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Each week a new verse-by-verse Bible study podcast given in expository style. Join us and see the Bible come alive as we study the truths that God‘s Word has for us.
Episodes
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
“You may learn to love Jesus better, but you can never love anything better than Jesus. He is our superlative Savior.”
H. G. Wells, wrote in his outlines of history the 10 greatest men of all history, and number one on his list was Jesus Christ. But, the truth is, that Jesus Christ does not belong on anybody’s list. Why? Because, He is God’s unique, only begotten Son. He is our singular Savior. He is our superior Savior. He is our superlative Savior.
Jesus is unique in comparison to all of the other religious leaders. Buddha was a religious leader. Mohammed was a religious leader. Confucius was a religious leader. But let me tell you what all of these have in common. You can take them out of their teachings and still have their teachings. You can take Buddha out of Buddhism and still have Buddhism. You can take Mohammed out of Islam and still have Islam. You can take Confucius out of Confucianism and still have that system of thought. You just follow the deeds, the teachings, the precepts, the creeds of those particular faiths, and you have it.
But you can’t take Christ out of Christianity and still have Christianity, because Christianity is not a code, not a cause, not a creed, not a church, but Christ. It is a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you tried to take Jesus out of Christianity, that would be like taking the notes out of music. That would be like taking the water out of a well. That would be like taking numbers out of mathematics. If you take Jesus out of Christianity, you don’t have anything left, because Christ and Christianity are the same.
Christianity is not just believing some thing; it is receiving someone. And this is the difference between Christianity and any other religion: Christianity is a vital relationship with a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. He is alive and well and living in me today. If we are to be Christ followers, born again believers in Jesus Christ, then we need to understand that Jesus Christ is our singular Savior, and therefore He is our superlative Savior.
Click on the link below to hear a message on Jesus Christ, our Superlative Savior.
Amen.
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
Sunday Feb 27, 2022
I don’t think anyone listening to me today would disagree that we are in moral crisis in our world today, and especially in America. But, we are also in a crisis of leadership, and certainly the Bible teaches us that a nation gets the kind of leadership that nation deserves. May I say clearly and plainly that leadership is crucial for any nation to be blessed by God.
There’s an old proverb that says, “If the gold rust, what shall the iron do?” Now, what that proverb is trying to say is that, if our leadership is not right, what’s going to happen to the rest of us?
Now, here in our country, our government is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The very genius of our government is that the people participate. It’s unthinkable that God Almighty would have ordained government and then told His people to stay out of it. Because, if we do stay out of it, then who would that leave to influence and to lead? Unfortunately, we see the answer to that question with the leadership that populates all levels of our government. There is a crisis in leadership in our country today, nor is this anything new. It has been a crisis for a very long time.
Yet, don’t ever think for one moment that because wicked men make wicked choices, and wicked rulers lead, that God has forsaken control. He has not. The Bible says, “For God is the King of all the earth,” and not only is He King of all the earth, but He is King forever.
Now having said all this, what should we do? Well, number one, the very first thing that we need to do is to pray for revival. The second thing we need to do is prepare for suffering. We need to teach our children that it may not be like we had it. We need to be building character into these boys and girls. Then, the third thing we need to do: We need to prepare for the Lord Jesus Christ’s arrival. He is coming. Jesus is coming. All you have to do is look around and see that the signs of the times are saying that Jesus is near.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the character of a leader.
Amen.
Sunday Aug 15, 2021
Sunday Aug 15, 2021
Gods’ wisdom is evident everywhere in God’s creation. The promise of God’s Word is that if we seek Him, then we will find Him, and when we find Him, then we will obtain life everlasting.
Deut 4:29
29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
KJV
God is not hiding from us. He can be seen in all the wonders of the world we live on.
Rom 1:20
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
KJV
Then, when we find God, we find life everlasting.
Prov 8:35
35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord.
KJV
There is a God sized hole in every individual. We were created to have God living in us to fill that hole. You can spend your entire life trying to fill that hole with the things of this world, but you will never be satisfied, you will never be complete, until you find God and make His Son, Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior. Now, all you have to do to find God, is to seek Him with all of your heart.
