The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE DEATH OF A FOOLISH MAN (2 Samuel 3:32-34)

Have you ever known someone who did something foolish?  Most of us have, and we generally only have to look in the mirror.  Now, have ever known someone who died foolishly?  They may have been a very intelligent, successful, and well liked, person, but they died foolishly.  I have known some.  They did things like jumping out of perfectly good airplanes for the rush of seeing the ground come up at you really fast.  I just never understood someone who would do that.  But generally, people die a foolish death because they got their priorities out of order.  The forget what is really important and choose to follow something that promises a quick rush of pleasure.  They live for today.  They allow greed, or addiction, or self-gratification to become the most important thing in their lives, even it means destroying their family, or hurting their loved ones.  

But there is something even more basic than that where people choose to die foolishly.  When it comes to choosing eternal life in heaven, or eternal death in hell, people will foolishly choose to reject God’s free gift of eternal life, and choose death instead.  Whether it is because they think they have all the time in the world to choose, or they just don’t want to believe in life after death, death comes, and they die a foolish death.  Our message today is about just such a foolish man.   

Now, I have said before that all of the Bible is about the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the theme of the Bible is salvation, or how to be right with God. The hero of the Bible is Jesus. The villain of the Bible is Satan. The story of the Bible is salvation.  God has packed salvation stories from Genesis all the way through to Revelation.  It is within the pages of this Holy Bible that we can find the words of eternal life.  We can find the story of how to be saved and how to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the foolishness of spending an eternity in Hell.  Don’t believe the lie of the devil when he says that he is your friend, and that God is your enemy.  The devil will tell you that it is hard to be a Christian.  That is not what Jesus Christ tells us.

Matt 11:28-30
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
KJV

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

Contrary to what the devil says, it’s not hard to be a Christian. The Bible says, “The way of the transgressors is hard” (Proverbs 13:15).

If you are looking for eternal life, come to Jesus Christ.  

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
NIV

Amen.

JESUS IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR DARKNESS (John 20:30-31)

John had a purpose when he gave us the gospel of John and it was that we might believe in Jesus, and that by believing, we might be saved. God wants us to know that Jesus is the answer to man's darkness.

John 20:30-31
30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
KJV

Jesus Christ is the light of men.  Now there can be no greater sin than to reject the light that is Jesus Christ. Once a man hears the gospel and his heart is open to the Word of God, if he does not act upon that light, and go from faith to faith until he believes in Jesus Christ, his condemnation is doubled. Because not only is he judged for his sin, but he is also judged that he refused the cure for that sin.  He refused to believe in Jesus Christ.

John 3:19-20
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
KJV

When God comes to judge the world, he's not going to judge the world primarily by the sin that was committed, but by the light that was rejected.  Jesus is the Light of the world. We are born as spiritually blind beggars, but those blind eyes can be opened and will be opened by the grace of God. It's not just turning on the light, the heart and the mind have to be opened and quickened to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. And once the heart, once the mind, are opened and quickened, then we go stepping into the light we are given until we come to Jesus. Man's greatest need is to come, admit and confess his spiritual blindness, his spiritual darkness.  When he says God help me, I'm blind, then God opens his eyes and gives him light.

John tells us that the purpose he had in writing this gospel was “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”  God wants us to know that Jesus is the answer to man's darkness.  

Click on the link below to learn how you can find God’s answer your darkness.  That answer is Jesus Christ.

Amen.

THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS CHRIST (John 19:30)

Our message today is going to be about a simple phrase. A phrase that contains just three words, and yet they are three words that shook the world then, and they are still shaking the world today. They are “It is finished.”

John 19:30
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
KJV

There is a prayer in my heart about this message today. It is that God would anoint this message with supernatural power. I pray that God would make these words a blessing. I pray that the Lord will speak through me, and as a result, that Christians will be strengthened, and that the unsaved will be convicted, and converted, and drawn to confess Christ as their Lord and Savior. I pray that everything that is said and done here today will glorify and magnify the name of Jesus. That is my prayer for this message today. I hope that is your prayer as well.

Now, I want you to notice that Jesus did not say, "I am finished." Even though all of the demons in Hell were howling in glee and saying, "We got Him, He's gone. He's finished." it is really important for us to see that Jesus didn't say, "I am finished."

Even though the disciples were mournful and brokenhearted because their leader, their Sovereign, their King, was dying there upon a cross. We need to understand that it was not that Jesus was finished. Instead, Jesus said “IT was finished.”

