "Walk in the Spirit" day by day and hour by hour.
"For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
Nothing is to be gained by denying or minimizing this mutual antagonism. The acceptance of Christ into the heart will inevitably provoke a bitter and determined resistance on the part of the old sinful nature, which hitherto has had everything its own way. Nor will the flesh be put to sleep by the fond delusion that it is dead and buried. It is imperative for our spiritual growth that we grasp the fact that the old nature is not removed or reformed at regeneration.
Failure to understand this elementary fact, frequently plunges the new convert into needless bewilderment, and even despair of his standing before God when, after a peaceful period of triumph and fellowship with Jesus, he stumbles into the old sins and faults he fancied he had vanquished forever.
With older Christians this error often operates to effect quite different results. Persuaded that they cannot sin, adherents of the heresy of sinless perfection will deny that those practices are sinful which the Word of God plainly denounces as sinful.
He who thinks he has reached perfection is the victim of an illusion, indicating that he is in need off a new pair of spiritual glasses to forestall threatening blindness.
At the same time, we must not allow false claims to perfection on the part of some, to make us unmindful of the true goal of perfection for all followers of the Lord Jesus. We are to claim and win victories over the flesh in the power of the Holy Spirit.
To forget that the old nature has no right to rule us, will but increase its might to worst us in the battles of life.Beware the peril of insensibility to the terribleness of sin.
If your heart can feel comfortable under sin, your soul is critically ill.
We are most hurt by sin when we are least hurt by it. Numbness may be recognized by the trained physician as the forerunner of paralysis or even death itself.
Turning to the brighter side of the picture, it holds gloriously true that, the more we say yes to Jesus the easier it will be, until finally it becomes a fixed habit. Cultivate response-ability to Him!
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/