Does Jesus Need The Appeasement of Mary According to Jn 6:37?

What is the Bible’s teaching on coming to Jesus?  We ought always to come to Jesus.  We do not need to go through Mary to get to Jesus.  Jesus gives eternal life and God’s people shall never perish.  Whoever comes to Jesus will not hunger or thirst.  That is, God’s people will have eternal life. The explicit verse that contradicts Rome’s teaching of Mary’s intercession is John 6:37.  That is, He never casts out anyone who comes to Him by faith alone (see Ephesians 2:8-9 cf. Titus 3:5).  That means He does not need the intercession of Mary to appease or pacify His anger (as some Catholic prayers say).  The Bible teaches that Jesus always understands and He always forgives, because He NEVER casts out anyone who comes to me. 

John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

Here is the unbiblical teaching of Romanism on Mary’s intercession:

956 The intercession of the saints. "Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness. . . . They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus. . . . So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped."  Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life. I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth. 

2677 Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: "Let it be to me according to your word." By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: "Thy will be done." Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise.

2679 Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus' mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope. 

I call faithful Roman Catholics to repentance and faith toward God and renewed obedience.  Rome’s teaching is clearly contrary to the Bible’s teaching on Jesus never casting anyone out who comes to Him.  I know the real Jesus who does not need to be appeased by Mary.  Rather He is perfect in His heavenly and ultimate intercession for God’s people.

A 4-Point Bible Study on Christians and Sexual Sins, Pt 1

1 Thessalonians 4:3 NASB, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality..." 

1.  "For this is the will of God..."  The plan of God is to pursue sanctification.  It means to be "set apart" by the Spirit of God and the Word of God.  The will of God for God's people is a changed heart that is born from above through the Spirit.  The Spirit can help us conquer sexual sins.  He is all-powerful and He provides the all-enabling grace to overcome sin.  Sometimes we fall into sin because God removes His hand from us.  We are able to be humbled by this and grow in holiness through repentance unto mortification of the sinful nature.  

2.   "...your sanctification..."  There is positional sanctification where we have been sanctified in a past tense.  There is progressive sanctification where we pursue holiness through dying unto self and living after God and His divine righteousness in all godly good deeds.  The holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation and equip us for all good things.  Do you know that you must be holy to see the Lord?  Those who are not set apart will not see the Lord.  It is by divine grace of God's Spirit and the outworking of the power of God's Word.

3. "...abstain from fornication..."  Are you engaging in sexual immorality?   The Bible forbids fornication in terms of anything that violates the marriage bed between one man and one woman.  If you are not married, considered yourself married to Christ and the work of His gospel.  The Bible forbids adultery, fornication, general sexual sin, lust, any kind pornography and masturbation.  These sins are sexual iniquity.  They are outwardly filthy and plainly wrongdoing.  Many do these kinds of sins to advance their "careers."  Why? Why? Why?  You ought to advance your career through the patience of Christian prayer.  It may take some time but God is actively listening.  Do not follow advancement through wrongdoing like the false prophet Balaam!  I am told by the unregenerate that Christian prayer does not work.  It surely does not work for those who do not live uprightly before God.  We see the wicked prosper.  Why?  Is it because God favors them?  No, no!  The prosperity of the wicked is probably the very thing that has blinded them from God.  Christian prayer does work!  You ought to be persistent and godly.  Live according to the moral law of God to demonstrate your faith.  You will not live perfectly before God.  Ratehr Jesus did that in your place when He lived a sinless life of active obedience before God and man!  Christians may find themselves in times of sin.  Those are times and occasions for repentance.

4.  Let us examine these sexual sins: adultery, fornication, general sexual sin, homosexuality, lust, any kind pornography and masturbation.

a.  Adultery.  For Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, "Even adultery is not the unforgiveable sin. It is a terrible sin, but God forbid that there should be anyone who feels that he or she has sinned himself or herself outside the love of God or outside His kingdom because of adultery. No; if you truly repent and realize the enormity of your sin and cast yourself upon the boundless love and mercy and grace of God, you can be forgiven and I assure you of pardon. But hear the words of our blessed Lord: “Go and sin no more.”

b.  Fornication.  Sam Storms on Sexual Morality wrote, "Don’t believe the propaganda the world is peddling. This is not God's way of robbing you of fun and pleasure. It is His passionate desire to intensify it. This prohibition exists in order to protect and preserve the beauty and joy of marital sex. Our laws against theft and murder exist because of the high value we place on personal property and human life. So, too, with this prohibition against illicit sex. The purpose is to guard, preserve, and enhance something far more exciting and fun and full of pleasure, namely, marital love."

c.  General Sexual Sin.  John MacArthur wrote,  "No sin that a person commits has more built-in pitfalls, problems and destructiveness than sexual sin. It has broken more marriages, shattered more homes, caused more heartache and disease, and destroyed more lives than alcohol and drugs combined. It causes lying, stealing, cheating and killing, as well as bitterness, hatred, slander, gossip and unforgivingness."

d.   Homosexuality.  Jay Adams wrote, "In mercy, even though homosexuality is a sinful way of life, and not a genetic problem, Paul makes it clear that it is possible for a homosexual to be “washed” form his defilement through the saving grace of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:9-12)."

e.  Lust, Pornography and Masturbation.  Lust is contrary to a mind stayed upon Jehovah.  Pornography is wrong because men and women are seen as mere sexual objects of promiscuity that violates the doctrine of man being made in the image and likeness of God.  John Piper wrote on masturbation, " Is masturbation wrong? Let me address the issue mainly for men. I cannot imagine sexual orgasm in the loins without sexual image in the mind. I know there are nocturnal emissions, which I regard as innocent and helpful, but I doubt that they are ever orgasmic apart from a sexual dream that supplies the necessary image in the mind. Evidently God has constituted the connection between sexual orgasm and sexual thought in such a way that the force and pleasure of orgasm is dependent on the thought or images in our minds. Therefore in order to masturbate, it is necessary to get vivid and exciting thoughts or images into the mind. This can be done by pure imagination or by pictures or movies or stories or real persons. These images always involve women as sexual objects. I use the word “object” because in order for a women to be a true sexual “subject” in our imagination she must in reality be one with whom we are experiencing what we are imagining. This is not the case with masturbation. So I vote no on masturbation. There may be other reasons why it is wrong. For now I rest my vote on the inevitable sexual images which accompany masturbation and which turn women into sexual objects. The sexual thoughts that enable masturbation do not help any man to treat women with greater respect. Therefore masturbation produces real and legitimate guilt and stands in the way of obedience."

Why Do You Lay A Charge Upon A Christian For Whom Christ Died? A Biblical Response to Slander and Gossip

The Bible says in Romans 8:33, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth" (KJV).  There are Christians who slander and gossip about someone's alleged sins.  All of us are actual transgressors against God's written law.  All of us have failed to keep the law perfectly.  None of us should make excuses for our personal sins.  Rather we ought always to bring them to the crucified Savior!  He alone can pardon, forgive, cleanse and provide grace.  No one else has the divine authority to forgive but our Lord and Savior.  If someone looks at life biblically, there is no charge against God's elect.  That means since Jesus died in our place their is no way any accusation can stand up to the judgment seat of God.  If you accuse, don't you realize that you are acting in Satan's place?  He comes to destroy by accusing Christians night and day.  Making an accusation is to be in Satan's place.  But for the Christian that means there is no just basis for accusing anyone for whom Christ shed His precious blood at Calvary on His Cross.  If you accuse someone, it should be for their overall good and well-being.  That is, it should be for personal repentance through the Cross of Jesus.  If a person repents a Christian must accept him or her back to the Christian fellowship.  If the repentance is rejected that person is not walking in love.  For John Wesley wrote,

We will not listen or willingly inquire after ill concerning one another; that, if we do hear any ill of each other, we will not be forward to believe it; that as soon as possible we will communicate what we hear by speaking or writing to the person concerned; that until we have done this, we will not write or speak a syllable of it to any other person; that neither will we mention it, after we have done this, to any other person; that we will not make any exception to any of these rules unless we think ourselves absolutely obligated in conference.

Slander is destructive (Proverbs 11:9) deceitful (Psalm 5:2) deluding (Proverbs 10:18) and devouring (Proverbs 16:27-30).  It was hurled against all the great saints of the OT and NT.  It is designed by Satan against the righteous in Christ.  Slander was hurled against Christ on many occasions.  We are warned against slander (Titus 3:1-2) we must endure it (Mt 5:11, 12) and we must lay it aside (Eph. 4:31).  (Topical Bible Index, pg. 580).  Gossip about someone's sin is forbidden in the Bible in light of holiness.   We ought to praise God and rejoice to His Spirit that someone is forgiven.  It is not wise to "dwell" on someone's sin for whom Christ shed His blood.  There is no greater or sufficient or necessary justice than the Cross.  Every Christian who has trusted Christ has their sins washed away.  There is no sin that can touch them because they are forever in Christ.  For Matthew Henry wrote,

It is required of us that we be tender of the good name of our brethren; where we cannot speak well, we had better say nothing than speak evil; we must not take pleasure in making known the faults of others, divulging things that are secret, merely to expose them, nor in making more of their known faults than really they deserve, and, least of all, in making false stories, and spreading things concerning them of which they are altogether innocent. What is this but to raise the hatred and encourage the persecutions of the world, against those who are engaged in the same interests with ourselves, and therefore with whom we ourselves must stand or fall? 

