Author: Pastor David Page 17 of 22

Intelligent Design or Random Chance

“And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.” (Exodus 32:24)

During Moses’ time on Mount Sinai receiving the law of God, the Israelites had enticed Aaron to make them a new god, to which he obliged (Exod. 32:1-6). After Moses returns down from the mount, he questions Aaron as to how this graven image came about, and he tries to convince Moses that he cast a bunch of gold in the fire and randomly out came this calf. Moses certainly knew better than that because that molten calf bore the distinguishing marks of intelligent design. When we consider the amazing craftsmanship and intracity of design of God’s creation, it’s just as ludicrous to believe that all that we see around us, especially our human bodies, were just formed and created by random chance, as it’s foolish to think that a molten calf just randomly come out of the fire. This world bears the marks of intelligent design and manifests the glory of its Creator.

The Scriptures

The scriptures should play a very integral role in the life of every child of God. In this series of messages delivered by Pastor David on the Gospel of Grace Radio Broadcast from January to April 2018, we consider the priority and necessity of the scriptures in our discipleship. After laying the foundation for the divine inspiration and divine preservation of the word of God and the use of the King James Bible, we consider practical points about how do we actually study and meditate on the Bible. God inspired and preserved the scriptures for our benefit and edification here in this world, but do we really love and delight in the word of God to take full advantage of the amazing blessing of the scriptures that we have been given? Hopefully, these messages can exhort us to become more devoted to the study of God’s word.

Beauty for Ashes

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me… To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

God is in the business of fixing and overruling our sinful mistakes. This has been true since man’s fall in Adam created a ruinous heap of ashes, burnt and severed fellowship with God. However, God has promised to give us “beauty for [those] ashes”, to replace the ashy remnants of loss and ruin with a beautiful blessing of God. We will see the full beauty of God’s overruling blessing at Christ’s second coming, but God also blesses us here in time with blessings and beauty in spite of the sinful lives we lead.

Philip, The Pattern for Evangelism

Philip is the only man in scripture who is specifically denoted by the Holy Spirit as an evangelist – “Philip the evangelist” (Acts 21:8). Paul tells the ordained minister Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Tim. 4:5), and he also denotes “evangelists” as one of the four ministerial offices in the New Testament church (Eph. 4:11). Paul certainly did the work of an evangelist, but he held a different office of an apostle, so he never referred to himself by that title. Therefore, we should examine Philip’s life to see the qualifying marks of “an evangelist” and how Philip conducted himself that led the Holy Spirit to single him out solely for this title in scripture. Philip’s travels in Samaria, to the eunuch, and then from city to city have received much attention, but we also see from his later life that his evangelism was also concentrated locally as well, not just traveling from place to place perpetually.

Confession of Whose Sins? (1 John 1:9)

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

This verse is commonly presented by those of the “free-will” persuasion as an invitation by God to the dead alien sinner to confess his sins and be eternally cleansed from his sins and be saved to heaven. In their mind, this verse is an invitation to the world for anyone to confess their sins, and God is still faithful and just to save even the vilest of sinners once they have met this one condition of confession of sins. While it’s certainly true that God does save the vilest of sinners (even a Mary or Manasseh’s stains or sins more vile than they), that salvation is not based upon our confession of sins, but based solely upon the sovereign grace and blood of Jesus Christ, not by any condition we meet to supposedly ratify our eternal life.

Addicted to the Ministry of the Saints

“I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)” (1 Corinthians 16:15)

As Paul begins his closing salutations to the Corinth church, he commends a very godly man, Stephanas, and his family for their service and ministry to saints. However, this was not a casual or part-time service to the saints of God, but they made such a habitual commitment of serving others that Paul denotes “they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.” With such a profound description of their service to the church, we should consider how addicted are we to things of God and to serving others?

Physical & Spiritual Prosperity

“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” (3 John 2)

John, in writing to his dear friend in the truth, Gaius, wishes him well regards and greetings. In particular, he desires and prays that Gaius would prosper and be in good health “even as thy soul prospereth”. He desires for his friend’s physical health to be as strong, robust, and vibrant as his spiritual health and growth. Could the same be said for us? If our physical health were to mirror our spiritual health, would we be strong and active or weak and constantly sickly?

Encouragement in the Lord

“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” (1 Samuel 30:6)

This verse is given to us in the aftermath of an Amalekite raid upon David and his men’s camp, where their wives and children were all taken captive and their city of residence burned.  In this midst of that traumatic situation for all of them, including David as his wives were taken too, the men turn on David and actually talked of stoning him to death. In the midst of such turmoil in his life at that time, nevertheless, “David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” Regardless, of what trying circumstances we encounter in our lives, our Lord can and should always be our greatest source of encouragement.

Objections to Absolutism

Man’s nature tries to deflect blame for his own wicked actions to such a degree that some reach an erroneous conclusion that God has decreed all events that have or will occur in the world, which is commonly known as the doctrine of absolute predestination. Absolutism, when followed to its logical conclusion, will incorrectly make God the source of all the wickedness we see in the world around us, which is entirely contrary to the holy nature of God revealed in scripture. It’s an entirely incorrect worldview that tries to blame God for evil and wickedness that is in the world solely by the sin of man. On the contrary, any goodness and any measure of peace we find in this world is attributed to God alone. In summary, man gets all the blame for the wickedness of this world, and God gets all the glory for the goodness and blessings that we see in the world around us.  In these radio messages from the Gospel of Grace Radio Broadcast delivered from October to December 2017, Pastor David details the errors of the doctrine of absolutism, while also giving the proper perspective of God’s overruling providence in the lives of His children.

Book of James

From August to December 2017, at Macedonia PBC Pastor David preached through the Book of James. This book exhorts us to authentic Christianity, pure religion and undefiled, with our profession of faith in Christ backed up by robust good works to glorify the Lord.

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