See the link below (in blue) for links to answers to questions before those linked to on this page. Now, important questions, comments, and inquiries are answered below as received.
Question (July 6, 2018): You emphasize that salvation is based on the fact that Christ “paid the penalty for our sins.” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance has no entry for “penalty,” nor did Jesus or the apostles ever mention that a penalty for our sins was paid. If I ask fellow Christians where to find this view in the Bible, either they don’t know the answer or they imply that I’m not saved. I pose that question to you.
Question (July 11, 2018): I read with empathy and agreement your excellent article “Jews, Gentiles, and the Church.” However, one thing you said puzzled me. It was this: “Essential also is an understanding that the church was created through offering to both Jews and Gentiles a ‘new covenant’ relationship with God.” My understanding of the “new covenant” is Jeremiah 31:31-40. This covenant is identified clearly as the New Covenant. It is a covenant addressed solely to the Nation of Israel. The church has no part in it—indeed it will not be instituted until after the close of the church age (the catching up of the church). Your statement, quoted above, seems to imply that the new covenant was offered to the church. Is that what you meant, or have I misunderstood you?
JERALD C. FINNEY BAB, HB, BBA, JD 801 Elgin St.
Amarillo, TX 79118 Phone : (512) 785-8445
E-MAIL: jeraldfinney157@gmail.com
1 John 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Welcome to the website that shows churches who love the Lord how to organize so as to keep themselves completely out from under civil government control. The one theme of this website will be how to organize churches under Christ, churches of Christ. Unrepentant churches who have heads other than the Lord Jesus Christ are not His churches. See Matthew 16.18; Ephesians 1.22; Colossians 1.18.
This website is the result of the desire to Glorify God by teaching a church how she can show her love for her creator by honoring Bible precept concerning church organization. A church who loves the Lord will want to do so (see below). Love cannot be pure absent trust. Believers and churches should trust God. God also has trusted us with all that He has given us, both spiritual and material.
This website contains a wealth of information. It not only provides resources which are free (some books can also be ordered, if desired), but which also cover both the principles and the application of those principles by a New Testament church. Pages and articles cover, for example, the doctrines of church, state, and separation of church and state,; church incorporation and 501(c)(3) status; the history of religious freedom in America, church betrayal of God through incorporation, 501c3 and 508 status, etc.
The Love Relationship between Christ and His Churches
This website is the product of a love story; a love story between Christ and his local churches and between Christ and the universal church which will be established at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
I, Jerald Finney, was a hopeless lost sinner until Christ saved me from my sin. When he did that, he freed me from the condemnation of sin and the fate of eternal death in the lake of fire. He made a new creature of me. I was so thankful for what he did, I said to him in my heart,
“Even now should I die and go to hell, I would be getting exactly what I deserve. But thank you Lord that because you paid the price for my sin, I have been spared the fate which I deserve. Because of that, I will serve you forever. I will love you forever, dear Lord.”
Of course, I still commit sins, but not nearly as many; and I do not wallow in sin because the Holy Spirit which lives within me convicts me of sin. When I sin, I confess, get back up, and go forward for Christ. You see, I am a new creature in Christ Jesus. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” (Titus 2:11-14).
I want the church I am a member of to strive to be espoused to one Husband, to strive to present herself as a chaste virgin to Christ. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty,” that our minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
The Bible teaches that no matter what one says, one does not love the Lord if he does not value and preserve the purity of the relationship between Christ and his church.
After all, the church is called the bride and wife of the Lamb. “Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled” (John 3:28-29; see also, 1 Corinthians 11.1-4 which speaks of the church as a virgin espoused to one husband and Ephesians 5.23-33 where Paul, under inspiration of God, likens the relationship of Christ and His Church to that of Husband and wife.).
Loving God is preeminent for a believer and for a church. One does not love God by just asserting that he loves God. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14.15). The greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matthew 22.37; Mark 12.30; Luke 10.27).
