This week I have been reading from “The Gospel According to Matthew”, and as I have done so God has opened up this telling of Jesus Christ in a new and different way. The words came alive in a way I had never seen them before and in many ways it was as though I was hearing them for the first time. Of all that I read one verse in particular that I had read two days ago stood out and I kept referencing back to it as I read on. I guess I had not really noticed it before or was just more focused on the surrounding verses. The verse that I am referring to is Matthew 16:27, Jesus is talking with the twelve, He asks them who do men say that He is, then He asks them who do they say that He is. Peter says: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord proceeds to tell them how He was going to suffer at the hands of the elders, chief priest and scribes, that He would be killed and be raised from the dead the third day. Peter rebukes Him and the Lord says, “Get behind Me Satan!” Then the Lord tells them how to be saved and I have found in this reading of Matthew this same plan of salvation runs through every story and parable, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). Then the Lord tells of His coming and this was opened to me like it had never been done before. Jesus is not returning as a man, Jesus as returning as God in all of His glory! “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angles, and then He will reward each according to his works” (Matthew 16:27). Then in chapter 24 He tells of the end of times and His return and all I could think was, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Really, think about this for a moment. Jesus is not returning as the Lamb of God, He is returning in the glory of the Father, and says that He will reward each according to his works. My question to you is do you really want to be rewarded according to your works?
Let us look at the story of “The rich young ruler”. He comes to Jesus saying, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” In other words he was asking Jesus what work he must do to be rewarded. Jesus gives him the answer immediately when He says, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” This man like most men thought there is something or things that he could do to be considered good, that by his works he could be rewarded with eternal life. Jesus then proceeds to give him the commandments and says that if you keep all of those you will have eternal life. He did this so that the man would see his sinful state before God. What does the law of God do? It brings the knowledge of sin, “for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). This man is before God incarnate, and he is given the law of God by Him who gave the law and he denies that he has broken the law. Even with that the Lord gives him the way to eternal life. Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). I have heard this story preached about on many occasions and most times the one preaching says that this man’s god was his money. I don’t think so! This man was holding on to something else, something that is even harder for a man to give up than worldly wealth and that thing is self-righteousness. He had a death grip on self-righteousness and was not about to let it go for anything. Jesus said: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). This man’s worldly wealth wasn’t the problem, his problem was that he refused to die to self, he refused to give up his self-righteousness and that is what he needed to sell. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25).
So I ask you, do you really want to be rewarded according to your works? I know I don’t, that is why I am not trusting in my works but I am trusting in the works of Jesus Christ to save me from the wrath of the living God. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31).
Repent and trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The Sheep's Gate
This morning God gave me a message through a short passage in the gospel of Luke and it is that message that I would like to impart to you today. There is an enmity that separates the people of this world from God and that enmity is God’s law. Enmity means a wall of separation. And this wall is a daunting and impossible wall to scale for no one can climb over it, no one can go around it because it is eternal, and it is impenetrable, you cannot break it down. Many try to scale the wall and die trying, many try and walk around the wall and never find its end, and many more try to go through the wall and are crushed by it. The good news is that there is a way through the wall, a very narrow gate by which you might enter and the pathway through the wall is difficult. Most refuse to enter through this narrow gate because they are proud, and many more stray off the path because it is difficult. To enter through this gate you must be; poor of spirit, mournful, meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and are persecuted for righteousness sake. No it is not easy to enter this gate and even more difficult is the way.
There are two gates and all people will enter one or the other. One gate is wide and its way is broad, one gate is narrow and its way is difficult. Most people enter the wide gate and walk the broad way, there are but a few brave souls that enter the narrow gate and walk the difficult way. All gates, all doors open into a way and that way if followed leads you somewhere. If the destination you desire is not on the way you are on you will not reach the destination you desire. I live in the United States, in the state of Texas, Interstate highway 35 runs north to Canada and south to Mexico; if my desired destination was Mexico and I got on Interstate highway 35 north I would not reach my desired destination would I, because I was headed the wrong way? Now the two ways earlier mentioned the broad way and the difficult way both have a destination. The wide gate and the broad way leads to destruction. The narrow gate and difficult way leads to life.
So if the narrow gate and the difficult way leads to life wouldn’t you want to find it? Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God gave us directions to the narrow gate. Jesus said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7). “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus said He is both the gate and the way to life. Jesus is the narrow gate and following Him is the difficult way to life.
Let us look at the world’s religions for a moment. Let us draw a circle around the way in Jesus Christ and a circle around all world religions including atheism. All the world’s religions have one common theme, earning merit with God. If you follow the letter of the law, or if you do all of these good deeds you will earn your way to life. All who are in these religions are trusting in themselves on their own merit. The way in Jesus Christ is different, the believer admits he has broken the law of God and transfers his trust from himself to Jesus Christ. The believer does not stand on his own merit but on the merit of Jesus. This is the narrow gate, you are not good and you deserve to be punished but you put your faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross as payment for your sins. You transfer the trust from yourself to the Savior and except His Lordship over your life. You can enter through the wide gate and walk the broad way as most do but that way leads to destruction. There is but one narrow gate (the sheep’s gate) and one way to life though it is difficult.
Now this gate is very narrow and you can only enter it through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ as payment for your sins. And this way is difficult because in order to walk this way you most become humble and meek. Self-righteousness has no part on this way it cannot make it through the gate. There is not enough room on this way for pride it must be left at the gate. This way is too narrow for arrogance it must be left behind. This way is much too difficult to carry artificiality; it is too burdensome. Yes only the one who is poor in spirit, who mourns, who is meek, hungers and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers may enter.
I hope you will enter through the narrow gate (the sheep's gate) and walk the narrow way for it leads to life. Repent and trust alone in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
God be with you,
Mike Peek
There are two gates and all people will enter one or the other. One gate is wide and its way is broad, one gate is narrow and its way is difficult. Most people enter the wide gate and walk the broad way, there are but a few brave souls that enter the narrow gate and walk the difficult way. All gates, all doors open into a way and that way if followed leads you somewhere. If the destination you desire is not on the way you are on you will not reach the destination you desire. I live in the United States, in the state of Texas, Interstate highway 35 runs north to Canada and south to Mexico; if my desired destination was Mexico and I got on Interstate highway 35 north I would not reach my desired destination would I, because I was headed the wrong way? Now the two ways earlier mentioned the broad way and the difficult way both have a destination. The wide gate and the broad way leads to destruction. The narrow gate and difficult way leads to life.
So if the narrow gate and the difficult way leads to life wouldn’t you want to find it? Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God gave us directions to the narrow gate. Jesus said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7). “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus said He is both the gate and the way to life. Jesus is the narrow gate and following Him is the difficult way to life.
Let us look at the world’s religions for a moment. Let us draw a circle around the way in Jesus Christ and a circle around all world religions including atheism. All the world’s religions have one common theme, earning merit with God. If you follow the letter of the law, or if you do all of these good deeds you will earn your way to life. All who are in these religions are trusting in themselves on their own merit. The way in Jesus Christ is different, the believer admits he has broken the law of God and transfers his trust from himself to Jesus Christ. The believer does not stand on his own merit but on the merit of Jesus. This is the narrow gate, you are not good and you deserve to be punished but you put your faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross as payment for your sins. You transfer the trust from yourself to the Savior and except His Lordship over your life. You can enter through the wide gate and walk the broad way as most do but that way leads to destruction. There is but one narrow gate (the sheep’s gate) and one way to life though it is difficult.
Now this gate is very narrow and you can only enter it through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ as payment for your sins. And this way is difficult because in order to walk this way you most become humble and meek. Self-righteousness has no part on this way it cannot make it through the gate. There is not enough room on this way for pride it must be left at the gate. This way is too narrow for arrogance it must be left behind. This way is much too difficult to carry artificiality; it is too burdensome. Yes only the one who is poor in spirit, who mourns, who is meek, hungers and thirst for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers may enter.
I hope you will enter through the narrow gate (the sheep's gate) and walk the narrow way for it leads to life. Repent and trust alone in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
God be with you,
Mike Peek
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Love and Sacrifice
There are two things that I would like to talk about today; love and sacrifice. These two words are deep in their significance and meaning, they are a totality of scripture in a wonderful summary. They are so simple, yet so extremely difficult. These two words are both defined by the world and by the Bible, with the definitions in contrast. If you were to take all of scripture as incredibly vast as it is, it can be summarized in love and sacrifice.
The first message is this. God loves you, so love God and other people. How is God’s love demonstrated to us? On the cross, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God does not love you because you are lovable, God does not love you because you are good, God does not love you because you are someone great, God does not love you because of your beauty, God does not love you because you are desirable. God loves you because He is love, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Isn’t that wonderful? No matter what you have thought, no matter what you have said, and no matter what you have done, God loves you. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
So let us define love from the Word of God. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Jesus is the expression of God in a man. Jesus before going to the cross gave a command to His disciples, and that command is love. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Not only does He tell us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ but he also tells us to even love the unlovable, to love our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). People will often love someone because being around that person gives them good feelings. When is love true love? Love is true love when it benefits you nothing. Jesus loved the world, and the world spit in His face. Jesus loved the world, and the world beat Him. Jesus loved the world, and the world hung Him on a cross until He suffered and died. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). So if God loves you like that, don’t you think you should love like God, in loving other people?
The second message is this. God sacrificed everything to save you, so sacrifice everything. God sacrificed everything, Himself, so that you might live. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God the Father gave His only begotten Son. Begotten is the best translation and it literally means came out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is God. So when the Bible says He gave His only begotten Son it is saying He gave Himself. And what He gave was everything. Think about this for a minute, go outside on a clear night and look at the sky and the vastness of the universe and all it contains. Climb a mountain and gaze at the wonder of the earth. Watch the birds fly, fish swim, a horse run, and a child play; all of which magnify the glory of God. Then think about this; Jesus was with God before time began, before creation. God had Him lower Himself to take on the form of lowly man to redeem man from this fallen world. Think about how difficult that most have been, and to do that knowing that the very people He was saving would curse Him, spit on Him, beat Him, hate Him, and murder Him. Amazing!!! Jesus while being fully God was also fully man. The fact that he subjected Himself to this fleshy state is a sacrifice beyond imagination. Jesus felt pain, hunger, thirst, sadness, disappointment, and He also faced temptation.
Let us just for a moment look at one of these, temptations. What an incredible thing it is that God would subject Himself to this. We as fleshy human beings have real physical needs and it is our desire to have those needs met. Sin occurs when a real physical need meets desire, which desire gives way to temptation, and temptation to sin. Jesus while He was fully God He was fully man, and being fully man He was subject to everything we as men are subject to. I will use to describe this, a sin that easily besets a man. God created in man a real physical need to procreate, to have sex and multiply, and what God has created is good. God said: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). God set this to be done within a marriage between one man and one woman. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matthew 19:5 & Genesis 2:24). The two become one flesh. “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6). So God created in man the real physical need to multiply. That real physical need that is good, gives way to desire, a desire to have sex, which is good. Once a man has that desire then he can become subject to temptation. Not all but many women in our society flaunt themselves; they expose themselves in many different ways. So you have a man with a physical need to procreate which gives him the desire to have sex, then a woman with a low cut dress comes into his eye site exposing here breast (her cleavage); so then you have instantaneously within this man a temptation to lust. He has a real physical need to procreate, which causes sexual desire, which is good, and then he is exposed to this woman’s cleavage which gives him the temptation to lust. Lust is an intense, strong, passionate, craving, appetite for, to delight in, or to wish for. So in this case this man who has a real physical need, which causes desire, is tempted to lust. Lust in this case would be that he desires to have sex with this woman that has come into his view, that no longer does he just have an innate sexual desire, which is good, but he desires to have sex with her, the woman he just saw, he takes delight in her, and has an appetite for, which is sin. Lust is sin, Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28). There are three things this man cannot avoid: His physical need, his innate sexual desire, and temptation. Once faced with temptation he has a choice; to turn away and put it out of his mind, or to allow his innate sexual desire to turn into a directed desire for the woman that has entered into his vision.
This is but one temptation that men face every day. This is but one type of temptation amongst many. It is so incredibly difficult to wether all of the temptations that you face in just a single day, sometimes in a single hour much less a lifetime. Thank God that Jesus did it for us. God really did sacrifice everything. Can you imagine having the same body we have, and being faced with the same temptations we are faced with everyday and never once giving in to temptation and sinning, the incredible sacrifice that it took. Then the cross; He was cursed by sinful men, spit on, mocked, beaten, carried His own instrument of death, hung on a cross to suffer and die. And He felt everything; the physical pain as well as the emotional pain. Then God the father turns His back on Him and He dies a sinner’s death going to Hell so you wouldn’t have to. Jesus went to hell, He died a sinner’s death, He died and went to hell. But because He is God when He was ready He defeated death and hell and rose from the grave. The sacrifice is so incredible we will never in this life understand it in partiality much less fully. So if He sacrificed everything to save you, shouldn’t you sacrifice everything?
God loves you, so love God and other People. God sacrificed everything for you, so sacrifice everything.
Mike Peek
The first message is this. God loves you, so love God and other people. How is God’s love demonstrated to us? On the cross, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God does not love you because you are lovable, God does not love you because you are good, God does not love you because you are someone great, God does not love you because of your beauty, God does not love you because you are desirable. God loves you because He is love, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Isn’t that wonderful? No matter what you have thought, no matter what you have said, and no matter what you have done, God loves you. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
So let us define love from the Word of God. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Jesus is the expression of God in a man. Jesus before going to the cross gave a command to His disciples, and that command is love. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Not only does He tell us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ but he also tells us to even love the unlovable, to love our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). People will often love someone because being around that person gives them good feelings. When is love true love? Love is true love when it benefits you nothing. Jesus loved the world, and the world spit in His face. Jesus loved the world, and the world beat Him. Jesus loved the world, and the world hung Him on a cross until He suffered and died. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). So if God loves you like that, don’t you think you should love like God, in loving other people?
The second message is this. God sacrificed everything to save you, so sacrifice everything. God sacrificed everything, Himself, so that you might live. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God the Father gave His only begotten Son. Begotten is the best translation and it literally means came out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is God. So when the Bible says He gave His only begotten Son it is saying He gave Himself. And what He gave was everything. Think about this for a minute, go outside on a clear night and look at the sky and the vastness of the universe and all it contains. Climb a mountain and gaze at the wonder of the earth. Watch the birds fly, fish swim, a horse run, and a child play; all of which magnify the glory of God. Then think about this; Jesus was with God before time began, before creation. God had Him lower Himself to take on the form of lowly man to redeem man from this fallen world. Think about how difficult that most have been, and to do that knowing that the very people He was saving would curse Him, spit on Him, beat Him, hate Him, and murder Him. Amazing!!! Jesus while being fully God was also fully man. The fact that he subjected Himself to this fleshy state is a sacrifice beyond imagination. Jesus felt pain, hunger, thirst, sadness, disappointment, and He also faced temptation.
