The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

GOD REVEALS HIMSELF (Acts 17:26 to 18:11)

Man was created to worship God, but his sin has placed him under Satan as his Master.  Man, by nature, wants to worship something, you can see that in all of the religions that are created.  There has been only one God given religion, and that was Judaism, which is no longer valid.  All other religions are created by man.  Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Yet, these man-made religions are created by Satan to deceive man from the worship of the one true living God.

While man may not be searching specifically for the living and true God, he is searching for a god, and he is willing to put up an idol and worship it.  Man is also not searching for salvation, for it is not until the Holy Spirit convicts the heart of the lost person that he begins to realize his sin, his responsibility for that sin, and the punishment that he will ultimately face for that sin.  

Paul says, “and find him, though he be not far from every one of us.” Paul was telling the Athenians that the God of Creation, the God revealed in nature, providence, and circumstance, was not far away.  He had revealed Himself in those things.  Indeed, nature is God’s oldest testament.  His eternal power and Godhead are revealed in His creation and in His providential dealings with man.  

The next question is how has God shown Himself? Paul states that it is by the “the invisible things,” (love, goodness, power, judgment).  “From creation” (the very beginning) are “clearly seen,” and “understood,” by creation. 

Has God revealed Himself to man? Have all men had a revelation of God, from God? YES!

The Scriptures make it very clear that through many means God has revealed Himself to all men through creation, law, conscience, spirit, prophet, seasons, and on and on. He has done this “so they are without excuse.”  

Click on the link below to hear a lesson on how God has revealed Himself to all of mankind.

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

Amen.

TO KNOW JESUS AS GOD (Acts 16:35 to 17:25)

In today’s lesson, the apostle Paul tells us how we can know Jesus as God.  Many people know about God, and they may know a little about Jesus, but they do not know Jesus as God. Others, know a great deal about man-made gods, but they do not know the Creator, the true and living God, nor do they know Jesus as God.  

They do not know the gospel message of the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  They do not know that Jesus Christ has provided them with the very thing they need most of all, a perfect, completed salvation, which is given only by the grace of God.  

They do not know that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, whom the whole creation is groaning for, waiting for, and looking for.  This is what today’s lesson is about.  Bringing the gospel message to a world that does not know Jesus as God.  

Paul’s sermon takes place in Athens, which was the university city of the world.  Art, literature, philosophy, religion, mathematics, science, and democracy were all the stuff that Athens was made of.  When you think of the liberal theology and philosophy that exists in our universities today, this is what the entire city of Athens was like.  It was a place where the absolute truths of God’s Word had been replaced with the absolute chaos of man’s basest desires being met at his own whim.  For all its knowledge, Greek civilization was spiritually bankrupt.  

God’s Word tells us that Jesus came to reveal to men the true God, and Paul had come to Athens to proclaim Him.  Paul wanted to tell them about Jesus as God.  Paul knew Him as the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, as the rock of ages, the Shepherd of Israel, and the fountain of living water.  He knew Him to be the incarnate Word, God manifest in flesh, Jesus Christ the Lord.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how you can know Jesus as God.

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

Amen.

THE SIMPLICITY OF SALVATION (Acts 16:23-31)

In today's lesson, I want to make the plan of salvation so plain and clear that we can share it with a world that is looking for something to fill that God-sized void in their lives.  

In the Bible, God spells it out in a simple way because He wants people to be saved. He wants people to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, I want to give you a story in the Bible that makes it clear how a person can know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that he or she has been saved and that they will spend eternity in heaven with Jesus Christ.

To be saved, you must realize that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that you have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the penalty of that sin is death.  

Next, you must repent of your sin.  The word repent means that you agree with God that what you have done is wrong.  It means that you stop going the way you are living and turn 180 degrees around and head towards God.  You commit to God that you will not continue to live your life in sin.

Then, you must choose to receive, or accept, that Christ died on the cross so that you would not have to pay the penalty for that sin.  That Christ died in your place.  That He paid your penalty in full.  That Christ died, that He was buried, and that He rose again from the grave so that you could receive the free gift of salvation provided by grace of God.  Your faith is on the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is His blood, and His blood alone, that washes your sin away and clothes you in His righteousness.  

Your faith is on Christ, not your works, that is how you are saved, and the good news of the gospel is that this offer of grace is open to you.  The Bible teaches that “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  That word “whosoever” means “whosoever,” it means even you.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how you can spend eternity with God in heaven.

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

Amen.

WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED? (Acts 16:11-34)

This question is asked by the Philippian jailer in our lesson today, but it has been asked by millions, upon millions, of lost people over the last two thousand years.  For it is the single most important question that a person must ask in their lifetime.  The answer to this all-important question is provided for us in God’s Word, and our response is what determines how we will spend eternity.

It is important to understand that it is not the amount, or kind, of sin in our life that condemns us; it is the fact of sin in our life that condemns us.  Yet, we will not be judged and sent to an eternity in hell because of our sin.  We will be judged and sent to an eternity in hell because of our rejection of Jesus Christ and the light of salvation that He has provided to us through the Holy Spirit.

