Series How to please God 3 of 4

So of all the commandments of God, the most important one is associated with LOVE . . .

Step one toward pleasing God begins when we develop a proper fear of God.  It requires faith for us to to fear a God that we cannot prove exists.  But properly respecting God gives proof that such faith is genuine.

Step two is taken as a result of this first step.  Because we fear God, because we believe in punishment, we endeavor to "keep" His commandments. This is not entirely negative, because if "we believe" in punishment, then we also believe in rewards.  

I do want to point out that it is not proper to "obey God" just because we hope that God will reward us with wealth or other things that we desire to make our present life easier.  

The reward that I refer to - are all of the (intangible) benefits that are associated with an increased love of God in our heart.

And the final step in this equation is HOW we keep - protect - preserve and obey His commandments.  

That final step is taken because we have enough faith to fear God and to actually be concerned about what God thinks concerning our lives.  Our fear of God motivates us to "search for a way to please Him" and it also motivates us to learn about what we need to avoid in life that might make Him angry.

So step three is actually "putting into practice" the most important of God's commandments . . .

. . . of every commandment that we find in The Bible, have you ever wondered which one of them was the most important commandment of all?  Well it just so happens that this very question is answered for us in a direct and ‘straight forward way’ in The Bible.  

Let’s read in Matthew 22:35 about a man that literally asked Jesus this exact question.

Matthew 22: 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The gist of these verses is simply this: It does not matter how religious we are, it does not matter how many good works that we accomplish, it does not matter how much money we give to the poor (you get the idea) . . . 

if we do not possess love in our heart, then as a Christian, we are a complete and total failure. We know this to be true because of what we read in verse 40) On these two commandments hang ALL the law (of Moses) and the prophets (remainder of the sacred writings).

Another verse that comes to mind is one that is often overlooked in regard to those who seek to please God by excessive involvement in religion instead of seeking to please Him as He desires to be pleased. 

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 

Now the first thing that comes to mind here is that The Bible does not tell us that without good works or without involvement in some type of religion that it is impossible to please Him, but we are told directly without any source of confusion that faith is the ONLY thing that can please God. 

Now I want to point out that simply saying the words “I believe in God” without any evidence in our lives to support those words does not count for faith. 

James 2: 14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

The point here is that we can say that we believe in God, but live as though we do not believe in God at all, as we rebel against His will without any regard (or without any godly fear) concerning the day of Judgment. 

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the     judgment:

Having no fear of “judgment” is simply an example of a dead faith.  It is not real.  It is not genuine.  It serves only to deceive, because God is not pleased with it at all.   

Did you notice how James began this passage?  What does it profit any man if we say that we have faith, but our life gives no evidence of that faith?   

Can just saying that we believe in God save our soul, or must there be something else to accompany (or give power to) “faith” which is able to bring salvation?  The thing that is missing here making this a “dead faith” is the concept of repentance.

We will conclude this series with the next lesson in which we will discuss the concept of repentance and what form it should take in our lives when it is practiced instead of just talked about.

Until the next post - God bless . . .

Series How to please God 2 of 4

The second step that every man takes toward “pleasing God” is when he endeavors to 2) keep His commandments.  

Now in this lesson, rather than list all of the many commandments of God in order to see how each one of us rates in regard to our obedience to them, I want us to consider the most important one of God’s commandments.   

But first of all, let’s see what the scriptures teach us about being able to keep most of God’s commandments, but failing in just a few of them.

James 2: 8 If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:

9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

Notice verse 8) if you fulfill the royal law which means that in order to do this, that you must love others even as you love your own self . . . and if accomplished, this is a good thing.  

But then James qualifies what fulfilling this commandment actually means in the reality of everyday life.  If you think that you have reached the point where you are able to love your neighbor as thyself, consider that you have failed, if you ye have respect of persons.

To have respect of persons refers to showing “partiality” or giving favored treatment to some but withholding it from others.  What this means is that we have respect of persons when we treat our friends better than we treat those who are not our friends. 

If we favor our fellow Razorback fans with tickets on the fifty yard line, while we only give “end zone” tickets to those who are not Razorback fans, then we are showing partiality and

we are having respect of persons and according to James 2:9 this is a sin.  And because of this we have not really kept (to the fullest extent possible) the commandment which tells us to love our neighbor even as we love ourselves.

Verse 10) tells us that if we were able to keep the whole law (which is not really possible, but if it were possible) and if we failed in only ONE of God’s many commandments 

then we would still not be able to say that we had “kept” God’s commandments, but we would be guilty of disobedience just like those who had kept all of them except two.  

Consider the state trooper and how useless it would be when we were pulled over for speeding to explain that even though we were speeding, there were many other laws that we were obeying.   

Yes, I was speeding, but I was wearing my seat belt.  

Yes, I was speeding but I was not following too close.   