Let us just for a moment look at one of these, temptations. What an incredible thing it is that God would subject Himself to this. We as fleshy human beings have real physical needs and it is our desire to have those needs met. Sin occurs when a real physical need meets desire, which desire gives way to temptation, and temptation to sin. Jesus while He was fully God He was fully man, and being fully man He was subject to everything we as men are subject to. I will use to describe this, a sin that easily besets a man. God created in man a real physical need to procreate, to have sex and multiply, and what God has created is good. God said: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). God set this to be done within a marriage between one man and one woman. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matthew 19:5 & Genesis 2:24). The two become one flesh. “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6). So God created in man the real physical need to multiply. That real physical need that is good, gives way to desire, a desire to have sex, which is good. Once a man has that desire then he can become subject to temptation. Not all but many women in our society flaunt themselves; they expose themselves in many different ways. So you have a man with a physical need to procreate which gives him the desire to have sex, then a woman with a low cut dress comes into his eye site exposing here breast (her cleavage); so then you have instantaneously within this man a temptation to lust. He has a real physical need to procreate, which causes sexual desire, which is good, and then he is exposed to this woman’s cleavage which gives him the temptation to lust. Lust is an intense, strong, passionate, craving, appetite for, to delight in, or to wish for. So in this case this man who has a real physical need, which causes desire, is tempted to lust. Lust in this case would be that he desires to have sex with this woman that has come into his view, that no longer does he just have an innate sexual desire, which is good, but he desires to have sex with her, the woman he just saw, he takes delight in her, and has an appetite for, which is sin. Lust is sin, Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28). There are three things this man cannot avoid: His physical need, his innate sexual desire, and temptation. Once faced with temptation he has a choice; to turn away and put it out of his mind, or to allow his innate sexual desire to turn into a directed desire for the woman that has entered into his vision.
This is but one temptation that men face every day. This is but one type of temptation amongst many. It is so incredibly difficult to wether all of the temptations that you face in just a single day, sometimes in a single hour much less a lifetime. Thank God that Jesus did it for us. God really did sacrifice everything. Can you imagine having the same body we have, and being faced with the same temptations we are faced with everyday and never once giving in to temptation and sinning, the incredible sacrifice that it took. Then the cross; He was cursed by sinful men, spit on, mocked, beaten, carried His own instrument of death, hung on a cross to suffer and die. And He felt everything; the physical pain as well as the emotional pain. Then God the father turns His back on Him and He dies a sinner’s death going to Hell so you wouldn’t have to. Jesus went to hell, He died a sinner’s death, He died and went to hell. But because He is God when He was ready He defeated death and hell and rose from the grave. The sacrifice is so incredible we will never in this life understand it in partiality much less fully. So if He sacrificed everything to save you, shouldn’t you sacrifice everything?
God loves you, so love God and other People. God sacrificed everything for you, so sacrifice everything.
Mike Peek
Sunday, December 11, 2011
God is Not Like Us
God had recently led me to read the Bible in 90 days. In the week following I prayed to Him and reflected over what I had read the preceding 3 months and God showed me a couple of different things. As you read the Word of God this rapidly you see things a little differently than you do when you focus on specific passages, you see the overall plan of God unfold before your eyes. Just a few words about the Bible, 2 Peter 1:21 tells us in talking about the Bible that “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. In other words God used these men as instruments to write His Words. Just like you would use a pen, pencil, or computer to write what you want to convey to someone else, God literally used these men to write His word. The Bible is written by men inspired by the Spirit of God, it is literally God breathed, the Bible is God’s Words given to man. The Bible is amazing; it is 66 books, written over a period of 1500 years, by 40 different authors, on 3 different continents, written in 3 different languages. Most were separated by hundreds of years, yet the Bible is amazing in its clarity of meaning and how the story line flows throughout scripture unhindered, and you really see this when you read it through quickly.
That brings me to what I would like to talk about today, God. People often try to attribute human qualities to God. People will say, I cannot believe in a God who would send a man to hell for telling a lie. That’s because you’re not like God. God is so incredibly different than us. The same person who would say, “I cannot believe in a God who would send someone to hell”, will curse someone with obscenities for mistakenly cutting them off in traffic. Once again, that’s because you’re not like God; there is a beautiful passage in the book of Isaiah that explains this, and became vivid to me when I was watching a video message given by Frances Chan. It speaks of the attributes of God in words that we can understand, in how different He is than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Let us take goodness for example, God is good, God is literally goodness. People have a measure of goodness but the goodness of God is so far and above anything that a human mind could possibly comprehend. God’s goodness is perfect, “as the heavens are higher than the earth,” His goodness is above our goodness. The Bible tells us that no man has ever seen the face of God, (ref. John 1:18) and there is a reason for that, God loves you. God is so extremely good, to see Him in His glorified state would destroy a man. No man could look on the face of God and live, He is that much above us. Comparing God to man is like comparing an Elephant to an Aphid. While the Elephant is currently the largest land animal the Aphid is a tiny insect that you need a magnifying glass to be able to see on a plant. I use the law of God often in my writings and in my witnessing with people, and there is a reason for that. For a person to accept the Savior they need to be able to see their state before Him. The Apostle Paul said that the law was the Tutor to bring us to Christ (Ref. Galatians 3:24), it quite literally is the school master as C. Spurgeon puts it, the law teaches you of your state before God, that you are in need of salvation. That is why it is such a tragic state of affairs for anyone to ever think that they could ever earn favor with God by keeping the law. Our best is so far below His mark it is not within millions of miles from hitting the mark. Take archery for example: God is so precise with His goodness He is splitting arrows in the middle of the bulls eye on a target two million miles wide and we at our best might barely nick the outer ring one million miles from the center. The word sin is an old archery term yelled out when you were off the mark, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We all fall short every time, even at our very best we fall short, we are not even aware of how short we are. That is why it is futile, the law simply gives you knowledge that you are sinful, at your best efforts you will never match the goodness of God.
Then you take the things God thinks of. When Adam sinned God cursed the earth, I wouldn’t have thought of that. When the whole world fell into debauchery, He flooded the earth and spared Noah and His children along with some animals; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God picked out Abraham, a simple Sheppard, which his descendents would become the vessel by which He would send His Son into the world; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God gave His only begotten Son to redeem mankind; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Jesus was born in a manger to two very simple people, a young virgin and a carpenter; I wouldn’t have thought of that. His one and only precious Son; begotten is the best translation, it literally means out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is of God, He is God. Think about this for a minute; this is the same world in which men and women curse the Creator and His creation daily, this is the same world that people are murdered in by the millions (six million Jews in the Nazi holocaust, 54 million abortions since Roe vs Wade), this is the same world in which the rich crush the poor, that people die of starvation while others deal with obesity, this is the same world in which people abuse their own children and spouses and leave them to fend for themselves after they have been destroyed psychologically. This is just a few examples, but that is the world in which God sent Himself into, His only begotten Son, His precious Son. He sent Him knowing He would be cursed, mocked, beaten, and hung on a cross to die by the very people He was redeeming. I would not have thought of that. Take hell, outer darkness, a lake of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth where the beast, the false prophet, and Satan will be along with any that are not found written in the book of life; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Would you have thought of that?
I can say this with certainty; God is much much much different than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). So the next time you try to Judge God by human standards, just remember, He is not like us, not even close. I hope this has blessed you. Worship God in the spirit because He is spirit, rejoice always in Jesus Christ because He is our Savior, and have no confidence in the flesh because you cannot earn your way.
Repent and Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord,
Mike Peek
That brings me to what I would like to talk about today, God. People often try to attribute human qualities to God. People will say, I cannot believe in a God who would send a man to hell for telling a lie. That’s because you’re not like God. God is so incredibly different than us. The same person who would say, “I cannot believe in a God who would send someone to hell”, will curse someone with obscenities for mistakenly cutting them off in traffic. Once again, that’s because you’re not like God; there is a beautiful passage in the book of Isaiah that explains this, and became vivid to me when I was watching a video message given by Frances Chan. It speaks of the attributes of God in words that we can understand, in how different He is than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Let us take goodness for example, God is good, God is literally goodness. People have a measure of goodness but the goodness of God is so far and above anything that a human mind could possibly comprehend. God’s goodness is perfect, “as the heavens are higher than the earth,” His goodness is above our goodness. The Bible tells us that no man has ever seen the face of God, (ref. John 1:18) and there is a reason for that, God loves you. God is so extremely good, to see Him in His glorified state would destroy a man. No man could look on the face of God and live, He is that much above us. Comparing God to man is like comparing an Elephant to an Aphid. While the Elephant is currently the largest land animal the Aphid is a tiny insect that you need a magnifying glass to be able to see on a plant. I use the law of God often in my writings and in my witnessing with people, and there is a reason for that. For a person to accept the Savior they need to be able to see their state before Him. The Apostle Paul said that the law was the Tutor to bring us to Christ (Ref. Galatians 3:24), it quite literally is the school master as C. Spurgeon puts it, the law teaches you of your state before God, that you are in need of salvation. That is why it is such a tragic state of affairs for anyone to ever think that they could ever earn favor with God by keeping the law. Our best is so far below His mark it is not within millions of miles from hitting the mark. Take archery for example: God is so precise with His goodness He is splitting arrows in the middle of the bulls eye on a target two million miles wide and we at our best might barely nick the outer ring one million miles from the center. The word sin is an old archery term yelled out when you were off the mark, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We all fall short every time, even at our very best we fall short, we are not even aware of how short we are. That is why it is futile, the law simply gives you knowledge that you are sinful, at your best efforts you will never match the goodness of God.
Then you take the things God thinks of. When Adam sinned God cursed the earth, I wouldn’t have thought of that. When the whole world fell into debauchery, He flooded the earth and spared Noah and His children along with some animals; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God picked out Abraham, a simple Sheppard, which his descendents would become the vessel by which He would send His Son into the world; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God gave His only begotten Son to redeem mankind; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Jesus was born in a manger to two very simple people, a young virgin and a carpenter; I wouldn’t have thought of that. His one and only precious Son; begotten is the best translation, it literally means out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is of God, He is God. Think about this for a minute; this is the same world in which men and women curse the Creator and His creation daily, this is the same world that people are murdered in by the millions (six million Jews in the Nazi holocaust, 54 million abortions since Roe vs Wade), this is the same world in which the rich crush the poor, that people die of starvation while others deal with obesity, this is the same world in which people abuse their own children and spouses and leave them to fend for themselves after they have been destroyed psychologically. This is just a few examples, but that is the world in which God sent Himself into, His only begotten Son, His precious Son. He sent Him knowing He would be cursed, mocked, beaten, and hung on a cross to die by the very people He was redeeming. I would not have thought of that. Take hell, outer darkness, a lake of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth where the beast, the false prophet, and Satan will be along with any that are not found written in the book of life; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Would you have thought of that?
I can say this with certainty; God is much much much different than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). So the next time you try to Judge God by human standards, just remember, He is not like us, not even close. I hope this has blessed you. Worship God in the spirit because He is spirit, rejoice always in Jesus Christ because He is our Savior, and have no confidence in the flesh because you cannot earn your way.
Repent and Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord,
Mike Peek
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Food for the Soul
Recently God had me do something that I thought was carrying on with the same but in reality it was something much different. I have read through the Bible cover to cover several times and have read through the New Testament more times than I know, but recently God had me do something a little different. He had me and a couple of other men read His Word in a rapid way. Beginning on the first of September 2011 we were to read the Word of God from Genesis 1:1 to Revelations 22:21 over 90 days. I came to repentance and faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in May of 2003, so I began following my Lord at that time. One of the things that He has had me do as His disciple is to read His Word daily. His word is quite literally the food for my soul. Before becoming a believer I was in the church on and off, I read the Bible some and even knew many scriptures; but the Bible was to me a book to read. Sure I believed in God and even believed in Jesus Christ but did not have the Spirit of God because I had not put my faith in Him as the payment for my sins. I was so full of sin too, my heart was deceptively wicked. Sure looking at me as a member of a church you would have never known, I myself did not know. But God revealed to me my sin (my lawlessness), I knew I would face Him in judgment and when I did I was guilty as charged, a law breaker and it was then that the Lord gave me His Spirit, that I believed Jesus Christ paid the price for my sins on the cross and rose from the grave defeating death, it was then that my faith was transferred from myself to Him. He saved me, I didn’t, He did. I didn’t do a thing, He did it. He led me to where I needed to be at that moment when He saved me. I don’t know if you’ve had this experience, one minute you’re just like the world, living for yourself; the next minute your prostrate before the Lord with complete gratitude for what He has done, paying the price for your sins. The only way I can explain this is that God gave me His Spirit. The Bible is no longer a book it is quite literally the Word of God, it is God breathed. It is food for my soul; I wouldn’t go without feeding my body so why would I go without feeding my soul.
Reading the Bible in 90 days requires a lot of reading, for me more than an hour every day. I normally get up every morning, read the Word and pray before doing anything else. No matter what, I have planned for the day, I will get up at least 30 minutes early to spend time in the Word and pray; but this required a whole different level of dedication. In the beginning I tried to keep my same schedule in the morning, then read in the afternoon or evening as well but something always interfered. So after a week or two I began to wake up earlier to get that days reading in one sitting. I have to tell you that it was so worth it. Sure for those 3 months I was sleep deprived, Satan, and my flesh were attacking me in so many different ways, but praise be to God He got me through it. Typically when we study the Word of God we will study passages and put everything into those passages and that is good. When you read the whole Word of God in a rapid way like this you get a different perspective. You see the entire plan of God, that has been revealed to us, unfold before your eyes, and you see some things that you may not have clearly seen in any other way. So over the next two weeks I will write about two things that God has shown me in His word these past three months. “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’” (John 6:35)
Repent and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
Reading the Bible in 90 days requires a lot of reading, for me more than an hour every day. I normally get up every morning, read the Word and pray before doing anything else. No matter what, I have planned for the day, I will get up at least 30 minutes early to spend time in the Word and pray; but this required a whole different level of dedication. In the beginning I tried to keep my same schedule in the morning, then read in the afternoon or evening as well but something always interfered. So after a week or two I began to wake up earlier to get that days reading in one sitting. I have to tell you that it was so worth it. Sure for those 3 months I was sleep deprived, Satan, and my flesh were attacking me in so many different ways, but praise be to God He got me through it. Typically when we study the Word of God we will study passages and put everything into those passages and that is good. When you read the whole Word of God in a rapid way like this you get a different perspective. You see the entire plan of God, that has been revealed to us, unfold before your eyes, and you see some things that you may not have clearly seen in any other way. So over the next two weeks I will write about two things that God has shown me in His word these past three months. “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’” (John 6:35)
Repent and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Give Thanks to God in Everything
If you do not believe in God who are you giving thanks to? We in America on the 4th Thursday in November celebrate an annual holiday called Thanksgiving. Most in this land celebrate this holiday, but what is it they are celebrating, is it Thanksgiving? I say to you if you are not giving thanks to the Lord you are not having Thanksgiving. Sure you are celebrating something; many celebrate time with family, many enjoy the parties feasting and food, many celebrate their wealth and prosperity, and for many more it’s shopping and buying things. It is a celebration for sure but is it Thanksgiving? The first official Thanksgiving service was given on May 14th 1607 near Jamestown Virginia. You may notice that I said service because that is what it was; it was a service in remembrance and giving of thanks to the Lord. There would be many such Thanksgiving services throughout the American Colonies, the most Famous of which is at the Plymouth Plantation of The Pilgrims in 1621. The lives of these early colonists to America were very difficult; the winters were unbearably cold, they had to build shelter, they had to scavenge for food and learn to grow crops in a foreign environment. There were many lives lost in the winter months with much starvation and hardships but these colonists knew that it was God who provided for them and got them through the winter. They therefore came together to celebrate a feast to the Lord of harvest giving Him thanks for all that He had provided and had given to them.
