The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

JESUS IS SUPERIOR TO MOSES (Hebrews 3:1-13)

The Bible talks about entering into God’s Rest. There is the “rest of salvation” spoken of in:

Matthew 11:28
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
KJV

Then, there is “the rest of redemption.”  The Israelites that came out of bondage knew the rest of redemption.  They were no longer slaves of Egypt.  They came out by blood, blood on the doorposts.  They came out by power---the power of God.  God had brought them across the Red Sea.  God had delivered them.  

Then, Jesus spoke of “the rest of obedience, the rest of enjoying a Christian life.”  

Matthew 11:29
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.
KJV

The great failure of believers today is that they have received “the rest of salvation,” but they have not trusted God to do everything He says He will do.  They still want to handle their problems all on their own.  They have not found the peace and comfort, the rest, that comes from living a life of obedience and faith.  “The rest of obedience” that an all powerful God can give you.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how Christ is a superior Savior and Priest, who provides better security than anything offered by Moses and the Law that God gave the Jews through Moses.  How our belief and obedience to Christ, can bring us into the rest of obedience, the rest of enjoying a Christian life.

Amen.

THE MARVELOUS TRUTH OF HIS COMING (Hebrews 2:9-18)

We have been talking about the purpose and the reasons behind Jesus coming to earth as a Man. Why He would care so much about us that He would even do such a thing, and the wonderful blessings that His coming means for us now and throughout eternity.  Just think, if you choose Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you will spend eternity with the Son of the Living God, the Almighty Creator of all things, in a place in Heaven that He has especially prepared for you. 

So, why would Jesus do this?  Because Christ alone could redeem man, and He could do it only by dying on the Cross.  It was the only way.  Jesus was and is man.  Jesus was and is God, Jehovah, and the second person of the Godhead.  Jesus stood as the Perfect and Ideal Man before God.  This meant that as the Ideal and Perfect Man, whatever Christ did would stand for, and apply to man, or in other words, it would cover for man. 

•When Christ died, His death would free man from ever having to die in judgment for our sins.
•When He arose, His resurrection would assure man that he, too, would arise and live eternally.
•When He was exalted into Heaven, His exaltation would make it possible for man to be exalted into heaven and to rule and reign over the universe with Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how Christ made it possible for man to be restored to his destined glory and dominion.  Christ has made it possible for man to live eternally with God, and to fulfill his purpose for God.

Amen.

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

WHAT IF THERE HAD BEEN NO EASTER? (1 Corinthians15:12-20)

How would our world and our lives be different if Jesus had not come, died, and rose from that grave?  

Death laid his hands on the Lord Jesus Christ, and death put Jesus in a rock-hewn tomb. And there was a stone in the mouth of that tomb, and the seal of the Roman government was placed upon that tomb. But on the third day, Jesus Christ stirred Himself. He rose from the sleep of death. He left those grave clothes that were wrapped around him like a butterfly would forsake a cocoon.  Jesus Christ passed through the walls of that rock-hewn tomb. By the way, the stone wasn’t rolled away to let Jesus out—it was rolled away to let the disciples in to see that Jesus had come back.

The wonderful good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is alive today. He is not behind us in a tomb; He is before us on a throne. We thank God for that. But, suppose that had not happened. Suppose death still held Jesus. Then, what? Suppose there had been no Easter.

Well, no resurrection, means no Savior. No Savior, means no forgiveness. No forgiveness, means no justification. No justification, means no cleansing. No cleansing, means the penalty of your sin is still upon you.  If the penalty of your sin is still upon you, then you are destined for death and Hell, and you’re still in your sins.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how our world, our future, and our lives, would be different if there had been no Easter.

Amen.

 

WHAT IS MAN THAT GOD WOULD CARE? (Hebrews 2:5-9)

The only way we can truly understand what man is, is to understand what the Bible says about man.  It is from the Word of God that we learn the truth of how God views man.  How God answers the question, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou [didst visit] him?”  From a biblical perspective, the key question that we need to consider is why do all the worlds of space exist?  What is their purpose?  Has God any pleasure in dead matter? Is He not the God of the living? Can inanimate matter praise Him, the Lord of all life?  No, they cannot, and so there is man.  