Love is action. This love between Christ and his church is seen in the Song of Solomon:
The Song of Solomon, “[p]rimarily, is the expression of pure marital love as ordained of God in creation, and the vindication of that love as against both asceticism and lust—the two profanations of the holiness of marriage. The secondary and larger interpretation is of Christ, the Son and His heavenly bride, the Church” (2 Cor. 11.1-4, ).
“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned” (Song of Solomon 8.7). “Contemned” means “despised, scorned, slighted, neglected, or rejected with disdain.”[i] God despises, scorns, slights, neglects, or rejects with disdain all that a church does, whatever professions of love she makes, if those acts and/or professions are without love. A church who does not honor Christ as a wife is to honor her husband, her bridegroom, by remaining pure and chaste, does not display love for the Lord. Thus, loving ones neighbor by witnessing to him, sending missionaries to him, helping him materially or any other way in obedience to the second commandment—“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”—is vanity in God’s eyes if one ignores the greatest commandment.
This fact is also articulated in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus is jealous over his church. If we do not love the Lord Jesus, he despises all the “Christian” work we do and the money we put in the offering plate:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (I Corinthians 13.1-3).
“In a theological sense, [‘charity’] “includes supreme love to God and a universal good will to men. 1 Cor. xiii. Col. iii. 1 Tim. i.”[ii] Love is an act of the will. A church refutes its proclamations of love for the Lord when it wholly or partially takes the church from under the headship of her husband, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Love “[r]ejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth” (I Corinthians 13.6). Iniquity means “Injustice, unrighteousness, … [w]ant of rectitude [rightness in principle or practice], … a sin or crime; wickedness….”[iii] Bible truth makes clear that the love of Christ for his church is immense, that he wants to be the only head and companion of the church who is likened to his wife and bride, and that for a church to even partially put herself under or associate with another entity is a great wickedness and repudiates all professions of love for the Lord. As is shown in Separaton of Church and State/God’s Churches: Spiritual or Legal Entities?, the church who incorporates and secures a 501(c)(3) tax exemption puts herself partially under another head, commits a wicked sinful act in violation of biblical principle, and rejoices in iniquity.
The Lord Jesus gave a warning to the church at Ephesus:
“I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Revelation 2.2-5).
As Dr. J. Vernon McGee teaches us, this warning was for every church who has lost her love for the Lord Jesus:
“It was a warning of danger of getting away from a personal and loving relationship with Jesus Christ. The real test of any believer, especially those who are attempting to serve Him, is not your little method or mode or system, or your dedication, or any of the things that are so often emphasized today. The one question is: Do you love Him? Do you love the Lord Jesus? When you love Him, you will be in a right relationship with Him, but when you begin to depart from the person of Christ, it will finally lead to lukewarmness. The apostate church was guilty of lukewarmness. It may not seem to be too bad, but it is the worst condition that anyone can be in. A great preacher in upper New York state said: ‘Twenty lukewarm Christians hurt the cause of Christ more than one blatant atheist.’ A lukewarm church is a disgrace to Christ.”[iv]
As the Lord Jesus Christ is jealous over his churches, so should pastors and church members be jealous, with a godly jealousy, over the church they belong to, just as Paul was: 2 Corinthians 11:2-3: “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2-3).
“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him” (II Corinthians 11.2-4; Luke 18.8; II Timothy 3.1-8).
The church who really loves her husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, will seek to maintain her purity, to be subject to her husband in all things. All the professions of love, all the good deeds, the hymns sung, and the messages preached by a church who does not totally submit herself in all things to her husband, are contemned by the Lord.
A church who takes a 501(c)(3) tax exemption, an incorporation, a license, or any type permit from the state, or puts herself under the state in any way, becomes an earthly legal entity subject to the jurisdiction of an earthly power, the civil government. Such a “church” is in fact a two headed monster. Such a “church,” in spite of any professions of love for the Lord, according to her acts shows that she does not love the Lord Jesus Christ. Should you question this, study the Bible principles of government, church, and separation of church and state. Then study the law to see exactly how incorporation (includes corporation sole) or any kind of legal status and Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) status for a church violate God’s principles. In depth studies of these matters are included on this website.
