Ironworks

     For Father’s Day, my wife and the kids gifted me with a little gadget called a “Tile.”  It is a little key tag that you can attach to your keys and with the app on your phone you can locate your keys if you misplace them. If you misplace your phone you can click the tag and find your phone also. It is pretty neat.. I can think about all the times I have been delayed, frustrated, and upset because I did not have my keys. As the church we need to remember the significance of the keys which are in the Lord’s hands.  “The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven” “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19      The authority to lay the terms and conditions of entrance into the kingdom of heaven are Christ’s alone. He gave His Apostles those keys to the kingdom which they subsequently preached in J...

“Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them. For their heart studieth oppression, and their lips talk of mischief” Proverbs 24:1-2.     You know you have heard the expression, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” A Christian needs to examine this saying a little closer. If you remember a few Sunday mornings ago that we discussed the sin of covetousness. I want to bring back to your mind that covetousness is desiring something that is not yours, and also it is desiring something that you cannot have. God’s warnings are throughout the Scriptures. New Testament Christians must remember we cannot have the life of the wicked.       Through the Inspired Word he declares do not be envious against evil men. Why would we envy evil men? Why would we want anything that evil men enjoy? Sometimes it’s the case that we want the benefits of their evil. A Christian who is not wealthy might look at the riches of the wicked ...

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it; and he gave to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins.” Matthew 26:26-28      One of the most significant sources of confusion in Bible interpretation is when individuals will interpret figurative language as literal. Webster’s Dictionary defines figurative language like this: “Figurative language refers to words or phrases that are meaningful, but not literally true.” In addition.  We might think of this by simple expressions in the Bible. The church is the body of Christ as we spoke of last Sunday (Eph 1:22-23, 4:4. 5:23). Should we interpret the church as the literal, physical body of Christ? Do we transform into Jesus when we follow him? If so, what happens when I sin against God? I want to illustrate this poin...

       “I am so busy,” I said. I have this habit of letting life push me around with the various things that have to be done. Then I remembered that God has called busy men throughout all of time. I remembered that busyness nor tasks are an excuse to the Lord God.  “Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb” (Ex. 3:1)      God called Moses, who was busy with the flocks of his father in law. It sure would have been easier to keep his eyes to the ground, keep his eyes on only the sheep and not the burning bush.  He could have said, “No, too busy.” However, he looked and listened and the children of Abraham received a great prophet.  “And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send a...

 “Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would ye also go away?  Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life."  John 6:68  Peter asked, “to whom shall we go?” He said this out of conviction and certainty that there was no other one to go to receive the words of eternal life. From that time onward men have tried to go elsewhere to receive the words of eternal life and none have been successful. Please examine a few examples with me.  Moses Moses was a great a mighty man of God. By the power of God, Moses led the people of Israel out of the land of bondage. The Law of the Old Covenant was delivered unto him at Sinai. Yet Moses died. Before he died, let us recall that Moses prophesied of a new prophet. “Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; (Deut. 18:15).” The very law which Moses was given was for a certain time and a certai...

  And when he hath made her drink the water, then it shall come to pass, if she be defiled, and have committed a trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter, and her body shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away: and the woman shall be a curse among her people.  And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.  Numbers 5:27-28 A very valuable question was brought to me regarding Numbers 5 this last week. It appears that some individuals have been using Numbers 5 as an apparent license to have abortions. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, what we find here is yet another example of God’s Divine provision that He has made to care for His people.  The situation described starting in Numbers 5:11 is in reference of a husband that suspects his wife of committing adultery but cannot prove it. The Law states there must be proof. “At the mouth o...

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.” John 3:16-17      Love is such a great and powerful force in our lives. The greatest love this world has ever known is that which our Heavenly Father has shown to us. That He sent His Son to redeem the lost and that through the system of faith we should not perish but have eternal life. God had clear intentions when He extended that love toward us. We, too, can learn that our love must be intentional because love without direction can be dangerous.  Love of the World      Be not mistaken, this is not the love of our neighbors/enemies (Matt 5:43-48) that we are talking about. This is the love of the world that is warned against in John 12:42-44 where many of the rulers believed Jesus but would not confes...

“And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel. And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them.” 1 Chron 21:1-2 This week marks the end of our series over sins of pride. I felt it necessary to speak about one example of pride in our Bibles to show how our pride affects others. 1 Chronicles 21 gives us the account of when Satan influenced David to number Israel. From the account, we read we can safely ascertain that pride was the chief influence.  David had plenty of experience that would help him to steer clear of the temptation of pride. In 1 Samuel 31, the Philistines killed King Saul, but 1 Chron 10:14 indicates that it was Jehovah who slew Saul. How and why did God slay Saul? He made the determination to remove His anointing and hedge of protection because Saul had trespassed against Him (cf 10:13). On another occasion, David had been witness to ...

“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. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:16-18 Are you ever afraid? I think we all have answered yes during certain seasons of our lives. Fear is certainly one of the most effective tools of Satan. He uses fear to control men. He uses fear to propagandize men. He uses fear to keep Christians from being faithful. Fear realistically disables our ability to love God, and we find ourselves in a vicious cycle of living in fear rather than living in Christ’s love.  Fear is the antithesis of love. The ideas stand over and against each other like David and Goliath facing off before battle (1 Sam. 17). David was a young man stan...

“Come now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain:  whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that.  But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil.  To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”  James 4:13-17      What is your life? The answer may be scarier than the question itself. Yet, the Holy Spirit asked, “What is your life?” It is a vapor, something that is seen briefly. It appears and it is gone. So why do we try and hoard the time that we have on this earth instead of willingly giving it up for God? When we plan in such a way that we leave God out of our lives, we hold onto the temporary brevity of life rather than the eternal desire God has...

“Every word of God is tried: He is a shield unto them that take refuge in him.” Proverbs 30:5      They said the Titanic was “practically unsinkable” in 1912, but we all know what happened. It was untested, but it was a spectacular ship, unlike any other in history. “One of the largest and most luxurious passenger liners at the time, the Titanic, was also equipped with watertight compartments, which led many to consider the ship unsinkable; an anonymous deckhand famously claimed that “God himself could not sink this ship.” On April 14, however, the ship struck an iceberg, and early the next day it sank. Some 1,500 people perished.” . Gone are the lives of many on that maiden voyage, all lost on the account of the unseen. If they would have know the fate of this great ship, do you think anyone would have gone aboard?  They had every reason to believe they would have a safe voyage.       Many go through life feeling unstoppable, unbeatable, and sure...

“Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, is in the heavens; Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the skies. Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God; Thy judgments are a great deep: O Jehovah, thou preservest man and beast.  How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge under the shadow of thy wings.”  Psalm 36:5-7      The world says be overwhelmed. The world says give up. The word says there is nothing that can save you. The world says one more drink, one more pill, one more excuse, and one more thrill. In the end, you feel all the more empty. You feel a void that nothing seems to fill. What does one do when the message is hopeless, the message is bleak, or when the repeating message is give up? Flip the Script      To respond in the right way, one needs to change the message to which they are listening. The world has offered trouble and terror. Those liars have offered poisonous error. Yet the God of the Universe, the Cr...