Click on the link below to hear a message on what Jesus meant when He said IT is finished. We will talk about the prophecies that were completed, and the suffering that was completed, but, most importantly, I want to tell you, thank God, God's way of salvation was finished. God's mighty work of redemption was finished. When Jesus died, all that was necessary for you to be forgiven and to be saved was done. There's nothing for you to do but to receive what Jesus Christ has already done, because "It is finished."

That is the difference between any false cult and biblical Christianity. There's nothing for you to do. What you must do is to receive the finished work of Calvary. Jesus Christ said: "It is finished". It is not what you do to be saved, it's what He has done. It's spelled d-o-n-e. "It's finished." Jesus Christ has purchased your salvation. It's paid for.

What I want you to hear in this message are God’s promises to you. When Jesus Christ said “It is Finished, He is telling you that if you want to be saved, you can be saved. If you want God to give you a new life, He'll give you a new life. If you want power over Satan, you can have it. Because "It is finished"

Amen.

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT-PART II (John 16:7-11)

Last week we began a message on three important truths about the Holy Spirit and the work that He does in our lives. These are truths that you will never learn in school. These are truths that you will never figure out intellectually. These are truths that you will never, never, ever know until you lay your intellectual pride in the dust and let God the Holy Spirit speak to you. In fact, the most important truths that will impact your life for all of eternity can only be known by the Holy Spirit speaking them to you. You won’t learn them in school. You won’t learn them in seminary, and you won’t learn them in the school of hard knocks.

These truths are about sin, righteousness, and judgement.

I love this passage of Scripture. The Holy Spirit of God is come to convict the world of man's basic problem. He has come to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Now in a court of law, first comes the crime. When the crime is proven, then the judgment. That's the order: the crime, the punishment. But with God, the order is different. There is, first of all, sin, then righteousness, and then judgment. God has put righteousness between sin and judgment. God has interposed the precious blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now if you don't believe on Jesus Christ, if you refuse, then there is no righteousness between sin and judgment. You just die and go to hell. I'm a sinner, by nature, by birth, by practice, but I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and, therefore, God has interposed His precious blood and His righteousness stands between me and judgment. I like that. Between me and hell there's a bloody cross that Jesus died on.

Listen, if you're not a believer, put your hand up there on your chest and you feel that little heartbeat. That's all there is between you and hell. That's all—just a heartbeat. But if you've given your heart to Jesus, if you've trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've said, "My basic problem is I've not trusted Him, but I trust Him now." And then God says, "I'll give you a bountiful provision. I will give you righteousness, and for you there is therefore now no condemnation, and you're not belonging to that tribe that's following Satan. You're twice-born. You're heaven born and heaven bound.”

Click on the link below to hear a message on the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Amen.

I KNOW WHO JESUS IS, HE IS GOD (John 9:8-38)

I know who Jesus is. I am certain of it. I am as certain of it as I am that my wife’s coconut meringue pie is as good as it gets. Now, you can try to tell me that her pie is no good. You can try to tell me that somebody else’s pie is better. You can try to tell me that pie is not real, that it is just a myth, but the evidence is in my stomach. I know that pie is real and as good as it gets because I enjoy every bite that I eat, and when I do, it settles down in my stomach making me feel awful good. That pie is inside me. I know it is inside me, just like I know that Jesus is inside me as well. I know that Jesus is God because I watched Him change my life. I know that Jesus is God because I experience Him every day of my life. There is nothing you can say or do, that would cause me to change my mind. I know it, because I have experienced the Lord Jesus as my God. I know it because the Word of God tells me that Jesus is God.

John 9:35-38
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
KJV

Click on the link below to hear a message about another man testify that he knows, he knows beyond a shadow of doubt, that Jesus is God. We will hear about a man who was blind from birth, and this man will give his testimony about the person who cured his blindness. In the process of doing so, he grows spiritually in knowledge of who Jesus is, and as a result, he is given eternal life for his faith. He moves from the darkness of being spiritually blind to having spiritual sight by believing on the light of the world, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD (INCLUDING ME) (John 3:16)

What was the very first Bible verse that you can remember memorizing?

It would be John 3:16 for me. In fact, with my memory going away in my old age, it is probably the only verse I still have memorized. I know lots of verses by their context, but if it wasn’t for the internet search engines and the Bible concordance on my computer, I would have a hard time finding them. But John 3:16 is one I still remember.

