The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

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.

NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD (Hebrews 9:22)

Today our message is going to be on the wonderful, God blessed, subject of “Nothing but the Blood.”  Someone has said that you can cut the Bible in any place, and it will bleed because the Bible tells the story of what Jesus Christ did for you and me.  This is one of my favorite topics to teach on, because this precious blood of Christ is the reason that I have eternal life with my Lord and Savior in Heaven.  I honestly cannot think of a more important message to teach than this, Nothing but the Blood.

Actually, there are three cords that run through the Bible. One is a somber cord, a dark cord of sin and shame and degradation. The Bible teaches us about the sinfulness of man. The other is a bright, scarlet-red cord of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a book about blood. And then there’s a golden cord that speaks of the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which tells how He is going to rule and reign forever. The dark cord of sin, the red cord of redemption, and the gold cord of His Second Coming in glory. What a joy it is to read the Bible and find all of those things.  

Actually, the four ingredients of a great church are these: the book, the blood, the birth, and the blessed hope. That is what makes a great church. Those are the things that we just have to keep on preaching over and over again: the book, God’s holy Word; the blood, the sacrificial blood atonement of the Lord Jesus; the birth, the necessity of a new birth, to be a twice-born person; and the blessed hope that Jesus is actually, literally, visibly, bodily, coming back to this earth one of these days.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the prophecy and the provision of the saving blood of Jesus Christ.

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

Amen.

OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST-PART II (Hebrew 5:5-6; 7:1-8)

OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST-PART II (Hebrews 5:5-6; 7:1-8)

Sometimes, people say that Protestant denominations like Baptists, or Methodists, or Presbyterians don’t believe in priests.  Oh, but we do! We have a great high priest, and His name is Jesus.

Now, God wants us to learn, and so God gives us His Word, the Bible. The Bible is a great book in many ways, and it has many figures, pictures, and illustrations to help us learn about God.  One such illustration of Jesus as our high priest is a man named Melchizedek, and he has a lot to do with you.  He is a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament that pictured and prophesied our Savior in the New Testament and for ever and ever.  I say, he pictures Jesus, however, he may indeed have been Jesus. Some expositors believe that Melchizedek was just another name for a pre-incarnate appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ when Jesus came to earth and appeared for a little while and then went back to heaven before His birth at Bethlehem. Now, whether or not Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus, or whether he was just an incredible, wonderful illustration and picture of the Lord Jesus, the truth is there that when we learn about Melchizedek, we’re going to learn about our High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Now, you may feel that you don’t need a high priest, but you do. A high priest is a mediator. You see, a priest is someone who can bring God to you and someone who can go to God for you. Now isn’t that what you need? Don’t you need somebody who will bring God, and make Him real to you, and mediate Him to you? And don’t you need somebody who can plead your case for you? Well, that is a priest. That is our great high priest, the Lord Jesus.

Click on the link to hear a message on how we protestants find out that we do have a priest, and He is so much better than any earthly priest.  Better than Aaron, and better than any other local priest at a church.

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

Amen.

CROSSING GOD’S DEADLINE (Proverbs 29:1)

The subject of today’s lesson is a very serious and somber matter.  It is one that we don’t like to think about, and it is something that is hard to reconcile in our mind, because we have the misconception that every person can put off getting saved until the moment right before they die and then rush to get saved so they can go to heaven.  The Bible says that is not true and that is what we will talk about today.

There is in the mysteries of God’s omniscience a certain point in your life, a certain place in your life, where God has placed a deadline for you to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  This is one of those lessons that if you have family members, or friends, that are lost, then you will want to get this in front of them, because the stakes are eternal, and they know not where God’s deadline is in their life.  

Prov 29:1
1 He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
KJV

The Bible teaches that in front of every unsaved man there is a deadline.  It teaches that if he crosses that deadline, he is just as lost, just as certainly doomed, just as destined for hell as though he were already there and as though the iron gates of hell had already clanged shut behind him. It is possible for a man to commit a sin in this life; it is possible for a person to come in this life to a point which, if he commits that sin and transgresses and goes beyond that point, he can never; no, never; no, never be saved. He will cross God’s deadline.  Now, just to be clear, this is not about any so-called unpardonable sin, it is about you rejecting God more times than God is willing to let you pass, and God makes the sovereign decision to turn His patience to wrath.   

Click on the link below to hear a message on what God’s Word says about Crossing God’s Deadline.

Amen.