Where do you look for God? God’s Wisdom tells us that God is all around us in the universe that He has created. God’s Wisdom is available to be seen and found by whosoever chooses to love God and seek Him. God promises that if we will love and seek Him, then we will find Him and find life.
Amen.
Sunday Aug 08, 2021
Sunday Aug 08, 2021
God’s Wisdom is available to us through the words that we find in the Bible, and the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit as He helps us to interpret God’s Words and apply them to our lives. God’s Wisdom is not hard to find. It cries out to us in every sermon given by a preacher who loves the Lord and is anointed by the Holy Spirit to teach God’s Word. But the most important place we hear God’s Wisdom is when we let His Word, the God-breathed, divinely inspired, inerrant, infallible, and wholly dependable Word of God, speak to us and apply it to our lives.
There is no other book available to man that holds the words of eternal life. The Bible is unique because it contains a distillation of the wisdom of God concerning the children of men. Such a book is a mystery to most because they are spiritually blind and deaf. Yet, the meaning of these words is available to anyone. There is no secret club that you must join. No school tuition that must be paid. God has promised to send His Spirit to speak to those who wish to learn who God is, what He has done for them, and then make Him their Lord and Savior.
John 16:13
13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
KJV
When a person makes Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior, then the Holy Spirit of God will come and live in the heart of that person. It is then, that the person who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit has the capacity to understand the Word of God. This is the Wisdom that we can apply in our lives, and we know that it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
Prov 8:17
17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
KJV
This is one of the most profound and comforting messages in the Bible. Right here in God’s Word, He promises that He “loves them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” This says, if we love God, and we seek His wisdom, then we have the promise of the Word of God that we will find Him.
The wisdom of God is seen in creation—and in redemption too. Before time began, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit planned both creation and redemption.
In the wisdom of God, creation was to be the stage on which God would display His power.
Rom 1:20
20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
KJV
In the wisdom of God, redemption was to be the stage on which God would display His love.
Eph 2:4-6
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
KJV
Click on the link below to hear a message on how we see the majesty of God’s Wisdom in creation and redemption.
Amen.
Sunday Dec 13, 2020
Sunday Dec 13, 2020
God desires to fellowship with us. God is sovereign, and we are to worship God, and we are God’s servants, but God wants more than that from us. He wants our fellowship. The interesting part of fellowshipping with God is that God is one God, but He is also three distinct persons. So, let me ask you, when we fellowship with God, are we fellowshipping with The Father, The Son, or the Holy Spirit?
I know the first thought that comes to my mind is that I fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is the Holy Spirit of God that resides in my heart, and He is the One that comforts me, and convicts me. So, is He the One that I fellowship with?
Then, it is the Father that I pray to in the name of the Son. Now, I have often said that when we pray, we are fellowshipping with God. It is supposed to be a two-way conversation. We tell Him our needs, and then we have to stop and listen to Him. If you do all of the talking, then it is a speech, not fellowshipping, and fellowshipping is what the Lord desires. So, is the Father the One that I fellowship with?
Then, it is the Holy Spirit that takes my words and makes them palatable to the Father, and it is the Son that is my advocate and High Priest before the Lord. So, is it the Lord Jesus that I fellowship with?
The truth is that when I fellowship with God, I fellowship with each of the three persons of God, and yet I still fellowship with just the one God. In other words, the three distinct persons of God act as One as they fellowship with me. Now, isn’t that an amazing concept? But that is not all.
In today’s message we are going to study about an act by three of David’s mighty men where they rose up and acted as one to fulfill a need that David had. It is a picture of what God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit did when they acted as One to fulfill our most important need. The need for salvation. There is, in the heart of every one of us, a thirst for the water of everlasting life.
John 7:37
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
KJV
Rev 22:17
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
KJV
Our insatiable thirst is for the water of life. Not the water of this world, for the water of this world can never satisfy the deepest longing of the human heart, and people are trying to satisfy that craving. There is in every one of us an insatiable thirst that can only be satisfied with the wonderful water of life that Christ said, “And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
The next time you partake of the Lord’s Supper, I want you to think of this. I want you to think of what God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have done to bring the water of life to you. When we take the precious elements into our bodies, when we hold these things in our hands, we’re saying, “This is what God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, did for us, that our deepest thirst might be satisfied.” But, we’re also saying, “Here, Lord, I give myself away. ’Tis all that I can do”—a life given, and a life given back.
