Only One Gospel, Part 3

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ July 3, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Gospel

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave himself on behalf of our sins so that he might rescue us out of this present evil age according to the will of God our Father, ⁵ to whom be the glory into the ages of the ages, Amen. ⁶ I marvel that you are so quickly being turned from the one who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel; ⁷ which is not another; except there are some troubling you and are desiring to pervert the gospel of Christ. Gal. 1:3–7, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1

I normally work from home, however, today I had to make the 20-minute trip into our offices to oversee the moving of one of my database systems from our old datacenter to our new one. As I got within about a mile of our old offices I passed a pickup that had a sticker on the back window that I had never seen before. It resembled the COEXIST sticker we have discussed before, but with the same symbols, the lettering was changed to the word “FICTION.” Here we have two extremes that are obviously both deadly wrong. The first one assumes that all religions must compromise their beliefs to coexist while the second is atheistic, but in reality they both come to the same conclusion, that is, that everything is man-centered rather than God-centered. I see elements of this even in the professing Christians of our day who are staunch defenders of the sovereignty of the Free Will of man while denying that God has the freedom to be the potter at the wheel, making servants according to his will who will believe, that is, come to faith, according to his will and plan and in his timing and then will serve him in ways that make no sense to those mired in their man-centered religiosity. View article →

Only One Gospel, Part 2

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ July 1, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Gospel

¹ Getting into a boat, Jesus crossed over the sea and came to His own city. ² And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.” ³ And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” ⁴ And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? ⁵ “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, and walk’? ⁶ “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” ⁷ And he got up and went home. ⁸ But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. Matt. 9:1–8, NASB

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus who was traveling from Jerusalem with authority to seek out and arrest Christians in Damascus on that very road was quite dramatic (Acts 9). The facts of that conversion were beyond anything any of today’s “Christian Superstars” dare to claim happened to them. Saul was on a horse and as he and his party were approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Everything changed for Saul and for the Church at that moment. Saul of Tarsus the persecutor and ravager of the Church became the Apostle Paul who took the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Paul’s conversion was quite dramatic not only in the events of it, but also in that the one who was seeking to destroy the Church and the Gospel became the writer of most of the New Testament and developed, via inspiration from God, much of the Doctrines of the Church. View article →

Only One Gospel, Part 1

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 29, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Gospel

For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. 2 Cor. 11:4, NASB

This age of spiritual darkness is so because truth is seen as relative. Without absolute truth being allowed, since it may cause the ultimate crime upon one or more persons, which is “offense,” then when those who know better insist on doctrinal precision, preaching the Word, not editing the gospel, et cetera then everything gets turned upside down. The immoral who want minority protection for their sinful behavior claim that those who proclaim what God’s Law demands of all men, which is repentance, are causing them pain and anguish and so those proclaiming the truth become criminalized while society slides further and further into the darkness of being judged by God as He gives them over to whom they are really worshiping, themselves. In this relativistic culture the gospel has become another victim in what John MacArthur has called The Truth War. However, this battle is nothing new. Paul fought it continually in the churches he planted, especially in the region of Galatia. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 22

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 27, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Authority of Scripture, Christ, Scripture

³⁷ Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” ³⁹ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. ⁴⁰ Some of the people therefore, when they heard these words, were saying, “This certainly is the Prophet.” ⁴¹ Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” Still others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? ⁴² “Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” ⁴³ So a division occurred in the crowd because of Him. ⁴⁴ Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him. ⁴⁵ The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” ⁴⁶ The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.” John 7:37–46, NASB

We come to the last two verses of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:28, 29. I confess to all that this study has been extremely humbling for me. Not only did I exegete each passage so I could develop each post, I translated each word from the Greek to English. This involved not only the translation work, which really isn’t that difficult, but the more difficult part of getting the grammar correct. It is at that point that I did a great deal of study and cross-referencing and further exegeting. After all, the process of exegeting Sacred Scripture has as its primary goal the original message penned by the author of the text. It as we pursue that goal that the Holy Spirit moves through the Word of God which bears the very form of our Lord to bring the truth to bear upon our hearts and through this we are transformed through the renewal of our minds. In this dark age in which professing Christians can confess to love the Lord Jesus and love his Word, but then deny the necessity of defending his doctrines for the sake of unity with others who deny those truths, we must determine whether we really love the Lord Jesus or not. If we really do then that means we really would love his truth completely and that means his doctrines as well even to the point of death. Yes, that also means that we must divide from fellowship with those who refuse to do so. View article →