WHEN A CHILD OF GOD SINS (2 Samuel 11:1-26)

Can a child of God sin?  Yes, they can and do, frequently.  Can a child of God sin a great big sin, like breaking one of the 10 commandments?  Now, before you answer that, I want you to work your way down the list of commandments, and tell me if you can break them and be a child of God?  Yes, of course, they can.  Then, can a child of God sin and not suffer?  Absolutely not.

Today’s message is about a child of God who sinned, and sinned greatly, which makes this a very sad story.  It is sad because a man whom God loved, and who truly loved God, committed not just the sin of adultery, but then he tried to cover it up by committing murder.  Now those are really big sins, and David committed them.

So, not only is this a sad story, but it is also a tragic story because a man who the Bible describes as a man after God’s own heart will have to face the consequences of that sin.  Make no mistake, there is always a consequence to our sin against God, and David was no exception.  First, without a doubt you will suffer conviction from the Holy Spirit of God.  If you sin and you don’t feel the convicting power of the Holy Spirit working on you, then you better check your salvation, because a child of God cannot sin and not suffer conviction from the Holy Spirit.  

Now, if we repent of that sin and ask God for forgiveness, then He will forgive our sin.  But, as we will see in this story, we may still have to face the consequences of that sin.  If you are a twice-born child of God, you will not lose your salvation because you sin, even if that sin is adultery or murder, but you will face consequences in this life, and perhaps a loss of rewards in heaven.  

Now, not only is this a sad and tragic story, but it is also a familiar story.  People who do not love God, people who believe all Christians are hypocrites, love this story because it details the failure of a man of God.  Of course, I am sure you know by now that the story in our message today is about David’s sin with Bathsheba. 

Now, I want you to pay attention to this scripture that we are about to cover, and it is going to be a two-part lesson.  This first week, we are going to cover the sin that David committed, and make no mistake it was a terrible sin.  But, the reason I want us to pay attention to this Scripture is that next week we are going to give hope to believers who have sinned greatly.  God wants you to know that no matter what you sin is, there is a way back to fellowship with Him.  This is important because we all sin, even as a child of God we sin, and we need to know that this hope is there for us.  We can be right with God.

Click on the link below to hear a message about a man of God who sinned greatly, and the warning in this message is that if a man as great as David can fall into sin, then so can you.

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.

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

Like most people, I spent a good deal of my youth getting an education in school. I went through elementary, Junior High, Senior High, and even college, and I learned a good deal in those schools. Not that I remember much of it, but the one thing that has stuck is how to learn. How to learn about a particular subject. How to study, and how to organize my thoughts about that knowledge in a meaningful way.

Now, to be honest, I hated studying while I was in school, and by the time I was done with college, I swore that I would never do it again. If I had to pick up a book to learn about something, I decided I could live with being ignorant. Well, you see how that worked out. I now have a job that requires me to study the federal regulations on such interesting topics as boycott laws, trade sanctions, and import and export laws. I also spend a good share of my time at home studying to teach these lessons. In other words, never tell God that you don’t want to do something that He wants you to do, because He has a way of making sure you do.

One of the other things that I learned in school was that a school cannot teach you many things about how to live in this world, especially about what is right and wrong. This is particularly true when it comes to living a victorious Christian life. There are some things that you will never learn in school. There are things that you will never figure out intellectually. There are things 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. Our messages over the next couple of weeks are going to be about three of these tremendous truths.

Now, truth is so very, very important. There are those who are afraid of the truth, afraid of what that truth will mean in their lives. There are those who are willing to accept half-truths, socially adapted truths that allow them to deceive themselves into believing they are religious, or just a good person. Then, there are those who arrogantly think they know all truth. My prayer for you today is that you will have the humility to ask the Holy Spirit to speak the truth to you.

Click on the link below to hear a message on man’s basic problem, the sin of unbelief. Not believing on Jesus Christ is the great sin. That is the mother sin, the father sin, the parent sin, the sin of sins. The greatest sin is not believing. Unbelief does not come out of the head; it comes out of the heart. It is a predisposition against Almighty God. It is not trusting the God who loves you. Refuse the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are condemned because you have not believed. You have refused Him. That is the greatest sin, and with it brings the greatest penalty.

Amen.

TRUST IN JESUS (John 6:25-36)

Have you been looking for true happiness, true joy, true peace, and just not been able to find it? It is because you are looking for the wrong things in the wrong places. If you want true happiness, and joy, and peace, then trust in Jesus Christ.

Happiness, joy, blessedness, and satisfaction, are never things that you find by searching for them. They are the things that you stumble over when you serve the Lord Jesus Christ. You are to seek Him preeminently. It is Jesus that you need, and it is in Jesus that you will find all that you have been searching for.