Jesus in His wonderful dialogue with the Pharisee Nicodemus in John chapter 3 speaks of a time that occurred during the 40 years that the Israelites wondered through the desert with Moses. The Lord said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). The story is found in Numbers chapter 21. God had provided for the people in the barren land of the desert by giving them manna from heaven, a flour like substance that they used in making bread. The people became unthankful, became grumblers and complainers towards God and loathed the food that God had provided for them to eat. So God sent snakes in amongst the people that bit them and many died. They came to Moses with a repentant heart and asked him to pray to God to save them. God told him to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole and it should be that all who were bit when they looked upon it shall live. It was faith that healed them, God provided the method and when they looked upon the fiery serpent with faith they were saved. We have eyes to see the world that is around us, we also have spiritual eyes, for many they are weak from lack of use, but they are still there and can see spiritually and seeing spiritually is called faith. When we look upon Jesus Christ with our spiritual eyes and believe we are saved from our sins, one of which is being unthankful towards God for all that He has given and done for us, and when we look upon Him with our spiritual eyes and step out on faith and believe we shall live and never die.
Every single one of us have problems, this life is difficult, I like you have many difficulties and struggles that I am going through, in many ways this past year has been one of the most difficult in my life. But I am giving thanks to God inside of these struggles, I know through faith that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). You see I have a confidence in this because of faith; God has given me faith in adversity, a hope in tribulation, and a Lord over my struggles in Jesus. You can have joy in hardship with the faith that it is for your good. Even with the struggles God has given me so much to be thankful for, my cup overflows. We have more than enough, he provides for us bountifully, and meets all of our needs. Most of all His grace, He adopted me as His child, He has given me an inheritance with Him in heaven that I do not deserve. It is on Him that I stand, I do not stand on my accomplishments for I can accomplish nothing, I do not stand on my good but His, He is good. It is easy to look around us with our fleshy eyes at our hardships and tribulations then loath what God has given us, but I encourage you to see with your spiritual eyes and see how bountifully God has blessed you and you will know that your cup runs over. Come with me in having a Thanksgiving service to the Lord. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
God Bless you and Happy Thanksgiving,
Mike Peek
Jesus in His wonderful dialogue with the Pharisee Nicodemus in John chapter 3 speaks of a time that occurred during the 40 years that the Israelites wondered through the desert with Moses. The Lord said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). The story is found in Numbers chapter 21. God had provided for the people in the barren land of the desert by giving them manna from heaven, a flour like substance that they used in making bread. The people became unthankful, became grumblers and complainers towards God and loathed the food that God had provided for them to eat. So God sent snakes in amongst the people that bit them and many died. They came to Moses with a repentant heart and asked him to pray to God to save them. God told him to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole and it should be that all who were bit when they looked upon it shall live. It was faith that healed them, God provided the method and when they looked upon the fiery serpent with faith they were saved. We have eyes to see the world that is around us, we also have spiritual eyes, for many they are weak from lack of use, but they are still there and can see spiritually and seeing spiritually is called faith. When we look upon Jesus Christ with our spiritual eyes and believe we are saved from our sins, one of which is being unthankful towards God for all that He has given and done for us, and when we look upon Him with our spiritual eyes and step out on faith and believe we shall live and never die.
Every single one of us have problems, this life is difficult, I like you have many difficulties and struggles that I am going through, in many ways this past year has been one of the most difficult in my life. But I am giving thanks to God inside of these struggles, I know through faith that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). You see I have a confidence in this because of faith; God has given me faith in adversity, a hope in tribulation, and a Lord over my struggles in Jesus. You can have joy in hardship with the faith that it is for your good. Even with the struggles God has given me so much to be thankful for, my cup overflows. We have more than enough, he provides for us bountifully, and meets all of our needs. Most of all His grace, He adopted me as His child, He has given me an inheritance with Him in heaven that I do not deserve. It is on Him that I stand, I do not stand on my accomplishments for I can accomplish nothing, I do not stand on my good but His, He is good. It is easy to look around us with our fleshy eyes at our hardships and tribulations then loath what God has given us, but I encourage you to see with your spiritual eyes and see how bountifully God has blessed you and you will know that your cup runs over. Come with me in having a Thanksgiving service to the Lord. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
God Bless you and Happy Thanksgiving,
Mike Peek
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Notice of changes to the blog “A Slave of Jesus Christ”
I have enjoyed memorizing, meditating on, and writing about my Lord Jesus Christ as given to us through “The Gospel According to John”. I have reached a point in this gospel where the stories become larger, some more so than others. For example, I have begun to memorize John chapter 4, the story of the Samaritan women at the well takes up the first 26 verses of this chapter, then Jesus teaching His disciples about the harvest takes up the next 12 verses, then a shorter story comprising 4 verses of the Samaritans believing because of the testimony of the Samaritan women. Each of these stories vary greatly in size some are short, some are long; since it has been set before me by God to memorize, then meditate on these scriptures before writing about them, some changes will have to be made going forward which I think are good, because it will give me time to take in all that God has for us in this wonderful gospel. I typically memorize about 4-5 verses a week, since the first full story in chapter 4 is 26 verses long it will take me six weeks to memorize meditate on and take in all that God has in store for me in this; therefore the next addition in writing specially on the Gospel According to John will happen in 5 weeks with the Samaritan women at the well. Each addition will vary in length between additions based on the overall length of the story. I will however continue to write every week. During the intervening weeks between additions to the Gospel According to John, I will write about all the things that God has put on my heart to write about. So come back in 5 weeks for the Samaritan women at the well, but in the interim I hope you enjoy the things that God has laid upon my heart.
God Bless and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
God Bless and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
Sunday, November 13, 2011
A Resounding Yes
I have been in a trial this past week and through this trial I have relied on my God, Jesus Christ; He has lead me to Psalm 17 which I have held onto all week and specifically verse 15. I have heard a lot of brothers and sisters in Christ over the years talk about their life verse, I however did not have one. Throughout the word of God there are a multitude of scriptures that I hold dear to my heart and many which stand high above others. Earlier this week one of my brothers in Christ who knew I was going through a trial sent me an email message by Max Lucado called “Contentment”. In this message Max Lucado asks the question: What if God’s only gift to you were His grace to save you? Would you be content? I pray to my Lord daily, I lift up to Him all the concerns of my life continually and I believe with faith that He hears all of my prayers and will answer them. As I told you earlier I have been undergoing a trial this week that has particularly hit me hard. Just like many of you who share this life as a human being, there are several things going on in my life that are trials and difficulties, I lift those up daily, I pray for the concerns of all of those around me, and God who is faithful has answered many of my prayers in a real and profound way, interceding in areas that you know without God the outcome would have been impossible. On the trial I have been through this past week I have prayed about many times. Not only praying about the outcome, but also praying to God to reveal my heart in this situation, and every step I take to be the right one, the step He is willing for me to take. Now in this particular situation I believe that my prayers will be answered, that I will be vindicated, because it is the right and just thing. Psalm 17:2 says “Let my vindication come from Your presence; Let Your eyes look on the things that are upright.”
So I asked myself this past week in prayer to God and in reading Psalm 17; am I truly content with His grace? Is the grace of God enough for me? I am thankful for everything that God has given me in this life; He has truly blessed me and given to me abundantly. Now in pondering these questions, is His grace enough? Would I be content? In thinking about these questions, the trial I’m going through and meditating on Psalm 17, God has given me my life verse, and yes, His grace is enough. The greatest desire of my heart is to gaze upon my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that is what He has truly given me, He has given me Himself. Jesus is the prize, Jesus is the pearl of great value, and Jesus is the treasure head in the field. Psalm 17 was a prayer by David, and the desires of his heart in Psalm 17:15 are the desires of my heart. “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15). God is so Holy and Righteous that a man cannot look upon His face and live. To look at the face of God you must be righteous and by the grace of God I have been cleansed of all my sins by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith in Him. Can you imagine what that will be like; to gaze upon the face of God, to see Jesus in His glorified state and just look upon Him? I imagine since I will have all of eternity that I may just get stuck right there for the first 1000 years gazing upon the face of God, and then realize that I am just like Him; righteous, clean, good, holy. My sinful nature completely cut off, never to sin again. Oh how I look forward to that day, to the day that I will see the face of Jesus in righteousness and awake in His likeness. Is His grace enough? My answer, His grace is everything!
God bless,
Mike Peek
So I asked myself this past week in prayer to God and in reading Psalm 17; am I truly content with His grace? Is the grace of God enough for me? I am thankful for everything that God has given me in this life; He has truly blessed me and given to me abundantly. Now in pondering these questions, is His grace enough? Would I be content? In thinking about these questions, the trial I’m going through and meditating on Psalm 17, God has given me my life verse, and yes, His grace is enough. The greatest desire of my heart is to gaze upon my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that is what He has truly given me, He has given me Himself. Jesus is the prize, Jesus is the pearl of great value, and Jesus is the treasure head in the field. Psalm 17 was a prayer by David, and the desires of his heart in Psalm 17:15 are the desires of my heart. “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15). God is so Holy and Righteous that a man cannot look upon His face and live. To look at the face of God you must be righteous and by the grace of God I have been cleansed of all my sins by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith in Him. Can you imagine what that will be like; to gaze upon the face of God, to see Jesus in His glorified state and just look upon Him? I imagine since I will have all of eternity that I may just get stuck right there for the first 1000 years gazing upon the face of God, and then realize that I am just like Him; righteous, clean, good, holy. My sinful nature completely cut off, never to sin again. Oh how I look forward to that day, to the day that I will see the face of Jesus in righteousness and awake in His likeness. Is His grace enough? My answer, His grace is everything!
God bless,
Mike Peek
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Believe in Jesus but also Believe Jesus (John 3:31-36)
(He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony as certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. ~John 3:31-36)
Jesus is the Son of God, the creator of all things. John Chapter 1 told us that He was in the beginning with God and that He was in fact God, and that all things were made through Him (Ref. John 1:1-6). That He became flesh and dwelt among us, that God Himself became flesh. The Holy Spirit of God came upon Mary (a virgin) and she conceived and bore a Son and that Son was Jesus. Now Jesus being God speaks the words of God and John gives witness of this. God sent John to baptize, and while he was baptizing God told John that there would be One whom John would see the Spirit descend on and remain on, and it would be He who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. (Ref John 1:32-33). So John gives testimony of Jesus speaking the words of God, that all He said was of God because Jesus is God. He also said that people were not listening to him, oh they were listening to Him speak, but they were not listening as though they were the words of God. But for those who would hear and believe certified who Jesus was.
God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus into a world that He knew would reject Him. At the end of John chapter 2 the Apostle John writes about Jesus and man. “He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:24-25). God the Father knew what was in man before He sent Jesus, and God the Son knew what was in man. I don’t know about you, I’m a father; I personally would have a hard time purposely sending my child into a hostile environment. The Father knew Jesus would be rejected, and knew that man would kill Him, and knew even after the sacrifice that men would continue to reject Him. The more and more I come to know my Lord, the more amazed I am that anyone could think for a minute that they could earn favor with God. The more I’ve gotten to know Jesus, the more I’ve gotten to know myself, and realize not just how sinful I was, but how sinful I am. Works cannot save a man in fact works themselves are sin when done to earn favor with God. God is a good Judge, what do good judges do to criminals that try to bribe them? You who break God’s laws (The Ten Commandments) are a criminal; if you do good works to earn favor with God, what you are in effect attempting to do is bribe the Judge. Jesus is my Master; any work, is only a good work, when it is done to bring glory to my Lord. Paul said: “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
John the Baptist finishes his dialogue about Jesus with his disciples by giving the good news; that there is a Way to have everlasting life and that Way is Jesus Christ. He tells them: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). The way to eternal life is to have faith in Jesus Christ, that His death on the cross was and is payment for all of your sins. But John is also saying here; make sure that you believe Jesus, His words. There are a lot of people in this world that call themselves Christian but when you talk with them about scripture they will deny the words of Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God? Jesus said He was the only begotten Son of God. Do you believe that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life that no one comes to the Father but by Him? Jesus said this. Do you believe the things he said about Hell? Did you know that if it were not for the words of Jesus we would know little about Hell, Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone in the bible?
Believe in the only begotten Son of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only Way to the Father. Believe by faith that when He died on that cross that He paid for all of your sins; past, present, and future. And believe the scriptures, the scriptures are the inerrant, infallible, Holy Spirit inspired written word of God. Believe what they say about Jesus, and believe what Jesus said.
God Bless you;
Mike Peek
Jesus is the Son of God, the creator of all things. John Chapter 1 told us that He was in the beginning with God and that He was in fact God, and that all things were made through Him (Ref. John 1:1-6). That He became flesh and dwelt among us, that God Himself became flesh. The Holy Spirit of God came upon Mary (a virgin) and she conceived and bore a Son and that Son was Jesus. Now Jesus being God speaks the words of God and John gives witness of this. God sent John to baptize, and while he was baptizing God told John that there would be One whom John would see the Spirit descend on and remain on, and it would be He who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. (Ref John 1:32-33). So John gives testimony of Jesus speaking the words of God, that all He said was of God because Jesus is God. He also said that people were not listening to him, oh they were listening to Him speak, but they were not listening as though they were the words of God. But for those who would hear and believe certified who Jesus was.
