1-12-2023 Devotion: When God Speaks

 We will continue for a few days looking at the error of the "Hearing God's Voice" movement (HGV). The reason this is important is that many times you will hear a person say, "I was seeking God's direction and I believe He told me ...." Or, "God gave me a dream last night and I feel led to do ...." When a person who is not getting direct personal revelation from God hears this, it makes them feel inadequate. Teachers in the HGV movement believe that God is speaking to people today the same way He did in Bible days. While I concur that God can speak today and if He does, it will have Scriptural support, what pases as HGV today is a far cry from Bible communication with Him. Consider Moses' call to go back to Egypt. Imagine this story: Moses has a busy life as a shepherd. It left little time to hear God's voice. One day while he is resting, he gets this thought: "I should stop tending sheep." He says, "Lord, is that you?" All he hears in sheep bleating. Moses remembers the promises made to his ancestors through Joseph about deliverance. Moses' wife Zipporah purchases a new tapestry in the marketplace and she says there were merchants from Egypt. Moses says maybe this is a providential sign that I should leave the sheep and go back to Egypt. He puts a fleece before the Lord, "Lord, if I go to the marketplace and the Egyptians have left to go back to Egypt I will know it is a sign that I should go back to Egypt to free your people." He goes the next day and the Egyptians have left so based on Moses's impressions, providential circumstances, and fleece, he leaves the sheep, he leaves for Egypt. NO! That is not how God communicates with him: Exodus 3: 2 states: " And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed." God gave clear directions, no impressions, or fleeces, and Moses knew he had heard from God. When God speaks, you know it. There are no uncertainties. More to follow.

1-11-2023 Devotion: Voice

 Today, we look at another verse that leads to another error found in both charismatic and non charismatic churches. John 10: 3, 4 reads: "To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." A group labeled as "Hearing God's Voice" aka HGV, advocates this Scripture to mean that true believers hear the voice of God and He guides them everyday in mundane everyday life choices, e.g. what job to take, where to go on vacation, and one famous minister spoke how God told him where to buy a turkey. HGV teaches that this verse is essential to develop a good relationship with God. You hear the Lord Jesus Christ's voice and you follow Him to develop the relationship you crave with Him. That is an incorrect interpretation. Looking at the context, Christ is talking to Pharisees (starts in chapter 9) and He is establishing how God creates a relationship. You hear the call of God in that the Holy Spirit awakens you to your sin, the need for repentance, and grants you the ability to have faith and repent. You follow Him in that you respond to that call. The call of the shepherd is to be born-again, not a voice that tells you where the best deals on a turkey are. Don't be deceived. The Lord calls His own and His own do hear His voice. They leave the sheepfold (i.e. the world) and follow the shepherd in repentance and faith. The Bible makes so much sense when it is interpreted in context. Don't be deceived.

1-10-2023 Devotion: Deification

 Today, we look at another error very prevalent today and that is the deification of man. Man has become the center of the church experience. The services may contain strobe lights, fast paced music, and create an entertainment atmosphere designed to please the attendees. Worship is about how the participant feels and his senses as opposed to the worship of God. This error has spread into the message of salvation. Man gets to decide how he will worship, when he will worship and how he will get saved. The church creates holidays not in the Bible, e.g. Christmas and Easter, and decides when it will gather to worship God. The church decides that a prayer can be said that will result in salvation without repentance. When the church places man at the center of the church experience, it is abandoning its true purpose. Just look at the programs a church offers, e.g. Celebrate Recovery, and you can see where the emphasis is. We are to remember that God is Sovereign and He decides how He is to be worshipped and when. He is the author of salvation, not man. Jonah 2: 9 says, "Salvation is of the Lord." Daniel 4: 35 states: "all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” We need to keep our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Message. Don't allow all the entertainment trappings to seduce you into a compromising walk. It will not end well.

1-9-2023 Devotion: Binding

 Another error we confront today is found in a misinterpretation of Matthew 18: 18: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." I have seen "preachers" "bind the devil, bind sickness, bind financial woes, bind dementia" and on and on. Well, let me ask you, did it work? If the devil is being bound by everybody why is he still running loose reating pain and sorrow? If the devil was bound, did someone let him out this week so he could be bound again? This is pure nonsense. Leave immediately any fellowship that believes that they can "bind the devil, diseases and other woes." What does the passage refer to? The sum of the passage means that any duly constituted body of believers, acting in accord with God’s Word, has the authority to declare if someone is forgiven or unforgiven. The church’s authority is not to determine these things, but to declare the judgment of heaven based on the principles of the Word. When they make such judgments on the basis of God’s Word, they can be sure heaven is in accord. Now, the Scripture makes sense when read in context. Don't be deceived.