So, why do you think that is? Why would this verse stay with me so readily, when others do not? It is because it tells me of God’s love for the whole world, but it is written in such a way, that it seems like He is talking to just me. God loves the world, but the word whosever means including me.

Who does the verse say loves this poor lost world? The one, true, almighty God. The eternal, self-existing, uncreated, and having need of nothing, God. It is God, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. It is God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. It is God, who takes the initiative. It is God, who loves and gives. It all begins with God.

That God is “not willing that any should perish” is a great Biblical truth that is revealed to us. John tells us in 3:16 that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That is God's earnest desire for all the children of Adam. The gospel invitation is extended to all. If you want to make the invitation of this verse personal, then put your own name in the verse. For example say, For God so loved the world (including Keith Martin), that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever (including Keith Martin) believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God’s plan for salvation, includes me, even me. God does not want me, or you, or anybody else to perish.

The word Perish is a word that should make us all tremble as we think of the consequences of our sin against God. The word perish reveals the other side of God's character. He is not only a God of immeasurable love, he is also a God of infinite holiness. It is the finality of the word that terrifies us. Death, and what occurs on the other side of death, is a mystery to the lost person, but John 3:16 brings clarity to the mystery. In it, God puts a choice before us. He says, “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.” The choice that God gives us is to believe in Jesus Christ or perish. If we reject Christ, then God will allow sin to complete its work beyond the grave of condemning the soul to an eternity in torment.

But that is not what God wants for us. God would have every person come to repentance. That is why the invitation of John 3:16 is universal, hinging on believing in him. Those who do, become heirs of everlasting [eternal] life. God created us with eternity in mind. We have an immortal soul and spirit that will exist for all of eternity. This great verse, which summarizes the whole gospel story, begins with God and ends with everlasting life. It begins with one who had no beginning. It ends with that which has no ending.

The fact that Jesus Christ has come into the world provides each person with the ultimate test of believing or disbelieving, of choosing whether to continue in their sins and surely perish, or whether to believe in him and pass from death to life. The coming of Christ into this world is the single decision point of eternal destiny for each of us.

This great verse is the essential foundation of the gospel of Christ. God loved the world, including me, so much that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever, including me, believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Don’t walk away and reject such a gift. Choose Christ. Choose eternal life.

Click on the link below to learn just how much God loves you.

Amen.

IS THE HOLY SPIRIT KNOCKING? (John 3:8-16)

The Bible tells us that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I firmly believe that the word whosoever, means whosoever, or anybody. Not just somebody special, but anybody. If you want to be a part of the whosoever that are saved, then call upon the name of the Lord. But I also believe that man is saved because of the work of the Holy Spirit of God who convicts that person of their need to be saved. He comes knocking on the door of your heart to tell you of your need for salvation. In the message today, Jesus is telling each of us that when the Holy Spirit comes calling on your spirit, you must respond.

We do not know when the Holy Spirit will come calling on us. We do not know for how long the Holy Spirit will stand knocking at the door of our heart and soul, or how often the Holy Spirit will return to knock again. I believe firmly that God is patient with the lost person. However, I also believe that there comes a time in that person’s life when God sees what is in their heart, He knows what their reaction to His call will be, and when the time of His choosing comes, He walks away from them, perhaps forever. The message that Jesus has for each lost person is that it is imperative that when the Holy Spirit is visiting a soul, in convicting, converting, regenerating, and renewing power, that soul must respond while it still can.

Jesus says that He is standing at the door, knocking.

Rev 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
KJV

Yet, He also says that there is a time when He stops knocking and shuts the door, even when you start knocking.

Luke 13:25
25 When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:
KJV

Listen to me carefully. I am not saying that anybody, anybody, cannot call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. But, I am saying that God, in His omniscience, knows His own.

2 Tim 2:19
19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
KJV

The Lord knoweth them that are His. If you are His, then open the door, and depart from iniquity.

John 10:2-3
2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
KJV

Jesus is calling His sheep. He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. For Jesus to lead you out, then you must let Him in. You must respond to the calling of the Holy Spirit as He convicts your heart of your need to be twice born.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the need of each person to respond to the knocking of the Holy Spirit. If you wish to have eternal life in heaven with Jesus, then you must open the door of your heart and let the Holy Spirt of God in.

Amen.