Glory Only in the Cross

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 26, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Justification, Sanctification

¹ And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. ² For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. ³ I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, ⁴ and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. 1 Cor. 2:1-5, NASB

Martin Luther is considered the “Lighting rod of the Protestant Reformation.” It was through his battle with the Roman Catholic Church that the doctrine of salvation through Justification by Grace through Faith alone was recovered and from that, many Christian martyrs went to their deaths refusing to compromise their faith by denying the truth of knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified based not upon the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. So much of the pressure being brought to bear upon Christians in our time is to not be so precise in our theology, but be more willing to “compromise” along doctrinal grounds for the sake of “unity.” The “mega-church” model is based precisely upon never offending anyone, but being non-threatening and willing to be all things to all people in order to attract everyone, but to what? View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 21

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 17, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Christian Life

²² But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. James 1:22–24, NASB

How important is obeying the words of Christ? This is, of course, the essence of Lordship. Jesus Christ is Lord. That is not just a title nor is it something we say to revere him. No, He is Lord over all. He is one in essence with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in the Hypostatic Union of the Holy Trinity. God is Sovereign and because of his role in the Hypostatic Union, his submission in humbling himself to become a man, the Messiah, his obedience to the Father’s will in all of this as well as keeping the Law perfectly, he also, at the perfect time ordained by the Father, laid down his life as the propititiation for those he came to save. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 20

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 17, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Christian Life

²² But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; ²⁴ for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. ²⁵ But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22–25, NASB

²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. James 2:26, NASB

Back in the early days of my walk as a Christian, after I became a Bible teacher and later a Deacon, I read my Bible through every year just as I do now, but there were large areas of it that I would consider as “something deeper that I would learn later.” Most of those passages were those we now deal with here that are specifically about doctrine. There was a concept that I had back then that those who took doctrine seriously were “legalistic” while the rest of us were actually walking closer to Jesus because we were “experiencing him” through our relationships with him. This included our religiosity. What is that? That is a form of piety that spurns doctrinal precision. Many of the leaders of those who believe and teach this sort of thing view “works” as something Christians do in order to be found worthy for salvation. I can remember walking through the parking lot one cold December morning with my snow shovel in hand to clear the sleet from the sidewalk from the entrance to our Church building so people could enter without slipping and falling. In my mind I wondered if God would consider this a “worthy work” and that perhaps my righteousness would indeed exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees in the end if I continued to read my Bible enough, to pray enough, to give enough, to serve enough, et cetera I would not hear Jesus say to me what he said in Matthew 7:23. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 19

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 15, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Assurance, Christian Life, Christian Maturity, Justification, Sanctification

⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. ⁵ “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. ⁶ “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. ⁷ “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. ⁸ “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. ⁹ “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. ¹⁰ “At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹ “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. ¹² “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. ¹³ “But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. ¹⁴ “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. Matt. 24:4–14, NASB

When I encounter those whose theology and eschatology has been colored by presuppositions, philosophies, and the teachings of some theologians that the Church’s main function is to establish and prepare God’s Kingdom here on this Earth so the Lord will return and claim it, I wonder how seriously these people take Scripture passages such as Matthew 24:4–14 (above). These same people are all about making secular culture conform to Christianity. I find it very difficult to line that up with what our Lord said in Matthew 24 about what things would be like before he actually did return. What is the reality? Will the Church totally take over the world in this age? From what I have studied in the New Testament, the Church is a called out “congregation” of people that are despised, persecuted, and put to death for their faith as they live for the glory of their Lord in this life. The point of that is to attain a greater resurrection in the next age. Let’s see what our Lord said about the reality of what we have to deal with in this age as the Church. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 18

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 10, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Christian Life, Salvation, Works Righteousness

¹ I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, ⁴ and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4:1–4, NASB

