256.5K
Downloads
649
Episodes
Each week a new verse-by-verse Bible study podcast given in expository style. Join us and see the Bible come alive as we study the truths that God‘s Word has for us.
Episodes
Sunday Jan 23, 2022
Sunday Jan 23, 2022
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.
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
I believe that God wants us to understand this problem because of the devastating impact the sins of immorality will have on our lives. God loves us, and He wants what is best for us, and so in His Word He warns us about the dangers of immorality. He then commands us to not commit those sins. Then, He follows that up with the story of the flood, and of Sodom and Gomorrah, where He shows us the consequences of His judgment on those who ignore His warnings, ignore His commandments, and choose to commit the sins of immorality.
Now, the wonderful thing about God is that He doesn’t just command us not to do something without providing us the wisdom that we need to avoid committing those sins. God tells us in His Word,
Prov 7:1-2
1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
KJV
Our news media never tires of exposing the scandals of mighty men. The headlines tell of the fall of religious leaders, politicians, and celebrities, and it doesn’t matter if happened yesterday or 20 years ago. We also see that most people have a double standard. They expect a much higher moral profile in those they elect to public office than they expect from themselves, and woe betide the person who lets them down. Many a promising career has suddenly been shipwrecked because of a past immorality.
This warning may sound overly dramatic, especially in the times that we live in today, with its acceptance of all things evil as good. But, this is God’s warning, and it is a warning that is to be taken literally. God will judge those who commit the sin of immorality.
There is also a spiritual application in these words for us. So far, we have been talking about committing physical adultery and immorality. However, the Scriptures also have a great deal to say about spiritual adultery. That is what God called it when His people left Him and went after idols. They departed from the living and true God. They were to be joined to Him, but they had separated from Him. They were actually playing the harlot; they were being unfaithful and untrue to Him. That is spiritual adultery.
Today we have many cults and “isms” and all types of false religions around us. For example, someone will say that “You don’t need to follow Christ any longer as you are following Him. There are many ways to heaven. What you need to do is join our group and do what we do, act as we act, and worship who we worship, and you can earn your way to salvation.”
Yet, the Bible is clear that we are saved by the grace of God alone.
Eph 2:8-10
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.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
KJV
Paul is telling us that “Faith plus nothing equals salvation.” We are to be absolutely, utterly cast upon Jesus Christ as our Savior. Yet, many people cannot accept a salvation that they did not earn.
God’s answer to this is that the believer is joined to Christ. A person who has been saved by grace, and grace alone, is joined to Christ. Then, once saved, Christ has said that we are to keep His commandments if we love Him, and His commandments are not grievous. We are to love one another. We are to be filled with the spirit of God. We are to witness to the world. Those are His commandments today. We are joined to a living Christ; we live on a higher plane. The fruit of the Spirit should be evident in our hearts and lives.
Today there are isms and cults all dressed up like a woman of the street. They are flattering and they are calling men and women. Yet, God tells us that to follow them is like an ox going to slaughter. It is like a fool going to the correction of the stocks. God is reminding us that we cannot settle for anything less than the person of Jesus Christ!
Amen.
Sunday Jul 11, 2021
Sunday Jul 11, 2021
Here are a couple of questions for you. What type of sin caused God to destroy the world with the flood? Immorality. What type of sin caused God to bring fire from heaven to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? Immorality. So, some of the most dramatic and seriously devastating judgements from God have been caused when man allowed immorality to consume their lives.
Gen 6:5
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
KJV
When we think of the sin of immorality, we often think of the sins of pornography, adultery, fornication, or any sexual act that takes place outside of the bonds of Holy Matrimony as it is defined by God. However, immorality is more than just sexual sins, it includes those sins, but it also includes sins that violate the moral standards established by God as right and wrong. Words like evil, wickedness, promiscuity, sexual deviation, are all associated with the sin of immorality. But make no mistake about it, sexual sins are the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about immorality as it is discussed in the Bible.
The fact that God has reserved some of His most severe judgments upon man because of the sins of immorality should tell us a great deal about how God feels about the sins of immorality. I believe it is important to God because of the devastating impact the sins of immorality will have on our lives. God loves us, and He wants what is best for us, and so in His Word He warns us about the dangers of immorality. He then commands us to not commit those sins. Then, through the story of the flood, and of Sodom and Gomorrah, He shows us the consequences of His judgment on those who ignore His warnings, ignore His commandments, and choose to commit the sins of immorality.
God is speaking to His children, to you and I as believers, and the overriding message that He repeats over, and over, and over again is to keep His commandments and to bind them in our hearts. God’s wisdom is found in His commandments, and the solution to every problem that we have in our lives can be found right here in God’s Word. All we have to do is follow them and bind them in our hearts. Amen?
Click on the link below if you want to hear a message on how to stop immorality in your life. There is only one way, you have to deal with it in your heart using God’s Word. Although the irresistible logic of God’s Word may be clearly understood and accepted in the head, the irrepressible love of God’s Word in the heart is what holds tight the fortress walls of the soul against the full force of the foe.