Paul and Silas provided a two-part answer to the jailer.  The first part was “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” There is only one way to come to God, and that is by faith in Jesus Christ, and not works.

Charles Spurgeon stated the following: “It is not thy hold on Christ that saves thee; it is Christ.  It is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee, it is Christ.  It is not even thy faith in Christ that saves thee, though that be the instrument.  It is Christ’s blood and merit.”

It is Christ’s blood that saves us, faith just grabs hold of it for us—that is all.  

The Word of God is the second part of the answer. The question for the jailer, and any lost person, becomes do you believe God or not?  Our faith comes from our heart.  It is by knowing that the Bible is the Word of God that our faith can be based on knowledge.  It is not some mystery that we cannot know.

Click on the link below to hear a message that answers the question, “What must I do to be saved?”

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

Amen.

GOD'S PLAN PREVAILS (Acts 15:12 to 35)

One of the greatest things about being a Christian is knowing that God’s plan will always prevail.  Amen?  What is sad about this knowledge is that the lost people I know do not have this comfort.  They either have been told about God and rejected Him, or they simply do not know Him.  

The Holy Spirit always has His way in the end.  He does not force His will, He does not coerce.  He remains invisible, inaudible, but infinite, inescapable, and infallible, guiding all things to work out His sovereign will.  This is something that should fill us with joy and praise for God.  

When everything seems to be going wrong, when truth seems to always be playing with a handicap, when the right seems to be outmaneuvered by the wrong, when misguided men have somehow seemingly been able to destroy or disrupt that which was of God, we need to remember that the Holy Spirit is at work and all things will work out to His sovereign will.  The Holy Spirit never loses, never fails, and never deviates from His purpose.  His will always prevails in the end.  

The battle between God and Satan is not a battle of equals. It is a battle between the Creator, and the created.  Satan was created by God, and he will be destroyed by God.  Satan is absolutely no match for the almighty power of God.  

Click on the link below to hear a message about God’s plan for both the Gentiles and the Jews.  How God is visiting “the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.” This is why we should feel anxious to share the Word of God. Right now, there are people of every color, every race, and of every nation who need to hear the Word of God.   

What does God do with that Word? He is calling out a people for His name.  Not everyone who hears believes the Word. Not everyone accepts the good news of Jesus Christ. But of those who hear, God calls out a people for His name. 

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

Amen.

DEFEATING FALSE RELIGIONS (Acts 14:7-28)

People are drawn to religion.  Any form of religion.  Be it the religion of evolution, or atheism, or voodoo, or satanic cults, man wants to worship something.  The world is full of false religions started by Satan who understands man’s desire to worship.  He just wants to be the object of man’s worship.  

Every religion that Satan starts is just a distraction from the real worship of the almighty God.  Satan’s goal is to send you to hell, by deceiving you into believing that you can work your way into heaven.  He wants you to believe that 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 believed that the basis that someone would get into heaven would be on how good their works were.  It also said that if people believed in a hell, that only the really bad people 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 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.  

As believers, we know that for our righteousness to be acceptable to God it must be a perfect righteousness, one that we are incapable of providing on our own, and that it can only come through the blood of Christ.  The Bible tells us that Christ died and was raised for our righteousness. He was the One who took our place.  Our righteousness is obtained through our faith in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Clink on the link below to hear a message on what it takes to defeat false religion.

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

Amen.

WHICH CHOICE HAVE YOU MADE? (Acts 13:40 to 14:6)

The Bible teaches that every person must make a choice about Jesus Christ.  It is the most important decision that you will make in your entire life.  Will you accept the offer of salvation provided by Jesus, will you choose eternal life, or not?  The alternative is to reject Christ and perish in your sin.  

For such an important question, the natural response is to try find the absolute truths about sin and eternal life.  Yet, if you turn away from Jesus, where will you turn?  Where can you go for truth if not to Jesus?

One of the places people turn to is the emptiness of atheism.  When someone turns to atheism, they choose to believe that in the beginning, the heavens and the earth created themselves, and then created man.  Now, this just doesn’t make sense at all, and anyone who tells you it does, is just not being intelligent.  

Another place people turn to is the buttery cloud of philosophy.  Do you remember your philosophy classes in school?  Did it seem like they provided answers, real truths about life or eternity, or did they just raise more questions than answers?

The next place that people turn to is the futility of materialism.  Do you think you can find absolute truths in the riches of the world?  The sad truth is that materialism can never satisfy the deepest longing of your heart.  God made you for Himself, and even if you have material things, you will still find your heart and life empty without Him.  

The next place people look for truth is the dead end of false religions.  Many turn away from Christ to another religion.  But remember what Peter said to Jesus: “To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”  You can go to another religion, but it is Christ alone that has the words of eternal life.  