God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus into a world that He knew would reject Him. At the end of John chapter 2 the Apostle John writes about Jesus and man. “He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:24-25). God the Father knew what was in man before He sent Jesus, and God the Son knew what was in man. I don’t know about you, I’m a father; I personally would have a hard time purposely sending my child into a hostile environment. The Father knew Jesus would be rejected, and knew that man would kill Him, and knew even after the sacrifice that men would continue to reject Him. The more and more I come to know my Lord, the more amazed I am that anyone could think for a minute that they could earn favor with God. The more I’ve gotten to know Jesus, the more I’ve gotten to know myself, and realize not just how sinful I was, but how sinful I am. Works cannot save a man in fact works themselves are sin when done to earn favor with God. God is a good Judge, what do good judges do to criminals that try to bribe them? You who break God’s laws (The Ten Commandments) are a criminal; if you do good works to earn favor with God, what you are in effect attempting to do is bribe the Judge. Jesus is my Master; any work, is only a good work, when it is done to bring glory to my Lord. Paul said: “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
John the Baptist finishes his dialogue about Jesus with his disciples by giving the good news; that there is a Way to have everlasting life and that Way is Jesus Christ. He tells them: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). The way to eternal life is to have faith in Jesus Christ, that His death on the cross was and is payment for all of your sins. But John is also saying here; make sure that you believe Jesus, His words. There are a lot of people in this world that call themselves Christian but when you talk with them about scripture they will deny the words of Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God? Jesus said He was the only begotten Son of God. Do you believe that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life that no one comes to the Father but by Him? Jesus said this. Do you believe the things he said about Hell? Did you know that if it were not for the words of Jesus we would know little about Hell, Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone in the bible?
Believe in the only begotten Son of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only Way to the Father. Believe by faith that when He died on that cross that He paid for all of your sins; past, present, and future. And believe the scriptures, the scriptures are the inerrant, infallible, Holy Spirit inspired written word of God. Believe what they say about Jesus, and believe what Jesus said.
God Bless you;
Mike Peek
Sunday, October 30, 2011
The Bridegroom (John 3:27-31)
(John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ’, but, ‘I have been sent before him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He most increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” ~ John 3:27-31).
Sometimes or should I say often times we as humans want things that have not been given to us, often times we want recognition and that recognition is not granted us. We seek after the things we want and forget what has been given to us, we desire the things that someone else has been given and forsake what we have been given. John the Baptist is a great example of humility in action. He had gone out before Jesus and started his ministry; people from all over Judea were coming to him. Jesus with His disciples came into the land of Judea and began Baptizing and all were coming to Him now instead. John doesn’t say, “Let’s form a church committee and figure out how to be more relevant in our society”; instead he recognizes the work of God in the people leaving him and instead are going to Jesus.
John tells his disciples that “you heard me say that I am not the Christ” but “I have been sent before Him.” John was the herald of Christ, he was there to pave the way for Jesus and prepare people’s hearts to except the Savior. So often times in the ministry of men, we measure success by numbers. How many were in Sunday school this morning, how many were in church service? All of that means nothing unless those people come to a saving faith in Jesus. John was here to point people to Jesus; we His slaves are here to point people to Jesus. I write this blog every week in the hope that it will lead people to Jesus, I don’t want anyone following me; I don’t want readers for the sake of having readers. What I am here to do is the same thing John did, point people to Jesus.
In the gospel accounts of Jesus we find much reference to weddings, because a marriage is the ultimate picture of two becoming one. In a 1st century Jewish wedding, the best man (the friend of the bridegroom) did most of the talking until he placed the hand of the bride into the bridegrooms hand and then the bridegroom spoke. When the bridegroom spoke, the best man was quite and listened; after the bridegroom spoke the wedding was over. John references his ministry to this wedding and acknowledges Jesus as the bridegroom, he had put the bride into the hand of Jesus, and Jesus the bridegroom was now speaking, and all should listen. So John tells his disciples that he wasn’t sad that people were going to Jesus instead of him, he was joyful, because that is exactly what he wants; that was the purpose of his ministry. John also tells his disciples that he (John) is of the earth and Jesus came from heaven. Yes John spoke of repentance and turning back to God, but repentance in itself cannot save a man, what saves a man is to trust in Jesus!
Thank you and God bless you,
Mike Peek
Sometimes or should I say often times we as humans want things that have not been given to us, often times we want recognition and that recognition is not granted us. We seek after the things we want and forget what has been given to us, we desire the things that someone else has been given and forsake what we have been given. John the Baptist is a great example of humility in action. He had gone out before Jesus and started his ministry; people from all over Judea were coming to him. Jesus with His disciples came into the land of Judea and began Baptizing and all were coming to Him now instead. John doesn’t say, “Let’s form a church committee and figure out how to be more relevant in our society”; instead he recognizes the work of God in the people leaving him and instead are going to Jesus.
John tells his disciples that “you heard me say that I am not the Christ” but “I have been sent before Him.” John was the herald of Christ, he was there to pave the way for Jesus and prepare people’s hearts to except the Savior. So often times in the ministry of men, we measure success by numbers. How many were in Sunday school this morning, how many were in church service? All of that means nothing unless those people come to a saving faith in Jesus. John was here to point people to Jesus; we His slaves are here to point people to Jesus. I write this blog every week in the hope that it will lead people to Jesus, I don’t want anyone following me; I don’t want readers for the sake of having readers. What I am here to do is the same thing John did, point people to Jesus.
In the gospel accounts of Jesus we find much reference to weddings, because a marriage is the ultimate picture of two becoming one. In a 1st century Jewish wedding, the best man (the friend of the bridegroom) did most of the talking until he placed the hand of the bride into the bridegrooms hand and then the bridegroom spoke. When the bridegroom spoke, the best man was quite and listened; after the bridegroom spoke the wedding was over. John references his ministry to this wedding and acknowledges Jesus as the bridegroom, he had put the bride into the hand of Jesus, and Jesus the bridegroom was now speaking, and all should listen. So John tells his disciples that he wasn’t sad that people were going to Jesus instead of him, he was joyful, because that is exactly what he wants; that was the purpose of his ministry. John also tells his disciples that he (John) is of the earth and Jesus came from heaven. Yes John spoke of repentance and turning back to God, but repentance in itself cannot save a man, what saves a man is to trust in Jesus!
Thank you and God bless you,
Mike Peek
Sunday, October 23, 2011
(John 3:22-26)
“After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and where baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arouse a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—Behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him.” ~ (John 3:22-26)
So now we continue with the Gospel According to John in Chapter 3. Jesus had finished His great dialogue with the Pharisee Nicodemus in which He imparted His Gospel, then departed Jerusalem and came into the land of Judea. We find Jesus and His disciples out in the land of Judea baptizing and teaching many, with many people coming to Him. It is estimated that this may have been a period of six months in which Jesus and His disciples were in the land of Judea teaching and baptizing. We know that Jesus himself did not do the baptizing, but his disciples did because it says so in John 4:2, (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples). The passage further tells us in verse 23 & 24 of Chapter 3 that John was also baptizing and makes a point of telling us that John had not yet been thrown into prison. In all three of the other Gospel accounts we have Jesus being baptized by John, departing for a 40 day fast out in the wilderness, then He is in Galilee and we find John the Baptist in prison. So the Apostle John is letting us know that this period of the ministry of Jesus and John the Baptist over lapped in the land of Judea where both were baptizing. John being the Harold for Christ, would have been pointing people to Jesus, being as he had already validated Him as the worthy Lamb of God, the only begotten Son of God. John is the son of a Levite Priest giving him the birth right of a priest, and it was the job of a priest to give approval of a sin sacrifice, and John did that with Jesus.
Then out in the land of Judea a dispute breaks out between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. Isn’t that the same old story? You have different groups, with differing ideas of what makes someone righteous, and they get into an argument about it. It is the same today, you have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, and many others of the world’s religions; claiming righteousness through a system of works and Christians saying no you’ve got it all wrong, a man cannot be made right through his own works, because the works of a man are evil, you have to be made righteous by the Righteousness of Jesus. That your sins were applied to Him on the cross and His righteousness was imputed to you through faith in Him. This argument will go on until Christ returns, because the argument is the way of a man vs. the Way of God. Jesus said: “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, No one comes to the Father except through Me.” ~ (John 14:6) I can understand the perspective on this from the view of a man. A man is taught from his youth that you most go out and earn something, especially something of value. But a man cannot earn righteousness, because his ways are evil. Asking a man not to sin is like asking a dog not to eat his own vomit, it is the nature of a dog to eat his own vomit, and it is the nature of a man to sin. They only way a man can stop sinning is if God intervenes, that he is born again. Born with a new heart with new desires that the old man has died and the new man lives by the Spirit of God. Men have already broken the laws of God, you can’t go back and undo what you have already done, and there is a penalty for breaking those laws that must be paid in full. Jesus paid that price with His life’s blood on the cross and through faith in Jesus Christ on the cross, your debt is paid in full; His righteousness is imputed to you. That means that God now looks at you as being as righteous as Jesus Christ, the One who never sinned.
So these men come to John telling him that everybody is going out to Jesus. Well as we will talk about next week, John basically says good, that’s what I have been telling them all to do, so what are you still doing here? So we have people going out in mass to Jesus, and this will happen for a time. People coming to Christ in mass, but not all were saved, as we will see in Chapter 6 where they depart from Him in mass, but His true disciples remained.
God Bless you all,
Mike Peek
So now we continue with the Gospel According to John in Chapter 3. Jesus had finished His great dialogue with the Pharisee Nicodemus in which He imparted His Gospel, then departed Jerusalem and came into the land of Judea. We find Jesus and His disciples out in the land of Judea baptizing and teaching many, with many people coming to Him. It is estimated that this may have been a period of six months in which Jesus and His disciples were in the land of Judea teaching and baptizing. We know that Jesus himself did not do the baptizing, but his disciples did because it says so in John 4:2, (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples). The passage further tells us in verse 23 & 24 of Chapter 3 that John was also baptizing and makes a point of telling us that John had not yet been thrown into prison. In all three of the other Gospel accounts we have Jesus being baptized by John, departing for a 40 day fast out in the wilderness, then He is in Galilee and we find John the Baptist in prison. So the Apostle John is letting us know that this period of the ministry of Jesus and John the Baptist over lapped in the land of Judea where both were baptizing. John being the Harold for Christ, would have been pointing people to Jesus, being as he had already validated Him as the worthy Lamb of God, the only begotten Son of God. John is the son of a Levite Priest giving him the birth right of a priest, and it was the job of a priest to give approval of a sin sacrifice, and John did that with Jesus.
Then out in the land of Judea a dispute breaks out between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. Isn’t that the same old story? You have different groups, with differing ideas of what makes someone righteous, and they get into an argument about it. It is the same today, you have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, and many others of the world’s religions; claiming righteousness through a system of works and Christians saying no you’ve got it all wrong, a man cannot be made right through his own works, because the works of a man are evil, you have to be made righteous by the Righteousness of Jesus. That your sins were applied to Him on the cross and His righteousness was imputed to you through faith in Him. This argument will go on until Christ returns, because the argument is the way of a man vs. the Way of God. Jesus said: “I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, No one comes to the Father except through Me.” ~ (John 14:6) I can understand the perspective on this from the view of a man. A man is taught from his youth that you most go out and earn something, especially something of value. But a man cannot earn righteousness, because his ways are evil. Asking a man not to sin is like asking a dog not to eat his own vomit, it is the nature of a dog to eat his own vomit, and it is the nature of a man to sin. They only way a man can stop sinning is if God intervenes, that he is born again. Born with a new heart with new desires that the old man has died and the new man lives by the Spirit of God. Men have already broken the laws of God, you can’t go back and undo what you have already done, and there is a penalty for breaking those laws that must be paid in full. Jesus paid that price with His life’s blood on the cross and through faith in Jesus Christ on the cross, your debt is paid in full; His righteousness is imputed to you. That means that God now looks at you as being as righteous as Jesus Christ, the One who never sinned.
So these men come to John telling him that everybody is going out to Jesus. Well as we will talk about next week, John basically says good, that’s what I have been telling them all to do, so what are you still doing here? So we have people going out in mass to Jesus, and this will happen for a time. People coming to Christ in mass, but not all were saved, as we will see in Chapter 6 where they depart from Him in mass, but His true disciples remained.
God Bless you all,
Mike Peek
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The Gospel According to Jesus (John 3:13-21)
“No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3:13-21).
I have meditated on and asked God about these verses for two weeks now and I tell you what, these words of Jesus may well be the most profound in all of scripture, we find contained here in the words of Jesus, His gospel. All throughout the four accounts of the life of Jesus Christ and His ministry on earth among men, we find Him calling Himself the Son of Man. Verse thirteen transcends time and space, heaven exist outside of time and space. Physical earth exists on a plane of time, both of which are a creation from God. Man exists in a physical world, God is Spirit, man cannot leave his physical existence and perceive God, so what had to happen? God had to come to us. John 1:14 says “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. Jesus said He (the Son of Man), came down from heaven and is in heaven. How can Jesus be both in heaven and on earth as a man at the same time? The answer many do not want to accept. Many would like to have Jesus as a good man, and as a teacher, but will not accept Him as God. The only reason Jesus can be in heaven and in the flesh at the same time is because He is in fact God. This is no typo, Jesus was telling Nicodemus and all that would read this conversation thereafter, that He was God who came down from heaven. And then in verses 14-20, says that to be saved you must except that and believe that. Believe that Jesus is God, that He is God the Son, the only begotten Son of God. People try to change begotten to say it means something else, but only begotten means only begotten and nothing else. There is no other, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, He is the very person of God in a man.
Jesus says “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is kind of a neat story. In numbers chapter 21, the Israelites where sinning and complaining to Moses, so God sent serpents (snakes) among them that bit them and caused many to die. The people came to Moses repentant saying that they had sinned against God, asking Moses to pray to the Lord on their behalf for mercy. God told Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who was bitten when he looks at the serpent on the pole would live. What is important about this story is one word, faith. The people had to believe by faith that looking at this serpent on the pole would save them and when they did, God healed them. We are talking about 1 million people spread out, in order to look at the serpent on the pole you had to come to the pole because you wouldn’t have been able to see it from just anywhere in the camp, you would have had to travel through the snakes to get to the pole and get bit in the process. So in order to come to the pole you had to have complete faith that looking at the serpent on the pole would save you and then God would heal you. It is the same way with the believer, we have to endure the fiery trials of this life with all of its temptations, getting bit by the serpent many times in the process, but you come by faith to Jesus on the cross, because you have faith that this will save you and God saves you.
The words of John 3:16-18 are just incredible, these words just magnify the love of God and how wonderful it is, and that love is available to all peoples, no matter who they are. Many have tried in their Religiosity to be racist, saying God came to save certain people groups but not others, salvation is for all peoples, and no one is excluded. The Jewish people were under the impression that when the Messiah came He would destroy all other peoples and save the Jews. But Jesus says here, you’ve got that all wrong “for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him it might be saved” God sent Jesus to save all people no matter who they are, all people. No matter what race or religious back ground you come from, if you will believe by faith that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God who died on the cross for your sins, you are forgiven of your sins and saved by God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” ~John 3:16. That means it begins now. If you believe by faith that Jesus paid the price for your sins on the cross, you have everlasting life, beginning now. Yes one day this body of mine will stop functioning, it will stop breathing, but I will not perish, I will be transformed in an instance in the image of God and be with God worshiping Him in His likeness, righteous. One of the best Psalms I’ve recently read speaks of this. “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” ~Psalm 17:15. What about the unbeliever? Death awaits him, death of his soul (the second death ~Revelations 21:8) and eternal separation from God. In verses 19-21 Jesus explains why a man won’t come to Him and the reason is that he loves his sin. He hates the light, he hates the savior, he hates Jesus because he loves his sin, because if he were to come to the light (come to Jesus) while in his sin he would be exposed as a sinner and have to give up his sin. Well if he loves his sin, he wouldn’t want to have to give it up, so he fights for it. But the man who hates His sin comes to the light (comes to Jesus), and doesn’t care that he is exposed as a sinner, because he loves the light (loves Jesus), more than his sin, and wants to be rid of his sin, his desire is to glorify God, to glorify the Son of God (Jesus Christ).