Yes, I was speeding but I was doing everything else according to the letter of the law.

Now if the situation described above actually occurred, would your obedience to all of the traffic laws except the speed limit law only, would this in any way make you “not guilty” of speeding so that (in the eyes of the law) you would be except from getting a ticket; of course not.  

Well this is exactly what James is telling us in the passage above.

11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

For he that said, do not speed also said, do not follow too close, use your turn signals properly and come to a complete stop at a stop sign.  Now if you are guilty of speeding, yet if you do not follow too close, if you use your turn signals properly and if you always come to a complete stop at a stop sign, you are still a TRANSGRESSOR of the law.

So before we continue with the next lesson, in which we will define in no uncertain terms, the most important commandment that God has ever given to mankind.  

I want us to consider {that in light of what we have read in James 2: 8-11} that even though we honestly try to “keep” His commandments, because we cannot keep them all, we have become guilty of breaking God’s Law.  And the result of breaking God’s Law, is that we are in danger of His judgment against sin.

Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

So of all the commandments of God, the most important one is . . . See my next post, until then God bless.

Wisdom "in depth"

This is a link to a site which provides a more "in depth" study of things for those who are interested in going into God's Word a little deeper.  Hope you enjoy your studies.  Please feel free to provide feedback.  I will welcome your comments good or bad.

Series: How to please God 1 of 4

I want to begin this lesson by asking you a question.  That question is, “Would you like to know HOW to please God?”  If I could cut through all of the religious confusion and show you in just a very few simple words how to please God, would you listen to those words, and would you apply them to your life so that you could please God?  I want to begin our lesson today with a scripture in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Ec 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the “whole” matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.  

The answer to the age old question of life is given to us here in only “fourteen” simple words. “Fear God” are two of these words.  “And keep His commandments” are four of them, while “for this is the whole duty of man” are the remaining eight.   I want to look at this scripture in the following way: We will discuss what “the conclusion of the whole matter” means, then we will look at what it means to 1) “Fear God” after which we will consider how to 2) “keep his commandments” and finally we will discover the real life application (or definition) of 3) “for this is the whole duty of man”.

To be able to please God, we must obviously DO what God wants us to do in our lives.  Well what does God expect of us anyway?  Does God want us to become involved in some type of religion?  Does God care if we are honest?  Does God want me to be rich so that I can use my wealth for good?  Does God want me to be poor so that I will remain humble and relate to the needs of the common man?  What exactly does God want from me and from my life?  According to Eccl 12:13: the conclusion, the end, the summary of this question begins with . . . 1) Proper fear of God.

How much respect do we have for the state trooper that is searching for speeders on the highway? We measure our degree of respect “or fear” by how careful we are to “obey” or to keep the speeding laws when we believe that a state trooper is “watching us”.  How much respect do we have for God who literally has power over spiritual life and death?

Luke 12:5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

We measure our degree of respect or fear of God by how careful we are to “obey” (or to keep) God’s word in our lives.  So the first step that every man takes toward “pleasing God” is understanding in his heart that JUDGMENT after death is real, and that God has commanded us to change (which means to repent) so that in judgment, we will not be cast into hell with the unbelievers.

If we do not believe, then we will not fear . . . Heb 11: 6 tells us that without FAITH it is impossible to please Him . . .  The point to this is – if we do not believe the radar gun is working, then we will have nothing to motivate us to slow down.  If we do not believe that God is watching, then there is nothing to motivate us to try to control the sinful desires of our heart.

Acts 17:30 . . . but now (God) commandeth “all men” everywhere to repent:

Ro 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God . . .

Which means that in the “day-of-judgment” every man will agree (or confess) to God that his life was full of sin and unrighteousness.  The significance of this confession before God in the day of our judgment is that our trust (our faith) in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the ONLY righteous thing that we can ever possibly possess.  This is literally the meaning of the song “when I see the blood (of Jesus) I will pass over you”.  Which begs the question . . . when you stand in judgment before God, what will God see in your life?  Will God see the blood of Jesus and pass His condemnation over you, or will God see the sins of an unbelieving heart and condemn your soul to an eternity in hell?

The second step that every man takes toward “pleasing God” is . . . See my next post, until then God bless.

We defend what we love

    In previous lessons, we have been discussing "The Truth" and the concept of true worshipers as opposed to false worshipers.  I guess the point is, how many "truths" are there in the world (there is only ONE) and how many "truths" are there in heaven (there is only ONE)?

    Col 2: 8 Beware lest any man spoil you (ruin your worship – destroy your church) through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

    Matt 7: 13 Enter ye in at the strait (narrow) gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

    14 Because strait (small and UN-noticeable) is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

    15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

   “The Truth” is just not wide enough to cover all of religion – but “The Truth” is narrow so that it is only wide enough to cover Christianity.  Christianity being defined as "the religion" that is centered upon "Jesus Christ" as the divine son of God and how He suffered on the cross of Calvary for our sins.

