The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

ABRAHAM’S RIGHTEOUSNESS (Genesis 15:6 to 16:6)

The story of Abraham gives us an opportunity for God to show us the power of His grace, and the power of His silence.  There are lessons for believers in both of these Biblical truths.  

It is by the power of God’s grace alone that our salvation comes.  Not by the works of man lest he should boast, but by the grace of our Heavenly Father that loves us.  It is the power of God’s grace that comes to us when we believe on the promises of God, when we believe what God has promised to accomplish in us through Jesus Christ.  It is when we believe that Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins, and then died and rose again, that the power of God’s grace imputes righteousness to us.  

It is by the power of God’s silence that we learn patience; that we learn the value of faith; and we learn to depend on God rather than on our own wits, our own strength, or the things that the world values and believes as natural.  It is the power of God’s silence that creates a test we rarely pass. We fail this test because we want things on our timing, rather than God’s.  One of the hardest lessons we learn as believers is to wait on God’s perfect timing for His will to be accomplished in our lives.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how God accounted Abraham as righteous.  Abraham believed God. He just accepted what God said, and he believed God. That is the way each of us get saved.  You must believe that God has done something for you, that Christ died for you and rose again. It is then that God will declare you righteous by simply accepting Christ.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

HOW TO MEND A BROKEN FAITH-PART II (Gensis 12:1 to 13:4)

I want you to imagine yourself being in the Biblical school of faith, and that’s a wonderful school, and if the truth were told, many of us have been in that school for a very long time.  The fact is that we often have to go back for some remedial training.  There are also times when God has decided to hold us back for a grade or two.  In fact, I am not too sure that I will ever officially graduate from the school of faith.  Amen?

Now, why is that?  It is because sometimes we don’t make very good grades. And I want to talk to you today about “How to Mend a Broken Faith,” because there are just times that we don’t do all that good in God’s school of faith.  Yet, this faith is so important for us to have in order to be successful in living the victorious Christian life.  

Ask yourself, did you once walk with God, but now you wonder why you’re even in church on Sunday morning because you’re so far away from God? Do you remember how it was when God was real to you? 

Ask yourself another question.  Was there ever a time where God was nearer, dearer, and sweeter, to you than He is right now? If so, you’re backslidden. Just remember what it was like, how sweet it was, when you walked with the Lord. Let God bring you back to His house. You say, “Bro. Keith, how can I get right with God? Where can I find God?” You’ll find him right where you left Him.  You don’t have to guess at it. You get on your knees, on your face, and God will show you. Go back to your first love.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to mend your broken faith.  First, there must be repentance, then remembrance, and then restoration.  If you want to mend your faith, just gave it all back to Jesus, and the Lord will cleanse you and restore your faith.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

HOW TO MEND A BROKEN FAITH-PART I (Genesis 12:1-10)

One of the great reoccurring lessons in the Bible is the need for the Christian believer to have faith.  Not a hope-so faith, but a know-so faith based on the promises found in God’s Word.  This know-so faith is absolutely required for the believer to live a victorious Christian life.  

Abraham is called “the father of all them that believe” (Romans 4:11).  When we think of Abraham, we think of faith, and we can learn some incredible lessons about faith as we study how he struggled to become this great man of faith. And, by the way, when I’m talking to you about faith, I’m not talking to you about something insignificant like how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. I’m talking to you about something that is so important that I can hardly think of an adjective to describe the importance of faith. It is of monumental, inestimable, importance.

Once you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, how are you going to live the Christian life? By trying? No. By trusting. The Christian life is lived by faith. Four times, the Bible says, “The just shall live by faith.”  God says it one, two, three, four times.  Now, do you think He’s trying to tell us something really important? I’m telling you, the way to live the Christian life is by faith.

Click on the link below to hear a message about the school of faith, and that’s a wonderful school, but sometimes we don’t make very good grades. And I want to talk to you about “How to Mend a Broken Faith,” because there are just times that we don’t do all that good in God’s school of faith.  Now, life is the classroom in the school of faith. Obviously, the Bible is the textbook in the school of faith. The faculty includes the prophets and the apostles. But the dean of the school of faith would have to be Abraham.  

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE CALL OF ABRAHAM (Genesis11:10 to 12:8)

Chapters 11 and 12 of the Book of Genesis mark an important turning point in the Scriptures.  Up to this point, the story has been that of the whole Adamic race.  There has been neither Jew nor Gentile.  All have been one in “the first Adam.”  