John Calvin on the written Scriptures

John Calvin wrote concerning the divine Word of God,

Let this be a firm principle: No other word is to be held as the Word of God, and given place as such in the church, than what is contained first in the Law and the Prophets, than in the writings of the apostles; and the only authorized way of teaching in the church is by the prescription and standard of his Word. From this also we infer that the only thing granted to the apostles was that which the prophets had of old. They were to expound the ancient Scripture and to show that what is taught there has been fulfilled in Christ. Yet they were not to do this except from the Lord, that is, with Christ’s Spirit as precursor in a certain measure dictating the words...Yet this, as I have said, is the difference between the apostles and their successors: the former were sure and genuine scribes of the Holy Spirit, and their writings are therefore to be considered oracles of God; but the sole office of others is to teach what is provided and sealed in the Holy Scriptures. We therefore teach that faithful ministers are now not permitted to coin any new doctrine, but that they are simply to cleave to that doctrine to which God has subjected all men without exception. (Institutes of the Christian Religion (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Vol. II, Means of Grace: Holy Catholic Church, Book IV, Chapter VIII.8–9, pp. 1155, 1157).

Patrologist Boniface Ramsey on Mary and the Papacy

Ramsey wrote on the absence of the Roman teaching of Mary and the Papacy in the early church:

Sometimes, then, the Fathers speak and write in a way that would eventually be seen as unorthodox. But this is not the only difficulty with respect to the criterion of orthodoxy. The other great one is that we look in vain in many of the Fathers for references to things that many Christians might believe in today. We do not find, for instance, some teachings on Mary or the papacy that were developed in medieval and modern times.  (Boniface Ramsey, Beginning to Read the Fathers (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1986), p. 6).

Is there is a Savior of Sinners? Hear the Scriptures!

Many sinners think there is no Savior of sinners.  Many think there is no such thing as sin.  However, the Bible says there is sin in Romans 3 and Psalm 53.  That is, sinners think that Jesus Christ our God is not the Savior of the world.  The Bible says He saves people from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.  He saves to the uttermost for all the believing ones by His Spirit and Word.  For the divine Scriptures say:

John 4:42 KJV

And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

 

2 Peter 2:20 KJV

For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

 

1 John 4:14 KJV

And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.

 

 

A Study on Christ as the Only Way in light of Acts 4:12

The apostle Peter proclaimed that Christ Jesus is the only way to God.  Many sincere people would say that they do not believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to God but there is no other way to God but Jesus Christ.   This is the divine testimony of the infallible Scriptures.  People like Hindu's would question the exclusivity of the Bible's claim on Jesus as the only way to God.  Sincerity is not a qualification to always arrive at the divine truth of God.  That is, sinners can be sincerely wrong.  To understand the Bible a sinner must be spiritually awakened by God through His Spirit and Word.  It is possible, however, for a damned sinner to be merely providentially awakened without a genuine work of the Spirit and the Word.  The divine truth of God is exclusive because of the nature of God and His holy character.  For Spurgeon wrote on A Defense of Calvinism,

If Christ on His cross intended to save every man, then He intended to save those who were lost before He died. If the doctrine be true, that He died for all men, then He died for some who were in hell before He came into this world, for doubtless there were even myriads there who had been cast away because of their sins. Once again, if it was Christ’s intention to save all men, how deplorably has He been disappointed, for we have His own testimony that there is a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and into that pit of woe have been cast some of the very persons who, according to the theory of universal redemption, were bought with His blood.

The Abundant Mercy of Triune Jehovah: A Basic Study of Psalm 145:8-9, Pt 5

9.  The mercy of God runs into a theological question or spiritual problem.  Sinners have trouble understanding why God allows bad things into their lives.  It really is not a spiritual problem because we are sinners and merit hell by our very existence.  The God of the Bible is a superlatively holy God but human beings are sinners saved by the sufficiency of grace alone.  The question is not how bad things happen but how a holy God allows good to happen to bad people.  God is good and He also blesses us with a spiritual life to come!  Does God compromise His holiness in showing sinful creatures good things?  If God is holy He must punish sin.  God takes sin seriously in an eternal perspective.  God the Father punished sin at the Cross of Jesus Christ in place of God's sinful creation.  God can be merciful according to His holy character through the Cross.  God shows mercy because God is good. 

10.  The mercy of God is through the Cross of Jesus.  Muslims repent without a divine atonement.  Scientologists reject the command of repentance and speak of man's basic goodness.  Rome combines the merit of Christ with the creaturely merit of sinners.  Orthodoxy defies her members through the atonement of Jesus.  Buddhists rely on the teaching self-reliance.  But the Bible teaches that man is in eternal need of a divine atonement.  Repentance will not save us.  Denial of repentance will not save us.  Combining merits of saints with Christ will not save us.  Making us gods will not save us.  The only way we can be saved is through Christ.   Christ is not found in icons or the bones of saints!  The mercy of Christ is found at His Cross.  This is where mercy is given and it is where we lay our burdens.  No burden can be lifted through mere repentance.  Rather it must be through the Cross of Christ alone.  Do you possess God's mercy through His Son?   Do you cherish the Cross?  The Cross is the abundant mercy of God.

The Abundant Mercy of Triune Jehovah: A Basic Study of Psalm 145:8-9, Pt 4

7.  Sinners transgress against their holy Creator.  Many expect to receive mercy.  They think God is obligated to extend His mercy to wicked creatures.  To think that God is obligated to display His mercy according to His divine character is the way of the sinful nature.  Sinners also demand mercy from God.  We ought to never demand mercy from God nor presume upon His mercy because mercy is free through the sacrificial cost of the very Cross of Jesus.  God could bring upon sinners just consequences for their sins.  We all have offended a holy Creator through the doctrine of original sin and being actual transgressors.  The Bible teaches about the nature of man that he sins continually.  That is, we sin at will against our holy Creator.  Sinners also boast of their sin.  I suggest to you that the flesh loves to boast of sin.  We violate God's holy law through the "pleasure" of sin.  Sinners are also perplexed that a holy God will hold everyone accountable for their unholy iniquity.  God sometimes visits the wicked with holy consequences for their abominable transgressions.  Sinners also abuse God's divine wisdom through His longsuffering.  Sinners hate God's divine authority and despise God's holy Word by nature.  Some say that we tend toward the truth by nature.  The Bible calls us spiritually stupid.  We do not tend towards the divine truth of our holy Creator.  Sinners also trample under foot the law of God.  Sinners also continue in sin and abound in great iniquity.  Sinners also presume on God's mercy.  Sinners commit diabolical sin and transgress against God's mercy.  Sinners do evil that good may come.   The Bible says their condemnation is worthy in Romans 3:8. 

8.  We ought to never shape the divine character of God in our image.  We ought to accept God in honor, love, worship and service according to His holy Word.  The greatest reward we will receive in heaven is to worship God in love.  We must follow God as He is revealed in holy Scripture.  We need to see the total wickedness, corruption and thorough depravity of our natures before we spiritually comprehend God's mercy through His only dear Son.  We will only be thankful for God's mercy through the spiritual awakening of our souls through the Spirit and Word.   According to general benevolence, God allows according to His mercy for sinners to take a breath, eat and have homes.  However, according to God's redemptive mercy is only for those chosen by God through the Cross of the Father's Son.   The Bible says that we merit hell by our willful disobedience.  Some say we merit "heaven" by our goodness.  I suggest to you that no one can merit God's favor except Jesus Christ who lived perfectly.  That is, sinners deserve hell because we have transgressed against a holy God.  The question is, why? why? why?  Why do sinners break God's law?  The Bible says the heart of man is desperately corrupt, how can understand it?  There is a sense where the sinful nature of man is spiritually incomprehensible because of the spiritual darkness in man.  We see that God saves sinners through His divine Son at His Cross.  If we only had the Cross it would mean we were forgiven through the sin offering of God the Son, but what about divine righteousness?  That is, we also need in the divine righteousness of the eternal Son of God through His all-sinless living in His perfect life.  We possess both the life and death of Christ alone through faith alone.  Do you possess God's mercy in God's divine righteousness and His forgiveness through His divine Son by faith?

The Abundant Mercy of Triune Jehovah: A Basic Study of Psalm 145:8-9, Pt 3

5.  We ought to reflect on King David because God showed him mercy.  David sinned greatly against the Lord.  He committed adultery and murder.  He also numbered his fighting men because of proud victories.  Joab thought it was not wise but David's will succeeded.  The Lord became angry with David because he counted his troops.  He took the credit for himself and committed an act of idolatry.  God would discipline David but David choose to fall into the hand of the Lord in great distress.  David knew the hands of men were cruel but he knew that God was merciful.

