The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

Whenever I get ready to teach, or study, a book of the Bible, and I know that I am going to be spending a lot of time in it, I try to get in my mind why God put this book in the Bible and what it is that He wants me to learn from it.  The Bible is such a marvelous book. It is so simple that a child can learn about God’s love for them, and it is so deep that a person can spend their entire life plumbing it depths and barely get below the surface. I love the Word of God, because it allows me to know the mind of God, and when I know the mind of God, I know the love of God.  There is nothing that I value more than the love that God has for me.  It sustains me, it motivates me, it guides me, and it makes me the person that I am, a servant of God.  

I firmly believe that God gave us His Word so that we might know who He is, what He has done for us, and as a result, that we might live for Him.  It is His Word that answers all of the questions that we have in this life.  It is His Word that grounds me in the absolute truths about right and wrong, it establishes what good and evil are, light from dark, and it gives me the keys to living a victorious Christian life.  

So, what is it that God wants us to know from the book of Proverbs?  Why did God give us this very unusual book?  When you look at the book of Proverbs, you will find it to be an interesting collection of short, concise and forcefully expressive sayings.  Unlike our studies of the gospel of John, and the life of David, Proverbs does not even tell a story, or a series of stories.  We won’t find David slaying Goliath with five smooth stones, and we won’t find Jesus healing the sick and feeding the five thousand.  As a result, you may not consider the Book of Proverbs as a very thrilling story, but it is.  You also may want to think of the Book of Proverbs like a big collection of sayings that you might find in a Chinese cookie, but it is not.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on what God wants you to know about the book of Proverbs, and how it can give you the answers to many of your questions about life.  

Amen.

Today we are going to talk about a familiar story from the New Testament. It is about a woman who was caught in the act of adultery, but the woman is not the focus of this story. It is instead the statement that Jesus makes to the scribes and the pharisees who had brought her to Jesus. Jesus tells them, “He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

The real question that Jesus is asking is, “are you qualified to judge this woman?” We are required to make judgments almost every day of our lives, but rarely do we judge whether a person should die for their sin. Never are we allowed to determine the eternal destiny of a person, and I am glad that is true because we are simply not qualified to be that judge. I am glad that Jesus is the only One qualified to judge my eternal destiny. To determine if I will spend eternity in heaven or hell. Amen?

Click on the link below hear a message, not about the perils of judging others, but a message about the wisdom and compassion of Jesus Christ. Wisdom to see through the schemes and agendas that we have as humans, and the compassion to forgive the sins of a woman whose heart chose Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

Amen.

God has a plan for your redemption.  God was not taken by surprise by the fall of man.  It was foreknown by God.  If God acted in creation, He knew He would eventually have to act in redemption.  He also knew that all three persons of the Godhead would have to be involved.

So, before God ever spoke the words that began creation, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit conceived the plan to redeem Adam's ruined race.  It was foreordained before the foundation of the world that, when the fullness of the time was come, God the Son would enter into human life.  He would become the Babe of Bethlehem and then, in due time, the Lamb of Calvary.  Our redemption was no afterthought with God.  It was part of a plan.  

Christ was the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world because God knew that you and I would need a Savior, and He loved us enough to provide that Savior.  The Biblical concept of foreordination is just that simple, we only needed a God with a great big heart of love who provided redemption by His grace. 

John 3:16-18

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.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

KJV

This is God’s plan of redemption.  God loves you enough to offer salvation by grace.

Revelation 13:8

8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

KJV

Whether man wants to acknowledge the existence of God or not. Whether man wants to accept God’s plan of redemption, or not.  God’s plan states that from the foundation of the world, God planned for all mankind, saved or not, to worship Him.  If you want to find God’s salvation, then the object of your faith must be in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  God very reasonably declares…

1 John 5:9-12

9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.

10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

KJV

Our redemption has been a part of God’s eternal plan.  Our response to that plan demands that we accept the redemption offered by God, to live a holy life as set out by the Scripture, and to do the work that God has sent us here to do.  

Listen to this podcast to learn about God’s plan for your redemption.

The Bible emphatically teaches the doctrine of election, and this is a doctrine that has caused endless debates and disputes throughout the ages.  People will either go off the deep end into hyper-Calvinism with this doctrine, or they avoid it like the plague because they don’t understand it.  When it really is quite simple to understand.  Man complicates it by assuming that God cannot know anything that man does not know.  That really is the heart of the problem for man in understanding this doctrine.  

However, the truth is that man’s mind is limited, and God’s mind is unlimited.  Man’s capacity to know things is finite, and God’s knowledge is infinite.  Man’s knowledge is bounded by the constraints of time, it encompasses what has happened in the past and what is happening right now.  Man can only guess at the future.  