So, who can you turn to for the words of truth and eternal life?  Nowhere, but Jesus.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the choice about Jesus Christ that every person must make.  

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

Amen.

ISRAELS MOMENT (Acts 13:30-43)

In today’s lesson, the Apostle Paul will present the nation Israel with a choice, a moment, when they must choose or reject the gospel message of Jesus Christ.  Paul is telling the Jews what the resurrection of Jesus meant to them.  It was an opportunity for salvation.  

This is the good news of the gospel message of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.  The best news this world has ever heard came from a graveyard just outside Jerusalem: “He is not here … he is risen” (Matthew 28:6).

The gospel is good news. The bad news is that we are sinners.  Sinners by birth, sinners by nature, sinners by choice, sinners by practice, and sinners under condemnation. All of us, without the Lord Jesus Christ, are in debt to God, defiled by sin, and sin has dominion over us.  That is the bad news about sin.

So, what is the good news that obliterates the bad news?  The Good news is that Jesus died for our sins. Jesus died because of our sins, and for our sins. It was our sins that were the nails that held Him to the cross. Our hard hearts were the hammers that drove those nails into His quivering palms and feet. He died for our sin.

When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30), that literally means “it is paid in full.” Jesus paid it all. The sin debt is blotted out by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus also deals with the defilement of sin. It is not enough to be pardoned from our sins, for there is still that defilement, that sentence of death in our body.  Jesus, by His sacrifice, not only pays our sin debt, but Jesus also deals with our sin defilement.  And then, by His resurrection, Jesus conquers death, and sin no longer has dominion over us, and we will have eternal life with Jesus in Heaven.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you will believe it, and receive it, then you will be saved. There is no other way that you can be saved apart from the gospel.  

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

Amen.

ISRAEL'S MISSION (Acts 13:14-25)

ISRAEL’S MISSION (Acts 13:14-25)

Today’s lesson is about Paul beginning his first missionary journey. It is when we know the will of God, and we are obedient to it, that there is no challenge too great, no danger too hard to face, the key is seeking and finding the will of God. The question becomes how do you decide when and where to move in the work of Lord? Certainly, for most believers, the most difficult part is separating the desire of our own heart from the desires of the Lord. Sometimes they coincide, and sometimes they don’t.

Seeking the Lord’s will is something each Christian should be doing on a daily basis. Finding the Lord’s will is the result of quiet, careful, meditation on the Word of God with a surrendered heart, and an open ear. So how do you know which way is right? Ask these questions:

1) Is your heart in a condition that can even hear the will of God? In other words, are you speaking from a surrendered heart that is fully obedient to God?  

2) Have you prayed and asked God to reveal the sin that is in your heart, and then confessed and repented of it? If there is unconfessed and unrepented sin in your life, that sin will keep you from hearing God’s will.

3) Have you searched God’s Word for the answer to your question of God’s will for your life? The answer to most of life’s questions can be found in the Scriptures that God has given us.  

4) Have you prayed about the question and then listened for God’s response, or have you simply told God the answer you want to hear?  

5) Is what you want meeting the purpose of Christ for this church being here, or for you still being on this earth? For example, Will it bring lost people to know Him?  

6) Are you willing to accept God’s answer, whatever it may be?  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how Finding the Lord’s will is the result of quiet, careful, meditation on the Word of God with a surrendered heart, and prayer with an open ear.

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

Amen.

FINDING CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT (Acts 10:43)

I want us to think about someone that I love, as well as something I love, because the something I love is the Word of God, and the someone I love is the Lord Jesus, who is revealed in the Word of God. And today, I want to talk to you about the Jesus of the Old Testament.

Would you like to be able to understand the Old Testament? Would you like to get into some of the mystery rooms of the Old Testament? Well, there is a master key that unlocks the doors to the mystery rooms of the Old Testament, and that master key is the Lord Jesus Christ. And, if you will use a Christcentric approach to the Old Testament, it will burst aflame in your hands. As a matter of fact, if you read the Old Testament and you don’t find Jesus, then you need to go back and reread it because you missed the message. The Old Testament is a “Him” book. It is about Him. It is about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, without Jesus, the Old Testament is a book, of unexplained ceremonies. They won’t make sense. Without Jesus It is a book of unfulfilled prophecies. And, Without Jesus It is a book of unattainable standards. If you try to live by the Old Testament without the Lord Jesus Christ, then you will not make it.  That is what you find in the Old Testament. You’ll find all of these laws and ceremonies and practices, and these types, and illustrations. But, as you step back, there He is—Jesus, the Son of God.  Jesus is there in portrait. He’s the Prophet. He’s the Priest. He’s the King. And then, you look at the fulfilled prophecies, and you say, “How can this happen apart from divine inspiration?”

Click on the link below to hear a message on how the Old Testament says that somebody is coming. The New Testament says that somebody has come. And, the book of the Revelation says that somebody is coming again. And, the New Testament tells you how Jesus, who is coming, gets you ready for His Second Coming, how you can know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

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

Amen.