Men With Chests

Our Lord was no stranger to doctrinal controversy.  He did not avoid it and often was the initiator, especially when it came to the all important issue of whom we were to place our faith and trust for salvation (John 6:35-40; John 14:6). John MacArthur book, “The Jesus You Can’t Ignore” makes the same point;

“Jesus’ interaction with the religious experts of His time was rarely even cordial.  From the time Luke first introduces us to the Pharisees’ in Luke 5:17 until his final mention of the “chief priests and rulers” in  Luke 24:20, every time the religious elite of Israel appear as a group in Luke’s narrative, there is conflict. Often Jesus deliberately provokes the hostilities.  When He speaks to the religious leaders or about them – whether in public or in private – it is usually to condemn them as fools and hypocrites (Luke 11:40; 12:1; 13:15; 18:10-14).  When He knows they are watching to accuse Him of breaking their artificial Sabbath restrictions or their manmade systems of ceremonial washing, He deliberately defies their rules (Luke 6:7-11; 11:37-44; 14:1-6). On one occasion, when He was expressly informed that His denunciations of the Pharisees were insulting to the lawyers (the leading Old Testament scholars and chief academicians of that time), Jesus immediately turned to the lawyers and fired off a salvo at them, too (Luke 11:45-54).”[1] Continue reading →

Psalms 119:63(NKJV) ⁶³    I am a companion of all who fear You,  And of those who keep Your precepts.

1 Timothy 6:20(NKJV) ²⁰O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust…

2 Thessalonians 3:6(NKJV) ⁶But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which  he received from us.

It has been said, that any unity of persons that would honor God must first be a unity that God Himself has produced.

Failure to observe the Scripture’s mandates on Ecclesiastical Separation endangers the integrity of the Gospel with which we have been entrusted. Sometimes, however, our own ideas about Ecclesiastical Separation fall short – neglecting the clear instructions of the Bible or adding our own opinions to the Word of God. Continue reading →

I’d like to  share with you this great exposition of Romans 8:2 from G. Campbell Morgan (1863-1945), one of the finest expositors of the last 100 years.

His family experience and the impact of the preaching of D.L. Moody brought him to a ministry of preaching at the age of twelve.  He was twice the pastor of Westminster Chapel (1904, 1943).  He ministered in England and the United States and is well known for his solid expositional preaching and teaching.

This exposition will be broken down into two parts because of its length.  Enjoy the preach of G. Campbell!

Romans 8:2 (NKJV) ²  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

The Spirit is described in the New Testament as “the Spirit of Truth,” “the Spirit of Promise,” “the Spirit of Grace,” “the Spirit of Glory.” “The Spirit of Life” is a suggestive and comprehensive phrase, indicating the relation of the Spirit of God to all life. Two words are here placed together, both of which; refer to life. The word “Spirit” suggests life at its very highest. Here, as always, where the reference is to God, the word indicates the originating cause. The word “life” marks rather a manifestation or a form of the essential than the origination and power thereof. This word translated “life” is a very interesting one. The Greek language is richer than ours in this particular, that it has more words than one to describe life. Where we use our word “life”‘ to include many conceptions, there are at least two words in Greek literature; words that we have become familiar with by their adaptation into our language in scientific usage-the words bios and zoe, from which we have derived our words biology and zoology. These two Greek words indicate two thoughts about life, but in Greek classical literature they are other than the thoughts that they indicate in the New Testament. The order of suggestiveness is reversed in the New Testament, and this is an arresting peculiarity which the purely natural-I may almost say the animal-side of life. The other word, bios, had in it something of an ethical value and a spiritual conception. In all Greek literature you find this contrast is maintained. Continue reading →

Matthew 7:21-23 ( NKJV ) ²¹“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.  ²²Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’  ²³And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

2 Corinthians 13:5 ( NKJV ) ⁵Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

For me, there is no more glorious a thought than to know that I rest in the saving hands of God (John 1:28).  And for many years I rested in this one solid dimension of God’s faithful grace until while reading Romans 9:4-13 I saw that the elective purposes of God stood as the foundational and paramount truth to my position in Christ.  I realized that when we are told that it “is not of works but of Him who calls” (vs.11), I stood solely by the grace of God and that “not of works” meant exactly that.  I saw new and afresh that I was saved “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:4), and “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).  Continue reading →