When God made man, God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living, eternal, soul.  It is your soul that makes you of infinite worth.  Your soul will be in existence when the sun, and the moon, and the stars have turned to cinders. Your soul will go on endless, timeless, dateless, measureless, for God breathed into you the breath of life.  Man was created in the image of God, and you could no more cease to exist than God Himself could cease to exist.  

God is mindful of you. He sees you now—He’s looking at you right now. He desires you; He loves you. God doesn’t love us because we are valuable; we are valuable because He loves us. The dignity of man is that God is mindful of man, that God desires man.

Click on the link below to hear a message on why God loves you so much that He would send His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross to pay the penalty of your sin. 

Amen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen.

 

OUR SUPERLATIVE SAVIOR - PART II (Hebrews 1:4-12)

Heb 1:8
8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
KJV

I want you to notice something very important here, God the Father calls God the Son, God. Now, the eternal claim of Jesus is that He is God. Jesus is forevermore God. A billion, billion years from now, He still will be God. Look at this verse: “Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever and ever and ever.”  Jesus will still be King forever more.  

A basic truth of our created universe is that things change.  All created things change.  This universe is going to wear itself out. This universe is going to run down, the second law of thermodynamics tells us that it’s on its way down. It is burning out.  Another basic truth is that anything that moves makes friction, and anything that makes friction wears, and anything that wears, disintegrates. And that’s the reason that this universe that is moving and pulsating is wearing down, it is wearing down like a garment that wears out. It’s going to wear out. But Jesus is from everlasting to everlasting. A billion years from now Jesus is the same from age to age;

Click on the link below to hear a message on Jesus Christ, our Superlative Savior.

Amen.

 

OUR SUPERLATIVE SAVIOR-PART I (Hebrews 1:1-3)

“You may learn to love Jesus better, but you can never love anything better than Jesus.  He is our superlative Savior.”  

H. G. Wells, wrote in his outlines of history the 10 greatest men of all history, and number one on his list was Jesus Christ.  But, the truth is, that Jesus Christ does not belong on anybody’s list.  Why? Because, He is God’s unique, only begotten Son. He is our singular Savior. He is our superior Savior. He is our superlative Savior.

Jesus is unique in comparison to all of the other religious leaders. Buddha was a religious leader. Mohammed was a religious leader. Confucius was a religious leader. But let me tell you what all of these have in common. You can take them out of their teachings and still have their teachings. You can take Buddha out of Buddhism and still have Buddhism. You can take Mohammed out of Islam and still have Islam. You can take Confucius out of Confucianism and still have that system of thought. You just follow the deeds, the teachings, the precepts, the creeds of those particular faiths, and you have it. 

But you can’t take Christ out of Christianity and still have Christianity, because Christianity is not a code, not a cause, not a creed, not a church, but Christ. It is a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you tried to take Jesus out of Christianity, that would be like taking the notes out of music. That would be like taking the water out of a well. That would be like taking numbers out of mathematics. If you take Jesus out of Christianity, you don’t have anything left, because Christ and Christianity are the same.

Christianity is not just believing some thing; it is receiving someone. And this is the difference between Christianity and any other religion: Christianity is a vital relationship with a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. He is alive and well and living in me today.  If we are to be Christ followers, born again believers in Jesus Christ, then we need to understand that Jesus Christ is our singular Savior, and therefore He is our superlative Savior.

Click on the link below to hear a message on Jesus Christ, our Superlative Savior.

Amen.

 

A VIRTUOUS WOMAN (Proverbs 31:10-31)

Today’s message is a very interesting passage of Scripture because it talks about God’s ideal of a virtuous woman, He is saying that this woman is the complete, perfect, woman.  That is, she is God’s ideal of what a woman, a wife, and a mother ought to be.