Endnotes
[i] AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, NOAH WEBSTER (1828), definition of “CONTEMNED.”
[ii] AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, NOAH WEBSTER (1828), definition of “CHARITY.”
[iii] AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, NOAH WEBSTER (1828), definitions of “INIQUITY” and “RECTITUDE.”
[iv] J. Vernon McGee, Revelation, Volume I (Pasadena, California: Thru the Bible Books, 1982), pp. 121-122.
JERALD C. FINNEY
BAB, HB, BBA, JD 801 Elgin St.
Amarillo, TX 79118 Phone : (512) 785-8445
E-MAIL: jeraldfinney157@gmail.com
There are no charges for services of this ministry, ever. No pleas for donations either. This work is motivated by a love for the Lord Jesus Christ and the goal is the glory of God. The Lord has given me a burning passion for this work, and it is an honor and privilege to be or service.
Give me a call for any reason. Should you wish to organzed a New Testament Church according to God’s principles, I will work with you to accomplish that goal.
I am a lawyer licensed in Texas.
JERALD C. FINNEY
BAB, HB, BBA, JD 801 Elgin St.
Amarillo, TX 79118 Phone : (512) 785-8445
E-MAIL: jeraldfinney157@gmail.com
Simply Church: The Holy Union of Christ and His Local Church explains the Bible Trust relationship with property, which, when properly understood and applied, keeps a church out of all entanglements with any entity other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, The Love of God Perfected. Are you asking, “What can I do to please my heavenly father?” That is the right question. This short audio teaching on what the word of God teaches about “the love of God perfected.”
The highest law of man in America regarding religious freedom says that churches can do things God’s way without persecution. Thus, a church in America who remains under the Lord Jesus Christ only (non-incorporated, non-501(c)(3), non-legal entity of any kind) is obeying both God and man. Render unto Caesar the things that are his and unto God the things that are His.
The purpose of all ministry publications is to glorify and please God. When one seeks Bible truth and presents what he believes to reflect that truth, the only motive that pleases God is love for the Lord and His truth. If you disagree with anything, open-minded debate is encouraged. Please do not become angry. Rather, engage this ministry in a Bible based search for truth (See, Ephesians 4:11-16), with the goal of glorifying God and finding the truth. Reasoning together should include include the Bible principles and analysis of the common law or Bible trust as applied to the Bible principles. Open debate and honest study, with the Bible as the foundation, glorifies God, especially when considering the institution God loved and gave himself for. Respond in love as all lessons are inspired by love for God and His truth. I will publicly repent of any error which is revealed to me by love-centered discourse. God bless.
–
Ephesians 4:11-16: “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”
Click above to go to “Pride-What God Thinks About It and More.”
Contents:
Introduction
Some Facts about Pride
Examples of the Results of the Pride
Any Sex Outside of Marriage Is an Abomination to God. If not Repented of, It Results in the Degradation of the Individual, the Family, Religion, and the Nation, and Ultimately in God’s Judgement
Examples of what God Says about Adultery
Examples of what God says about Fornication
Examples of what God says about Sodomy and Lesbianism
Why God Says He Judged Sodom and Gomorrah
5. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Choosing to engage in sex outside of marriage is a sin which is an abomination to God.
God, longsuffering as always, pleads with every person to repent, turn to him, and trust Christ to save them from the penalty of sin. God regenerates the new believer and lives in him. (2 Corinthians 5:17; Titus 3:5) After salvation, God begins the process of saving the sinner from the habit and dominion of sin (Romans 6:14; Philippians 1:19; 2:12, 13, 2 Thesallonians 2:13; Romans 8:2; Galatians 2:19, 20; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The end for the believer is to be like Christ (Romans 13:11; Hebrews 10:36; 1 Peter 1:5; 1 John 3:2)
The inevitable result of unrepentant sin, in spite of the longsuffering of God and His warnings, is God’s judgment.
2. Some Facts about Pride
“Pride of heart is the attitude of a life that declares its ability to live without God.”
