Category: Epistles – Is his letter to our church?

Epistle of Paul to the Romans

Epistles ἐπιστολή or Letters

I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.

Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians

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1 CORINTHIANS

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Letters – Is he writing to me?
The short answer: YES.

In their epistles or 1st century church letters the Apostles and other men sent out by Jesus build up the saints [small – ‘s’] or members of local first century churches.

A Disciple or other witness of JESUS would write it. Messengers then delivered these church letters to many isolated worshipers.

Followers of Jesus Christ receive these letters as a major encouragement to their personal faith. Then leaders read them to worshipers of their church.

Although the Epistles 0r Letters to the Church were originally written to churches of the first century,

Romans through Jude will seem like letters to your 21st century church.

What do Peter, Paul, John and others tell us we must do?
Is he talking about an issue in your 21st c. church as well?
How does the writer’s advice, warning, or encouragement to the 1st c. believers apply to you as well
Is the writer of this letter talking about something you need to address in your 21st century ‘christian’ life?

Contemporary Application of the Letters (Epistles)

Most New Testament writers take on specific issues confronting faithful followers of Jesus Christ. These same issues continue to confront believers until the Lord’s coming again in these last days.

Certainly Christ our Lord will come again to those God has chosen for eternal life.

Believers currently suffer more than most of you who know Christ in your local church can imagine.

In other lands Christians continue to suffer by the hand of the ungodly.
Go into all the world

A 21st century Common Era church can see and hear nearly any atrocity of man or artificial imagination of sinful man’s mind, yet ‘christians‘ dare not speak of any absolute truth of the Lord God or talk of JESUS CHRIST.

Will YOU comment on Scripture and share the Gospel?

I invite you to read the inspired word of Scripture written in these LETTERS TO THE CHURCH.

YES, He IS writing to YOU.

Beloved brother or sister in Christ Jesus,

Will you read this ‘CHURCH LETTER’ and talk of JESUS through your comment, sharing and email to me about this ‘Letter to you?”

Roger@talkofJesus.com

God’s Wrath & Our Unrighteousness
“I am eager to preach the gospel to you also… I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…

Paul, to the saints (believers, mostly former pagans now Christians) in Rome.

God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness

Romans 1:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

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Are you an unrighteous fool?

Paul calls those of false religions, ‘fools.’ They worship cows and cats, ancestors departed and places on earth destined to destruction. They seek bearded sages or force upon the downtrodden ideology of glorious conquest.

Consider the glory of the LORD, the heavens and the earth. NO big bang nor pain-stakingly slow sequence of unlikely perfect events could have created the earth upon which we walk or this miraculously intricate body which walks upon it.

The vastness and perfection of the heavens is immeasurably beyond the comprehension of created man (adam).

Think about those who are unrighteous. Think about the sins these inflict on you. Consider their sins against many, these sins of the ungodly, who will be called to account at the Judgment seat by the LORD who they refuse to worship. Paul describes these. You can likely put many faces to Paul’s long descriptive list of unrighteousness.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

29 They were filled with
- all manner of unrighteousness,
- evil, covetousness, malice.
- They are full of envy,
- murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.
- They are gossips, [30] slanderers,
- haters of God,
- insolent, haughty, boastful,
- inventors of evil,
- disobedient to parents,
- [31} foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

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We see the faces of those who deserve God’s wrath. In all fairness, when will the LORD finally destroy the evil of the unrighteous?

How long, O Lord, until Your Holy wrath consumes the evil which plagues us?

A fair question. How long will God contend with their evil? … their evil … evil?

Have I forgotten anything I should ask of God?

To be continued…

Third ‘Easter‘ message in Lenten Series, 2016
February 27, 2016
Follow After Me -6-Pliable christians

Warning! ‘Coexist’ & ‘Tolerance’ are tools of false teaching, unscriptural paths away from the truth of Jesus Christ as our only Lord and Savior.

Pliable ‘christians’ follow Christ quickly

So many churches full of tradition but not worshipers. So many ‘christians’ full of themselves but not the LORD. Pliable christians are dazzled by the picture of heaven, but are unwilling to sacrifice their sin before the Cross.

Luke 9:

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

²³And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. ²⁵For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? ²⁶ For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. ²⁷But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.”

Oh, how we long for the kingdom of God! Heaven, as we may imagine it (as opposed to scriptural description).

2 Corinthians 5:2 New Living Translation (NLT)

²We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing.