God Bless,
Mike Peek
I have meditated on and asked God about these verses for two weeks now and I tell you what, these words of Jesus may well be the most profound in all of scripture, we find contained here in the words of Jesus, His gospel. All throughout the four accounts of the life of Jesus Christ and His ministry on earth among men, we find Him calling Himself the Son of Man. Verse thirteen transcends time and space, heaven exist outside of time and space. Physical earth exists on a plane of time, both of which are a creation from God. Man exists in a physical world, God is Spirit, man cannot leave his physical existence and perceive God, so what had to happen? God had to come to us. John 1:14 says “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. Jesus said He (the Son of Man), came down from heaven and is in heaven. How can Jesus be both in heaven and on earth as a man at the same time? The answer many do not want to accept. Many would like to have Jesus as a good man, and as a teacher, but will not accept Him as God. The only reason Jesus can be in heaven and in the flesh at the same time is because He is in fact God. This is no typo, Jesus was telling Nicodemus and all that would read this conversation thereafter, that He was God who came down from heaven. And then in verses 14-20, says that to be saved you must except that and believe that. Believe that Jesus is God, that He is God the Son, the only begotten Son of God. People try to change begotten to say it means something else, but only begotten means only begotten and nothing else. There is no other, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, He is the very person of God in a man.
Jesus says “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is kind of a neat story. In numbers chapter 21, the Israelites where sinning and complaining to Moses, so God sent serpents (snakes) among them that bit them and caused many to die. The people came to Moses repentant saying that they had sinned against God, asking Moses to pray to the Lord on their behalf for mercy. God told Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who was bitten when he looks at the serpent on the pole would live. What is important about this story is one word, faith. The people had to believe by faith that looking at this serpent on the pole would save them and when they did, God healed them. We are talking about 1 million people spread out, in order to look at the serpent on the pole you had to come to the pole because you wouldn’t have been able to see it from just anywhere in the camp, you would have had to travel through the snakes to get to the pole and get bit in the process. So in order to come to the pole you had to have complete faith that looking at the serpent on the pole would save you and then God would heal you. It is the same way with the believer, we have to endure the fiery trials of this life with all of its temptations, getting bit by the serpent many times in the process, but you come by faith to Jesus on the cross, because you have faith that this will save you and God saves you.
The words of John 3:16-18 are just incredible, these words just magnify the love of God and how wonderful it is, and that love is available to all peoples, no matter who they are. Many have tried in their Religiosity to be racist, saying God came to save certain people groups but not others, salvation is for all peoples, and no one is excluded. The Jewish people were under the impression that when the Messiah came He would destroy all other peoples and save the Jews. But Jesus says here, you’ve got that all wrong “for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him it might be saved” God sent Jesus to save all people no matter who they are, all people. No matter what race or religious back ground you come from, if you will believe by faith that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God who died on the cross for your sins, you are forgiven of your sins and saved by God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” ~John 3:16. That means it begins now. If you believe by faith that Jesus paid the price for your sins on the cross, you have everlasting life, beginning now. Yes one day this body of mine will stop functioning, it will stop breathing, but I will not perish, I will be transformed in an instance in the image of God and be with God worshiping Him in His likeness, righteous. One of the best Psalms I’ve recently read speaks of this. “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” ~Psalm 17:15. What about the unbeliever? Death awaits him, death of his soul (the second death ~Revelations 21:8) and eternal separation from God. In verses 19-21 Jesus explains why a man won’t come to Him and the reason is that he loves his sin. He hates the light, he hates the savior, he hates Jesus because he loves his sin, because if he were to come to the light (come to Jesus) while in his sin he would be exposed as a sinner and have to give up his sin. Well if he loves his sin, he wouldn’t want to have to give it up, so he fights for it. But the man who hates His sin comes to the light (comes to Jesus), and doesn’t care that he is exposed as a sinner, because he loves the light (loves Jesus), more than his sin, and wants to be rid of his sin, his desire is to glorify God, to glorify the Son of God (Jesus Christ).
God Bless,
Mike Peek
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Justification by Faith in Jesus Christ
“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” ~Romans 3:19-28
My name is Mike Peek. I am a registered nurse; I have done many things in my nursing career but have spent the majority of my career working with critically ill cardiac patients, people on the very precipice of death. I have witnessed much in all the years God has had me do this and there has been one continuous theme I have found throughout my years of working with these patients. No one expects or accepts death! No one! The families don’t and the patients don’t, but I am here to tell you as a witness of death, everyone dies. I have been witness to hundreds of deaths and it never comes easy, no one expects it or accepts it. I have talked with patients who were telling me about their plans for the next day or when they get out of the hospital and then die while telling me their plans for the future, and then try all means we have as human beings to resuscitate them; mechanical, electrical, and chemical to no avail. Ten out of ten people die and we all know this fact, not one person denies that; but with every person it is always some mythical time in the future, it’s never now. I being a witness of death and a witness of people’s reaction to death have something to say about death. You will die, and it will be unexpectedly; it may be today, tomorrow, or years in the future, but you will die and you won’t expect it when it happens. I have a question for you and I want you to give an honest answer. (Hebrews 9:27) says “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” We are all criminals; we have broken the law, God’s law. And just like criminals on earth we have a court date, and that date is set, you cannot change it and cannot avoid it, it is coming weather you like it or not. There is a date set for you to go before the Judge, and this Judge is not like a human judge, He is a good Judge, in fact He is the only One who is good, and He will judge you justly and a good judge punishes the guilty. The question I have for you is this: Are you ready to give an account of your life to God? Yes or no and why, write your answer down and hold on to it, that answer is yours, no one else’s, it is yours.
Now back to our scripture: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” ~Romans 3:19-20. What is God’s law and who is under His law? Well, our scripture says all the world. So what is the law? Some people say the law of God is no more, they say we are not under the law, but oh they are so wrong. Jesus said of the law, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” ~Matthew 5:17-18. Then in heaven we have the ark of His covenant, “Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple.” ~Revelation 11:19. Now what was in the ark of His covenant? “Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb” _2 Chronicles 5:10. What was on the Tablets? God spoke from the mountain the Ten Commandments to the entire assembly of Israel. Moses said, “And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me” ~Deuteronomy 5:22. God wrote His laws, “The Ten Commandments” on stone because they are permanent. You know these laws, they are written on your heart, God has written them on the heart of every person on earth. Let us go over just three of these commandments (see Deuteronomy 5):
1. The third commandment says “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” Have you ever used the name of the Lord in place of a filthy curse word to express disgust, or how about saying or writing OMG on facebook? Don’t justify yourself by saying you’re saying gosh instead of God, gosh is a euphemism for God it is used in place of God to make yourself feel better about it, but what you are really doing is lowering God’s name down to a lower level than He deserves. This command says further, “for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” In other words He will not let you off the hook for doing this.
2. The sixth commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery” God is Spirit, so you are just as guilty about what you think as well as what you do with your body. Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Have you looked at another person ever with lust who was not your husband or wife? This commandment includes fornication, sex outside of wedlock. Sex with another person physically or mentally other than the one you are married to is adultery.
3. The ninth commandment says, “You shall not bear false witness”, in other words you shall not lie. Have you ever lied?
Now that is just three of God’s Holy Ten Commandments and I don’t know about you but I am doing poorly, in fact I have broken all Ten of the Commandments a multitude of times. Even if you have broken only one of these commandments just one time you’re in trouble. (James 2:10) says, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble on one point, he is guilty of all.” So what does the law do? It shuts the mouth of every man, no one can say before the law of God “I’m a good person”, no one. You are not justified before God under the law you are guilty, the law brings the knowledge of sin, because of the law you know that you are a sinner before God.
There is good news, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,” ~Romans 3:21. The law and the prophets mean the Old Testament. This time, the present time we are in now was told about in the Old Testament, that there would be a Way to be made right with God apart from keeping the law and that Way has been revealed. What is that Way? The next verse tells us “even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe.” ~Romans 3:22. Even the righteousness of God Himself would be applied to you, and you would be looked upon as righteous as Jesus Christ Himself, through faith in Jesus Christ. Think about that a minute, the righteousness of God, to you and on you. John the Baptist in talking about Jesus said that he wasn’t even worthy to lose His sandal, and God would count you as righteous as Jesus, and look upon you as righteous as Jesus? That my friend is amazing and how can this be and why does God do it. Why does God count us righteous for having faith in Jesus?
Most of you recognize Romans 3:23 because it is used in what we call the Roman road. As I have learned to study scripture I have learned to read scripture in complete thoughts rather than how they are broken up into verses. The verses help us locate a section, but they cause a problem when they change the way you think about scripture because of the way they are broken up. Take the Roman road for example: It is several different scriptures throughout the Epistle to the Romans, jumping back and forth to give a gospel message. First of all, I think that is unnecessary since the gospel message is contained right here in Chapter three without jumping around, and second of all many of the verses are taken out of context. The thought for Romans 3:23 actually begins in Romans 3:22. You have all heard many times, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. In reading it this way it makes you believe that the verse is intended to show you that you’re a sinner, we don’t need it for that, the law of God does that. There is a comma before the word “for” at the beginning of the verse because the first part of the thought begins earlier. Here is the full thought. “For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” ~Romans 3:22-24. When you put Romans 3:23 in contexts with the other supporting verses it gives a different meaning and what is the thought here?
The thought is this. You are no better than anyone else. People tend to compare themselves to other people and say, “I must be good because I am better than that man”, but what you are doing is claiming goodness by your own standards rather than God’s. You can take a man in prison guilty of awful murders and many other crimes, before God, you and he are just as guilty, you have both broken the law of God. It doesn’t matter if you’ve broken the law once or thousands of times, if you’ve broken the law, you’ve broken the law. Earlier I quoted you (James 2:10) “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble on one point, he is guilty of all.” You and the criminal in our human prison system are saved the same way, and there is no difference, you have both sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You both are freely justified by the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There is no difference. Now how did God justify us? Now this is why I wanted to talk about this scripture because this is really cool.
Verse 25 says, “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith,” ~Romans 3:25. What I find so cool about this is that it is a mathematical equation. Now I’m going to give you some definitions, and I use these words because they are the words used in the literal translations of the word of God and they bring incredible clarity in helping to understand the message God has for us.
1. Propitiation - to propitiate is a legal term, it means to bring appeasement. In this case you are appeasing the wrath of God. You see, as I showed you earlier we are law breakers, God is lawful.
2. Enmity – a feeling or condition of hostility; hatred; ill will; animosity between two parties. The bible tells us that there is an enmity that separates us from God. A wall of hostility. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” ~Romans 8:7.
3. Holy – the word Holy in Hebrew means separate. God is separate from us and what separates God from us is the enmity, the law of God.
It’s like this; there is a wall of hostility that separates us and God. On one side of the wall is God who is lawful, He upholds the law, He is righteous, on the other side of the wall is man, we are lawless, we do not keep the law, we are law breakers, we are unrighteous. God decided to do something in His grace; He gave us a free gift. God said through the bible that all law breakers would see death, but a graciously gave us a free gift, a Way to become righteous in His sight. He set forth His only begotten Son Jesus as that Way, He took the punishment of death for our breaking the law, He only requires you to accept that gift by faith. So here is the greatest mathematical equation in the history of the world. Mathematical equations have an equal sign =, with each side of the equal sign adding up to equal parts. So here is the equation.
Propitiation = Jesus Christ + Faith
For demonstrative purposes let us assign some values to these:
0. No Faith or absence of Faith, unbelief.
1. Faith – I assigned it the numeral 1 because it is the Holy Spirit who gives us faith.
2. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross – I assigned this the numeral 2 because Father and Son were involved during the crucifixion, Jesus went to the Cross at the Fathers will and the Father turned His back on Him pouring out His wrath on the Son for the sins of mankind.
3. Propitiation – I assigned propitiation the number 3 because the Trinity is present in Propitiation, it requires all three.
So now we have our equation: 3=2+1 equal parts on both sides. Now what are some things that people may put their faith in other than Jesus Christ Crucified for their sins?
4. I’m a good person – they think that they will get to heaven on their own merit.
5. Works – they think if you do a bunch of good deeds, or a bunch of religious acts that will earn favor with God.
6. I prayed a prayer – I have looked and I can’t find even one example in the bible where anyone was ever saved by a prayer.
7. I walked down a church aisle – again that is a work
8. I gave my life to Jesus – again a work
9. A god – the god of Muhammad, Buddha, or any number of Hindu gods.
So let us assign some of these numerals to our equation. Remember God has given Propitiation so whatever you do it needs to add up to propitiation which we have assigned the numeral 3.
3=2+0 Absence of faith – Jesus paid the price for all of mankind but if you do not have faith in him it doesn’t add up to propitiation.
3=4 I’m a good person + 1, 4+1=5 not three so faith in anything other than Jesus Christ Crucified does not = 3 does not equal propitiation, we could go on and on trying, but nothing adds up to propitiation but faith in Jesus Christ Crucified for your sins, NOTHING!
So why did God do this? The remainder of verse 25 and verse 26 tell us, “to demonstrate His righteousness”. Now why would anyone question the righteousness of God? Well let us look at the remainder of verse 25. “to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” ~Romans 3:25. The reason someone might question the righteousness of God is because you live. You heard me right, because you live. God created us, and He established His law, His perfect law, and that is the law by which we are to live by, and punishment for breaking that law is death and eternal separation from God. God had every right to destroy you the very first time you sinned, but He didn’t. God had every right to destroy Adam & Eve when they sinned, removing mankind from existence but He didn’t, and why didn’t He? Well verse 26 tells why He didn’t, “to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” ~Romans 3:26. God is a good judge, in fact He is the only one good, He is the only One who has kept His law, never once sinning. The law is the embodiment of His person, it is who He is, He is lawful. The law says “do not lie,” the bible tells us He cannot lie. So God will be just in His judgments and there must be punishment for anyone who breaks His law. But God through His grace has given a Way for us to be justified and that Way is faith in Jesus Christ crucified for your sins. So God can be both just in making sure that there is punishment for sin and He can be justified in letting sinners go free at the same time because He took your punishment Himself.
