The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE FLOOD (Genesis 6:17 to 8:5)

God could have destroyed all mankind by any method He chose, He could have used the sword of an angel, as He did when He destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians, and the camp of the Assyrians.  If God had chosen that as His method, then there would only have needed to be a mark set upon Noah and his family for their preservation. 

But God chose to do it by a flood of waters, which would drown the whole world.  God chooses the rod with which he will correct us, His children, just as he chooses the sword with which he will cut off his enemies.  Notice also that this was not an accident, or the result of global warming, God is in control, He chose the method of judgment.  

Then, notice the expression, “I, even I, do bring a flood.” God is saying, “I am infinite in power, and therefore, I can do it.  I am infinite in justice, and therefore, I will do it.”  These are powerful words that speak of the deity of God and the sovereign right He has to condemn and judge all of creation.  God created man, therefore, He has the sovereign right to destroy man.

Yet “the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou.”  God was already in the ark.  Salvation was simply the shutting in of all the saved with Him.  What it meant for Noah to be “in the ark” with God is what it means today for the believer to be “in Christ.”  It means that between the saved and the storm were the judgment proof timbers of the ark.  It also means that between the believer and God’s wrath is Christ.  Christ bears the storm for all those who now find their safety in Him.

Noah and his family had to take one step of faith.  They had to make a total commitment of themselves to the salvation that had been procured for them at the cost of God’s only Son’s life.  Apart from that act, salvation would have been offered in vain.  

This invitation is extended by God to man.  It is extended to everybody, not just a select few.  It urges man to avail himself of the perfect provision God has made for his preservation.  The story of the flood tells us that this invitation of God is also given in a time of overwhelming judgment and doom.

Click on the play button to hear a message on the Flood, and where God said Come! And Noah responded by saying “Just as I am, I come.”  

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 FAITH OF NOAH (Genesis 5:25 to 6:10)

In our message today, we begin a section of verses that describes The Flood and the reasons that God brought destruction to His creation.  From the time that God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden, God had blessed man, and man had been fruitful and multiplied.  In a relatively short period of time man had populated the whole earth.  Yet, instead of recognizing the God that created him, man had turned away from God, and reveled in his own abilities and knowledge.  And as happens every time man turns away from God, man had degenerated into total depravity.

What was the condition on the earth before the Flood? What caused God to bring the judgment of the Flood?  

Genesis 6:5
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
KJV

But as we see throughout the Bible, there was a remnant, someone left who still believed in God.  Noah “found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”  The Bible tells us that grace is the unmerited favor of God; it is getting something we do not deserve.  Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.  But it goes beyond that, why did Noah find grace in the eyes of the Lord?  It is because “Noah walked with God.”  It wasn’t because he deserved it; it wasn’t because his good works outweighed his bad; it was because Noah walked with God.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the faith of Noah, and man who preached righteousness for a period of 120 years without a convert, other than his family, and witnessed to the grace of God.  

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

Amen.

THE TIMES OF ENOCH (Genesis 5:24)

THE TIMES OF ENOCH (Genesis 5:24)

Enoch got out of this world.  The Bible tells us that God just translated Enoch “that he should not see death.” That is, God took him physically, bodily, to heaven without dying.

There is the story of a man who was complaining about the situation in the world to Mark Twain, and he said, “I’m just afraid the world is coming to an end.” And Mark Twain said, “Well, don’t worry about it. You’ll never get out of it alive anyway.”  But he was wrong. Enoch got out of it alive, and Elijah got out of it alive too. 

Now, the Bible teaches that some of us are also going to get out of it alive, and I have a feeling that some of us who are living in this day, and this age, are going to heaven without ever dying. The Bible calls this the Rapture of the Church.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how the conditions of the world during Enoch’s time where so bad that God sent the flood to destroy the earth.  Yet, when we compare those conditions to the conditions of our day and age, we see a great deal of similarity.  Enoch preached the Second Coming of the Lord.  