From this point forward in the Scriptures, the human race must be seen as a great river from which God, in the call of Abraham, and the creation of the nation of Israel, draws off a small stream through which He may at last purify the great river itself.  Israel is the tool through which God chose to bring a Savior to the world.  It is important for us to note that neither Abraham, nor Israel, were perfect, they didn’t do anything special to deserve this.  In fact, as we will see today, Abraham was far from perfect.  But, when God spoke to him, Abraham responded, and that is exactly what God was looking for.  It was by grace that God chose Abraham, and the nation Israel, to bring revelation and salvation to the world.  It was through the faith of Abraham that the nation Israel would be called.

Click on the play button to hear a message on how our obedience to God comes after we have stopped telling God what we want to do, and listen to what He wants us to do.  Let me illustrate that with a question, how much of your prayer time do you spend telling God what you want, rather than being quiet and listening to what He wants to tell you?  That is a measure of how much you harken/obey God, for you cannot obey God until you know what He wants you to do.  Abraham was obedient to God because he listened, and then transformed what he heard into action.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

NOAH’S ARK (Genesis 6_12 to 7:1)

Today, we are going to be talking about Noah’s ark, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the gospel message of salvation. Now, don’t think for any moment that the story of Noah’s ark is a fable or a legend.  No, it is a true story. If you are a student of history, you will find out that all of the great civilizations have a flood story. Of course, the one in the Bible, given by divine inspiration, is the true story and the accurate record. But the fact that all civilizations have a flood story tells us that this roots back to fact. But, the truth is that we don’t need what any other civilization has to say, if we have the Bible.

The ark, just as our baptism, is a type of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This ark, here in the Old Testament, pictures and portrays the Lord Jesus Christ, because it is a reminder that all of the Bible is about Jesus, all of it, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jesus is the hero of the Bible.

Click on the play button above to hear a message on how Noah’s ark tells the gospel message of salvation.  It tells us that we are saved by grace, through faith, unto good works.

By grace. It wasn’t in the goodness of Noah, but in the grace of God. Salvation is not in the merit of man, but the mercy of God.  Salvation is not a reward for the righteous; it is a gift for the guilty.

Through faith. It is not faith that saves us; it is grace that saves us.  It is faith that brings us in contact with that grace. By grace, through faith. Noah was saved because he committed himself to that ark.

Unto good works. We work not for salvation, but from salvation. It is by, through, and unto—unto good works. And indeed, Noah served the Lord. He did all of these things, but not in order to be saved, but because he was saved.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE LINE OF SETH (Genesis 4:25 to 5:32)

The descendants of Seth are described in the Bible as the godly line.  And as the world of the ungodly began to take shape right from the beginning, so did the world of the godly.  God never leaves Himself without a witness, so from generation to generation, step-by-step with the generations of the wicked, the generations of the faithful to God flowed through the days before the flood. 

As we study this line of Seth, there are only two things recorded, neither of which are recorded of the line of Cain.  The first is that they lived.  It is stated twice for most of them.  The reason God doesn’t say that the Cainites lived is because, to God, they were “dead in trespasses and sin.”  Yet for the line of Seth, the Scripture tells us that they lived, and Jesus tells us that they had life abundantly.

John 10:10
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
KJV

The second thing that is recorded of the Sethites is that they died.  Once again, God did not record the death of the Cainites for heaven had no interest in their deaths.  But for the Sethites, it is recorded that each one died and how old they were when they died.  All that is except for Enoch, which is another story.  

God said to Adam in Gen 2:17, “… For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” and they all died who were the sons of Adam. But, on the other hand, it was a day of jubilee.  As each man dies, God proves Satan a liar, for Satan had said “thou shalt not surely die.”  Yet each man died.  God took note of each death and recorded it.  The death of each saint was a jubilee day in heaven.

Psalms 116:15
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
KJV

Death for them was not the end, but the beginning.  

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE BLOOD ATONEMENT-PART II (Genesis 4:1-8)

In the story of Cain and Abel that we find in the book of Genesis, Abel was a prophet, and Able taught that when you believe on Jesus, you’ll have remission of sin. Now, in order to have faith, Able had to have the Word of God. The Bible says that he was a prophet. He understood the blood atonement. I want to tell you, he may not have understood it as you and I understand it, standing on this side of Calvary, but he was a man of God. He was one of the Old Testament prophets that pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, there is a principle that starts in the book of Genesis and goes all the way through to the book of Revelation, and that is blood atonement. You cut this book anywhere; it will bleed. There is a red river of redemption. It welled up there in the Garden of Eden and flowed past the gates of Eden when God made for Adam and Eve coats of skin.