Amen.
Monday Jul 05, 2021
Monday Jul 05, 2021
Our lesson today is about a sin that is destructive to the lives of so many people in our world today. It is the sin of adultery. Adultery destroys marriages, families, and our relationship with God. Adultery is a sin, like so many others, where the person puts their own lusts and desires ahead of the needs of their spouse, their family, and their duty to God. It is a self-centered sin, and it is a sin that will destroy your life, both physically and spiritually. If you repent of it, God will forgive you of the sin of adultery, but the consequences of that sin will spread far beyond your own life, and even God’s forgiveness does not usually change that.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the high cost of adultery. God reminds us of these consequences, and then, as always, He tells us how to avoid it.
Prov 6:20-21
20 My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
21 Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.
KJV
As the children of God, we are told to hear and to heed our parent’s commandments, and most of all, we are to hear and to heed God’s commandments.
Amen.
Sunday Jun 27, 2021
Sunday Jun 27, 2021
In today’s message I want us to look at the way we think about sin, and how we rank sin, from little sins that everybody accepts as ok and it is no big deal, to the really bad sins. I want you to ask yourself what are the really bad sins that people can commit, and how does that compare to the way that God thinks about our sin.
You see, we set a standard of the sins that we think are really bad, and those that are not so bad. We would say that pride is a sin that is not good, but murder is much worse. We would say that gossiping is just what people do, but a person who steals is much worse. Yet, that is not what the Bible tells us about how God thinks of these things. In fact, we have been studying over the last couple of weeks that pride makes the top of the list of things that God hates, and gossiping can be described as someone that "speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren," which is also in the list of seven sins that God hates.
Prov 6:16-19
16 These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17 A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19 A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
KJV
Now, I believe that the Bible says that God hates all sins, and we are required to repent of any sin, and there are no sins that we can just ignore. But, the Bible does tell us how God feels about different sins. For example, we know that God hates pride, and He hates it because pride is the sin that leads to all of the other sins. It is the sin that started it all with the fall of Satan and the fall of the human race. Pride is the root sin of all the others because it starts by saying God, I don’t need you. When you think you can say that God doesn’t matter, then all of the other sins are not really sins anymore because you get to decide what is right and what is wrong. That is the problem with pride, it is a deceitful sin. Anyone who thinks they can ignore God has a judgment day, and a place in hell, waiting for them. Because God will not be ignored.
I believe that what we have in these verses is a look into the mind of God and how He looks at sin. I believe God hates all sin, and that we need to look into our own hearts to determine if we agree with God. Are there some sins that we think are ok, some that we like and want to hang onto in our lives? Are there others that we believe are far worse when we look at the sin in other people’s lives? The truth is that sin is sin, and God hates all sin. Until we come to the place where we agree with God about all the sin in our lives, we will never live a victorious Christian life, and we will never be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how God thinks about sin.
Amen.
Sunday Jan 31, 2021
Sunday Jan 31, 2021
One of the greatest blessings that God has bestowed on me is that I am the father of two godly sons. The fact that they both love God and serve Him is not a testament to anything that I have done, but to the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They were also blessed with the love of a truly wonderful mother. That undying love that she has for them has shaped them in many ways. Now, it is true that I have loved them both with all of my heart since I held them in my arms on the day they were born. It is also true that our deepest desire for our children was that they loved God with all of their hearts.
Unfortunately, not all children have the benefit of loving parents. Sometimes children are caught up in the mistakes and the pride and the arrogance of their parents, and more often than not it is the pride and arrogance of the father. Sometimes it is the mother, or even both, but more often than not it is the father.
There are many children who are going to be shipwrecked because of the pride and the arrogance of their fathers, who willingly choose not to guide those children into a safe and secure haven. Those fathers will shipwreck their own lives, and then the lives of their children who will suffer in their own ignorance because their father did not teach them the ways of God.
You might ask, “Well what about the mother, isn’t she just as responsible?” Yes, but the Bible is clear that the father is to be the major teacher of the family. But, when the father doesn’t perform that role, whether it is because he is lost and does not know God, or he is too proud and arrogant to do so, or he just isn’t there anymore, then the mother has to step in. But, God gives the role of the spiritual leader of the home to the father.
Our message today is on how To Be a Father, and it is part I of a two-part series. In this first part I am going to describe what happens when a father fails to teach his child. We are going to talk about what happens to that child as a result of that father’s failure.
Click on the link below to hear a message on what happens when we do not teach our children. When a father, who is so wrapped up in his own life, who is so proud and arrogant that he does not love God, and does not wish to teach his children to love God. I hope you hear my words today, and I pray that you will not let this happen to your children.
Amen.
