The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

HOW TO SHARE YOUR TESTIMONY (Ephesians 2:1-10)

HOW TO SHARE YOUR TESTIMONY (EPHESIANS 2:1-10)

Today’s message includes one of the most recited pair of verses in the Bible, for it is the foundation God’s promise of salvation by grace and not of works.  

Eph 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
KJV

And when you add the rest of verses 1-10, it is also a guidebook for the believer “How to Share Your Testimony.”  We should never ever underestimate the power of a Christian testimony. We are called to be witnesses and not lawyers. A witness is somebody who tells what he’s seen and heard. A lawyer is somebody who argues a case. We are witnesses of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Without a doubt, a Christian with a glowing testimony is worth a library full of arguments.

Now, you don’t have to be a theologian to be able to give your testimony. Remember the man who was born blind, and Jesus healed him, and then the Pharisees jumped on his case? Oh, they were angry because this man had been healed, and they got him and backed him into a corner, and they started to ask him all kinds of theological questions. The man just said, “Well, I’m sorry. I can’t answer all of those questions, but, one thing I know: once I was blind and now I see” (John 9:25). There is nothing theological about that fact, yet it is a great testimony to the power of the Lord Jesus.  “Once I was blind and now I see.” And a Christian with a testimony is never at the mercy of an infidel with an argument. Remember that.

Now, it’s important that we learn to share our testimony. Our testimony is the convincing thing when we witness and share the Lord Jesus Christ.  And so today, I want to give you an outline for sharing your testimony; and you can fill in the personal part, but I’m just going to give you the outline.  And listen, if you are saved, right here is your spiritual biography and your future history.

Click on the play button to hear a message on our past guilt, our present grace, and our future glory.  I want you to learn some wonderful things about what has happened to you, what is happening to you, and what will happen to you. 

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

Amen.

THE WORK OF REDEMPTION (Ephesians 1:7-14)

THE WORK OF REDEMPTION (EPHESIANS 1:7-14)

In today’s message, we will be talking about the work that God, in all three parts, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, did to obtain our salvation, to redeem us, completely forgiven for our sins.  It is a wonderful story of God’s love, and God’s grace, that He would sacrifice so much so that we might have redemption from the sins that stain our soul.  It is a story of the completed work of redemption, and eternal life, that is ours if we make Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

It was God’s eternal counsel that the Lord Jesus should first give His life for us at Calvary, and then give His life to us. 

Eph 1:7
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
KJV

God the Father, planned our salvation by grace and not works.  It was His idea that God the Son, Jesus Christ, would go to the cross to die and then be risen to walk in life and victory over death.  It is because Jesus came to this earth as a God incarnate in man that The Father now sees us in the Beloved. He looks at us and sees Christ. No angel among the heavenly hosts has more acceptance than we.

Paul states, “The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”  Notice that word “grace.”  Paul uses it again and again in his letters.  For, our redemption is by grace, God’s unlimited grace. Grace is unmerited favor. It is getting something we don’t deserve. Paul strikes this note over and over. Paul tells us that there is more of God’s grace to follow, an unending supply, when he talks of the “The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”

We can thank God that He is rich in grace.  God has revealed Himself to be a God of infinite power, a God of infallible wisdom, a God of inflexible holiness, and a God of unlimited grace!  Amen, hallelujah, and praise the Lord.

Click on the play button to hear a message on the wonderful work of redemption, that God did to provide a completed salvation, if you will only accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

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

Amen.

SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED (Ephesians 1:13-14)

SIGNED, SEALED, AND DELIVERED (EPHESIANS 1:13-14)

When Paul talks about a seal, he is talking about a legal seal, and a seal means finality.  It means the transaction is done.  A seal also means security; it means the transaction is safe. And then a seal also means identity; it shows to whom the transaction has been delivered. I want you to think about the fact that Christians have the sealing of the Holy Spirit of God.