6.  There is no doubt that God is a merciful God.   He is a forgiving God.  However, sometimes men do not always show mercy or forgiveness.  God's mercy is abused by sinners.  The Bible never says that God is obligated to show mercy to sinners.  Sinners do not deserve mercy because we sin.   Sin deserves wrath and punishment.  Jesus endured the shame, punishment and wrath of Almighty God at His sacred Cross in behalf of God's people.   The mercy of God cannot be earned.  It is a free gift.  Mercy is provided from God to undeserving sinners because of the Cross of Jesus Christ.  It is free abundant mercy.  Mercy is given to the unworthy because of God's goodness.  The goodness of God is the Cross of Jesus.  Mercy is never a reason to continue in sin.  We ought to reflect on God's mercy to live a godly life of obedience.  The devil wants us to sin so that grace abounds or that mercy abounds.  It is no doubt the trick of Satan.  We ought to repent of our sinful deeds and thoughts.  We ought to live rightly before God and man and His angels.  We ought not to think lightly of God's kindnesses and mercy and tolerance and patience.  The kindness of God leads all of God's friends in Christ to biblical repentance.

The Abundant Mercy of Triune Jehovah: A Basic Study of Psalm 145:8-9, Pt 2

3.  Sometimes people get so upset with people who do them wrong.  They may say that they deserve eternal punishment for what they have done or hope they spend time in hell in eternity for what they have done.  It is because they are so angry with those who have offended them.  However, divine mercy is not giving to another in what they deserve.  Mercy is never what we deserve, because we deserve God's punishment for our sins.  There is no doubt that sinners merit hell but do not merit heaven.  Jesus has taken this divine punishment upon Himself alone and atoned for the sins of God's people in their behalf.  Mercy is God's divine grace for God's people.  We ought to put the needs of others above ourselves.  We ought to uplift others more than ourselves.  It may come as a personal expanse but we are to be merciful to those who have wronged and offended us.  God remembers mercy when He judges.  If we are shown mercy on "this" or "that" particular wrongdoing that we have done to another person, shouldn't we show mercy to those who have wronged us in the same way?  If we don't show mercy God may judge us most severely.  We are to forgive people that beg for our forgiveness.  It is possible to forgive unilaterally without their repentance.  This is probably the most gracious thing we can do as mere sinners.  We ought to think on the nature of God regarding His mercy.  The nature of man is not merciful but spiteful and hateful.  God's knowledge is ultimate but our knowledge is limited. Philippians 1:9 says that love indeed increases with knowledge.  God's character about His mercy refreshes us and encourages us through His written Word.  His Word preached increases our love for Him as mere fallible sinners.  We ought to examine the mercy of God.  The Cross is a awesome display of God's mercy in behalf of sinners. 

4.  The nature of God's mercy is to His people.  Sometimes God shows mercy to people touching providential benevolence in the display of God's manifestation of His preordained plan.  God's mercy is something that is ready to help relieve the sinful and great misery of God's abominable creatures.  God's mercy is God's absolute goodness to those in spiritual sin, wrath, hell-bound misery and conflict.  The Bible is filled with verses that display God's absolute mercy as our holy Creator.  God is gracious and merciful.  He is slow to wrath and great in lovingkindnesses.  The God of the Bible is good to all people from every corner of the earth.  The mercies of God are over all of God's works.  The New Testament in 1 Peter 1:3 describes God's character in His mercy as great.  His mercy in the Old Testament is described as abundant, tender and everlasting.  God has shown mercy to His people that are sinners who blaspheme His mighty name and profoundly despise Him by their corrupted flesh and nature!  The mercy of God is His dominant attribute.  2 Corinthians 1:3 describes God as the Father of Mercies.  Many people see God the Father as hating sinners that He would provide no sure way of spiritual escape.  However, this is not the God of the Bible.  Rather the God of the Bible designed that God's dear Son be sent to earth to earn salvation for His people in His perfect life because no mere man could keep the law of God perfectly, and to die for the sins of God's people in their place a most excruciating death!  The mercy of God is displayed in Jesus Christ.  Those who reject the Cross do not understand the necessity of the mercy of God in His character.  The Father designed the redemptive plan as the Son appeasing the Father by His all-sufficient sacrifice!  The redemptive mercy of God is through Jesus Christ alone.  Only the God-man could endure the wrath of God.  No mere sinner could endure God's wrath to obtain His mercy for mere sinners.  The Father destroys both soul and body in eternal hell.  Hell was placed upon Jesus at His Cross.  That is, He crushed His divine Son that we might not be crushed.  He endured hell so we might not endure hell.   That is, He provides us with super-hyper-abundant mercy in Christ alone.  We cannot add our agonizing tears to the Cross.  We cannot add our good works to the Cross.  We cannot add "religious activity" to the Cross.  We cannot literally "buy" God's mercy, because Jesus purchased God's people at His awesome Cross.  If you want the mercy of God, look to the Cross with empty hands of faith!  The Cross is the treasure of treasures and the riches of riches!  There was no greater act of mercy than the Cross.

The Abundant Mercy of Triune Jehovah: A Basic Study of Psalm 145:8-9

1.  We ought to consider the topic of God's abundant mercy.  God saves sinners through the essential mercy of the life and death of Jesus Christ.  Jesus never fails to give mercy to His people.  At the Cross the redemptive mercy of God was overwhelmingly poured upon God's elect alone.  That is, all the believing ones will respond in faith alone because of a changed heart by the Spirit and the Word.  Sometimes we fail to show mercy to others.  We ought to demonstrate God's mercy in giving it to others.  Christ showed mercy to His enemies when He asked His Heavenly Father to forgive those who nailed Him to the Cross.  We are hurt when others do not show mercy to us.  We are wounded when we are betrayed and insulted.  Sometimes we ask for the compassionate pity of another.  People fail to show mercy to another and we lose hope that people are not very kind.  These times of a lack of mercy are noticeable and memorable.  We ought to always remember mercy in times of judgment.  God remembers mercy in judgment.  If His people turn from their mortal evil by confession and true repentance, He will relent of calamity or judgment.  God uses corrective judgment to make us humble under His mighty hand.  Corrective judgment is not redemptive suffering because all redemptive suffering was upon Christ at His Cross alone.  The Father sends His Son to give mercy to those in spiritual need through His Spirit.  There is never a time when God leaves His elect.  There is never a time when God forsakes His elect.  There is never a time when God abandons His elect.  He is always there even in chastisement and chastening to His people.  We ought to show mercy to the reprobate and the wicked.  If we do not show mercy, God may recompense us with His corrective wrath.

2.  We have all been in situations of people not showing mercy.  Sometimes we ask for forgiveness but it is not granted.  Rather we God we know that every moment we correctly ask for forgiveness He forgives us.  God always helps His people by His instruction in the written Word through the illumination of God's Spirit.  Sometimes we ask for help but no help is provided.  Sometimes we ask for understanding but people fail us.  Sometimes we ask for patience but there is none.  Sometimes we get judgement instead of kindness and condemnation instead of mercy.  This is never the case with God because He never condemns His people.  He did not come to condemn or destroy the sons of Adam but He came to save them.   He calls all men everywhere to repentance and faith according to the glad tidings of the gospel.  To apprehend God's mercy Christ had to die in your place to save you from your own sinful nature!  He calls us to repentance and faith in Him alone because He earned salvation for us and redemptively suffered in behalf of God's people alone.  If you have not repented this day, get on your knees and confess your sins to God through His Son.  He is faithful, true and just to forgive us for our sins and to cleanse us from all filthiness, unrighteousness and dirtiness.  He will never cast you out if you come by faith on His terms.  Trust the Lord for His mercy.

Cyril of Jerusalem on 2 Thessalonians 2:14-15

What was the tradition that was handed down?  It was the teaching of the saving message of the gospel.  Many like to say this verse is the foundation of Marian dogmas or something like icons.  Rather it teaches not man's traditions but the loyalty by word of mouth from the divine Scriptures alone.  In the Scriptures alone we find the completeness of divine revelation.  I think Cyril of Jerusalem had something good to say on 2 Thessalonians 2:14-15.  I think he interpreted these verses correctly in light of the divine Word.  There is no biblical proof for the Marian doctrines of Orthodoxy or Romanism.  Rather we see the divine Word exalt God's saving unified merit of Jesus' imputed divine righteousness alone by faith alone as the only saving message of the sons and daughters of Adam.  For Cyril wrote:

"In learning and professing the faith, embrace and guard that only which is now delivered to you by the church and confirmed by all the Scriptures.  For since not everyone has the education and the leisure required to read and know the Scriptures, to prevent the soul perishing from ignorance, we sum up the whole doctrine of the faith in a few lines...For the present, just listen and memorize the creed as I recite it, and you will receive in due course the testimony from Scripture of each of its propositions.  For the articles of faith have not been composed to please human desire, but the most important points collected from the Scriptures make up one complete teaching of the faith.  And just as the mustered seed in a small grain contains in embryo many future branches, so also the creed embraces in a few words all the religious knowledge in both Old and New Testament.  Pay attention, therefore, brothers, and cling to the teachings which are now delivered to you, and "write them on the tablet of your heart."   (Gorday and Oden, ACCOS, NT IX, Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, pg. 115).