In the passage above (2 Timothy 4:1-4) the word “myths” translates the Greek noun μύθους (mythous), the Accusative, Plural of μῦθος (mythos). It is where we get the English words myth and mythology. In Classical Greek, this is a tale or fable that is “fabricated by the mind in contrast to reality.” In the New Testament, μύθους is always used to denote a cunning fable full of falsehoods and pretenses for the purpose of deceiving others. Those who willingly turn from God’s truth will unwillingly be deceived. Is this happening in our day? Yes it is. Why? It is because most of the visible church won’t tolerate true preaching, which proclaims truth and confronts sin; doctrinal error is everywhere: God’s sovereignty has been redefined in the “Open Theism” movement; Christians seek extra-biblical revelation through mysticism and so-called prophecies; hell is denied as a reality; the roles of men and women are blurred or destroyed altogether; homosexuality, fornication, abortion, and other immorality is condoned and even defended; et cetera. This deception has resulted in most of what we call the “visible church” having zero discernment. Error is rampant because they have willingly turned from God’s truth. In this they have proved that they have not entered by the narrow gate. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 17

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 8, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Abiding in Christ, Christian Life, Christian Maturity

¹⁴ For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” ¹⁵ But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. ¹⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. Galatians 5:14–16, NASB

Even as we exercise discernment, withstand wolves in sheep’s clothing, false professors, false teachers, apostates, and even those who would slander us for standing firm in our obedience, in these things we are not to respond to them the way the world does. I listened to a sound clip from Chris Matthews’ show the other day in which he used his usual ambush tactics in having a Christian leader there who had gone on record saying that his children were not going to be homosexuals because of the way he and his wife were raising them. Matthews had Barney Frank on the show who is a homosexual and “gay rights” advocate as well as a legislator from Massachusetts. Both he and Matthews jumped all over this man for daring to state that children are not born with a certain sexual orientation, but instead, it is something that is a learned behavior that is exacerbated as the sin nature takes over. Of course, this really set them off. They even kept replaying his words trying to get him confused and, of course, to court outrage in the listening audience. What was this man’s response? He remained calm in demeanor. He never lashed out. He never went on the offensive. He simply remained Christlike in telling the truth and never backing down, but also, never allowed these men to cause him to lose his cool. I’m not so sure I could have handled it that well. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 16

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 6, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Abiding in Christ, Christian Life, Christian Maturity

¹⁴ And having come to the crowd, a man came to him kneeling down before him ¹⁵ saying, “Lord have mercy on my son for he is an epileptic and suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire and often into the water. ¹⁶ And I brought him to your disciples and they were not able to heal him.” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered saying, “O faithless and depraved generation, how long with you will I be? How long will I endure you? Bring him here to me.” ¹⁸And Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out from him and the child was healed that hour. ¹⁹ Then the disciples approaching Jesus privately asked, “Why were we not able to cast it out?” ²⁰ And he said to them, “On account of your little faith. Amen I say to you, ‘If you have faith like a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain move from there and it will be moved and nothing will be impossible for you.’” Matt. 17:14–20, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1

We have reached that part of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:7-11) that has been used by the Word of Faith preachers and the Health, Wealth and Prosperity hucksters as a “proof-text” of sorts for their agenda. In fact, in some study bibles with outline headers, this section is often labeled with something like “Ask and it will be given…” All through this sermon we have seen how our Lord has drawn the distinction between those truly in his Kingdom from those who are not. Some of those who are not may very well believe they are and may even look like it to most of us, but these distinctives do indeed mark the genuine one who is of the Kingdom of heaven from those who are not. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 15

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 4, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Abiding in Christ, Christian Life, Christian Maturity

¹ Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. ² One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. ³ The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. ⁴ Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. ⁵ One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶ He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. ⁷ For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; ⁸ for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. ¹⁰ But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. ¹¹ For it is written, “AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.” ¹² So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. ¹³ Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way. ¹⁴ I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. ¹⁵ For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; ¹⁷ for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ¹⁸ For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. ¹⁹ So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. ²⁰ Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. ²¹ It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. ²² The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. ²³ But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin. Romans 14:1–23, NASB

When God caused all things to work out so that I became Reformed in my theology, so also the precision of my teaching in my Bible classes at my old church caused me to not only discard the SBC material I was given from which to teach my class, but also when I was asked to explain certain passages such as John 6:22-59 or Romans 1 & 2, there would arise such acrimony that it became nearly impossible for me to continue there. However, along with that commitment to never compromise came a deepening discernment for which I prayed along with wisdom every day. When the leadership began the process of going Purpose Driven I detected it very early and began asking very direct questions and received deceptive answers and was actually lied to many times about what was going on. So when I finally was asked to come on board I had been working with Ken Silva quite some time on the old Slice of Laodicea web site in dealing with apostasy that is the “Seeker Sensitive” movement. My stance against it made it impossible for my wife and I to remain there so we left. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 14