God created the concept of time so His knowledge is unconstrained by time.  He knows all things from before time began until well past the day when eternity makes time irrelevant, and He knows it all at the same time.  God cannot learn anything, since by definition He already knows it all.  

In today’s lesson, Peter gives us his own inspired insight into the subject.  He bluntly declares that our election is based on God’s foreknowledge.  Without hesitation, or qualification, Peter says that God has elected a certain company to become members of the royal family of heaven.  However, God does this and never violates our own volition, or our own right to choose.  God woos, He does not ravage.  He does not endow His creations with wills of their own, with the power of choice and personal accountability for their behavior, and then act as though they had no such thing.  

God’s election of certain members of the human family to become members of the royal family takes into account the response of each individual when confronted by the Holy Spirit with the offer of salvation.  While this may sound difficult to understand, the simple truth of it is that if you want to be a part of the elect of God, then choose Christ when the Holy Spirit presents salvation to you.  

Salvation boils down to one question, will you accept or reject Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master.  

If you say yes, then you will become part of the elect of God, and you will spend eternity in heaven with Christ.  

If you say no, then you will not be part of the elect of God, and you will spend eternity burning in the fires of Hell, forever without the light of God.  

Listen to this powerful Biblical doctrine of God’s foreknowledge and how it can bless you because God knows who you are, where you are, what you are going through, and He has a plan for you.  If you are believer, then God will empower you to deal with any persecution or trial that you may be going through.  He knew about this before it ever occurred and He has prepared you for it, and He is with you every step of the way.  

One of the great Biblical promises that we have as believers is that God’s plan will be done.  No matter what man does to mess things up in this world, no matter what schemes and plots that Satan has for this world, God’s plan will be done.  It will be done just like He set it up to be done before He created the universe and everything in it.  Nothing has changed in this plan, and nothing will change.  God’s plan will be done, period.  

The fact that I know this promise of God to be true is comforting to me, and that is why God gave us this promise, so that we could be comforted knowing that God was in control.  Paul closes out this epistle with a declaration of this promise.  The almighty God of the Bible is the everlasting God, and His purposes and His goals are pursued by Him from age to age.  Christians may be feeble and frail, but God is strong.  The church may look like it is weak and divided, but it is the body of Christ and therefore it is linked to Omnipotence.  Whatever else may fail, the work of God cannot.  

Paul draws our thoughts to Him whose loving counsels foresaw the fall of man, provided for it before the foundation of the world, foreknew us, foreknew you and me, loved us into the kingdom, and who arranges for all things to work together for our good and His eternal glory.  Paul also draws our thoughts to the Son of His love, our blessed and glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  And having filled our hearts and mind with these thoughts, Paul says a final Amen to this great epistle.

The way to happiness and harmony between God’s people is not always easy, for people are different.  Imagine that, I am different from you, and you are different from me.  In fact, praise God that we are different, for it shows that we are a unique creation of God, with a unique task to perform for the Lord.

We are different because we are saved from a multitude of backgrounds including, racial and religious differences, and even social and educational differences.  It is inevitable that people of different ages and temperaments, abilities and drives, concepts and natures should have trouble adjusting one to another within the fellowship of a local church.  But it can be done.  It cannot be done by our nature, nor can it be done by our own self-will, but it can be done through the grace of God working in us. 

When you think about it, the things that unite us are far stronger than the things that divide us.  We are united in Christ by a common birth, by precious blood, and by one belief.

Eph 4:4-7

4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

KJV

Certainly, it is true that the things that bind us are far stronger than the things that divide us, and it is the fact that these things are true, that we have only One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all, and it this truth that makes it possible for us to make sure that we are…

Eph 4:3

Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

KJV

When our eyes are on the Lord, when we remember that our love of Christ is the tie that binds us and it is far stronger than the things that divide us, then our ability to get along is simple and assured.  

What made God choose Israel as His special people?

What made God choose Abraham over the other pagan worshippers in the land of the Ur of the Chaldees?

Why would God choose Isaac over Ishmael for the promise of the covenant?

Why would God choose Jacob over Esau to be the father of the children of the promise?

God in His sovereign wisdom made the Jews a peculiar treasure unto Himself, and it is through them that God has communicated to the whole world His absolute truths about right and wrong.  Every single prophecy of the end times that we have, and every single Scripture we have, has come from God through the Jews.  And with God there is no changing.  His words were true then, and they are true today.  What was sin then, is sin today.  