Attributes of God Part 7: The Mercy of a Sovereign God

 Today, we conclude our series on the Attributes of God with the teaching on The Mercy of a Sovereign God. We cannot form a right conception of the LORD unless we consider both the Mercy and the Grace of God. If you talk to many in the church world, you will become convinced that their view of God is not the God of the Bible but is a god of their own creation. The religious world is merging into the great apostasy and is being brought under a great delusion, which is preparing it for the acceptance of the Antichrist when he appears on the scene.

Introduction

If you look at a coin, it has two sides. When studying the Sovereign Mercy of God, you cannot neglect the relationship between mercy and grace. Mercy can be defined as "God not giving us what we DO deserve." Grace can be defined as "God giving us something we DO NOT deserve." Habakkuk 3: 2 reads: "O, LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy." The word translated "mercy" is the Hebrew word is racham (raw-kham) and it means to love, be compassionate, have pity, or to caress.

Considering the meaning of "mercy" it is with great joy that I bring you this message, "The Mercy of a Sovereign God." Hear Romans 12: 1: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Further, consider Psalm 136: 1: "O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever."

Over and over again the Psalmist calls upon the saints to give thanks unto the Lord for His mercy. This is one attribute for which every individual ought to praise God: His mercies.

Section 1: Characteristics of the Mercy of God

When we go through God's Word and behold the characteristics of God's mercy, we find the following:

a. His mercy is great. Psalm 57: 10 says: "For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds." Psalm 108: 4 reads, "For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds." 1 Kings 3: 6 states: "And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy." Yes, His mercy is great for Nehemiah 9: 31 says, "Nevertheless for thy great mercies sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God."

b. His mercies are plenteous, according to Psalm 86: 5, "For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee." That being true, awakened sinner, why not call upon the Lord, because He has mercy unlimited to bestow upon you? I know He bestowed it upon me. Bless your heart, I know, awakened sinner, if He would bestow His mercy upon a wretch like me, He will bestow it upon you. I called upon Him and He bestowed it.

c. His mercies are called tender mercies according to Luke 1: 78: "Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us." Psalm 40: 11 reads, "Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD." Psalm 119: 77 says: "Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live." Psalm 103: 4 states: "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies."

Let us look at the word "tender" for a moment. "Tender" means gentile, kind, loving, compassionate. When we think of God as being tender and merciful toward us sinners, that means He is affectionate. He looks upon us with kindness, gentleness, with a yearning compassion to bestow His grace upon us as we are. Awakened sinner, why hesitate? Why delay? Don't hesitate to fall into the arms of the Lord Jesus Christ, awakened sinner, because He is tender in mercies (Psalm 69: 16). Be not afraid of Him; hasten to Him; embrace Him (Romans 8: 32-34). Oh, awakened sinner, flee to such a God of the Bible.

d. Not only is His mercy great and plenteous and tender, but in Psalm 106: 45, we find these words: "And he remembered for them his covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies." Then, in Psalm 51: 1 gives us David's cry, "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions." Not only is His mercy tender, but He has a multitude of tender mercies. The word "multitude" means a great number. So, God's mercies are without number.

e. In 1 Peter 1: 3, we find these words, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." The word "abundant" means possessing an overflowing fulness, amply sufficient, in great plenty; in other words, God is rich in mercy, because Ephesians 2: 4-6 says, "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,...and hath raised us up..., and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

Then Psalm 103: 17 says, " But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him." With these facts before us we can say, "I will sing aloud of Thy tender mercies." Look at the words, "from everlasting to everlasting." My awakened sinner, there is mercy for you. Do you want mercy? His tender mercies are upon you from everlasting to everlasting, from eternity to eternity. Come on to Him; come on to Him.

Section 2: What is Mercy?

Let's look at the word "mercy." It is the equivalent to pity. Mercy is compassion and gentle treatment shown to n offender who expects no kindness nor deserves any kindness, and who is wholly in one's power. Every sinner, whether awakened or not, is wholly and completely in the power of God and deserves no pity, no kindness, and God says in Exodus 33: 19, "I... will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." So, the mercy of God springs from Divine goodness, because God says in the first part of that verse, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee." So, the issue of God's goodness is His mercy, and His mercy is His inclination to relieve the misery of fallen mankind. So, every awakened sinner is at the mercy of God.