Rom 12:1
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.
KJV
Click on the link below to hear a wonderful story in the life of David, that reminds us what the three persons of God, acting as the One true almighty God, have done to meet our deepest need, salvation.
Amen.
Sunday Oct 25, 2020
Sunday Oct 25, 2020
Most of the people who read my posts and listen to my audio messages have been Christians for a long period of time. Some of you, like me, were saved as a child. Others, were saved at some point later in life, and as we get older, we tend to get set in our ways.
I say all of that to indicate that we have probably also gotten pretty comfortable in on our method of worshipping God. We know what we like, and how we like to do it. Some of us will be more ritualistic and formal than others, some with much less formality. But we like what we like, and we resist change. Now, I can hear some of you thinking, “Why bro. Keith this is the way we did it back in the church I grew up in, and that is what makes me happy, and you want me to be happy, don’t you?” Well, I do and that is real good, because in today’s lesson, we are going to see what the Bible says about how to worship God, and who knows, maybe some of us seasoned citizens might learn a thing or two.
The title of our lesson today is How to worship God. Now, that is a pretty big subject, with lots of territory to cover, but we are going to make it short and sweet today, because the Bible is pretty straight forward when it comes to worshipping God. It is us that makes it difficult, or complicated, not God.
Do you want to have victory in your Christian life? Do you want to really be used of God? Then, learn to praise the Lord. Praise Him. Praise Him continually. Praise Him creatively. Praise Him celebratively, and Praise Him, confidently. God is such a great God! Some people just don’t understand what real worship is.
Click on the link below to hear a message that tells us that Worship is all that I am responding to all that God is.
Amen.
Sunday Jun 14, 2020
Sunday Jun 14, 2020
We know that Jesus rose from the dead because Scripture tells us that after His resurrection He was touched by people, He walked, He talked, He ate, and He was seen by hundreds of people. The fact that Jesus rose bodily from the grave is a foundational principle in our faith. If you do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, then you cannot be saved and have everlasting life. It is that important. The resurrection has been, and still is, an integral part of the gospel message of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures make it clear that it was real, and you can believe it is true.
Satan and all his demons and servants in this world will tell you that it is a myth. Unbelievers have invented alternate theories, such as, Christ did not really die, he only swooned on the cross and in the tomb recovered, escaped into the night, and later showed himself to be alive; the disciples stole the body and then made up a lie about Christ's resurrection based on the fact of an empty tomb; the women who came to the tomb were half expecting a resurrection and therefore had a hallucination.
One and all, those explanations are the desperate attempts of godless men to avoid the fact that Jesus Christ is alive. God raised him from the dead. One and all, the clumsy attempts of an unbelieving world to deny the literal, bodily, resurrection of Christ from the dead break down before the facts.
Being a Christian is about a personal relationship with Christ. If Christ is not alive, then that relationship cannot exist. If Christ is still in the grave, then Satan has won, and we are all condemned to die in our sins. But Christ did rise, and you can have everlasting life when you believe on Him and make Him your Lord and Savior. It is an important principle in our faith for us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the cross was not the end of the story. Jesus rose, He is alive today, and we can have everlasting life because of His death and resurrection.
Amen.
Sunday Nov 10, 2019
Sunday Nov 10, 2019
In our message today, the Lord is going to give His disciples, and all of us, a new commandment, “…to love one another, as Christ has loved us.” Now, I have to admit, for me, that is a tall order because there are people around, even some Christians, who are hard to love. But that is what this new commandment tells us to do.
John 13:34
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
KJV
Now, Jesus is not just talking about loving other Christians. He is talking about everyone. He is saying that we should love everyone as Christ loves us. Is there someone you know that you just say, Lord that is not happening, I cannot love this person? Someone who has done you wrong, perhaps, even harmed you? Friends that have betrayed your trust? Family members who may have abused you, either physically or mentally? There are likely more than just one person who may fit into this category.