Spurgeon and Edwards on Spiritual Solitude

Spurgeon wrote,

I commend solitude to any of you who are seeking salvation, first, that you may study well your case as in the sight of God.  Few men truly know themselves as they really are. Most people have seen themselves in a looking-glass, but there is another looking-glass, which gives true reflections, into which few men look. To study one’s self in the light of God’s Word, and carefully to go over one’s condition, examining both the inward and the outward sins, and using all the tests which are given us in the Scriptures, would be a very healthy exercise; but how very few care to go through it!

Edwards wrote,

Some are greatly affected when in company; but have nothing that bears any manner of proportion to it in secret, in close meditation, prayer and conversing with God when alone, and separated from the world. A true Christian doubtless delights in religious fellowship and Christian conversation, and finds much to affect his heart in it; but he also delights at times to retire from all mankind, to converse with God in solitude. And this also has peculiar advantages for fixing his heart, and engaging his affections. True religion disposes persons to be much alone in solitary places for holy meditation and prayer… It is the nature of true grace, however it loves Christian society in its place, in a peculiar manner to delight in retirement, and secret converse with God.

Do You Agree With St. Augustine on the Holy Eucharist?

Today many misinterpret the Bible of "this is my body."  Is it literal or symbolic?  The ordinary interpretation of "this is my body" refers to a symbolic understanding of the word "is."  It is in a spiritual sense and a symbolic sense.  It is different than a regular meal because the written Scriptures make it holy.  It is a special meal where we sacredly remember the literal body and blood of Jesus at His agony at His blessed Cross.  Augustine spoke much on the Eucharist.  For Augustine wrote:

"He committed and delivered to His disciples the figure of His Body and Blood."

"A sacrifice, therefore, is the visible sacrament or sacred sign of an invisible sacrifice...for that which in common speech is called sacrifice is only the symbol of the true sacrifice."  

References are available upon request.  We must always remember the love of God in remembering the very Cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The love of God is greater far than anything we can imagine.  It is measureless and its depths cannot be reached.  The people of God are comforted by the spiritual supper of the Lamb in the Lord's Supper.  It gives us spiritual nourishment and strength. 

 

Do You Know the Real Jesus?

Many have added to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Some have added baptism to His all-sufficient gospel.  That is, baptismal regeneration is suppose to remove original sin.  Here a reference from the Roman Catechism:

1263 By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would impede their entry into the Kingdom of God, neither Adam's sin, nor personal sin, nor the consequences of sin, the gravest of which is separation from God.

The Bible does not teach that baptism can remit sin.  Rather the Bible teaches that the Cross of Jesus Christ takes away all original sin and actual transgressions.  It is a spiritually and theological bankruptcy to doctrinally hold an addition to the gospel of the Cross of the Lamb of God.  We ought to never add to the Cross through our baptism.  To say that baptism "saves" is contrary to the gospel.  The only thing that saves is the life and death of Christ alone imputed to a regenerated sinner through faith alone!  Baptism cannot regenerate a soul, because it is meant to be a picture of how we are saved through the burial and resurrection of our only divine Redeemer.  The real Jesus does not need the man-centered addition of baptism to enter the gates of heaven.  The real Jesus does not need Mary as an extra-biblical addition to the appeasement of God.  The real Jesus does not have Mary intercede for God's people, because He is forgiving as our ultimate lover of our souls.  See what false religion says about Mary, a slave of God:

969 "This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. . . . Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."

The Bible says in Galatians chapter 2:16-21 on the all-sufficiency and exclusivity of Jesus:

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.  But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.  For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.  For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.  I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.  (KJV).

The Absolute Supremacy and Universal Centrality of the Divine Scriptures: A Biblical Exposition of Acts 8:26-40, Pt 7

15.  All people are spiritually called to obey the divine Word.  The divine Scriptures tell us to obey the voice of God that is revealed in divine revelation.  Phillip was obedient to the call of the gospel according to divine Scripture.  The Ethiopian eunuch was obedient to the divine Word.  That is, he heeded the gospel call to repent and believe.  Jesus said in John 14:23 that if you love Him, you will keep His word.  Obedience is a primary mark of spiritual conversion.  Phillip was used as an divine and spiritual instrument of God.  We also ought to be used as an instrument of God.  The eunuch heard the apostolic proclamation of the gospel.  The eunuch was baptized through Phillip.  It is not recorded that the eunuch trusted Christ but to fill in the gap, Phillip explained the need for him to be baptized.  The eunuch saw water and become eager to be baptized.  He fulfilled the mark of obedience for a follower of Christ.  That is, he trusted Christ as Savior and Lord and he was baptized by immersion.  Phillip explained that he needed to trust Christ with all his heart and if he did he could be baptized (cf. Acts 8:37).  The eunuch said in verse 38 that he trusted Jesus as the eternal Son of God.  Phillip had the chariot stop and they went down into the water and he baptized the eunuch.  But let me ask you, how does someone trust Christ?  A person trusts Christ with their heart.  The Bible says the heart is desperately wicked and corrupt.  We have a complete limitation on our spiritual free will.  The Bible does not teach that man has libertarian free will to apprehend Christ with his cooperation with the divine assistance of supernatural grace.  A sinner needs the written Word and the Holy Ghost to have his heart change.  He cannot cooperate because he is spiritually dead.  Is a dead corpse alive?  No, it is naturally dead.  In the same way, man is spiritually dead and he cannot avail to spiritual redemption through his synergistic will.  Historically, sovereign regeneration is held by Martin Luther and John Calvin.  We would do well to take their Christian example. 

16.  Many profess faith in Jesus but do not have authentic faith.  However, there are genuine Christians in the world that possess Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.  It is right to get baptized by immersion and not to adhere to baptismal regeneration.  We see that the eunuch had a profession of faith.  Every Christian ought to have a testimony of their deliverance from sin through the Cross of our Savior!  Immersion in Romans 6:3-5 signifies their union with the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Christ.  We are not spiritually saved by baptism.  The nature of justification by grace alone through faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-10).  Baptism is an outward picture of God's Trinitarian work.  We are called to be baptized through immersion in reverent obedience to God through His dear Son.  After baptism should come rejoicing like the eunuch in verse 39.  If you have been born from above, do you not understand that your sins are forgiven (John 3 cf. Titus 3:5)?  What is the spiritual evidence of knowing a person is born from above?  It the mark of the obedience of faith and repentance in the awareness of the presence of the Spirit of God.  Are you committed to a life of trusting Christ and obedience to His holy name?  Do you bring the written Word to others and declare the good news? 

17.  Do you realize that the Spirit of God accompanying the Word of God in His spiritual application to the sinner in biblical regeneration brings to the sinner a new heart and the divine grace of the imputed unified merit of Jesus Christ as the sole grounds for how we are right with God?  Are you trusting in your free will cooperation that you can add something to His divine grace?  Many unbiblical teachings add baptism to the work of the Spirit of God.  It is where the early church has went astray.  We ought to rejoice that we have the written Word and the clarity of His imputed righteousness to us by faith alone unto good works (Ephesians 2:10). 

To God alone be the glory!

The Absolute Supremacy and Universal Centrality of the Divine Scriptures: A Biblical Exposition of Acts 8:26-40, Pt 6