HOW CAN YOU TELL IF YOU ARE BORN AGAIN (John 3:1-7)

What does a born-again child of God look like? Can you tell someone is a Christian by the way they look, or by the way they dress? Are there certain things a born-again child of God should not wear?

How does a born-again child of God behave? Can you tell someone is a Christian by the way they behave, or by the things they do, or say? Are there certain things that a born-again child of God should not do or say?

Now, let me ask the real question that I am leading us to. Is there a way that you can look at yourself and know whether or not that you are a born-again child of God? Jesus tells us there is.

Matt 7:20-21
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
KJV

Jesus is telling us in this set of verses that you will know a Christian, a true born again believer, whether it is yourself, or someone else, by the fruit that they bear. Not by the things that they wear, or how they look, and not by the things they say or do, but by the fruits that they bear. What are those fruits?

Gal 5:22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
KJV

Paul is telling us that these are the things that we should be able to see, feel, and experience when we are in the presence of a born-again child of God. There ought to be a noticeable difference in you as a believer. Not a weird difference, but a good difference in the way you treat yourself, your family, your friends, and those whom you come in contact with. We are sojourners in this world. This is not our home. Heaven is our home. We are aliens on this earth, because we are in this world, but we are not of this world.

We are twice born, redeemed, sanctified, Holy Spirit inhabited, joint heirs with the Son of God. Our outlook on this life, and our purpose in this world, is totally different from that of a lost person. There ought to be a noticeable difference about us. If we are truly born-again, then there ought to be a difference in us.

When you are saved, it brings a certainty to it. You ought to be able to say, "I know, that I know, I have been saved." If you have trusted Christ, if you have come down and trusted on the Word of God, if you have put your faith in Christ, and you know where God has put your sins, and somebody says, "Are you saved?" Then you can say, with that same certainty, "Yes, hallelujah, praise God, I know, that I know, that I am saved. God's Spirit agrees with my spirit that I'm a child of God."

Click on the link below to hear a message on the traits of a born-again believer, and on the things that will be true of you, if you are truly saved. God’s wants you to be certain that you are saved, listen and learn how you can tell if you are truly born again.

Amen.

WHY YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN - PART II (John 3:1-7)

In the first part of this series on why you must be born again, we talked about the deficiency of our natural birth. Why is it deficient? Because we are born into the natural world, we are bound to the sinful world, and we are blind to the spiritual world. So, why did Jesus come as God in man? Because of the deficiency of our natural birth.

How did Jesus Christ come into this world? He came through the portals of a virgin's womb. He is the only begotten Son of God. There never was, nor will there ever be, another like Him. He is the God man. He is God's only begotten Son. That which was conceived in the womb of Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit of God, and He is the only begotten of Son of God. He is the virgin born Son of God. That is what it means when we say He was virgin born.

He came as He did, born of a virgin, to be what He was, sinless. He was what He was, sinless, to do what He did, die for our sins. A sinner could die for nobody's else's sin except his own. He had to be sinless to be a substitute. He came as He did, to be what He was, to do what He did, that we might be what we are, sons and daughters of God. He came to earth that we might go to heaven.

He was born of a virgin that we might be born again. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should have everlasting life." That is redemption. Thank God for the virgin birth. Don't think it's incidental. Don't think it's mythological. It is the foundation stone of our faith that God became man. This is the incarnation, the Second Adam from above, who came to reinstate us in God’s love.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the three types of miracle births that we are studying about in this third chapter of the Gospel of John. The natural birth, the virgin birth, and the new birth. All three are miracle births created by God.

Amen.

WHY YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN (John 2:24-3:7)

Let me ask you a question, how many of you were born as a baby? Imagine that, I will bet that this is the only question that I could ask and get a 100% positive response to. Everyone that is reading this post, and listening to this lesson, was born as a baby.

Next question, was your birth a product of man’s scientific prowess, or was it a miracle of God? Who is your creator? Your mother and father, a scientist with a test tube, or God? Is it possible to create a living body, soul, and spirit, without God? If the answer to this last question is “No”, and it is, then God is your Creator.

In our lessons over the next couple of weeks, we are going to talk about three different kinds of miracle births, and let me be very clear, only God can create a miracle birth. But, today, we are going to focus on the fact that our natural birth, even though it is a miracle birth, is deficient, and, therefore, we must be born again.

Click on the link below to hear a message on why Jesus had to come. Why the agony of Gethsemane? Why bloody Calvary? Why did Jesus come to this earth as God in human flesh? Why you must be born again.

Amen.