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ June 3, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Christian Life

³¹What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ³³ Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; ³⁴ who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. ³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” ³⁷ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39, NASB

As part of our annual insurance sign up each year where I work, I undergo various physical examinations and some of those results lead to further testing, but most of the time, I just get counseled to get such and such level more in line with what they consider to “be healthy.” They attempt to force us to do this by elevating the cost of our insurance if we don’t meet certain goals, et cetera. While I was I at my doctor’s office a few months ago undergoing my annual tests to see if certain prescription medications I take need to be changed or whatever, he asked me to take a blood test as well, which included a test for a PSA level. My tests came back 0.2 higher than what is normal for may age which is 60. I just shrugged. There are medications to shrink the prostrate gland after all, right? Well, my insurance company insisted that I go to a urologist and undergo a combination ultrasound/biopsy test, which took place last Friday. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 13

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 25, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Christian Life, Word-Faith

⁴ Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. ⁵ When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. Prov. 23:4–5, NASB

Happiness is a temporal condition of ‘rightness’ based upon circumstances. On the other hand, Christians are taught all through God’s Word to pursue the Joy of the Lord, which is not based in the temporal, therefore, it is in no way based upon our circumstances. Instead, “Joy is both an outcome of our relationship with the Lord and our source of strength for our obedience of Him.” This is a quote from my post What is Joy? from January 2006. However, in my many years as a Christian, I have known countless professing believers who sought their fulfillment completely in the temporal and, because of that, were easy prey of those false teachers of the ‘Health, Wealth, and Prosperity “Gospel”.’ As we have seen as we have dug deep into our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, there are many forms of religion that men create that they insist are ‘Christian,’ but they are another religion and their ‘Jesus’ is not Jesus Christ because they are man-made, not God ordained. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 12

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 23, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Christian Life

¹ “But be careful of demonstrating your righteousness before men with the aim to be seen by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.” ² “Therefore, whenever you do give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets so that they may be glorified by men. Amen I say to you, they have their reward. ³ But when you do give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand does, ⁴ so that your alms may be in secret and your Father, the one seeing in secret, will repay you.” Matt. 6:1–4, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1

We come now to Matthew 6:16–18, which is like the second slice of bread of a sandwich around the meat of our Lord’s teaching on prayer and forgiveness in Matthew 6:5-15 with the top slice of bread being Matthew 6:1-4 (above). Most “Study Bibles” with outline sections will correctly label Matthew 6:16-18 as “Fasting,” but if you read it in the context of what comes before, it is a continuation of our Lord’s teaching against pietistic efforts by the religious to approach God according to their own efforts and, in their hypocrisy, use their visible piety to elevate themselves in the eyes of others. As we saw in Understanding the Basics of Pietism, “There are no extraordinary Christians; but being an ordinary Christian is an extraordinary thing.” View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 11

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 22, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Christian Life, Gospel

³⁶ Τότε ἔρχεται μετ᾽ αὐτῶν ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς χωρίον λεγόμενον Γεθσημανὶ καὶ λέγει τοῖς μαθηταῖς· καθίσατε αὐτοῦ ἕως [οὗ] ἀπελθὼν ἐκεῖ προσεύξωμαι. ³⁷ καὶ παραλαβὼν τὸν Πέτρον καὶ τοὺς δύο υἱοὺς Ζεβεδαίου ἤρξατο λυπεῖσθαι καὶ ἀδημονεῖν. ³⁸ τότε λέγει αὐτοῖς· περίλυπός ἐστιν ἡ ψυχή μου ἕως θανάτου· μείνατε ὧδε καὶ γρηγορεῖτε μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ. ³⁹ καὶ προελθὼν μικρὸν ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ προσευχόμενος καὶ λέγων· πάτερ μου, εἰ δυνατόν ἐστιν, παρελθάτω ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ τὸ ποτήριον τοῦτο· πλὴν οὐχ ὡς ἐγὼ θέλω ἀλλ᾽ ὡς σύ. Matthew 26:36–39, NA27

³⁶ Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go there to pray.” ³⁷ And having taken Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be grieved and to be distressed. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “My soul is very sad to the point of death. Remain here and keep awake with me.” ³⁹ And having gone forward a little, he fell upon his face praying and saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, but not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:36–39, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1

