Gary Stearman Commentary on Russian Airstrikes

Preach the Gospel - and by all means use the Word of God

Written and posted by Jean-Louis. 12/2012

 
SOUND DOCTRINE

-       Yet I am not ashamed, because I know WHOM I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. 2 Timothy 1:12-14.

STAND FIRM. HOLD ON

-       So then brothers, stand firm and HOLD ON TO THE TEACHINGS we passed on to you whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17.

• WHAT DO WE HAVE OF LASTING ETERNAL VALUE? let´s meditate on that.
•  The Lord Jesus to the angel of the Church in Philadelphia:  I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Revelation 3:11.
• “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us.” II Corinthians 4:7.
• The jars of clay (our bodies).  For God made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. II Cor. 4: 6.

To summarize:

-        God´s part: John the Baptist giving his testimony about who Jesus is: A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. John 3:22.

-       Jesus praying to the Father: For the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. John 17:8 NASB

-        Our part: Jesus said: Freely you have received, freely give. Matthew    10:8

So now that we know what to hold on to, what we have, what we have been given and that we are to give, what do we do? 

1. If a person wants to feel really humble and use one of those clichés that sounds really spiritual, here is one cop out tantamount to substituting grace through faith or adding works to grace with the social gospel “Preach the Gospel and use words if necessary” (quote attributed to Francis of Assisi). Reams of articles have been written on the subject, so no need to explain. But when in doubt Google!

 
The opposite that sounded also quite spiritual used to be the fashion statement when I grew up in Catholic France and was asked “ Are you a Catholic?” the answer would be: “I am not practicing but I believe”. The worst of it was that I really was living in a schizoid, make believe phony world of existential philosophy until 

the Lord intervened and revealed himself, his unfailing grace and his love for me a miserable sinner that had broken every one of his commandments and offended his Glorious Majesty, thus deserving hell reserved for the devil, his angels and rebellious independent, self-sufficient human beings that refuse to acknowledge the sovereignty of their Creator over his creatures and receive on his terms his way of reconciliation and peace he provided through the substitute sacrifice of His son Jesus-Christ on the cross 

• through the preaching of his Word, 
• through my reading of the Beatitudes that revealed my total inability to measure up to God´s standard of holiness and earn my salvation through my own efforts, being a wretch that I was and 
• my need for a Savior and 
• the love and faith in action of the Christians around me. 

2.  Or like Paul, we can say: It is written, “I believed, therefore I have spoken” with the same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak”. II Cor. 4:13. 

Peter obeying his Lord said to the crippled beggar:

-        Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. Acts: 3:4.

We are not given in order to hoard what we have but to share with others.

In the way of common grace, as the Father makes the rain fall and the sun shine on the just and the unjust on the earth that “the Lord formed to be inhabited”, we share the truth of the Gospel with everybody who will 

• listen, hear, and through the convicting power of the Holy Spirit  
• understand with an open and willing heart their natural propensity for sins, their incurable condition facing the just wrath of a Holy God, 
•  repent  and receive Jesus-Christ who died for them and if they accept what the Bible say about who they are and who Jesus-Christ is,
• become saved by his grace through faith (given to them), 
• believe in his name and become children of God (being born again), 
• receiving forgiveness and eternal life through his resurrection.

For a more thorough explanation of what the Gospel is, click HERE 

In a more specific way we share everything we have received with our brothers and sisters in Christ as the day of the redemption of our bodies draws near and we need to be strong and remain standing firm in the power of his might against the flaming arrows of the evil one.

It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. I, the Lord speak the truth, I declare what is right. Isaiah 45:12,19.

Therefore, this is what we have been entrusted with and this is what we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus-Christ that “salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.

This is righteous kingdom living.

Not a guilt trip I am trying to put on you. Jesus said: “Without me, you cannot do anything”. (Spiritual, that is).

“Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God” II Cor. 3:5.

Whatever you think you don´t have or are unable to do because of fear or timidity, ask him, he will provide what you lack. 