Some people say, “Well, you know, you Christians, you’re always talking about the Second Coming of Jesus. You’re always saying Jesus is going to come. Well, why hasn’t He come?” The answer is found in, 

2 Peter 3:9-10
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
KJV

The Second Coming of Jesus will come.

Matt 24:37
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
KJV

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 LINE OF CAIN (Genesis 4:7-24)

The critical difference between Cain and Abel was not a character difference at all, but the difference was in the offerings which they brought. It is the same today, for it is the offering that makes a difference in men today.  

The offering of the lost person is his works.  The lost person believes it is his good works that matter, that make him better or worse than someone else.  A recent poll stated that a majority of Americans believe that the basis on which someone will get into heaven would be on how good their works were.  It also said that if people believed in a hell at all, then it would only be the really bad people who would go there.  Without a doubt this is the best false religion that Satan has going. 

But no true believer takes the position that he is better than anyone else. The thing that makes him a Christian is that he recognizes that he is a sinner just like everyone else and that he needs an offering, he needs a sacrifice, and he needs Someone to take his place and to die for him.  That Someone is Jesus Christ.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how the people of the world today are attempting through religion, through joining a church and doing something religious, and then by living what they call a moral life, to make themselves acceptable to God.  Yet, we know that for our righteousness to be acceptable to God it must be a perfect righteousness, and that can only come through the blood of Christ. 

2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
KJV

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.

GOD’S PLAN FOR REDEMPTION (Genesis 3:7-24)

GOD’S PLAN FOR REDEMPTION (Genesis 3:7-24)

The question that I really ask when I study about the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is, why didn’t God just smack Satan and stop all of pain and misery that he has caused?  I would just love to have seen God just look at Satan and just say “Be Gone.”  Well, first off, man would sin anyway, even without Satan.  Satan just helps things along.  Man will have this proven to him during the millennial reign of Christ when Satan is bound for a thousand years.  

It took one man to undo the damage done by another man.  Jesus, the second Adam, came to regain what the first Adam lost.  

1 Corinthians 15:21-22
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
KJV

Jesus came as he did (born of a virgin) to be what he was—holy.  If He had been the son of Adam with Adam’s nature, he would have been a sinner because in Adam all have sinned and died.  He would also have been a slave, for the son of a slave is himself a slave.  Jesus was what He was (holy) to do what He did—redeem us.  He came as a sinless man, paying the full price for our transgression.  He satisfied God’s righteous and holy law and nullified all of satan’s rights to Adam’s domain.  Then, Jesus did what He did (redeem us) that we might have forgiveness, cleansing, a new nature, and Kingdom Authority.  He is the head of a brand-new race.  

Jesus was born of a virgin that we might be born again. Jesus became the Son of Man that we might become the sons and daughters of God. Jesus died in agony that we might live in victory.  

Click on the play button above to hear how God’s plan for redemption of the ruined human race was formed before the foundation of time.  It is written, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:17).

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

Amen.

HOW SIN EVOLVES (Genesis 3:1-6)

In today’s lesson we are going to move into chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, and we are going to see how Satan works in this world to destroy mankind.  Make no mistake about it, that is Satan’s goal, the complete destruction of the creation that God loves the most.  The Bible tells us that,

John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
KJV

The word world as it used here means mankind.  God loved us so much that He would send His Son to die on a cross for our sins.  Satan knows this, and Satan wants to destroy anything that God loves, and so his goal is to totally corrupt and destroy the entire human race.  He started this effort in the Garden of Eden.   

Now, it is important that you know that Satan is a decided fact, that Satan is a destructive force, and thank God, that Satan is a defeated foe. You need to learn about the devil. You dare not be ignorant about the devil and his devices. And he’s done all that he can do to pull the veil of darkness across his kingdom so that you will not understand. But I want us to see, as we look today in this scripture, what I call “How Sin Evolves in your life.” 

Click on the play button above to hear a message on how Satan’s method to destroy man is the lie.  Satan is the biggest liar, and he tells lies about the biggest subject, God Almighty.

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

Amen.