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Are you prepared? Well, prepared for what? In these days of unrest there is a whole group of people who are called “preppers.” They have go-bags that are at the ready to grab in the event of an emergency, be it a hurricane, a riot, or some other cataclysmic event. Those bags contain food, camping equipment, and tools for survival without all of the support that we have in our society, like electricity, grocery stores, hospitals, gas stations, and even the internet. They are prepared to face a crisis event.
So, how you respond to the question of Are You Prepared depends on what you need to be prepared for? Is it a crisis event, or is it just to go to work today, or to school to take that exam?
Our message today is going to ask the Christian believer Are You Prepared to go out into the secular world? This message is for every believer, young or old, rich or poor, educated or not. For you to live a victorious Christian life you have to be prepared to face a world full of temptation and sin. This is especially true of our children as they get to the age where they will enter the world. But even though this message seems to be directed at our children, the principles that Solomon describes are just as applicable to adults.
One of the primary responsibilities of a Christian parent is to prepare their children to go out into the world and live a life that honors and glorifies God. Now, every parent wants their child to go out and succeed, but a secular parent and a Christian parent should have different definitions for the word succeed. The world looks at success in terms of wealth, power, happiness, and a family.
A Christian looks at success as finding fulfillment in always being obedient to the will of God for their lives. Now, wealth, power, happiness, and a family, may, or may not, come for the Christian, but if they do, they are simply due to the grace of God, not because of anything that we have done. Our trust is in the love that God has for us, and the certain knowledge that He will provide everything we need, and much more than we deserve.
If your trust is in something other than God to provide for your needs, like your own hard work, then you are not prepared to do God’s will for your life. This is true because it impacts your priorities. If your priority is to provide for your needs, then those needs will always come before your work for God.
Other than making sure your children know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, teaching them this concept of duty and service to God is the single most important principle that we can give them. It is to be more important than teaching them how to read, to write, to dress themselves, and to be polite. All those things are important, but without God, and without a desire to serve God, they will be easy prey for the world.
Click on the link below to hear a message that asks the question Are You Prepared to go out into the secular world?
Amen.
Sunday Nov 29, 2020
Sunday Nov 29, 2020
One of the great privileges of being a Christian is the knowledge that even though we may sin against God, He is sure and just to forgive us of those sins if we will repent of them. This just means that we go to God and tell Him that we agree that what we did was wrong and commit in our heart to not do it again. If we do this, then God will restore our relationship and fellowship with Him. However, this does not mean that we will not face the earthly consequences of that sin. For example, if we commit adultery, we may still lose our marriage, or if we steal something, we may face time in prison. Our sins are forgiven in the eyes of God, but there are still consequences to that sin.
God loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross so that we might have this privilege of redemption and grace. Yet, there are so many people who choose to rebel against God’s offer of forgiveness and eternal life. They resent the fact that God is sovereign, and it is God that decides what is right and what is wrong. They resent that they must go to God and ask for His forgiveness. Instead, they choose to rebel against the almighty God. They raise their fist, shake it at God, and tell Him no, they will not worship Him and make Him the Lord of their life. Instead of eternal life with God in heaven, they choose eternal death separated from God.
Click on the link below to hear a message on how a son can rise up against his father. How a person can hate God so much that they will tell God no, I will not accept your mercy and grace.
Amen.
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
The story of David and Bathsheba is a story that is a challenge to each of us as believers, for if a man as great as David could fall into sin, then so could each of us. It is also a tragic story, because of the tremendous cost of David’s sin. There will always be consequences when we sin against God. Not just on what we might call the “big” sins, but any sin. Too many times we get complacent with our sin, because we have rationalized them as “little” sins, or “socially acceptable sins,” and we do not realize the full extent of the cost of that sin in our relationship with God. There is always a tragic cost of our sin, and that is what I want us to see in our message today.
But there is also hope. We can have our relationship with God restored, and that is what I want you to know today, there is hope for us when we fail, even when we fail greatly.
If you’re living in sin and God is not dealing with you, then do you know what you need to do? You need to get saved. You need to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior.
If you’re living in sin and God is dealing with you, then do you know what you need to do? You need to get right with God. You need to repent of the sin that is in your life and let God forgive you, and restore you.
God is serious about your life. He wants you to live a righteous and a holy life. God loves you and He wants you to be in fellowship with Him. What is the hope for the child of God who has sinned? God’s never-ending love for you. God told David, that “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” God tells you the same thing,
1 John 4:10
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
KJV
1 John 4:16
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
KJV
1 John 4:19
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
KJV
Do you want to restore your relationship with God? Do you want to once again “dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him?” Then you must repent of your sins and find forgiveness in God’s love for you.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
KJV
The promise that God “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” is our hope as believers.
If this message is for you, if you are now walking in sin, it doesn’t even have to be a great big one, like adultery, but any sin, then that sin is impacting your relationship with God. You need to repent of that sin. This message is for people who want to live once again in the full love of God.
Click on the link below to hear a message on the cost of sin, and the hope that the believer has in restoring their relationship with God.
Amen.
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
Sunday Nov 15, 2020
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.