Paul says that when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when we’re born again, one of the ways that we know that we are saved, one of the proofs, one of the authenticating pieces of evidence, that we are genuine, bone fide, legally belonging to Jesus Christ, is that God places His seal upon us. Now, the seal that God places upon us is the Holy Spirit of God, because every believer, when he is saved, receives the Holy Spirit of God. 

The Bible is very clear when it says that if you have not received the Holy Spirit, then you have not received Jesus. The only way that you can receive Christ is to receive God’s Holy Spirit. He lives in you; He abides in you. And when He comes into you, it is the same thing to you that a seal is to a legal document. “Ye were sealed”—the Bible says—“with that holy Spirit of promise.” And a seal means finality; it means the transaction is done.  

Now, Paul is telling us that Jesus has purchased you, and there is finality. And when you receive the Holy Spirit of God, that means that the price has been paid in full. There’s nothing else you can do, and nothing else that you need to do.  For, without Jesus, nothing can be done, and with Jesus nothing else needs to be done. 

Click on the play button below to hear a message on the six reasons why I believe the Bible teaches us that we are eternally secure in our salvation.  

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

Amen.

THE FRAMEWORK OF SALVATION (Genesis 45: 1 to 28)

THE FRAMEWORK OF SALVATION (Genesis 45:1-28)

There is something that I want you to know beyond the shadow of any doubt, and that is God wants you to be saved.  There is an old hymn entitled “BLESSED BE THE NAME” with the words, 

“I never shall forget the day,
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
When Jesus washed my sins away,
Blessed be the name of the Lord!”
—CHARLES WESLEY

And I wonder how many people might be singing that song, but they are like iron fountains in the park. You see a lion statue as a fountain, and there is water spewing out of his mouth, but he never tastes a drop of it. And I am wondering if there are those of you who have that song coming out of your mouth without tasting a drop of it.

Was there a time, was there a day, when you said, “Praise God, bless God, hallelujah, I know, that I know, that I know, that I have met Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and Lord.  I have a day to be remembered.”  If not, do you know what my prayer is? My prayer is that this day will be the day that you will be able to sing those words and taste every drop of every word.  The Lord wants you to be saved, and only Jesus can save you. The problem is sin. 

Rom 3:23
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
KJV

And there’s only one thing that can be done with sin, and that is to bring that sin to the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us and make us pure and make us clean.  So, you need to pay attention to the message that God has for us in this story.

Click on the play button so that you can listen to what God has to say about how you can know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord.

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 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.

A TALE OF TWO TREES (Genesis 2:15-17)

A TALE OF TWO TREES (Genesis 2:15-17)

In today’s lesson we are going to be talking about a couple of very important trees that God has given to mankind.  

For the first tree, God had created man, and He placed man there in the beautiful Garden of Eden and gave him absolutely everything he needed for indescribable happiness and for joy and fulfillment. But in order that man might have a will—and a free will—God gave him the moral opportunity of a choice. And so, God created a tree and planted that tree in the Garden of Eden. It was called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” and man was absolutely forbidden to eat the fruit of that tree.  That was the first tree.

For the second tree, we have Calvary’s tree, which is a tree of life.  Now, don’t be confused, this is not the tree of life that was also placed in the Garden of Eden, but it is “The” tree of life.  The tree of eternal life.  The tree that Christ died for our sins on. when you see the cross, and when you see what it did to Jesus, and when you see the wrath of God being poured out, there you have a knowledge of evil. That tree, Calvary’s tree, was a tree of the knowledge of evil, but it was also a tree of the knowledge of good. When you see the cross, when you see Calvary’s cross, there and there alone do you behold the goodness of God, the glory of God, the grace of God, the righteousness of God, the majesty of God—the glory of God—as you’ve never beheld it before, by beholding the cross. 

Click on the play button above to hear a message on the two trees that God has given man.  Trees that give the knowledge of good and evil.  With the first tree we see the sinfulness of man, and with the second tree we receive the wonderful grace of God.

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

Amen.

ABEL’S SERMON ON FAITH (Hebrews 11:4)

In today’s message we will be talking about Abel.  You may not know it, but Abel was a prophet of God, and today we will be discussing his message on faith.  The central theme of the entire 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews is that God is to be worshiped, and if God is to be worshiped, then He must be worshiped in Spirit and in truth. 

