The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE BENEFITS OF A CHRISTIAN (2 Peter 1:1-2)

We live in a world full of apostasy.  False teachings abound.  Satan is seeking to destroy the church from within.  The Christian life is more than just a birth.  It is a growth, and it is a development.  The key to a victorious Christian life in the midst of apostasy is found in the last verse of the book of 2 Peter. 

2 Peter 3:18

18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

KJV

You will not be able to live for God unless you have a knowledge of the Word of God.  Yet, we need to have more than simple knowledge about Christ, the kind of knowledge we find in a library book.  Rather, we are to have a super knowledge of Jesus.  To have this kind of knowledge of Christ is to know Him better than your closest loved one.  To know Him, is to know life eternal.  First comes salvation by the grace of God, then as we begin to know Jesus, we gain peace in Jesus.  

In our lesson today, we find that in just the first two verses of this book we are told of some truly marvelous benefits of being a Christian.  We have a like precious faith, made precious by the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is through our faith in Christ that we have obtained all the righteousness of God.  Our sins have been wiped clean, and we have a standing before God as completely righteous.  Then, by the grace of God we obtained our salvation, and being justified by God’s grace we can have the peace of God because we have a super-natural knowledge of God.  We have a personal relationship with the Creator of all things, the almighty God.  But not just any personal relationship, we know Christ better than we know our own spouse because the Holy Spirit resides in our hearts.  He constantly speaks to us of the things that Christ tells Him to share with us, and He speaks to us when we are all alone.  

Amazing, huh?  Listen to this new series of podcasts to see the rest of what God has in store for us in this little book.

TO BE OBEDIENT TO GOD (Romans 16:19-21)

The word obedience is a great Biblical word in the life of the believer.  It is at the very heart of our service, our salvation, and our sanctification.  Many an invitation call has been made with these words. 

Trust and obey,

For there is no other way

To be happy in Jesus, 

But to trust and obey.

In our lesson today, we learn that to be obedient to the Word of God we must be skillful and intelligent in the truths and ways of God. 

Matthew 10:16

16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

KJV

We are to be wise in the Word of God so that we can determine that which is really good, from that which is counterfeit; wise so that we can distinguish things that are untrue, in order to improve our opportunities to serve.  All the while knowing that we remain surrounded by those who would deceive us, and therefore take us away from God’s work.

Proverbs 14:8

8 The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit.

KJV

We talked last week about how the believer is to recognize the truth among a sea of counterfeit.  You learn to tell the difference by diligent study of the real thing.  To rightly divide the word of truth requires meticulous, constant, study, an open heart to the words of the Holy Spirit, and simplicity in our faith in Christ.

We are to be wise enough not to be deceived, and yet so simple that we will not be deceivers.  It is a Holy simplicity that Paul describes here.  To have a holy simplicity means that you are someone who does not contrive, or have evil intentions.  We are not to be sophisticated in the ways of evil, we are to be simply faithful in our knowledge of the Lord.  

An obedient believer is to recognize wisdom, recognize evil, and recognize that both can be found in the church.  To believe otherwise is to be naive and foolish.  To be obedient to God requires that we know the truth of what God says so that we will not be deceived by the lies of Satan.  

DEALING WITH FALSE TEACHERS (Romans 16:17-18)

How do you deal with those who deliberately, not accidentally, teach a doctrine that is different from what is found in the Bible?

When a Jehovah’s Witness comes to your door, what do you do?  Do you engage in a debate with them, or do you shut the door?

How do you identify what is true and what is false in the teachings of people who profess to be Bible believing Christians?  They may even be in the leadership of the church as the pastor, or a deacon, or a Bible teacher.  How do you know when they begin to teach something that is false?

Many of these people will use the same words that we use, but they use a different dictionary to define them.  They say they believe in Jesus as the Christ, but they mean a Christ who was not the Son of God.  They say they believe in the resurrection, but they mean a spiritual resurrection, not the physical, bodily resurrection that the Bible declares occurred.  