Let us emulate Paul the Apostle who asked the Ephesians:  “and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in ^[a]chains; that ^[b]in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” Ephesians 6:19,20. NASB

How do we measure success?

Written and published by Jean-Louis.3/2012
 
"An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for love is measured by fullness, not by reception." Harold Loukes.

Have you ever felt a little sad or ignored when your hard work for the Lord was not producing fruit that was tangible in the lives of people you serve? Have you wondered if there was something wrong in your methods or even that the Lord was not blessing your efforts and doubted that you were in His will? Have you felt discouraged by the apparent failure of your ministry?

Or your self-inflicted criticism could turn into an understandable self-justification into accepting a self-imposed defeat and throwing down the gloves. "After all the Lord has not blessed me with the gift of evangelism", you might argue. Look at all the successful ministries with crowds waiting in lines to participate in the latest human-crowd-baiting nets operations.

Not all fishermen are in the fishing business equipped with huge nets and fleets of boats to carry all the catch. Big fishing ministries might not start with the initial call, blessings of God  ending up with the final rewards for faithful service but you surely can if you are fishing for God, with God and in whatever pond, river or sea the Master has called to be.

"But wait a minute, what about me?" you might retort. All I have is two hands, one mouth and the Word of God to help me. My friend, you have all you need to be, maybe not as an apparently successful captain of a fishing boat fleet, but as a faithful angler because God has called you to cast your bread on the waters and not to worry about the size of the catch.

Conversely, you might be gifted by the Lord to feed the fish instead of catching it. We are not in the business of killing the fish. The fish is already dead. Sure, physically, it jumps, swims, eats and reproduces just any normal fish. So why are we surprised when the fish escapes the hook and swims away?

Do we think the hook is as important as the bait? Are we sorry that the fish got away? Maybe we have it backward in our attempts to draw people to Jesus.
We should rejoice when the fish gets away with the bait, the Word of God, the real food that will one day give them life and imperceptibly but surely help them to get closer to the day when the Word of God will produce its work of new birth and eternal salvation. Then, they will grow bigger and stronger and reproduce.

Paul in I Corinthians said that one plants the seed, another waters it according to the task assigned by God. “Neither he who plants, nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose and each will be rewarded according to his own labor”. I Corinthians 3:7-9.

To go back to the initial quote above, if your service to God and your fellow human is an act of love accomplished in faith and obedience to our Lord Jesus it might seem to you as a failure because of the seeming lack of immediate results, it might be that the person that was the object of your love did not receive it, but that does not take away your unwavering commitment and your acting in faith and love. It just might be a matter of time. Sooner or later, up or down the stream of life, another angler will build on your faithful work and bring the fish home hopefully without the wounds of unscrupulous fishermen using false bait and using big hooks and harpoons that hurt the fish.

Take the example of the great missionary to India, William Carey whose biography I recommend reading: “ after seven years of tireless toil in India Carey still did not have a single convert!” However he trusted in the Word of God for his life and he quotes it in the text of a historic sermon in Isaiah 54:2-3: “Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not spare, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes! For you shall expand to the right and to the left and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make desolate cities inhabited.” And this is exactly what he did.

Paul, Apollos, all the disciples and great men of God throughout history can be used as good examples to emulate (see the list in hall of faith in Hebrew 11).

However the best and supreme example of somebody who acted with the highest disinterested kind of love who could have been seen as a failure was our Lord Jesus-Christ. He spent the 33 years of his short life being rejected. He was not attractive or beautiful in his human form, had nothing that would make man desire him, a man full of sorrow, despised. Talk about a failure in the eyes of the unbelieving world. He was oppressed, afflicted, and did not complain. He was betrayed, died through the false testimony of lying witnesses. He dies the death of the worst criminals. And he did it for the love of his Father and love for you and me. He labored and was faithful even to his death but not in vain, because look at what beautiful inheritance -- salvation from eternal death and the promise of the Spirit and eternal life with him -- he won for the millions of believers who trust in him. This is the great victory brought by his sacrifice on the cross.