Listen to this podcast to understand that God’s dealings with Israel were based on His divine wisdom.  By His divine wisdom, God knows those who are the children of the promise.  

But, God's promises were not for everyone just because they were a natural born Israelite! Rather, they are for one who has the faith of Abraham.  The father of faith! 

Romans 4:16

16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

KJV

In other words, not all the offspring, the natural offspring of Israel, are the real Israel.  Paul is telling us that there has always been a remnant within the nation of Israel, and that remnant, whether natural or not natural, has been a spiritual offspring.  These are the children of the promise.  These are the real Israel.  These are the ones whom God will fulfill each of His promises to.    

Can you depend on the future?

We all make plans for the future.  We plan for our kids to go to college.  We plan for our retirement.  We plan for our career.  It is considered prudent to do all of these things, and foolish not to, but can we depend on the future happening like we want it to, like we are planning for it to happen?

It would be great if we see into the future and know exactly what was going to happen, so we could better plan for the events that were going to occur.  For instance, if you knew that you were going to lose your job in a few months, you might begin to save money to prepare for it.  

This is why horoscopes, soothsayers, fortune tellers, and psychics, are so popular, people will try anything to look out into the future.  The problem is that none of these methods really work because they cannot really see into the future.  Only God can see the future.  Only God is omniscient.  Only God knows exactly what you will be doing in the next minute, the next hour, the next day, the next year, until the day you die.  

Satan cannot see the future.  Satan cannot prophesy, only God can prophesy.  So if we are to make plans for the future, wouldn't it make sense to consult the only One who knows exactly what is going to happen to us, when it will happen, and how it will happen?  God knows it all.  

Listen to this podcast to learn why it is so important to always consider God’s will for your life in any plans that you make, for it is God that commands your heart make the next beat, or He is the One that tells it to stop beating.  In this lesson, James tells us how foolish it is to leave God out of the equation when we need to depend on our future.   

If you were to list the characteristics of Jesus as He lived on the earth you would probably use words like, peacemaker, gentle, easy to approach, merciful, pure, unbiased, and without hypocrisy.  These are the characteristics of God’s wisdom, and they are the characteristics that a true Christian is to exhibit as they deal with those around them.  

When someone makes Jesus Christ their Lord and Master, they are reborn and regenerated, they become a new person, and with the power of the Holy Spirit working through them these characteristics become the way a believer will behave.  It is the evidence that a revolution has occurred in that person’s life, and that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Master.  

Being a Christian is more than just saying a prayer and mumbling some words.   We are saved by God’s grace, we do not work for our salvation, but our lives must show the evidence of the transformation that has occurred in our life.  The words we say, the works that we produce, the way we control our tongue, and the way we deal with those around us are the evidence of the salvation that has occurred within our lives and they identify the Master of our hearts.  

Listen to this podcast to learn how God’s wisdom is to shine through the life of a believer to such a degree that the world sees a positive difference in their lives.  Your behavior is your trademark as a Christian.

When you need wisdom, where do you go to find it?

Your family, your friends, your mentors, your teachers, the internet, or maybe even some TV or radio show host?

There is certainly some merit in going to someone who has experienced what you are going through to give you guidance on how to handle some problem that you may be facing.  If we were to look back over man’s history we would find that man has discovered many great things and overcome many difficult challenges using the knowledge and wisdom that is available to him.  Think of the advances in science, medicine, psychology, and even religion, that have occurred in just the last 100 years.  

Yet, when you consider how much more knowledge there is for man to discover, and then compare that to what we already know, you begin to realize how little we truly know today.  It would be a bold man that declared that he knows even 10% of all the knowledge that is out there to be discovered.  And with each new discovery, man must rethink everything that he knows to put it into context with what he has just discovered.  It can be an exciting and humbling experience.  

So as you go to other people in your search for wisdom, the first thing you must realize is that everyone you are talking to is giving you answers from that 10% of knowledge that man knows, and they are ignoring all of the answers that could be found in the 90% that man knows nothing about.  If you were to go to a doctor and ask him what was wrong with you, and he told you that he could tell you, but that he only knows 10% of what he needs to know to be a doctor, you would probably be skeptical of the answer, as you should be.  

So, if you don’t go to other men to find wisdom, who can you go to that can provide you with answers from all of the knowledge that man will ever be able to discover, and all of the knowledge that man can never know?

Listen to this podcast to discover that there are two kinds of wisdom; human wisdom, and God’s wisdom.  Human wisdom comes from man’s limited knowledge.  God’s wisdom comes from the infinite knowledge of the Creator of all things, the omniscient, the omnipotent, and the omnipresent, living God.