One fact we must always face is the Sovereignty of God. No individual can command God; no individual can demand the mercy of God, because he does not deserve it, and if God shows mercy to him, it is because God wills to have mercy on him. This deflates the dignity of man and puts man wholly at the disposal of a Sovereign God to deal with him as He pleases. This will cause unregenerate man to gnash his teeth and defy God, because man will not accept his place before God as an object of mercy.

Now get this, listen closely. Mercy presupposes sin; mercy presupposes the total depravity of man. Mercy then presupposes man to be wretched, miserable, poor, spiritually bankrupt, blind, helpless, naked, and without strength or power to do one thing about it. Mercy looks at man as a sheer object of pity, who deserves nothing but hell. The reason God loves man can be found only in the heart of God. Friend, have you ever become an object of God's mercy? If not, you can. Keep listening.

In the Introduction, I spoke about the difference between mercy and grace. To repeat: Mercy can be defined as "God not giving us what we DO deserve." Grace can be defined as "God giving us something we DO NOT deserve." I thank God for His mercy that at any time could have said, "No More!" And my soul would have rightfully been cast into hell. I'm thankful that one day the grace of God was shed abroad in my heart. I saw that I was a sinner. I saw that I was lost. I needed a substitute to pay for my sin debt. The Holy Spirit awakened me to my lost condition, and He led me to the foot of the cross where I experienced forgiveness as I repented from my sin and sins. His mercy kept me alive. His grace enabled me to see salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I count it an amazing honor to sit as a beggar at the table of His grace and to be fed upon His mercies and by His mercies. I'm glad He showed me that there is no dignity about man; I'm glad He showed me that I had no reputation, but was just a poor worm of the dust, a beggar and an outcast. I'm glad that He elected me by His grace, called me by His Spirit, extended His mercies to me, forgave me of my sins, pardoned me from all my iniquities, clothed me with His righteousness, and lets me sit at His table and feed upon the riches of His mercy day by day. THANK GOD FOR HIS ABUNDANT MERCIES!!!

On Calvary's cross Love and Justice met, and Mercy was born. The Love of God said: "I will not let the sinner go;" the Justice of God said, "I demand death;" "The soul that sinneth shall die." The Love of God threw His skirts over the sinner and said, "I'll shelter him." The Justice of God said, "He deserves to die; I demand payment for every sin committed." The Love of God responded: "I'll pay that sin-debt in My own body on the tree." The Justice of God responded, "If you do, you will pay it in full; I demand full payment." Then we see the Love of God dragging the cross that cross from Pilate's court to Golgotha's hill; we see the Love of God nailing the God of Heaven, the God of the Bible to the tree. We see the Love of God lifting up the cross and dropping it in the socket; we see the Love of God paying the price of the sinner's sin-debt in full. We hear the glad tidings that the debt was paid when Christ cried, "It is finished!" Justice said, "I am satisfied," and then Mercy was born. Any awakened sinner coming as an object of mercy unto the throne of God's grace will go away with his sins forgive, with the penalty of his sins pardoned and knowing the riches of all His grace and mercy.

SINNER, COME AND JOIN ME TODAY AND LET'S SIT UNDER THE SHADOW OF HIS MERCIES!

Section 3: Types of Mercy

There is a threefold distinction of His Mercy. First, there is the general mercy of God, which is manifested to all men, believers and nonbelievers, but also to the entire creation of God. In Acts 17: 25 we read: "He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." We read again in Psalm 145: 9: "His tender mercies are over all His works." We see that God has pity upon the brute creation in supplying them with their needs. He says He feeds the sparrow; He takes care of the lily (Matthew 6: 26-30; Luke 12: 24-28).

Next there is a special mercy of God which is exercised toward men regardless of their sins. He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sends the rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5: 45). He supplies unbelievers with good things to eat, and many times they seem to fare better in this life than believers. God has manifested His special mercies toward every individual under the sound of my voice, regardless of what a sinner you are and how deep in sin you have gone. He has given you strength to work, to make money, to run a good business, or to hold a good job, and He has given you the capacity to enjoy it. Anything this side of hell is mercy.

The third type is sovereign mercy, which God has reserved for the heirs of salvation, that is, to those whom He elected by His grace back in the counsels of eternity and called forth by His Spirit in Christ for salvation. Sovereign mercy is communicated to the elect on a covenant ground through the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13: 20 reads: "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant." Every individual who is elected to salvation in Christ and awakened by the Holy Spirit to his lost condition and shown to be an object of mercy, is on covenant grounds. It is a blood covenant, and therefore God's Sovereign Mercy is manifested to His elect in a peculiar way as it is to no other creature.