If you trust him with your life he can turn your apparent failures into victories. Don´t look at instant results judging your performance by the way people react to your sharing the truth with others. “Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. I Timothy 4:15,16.
God is a good and tender loving Father who likes to reward his faithful and obedient children with surprises big and small in answer to our prayers.

This is what the Word says concerning fullness, love, faith and works. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, Col 1:19; For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form and you have been given this fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. Colossians 2:9, 10.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Gal. 5:6.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.. It is the Lord Christ whom you are serving. Colossians 3:23.

Jean-Louis.

The Nicholaitans - Of false teachings and practices

Written and posted by Jean-Louis. 11/2011

In Revelation chapter 2:15 John mentions the Nicolaitans twice. This group is formed as a partnership of the Church and the world, through the ordination of a supposedly superior clergy elite class ruling over a supposedly inferior laity, the spiritually uneducated masses if you will. The supposed  meaning in Greek, is derived from Nico and Laitan or the name Nicholau " one who conquers the people".  It begins with a compromise and ends in powerlessness and destruction when the Lord judges and removes the candlestick of such churches. The institution can have the appearance of a functioning organization ruled by men but its life source, its spiritual guidance and dynamic power have been removed as when the glory of God departed from the temple in the time of Ezequiel or “Ichabod, the Glory has departed” was pronounced in 1 Samuel 4:19-22.

Who were these Nicolaitans? It is supposed that this group whose name is derived from a man named Nicolau, compromised with pagan practices in order to allow Christians to associate with popular customs.
Does it remind us of another time in Israel’s history when the people wanted a King like the other nations around them and rejected God´s rule? God told them that their King would lord it over them. This is exactly what happened to the institution of the church through the ages, the clergy, a separate hierarchical class of trained ministers, taking the control of God´s people through different methods that are not from God and are not recorded in His Word. WE are ALL a nation of priests according to Peter, none of us superior to the other. In the last half of the twentieth century, the Church has been infiltrated by the world’s philosophy and has found a most welcome reception in both "liberal" and "conservative" elements in its ranks. 

This is exactly what Paul, Peter and John were warning their flocks about. In Revelation chapter 2, the teaching of Balaam is mentioned in the same paragraph as the teaching of the Nicolaitans. To study more about this, see 2 Peter 2:15 and Jude 11.
Of course, this practice in the churches is not new. Since the absorption of pagan practices in the church under Roman Emperors Constantine’s and Theodosius’ reigns resulting in a syncretism which has permeated the church until now, we have witnessed this phenomenon in the comtemporary "church" that will culminate in the unification of all the apostate ecumenical churches under the rule of Antichrist during the greatest deception ever perpetrated on mankind.

As far as I know, God has not rescinded His commands to the Church. He has not changed one iota of His perfect, pure, eternal, unchanging Word. He still keeps on building His Church on the perfect, indestructible “foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone”. Ephesians 2:20.


Maybe our human hands build buildings imperfectly on faulty foundations that will crack and not support the weight. Not so with the Lord and his Word. Everything He creates and builds is perfect. We do not need to try and improve on it.
Furthermore, there are warnings throughout the Bible for those who would try and change it. Deuteronomy 4:2 declares: “do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you”.

Several other passages give the same command, with consequences added in the case of Revelation 22:19: “And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

Further in 2 Corinthians 10:8, Paul continues with this theme after explaining to us the good use of his authority when he declares: “For even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it”. We can see from these words that Paul always had his disciples’ best interest at heart.

In conclusion, let us beware of practices prohibited by God in His Word, first introduced by people outside and inside the Church who distort the Scriptures to back up these practices and later on formulate a false theology once the practice has been entrenched through decades or centuries of traditions in the lives of people. 

True Christian practices should always have as their basis pure and sound doctrine and should stem from biblical principles and the leading of the Holy Spirit who will never contradict His Word. Sound teaching should always precede good practices, not the other way around because the human heart is so deceitful. Let’s leave this type of behavior to the politicians who have perfected it to an art.