The subtlety of these teachings is that they use a paraphrased truth from the Bible and then mix it with a lie, for the very best lies are based on a fragment of truth.  Just enough truth to seduce you, but filled with the lies of a false religion.  

Our lesson today is on how to deal with false teachers in the church and on your doorstep.  Today, as Christians we have two weapons to combat Satan and his disciples which are sufficient for our victory in spiritual warfare: the Spirit of God and the Word of God.  Filled with the Spirit, we can unsheath the Word of God to answer every devilish challenge that Satan and his demons can make.  All the craft and subtlety that Satan can muster is useless if the believer can began every statement with the words “Thus saith the Lord”.  

If there comes among you a teacher who knowingly and willfully does not teach the truth about Jesus Christ as He is defined in the Bible, then Paul says that we are to mark them, to shun them, and to avoid them.  We are to correct them under the leading of the Holy Spirit, but if that fails, then they are to be removed from the body of believers just as you would a ravening wolf that was prowling among you.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWLEDGE (Romans 3:1-8)

Knowledge is power.  When you know something that others do not, you have an advantage over them.  That is why gossip is so enticing.  For that moment when you know something nobody else does, it makes you the smart one, the one on the inside, the one who has control of where that knowledge goes.  You get to choose who you will allow to join you in this exclusive club for those who have this knowledge.

At the workplace, knowledge is a leverage point.  When people refuse to share knowledge at work, it makes the company less efficient and less productive, but it can be viewed as job security for the person who has the knowledge.  If you are the one with all the knowledge of how things work, it makes it more difficult for the company to let you go.  It makes you more valuable than somebody who does not have this knowledge.  That value gives you leverage.  

Scientific knowledge is often the deciding factor in war time.  The country with the best weapons, the best training, and the best strategy, is usually the one who defeats the other.  Knowledge of how to make a nuclear bomb was the deciding factor in ending the war with Japan in WWII.  The country who got the bomb first was the victor.  

Knowledge is also power in the religious world.  When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, most of them did not know how to speak Hebrew anymore.  They spoke Aramaic which was the official language of the Babylonians.  This meant that the priests and the scribes would have to translate the Scriptures during the worship services for the people.  If the priests could declare what was right and wrong, regardless of what the Scriptures really said, then they had power over the people.  Nor could the people challenge their interpretation of the Law for they could not read the Scriptures themselves.  The religious leaders used this power to control and to mislead the people.

As Christians we have been given knowledge the world does not understand.  We have been given the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This is tremendously powerful knowledge, for it is the secret of how to have eternal life with Jesus Christ in heaven.  The Holy Spirit lives within our hearts and He shares the knowledge of God with us.  He opens the Word of God and He explains it meanings, it promises, and most all what God has done for our salvation.  God wants us to use that knowledge to lead others to Christ.  He has tasked us with the awesome responsibility of being His ambassadors on earth.  We have the knowledge that can help bring others into this group of believers that God calls His own.  

Our lesson today is about how those with that knowledge failed to share it with the world.  When God gave the Mosaic Law to the Jews, He gave them the knowledge of right and wrong.  He gave them something more valuable than gold or silver.  He gave them the light of God.    

GOD'S JUDGMENT IS REAL (Romans 2:7-16)

Sometimes it seems that the only things we feel are real are those things that we can instantly put our hands on and control.  It must come to us instantly, or it is not worth worrying about.  Our world is a world of instant gratification.  There are fast food, fast cars, and fast planes.  We can drive up to a little kiosk and get hot coffee handed to us through our car window.  We become impatient if we have to wait in line for anything.  We expect restaurants to provide quick and efficient service or we take it out of our tip to the waiter.  

Many people suffer from what I call the tyranny of the moment.  This is when your entire focus is controlled by the things immediately in front of you.  You know you need to plan for things, like retirement, but the car payment is due, the mortgage is due, the kids need braces or college, and so you take care of the things of the moment and let the things of the future go unattended.  

When things are promised to us at some unknown point in the future, then they fade into the backs of our mind, and if we try hard enough we can imagine that they will not happen.  