13.  To place the local church above the Scriptures is spiritually, theologically, and historically catastrophic.  The reason there are many denominations is a fundamental abuse of the Bible.  The abuses come from a misunderstanding of the subordinate authority of the local church to the Bible.  The Scriptures must not be a subordinate authority of the local church.  For example, the Orthodox Church neglects to wholly teach the blessed dogma of Christ's substitionary atonement for God's people.  The Cross of Jesus Christ is no small spiritual matter.  Rather it is of hyper-importance for the body of Christ.  It is the only way sins are remitted, forgiven and cleansed.  It is where righteousness, holiness and grace are bestowed.  It is where sin, punishment and misery are taken away.  Jesus surely bore our griefs upon Himself alone at the tree of great sorrow.   He carried our depraved abominations and wretched filth upon Himself.  He was stricken and smitten of God.  God was pleased to crush Him.  He was afflicted with great redemptive suffering at His Cross.  I think there is a separation in the life of Christ between afflictions unto persecutions and redemptive suffering unto forgiveness and remission of sins.  I am saying there is a fundamental difference in His afflictions for persecution that we all face because of Christ and His redemptive suffering that Christ only faced at His sorrowful Cross.  Many abuse the Bible and imply that Jesus lacked sufficient payment at His Cross.  I think there is a difference between "afflictions" and "suffering unto redemption" in regards to Christ alone because Christ freely offered Himself as a ransom for many.  He said no one took His life from Him but He had divine authority to lay it down and take it up again!   This referred to His redemptive suffering alone at His Cross alone.  I would like to kindly point out that "It is finished" means "paid in full."  That is, the Bible's position is that Jesus paid the sin debt in complete perfection at the Cross.   I would also disagree with the surely fallible pope in past "church history" that if Christ pricked his finger that blood would be enough to atone for sin for He had to suffer at God's appointed time at His Cross alone where He was able to finally lay His blessed head!  There is nothing lacking in His redemptive suffering at His blessed Cross as the offering of the only God-man.  The "affliction sufferings" are lacking because it deals with persecution like when Saul persecuted Jesus through His people.  We are to enter into the sufferings of Christ where we would be persecuted and all it takes in this sinful world is to live a godly life.  We are called to suffer with Christ because we will reign with Christ.  Additionally, there is no purgatory to pay for some kind of spiritual debt because the Cross completely covered it.  There is also not a spiritual debt where we must fill in this mortal life because the Cross paid all the spiritual debts for the repentant sinner.  The Bible says if we wish to reign with Him we are to enter into His afflictions or persecutions related sufferings.  In other words, we are to enter into His afflictions where we live a godly life for the godly will be persecuted and we fill up what is lacking in His non-redemptive afflictions.  No one has ever faced redemptive suffering like Christ at His Cross.  I suggest to you that only Christ may suffer redemptively and none else!  Let us remember!  He was pierced for our serious and great transgressions.  He was wholly crushed for our iniquities.  No mere man could endure the redemptive suffering of His blessed Cross.  The chastening, wrath, fury and indignation of God fell upon Him alone.  We were healed by His scourging.  The Lord imputed our iniquity upon Him and He carried our sins upon Himself.  Indeed, the very pit of hell was placed upon Him and He became the very enemy of God so we might be God's dear friend only through His sinless Son Jesus Christ our Friend and Master!  God was pleased to crush Him to pay for the punishment that all our sins deserved.  He made divine satisfaction in behalf of God's people alone.  He was a divine offering for sin to God the Father for all of God's people.  He was numbered with the transgressors and was delivered over to death.  Jesus Christ bore our sin upon Himself and the sin of many (cf.  Isaiah 53).

14.  Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all the animal sacrifices.  Jesus is the culmination and completion for all of them.  Jesus surely atoned for all the vile sin of His people.  Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  The world does not refer to every single person.  Rather it refers to God's choosing of His elect from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.   The eunuch read Isaiah 53 where it said actually what happened to Jesus Christ and His agonizing Cross.  Jesus knew He was born with a divine mission. His future was written already at His very birth.  That is, the God-appointed hour had to come for Him to be lifted up like the serpent.  People miss the clear meaning of Scripture because they are blinded and spiritually mute.  The divine Word calls us to faith and repentance.  Are you sure you have engaged in contrite repentance before God?  Have you really confessed all your vile sins to God?  Have you neglected the all-sufficient atonement of Jesus Christ to be clean from your sinful filth?   The Cross is the only way a sinner can be clean.  We must repent through the Cross of Jesus to be washed whiter than snow!  Philip brought the meaning of the divine Word in evangelism.  He was trained in the things of God to know His truth and to clearly explain it to others. 

The Absolute Supremacy and Universal Centrality of the Divine Scriptures: A Biblical Exposition of Acts 8:26-40, Pt 5

10.  Every Christian should be like Phillip!  We ought to be a workmen not ashamed of Jesus Christ and His written Word.  You should study as much as you can to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ our all-sufficient Savior.  Phillip carried with him the infallible interpretation of Christ about the identity of the suffering Person in Isaiah 53 from the encounter with Jesus Christ on the Road to Damascus that some of the followers of Jesus had.  We learn that Jesus is the Messiah and the suffering Lamb of God.  The words of Jesus are divine Scripture.  The fallible local church is subordinate to the infallible Scriptures.  It alone is our sole inspired authority.  If someone is confused about Scripture it is not because the clearness of Scriptures  but it is because the nature of man has blinded the eyes of every living soul.  A sinner should also recognize (though some disagree) that God has also blinded the minds and hearts of men.  Sinners should confess through the Word preached their abandonment to spiritual blindness because sinners have exalted themselves above God.  We have committed idolatry against God which is the very sin of Satan in his fall.  God must humble and soften the hearts of His people.  The local church is only an unsafe means if it does not match up with the divine Word.  The local church should always be in light of divine Scripture.  It should not be the Scriptures in light of the local church.  The reason there are many non-Christian cults who claim the name "Christian" is not because of the Scriptures but their errant subjectivity, blind perversion and abominations concerning illegitimate private understandings of divine Scripture.  I think everyone engages in what the Reformers called "private interpretation."  The pope himself engages in "private interpretations" and every converted Catholic regarding sacred history.   The only Persons who do not engage in "private interpretation" regarding the written Word but engage in "infallible interpretation" is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit alone.  I also suppose that glorified angels and saints will never err on the interpretations of Scripture.  There is no divisions in heaven about the understanding of divine Writ.  Jesus mentioned that He came to bring division on earth.  I think God is glorified in this division unto His glorious mercy and justice.  Sinners have a abandoned tendency of blind subjectivity concerning Scripture.  Private interpretation should always arrive at the author's intended meaning.  It must rely on rules of private interpretation that is from Scripture.  Scriptures provides us with the interpretive method of how to understand it.  It means the clear passages in light of the difficult passages to comprehend.   The divine Word is clear that everyone must turn from their sin and return to the Cross of the divine Scapegoat.  We ought always to adhere to the rules of interpretation from the divine Word.  With any teaching we are to responsibly ask, does it correspond to the divine Word alone?  Is it compatible with sacred Scripture alone?

11.  The divine Word is self-explanatory, self-attesting, self-sufficient and thoroughly clear.  The world wants to impose its subjectivity on the written Word.  The cults want to elevate their "organization" over the author's intended meaning.   To possess a subjective interpretation of divine Scripture is sin.  The Scriptures universally declare that sinners have gone astray and have turned to their own way.  If we say, "let the church decide what Scripture means!" we fall into the pit of hellish beliefs that deny the gospel of God.  I have dealt with non-Christians cults and their views come from their particular church not the divine Word.  The Scriptures remain unbreakable and non-blameable regarding the subjectivity and diverse interpretations.  The accusations of wrongdoing are with the blind interpreter of Scripture.  Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God.  If we sin on matters of the nature of man, we will not have a right view of salvation.  Human beings are abominable sinners and compromise the author's intended meaning of the divine Word.  God, however, never compromises His absolute holiness.  The Roman church emphasizes as the Mother of Scripture.  That is, that she decides what it does and does not mean.  We see in her body of theology that it has failed her because it has contradicted the living Scriptures.  She teaches "infusion" regarding the nature of justification.  Rather the Bible clearly teaches "imputation."  We see that the Orthodox Church has placed herself above Scripture.  She teaches that Mary is our Spiritual Helper.  However, the Bible clearly teaches that Christ and the Spirit suffice as our Heavenly Intercessors.  This does not mean that angels do not pray for us, but it is in a different context about the Virgin Mary.  I do not deny intercessory prayer among Christians but I deny the salvational link people give Mary in our redemption in terms of ultimate intercessors.   The Orthodox Church denies the sufficient and efficacious intercession of Jesus Christ in behalf of His people if she holds to Mary as an ultimate intercessor in heaven.  Did Saint Peter need the intercession of Mary so his faith would not fail?  No, Christ was enough through the Spirit to pray for Peter so his faith would never fail.  Jesus prays for us in heaven in the same way without any additional Heavenly Intercessor in sense of Rome and Orthodoxy.  I respectfully suggest to you that the real Jesus loves unlike the Virgin Mary.  No one could intercede like Jesus.  His love is beyond knowledge and comprehension!  Are you sure you know the real Jesus?  The real Jesus does not need Mary to ease His anger.  The real Jesus has so much compassion and love that it is divinely and supernaturally and spiritually unparalleled and supernaturally incomprehensible concerning the love with which He loves His people.  If you need Mary to intercede for you because you fear Jesus' anger, I would like to point out that you are simply blinded by your own sin.  The divine Scriptures present a Jesus that always understands; always loves; always hopes; and always effectively forgives His astray people.