Number one on God’s hate parade listed in Proverbs 16-19 is pride.
“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Proverbs 8:13).
“… [T]he pride of life is not from the father” “1 John 2:16).
The pride of life comes from the devil. Pride was the sin of Satan (“I will.”). See, Isaiah 14:12-17 for Satan’s eleven “I wills.”
The pride of one’s heart deceives a person.
3. Examples of the Results of the Pride
It causes one to “live lower than animals.”
Pride leads to other sins. One’s “philosophy of life is going to gradually work its way down into your fingers, your feet, your eyes and all your senses.”
Pride leads one to associate with others who are guided by pride.
Sometimes pride leads one to commit adultery, fornication, sodomy or lesbianism or to declare that he/she is not of the sex God made him or her. These sins are also accompanied by many others such as:
666 unrighteousness,
666 wickedness,
666 covetousness,
666 maliciousness;
666 envy,
666 murder,
666 debate against God,
666 deceit,
666 malignity;
666 whispering,
666 backbiting,
666 hating God,
666 despising those who are good,
666 boasting,
666 inventing evil things,
666 being disobedient to parents,
666 lacking understanding,
666 breaking covenants,
666 being unmerciful.
God is longsuffering and pleads with mankind to repent, but the eventual result of unrepentant sin is God’s judgment.
4. Any Sex Outside of Marriage Is an Abomination to God and, if not Repented of, Results in the Degradation of the Individual, the Family, Religion, and the Nation, and ultimately in God’s Judgement
Examples of what God says about adultery:
Exodus 20:14: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
Leviticus 20:10: And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
Proverbs 6:32: “But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.”
Jeremiah 3:8: “And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.”
Jeremiah 5:7: “How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.”
Jeremiah 7:9: “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;”
Jeremiah 23:14: “I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.”
Jeremiah 23:14: ”I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.”
Ezekiel 23:37: “That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them.”
Hosea 4:13-14: “They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.”
Matthew 5:27-28: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”
Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
2 Peter 2:13-1: “And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:”
Notice above, that adultery is linked to many other sins, including idolatry (worshiping and serving idols (gods) rather than the one and only God).
Examples of what God says about Fornication:
1 Corinthians 5:1: “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.”
1 Corinthians 6:13: “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.”
1 Corinthians 6:18:”Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”
1 Corinthians 7:2: “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.”
1 Corinthians 10:8: “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.” (See Numbers 25:1-9).
2 Corinthians 12:21:”And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.”
Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Ephesians 5:3: “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;”
Colossians 3:5-6: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:”
1 Thessalonians 4:3: “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:”
Jude 1:7: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Examples of what God says about Sodomy and Lesbianism:
God instructed the Israelites to take the land he had given them because the land was defiled by abominations listed in Leviticus 18 (See, Leviticus 18:24, 28). Included in those abominations were all kinds of sexual sins. For example, they had violated God’s law that man should not lie with mankind, as with womankind, because it is an abomination ((Leviticus 18:22). It is important to note that God was longsuffering, as always, with the inhabitants before judging them (See, Genesis 15:16). God continues to be longsuffering with nations, as the prophets of the Old Testament, and history, attest, but there comes a time when God judges unrepentant nations.
Romans 1:18-32:
“18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
“19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
“20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
“21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
“22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
“23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
“24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
“25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
“26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
“27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
“28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
“29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
“30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
“31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
“32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
Why God Judged Sodom and Gomorrah:
Genesis 18 tells the story God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Jude 1:5-7: “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
2 Peter 2:6-8: “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)”
Scriptures which mention Sodom and/or Gomorrah always link their story with God’s judgment. See, Genesis 10:19; 13:10-13; 14:2-22; 18:16-26; 19:1-28; Deuteronomy 29:23; 32:32; Isaiah 3:9-10; Jeremiah 23:14-59; 49:17-22; 50:40 (34-43); Lamentations 4:6 (1-23); Ezekiel 16:46-59; Amos 4:11 (6-13); Zephaniah 2:9 (4-15); Matthew 10:14-15; 11:23-24 (20-24); Mark 6:11-13; Luke 10:12-15; 17:28-32; 2 Peter 2:6-14; Jude
5. Conclusion
“What consummate conceit of man, living apart from God, to think that he has evolved from an animal when he is living lower than an animal.”