Like God’s judgment.  We are told by God that it is going to happen.  The preacher proclaims that God’s judgment is coming.  All of creation tells us that God is real, and if God is real, then His judgment must be real as well.  But we live our lives like that judgment is never going to happen.  

Can you honestly say that the way you live your life today would not change if you knew for a fact that Jesus was coming tomorrow and you would have to stand before Him?

The world behaves as if God does not exist.  But God’s judgment is real.  

Listen to this podcast to hear the Bible tell us that each person is guilty of sin, there are no exceptions, Jew or Gentile.  God would be perfectly just to condemn each of us based on our works.  Yet God has provided us with an alternative.  God has provided the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ to cover our sins, so that we can have righteousness imputed to us.  A person who has made Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior can stand before a Holy God in righteousness found in Christ.

THE WHEAT AND THE TARES (Matthew 13:24-43)

As a believer, you have been placed in this world as the ambassador of Jesus Christ. Your mission is to share the gospel of Christ.  Satan hates everything that God does, so he has placed his own agents in the world right alongside the ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Their mission is to dilute the message of the gospel of Christ. They are to deceive those who hear the message of Christ with their own version of it. They are to destroy the message of the gospel of Christ. The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares is a story from Jesus that describes the world that we live in today. How God's messengers are hard at work, and what Satan is trying to do to stop it. Listen to this podcast to discover how believers are to respond to the work of Satan's agents and what will happen at the time of the harvest.

HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN CHRIST? (2 Cor. 13:4-14)

Have you forgotten Christ in your everyday life?  Do your actions tell others that Christ lives in you and is leading you, or do you subscribe to the stealthy Christian lifestyle?  The one where you keep Christ hidden until you show up for church on Sunday?  Christ is coming again.  Do you really believe that this is true?  Do you have your house in order for Him to come?  Are you standing in the Word of God, are you obedient to its teachings?  Are you surrendered to the will of God, ready to do whatever the Lord has for you to do?  Have you cleansed your life, and your church, of the things that are of Satan?  Listen to this podcast to hear how Paul spoke to the Corinthians about the Christ that they had forgotten.  This lesson will speak to you about your own Christian witness.

ARE YOU READY? (2 Cor. 12:11 to 13:3)

Are you ready?  Are you ready for Jesus to come?  If not, what are you lacking?  Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior?  How will Jesus greet you, as a faithful servant, or as someone He does not know?  These are important questions that most people do not want to answer.  They think that the need to make sure they are ready is far away in some future, it may happen, time.   Listen to this podcast and learn how Paul tells us to make ourselves ready for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.

DO YOU HAVE A MESSAGE TO SHARE? (2 Cor. 11:28-12:4)

Have you ever had a message to deliver that was worth facing difficulties and hardships to deliver?  A message so important that it is written in the blood of those that would share it with the world, and then fight to make it happen.   This is the kind of message that changes lives.  As a believer you have a message to deliver that is this important.  It is a message that can change the eternal destiny of your family, your friends, and those around you.  The question is, are you willing to share it?  Listen and rejoice as we study about the apostle Paul describe the gospel message he has been divinely appointed to deliver and about his visions of heaven.

TO KNOW SOMEONE (2 Cor. 11:21-27)

When you look at the people around you, all you can see is what they physically display.  You cannot see the experiences that have shaped them into who they are as a person.  Our first impressions of people are often lasting impressions.  Successful people dress differently than others.  Educated people speak more eloquently than others.  Poor people act with less confidence in a society that rewards only success.   The same thing applies to our churches.  Many people are misled by those preachers and teachers who boast of the credits applied to their name.  They proclaim their educational credentials, their heritage, or the churches that sent them.  Are these the things that really matter in preaching the gospel message?  Listen and rejoice as we learn that God's gospel message is simple.  It is a message of God's grace and not man's efforts to follow some set of religious ritual.  It does not need to be hidden behind fancy speeches and educated speakers.  The gospel message is so simple a child can understand it, and a broken heart can accept it.