12.  We are separated from our holy Creator through our sin.  We are tainted with sin but the divine imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ covers us through faith in His blessed name.   There is an infinite gap between us and our Creator.  The Savior died for us.  That is, the Cross bridges the gap between us and God.  He unites us in holiness and reconciliation.  Religious activity never removes sin.   Good works do not remove sin.  Rather the all-prevailing blood of Jesus Christ alone at His Cross alone (not purgatory in anyway!) removes sin.  In and of ourselves, we stand condemned and worthy of hell fire.  However, in Christ we are forgiven people and possess His divine righteousness where we are able to stand before Him.  Do you realize in your heart of hearts that you are no good before a holy God?  The law of God has been broken and we have violated His prescriptive will.  You worthy of eternal hell because of original sin and actual transgressions.  We have been into the pig pen of great sin.  Every sin is an offense against the superlative holiness of God.  We have injured His tender heart and offended His goodness and greatness.  God, however, demonstrates His love toward us through His dear Son alone.  Its not through anyone else but through Jesus Christ alone because in Him the Father declared "I am well-pleased in Him: hear ye Him."  Christ died for us while we were yet sinners.  Christ died for bad people.  Are you convicted over your sin and misery?  We are full of sin and actual transgressors.  We have fallen into abominable iniquity and our disobedience is unto witchcraft before a holy God.  Is there any hope?   Shall we perish in our sin and despisement of the innocent Christ by our very natures?  Will we not spend eternity in hell for our wrongs and harm of others?  The only hope we have is Jesus Christ!  It is not in anyone else, but through the only eternal and divine Son of Man.  He became man as the Incarnate Second Person of the Trinity.  He lived an immaculate life where He earned spiritual salvation for us and He submitted to the supreme agony of hell upon the Cross where our abominable witchcraft and disobedience was placed on Him alone.  This is the essence of divine grace from divine Scripture.

The Absolute Supremacy and Universal Centrality of the Divine Scriptures: A Biblical Exposition of Acts 8:26-40, Pt 4

8.  We should now consider explaining the Scriptures.  We are to be a workman of God where we are not ashamed and rightly handle the Word of Truth.  Paul says in his epistle that we should be ready to make a defense of the hope that is in us.  This hope that is in us comes from the written Scriptures.  The world is running after false idols and false teachings.  We ought to be prepared to proclaim the Scriptures to a lost world.  We know that people seek answers in every place but the written Scriptures.  The evangelist, teacher, theologian and apologist has the task to bring and explain the Scriptures.  It does not mean we are over the Scripture but we ought to handle the Scriptures in light of other Scriptures.  If we begin at Genesis we will hear of the coming redemptive story of God the Son becoming man in Jesus!   Martin Luther taught tota scriptura and that refers to teaching all of Scripture.  Are you able to lead someone to Christ in bringing and explaining the Scriptures?  Phillip brought and explained the holy Word of God.  He was able to be used as a means to have someone come to Christ in his Christian ministry.  The Christians of the local church are to be used as reliable and capable instruments of God to declare all of the Scriptures to a dark world.  The Scriptures explain themselves as a guide to be well-informed about the Christian faith.  In saying this, I do not believe that the local church is supreme over divine Scripture.  If there is confusion, the local church is there to explain the Scriptures like Phillip.  However, the Scriptures are supreme as the sole infallible and final authority for a life of every good work.  I think it is true that Phillip teaches the Scriptures not in light of "an oral tradition not based on the written Word" but the very interpretations of Jesus on the road to Damascus.  Jesus interpreted the Old Testament in light of His words and divine understanding.  Phillip carried this understanding with him to the eunuch and he became converted to Christ.  The local church is not all-sufficient for every good work.  Rather the Scriptures are there for us as God's divine superintendence for His people for every good work.  I think the Scriptures explain themselves in light of its explicit and divine and intended meaning.  That is, Scripture is clear enough for a little child to comprehend and trust Christ.  The Scriptures are clear that sinners must repent and believe the gospel and rest in the sole spiritual foundation of the unified merit of Jesus Christ alone as our sure spiritual grounds for how we are right with our faithful, holy and just Creator.  If the church is exalted above Scripture, it becomes a body of theological heresy and a radical distortion of sacred history.  The church is not above the Scriptures.  The Scriptures are pure and perfect.  The supreme authority of Scripture is a divine guide for the people of God.  The local church is an unsafe guide.  We must rely on the very words of the Bible and the words of Jesus.   Phillip well knew that he had to be trained as a workmen not ashamed of the written Word.  He came with the self-attesting divine Word from the words of Jesus.  There is no escaping the divine and central supremacy of the divine Word in the life of the early church.  To be faithful to Jesus, we must rely on the clearness of the written Word.  All of Scriptures contains the exaltation and central message of uplifting Jesus Christ as our perfect Lord and radical Savior.  Phillip had the words of Scripture about Scripture and it is contained in the Book of Acts.   It was about the awesome Messiah that suffered eternally in the place of His people.  We see when Jesus read from the Scriptures: He never read from ancient Jewish tradition.  Rather like Phillip He reasoned the Scriptures with the Words of God about the only Son of God as the matchless Messiah.  I would like to point out that the local church should rightly handle the written Scriptures.  We are to study the written Word to correctly interpret the Bible.  The rule of interpretation is Scripture in light of Scripture.  We are to interpret the explicit verses with the implicit verses of the divine Word.  No bishop is above Scripture.  Rather the bishop of bishops tells us what to rightly believe in the holy Word alone.  That is, the bishop of bishops is Jesus Christ alone for He is the Bishop of our souls!  We do not find Phillip referring to extra-biblical tradition of some kind to interpret who the Messiah is.  We find him "beginning with the Scriptures" as the foremost priority to arrive at the interpretation of Jesus as Messiah.  The church fathers are not a safe guide like the divine Word.  I suggest to you the divine Word is the only safe and sure and secure refuge for God's people.  We see Jesus Christ use all of Scripture to interpret the written Word's message of the suffering Messiah.  He suffered because we are not good by nature.  Paul says there is nothing that dwells in us that is good.  We needed all-righteous and all-meritorious Messiah who would bear the wages and punishments of sin upon Himself alone to be right with a good God.

9.  Confusion comes from the corrupt nature of man or Satan not the sacred Scriptures.  All of Scripture is clear that we must proclaim Christ from the Old and New Testaments.  The eunuch was reading from Isaiah 53 about a sheep to the slaughter, silence before the sheerers and humiliation and the wrath of God.  The eunuch knew that Isaiah 53 referred to a literal person beyond animal sacrifice but he did not know who it referred.  Phillip proclaimed Jesus from the Scriptures to him.  The Scriptures are about the centrality and supremacy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Phillip explained about the divine prophecy of the divine Messiah.   We also ought to explain Jesus to a lost world in all of the Scriptures.  Phillip explained the prophecy of Jesus' humiliation.  Prior to Jesus' glorious reign there would be a time of great suffering for God's people in their behalf.  Jesus first appeared as a Lamb of God.  He took away the sins of the world from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.  Phillip calls the eunuch to explicit faith in Jesus through bringing and explaining Scripture about Jesus.  Jesus was prepared to make divine atonement for His people.  He was born to die and this was His divine purpose to come into the world. 

The Absolute Supremacy and Universal Centrality of the Divine Scriptures: A Biblical Exposition of Acts 8:26-40, Pt 3

5.  The written Word of God preached should come without procrastination.  It should come without rationalization.  It should also come without justification of our sin and argumentation for iniquity.  We ought to sincerely obey the written Word of the Lord like Phillip did.  Do you seek like Phillip to bring the written Word to where the Lord wants it?  Sometimes the Lord may lead to where circumstances are unfavorable or illogical, but we ought to be strong and courageous by His divine Spirit.  It is the divine presence of the Spirit of God that helps us to obey His divine commandments.  We ought to love our enemies and love the Blessed Three in One and One in Three.  God will help us to love our neighbor and Himself.  He is divinely all-wise and He knows about our corrupt flesh and the whole limitation of our spiritual freedom.  He alone is the God who enables His people to love the gospel and obey the good news of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  We ought to know that the Scriptures have the divine power to open the eyes of the blind, make the deaf hear and the mute speak.  Faith comes by hearing.  If we hear the written Word, we will grow in faith because God's Word does not come back to Him unaccomplished.  Hearing comes by the word of Christ.  Those who have ears to hear let them hear!  God spoke the world into existence through the awesome power of God's spoken Word as Jesus Christ brought his friend Lazarus from the dead.  He calls all His people back from the dead by His word.  I suggest to you that the words of Jesus Christ as God's written Word in the New Testament as much as the words of the Old Testament and the rest of all the Scriptures.  The Scriptures are the divine power of God to change lost hearts to apprehend Christ.  We have corrupt indwelling sin and we are actual transgressors in need of the effective power of God's Word.

6.  There is never spiritual redemption without the written Word of God.  The heart is never changed by our fleshly and sinful decisions.  There never was a decision out of the flesh that saved anyone.  We cannot will ourselves out of our natures.  It takes an divine act of supernatural and efficacious intervention that mere man cannot undo.  All that the enemies of God can do is constantly and continually sin as actual transgressors in original sin.  The Word of God and the Spirit of God radically changes the hearts and minds of the sons and daughters of Adam.   It will accomplish its purposes according to God's good pleasure.  As Christians we have a new nature in Christ because of the Spirit's work by His written Word.  There is nothing more precious to God than His written Word.  There should be nothing more precious to us than God's holy Scriptures because it contains everything we need to be right with God and its message has a preserved clearness that can be understood concerning the divine gospel of God by a little child.  The teaching that is against the Reformed doctrine of all the Scriptures about the "clearness" of the written Word about the gospel is alien to the Bible itself.  Rome denies the divine clearness of God's written Word. 