   Once again we must all decide within our own heart whether there are many gods and many ways to heaven, or if there is in fact only one God and one way to heaven.  No man can make this choice for us, each one of us must live and die with the particular choice that we make regarding which god to serve and how to go to heaven.

   Now it is important for us to realize that (as Christians) we have been given a responsibility to “keep the faith” – But to do this    we must know what that faith IS and WHERE it is located.

   I Peter 3:15 But sanctify (or set apart) the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

   II Tim 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (properly interpreting) the word of truth.

   To sanctify means to make holy – which is what happens when we set our hearts "aside" for the purpose of dedicating/committing ourselves unto God.  Now here is where we take the first step in developing “the relationship” with God that He desires to share with us "as followers of Christ".  As an example, (as parents) we chose a long time ago to dedicate our lives to the welfare of our children and over the years this dedication (or this commitment) has resulted in a bond between us as this commitment has fostered “the relationship” that we currently have with our children.

   Well the phrase "to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts" is telling us to do the same thing with God that we have chosen to do with our children . . and that is to dedicate our lives unto God – it is telling us to commit our lives to the wellbeing of “the landmarks of our Christian faith" that we have been discussing in our Sunday School lessons, and that we should do this {with the same fervor} and with the same intensity that we have developed in the attitude that we have to keep and to protect our own children.

   The result of (sanctifying our heart unto God in this manner) – the product of this type of dedication, will be that (this type of commitment to The Truth) will foster (or bring into being) "a relationship" between our heart and The Truth so that we will defend The Truth, just like we are willing to defend our children.

   To dedicate our heart to The Lord – to commit our heart to The Lord is accomplished through obedience to the first and the most important of all the commandments that God has ever given to any man . . . 

   Matt 22: 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  38 This is the first and great commandment.  39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

   Can we understand what it means to love a child or a parent with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength?  To put this type of love into action simply means that we will keep our eyes open for anything that might bring harm to these that we love.

   As we consider that we are commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength all we must do to accomplish this – is to apply the same degree of dedication which allows us to “watch over” our families – to the concept of watching over "the landmarks" (or the foundation) of what we believe as "Christians" or followers of what Jesus Christ teaches in The Bible. 

   Before we will ever be able to defend our faith we must first LOVE our faith which means that we must love God’s Word and if we DO love God’s Word then we will also love God’s people (or all of those who have chosen to be disciples of Jesus by standing upon His Word and professing an allegiance to His teachings).

   If we were to consider a "defense of our faith" in regard to what we believe about salvation, we would discover that a defense of this "doctrine" or teaching would be fairly easy for us to defend.  We can say that it would be easy to defend because we love the idea of God’s promise which delivers our soul from hell . . . You see we have a relationship with this eternal promise of hope . . . we enjoy being reminded of eternity in heaven – and because this is something that we have fallen in love with – we find that it is easy for us to defend.  

   But for too many of us – this is where our relationship with spiritual things seems to stop . . . We are glad that God saved us – but we just don’t want to go to the trouble to do the kind of things that God wants us to do – now that we are saved.

   I will tell you that the reason that we feel this way is because we have never sanctified our hearts unto the Lord – we have never dedicated our lives to Him – we have never actually committed our hearts to His Truth by searching the scriptures for the way of PROPER worship now that we have been saved.  The concept of becoming a True worshiper is just something that we not really interested in pursuing.  The result being is that we have never been able to develop any kind of a relationship with the Truth . . . so because (this truth) has remained a stranger to us ever since we were saved  we have never really learned to love it . . . and because we do not love “The Truth” our attitude is that . . . one church is pretty much like every other church . . .

   I want you to consider how this would make you feel – Suppose that your parents told you that they would have been just as satisfied if one of your cousins had taken your place at birth as they are satisfied with having you for their child . . . how would this make you feel?

   Wll as we close this lesson I want to remind everyone – that God loves – God hates – God cries . . . how do you think it effects God to hear one of His children say in their heart . . . Now that I am saved, I am just as satisfied serving an idol god  as I would be if I served The One True God.  

   Remember - Before we can DEFEND our faith – we must first fall in LOVE with that faith . . . If you have been saved – have you taken the next step that God  desires of you as one of His children . . . by taking the next step – I want us to consider  what we have committed our life to . . . Defending the faith – or living a lie . . . 

   Are we committed to defending "The teachings of Jesus Christ" or have we committed our lives to defending the teachings of another?

    Remember what we talked about in our introduction.  This entire concept of ONE God or many gods and the idea of ONE truth or many truths is something that each individual heart must not only live with, but each one of us must also DIE with the choice that we make.  My prayer for all of you is that you will allow The True God to lead your heart to accept His Truth and to experience His perfect forgiveness.

   Until the next post - God bless.