“How many people today are attempting to run their lives as if they were God? They feel that they don’t need God, and they live without Him. The interesting thing is that when God made us He did not put a steering wheel on any of us. Why? Because He wants to guide our lives. He wants us to come to Him for salvation first, and then He wants to take charge of our lives. When you and I run our lives, we are in the place of God. We are in the driver’s seat. We are the ones who are the captains of our own little ships or our own little planes, and we are going through the water or the air just to suit ourselves. That is pride, and anyone who reaches that position, if he continues in it, is committing a sin which is fatal because it means he will go into a lost eternity.”
“Men and women walking through life with their heads down like animals (only man looks up, animals look down), there is only One who can lift them. Evolution has not lifted mankind one inch. Look at our world that has been schooled in this godless philosophy. The deadly poison of godless materialism and humanism will bring upon us the judgment of God! God says, ‘Though you be lifted up, little man, I’ll bring you down.’”
“But He also says, through the lips of His Son, our Saviour: ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me’ (John 12:32). Which way are you going, my friend? Down the way of pride, pessimism, unbelief and rebellion, down, down, down? You who were made in the likeness of God can be restored. You will have to lay aside your pride and come in helplessness to this Saviour. He can lift you.”
Note. Those statements in quotes, unless otherwise indicated are from Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s Commentaries on the Books of Obadiah and Micah.
1. Introduction 2. Some Facts about Pride 3. Some Results of Pride 4. Marriage and the Family According To God 5. Conclusion
1. Introduction
Choosing to kill one’s unborn baby is the result of pride. Pride is “the attitude that declares its ability to live without God.” It results in idolatry, the replacement of God with another god or other gods. When one chooses abortion, the killing of his or her baby, one says, “I am my own god.”
2. Some Facts about Pride
“Pride of heart is the attitude of a life that declares its ability to live without God.”
Number one on God’s hate parade listed in Proverbs 6:16-19 is pride.
“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Proverbs 8:13).
“… [T]he pride of life is not from the father” “1 John 2:16).
The pride of life comes from the devil. Pride was the sin of Satan (“I will.”). See, Isaiah 14:12-17 for Satan’s eleven “I wills.”
The pride of one’s heart deceives a person.
3. Some Results of Pride
Examples of the results of pride of life:
It causes one to “live lower than animals.”
Pride leads to other sins. One’s “philosophy of life is going to gradually work its way down into your fingers, your feet, your eyes and all your senses.”
Pride leads to violence. Sometimes one kills his/her baby. Sometime one beats his wife.
Sometimes one commits sodomy or lesbianism or declares that he/she is not of the sex God made him.
Sometimes one becomes a drunk. “You may have heard the story of the pig in Kentucky that got out of its pen, wandered out in the woods, and found a still. Mash had leaked out of this still which the pig began to eat and also to drink the liquid leaking out with it. The pig got drunk, and I mean drunk. He couldn’t walk, and he sprawled right down in the mud. He stayed there for twenty-four hours until he sobered up. Then as he started off grunting, he was heard to say, ‘I’ll never play the man again.'”
Pride leads one to associate with others who are guided by pride.
Pride leads men to betray others for various reasons. It causes judges to favor those who give the most to their campaigns rather than in the interest of justice. It leads to dog eat dog practices in the business world.
Pride leads to the judgment of God.
4. Marriage and the Family According to God
God created all things for his pleasure (Revelation 4:11). Obedience to God brings Him pleasure.
God’s word tells us that He ordained marriage and the family and gives us his rules for the father, mother and children.
God ordained marriage in the Garden of Eden. Jesus said, quoting from the book of Genesis: “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:4-6).
God instructed the first married couple: “Be fruitful, and multiply” (Genesis 1:28).
“My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalms 139:15-16).
“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Psalms 127:3).
