Luke 9:23

Luke 9:23 KJV And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Three points:

If any one wants to come following me, then he must

1. Deny himself.

The word "will" is not indicating a future event. It is the word for making a decision to do something. In this case it is to follow Jesus. Deny according to Thayer is:

1) to deny

1a) to affirm that one has no acquaintance or connection with someone

1b) to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self and one's own interests

The same word is used in John 13:38. Jesus is speaking to Peter. It is a total denial of knowing or identifying with Jesus and His teaching. Thus God's will is the upmost importance. It comes before our will or want. God is kind and knows what is best, so we can be safe with Him. Psalms 100:3 ESV Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

2. Take up his cross daily.

The cross represents all that is difficult and burdensome because we identify with Jesus Christ. Matthew 10:38 ESV And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

3. Follow me.

Follow me. Jesus knows the way. He is our protection, when we are assaulted by spiritual enemies. He is our physician, when we are spiritually sick. He is our hope, when the way is hopeless. He is our light, when the way is dark. He is our supply, when we are needy.

If we love Him, we will obey Him. There are over 1,000 laws in the New Testament for Christians to obey.

Ephesians 6:12

Ephesians 6:12 KJV For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Three points:

1. Wrestle

"We do not wrestle against." The foe is not flesh and blood--humans or animals, but this fight is against spiritual beings. This makes it clear that it is not a physical battle but a spiritual battle. We are not to use the sword of war but the Scriptures. The word "wrestle" comes from the idea of to "swing" an opponent down and hold him down.

2. Principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places.

These are these types of spirits. They are described in these terms by the Holy Spirit to help us understand the real war we Christians face. Principalities comes from the Greek word for an authority of the first, highest rank. Powers refers to the strength these evil beings have. Rulers of the darkness of this world: the word rulers is a term for satan (kosmokrator), darkness is the opposite of light (the light that is of God), and this world is the one we are living in--the earth. These spirit beings (unclean spirits) cause people to continue in their rebellion against God and His laws. Spiritual wickedness in high places refers to the spiritual wickedness these beings bring about in false religions, philosophies, and sects.

3. The war

It is a spiritual war. It is fought with spiritual weapons. We need protection with spiritual armor. This is mentioned in the verses following. Barnes writes in his commentary on the passage:

Yet the apostle says that it was on that kingdom they were to make war. Against that, the kingdom of the Redeemer was to be set up; and that was to be overcome by the spiritual weapons which he specifies. When he speaks of the Christian warfare here, he refers to the contest with the powers of this dark kingdom. He regards each and every Christian as a soldier to wage war on it in whatever way he could, and wherever he could attack it. The contest therefore was not primarily with people, or with the internal corrupt propensities of the soul; it was with this vast and dark kingdom that had been set up over mankind. I do not regard this passage, therefore, as having a primary reference to the struggle which a Christian maintains with his own corrupt propensities. It is a warfare on a large scale with the entire kingdom of darkness over the world. Yet in maintaining the warfare, the struggle will be with such portions of that kingdom as we come in contact with and will actually relate:

(1) to our own sinful propensities - which are a part of the kingdom of darkness;

(2) with the evil passions of others - their pride, ambition, and spirit of revenge - which are also a part of that kingdom;

(3) with the evil customs, laws, opinions, employments, pleasures of the world - which are also a part of that dark kingdom;

(4) with error, superstition, false doctrine - which are also a part of that kingdom; and,

(5) with the wickedness of the pagan world - the sins of benighted nations - also a part of that kingdom. Wherever we come in contact with evil - whether in our own hearts or elsewhere - there we are to make war.

Joshua 4:14

On that day the LORD magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they feared him, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life. Joshua 4:14

Three points:

1. Lord magnified Joshua

Magnify has the idea of elevating someone or something to a position of honor, greater than another. God himself exalted Joshua. There are those who exalt themselves: Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at my hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonor that magnify themselves against me. (Psalms 35:26, AKJV). Then those who exalt themselves over God: Make you him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. (Jeremiah 48:26, AKJV). We need to exalt God: Let all those that seek you rejoice and be glad in you: and let such as love your salvation say continually, Let God be magnified. (Psalms 70:4, AKJV). When God exalts us, there is a blessing; when we exalt ourselves, there is a curse.

2. Feared

Many define "fear" as respect; they don't fear God, they respect Him. They is much more though. Do we fear authority? Consider when you look in your rear view mirror and see flashing red, white, and blue lights; do you fear? You think, "Was I speeding? Did I go through a stop sign?" You fear the authority, not just respect him/her. Some day we have to give an account of ourselves before God. I fear Him. Here they feared Joshua because of the honor God gave to him. Let us fear God.