The people of this world want fame. They want fortune. They want friends. They want fashion, and they want fitness. Jesus tells us that they are seeking after the wrong things. Yet, these are the things that most people want. They are what they seek most of all in their lives. Jesus tells us that they are looking for satisfaction in the wrong places. Listen now, none of these are wrong in themselves. Fame and food and fashion and fitness and friends, they're all fine in their place, as long as that place is second place.

Matt 6:33
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
KJV

Jesus tells us to seek God first, seek God preeminently, and all the things that God has planned for you shall be added unto you.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to find the satisfaction, the happiness and joy, that you have been searching for. Most people today are working hard at changing their lives, trying to make them better using the things of the secular world, but all they are doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. All they are interested in is making the world a better place to go to hell from. What our Lord Jesus Christ is offering, is everlasting life. He is talking about getting a person saved. Jesus is spiritual bread that gives everlasting life.

It is in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ alone, that you will find what you are looking for.

Amen.

THE BENEFITS OF A CHRISTIAN (2 Peter 1:1-2)

We live in a world full of apostasy.  False teachings abound.  Satan is seeking to destroy the church from within.  The Christian life is more than just a birth.  It is a growth, and it is a development.  The key to a victorious Christian life in the midst of apostasy is found in the last verse of the book of 2 Peter. 

2 Peter 3:18

18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

KJV

You will not be able to live for God unless you have a knowledge of the Word of God.  Yet, we need to have more than simple knowledge about Christ, the kind of knowledge we find in a library book.  Rather, we are to have a super knowledge of Jesus.  To have this kind of knowledge of Christ is to know Him better than your closest loved one.  To know Him, is to know life eternal.  First comes salvation by the grace of God, then as we begin to know Jesus, we gain peace in Jesus.  

In our lesson today, we find that in just the first two verses of this book we are told of some truly marvelous benefits of being a Christian.  We have a like precious faith, made precious by the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is through our faith in Christ that we have obtained all the righteousness of God.  Our sins have been wiped clean, and we have a standing before God as completely righteous.  Then, by the grace of God we obtained our salvation, and being justified by God’s grace we can have the peace of God because we have a super-natural knowledge of God.  We have a personal relationship with the Creator of all things, the almighty God.  But not just any personal relationship, we know Christ better than we know our own spouse because the Holy Spirit resides in our hearts.  He constantly speaks to us of the things that Christ tells Him to share with us, and He speaks to us when we are all alone.  

Amazing, huh?  Listen to this new series of podcasts to see the rest of what God has in store for us in this little book.

REDEMPTION THROUGH GRACE (1 Peter 1:2c-d)

So when we are facing times of terrible persecution, or difficult trials, when things are so bad that they are out of our ability to control, what are you most grateful for?

Certainly, I am grateful for a loving God who cares for me, watches over me, and provides for me.  I am grateful for the power of the Holy Spirit living within me.  I am grateful for the promises of God that we find in His word, such as, that we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

So this verse is interesting because it doesn’t promise that all things work together for the good of all men, it puts a qualifier on this promise.  What is that qualifier?

You have to be someone who loves God, and someone who is called according to His purpose.  This means that if you want to claim the promise of this verse, that no matter what you are going through, that it will work out for your good, then you must meet the requirements of this promise.  And in order to meet those requirements you must be saved, a born again child of God.  

So, the first thing that you need to have in order to face persecution, trials, or difficult times in your life, is the certain knowledge that you have been redeemed by God, and that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Master.  This is the basic minimum for this promise to be true.   

The next most important thing that I believe we need is the grace of God.  When I am facing a difficult time, the one thing that I cherish most from God is His grace.  It is His grace that allows me to be forgiven.  It is His grace that allows me to be justified freely before God.  It is His grace that allows the blood of Christ to wash my sins away, in spite of the sin in my life.  That is God’s grace.  

This leads us to the third thing that we must have to face persecution.  The result of knowing that we are saved, and that God’s grace has been bestowed on us, is the peace of God in our hearts.  When we have God’s peace in our heart, we have comfort in the knowledge of God’s provision for us.  

So salvation, grace, and peace, are what I consider the three most important things that I must know, claim, and be sure of, when I have hard times.  Everything else that God is going to do for me flows from these three Biblical truths.  The presence and power of the Holy Spirit resides in my heart because of the redemption and grace that God has given me, and it is because I am redeemed, and that I am the recipient of God’s grace, that God’s peace is there, as well.   

Listen to this podcast to learn what it means to be redeemed by God, and to have God’s grace and peace, to give us comfort during times of persecution.