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of Works? No but by the law of faith” ~Romans 3:27. Now how are you going to boast, you can’t boast in yourself, you’re a sinner, you can’t boast in your ability to follow the law, you’ve broken the law, you can’t boast in your works or accomplishments, and they can’t earn you eternal life. My friends all that we can boast in is Jesus Christ Crucified, and what a wonderful thing that is to boast in Jesus. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” ~Romans 3:28. Now at the beginning of this, I asked you a question, and that question was this: Are you ready to give an account of your life to God? The reason I asked that question is because I have found that the answer one gives to that question reveals the heart. The answer you give to that question is where your faith truly is. I am here to tell you today, if you gave as an answer anything other than Jesus Christ crucified, Jesus paid it all on the cross, I plead with you to repent. Repent means to stop what you are doing and turn around. So repent, turn from whatever your faith is currently on and turn away from that thing and turn to Jesus. Put your faith in Jesus Christ alone and you will be saved. I had a twofold purpose in writing this. 1) If your faith was in anything other than Jesus Christ crucified for your sins, to get your faith off of that other thing, and on what will save you on your day of judgment, Jesus Christ. 2) If your faith is in Jesus Christ to give you confidence in your salvation.
I hope this has brought you close to the Lord,
Mike Peek
My name is Mike Peek. I am a registered nurse; I have done many things in my nursing career but have spent the majority of my career working with critically ill cardiac patients, people on the very precipice of death. I have witnessed much in all the years God has had me do this and there has been one continuous theme I have found throughout my years of working with these patients. No one expects or accepts death! No one! The families don’t and the patients don’t, but I am here to tell you as a witness of death, everyone dies. I have been witness to hundreds of deaths and it never comes easy, no one expects it or accepts it. I have talked with patients who were telling me about their plans for the next day or when they get out of the hospital and then die while telling me their plans for the future, and then try all means we have as human beings to resuscitate them; mechanical, electrical, and chemical to no avail. Ten out of ten people die and we all know this fact, not one person denies that; but with every person it is always some mythical time in the future, it’s never now. I being a witness of death and a witness of people’s reaction to death have something to say about death. You will die, and it will be unexpectedly; it may be today, tomorrow, or years in the future, but you will die and you won’t expect it when it happens. I have a question for you and I want you to give an honest answer. (Hebrews 9:27) says “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.” We are all criminals; we have broken the law, God’s law. And just like criminals on earth we have a court date, and that date is set, you cannot change it and cannot avoid it, it is coming weather you like it or not. There is a date set for you to go before the Judge, and this Judge is not like a human judge, He is a good Judge, in fact He is the only One who is good, and He will judge you justly and a good judge punishes the guilty. The question I have for you is this: Are you ready to give an account of your life to God? Yes or no and why, write your answer down and hold on to it, that answer is yours, no one else’s, it is yours.
Now back to our scripture: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” ~Romans 3:19-20. What is God’s law and who is under His law? Well, our scripture says all the world. So what is the law? Some people say the law of God is no more, they say we are not under the law, but oh they are so wrong. Jesus said of the law, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” ~Matthew 5:17-18. Then in heaven we have the ark of His covenant, “Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple.” ~Revelation 11:19. Now what was in the ark of His covenant? “Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb” _2 Chronicles 5:10. What was on the Tablets? God spoke from the mountain the Ten Commandments to the entire assembly of Israel. Moses said, “And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me” ~Deuteronomy 5:22. God wrote His laws, “The Ten Commandments” on stone because they are permanent. You know these laws, they are written on your heart, God has written them on the heart of every person on earth. Let us go over just three of these commandments (see Deuteronomy 5):
1. The third commandment says “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” Have you ever used the name of the Lord in place of a filthy curse word to express disgust, or how about saying or writing OMG on facebook? Don’t justify yourself by saying you’re saying gosh instead of God, gosh is a euphemism for God it is used in place of God to make yourself feel better about it, but what you are really doing is lowering God’s name down to a lower level than He deserves. This command says further, “for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” In other words He will not let you off the hook for doing this.
2. The sixth commandment says, “You shall not commit adultery” God is Spirit, so you are just as guilty about what you think as well as what you do with your body. Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Have you looked at another person ever with lust who was not your husband or wife? This commandment includes fornication, sex outside of wedlock. Sex with another person physically or mentally other than the one you are married to is adultery.
3. The ninth commandment says, “You shall not bear false witness”, in other words you shall not lie. Have you ever lied?
Now that is just three of God’s Holy Ten Commandments and I don’t know about you but I am doing poorly, in fact I have broken all Ten of the Commandments a multitude of times. Even if you have broken only one of these commandments just one time you’re in trouble. (James 2:10) says, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble on one point, he is guilty of all.” So what does the law do? It shuts the mouth of every man, no one can say before the law of God “I’m a good person”, no one. You are not justified before God under the law you are guilty, the law brings the knowledge of sin, because of the law you know that you are a sinner before God.
There is good news, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,” ~Romans 3:21. The law and the prophets mean the Old Testament. This time, the present time we are in now was told about in the Old Testament, that there would be a Way to be made right with God apart from keeping the law and that Way has been revealed. What is that Way? The next verse tells us “even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe.” ~Romans 3:22. Even the righteousness of God Himself would be applied to you, and you would be looked upon as righteous as Jesus Christ Himself, through faith in Jesus Christ. Think about that a minute, the righteousness of God, to you and on you. John the Baptist in talking about Jesus said that he wasn’t even worthy to lose His sandal, and God would count you as righteous as Jesus, and look upon you as righteous as Jesus? That my friend is amazing and how can this be and why does God do it. Why does God count us righteous for having faith in Jesus?
Most of you recognize Romans 3:23 because it is used in what we call the Roman road. As I have learned to study scripture I have learned to read scripture in complete thoughts rather than how they are broken up into verses. The verses help us locate a section, but they cause a problem when they change the way you think about scripture because of the way they are broken up. Take the Roman road for example: It is several different scriptures throughout the Epistle to the Romans, jumping back and forth to give a gospel message. First of all, I think that is unnecessary since the gospel message is contained right here in Chapter three without jumping around, and second of all many of the verses are taken out of context. The thought for Romans 3:23 actually begins in Romans 3:22. You have all heard many times, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. In reading it this way it makes you believe that the verse is intended to show you that you’re a sinner, we don’t need it for that, the law of God does that. There is a comma before the word “for” at the beginning of the verse because the first part of the thought begins earlier. Here is the full thought. “For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” ~Romans 3:22-24. When you put Romans 3:23 in contexts with the other supporting verses it gives a different meaning and what is the thought here?
The thought is this. You are no better than anyone else. People tend to compare themselves to other people and say, “I must be good because I am better than that man”, but what you are doing is claiming goodness by your own standards rather than God’s. You can take a man in prison guilty of awful murders and many other crimes, before God, you and he are just as guilty, you have both broken the law of God. It doesn’t matter if you’ve broken the law once or thousands of times, if you’ve broken the law, you’ve broken the law. Earlier I quoted you (James 2:10) “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble on one point, he is guilty of all.” You and the criminal in our human prison system are saved the same way, and there is no difference, you have both sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You both are freely justified by the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There is no difference. Now how did God justify us? Now this is why I wanted to talk about this scripture because this is really cool.
Verse 25 says, “whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith,” ~Romans 3:25. What I find so cool about this is that it is a mathematical equation. Now I’m going to give you some definitions, and I use these words because they are the words used in the literal translations of the word of God and they bring incredible clarity in helping to understand the message God has for us.
1. Propitiation - to propitiate is a legal term, it means to bring appeasement. In this case you are appeasing the wrath of God. You see, as I showed you earlier we are law breakers, God is lawful.
2. Enmity – a feeling or condition of hostility; hatred; ill will; animosity between two parties. The bible tells us that there is an enmity that separates us from God. A wall of hostility. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” ~Romans 8:7.
3. Holy – the word Holy in Hebrew means separate. God is separate from us and what separates God from us is the enmity, the law of God.
It’s like this; there is a wall of hostility that separates us and God. On one side of the wall is God who is lawful, He upholds the law, He is righteous, on the other side of the wall is man, we are lawless, we do not keep the law, we are law breakers, we are unrighteous. God decided to do something in His grace; He gave us a free gift. God said through the bible that all law breakers would see death, but a graciously gave us a free gift, a Way to become righteous in His sight. He set forth His only begotten Son Jesus as that Way, He took the punishment of death for our breaking the law, He only requires you to accept that gift by faith. So here is the greatest mathematical equation in the history of the world. Mathematical equations have an equal sign =, with each side of the equal sign adding up to equal parts. So here is the equation.
Propitiation = Jesus Christ + Faith
For demonstrative purposes let us assign some values to these:
0. No Faith or absence of Faith, unbelief.
1. Faith – I assigned it the numeral 1 because it is the Holy Spirit who gives us faith.
2. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross – I assigned this the numeral 2 because Father and Son were involved during the crucifixion, Jesus went to the Cross at the Fathers will and the Father turned His back on Him pouring out His wrath on the Son for the sins of mankind.
3. Propitiation – I assigned propitiation the number 3 because the Trinity is present in Propitiation, it requires all three.
So now we have our equation: 3=2+1 equal parts on both sides. Now what are some things that people may put their faith in other than Jesus Christ Crucified for their sins?
4. I’m a good person – they think that they will get to heaven on their own merit.
5. Works – they think if you do a bunch of good deeds, or a bunch of religious acts that will earn favor with God.
6. I prayed a prayer – I have looked and I can’t find even one example in the bible where anyone was ever saved by a prayer.
7. I walked down a church aisle – again that is a work
8. I gave my life to Jesus – again a work
9. A god – the god of Muhammad, Buddha, or any number of Hindu gods.
So let us assign some of these numerals to our equation. Remember God has given Propitiation so whatever you do it needs to add up to propitiation which we have assigned the numeral 3.
3=2+0 Absence of faith – Jesus paid the price for all of mankind but if you do not have faith in him it doesn’t add up to propitiation.
3=4 I’m a good person + 1, 4+1=5 not three so faith in anything other than Jesus Christ Crucified does not = 3 does not equal propitiation, we could go on and on trying, but nothing adds up to propitiation but faith in Jesus Christ Crucified for your sins, NOTHING!
So why did God do this? The remainder of verse 25 and verse 26 tell us, “to demonstrate His righteousness”. Now why would anyone question the righteousness of God? Well let us look at the remainder of verse 25. “to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed” ~Romans 3:25. The reason someone might question the righteousness of God is because you live. You heard me right, because you live. God created us, and He established His law, His perfect law, and that is the law by which we are to live by, and punishment for breaking that law is death and eternal separation from God. God had every right to destroy you the very first time you sinned, but He didn’t. God had every right to destroy Adam & Eve when they sinned, removing mankind from existence but He didn’t, and why didn’t He? Well verse 26 tells why He didn’t, “to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” ~Romans 3:26. God is a good judge, in fact He is the only one good, He is the only One who has kept His law, never once sinning. The law is the embodiment of His person, it is who He is, He is lawful. The law says “do not lie,” the bible tells us He cannot lie. So God will be just in His judgments and there must be punishment for anyone who breaks His law. But God through His grace has given a Way for us to be justified and that Way is faith in Jesus Christ crucified for your sins. So God can be both just in making sure that there is punishment for sin and He can be justified in letting sinners go free at the same time because He took your punishment Himself.
“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of Works? No but by the law of faith” ~Romans 3:27. Now how are you going to boast, you can’t boast in yourself, you’re a sinner, you can’t boast in your ability to follow the law, you’ve broken the law, you can’t boast in your works or accomplishments, and they can’t earn you eternal life. My friends all that we can boast in is Jesus Christ Crucified, and what a wonderful thing that is to boast in Jesus. “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” ~Romans 3:28. Now at the beginning of this, I asked you a question, and that question was this: Are you ready to give an account of your life to God? The reason I asked that question is because I have found that the answer one gives to that question reveals the heart. The answer you give to that question is where your faith truly is. I am here to tell you today, if you gave as an answer anything other than Jesus Christ crucified, Jesus paid it all on the cross, I plead with you to repent. Repent means to stop what you are doing and turn around. So repent, turn from whatever your faith is currently on and turn away from that thing and turn to Jesus. Put your faith in Jesus Christ alone and you will be saved. I had a twofold purpose in writing this. 1) If your faith was in anything other than Jesus Christ crucified for your sins, to get your faith off of that other thing, and on what will save you on your day of judgment, Jesus Christ. 2) If your faith is in Jesus Christ to give you confidence in your salvation.
I hope this has brought you close to the Lord,
Mike Peek
Saturday, October 1, 2011
The Wind Blows Where it Wishes (John 3:7-12)
(“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” ~John 3:7-12).
As Jesus and Nicodemus talked, Nicodemus must have had a look of shock on his face because Jesus said, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” Also I can picture this conversation happening outside where there was a nice cooling breeze, and then Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” I found it interesting in studying this passage that the word wind in both Greek and Hebrew could be translated Spirit. I enjoy words especially the word of God, the meaning of words and their root bring such incredible clarity to scripture and impart in such an incredible way, the message God has for us, so as a side note when studying God’s word, study the words and their meanings in their original form.
Jesus was telling Nicodemus using the analogy of the wind to impart to him that the Spirit of God moves where It wishes. You don’t know where It comes from or where It goes but you can definitely see and feel the effects of It in a changed life. This whole subject of birth is quite interesting, take first physical birth, the birth of a human body. You most have two parents a male and a female to give birth to a human life. The same is true with being born again spiritually; you most have two parents, the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God to give birth to a believer. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” ~Mark 16:15. And we who are the redeemed in Jesus Christ need to be obedient in just that in preaching the gospel to every creature. Not changing the gospel to make it acceptable amongst unbelievers, but preaching the gospel in truth. The gospel of God is hard for a man to take and without the Holy Spirit coming to a man it is impossible. Tell someone who is spiritually dead that they have sinned against God and the punishment for sin is death, and that Jesus paid the price for their sins on the cross, shedding His precious blood, and all they have to do is believe by faith that Jesus paid the price for their sins; they will do one of three things, find some reason to depart, laugh at you, or curse you telling you that you are full of hate. But show the gospel to someone that the Holy Spirit is working on, and you will see a complete change, a new birth. For someone to be saved they must be born again and the way God has chosen to do this is by the preaching of His Word and the convicting of the Holy Spirit and it is a wonderful mystery when it happens. You cannot tell from the outside whom God plans to save by His spirit, so you must give the gospel to everyone.
Nicodemus shocked by this news says to Jesus, “How can these things be?” Nicodemus must have felt crushed, here he was a descendent of Abraham by birth and he had been a Pharisee all his life, trying with all his might to follow the letter of the law, and Jesus tells him that it is not good enough you must be born again. I imagine that Nicodemus was crushed and bewildered. Then Jesus crushes him even further by saying to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things?” Talk about cutting someone to the quick, basically saying; how can you be teaching the people of Israel when you can neither see, nor know how to get into the Kingdom of God yourself? In the next sentence Jesus says; “Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.” You may think that Jesus was referring to Himself and His disciples but I don’t think so, and here is why. The translation I am using is the NKJV, and you may have noticed that in this sentence, which is verse 11, every time Jesus says We or Our it is capitalized. Obviously because the translators of the NKJV believe that He was talking about the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), the God head and after praying and studying this I believe that they are right in doing this. You will find throughout this gospel that Jesus often does this and speaks of Him and the Father being One, so with that understanding it brings greater clarity to Jesus’ words. Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:11-12).
