Category: Christian Living

By faith the people of old gained approval

Today I would like us to think about people who do have faith in God.

  • Some who do have faith in God do not please God
  • Others do please God by their faith. e.g., Many people of old pleased God by their faith

Why did these please God by their faith, while others who had faith did not please God?
Let’s be reminded of just how these people of old pleased God by their faith, so that we can imitate them …

The Bible is its Own Best Dictionary

Words in the Bible can have their meanings changed in society over time.

  • Therefore modern English dictionaries can sometimes wrongly define Bible words.

If you want to know what a word means in the Bible, then pull out the Bible itself and look up all the different places where that word is used! The bible is its own best dictionary.

We look at 11 bible words misunderstood today

  1. church
  2. saint
  3. priest
  4. Christian
  5. baptize
  6. minister
  7. pastor
  8. love
  9. miracle
  10. hades
  11. antichrist

 

Keep yourselves from idols

1 Jn 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. 

You Shall have No other Gods
  • Worship God Alone Ex20:1-6; Deu 27:15; Act 10:25-26
  • How Quickly they Forget Exo 32:1-6; Psa 106:13; Isa 44:19-20
Covetousness, Which is Idolatry
  • Beware Covetousness Eph 5:5-6; Col 3:5-6; Exo 20:17
  • Effect of Covetousness on the Heart Mic 2:1-2; Gen 3:6; Mat 6:24
He is Able to Deliver us
  • A kings Decree Dan3:8-12; Isa 10:1; Act 25:8-11
  • We will Not Serve thy gods Dan3:13-18;
We know the Son of God and Him that is true 1Jn 5:18-20

What must I do to be saved?

A most important question in this life is: “What must I do to be saved?”
– This is the question that every person must answer correctly in their lives if they hope to spend eternity with God in heaven.
– Sadly, in the world today, there are many wrong answers given to this question:
e.g., Some trust their own feelings in the matter; but feelings are, of course, unreliable:
Prov 16:25 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
e.g., Others trust in the advice of people (where some say one thing, and others another thing!) but this is useless as well:
Matt. 15:9 BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN

Surely Jesus is the only One who truly knows how we can be saved (cf. Rom. 1:4)!
So let’s “listen to Him!” (as God commanded the disciples to do in Matt. 17:5) …

Believe, repent, baptism for forgiveness of sins. Luke. 24:47, Mark. 16:15-16, Matt. 28:18-19, Acts 2:36-40

Remember:
– All parts of the process contribute to the result of being saved; all parts, therefore, are essential.
– Under the NT, someone who is baptized without believing, or believes without being baptized, is not saved!

Have you been saved according to Jesus’ instructions?
– Don’t trust your own feelings! Don’t trust in other people (e.g., “faith only”, “saved without baptism in water”, etc.)! Listen only to Jesus on how to be saved!
– We would urge you, as Saul/Paul was urged: Acts 22:16 Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.