7.  We ought to be faithful messengers of God's written Word.  How do we know if we are faithful?  We must search all of the Scriptures like the Bereans in the Book of Acts to test the apostle Paul.  We ought to test the modern and contemporary pastors in light of all the divine Scriptures.  We can determine like the Bereans without a "ecumenical council" or an "infallible pope" the divine and holy things of God in and through Christ Jesus by the guidance and direction of the Holy Ghost.   We ought to share Christ with a lost world.  We ought to fulfill the "Great Commission" of our Friend and Master Jesus Christ.  God accomplishes His salvational work through human instruments of proclaiming the gospel of God according to all the Scriptures.  Phillip shared the good news with the Ethiopian eunuch.  We also ought to share the good news.   We learn the good news from the written Word.  A eunuch was an extremely influential person or just an ordinary eunuch.  He was returning from a period of worship.  The Spirit spoke to Phillip to share the gospel with the Ethiopian eunuch.  This is a message to every Christian.  Turn aside, dear Christian: share the gospel with a lost world!  We ought to understand also that if the Spirit spoke He is indeed a divine person.  Many non-Christian cults believe that the Spirit is an impersonal force or a non-divine agent.  The Bible clearly teaches the personality and deity of the Spirit of the written Word.  We also see that in verse 30 it records for us that the Ethiopian eunuch read Isaiah.  We hear so much among Roman apologists that there was no copies of the Scriptures.  We see, however, that this man had a real copy of the book of Isaiah.  Phillip needed to guide the man into the reading of the Bible.  It means every Christian should know his or her Bible.  We ought to explain the Scriptures in light of the Scriptures by the real presence of the Spirit of God in illumination.

The Absolute Supremacy and Universal Centrality of the Divine Scriptures: A Biblical Exposition of Acts 8:26-40, Pt 2

3.  We really must think upon the supremacy and centrality of the written Word.  We should ask certain questions to arrive at the divine truth of the Spirit of God based on His written Word.  First of all, is the local church described anywhere as "infallible" like the written Scriptures are?  No, only the Scriptures are understood as "infallible" and no where does it say the local church is "infallible!"  Second, is the local church described in the divine Word as "inerrant" like the Word of God is?  No, only the written Scriptures are declared to be without error and divinely preserved.  Third, is the local church described as "divinely inspired" like the sacred text of the Word is?  No, only the Scriptures are authentically inspired.  To say that an extra-biblical "council" or "bishop" is "infallible" is a novelty in light of God's Word.  Some say that the church has divine authority over the Bible to decide what books are in the canon.  If that is the case, why does the Church of Rome and Protestants differ on the amount of books contained in its own canon?  Further, the council said "we receive" from God regarding the canon.  That is, they focused upon the sole authority of God over their decisions not their decisions over God.  Moreover, early fathers of the ancient church already had a private listing of books.  May we understand that the local church has a kind of authority.  That is, sola scriptura does not eliminate "authorities" but says the written Word of God is the sole and supreme infallible rule for faith, morals and good works.  That is, it is all-sufficient.  For example, the London Confession of Faith is a subordinate authority to the written Word.  The plural eldership of the local church is also under the submission of the written Scriptures.  No local church is above the divine Word.  The elder has the responsibility to teach and preach the written Word.   That is, to teach and preach the author's intended meaning but there could be a thousand applications.  He ought to be a workman not ashamed rightly handling the divine Word.  That is, it takes education and training in the subject of the theology, philosophy and history of the Bible.  No person should be exalted above the Word of God.  Rather only God rules over His Word to change the hearts and minds of the sons and daughters of Adam!  No minister of the Gospel can change the hearts and minds of God's people.  I would say that if sola scriptura was actually taught there would be no disagreements.  We see various disagreements because the church has placed herself above the written Word.  I suggest to you the disagreements are because of the abuse of the "out-of-place" authority of the local church concerning a illegitimate hermeneutic and abuse of sola scriptura.  There are others who think they are above the written Scriptures.  For example, the Church of Rome thinks she is above the Scriptures to decide "this" or "that" doctrine is from Scripture or tradition.  This has led to many false "dogmas" from the partial counterpart of "divine tradition."  I would like to point out that no one is above the Bible and the author's intended meaning.   Moreover, the Scriptures do not have an equal like the Church of Romes asserts regarding "sacred tradition."  The hermeneutic of the ancient church was not the supremacy of the local church or the primacy of a particular bishop but "Scripture in light of Scripture."  They taught the sole and universal centrality of the divine Word.  The early fathers contrary to popular opinion taught the sacred doctrine of sola scriptura and interpreting Scripture with Scripture.   If the early fathers did not teach sola scriptura it would not change our spiritual obligation to wholly embrace the divine teaching of holy Writ!  However, I strongly believe the early fathers held to the Scriptures as the sole infallible authority.  Irenaeus, for example, argued his defense of the divine teaching of God from the Scriptures against the Gnostics.  Did he appeal to alleged "sacred tradition" in the "knowledge" of the supremacy of the church or refer to the "infallibility" of a particular bishop?  No, his arguments on the divine teachings of God against heretics would come from the Scriptures alone! 

4.  The Bible declares an unashamed message of the gospel as the power of God.  The local church is not described as the Word of God, the truth of God or the oracle of God.  Rather the Scriptures alone are the Word Most Holy.  It is the very sword of the Spirit of God.  It is the Scriptures of the holy prophets!  The local church is not described as perfect.  Rather only the written Word is wholly perfect.  She will be presented to Jesus as the bride without wrinkle or spot but that is only in divine glorification in heaven!  The written Word alone is our divine guide through life's darkness and serious struggles.  The local church cannot produce regeneration.  Rather the divine Word alone with the accompanying of the Spirit of God regenerates the stoney heart of man.  The preacher is merely the instrument of God in proclaiming its gospel.  God can uses a distorted stick to draw a straight line.  That is, He uses sinners to handle His Word to proclaim liberty to the spiritual captives.  As the people of God, we ought to bring the Scriptures to a lost and dying world.  We ought to preach the Word without shame.  The love of Christ is for the worst offender.  Have you judged or condemned someone because of their sin instead of sharing the good news of Jesus?  People will respond to the good news like how the people believed Phillip.  We ought to do the same thing as solemnly speak God's word of the Lord.  We ought to keep preaching the Word of God.  It is what the local church holds up as it proclaims to a dark world of sinners.  Phillip proclaimed the Scriptures and so should we.  The written Word makes the simple wise.  The apostles were ignorant and unlearned men.  However, Jesus trained them to know the Scriptures and the word of Jesus.   We ought to be babes in evil but be excelling in the grace and knowledge of Christ our King.  We ought bring, proclaim and boldly stand by Jesus and declare His divine truth!

The Absolute Supremacy and Universal Centrality of the Divine Scriptures: A Biblical Exposition of Acts 8:26-40

1.  The Holy Bible is the written Word of God.  That is, it contains the very voice of God.  It is the most primitive and ancient form of worshiping God.  The local church ought to proclaim the divine supremacy and universal centrality of the holy Word of God.  The Roman Catholic understanding of the Bible is that it is subordinate to the Church of Rome.  That is, she has greater authority over the Bible to tell others what she thinks its biblical meaning is for a given text of the sacred Word.  The Reformed view is that the Bible is supreme and it has divine authority over the local church.  That is, the local church is universally subordinate to the written Scriptures because only it is "God-breathed."  The Bible was written by fallible and holy men of God but the holy Scriptures are infallible because of the Spirit of God's inspiration, inerrantness and authoritativeness.  That is, the Holy Spirit divinely super-intended the written Scriptures.   We teach the supremacy of God's grace alone.  We also teach the centrality of Christ alone and the Word alone.  The written Word preached is the most perfect form of worship toward God because of its radical, divine and providential message by the Spirit's orchestration.  The Word is never ineffective.  That is, it always produces a desired result in the growth and knowledge of God in His super-abounding grace.  The Scriptures are not a human invention.  Rather the Scriptures are God's words to a lost world.  That is, the written Word is a absolute love letter of God about the profound and eternal love of God the Son.  He not only died for His people through a most agonizing torment and agony but He cared so much for us that He spiritually earned salvation in our behalf by living a life of perfect holiness, righteousness, uprightness and devotion.  Such cannot be understood by sinful, corrupt and depraved minds of the sinful flesh!  The Word of God changes the heart and mind but it also convicts us of sin by God's Spirit.  We ought to pray for the presence of God's Spirit because He is the power over the flesh through us only by adherence to the Word proclaimed.  The Word of God written is universally center to proclaiming the Gospel of God.  It conquers the world's philosophies and opinions.  It does not conform to man-made religion.  The written Word of God is not about ritualistic ceremonies that are lifeless.  Rather the written Scriptures are about a personal encounter with God's dear Son Jesus Christ!  We ought to have a personal commitment to reading and studying the written Word of God.  We also ought to have a personal relationship with God's eternally and only begotten Son Jesus Christ!  The written Word will never fail and the eternal Son of God will never fail.  The holy Scriptures are "living and active" and produces in us godly motivations.  It produces in us a holy mindset through the outworking of God's Spirit.  The Spirit applies the Word to our hearts.  It is only by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit that the written Word of God will change the hearts and minds of the sons and daughters of Adam.  The Word of God is about the power of God.  This Word will guide and direct the local church as a certain divine instrument to spiritual success and it will transform the hearts of sinners.  The Spirit of God does not work apart from the written Word.  The Spirit always accompanies the Word preached. Many local churches have rejected the biblical exposition of God's Word.  I suggest to you that it is not the Bible's fault regarding the sin of man-made interpretations of the written Word.  Rather the spiritual fault of "diverse" interpretations is because of the wages of sin. 