Now this is my own paraphrase of verse 11-12 and it is what the Spirit has shown me as I have meditated on this scripture all week: Nicodemus We (God, The Trinity) have told you the truth that you must be born again, We have observed you, and this is what We have observed, you do not believe Us. Now what We have told you is basic spiritual truth, it is the beginning of spiritual truth that you must be born again, if you do not believe this you cannot and will not believe deeper spiritual truths.
Next week John 3:13-18, the most well know verse in the bible John 3:16
God bless you,
Mike Peek
As Jesus and Nicodemus talked, Nicodemus must have had a look of shock on his face because Jesus said, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” Also I can picture this conversation happening outside where there was a nice cooling breeze, and then Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” I found it interesting in studying this passage that the word wind in both Greek and Hebrew could be translated Spirit. I enjoy words especially the word of God, the meaning of words and their root bring such incredible clarity to scripture and impart in such an incredible way, the message God has for us, so as a side note when studying God’s word, study the words and their meanings in their original form.
Jesus was telling Nicodemus using the analogy of the wind to impart to him that the Spirit of God moves where It wishes. You don’t know where It comes from or where It goes but you can definitely see and feel the effects of It in a changed life. This whole subject of birth is quite interesting, take first physical birth, the birth of a human body. You most have two parents a male and a female to give birth to a human life. The same is true with being born again spiritually; you most have two parents, the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God to give birth to a believer. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” ~Mark 16:15. And we who are the redeemed in Jesus Christ need to be obedient in just that in preaching the gospel to every creature. Not changing the gospel to make it acceptable amongst unbelievers, but preaching the gospel in truth. The gospel of God is hard for a man to take and without the Holy Spirit coming to a man it is impossible. Tell someone who is spiritually dead that they have sinned against God and the punishment for sin is death, and that Jesus paid the price for their sins on the cross, shedding His precious blood, and all they have to do is believe by faith that Jesus paid the price for their sins; they will do one of three things, find some reason to depart, laugh at you, or curse you telling you that you are full of hate. But show the gospel to someone that the Holy Spirit is working on, and you will see a complete change, a new birth. For someone to be saved they must be born again and the way God has chosen to do this is by the preaching of His Word and the convicting of the Holy Spirit and it is a wonderful mystery when it happens. You cannot tell from the outside whom God plans to save by His spirit, so you must give the gospel to everyone.
Nicodemus shocked by this news says to Jesus, “How can these things be?” Nicodemus must have felt crushed, here he was a descendent of Abraham by birth and he had been a Pharisee all his life, trying with all his might to follow the letter of the law, and Jesus tells him that it is not good enough you must be born again. I imagine that Nicodemus was crushed and bewildered. Then Jesus crushes him even further by saying to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things?” Talk about cutting someone to the quick, basically saying; how can you be teaching the people of Israel when you can neither see, nor know how to get into the Kingdom of God yourself? In the next sentence Jesus says; “Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.” You may think that Jesus was referring to Himself and His disciples but I don’t think so, and here is why. The translation I am using is the NKJV, and you may have noticed that in this sentence, which is verse 11, every time Jesus says We or Our it is capitalized. Obviously because the translators of the NKJV believe that He was talking about the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), the God head and after praying and studying this I believe that they are right in doing this. You will find throughout this gospel that Jesus often does this and speaks of Him and the Father being One, so with that understanding it brings greater clarity to Jesus’ words. Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” (John 3:11-12).
Now this is my own paraphrase of verse 11-12 and it is what the Spirit has shown me as I have meditated on this scripture all week: Nicodemus We (God, The Trinity) have told you the truth that you must be born again, We have observed you, and this is what We have observed, you do not believe Us. Now what We have told you is basic spiritual truth, it is the beginning of spiritual truth that you must be born again, if you do not believe this you cannot and will not believe deeper spiritual truths.
Next week John 3:13-18, the most well know verse in the bible John 3:16
God bless you,
Mike Peek
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Born Again (John 3:1-6)
(There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water, and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” ~John 3:1-6).
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, which tells us that he was a respected man held in high esteem in the land of Judea among the Jewish people, and probably a member of the council, the ruling religious authority in Jerusalem. The Pharisees, as a group of people were very strict in their adherence of the Jewish law. As bad a rap as they get they did get many things right, one of which was the resurrection of the dead, which the other ruling group at the time of Jesus, the Sadducees denied. To become a Pharisee you have to dedicate your entire life to studying “The Law and the Prophets” (The Old Testament) and strictly adhere to the law, but where the Pharisees fell short is that they thought a bunch of religious acts of self denial would earn favor with God. While on the outside they may not physically steal but would covet the things belonging to someone else. They may not physically go have sex with a woman that was not their wife but would look upon a woman with lustful desire. They had as Paul wrote to Timothy “a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). Jesus said of them “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” ~Matthew 23:27. What the Pharisee had going for him was that he wanted to be in God’s kingdom (at least a lot of them did, many of them just liked the power), but what he had against him is that they thought a man could be good enough to please God, so they made up an unbearable amount of rules on top of God’s laws to try and make sure that everyone didn’t break God’s laws and in doing that they broke God’s law.
As we study “The Gospel According to John” you will see that every time Jesus interacts with a Pharisee there is always some conflict, and in the case with Nicodemus as well. The difference between this conversation with Jesus and Nicodemus, and all the other conversations that Jesus has with the Pharisees is that Nicodemus really wanted to hear what Jesus had to say, he really came seeking answers. Nicodemus said he was old, and being a ruler of the Jews he probably was and for an older man to come and pay respect to a younger man calling Him Rabbi, that older man would have to humble himself to do so. So here comes Nicodemus saying to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2). Then Jesus blows Nicodemus out of the water saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Basically He just told Nicodemus, you don’t even know what you’re talking about Nicodemus, your blind, you can’t even see the kingdom of God, and you’re going to have to start all over again. Jesus said of the Pharisees “They are blind leaders of the blind” (Matthew 15:14). Nicodemus, I have to hand it to him, being an older, respected Middle Eastern man, for this young man to tell him he is blind, he held great restraint, because he really wanted to hear what Jesus had to say, the prompting of the Holy Spirit was upon him. Also Jesus answered the question that Nicodemus wanted an answer to without him even asking. Nicodemus wasn’t a Pharisee just for the sake of it, he wanted to be in the Kingdom of God, so the question, (How do I get in the kingdom of God?), was on his mind and Jesus answered it without him even asking, which I am sure startled Nicodemus and peaked his curiosity.
So Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4). I don’t think that Nicodemus really thought Jesus was speaking of a physical birth; I think he knew Jesus was speaking spiritually, but what Nicodemus was saying is that it is futile. I can’t start over, I’m an old man, I have invested my whole life in following the law and study, I can’t start over again. Jesus’ next statement shows that He agreed with Nicodemus, that he can’t start over, that there is nothing that Nicodemus can do, it is God who must do it. (Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water, and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” ~John 3:5-6). This verse many take out of context and try and use it to say that a person has to be physically baptized with water to be saved. Ceremonial baptism is not what Jesus was talking about here. There was the baptism that John did after someone came to repentance and later the baptism that Christians do as a public profession of faith saying that they died to self and are raised to life in Christ. But it is still a Ceremony, baptism doesn’t save anyone, Faith alone in the blood of Jesus Christ saves!
So what was Jesus talking about? You’ve got to remember that Nicodemus is a Pharisee who has studied the Old Testament; there was no New Testament at that time. Jesus was referring to a passage in Ezekiel 36, which Nicodemus would have been well aware of. (Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. ~Ezekiel 36 25-27). What was being described by the Prophet Ezekiel and what Jesus was referring to here is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A true transformation of a person where they truly do become a new creature by God, this isn’t something that a man can do on his own, God must do this, the Holy Spirit must do this.
You may have heard believers in Jesus Christ say before, “I hate religion.” On the surface, this may confuse you because isn’t Christianity a religion? My answer to that is yes and no; yes Christians worship God, so in the sense that we worship the God of the universe it is religion, but in the sense of ritual worship, following a bunch of rules to appease a deity and doing a bunch of good works to please that deity it is not. A man cannot please God we are law breakers before God. One of the funniest statements I hear all the time is “He or she is a good Christian.” The first step in becoming a Christian is realizing that you are not good, so the cliché’ “I’m a good Christian” is false. Saying you’re a good Christian is denying the words of Jesus Himself; He said, “No one is good but One, that is God.” (Matthew 19:17). So Jesus in His final statement in these first 6 verses of John 3 says, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6). Anything that a man does is of flesh; trying to follow the law, doing good deeds to earn favor with God; that is of the flesh and is of man. Being born again is of the Spirit of God and comes from outside of us. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44).
Next week John 3:7-12, thank you, and God Bless you,
Mike Peek
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, which tells us that he was a respected man held in high esteem in the land of Judea among the Jewish people, and probably a member of the council, the ruling religious authority in Jerusalem. The Pharisees, as a group of people were very strict in their adherence of the Jewish law. As bad a rap as they get they did get many things right, one of which was the resurrection of the dead, which the other ruling group at the time of Jesus, the Sadducees denied. To become a Pharisee you have to dedicate your entire life to studying “The Law and the Prophets” (The Old Testament) and strictly adhere to the law, but where the Pharisees fell short is that they thought a bunch of religious acts of self denial would earn favor with God. While on the outside they may not physically steal but would covet the things belonging to someone else. They may not physically go have sex with a woman that was not their wife but would look upon a woman with lustful desire. They had as Paul wrote to Timothy “a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). Jesus said of them “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” ~Matthew 23:27. What the Pharisee had going for him was that he wanted to be in God’s kingdom (at least a lot of them did, many of them just liked the power), but what he had against him is that they thought a man could be good enough to please God, so they made up an unbearable amount of rules on top of God’s laws to try and make sure that everyone didn’t break God’s laws and in doing that they broke God’s law.
As we study “The Gospel According to John” you will see that every time Jesus interacts with a Pharisee there is always some conflict, and in the case with Nicodemus as well. The difference between this conversation with Jesus and Nicodemus, and all the other conversations that Jesus has with the Pharisees is that Nicodemus really wanted to hear what Jesus had to say, he really came seeking answers. Nicodemus said he was old, and being a ruler of the Jews he probably was and for an older man to come and pay respect to a younger man calling Him Rabbi, that older man would have to humble himself to do so. So here comes Nicodemus saying to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” (John 3:2). Then Jesus blows Nicodemus out of the water saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Basically He just told Nicodemus, you don’t even know what you’re talking about Nicodemus, your blind, you can’t even see the kingdom of God, and you’re going to have to start all over again. Jesus said of the Pharisees “They are blind leaders of the blind” (Matthew 15:14). Nicodemus, I have to hand it to him, being an older, respected Middle Eastern man, for this young man to tell him he is blind, he held great restraint, because he really wanted to hear what Jesus had to say, the prompting of the Holy Spirit was upon him. Also Jesus answered the question that Nicodemus wanted an answer to without him even asking. Nicodemus wasn’t a Pharisee just for the sake of it, he wanted to be in the Kingdom of God, so the question, (How do I get in the kingdom of God?), was on his mind and Jesus answered it without him even asking, which I am sure startled Nicodemus and peaked his curiosity.
So Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4). I don’t think that Nicodemus really thought Jesus was speaking of a physical birth; I think he knew Jesus was speaking spiritually, but what Nicodemus was saying is that it is futile. I can’t start over, I’m an old man, I have invested my whole life in following the law and study, I can’t start over again. Jesus’ next statement shows that He agreed with Nicodemus, that he can’t start over, that there is nothing that Nicodemus can do, it is God who must do it. (Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water, and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” ~John 3:5-6). This verse many take out of context and try and use it to say that a person has to be physically baptized with water to be saved. Ceremonial baptism is not what Jesus was talking about here. There was the baptism that John did after someone came to repentance and later the baptism that Christians do as a public profession of faith saying that they died to self and are raised to life in Christ. But it is still a Ceremony, baptism doesn’t save anyone, Faith alone in the blood of Jesus Christ saves!
So what was Jesus talking about? You’ve got to remember that Nicodemus is a Pharisee who has studied the Old Testament; there was no New Testament at that time. Jesus was referring to a passage in Ezekiel 36, which Nicodemus would have been well aware of. (Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. ~Ezekiel 36 25-27). What was being described by the Prophet Ezekiel and what Jesus was referring to here is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. A true transformation of a person where they truly do become a new creature by God, this isn’t something that a man can do on his own, God must do this, the Holy Spirit must do this.
You may have heard believers in Jesus Christ say before, “I hate religion.” On the surface, this may confuse you because isn’t Christianity a religion? My answer to that is yes and no; yes Christians worship God, so in the sense that we worship the God of the universe it is religion, but in the sense of ritual worship, following a bunch of rules to appease a deity and doing a bunch of good works to please that deity it is not. A man cannot please God we are law breakers before God. One of the funniest statements I hear all the time is “He or she is a good Christian.” The first step in becoming a Christian is realizing that you are not good, so the cliché’ “I’m a good Christian” is false. Saying you’re a good Christian is denying the words of Jesus Himself; He said, “No one is good but One, that is God.” (Matthew 19:17). So Jesus in His final statement in these first 6 verses of John 3 says, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6). Anything that a man does is of flesh; trying to follow the law, doing good deeds to earn favor with God; that is of the flesh and is of man. Being born again is of the Spirit of God and comes from outside of us. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44).
Next week John 3:7-12, thank you, and God Bless you,
Mike Peek
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Destroy This Temple (John 2:18-25)
(So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Now when He was in Jerusalem, at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. ~John 2:18-25).
Today I am going to talk about the last 8 verses of John chapter 2 completing my memorization of John chapter 2; God has shown me much through this chapter. I have had struggles through it, but God who is always faithful has carried me through all the way. I knew when I under took this endeavor, I had no ability to do this except that which is given to me by the Holy Spirit. God has caused me to memorize these first two chapters of John and has spoken to me through them the entire way, and I thank Jesus Christ for that; I will forever have His word in my heart because of this, and I pray He will keep me going through this entire book (The Gospel According to John).