Sometimes when you ask a woman what she does, she’ll say, “Oh, I’m just a housewife.”  Well, if that is you, then I hope that you will never say that again after this message here today, because you’re going to find out that perhaps the most difficult, the most demanding job in all of the world is being what some people call a “housewife.”  Now, I’d rather call her a “homemaker,” because she is not married to a house.  So, I don’t like the word housewife; but indeed, she is a homemaker.

This is the ideal wife.  Now, I don’t believe that there is anyone really like her in all of the world.  Yet, God has put into His Word God’s standard, God’s ideal for wives, and God always deals in perfection with His standards.

Listen to me men, if you are married to a good and godly woman, as I am, happily so and for many years, I can tell you that I do not have words in my vocabulary to express to you how much I value my precious wife.  I will also tell you that the real value, the real worth, of a wife is not in her outward charm—though I thank God for outward charm; it is not in the beauty of her face—though I thank God for that; but the real value of a wife is her virtue. God says “Who can find a virtuous wife? Her price is far above rubies.”

To her children, to her husband, and to her neighbors, she’s known as a godly woman, a woman who fears the Lord. That is her glowing witness. I am convinced that virtually all of the major problems that we have in America would change overnight if we just had some more women who met this standard of God’s virtuous woman.  The Bible tells us that the only way to be this kind of a woman is to fear the Lord. It’s all possible because of Jesus.

Click on the link below to hear a message on God’s ideal of a virtuous woman.

Amen.

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

THE CHARACTER OF A LEADER (Proverbs 29:2)

I don’t think anyone listening to me today would disagree that we are in moral crisis in our world today, and especially in America.  But, we are also in a crisis of leadership, and certainly the Bible teaches us that a nation gets the kind of leadership that nation deserves. May I say clearly and plainly that leadership is crucial for any nation to be blessed by God.

There’s an old proverb that says, “If the gold rust, what shall the iron do?” Now, what that proverb is trying to say is that, if our leadership is not right, what’s going to happen to the rest of us? 

Now, here in our country, our government is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The very genius of our government is that the people participate.  It’s unthinkable that God Almighty would have ordained government and then told His people to stay out of it.  Because, if we do stay out of it, then who would that leave to influence and to lead?  Unfortunately, we see the answer to that question with the leadership that populates all levels of our government.  There is a crisis in leadership in our country today, nor is this anything new.  It has been a crisis for a very long time.  

Yet, don’t ever think for one moment that because wicked men make wicked choices, and wicked rulers lead, that God has forsaken control. He has not.  The Bible says, “For God is the King of all the earth,” and not only is He King of all the earth, but He is King forever. 

Now having said all this, what should we do? Well, number one, the very first thing that we need to do is to pray for revival. The second thing we need to do is prepare for suffering. We need to teach our children that it may not be like we had it. We need to be building character into these boys and girls. Then, the third thing we need to do: We need to prepare for the Lord Jesus Christ’s arrival.  He is coming. Jesus is coming.  All you have to do is look around and see that the signs of the times are saying that Jesus is near.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on the character of a leader.

Amen.

CROSSING GOD’S DEADLINE PART II (Proverbs 29:1)

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.   

Now, make no mistake, God’s Spirit does strive with us, and God is infinitely patient with us in that He often reproves us.  Time and time and time and time again, God speaks, and God woos, and God warns, and God pleads, and God instructs, and God reproves. But there comes a time when the Holy Spirit can be so insulted, so sinned against, that you cross a deadline that God has set for you, and God’s gentle precious Holy Spirit no longer speaks to your heart.

Now, here is the most chilling part of this spiritual desertion.  Did you know that you cannot be saved unless the Holy Spirit of God draws you to Jesus Christ?  That is true, and if you cross God’s deadline, that in His omniscience He has sovereignly set for you, and the Holy Spirit stops speaking to you, then you will never be saved.

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

Amen.