The key to Abel’s sermon on faith is that there are only two religions in the entire world: the true and the false.  That may seem narrow to you, but that’s what this message is all about. There is the religion of grace and the religion of works. There is the religion of Cain, and there is the religion of Abel.

What is the way of Cain? It is to try to save yourself by your own good works rather than by the grace of God. It represents culture rather than Calvary. Most of the people in this world don’t need religion. They need to turn from religion to Jesus Christ. Most of the people in this world are egomaniacs strutting to hell, thinking they are too good to be damned.  They believe that modern man is good.  Yet, the Bible says that man is not good, and the news is not modern. It’s as old as the book of Genesis, and it is good news for bad man.  It is the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is not salvation by works. Religion is what sinful people do for a holy God. The gospel is the good news of what a holy God has already done for sinful man.

The difference between Cain and Abel is the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how we need to lay our pride and our good works in the dust, and trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  

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

Amen.

OUR SO GREAT SALVATION (Hebrews 1:13 to 2:4)

Who was it that thought up this idea of salvation? Not you, not me. It originated in the heart of Almighty God.  Before God ever swung this world into space, before God ever scooped out the seas, and heaped up the mountains, and flung out the sun, moon, and the stars, salvation was in the heart and mind of God. 

Why is this salvation so great?  Because Jesus, with His rich, red, royal blood tasted death for every man. Jesus died instead of you. His death had your name on it.  Only the dead in hell can even begin to know what Jesus suffered on that cross, and He did it for you. If you refuse this salvation, if you just drift on by, then you trample underneath your feet the precious blood of Jesus and pour contempt upon His death.

So, the writer of Hebrews asks this question: “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation.” That’s the question. That’s a question that no lawyer can answer. That’s a question that no scientist with his computer can answer. That’s a question that no philosopher with his thick volumes can answer. That is a question that no soothsayer can answer. That is a question that even God Almighty cannot answer because there is no answer to the question “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” There is no answer because there is no escape. 

Click on the link below to hear a message on our so great salvation that God has provided for us.

Amen.

 

THE LOST OPPORTUNITYOF ETERNITY (Proverbs 27:1)

Today, I want to talk about the lost opportunity of living every day for the rest of your life, and then all of eternity, with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.  

Now, when you think of all the people in just the last 20 years who have heard the gospel message of Jesus Christ, I would have to guess that there have been millions upon millions, upon millions of people who have heard this wonderful gospel of forgiveness and eternal life in heaven with Jesus Christ.  I would guess that millions of those people came to know the Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry of God’s Word.  

However, and I hate to say it, but I have to believe that millions of those people, in fact the vast majority, who heard the gospel message of Christ preached to them, go away unsaved.  They go away having not received the Lord Jesus Christ. There has been no change in their lives. They have heard the Word of God, and they’ve gone out unsaved. Now, I have to ask myself, “Why do some people hear the gospel and not receive it?”  God, in His Word, provides a compelling answer to that question.

Prov 27:1
1 Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.
KJV

I believe far and away, the majority of the people who hear the gospel message and go out unsaved, and remain unsaved, are lost because of procrastination. They believe the gospel, and they are not self-righteous. They know that they need to be saved, and they say, “One of these days, I’m going to get saved.” But they keep putting it off. 

Click on the link below to hear a message on why you should ask yourself these questions, why should I not have the joy of knowing Jesus now? Why should I not have the peace of knowing Jesus now? Why should I not have the fulfillment of knowing Jesus now? Why should l not have the love of knowing Jesus now? Why should I not have a God that I can pray to now? Why should I wait to be saved?  Why put it off till tomorrow? Being saved is not like taking bad medicine in order to get well.  It is like that first taste of ice cream on a hot summer day.  It is so good, you have to eat more.  That is what being saved is like, it is so good, you want even more.

But most of all, ask yourself, Why should I miss the opportunity of eternity?

Amen.