2.  The local church is the holy slave of the divine Word.  The local church is not above the Scriptures.  Rather the Scriptures are above the local church.  If the local church was above the Scriptures, it could liberally decide its interpretation.  However, the Scriptures are above the local church because the local church is not described as "God-speaking."  Rather the written Scriptures are proclaimed in itself as the very words of God.  If you want to hear God speaking, take up and read like Augustine did!  In the Scriptures are the treasures of treasures, and the riches of riches through the exclusive exaltation of the Son's divine righteousness and the call to faith and repentance.  The Scriptures stand on the Spirit of God as its divine source.  We understand what the function of the local church is because of the Word of God.  We understand from the written Word that authentic preaching is the centrality and supremacy of worship.  The Bible calls us to love God with our minds and we ought to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and conformed to the very spiritual image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  We must be gathered together around the written Word as the people of God.  The Spirit of God works in the minds and hearts of the people of God through the proclamation of the Word of God.  We ought to be committed to the Word of God in spite and contradiction to fleshly, corrupt and polluted teachings. 

Repentance Leads to Restoration: Being Right With God, Pt 7

21.  Repentance is all about the divine grace of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  We speak of human responsibility but it really refers to God's awesome grace alone in progressive sanctification.  In progressive sanctification, we care able to cooperate with God and His Spirit because of a new nature in Christ.  We have been spiritually awakened and born from above.  The grace of God moves us and helps us and dives us and keeps us going.  No force in heaven, hell or earth can stop God's gift of repentance unto remission.  There are many devils in this world that seek to undo us.  I remember when others of non-Christian cults sought to undo me because of man-made traditions rather than the written Word.  The battles were long and hard but a simple word of no fellowship would suffice and stand my ground, or a Scriptural quote from the written Word to convict the sinner of sin if the Lord would be gracious!  We get the divine command of contrite repentance from God's divine Scriptures.  Many non-Christians in world religions think they are good.  Others think they do not need the divine command to repent and believe the gospel.  The Bible says that no one is good and no one is righteous in and of themselves.  The only good we possess is the good that Jesus Christ brings to us through His perfect life and perfect death.  Jesus never sinned one single sin in breaking the divine law of God according to the divine Scriptures.  However, people are sinners and we will never stop sinning until the awesomeness of divine glory.  We cannot stop sinning through the flesh.   There are times, however, in a reprobate's life that they can resist sin but only for a short time.  I suggest to you it is not the same thing as a Christian who is able to resist sin.  We ought to resist sin by His Spirit.  It is possible to resist sin by reading His Word and the all-dominating presence of God's Spirit in us and upon us.  Many gossip about a Christian who has many faults and sins.  Why are you gossiping about a Christian's particular sins and wrong habits?  Shouldn't you be praying for him or her to abstain or avoid this sin instead of using your tongue set on fire by hell?  No Christian is without sin touching the flesh.  However, the Bible clearly teaches that the soul is sinless but the shadows on the soul are the sins of the flesh.  The great saint Samuel even sinned but all Christians like Samuel use their spiritual freedom by God's all-powerful and all-effective grace to repent and return to God for divine mercy and forgiveness and cleansing and holy grace!   If someone sins, pray that God humbles that person through His Word being preached so that they can grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The written Word preached changes us only by His accompanying divine grace through His Spirit alone to transform our minds in renewed obedience and He conforms us to the very image of Jesus Christ.  Constant repentance is necessary for holiness.   Are you committed to constant repentance over against sins of different degrees?  There is no sin that can outdo the Cross of Jesus Christ.  The difference between a unbelieving reprobate and a Christian is adherence to the call of holy repentance through Christ alone.  I suggest to you that if you turn to anyone besides Christ you have fallen into a different gospel or another gospel.  He alone has the divine and spiritual ability to save you.  There is no other intercessor that is divinely sufficient to save than Jesus Christ.  I do not mean to suggest that the Word does not speak of the Spirit of God as our Comforter.  The Spirit of God is indeed our Comforter but man's tradition or extra-biblical visions seeks to add to even the Spirit of God.  The Spirit enables us to repent and through repentance we have God's sheer mercy.  Are you conscious of God's divine mercy upon you?  No one should add something to God's absolute mercy like good works, meritorious works, purgatory, merits of others, or sacrifices that contradict the divine atonement of Jesus.  Mercy is the result of repentant hearts.  We repent because God has given us His divine grace.  We repent because it is necessary to enter into a holy relationship with God.  If you repent, you are in a healthy relationship with God. 

22.  What is the spiritual solution for America and the world around us?  We do not hear people speaking of contrite repentance before God unless its to the wrong God.  First of all, we ought to never repent to a false "deity."  We ought always to repent to the God of the Bible alone apart from any man-made traditions, viewpoints, corrupt theology and worldly philosophies.  The Bible in Jeremiah 18:8 speaks of a nation turning from its evil way and God will relent from His calamity.   Has America or the world turned from its evil way?  Have abortions stopped?  Why now homosexual marriage?  What about government corruption?  I suggest to you that if people understood the absolute holiness of God and their total sinfulness, they would repent and turn to God in obedient submission through His design.   I would like to tell the world or anyone who reads my few "fishes and loaves" to repent and turn away from your sin.  Sin could be anything like sexual evil or gossip or hatred or murder or stealing or coveting or plagiarism.  If you repent to God, He will surely bless you with spiritual mercy.  However, we ought to understand that repentance does not save us, but Jesus Christ in His active and passive obedience.  What now is that?  His active obedience is His perfect life and His passive obedience is His perfect death.  Some people nowadays reject His active obedience.  I do not understand why this is the case in light of the divine Word.   I would like to point out that sinners want to earn their spiritual salvation on their own but we are unable because of our sinful nature.  Jesus earned spiritual salvation through His sinless life in our behalf.  We need to apprehend it by simple child-like trust.  It is hard to trust God because of our remaining corruption.  We are sometimes faithless but God is faithful and He will see us through no matter what.  However, we have ignored the Lord and rebelled against Him. We have even excluded Him from our public schools, but when monsters arise and disaster strikes, people want to know where God is.  We have thrown Him out of our public schools and banished Him from our minds.  By nature, man wants nothing to do with thoughts about God.  If public schools do not want Him in their classrooms, it is no doubt a great sin that leads many into mistaken thinking.  We have also taken Him out of our judicial system and our legislative system.  I ask to the responsible people, why have you done this to our country?  We have committed sin and wickedness and lawlessness.  There is no excuse but to go to God and ask for His pardon and bear fruits of repentance.  If God turns a person over, it is no doubt judgment.  Homosexual marriage, abortions, killing the elderly, replacing the Bible with the Quarn, denial of prayer in public and sexual abuse are all evidence of God turning a world over to itself.  I suggest to you that this means judgement.  We must admit we have fallen into great sin and return to God who made the heavens and the earth!   If we reject Him, there will be further consequences.  We need God's divine restraining grace but we are a godless people, but may God remember mercy when He decides to judge in His fury, indignation and wrath.  America is presently experiencing God's wrath, because we refuse to live the way God says.  He says in His written Word that our thoughts are not His thoughts and His ways are not our ways.  I submit to you that America needs to change and I am speaking of a reformation of all society!  It begins with allegiance to the sole supremacy of His written Word and loyalty to Him in an abandonment to repentance unto obedience.  I suggest to you that according to Romans chapter 1, God has given America over to the lusts of her impurities, immoralities and spiritual ruin.   She has exchanged the divine truth of God for a lie and served the creature over the Creator.  However, there is still hope for us.  Do not fear!  The hope for America and the world is the same hope Israel possessed in ancient history but we must never surpass the truth in an abandonment to unrighteousness!  I am not calling a nation or the world to morality but trust and faith and repentance towards God the Trinity alone.  I suggest to you that this is our only hope and confidence!  The remedy for restoration is through repentance and faith.  How many of you will turn away from your sin and trust the God of the Bible alone?  May God grant a remnant of the spiritual seven thousand to bow the knee to Him this day!  Amen. (Sermon Reference:  Smith/June 24, 2007/"Repentance Is the Remedy For Restoration"/1 Samuel 7:3-17).