Jesus is in fashion again! OR Jesus is out of fashion again. Some had been invited to hear our fresh music at church. A preacher with his hand out promises falsely, you can have your best life now. Then after a while, for some unknown reason, these new christians seem to have disappeared. They were pliable christians who listened for a while and hung out with the church crowd. Jesus was doing something for them on Sundays. What happened to their ‘faith’ in prosperity?

When did they stop coming on Sunday? Where did they go? Maybe they decided another church would be better for them. No one hears from them again.

John 12:25 New Living Translation (NLT)

Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.

Although the Gospel is Good News to the lost, the truth of the Gospel is bad news for those who reject the cross. Some engage Jesus for a while.

Yet pliable christians follow you or follow a smiling preacher or follow a worship entertainment or follow a guaranteed giving. These are fed hope for this life by doing church for a time. Pliable christians then fall away when asked to deny themselves, rather than to deny Jesus, the Christ of the Living God.

Do you deny yourself to worship the Lord?

Have you suffered at least some verbal abuse because you mention that Jesus is your Lord? Are you ashamed to mention that you worship the Lord every Sunday and have real loving relationships with our fellow souls of your local church?

Everybody wants to get to heaven… just ask anybody. Jesus tells us that heaven is only attainable through Him. Challenge anyone trying to find himself with that one.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:6

The scriptures speak of heaven and the Lord Jesus coming down, yet the pliable ones fear public opinion of mortal men over the judgment granted to the Son of Man, Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 4

The Coming of the Lord

¹³But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

¹⁶For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.¹⁸Therefore encourage one another with these words.

We would all be pliable christians if heaven were so easily attained as to not require Christ’s Cross.

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This is the seventh of my posts, “Follow After Me,” from which we will take a break in preparation of Lent and Easter in the year of our Lord, 2016.

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February 5, 2016
Follow After Me -3- The Holy Bible
It is written…

And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. – Deuteronomy 9:10

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV

written from an angel

written from dreams

A man comes up to you and claims, ‘I have a new doctrine, a new teaching. It was given to me by an angel in a cave.’ Would you follow him? Would you believe him?

A different man tells you, ‘I have a new doctrine, a new teaching. It was given to me when I sat alone on a mountain.’ Would you follow him? Would you believe him?

Wouldn’t you ask a man who would lead you to death for proof of his doctrine and teaching? Wouldn’t you ask a man making a claim of royalty and promises for the after-life for independent proof beyond dreams and visions?

In fact, Jesus IS the Christ of the Living God! When Jesus came to us, our Lord and Savior not only worked miracles by the Hand of God, Jesus pointed always to Scripture.

He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” – Matthew 21:13 ESV

Jesus was challenged by not only Satan to prove He IS the Son of God, Christ was challenged continually by the Jews, who asked him,

“By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

Our Lord answers always with additional proof from the scriptures.
- And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
  “‘This people honors me with their lips,
  but their heart is far from me… Mark 7:6
- And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ – Mark 14:27
- and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead… – Luke 24-26
- It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— – John 6:45
- In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. – John 8:17
Some make false claim to know what God has said, who God is and how God would have you use your mortal life. They may speak of a peace in death or a present leading to death for their cause…

Do you follow these who would claim to know God better than you from ancient and unreliable myths never proven true? Would you bet your eternal life on their self-serving temporal claim of a mere mortal man?

Hebrews 9 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Earthly Holy Place

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness…

¹² he [Christ] entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

26b But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

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We will face, though we would deny it, a day of our mortal death. We will face, though we justly fear it, a day of our eternal judgment. And let us not think that any calculation of our own can alter the plan of Almighty God.

Job 10:

“I loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me;
let me know why you contend against me.
3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise the work of your hands
and favor the designs of the wicked?

18 “Why did you bring me out from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
19 and were as though I had not been,
carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Are not my days few?

Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer
21 before I go—and I shall not return—
to the land of darkness and deep shadow,
22 the land of gloom like thick darkness,
like deep shadow without any order,
where light is as thick darkness.”

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Now I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was (as he was wont) reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, “What shall I do to be saved?” – John Bunyan, from The Pilgrim’s Progress

I saw also that he looked this way, and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still because (as I perceived) he could not tell which way to go. – Bunyan

¹⁴Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you?

I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. – Ezekiel 22:14

To be continued…

NEXT: Evangelist
January 25, 2016