God is not pleased when one kills his child. “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 18:21). “In other words, God said, “Do not offer a human sacrifice. Do not take your child and offer him as a human sacrifice. To do so profanes me.”
Killing one’s baby is offering him as a human sacrifice to the god of self.
5. Conclusion
“What consummate conceit of man, living apart from God, to think that he has evolved from an animal when he is living lower than an animal.”
“How many people today are attempting to run their lives as if they were God? They feel that they don’t need God, and they live without Him. The interesting thing is that when God made us He did not put a steering wheel on any of us. Why? Because He wants to guide our lives. He wants us to come to Him for salvation first, and then He wants to take charge of our lives. When you and I run our lives, we are in the place of God. We are in the driver’s seat. We are the ones who are the captains of our own little ships or our own little planes, and we are going through the water or the air just to suit ourselves. That is pride, and anyone who reaches that position, if he continues in it, is committing a sin which is fatal because it means he will go into a lost eternity.”
“Men and women walking through life with their heads down like animals (only man looks up, animals look down), there is only One who can lift them. Evolution has not lifted mankind one inch. Look at our world that has been schooled in this godless philosophy. The deadly poison of godless materialism and humanism will bring upon us the judgment of God! God says, ‘Though you be lifted up, little man, I’ll bring you down.’”
“But He also says, through the lips of His Son, our Saviour: ‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me’ (John 12:32). Which way are you going, my friend? Down the way of pride, pessimism, unbelief and rebellion, down, down, down? You who were made in the likeness of God can be restored. You will have to lay aside your pride and come in helplessness to this Saviour. He can lift you.”
Note. Those statements in quotes, unless otherwise indicated are from Dr. J. Vernon McGees Commentaries on the Books of Obadiah and Micah.
Ephesians 5:25-26: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,”
The book of Hosea deals with Israel’s great sin against God. In the Introduction to a commentary on the book of Hosea, first printed in 1978, the author states:
“The greatest sin in all the world is against love. This is worse than all the others, and this is the message of Hosea. Gomer was not only guilty of breaking the marriage vow, which was bad enough, but she sinned against the one who loved her. That is sin at its worst. My friend, to sin against God and the saviour who loves you is worse than the animism and animalism of the heathen world. The sin of paganism is nothing compared to the sin of those who sin against God’s love. It is deeper and darker than the immorality of the underworld and the demonism of the overworld.”
Quotation from The Greatest Sin in all the World which makes application as this sin is commited against the marriage vow and the marriage, and when the sin is committed in the home, the nation, and the church. Click here to go to PDF ofThe Greatest Sin in all the World.
God says:
“For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2).
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25-27).
“I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:2-4.).
“And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23).
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:17-18).
The “Simply Church” Ministry helps churches who wish to organize according to God’s principles for the church, churches who wish to return to the Lord and forsake their illegitimate lovers (the state through incorporation or other means, the federal government through tax-exempt status, etc.). Services are motivated by love. Therefore, there are no charges whatsoever for our help.
Most churches in America, including most so called “Bible believing Baptist Churches,” deny the power of God by organizing and conducting themselves according to the traditions of men as opposed to the commandments of God. Many, through study of God’s word and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, are realizing their sin, repenting, and committing themselves to glorifying and pleasing God in the matter of church organization and conduct.
Those churches needing help in the matter of transitioning from worldly organization to heavenly organism as well as those who are planting a new church may contact this ministry. This is a God-called ministry of love. There are no charges for our services.
The local church sanctified and cleansed by the washing of water by the word——————–A ministry of Charity Baptist Tabernacle of Amarillo, Texas led by Pastor Ben Hickam. "Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:1-3). ————————————Jerald Finney, a Christian Lawyer and member of Charity Baptist Tabernacle, having received this ministry in the Lord, explains how a church in America can remain under the Lord Jesus Christ and Him only. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" (1 Peter 4:10-11; See also, Ephesians 4::1-16 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-25). "Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it" (Colossians 4:17). "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church" (Ephesians 1.22; See also, e.g. Colossians 1:18).
Simply Church 