I have been a Christian quite a long time (since January 1986). Even though I began serving first as a Bible teacher then as a deacon while still teaching only a few years after God had mercy on me, I must confess to everyone that as I evaluate my walk prior to 2004 in light of my pilgrimage on the narrow path since then, I shudder. Of course we cannot go back and change our past. We can’t travel back to some specific point in time to meet ourselves in the midst of some self-focused nonsense and ask the poignant, “What are you thinking?” There were high points to be sure, but these were followed by long stretches of self-focused living with my religiosity just being part of that. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 10

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 17, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Christian Life, Christian Maturity

¹⁷ “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter or one stroke may pass from the law until everything is fulfilled. ¹⁹ Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and thus teaches men, he will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them, this one will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees, you may never enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:17–20, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1

We now enter the next section of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 where Jesus expands upon Matthew 5:17-20 showing how the Pharisees’ righteousness was deficient, as is all who are self-righteous, by exposing their hypocrisy in the matter of giving to the poor (vv1-4); prayer (vv5-15); and fasting (vv16-18). God’s people are to do these things as acts of worship rendered to God, but the self-righteous use them as displays to gain the admiration of others. In this post we will look Matthew 6:1-4. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 9

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 16, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Gospel, Preeminence of Christ

¹⁸ ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD. Lev. 19:18, NASB

²¹ If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; ²² For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the LORD will reward you. Proverbs 25:21–22, NASB

I listened to part of a presentation today via podcast from Alpha & Omega Ministries’ The Dividing Line broadcast from 3 May 2012 by a young man claiming to be a “Christian Gay.” The definition of terms this young man used for “love,” for instance, was not Biblical, but was based in the same self-focused, narcissistic bent that all have who have not first become regenerate, that is, saved by grace through faith according to the mercy of God, and then learned to deny self under the sanctifying hand of God. His version of love was self-centered and all about self-fulfillment. That is not Christian love nor is it how any who are truly in Christ will operate in this world on a consistent basis. How did our Lord define it? View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 8

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 13, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Abiding in Christ, Christian Life

²³ “But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, ²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Exod. 21:23–25, NASB

¹⁹ ‘If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: ²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him. ²¹ ‘Thus the one who kills an animal shall make it good, but the one who kills a man shall be put to death. Lev. 24:19–21, NASB

¹⁶ “If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing, ¹⁷ then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days. ¹⁸ “The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely, ¹⁹ then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. ²⁰ The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you. ²¹ Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Deut. 19:16–21, NASB

In the passages above, Moses was giving the Law of God to the Israelites in their dealing with injuries done by one person on one or more people in a way that would limit retribution to that which was just. Its design was to insure that the punishment in civil cases fit the crime, but were never intended to sanction acts of personal retaliation. Therefore in Matthew 5:38-42 the Lord Jesus made no alteration to the true meaning of the law, but was merely explaining and affirming its true meaning. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 7

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 12, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Christian Life, Christian Maturity

‘You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD. Lev. 19:12, NASB

“If a man makes a vow to the LORD, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Num. 30:2, NASB

²¹ “When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the LORD your God will surely require it of you. ²² “However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you. ²³ “You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the LORD your God, what you have promised. Deut. 23:21-23, NASB

For a short period of time in the late 1980s I worked in a PC/Computer store in sales. I am not a sales person, but most if not all of the other fellows I worked with were. Instead, I simply told people what the computers could do or what they could not do and tried to match them up with what the people needed. I was usually in the top two or three in sales, never number one there, but I was always number one in customer satisfaction. In fact, the only time I ever saw those customers again was if something broke or they wanted an upgrade or they brought a friend or relative in to buy a computer. However, something changed when I sold a truckload of computers to a local school. Then I did it again. Then our sales manager forced me to move to outside sales and out of the showroom. I hated it. Suddenly I began dealing with agents from companies whose whole way of doing business was based on mistrust. In fact, I had one who went out of his way to put legal pressure on us to fill contracts, et cetera. I asked the guy why he did that since I always did what I said I would do. He told me that he did that with everyone he did business with because that was how he ensured that he always got things done. I told him I didn’t want his business and gave the account to another guy in our group. That was the beginning of the end of my time in marketing. Even though God provided for my family and me during that time through it, I hated it except in those early days when I was helping those people one-on-one and they were overjoyed to get it. When it became ugly I came to hate my job and God was gracious to move me back into what I really liked doing at that time, which was writing database applications. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 6

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 10, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Liberalism, Repentance