Today we continue on from last week in the temple Jesus had just gotten through running off the people who sold in the temple; oxen, sheep, doves, and the money changers all doing business in the temple. Last week I asked, why did Jesus get so mad about this? I have thought about that all week. Jesus put up with a lot of stuff from a lot of people. Just walk around today and everywhere you look there is sin, it is so prevalent in our society and was prevalent in the society of Judea during the first century. So everywhere you go all the time you are surrounded by sin and sinful people. When the Word (Jesus) walked amongst us He would have been constantly in the presence of sin and sinful people all the time, yet He dealt with it differently than He did on this occasion. I have recently been reading through the books of the Law (The Old Testament) there is one thing I have gotten out of that with certainty. God really got angry with Israel when they had no reverence for Him. Continually throughout the Old Testament the Israelites would fall away and worship other gods then God would become angry with them. Jesus is God! What was going on here in the temple was complete and total irreverence towards God. They had taken His Holy temple and made it into a common market place. There is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of people in the temple for the Passover, and the Scripture tell us that Jesus ran them all out. That is the equivalent of one man by himself with a whip running everyone out of the Dallas Cowboys stadium, that in and of itself is incredible.
So then you have the Jews, the religious leaders, the Priest, the Pharisees, and the Levite guards coming and questioning Jesus. “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” This really is a dumb question, and my guess is that they asked it because they were in shock from what He just did. They wanted a sign, He had just given them a sign, what He had just done was fulfillment of prophesy in Malachi 3. So Jesus gives them an answer, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” These very words Jesus had said, they used against Him when they wrongly tried Him before His crucifixion. He was speaking both of His body which housed His spirit, and the temple in Jerusalem itself. Jesus’ earthly ministry is sandwiched between two Passovers, and two times He cleared the temple, separated by three years. And what did they do when they crucified Jesus on the cross? They destroyed His body, and destroyed temple worship, and all sacrifices both at the same time. When Jesus on the cross breathed His last, and bowed His head, the temple Veil separating the most Holy place in the temple tore down the middle, signifying that it was available to all, and that God had departed from the temple, and it was just a few years after this that God used the Romans to destroy the temple, and there has been no temple worship or sacrifices in Israel since, for two thousand years. Jesus did raise both temples. Three days later He rose from the dead and defeated death but He also rose up the earthly temple as well. You have probably often heard the building in which a church service takes place as being the house of God, well it is not, that is totally untrue. The believer is the house of God, which houses His Holy Spirit. Every single man or women on earth who has had a saving faith in Jesus Christ (His death on the cross as payment for our sins) has received the Holy Spirit of God thereby making their own body the temple of God. Think about that for a minute and it will humble you. Your body is quite literally the temple of God on earth, if you are a believer.
Now the last three verses of John I have to tell you have left me in total shock and awe. I have learned through this process of memorizing (The gospel According to John), to look at the Word of God in terms of sentences or complete thoughts rather than in terms of verses. While the versing of the bible helps us to locate parts of the bible for study, it also hinders in that if you look at a verse as being a complete thought, when part of the thought was in the previous verse, it changes your perception of scripture. So these last three verses are really just two sentences. When I had read this before I had just missed it, because it is two sentences sandwiched between two great events; Jesus cleansing the temple, and His meeting with Nicodemus, so allow me to write them out for you again.
(Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. ~John 2:23-25).
I think that, maybe, the most eye opening, and jaw dropping, literal slap in the face of all of scripture. It says that Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men. Not some men, not just these men but all men, which includes me and you. And it says that He had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. He wouldn’t commit Himself to them, because He knew what was in man. What did Jesus think of us, and yet He willingly went to the cross for us, absolutely amazing? Let us take a look at Paul’s testimony of man.
(As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ~Romans 3:10-18).
Paul was speaking of all men, just as Jesus knew what was in man. All I can say to that is, thank God that He sent us a Savior, in His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, who took our punishment on the cross for all of our sins. Repent and believe by faith in the redemption that comes through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sins.
Mike Peek
Today I am going to talk about the last 8 verses of John chapter 2 completing my memorization of John chapter 2; God has shown me much through this chapter. I have had struggles through it, but God who is always faithful has carried me through all the way. I knew when I under took this endeavor, I had no ability to do this except that which is given to me by the Holy Spirit. God has caused me to memorize these first two chapters of John and has spoken to me through them the entire way, and I thank Jesus Christ for that; I will forever have His word in my heart because of this, and I pray He will keep me going through this entire book (The Gospel According to John).
Today we continue on from last week in the temple Jesus had just gotten through running off the people who sold in the temple; oxen, sheep, doves, and the money changers all doing business in the temple. Last week I asked, why did Jesus get so mad about this? I have thought about that all week. Jesus put up with a lot of stuff from a lot of people. Just walk around today and everywhere you look there is sin, it is so prevalent in our society and was prevalent in the society of Judea during the first century. So everywhere you go all the time you are surrounded by sin and sinful people. When the Word (Jesus) walked amongst us He would have been constantly in the presence of sin and sinful people all the time, yet He dealt with it differently than He did on this occasion. I have recently been reading through the books of the Law (The Old Testament) there is one thing I have gotten out of that with certainty. God really got angry with Israel when they had no reverence for Him. Continually throughout the Old Testament the Israelites would fall away and worship other gods then God would become angry with them. Jesus is God! What was going on here in the temple was complete and total irreverence towards God. They had taken His Holy temple and made it into a common market place. There is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of people in the temple for the Passover, and the Scripture tell us that Jesus ran them all out. That is the equivalent of one man by himself with a whip running everyone out of the Dallas Cowboys stadium, that in and of itself is incredible.
So then you have the Jews, the religious leaders, the Priest, the Pharisees, and the Levite guards coming and questioning Jesus. “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?” This really is a dumb question, and my guess is that they asked it because they were in shock from what He just did. They wanted a sign, He had just given them a sign, what He had just done was fulfillment of prophesy in Malachi 3. So Jesus gives them an answer, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” These very words Jesus had said, they used against Him when they wrongly tried Him before His crucifixion. He was speaking both of His body which housed His spirit, and the temple in Jerusalem itself. Jesus’ earthly ministry is sandwiched between two Passovers, and two times He cleared the temple, separated by three years. And what did they do when they crucified Jesus on the cross? They destroyed His body, and destroyed temple worship, and all sacrifices both at the same time. When Jesus on the cross breathed His last, and bowed His head, the temple Veil separating the most Holy place in the temple tore down the middle, signifying that it was available to all, and that God had departed from the temple, and it was just a few years after this that God used the Romans to destroy the temple, and there has been no temple worship or sacrifices in Israel since, for two thousand years. Jesus did raise both temples. Three days later He rose from the dead and defeated death but He also rose up the earthly temple as well. You have probably often heard the building in which a church service takes place as being the house of God, well it is not, that is totally untrue. The believer is the house of God, which houses His Holy Spirit. Every single man or women on earth who has had a saving faith in Jesus Christ (His death on the cross as payment for our sins) has received the Holy Spirit of God thereby making their own body the temple of God. Think about that for a minute and it will humble you. Your body is quite literally the temple of God on earth, if you are a believer.
Now the last three verses of John I have to tell you have left me in total shock and awe. I have learned through this process of memorizing (The gospel According to John), to look at the Word of God in terms of sentences or complete thoughts rather than in terms of verses. While the versing of the bible helps us to locate parts of the bible for study, it also hinders in that if you look at a verse as being a complete thought, when part of the thought was in the previous verse, it changes your perception of scripture. So these last three verses are really just two sentences. When I had read this before I had just missed it, because it is two sentences sandwiched between two great events; Jesus cleansing the temple, and His meeting with Nicodemus, so allow me to write them out for you again.
(Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. ~John 2:23-25).
I think that, maybe, the most eye opening, and jaw dropping, literal slap in the face of all of scripture. It says that Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men. Not some men, not just these men but all men, which includes me and you. And it says that He had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man. He wouldn’t commit Himself to them, because He knew what was in man. What did Jesus think of us, and yet He willingly went to the cross for us, absolutely amazing? Let us take a look at Paul’s testimony of man.
(As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ~Romans 3:10-18).
Paul was speaking of all men, just as Jesus knew what was in man. All I can say to that is, thank God that He sent us a Savior, in His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, who took our punishment on the cross for all of our sins. Repent and believe by faith in the redemption that comes through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sins.
Mike Peek
Saturday, September 10, 2011
The Clearing of the Temple (John 2:11-17)
(This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise. Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”) ~John 2:11-17.
Last week I wrote about Jesus changing water into wine and showed you how this miracle was a miracle of creation showing that this man Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the creator Himself, no man can create only God can create. And here beginning with the first sign done by Jesus showing that He was the Messiah, that He was Immanuel (God with us). And here in verse 11 the scripture tells us that His disciples (His followers) believed in Him. Verse 12 said that He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples left Cana and went to Capernaum. Capernaum was on the Sea of Galilee and it was here and around here that Jesus did much of His teaching to His disciples during the three years of His earthly ministry. Verse 13 tells us that the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the appointed place by God for the Passover lamb to be sacrificed, and it is the sight where the true Passover Lamb provided by God Himself would be sacrificed three years later, the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ.
The Israelites were held in bondage in the land of Egypt, God had a plan that He told through Moses to rescue them out of Egypt. After Pharaoh had refused to let the Israelites leave after many miracles had been done by God through the hand of Moses. God told Moses to have every two households sacrifice a lamb and to put the blood of the lamb over the door post. God sent the Angel of death into the land of Egypt and commanded him to take the life of the first of everyone in the land of Egypt except for those with the blood of the lamb over the door post, the angel of death would Passover these homes. Once the Israelites had left Egypt God told Moses that they were to remember this and celebrate this event every year and it would go on for a week. For seven days they were to eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day they were to sacrifice an unblemished lamb in the place of God’s choosing, which Jerusalem was, and Jesus came for this Passover Festival.
Verse 14 tells us that Jesus came into the temple and He saw merchandising going on in the temple, animals being sold, money being exchanged. If you will read through the book of Leviticus you will get some understanding of the sacrificial system of Jerusalem, but like man always does it was corrupt. A sin offering was either a bull or unblemished lamb. For many a Jew it was a long journey to Jerusalem, many days by foot, where they were to make there atoning sacrifice. So it would be difficult to haul an animal all of that distance and then finally get to the temple and have the animal turned away as unworthy for a sacrifice. All sacrifices had to be inspected by and approved of by a Temple Priest, it had become such that if you wanted your sacrifice to be found worthy you had to buy it from the Temple and in order to buy it from the Temple you had to use the temple money which meant that you had to exchange the money you had earned at a high fee for the Temple money and then purchase an animal for sacrifice.
Verse 15 and 16 tells us that Jesus made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the Temple with their animals and pouring out the money and overturning the tables and telling the ones who sold doves “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise.” People that don’t know Jesus and haven’t really followed Him try to paint Him as this meek mannered nice guy. He was anything but; He was unlike any man ever to have lived. Most people take advantage of the weak and flee a bully. Jesus did the exact opposite, He would always give grace to the humble heart that admitted that they were a sinner and didn’t want to be, and to the self-righteous who thought they were good He would come down on them like a hammer. No one before or since could give a lashing like Jesus. Can you see this scene, one man with a whip of cords causes this much destruction runs off all the animals and there owners. Then He pours out the changers money and overturns their tables, can you imagine the fight one man would put up over his money much less many men and realize that it was one Man doing all this.
Why did this so anger Him? Because they were using God’s word and His house for sin. They were using God’s word and His house to steal from the people. How could you do this except for unbelief, how could anyone do this and not believe that they would have to answer to God for this. The wrath of God came upon them quickly in the God Man Jesus Christ. He is returning and when He returns He will not deal with sinners so easily. All will give an account of their life to God wither they believe in Him or not, so repent today and put your faith alone in Jesus Christ. This Passover and the incident in the Temple and the Passover three years later where Jesus would once again run the merchandisers off from the Temple bracket His public ministry.
God Bless you all,
Mike Peek
Last week I wrote about Jesus changing water into wine and showed you how this miracle was a miracle of creation showing that this man Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the creator Himself, no man can create only God can create. And here beginning with the first sign done by Jesus showing that He was the Messiah, that He was Immanuel (God with us). And here in verse 11 the scripture tells us that His disciples (His followers) believed in Him. Verse 12 said that He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples left Cana and went to Capernaum. Capernaum was on the Sea of Galilee and it was here and around here that Jesus did much of His teaching to His disciples during the three years of His earthly ministry. Verse 13 tells us that the Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the appointed place by God for the Passover lamb to be sacrificed, and it is the sight where the true Passover Lamb provided by God Himself would be sacrificed three years later, the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ.
The Israelites were held in bondage in the land of Egypt, God had a plan that He told through Moses to rescue them out of Egypt. After Pharaoh had refused to let the Israelites leave after many miracles had been done by God through the hand of Moses. God told Moses to have every two households sacrifice a lamb and to put the blood of the lamb over the door post. God sent the Angel of death into the land of Egypt and commanded him to take the life of the first of everyone in the land of Egypt except for those with the blood of the lamb over the door post, the angel of death would Passover these homes. Once the Israelites had left Egypt God told Moses that they were to remember this and celebrate this event every year and it would go on for a week. For seven days they were to eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day they were to sacrifice an unblemished lamb in the place of God’s choosing, which Jerusalem was, and Jesus came for this Passover Festival.
Verse 14 tells us that Jesus came into the temple and He saw merchandising going on in the temple, animals being sold, money being exchanged. If you will read through the book of Leviticus you will get some understanding of the sacrificial system of Jerusalem, but like man always does it was corrupt. A sin offering was either a bull or unblemished lamb. For many a Jew it was a long journey to Jerusalem, many days by foot, where they were to make there atoning sacrifice. So it would be difficult to haul an animal all of that distance and then finally get to the temple and have the animal turned away as unworthy for a sacrifice. All sacrifices had to be inspected by and approved of by a Temple Priest, it had become such that if you wanted your sacrifice to be found worthy you had to buy it from the Temple and in order to buy it from the Temple you had to use the temple money which meant that you had to exchange the money you had earned at a high fee for the Temple money and then purchase an animal for sacrifice.
Verse 15 and 16 tells us that Jesus made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the Temple with their animals and pouring out the money and overturning the tables and telling the ones who sold doves “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise.” People that don’t know Jesus and haven’t really followed Him try to paint Him as this meek mannered nice guy. He was anything but; He was unlike any man ever to have lived. Most people take advantage of the weak and flee a bully. Jesus did the exact opposite, He would always give grace to the humble heart that admitted that they were a sinner and didn’t want to be, and to the self-righteous who thought they were good He would come down on them like a hammer. No one before or since could give a lashing like Jesus. Can you see this scene, one man with a whip of cords causes this much destruction runs off all the animals and there owners. Then He pours out the changers money and overturns their tables, can you imagine the fight one man would put up over his money much less many men and realize that it was one Man doing all this.
Why did this so anger Him? Because they were using God’s word and His house for sin. They were using God’s word and His house to steal from the people. How could you do this except for unbelief, how could anyone do this and not believe that they would have to answer to God for this. The wrath of God came upon them quickly in the God Man Jesus Christ. He is returning and when He returns He will not deal with sinners so easily. All will give an account of their life to God wither they believe in Him or not, so repent today and put your faith alone in Jesus Christ. This Passover and the incident in the Temple and the Passover three years later where Jesus would once again run the merchandisers off from the Temple bracket His public ministry.
God Bless you all,
Mike Peek
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