Adam and Eve had three kinds of garments. First of all, they had a robe of glory; they were covered with light. And then they lost that robe of glory, and they had a robe of guilt. They knew that they were naked, and they were covered with shame. And then they had a robe of grace, as God killed an innocent animal, and with that innocent animal, He made for them coats of skin. What was God teaching right there in the dawn of civilization? That “Without [the] shedding of blood is no remission [of sin].” 

Then we see Abel as he comes continuing in the same idea, and he brings this pure, spotless lamb and the fat thereof, and God had respect unto the prophet Abel’s offering. 

Click on the play button to hear a message on how there are really only two divisions of all religion, and that is the salvation of works and the salvation by grace. 

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE BLOOD ATONEMENT (Genesis 4:1-8)

Did you know that all religion is not the same?  Somehow, we have thought that it is antisocial if we don’t just put our arms around everybody else and say, “Well, God bless you. You believe one way, and I believe another way, and your way is just as good as my way.”  Well, that is simply not true. There is but one way to worship God, and that’s God’s way. Now, Jesus is not just a good way to heaven; Jesus is not even the best way to heaven. Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Now, that may sound narrow to some people, but, it is what God, in His Word, has said is true.

John 14:6
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
KJV

Acts 4:12
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
KJV

If Jesus Christ is not the only way to heaven, then Jesus Christ is none of the ways to heaven. If Jesus Christ is not the only way to heaven, then Jesus is a faker, because He claimed to be something that He was not. A faker is nobody’s Savior. If He’s not the only way, then He is none of the ways. He Himself said, “I am the way, the truth … no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how there are really only two divisions of all religion, and that is the salvation of works and the salvation by grace. 

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

A PASTOR’S ACCOUNTABILITY (Hebrews 13_17)

A PASTOR’S ACCOUNTABILITY (Hebrews 13:17)

The topic of our message is going to be on the accountability of the preachers and pastors that lead our churches.  But, this message is not only for our pastors, it is for each of you as well, because you will also face a day of judgment. The Bible teaches that if the pastor is God’s man, then you ought to follow him; if he’s not, then you ought to fire him. It’s just that simple.  

It is a fact that one of these days, every pastor, every preacher, every minister, must face the Lord, and He’s going to ask them to give an account of their ministry.  But, it’s also a fact that each of us who are a true follower of Christ will one day face the Lord, and we will also have to give an accounting for not only, if we were obedient to God’s command to be submissive to our pastors, but for our own Christian work and ministry that God has given us.

Now, we are saved by grace through faith, and we cannot work our way to heaven.  But, somehow people have gotten the idea that they can live just any way they like, do anything they like, and because they’re saved by grace they can just go to sleep in a Pullman car and just coast into the yards of glory and it will make absolutely no difference how they serve the Lord, what they did, or whatever. But the Bible teaches to the contrary. 

The Bible teaches there is coming a day of accountability. The preacher is going to face an accountability.  He is going to have to answer to God for the way he leads his church. Even though he is saved by grace, he will have to give an account. 

Click on the play button to hear a message that will describe how Christ will hold pastors, and their followers, accountable the work that they have done in the name of our Lord.    

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

STAR WARS (Hebrews 11:32-34)

STAR WARS (Hebrews 11:32-34)

This message is about a man named Barak whose story is found in the Old Testament book of Judges. As you might imagine, since he is a member of God’s Hall of Fame for the champions of faith, Barak was a man known for his faith. The title of the lesson, which is Star Wars, comes from the Old Testament book of Judges which says, 

Judg 5:20
20 They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
KJV

The background of this story is that there was a battle between Barak and a Canaanite general named Sisera, and the outcome of this battle was known before the battle even started.  It was fixed.  The verse tells us that it was impossible for Sisera to win because he was battling the stars. He had a collision with the stars. The message is very clear, and it is that All the universe is against the man who is against God.  If you are not with God, ultimately, you are destined to fail. The God who runs those stars, the God who created the universe and flung those stars out into space, programmed everything against Sisera. There was no way that he could win, because sin can’t win, and faith can’t fail, and this was a battle of faith, and God gave the victory.

Click on the arrow button above to hear a message on how God’s purposes will prevail. “Have faith in God, He cannot fail; have faith in God, He must prevail. He can’t fail.” Satan cannot win. The stars in their courses are against the man who’s against God. The stars line up for the man who loves God.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.