Every saved person knows that the mercy that God extended to him in the salvation of his soul was and is sovereign--it is Sovereign Mercy. I mean by that, that every sinner once came to the place before God saved him that he realized that God did not have to save him, that he was at the mercy of God, wholly at the mercy of God, wholly in the power of God, and that God could show him mercy to him or withhold mercy from him; he came to the place that he bowed at the feet of a Sovereign God realizing that God could extend His mercy to him or not. When one sees that God has extended mercy to him and forgives him and saves him, he never ceases to rejoice in it. This another fact that rebellious, self-exalted and self-esteemed man hates.

On the basis of this fact, let me call your attention to two other facts: First, God can never cease to be merciful. This is a Divine attribute. On the other hand, His Mercy, or rather the exercise of His mercy, is regulated by His Sovereign will, and it is pure Sovereign grace which alone determines the manifestation of Divine Mercy. He said, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy" (Romans 9: 15).

Let us face another fact, it is not the wretchedness of the individual which causes God to show mercy, because God is not influenced by anything except Himself. God shows mercy and extends salvation to a lost sinner simply because it is His pleasure and purpose and will to do so. God is God and He is on the throne, and no individual influences God to act. He acts because of His own will and pleasure and purpose to do so. Let me say again, all mercies are manifested from God because of His imperial pleasure, and according to His purpose and will.

Friend, when you see this great truth and act upon it, then you can understand that God's mercy endures for ever. His mercies are from everlasting to everlasting. Then if God has elected and called you and shown mercy to you, it is because He willed to do it. His mercy never changes; His love never changes; His grace is always bestowing. It is the greatest thing in the world to be an object of His mercy and to know that His mercy changes not, that it endures for ever.

It is on this basis, an eternal fact of His mercy and love, that I issue a call to every awakened sinner to fall at His feet, fall low at His feet. Take your place as an object of mercy, and He will hear you, because God's will and pleasure and love is to extend to you His mercies in Christ Jesus. My friend, that is the foundation of my assurance and my hope, and that foundation cannot be shaken. You can have your little man-centered programs, and gimmicks to get people "saved" and your "fun, faith and fellowship" meetings, your "accepting" Jesus, making a decision for Jesus, or other false salvation methods, and you can ride to hell with them. For me, I will ride to heaven on God's Sovereign grace manifested in His Sovereign mercy in Christ Jesus our blessed Lord. That is the train of Grace that will take you yonder in Glory Land.

Are you on the train headed for Glory Land? I am and I praise God for it. I beg you, don't go to hell. Believe the gospel and be saved.

Conclusion

In conclusion, let me say to every unsaved individual who stands in defiance to God, don't think that God is going to ne merciful to you. God cannot show mercy to you. God is a God of Justice as well as a God of Mercy, according to Exodus 34: 7, He "will by no means clear the guilty." According to Psalm 9: 17: "The wicked will be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God," and according to Revelations 21: 27, "And there shall in no wise enter it (heaven) any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life."

Friend, is your name in the book? Do you have a blood substitute to pay for your sins? If you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be no mercy, no grace, you will pay for your own sins for all eternity.

Come to Christ! Don't delay! He will never turn you away. Come clean, come clear, awakened sinner. Know the Mercy of God today!

1-8-2023 Devotion: Sufficiency

 Today, we continue to at another erroneous doctrine which states that God is supplementing His Perfect Word with personal revelations to individuals. These people do not believe that God's Word is sufficient on its own. Consider the following groups that the leader had a new personal word from the Lord supplementing the Bible: Mormons, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and the Jim Jones cult. Things never work out well when someone says, "God spoke to me." 1 Corinthians 4: 6 reads: "And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another."  One translation says, "do not go beyond what is written." This is sound advice, people think every random thought or impression that pops into their head is God. It isn't. Focus on the Word of God, especially the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. I said focus and not to neglect the rest of Scripture. As a whole, the Word of God will guide you through every circumstance in this life.

1-7-2023 Devotion: Stand

 Today, we conclude our look at the error of the "carnal Christian." By now it should be clear that the doctrine separates classes of Christians and removes the requirement of repentance. The "carnal Christian" doctrine says you can be saved from hell but live like an unsaved person. Think about that for a moment. Nowhere in Scripture is such an experience described or permitted. When one repents and comes in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, he receives the forgiveness of sins and a new heart. Our Lord said in Matthew 16: 24-26, "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and be following Me. For whoever wants to save[ his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will a person be profited if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his life? Or what will a person give in-exchange-for his life?'" There is no room in our Lord's words for a half-hearted weak "carnal" gospel. You are either all in or all out. Where do you stand?