3. Days of his life

There are conditions to God's blessings. He doesn't just give if we are disobedient or deny Him. Joshua feared and obeyed God all the days of his life. What about us? Are we our own authority? There are rules in the New Testament that the Lord Jesus wants us to obey. We might as well start obeying here, because if our name is in the Lamb's Book of Life and when we are in heaven, we will have to obey His laws. We need to learn this today.

John 8:31-32

John 8:31-32: Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.

Three points:

1. Continue in my word.

Continue = no stopping point, no side tracts, no going backwards. It is to continue; it is without change. If we change it, we are not continuing in His word. According to Thayer the word has three ideas: in reference to place (not to leave), to time (endure), and to a state or condition (no change, no change into something else). What Jesus taught and lived, these teachings, doctrines, are not to be forgotten, changed, reinterpreted for today, be take allegorically, or wrested. What are we to continue in? It is His word. His word is recorded in the Bible.

2. Truly my disciples

If we leave this teaching, then what are we?

3. Know truth and be set free.

Know has the ideas of knowing by experience as “I know what dandelion ice cream tastes like.” Know also has the idea of knowledge. This would indicate not a repeating of facts but to be able to explain the facts, and how they work together. Know in this verse has the idea of knowing truth, what it is, how it works, recognizing error, and experience. This truth will set us free--free from lies, ignorance, harm, foolishness, and stupidity. Bad things may happen to us beyond our control, but we will know the truth.

So do we continue in all the words of Jesus? Do we know them? Can we defend them from liars and false teachers?

Jude 1:3 KJV Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Three points:

1. Two important things: first--important to write about the common salvation (the salvation we have in common); second--important to write about the faith (our doctrine, and all that it teaches).

2. Needful, exhort, and earnestly contend. Needful means necessary; "I had to do write about this; it is so important." Exhort means encourage to do something. Earnestly contend means put up a vigorous fight. It is used only one time in the New Testament. It is not just fight, but to put up a vigorous fight. The ISV version translates it as "...urge you to continue your vigorous defense of the faith...". Some examples of vigorous: a vigorous work out, a vigorous battle. It is the full effort and not wimping out, a standing for the faith. Remember Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin. It was vigorous enough that the members of the Sanhedrin were angry enough to kill Stephen. Imagine the guts to say to them, "...you do always resist the Holy Spirit." Acts 7:51 KJV Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. People today do not want to hurt anybody's feelings, so they say little or nothing, but sometimes it is necessary to speak plainly. A physician needs to speak plainly to someone about their diagnosis or the patient might not understand the seriousness of their disease. As one wrote online: "Running away from the situation, trying to avoid the situation...being a LOSER ABOUT IT...Yeah all of that! (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wimping). This fight is NOT physical like it is in some religions; it is a spiritual fight using logic, reason, illustrations, and appeals. Apologetics is the word.

3. Faith once delivered to the saints.

It is a faith once for all (as most understand it) given to God's people. This is the Christian faith. The 5 basic doctrines are

1. The Trinity: God is one "What" and three "Who's" with each "Who" possessing all the attributes of Deity and personality.

2. The Person of Jesus Christ: Jesus is 100% God and 100% man for all eternity.

3. The Second Coming: Jesus Christ is coming bodily to earth to rule and judge.

4. Salvation: It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

5. The Scripture: It is entirely inerrant and sufficient for all Christian life.

For more information about these see http://deceptioninthechurch.com/5doctrines.html.

christian-with-a-view: ACCESS TO GRACE

christian-with-a-view: ACCESS TO GRACE: "God has made salvation available to all men by His grace. The question is how do men access that grace? ACCESS TO GRACE! King James ..."

An excellent post to read. The ONLY source of 100% truth is the Bible. It is the only standard that we can and must judge all things--thoughts, desires, words, and deeds.

Deuteronomy 16:12

Deuteronomy 16:12 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

Three points:

1. Moses was reviewing the entire history and laws from the past 40 years. He reminded them that they were slaves in Egypt. When things go well we sometimes forget what the past was. We need to remember the past sometimes, as the life of Jesus of Nazareth, his birth, death, resurrection, and ascension. We also need to remember what we were before we repented and trusted in the Lord Jesus for our salvation. We were slaves of sin. "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed." (Romans 6:16-17, ESV)

2. Observe means to guard, protect, attend to, so has the idea of knowing, pay attention to, as in observing the speed limit, that is, we look at the speedometer to know our speed, then we can obey the speed limit. So we must read the Bible to know the rules, compare our lives to the standard, and obey. Today the Christian observes the rules in the New Testament.

3. Do. This means obey. If the Scriptures tell us not to lie, then we do not lie. We do not tell white lies, black lies, half-truths, whatever. A lie is a type of deceiving.