Well, why is it a new commandment? Love is not new. The Old Testament certainly taught us to love. In the New Testament gospels, Jesus even gave us a summary of all the commandments when He said,
Matt 22:37-39
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
KJV
What’s new, is that Jesus said that “we are to love as I have loved you.” Never before has this world known love like the love that Jesus Christ showed and the love that Jesus Christ gave. And that is what made it radically new. We are to love others not just as we love ourselves, but as Jesus loved us. This takes the love we are to show to a whole new level.
Click on the link to below to hear a message on how to love that person, who has harmed you, in the same way that Jesus Christ loves them.
Amen.
Sunday Nov 03, 2019
Sunday Nov 03, 2019
Today’s message is about the lessons that we can learn from Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. However, the focus is not on what Judas did, or even what character flaws led Judas to betray Jesus, but on what we can learn about our Lord Jesus Christ from this event. The story of Judas and his betrayal is but the black velvet background on which the brilliant character of the Lord Jesus Christ is displayed.
Just like a well-cut diamond has many facets that make it beautiful and desirable, the Lord Jesus Christ has many facets of His character that make Him beautiful and desirable. There is no question that Jesus outshines every person who has ever lived, or ever will live. And there are many things about the character of Jesus that are in this story.
Click on the link below to hear about the six facets of our Lord’s character that I want you to walk away with today:
Number one: His spiritual insight, Jesus knows everything there is to know about you, and He still loves you in spite of what He knows about you. Jesus knew from the foundation of time that Judas would betray Him, and He still loved Judas.
Number two: His sovereign control, Jesus was in control of all things. It was the Lord’s permissive will that allowed Judas to choose to betray Him. But what Judas meant for evil, Jesus turned to good for His purposes and our salvation. When man rules, God overrules.
Number three: His seeking grace, Jesus sought the redemption of Judas. Jesus knew what Judas would do, but He still washed Judas’ feet in an act of love. He still warned Judas. He still sought to bring Judas into repentance.
Number four: His steadfast mission, nothing that Judas did changed the plan of Jesus to die on the cross for the sins of the world. Nothing that Judas did could derail Jesus, He was steadfast in His mission. That same message applies to you. Don’t you let some hypocrite, some false preacher, or somebody who falls into sin derail your calling for God. Your worship is not to be of a sinful person. It is to be of Jesus Christ the almighty God of all Creation who will never fail you.
Number five: His sympathizing love, Jesus loved Judas, Judas rejected that love. A man will go to hell unsaved, but no man will go to hell unloved. Jesus loves the whole world. “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.” We are to love our neighbors and our enemies with that same love. Why? Because that is exactly what Jesus did to Judas.
Number six: His solemn justice. There is a God of justice. The Lord Jesus Christ is a God of infinite love, but He is also a God of great justice. You may choose to reject God’s love, but if you do, then you will face God’s great justice. If you don't get saved, then you will spend eternity in the same place as Judas, not because of how good or bad you are, but because you rejected the love of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Sunday Sep 29, 2019
Sunday Sep 29, 2019
Have you ever had an event or an experience that you knew was going to be really, really, bad in front of you? You knew it needed to be done, people were depending on you, but you had a few days that you had to get through before it would begin? The waiting, the dreading, the sheer horribleness of it playing on your mind. I can think of things like watching my mother’s last few days on the earth, and the suffering she was dealing with. I knew her death was imminent. I knew it would happen in the next few days. I knew she would be in heaven soon, but I had to steel myself for the emotions that would come.
A soldier facing some kind of really tough battle. He knows the chances were slim that he was going to make it, but he couldn’t let his brothers in arms down. These were men he depended on, and they were the ones who depended on him, so he prepared himself to deal with it.
This is what our next few messages are going to be about for Jesus. He knew this was the reason that He had come to earth. His whole life had been about this coming hour. The entire human race depended on Him completing the work of salvation. He knew that He was about to carry the burden of every sin that had ever been committed and would ever be committed. He knew the ugliness of the world’s worst sins was about to be thrust upon Him and He would have to die as punishment for that sin. He dreaded the hour, but He knew the whole world depended on Him, and so He prepared Himself. There was so much He needed to do before that hour came, but His disciples needed to hear what He had to say. These next several weeks are going to be a study in how much Jesus loved each and every one of us, even the Jews and the Romans who would crucify Him.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what is likely the Lord’s last attempt to convince the Jews that He was the Son of God, the Promised Messiah.
Amen.