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NASB

One marker missing from “Liberal Christianity” that is one of the major elements that disqualifies it from being genuine Christianity is its abandonment of Sola Scriptura. Because of that, all of those characteristics that makes Christianity Christian are gone such as believer’s living lives of repentance such as that “living sacrifice” analogy given to us in Romans 12:1 along with how from that flows genuine Spiritual growth into Christian maturity in Romans 12:2. With little to no emphasis on genuine Biblical repentance, “Liberal Christianity” simply tries to emphasize unity, political correctness, feelings, with a spiritual hit by using spiritual formation into all sorts of mysticism, but mostly these “churches” do everything they can to appeal to the world so the leaders in those “organizations” would never preach a sermon like our Lord preached in Matthew 5, 6, & 7. Why? Because it brings people face-to-face with their sinfulness. This is offensive and since these men refuse to proclaim the real gospel message of the good news of what God has done on their behalf that they could never do for themselves, they will never preach anything to offend anyone so the descent into darkness of Liberalism just speeds up with each compromise. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 5

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 8, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Regeneration, Repentance, Salvation, Sanctification, Sin

¹⁴“You shall not commit adultery. Exodus 20:14, NASB

I am firmly in line with J. Gresham Machen’s assessment that “Liberal Christianity” is a different religion from Christianity. We see this in what it has abandoned in what it abhors in “Orthodoxy” that is exactly what makes Christianity “Christian.” Genuine Christianity is Christian because it is based upon the facts about our Lord Jesus and the message from him. True Christians love and respect and hold dear the same things he loved, respected and held dear, that is, God’s truth, which is called doctrine. In our day, as it was in Machen’s day, the liberals attempt to do away with what they call “dead orthodoxy” and get back to the primitive form of Christianity that the Church missed and has messed up with all its “Orthodoxy” for these last several millennia. In fact, they insist on totally “reforming” the church top to bottom without all this emphasis on the Bible as the infallible Word of God, which we call Sola Scriptura. The move towards that are seen in the teachings and sermons of men who keep moving their churches closer and closer to things such as tolerance for the “gay agenda” or “unmarried couples” or even looking the other way while their members and leaders have adulterous affair after adulterous affair. View article →

Christianity and Liberalism

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ May 7, 2012 ∙ In Opinion ∙ Liberalism

¹ And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. ³ Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:1-10, NASB

I spent the last several days away from email, the Internet, work, et cetera, and simply rested and spent time with family with the intent of taking up right where I left off on our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount when I returned. However, before we get back to that, I would like to share some insights from some time I spent in the solitude of study and quiet I had during my “downtime.” Part of that time was spent in reading J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism, which was published in 1923. I have not quite finished it yet, but I made good progress. Some of you I know have read it because you recommended the book to me. For those who don’t know, Machen’s thesis in the book was to address the encroachment of Liberal theology in his day, which was taking over the Northern Presbyterian Church in the United States to the point that the Seminary at Princeton was preparing to “liberalize.” His thesis for this magnificent book is that “Liberal Christianity” and Christianity are two different religions. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 4

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ April 30, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Deity of Christ, Law, Sovereignty of God

¹³ “You shall not murder. Exodus 2:13, NASB

As I have been studying our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, I have come under deep conviction of my extreme need of grace. Oh, I’ve always known since God saved me that I was saved by grace not according to my merits or works, but as the working of the Word of God on my heart does what it is supposed to do, that is, the Law kills any bit of self-righteousness I have, stripping it away, leaving me with only the grace and mercy of God, anything else is to end up with my clothes torn, lying and weeping in dust and ashes rather than joyfully resting in my Lord. View article →

The Sermon on the Mount, Part 3

Posted by Mike Ratliff ∙ April 30, 2012 ∙ In Devotion/Teaching ∙ Antinomianism, Law, Sovereignty of God

¹² Πάντα οὖν ὅσα ἐὰν θέλητε ἵνα ποιῶσιν ὑμῖν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς ποιεῖτε αὐτοῖς· οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται. Matthew 7:12, NA27

¹² Therefore, everything that you wish men would for you, thus also you do for them for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12, Possessing the Treasure New Testament v1

At least a couple of times a month, sometimes a couple of times a week, I am contacted either through comments or via email from persons who at the heart are some form of “Antinomian.” No matter what flavor, they all want to say that the Christian is in no way accountable to obey the Law of God or that the Old Testament is of no value to us. Let’s see what our Lord says about that. View article →