Category: Evangelical Christian

SIN

By Rick Mathes

Romans 6:11 Even so consider your selves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Sin remains an outlaw. It’s field of battle is the body. The devil knows that to get to your soul he must go through your mind and heart, intellect and feelings to get there. It’s your eyes that are the entry level to acting out sin. Looking at a temptation is not the main issue because temptations are everywhere you go or look. It’s lingering on the sin that deadens your resistance taste it.  Once you taste of that sin, it is sweet and you want more and more until it owns you. Then you become too proud to admit the devil has you in his fiery clutches and you are slowly being lowered into that endless abyss of flames.

Sin is a plotter. It wants hunger, thirst and pain and it will do anything to destroy your comfort zone. Our strongest desires while we inhabit Satan’s camp are to strengthen our resistance to repentance by lies, deceit and denials. We seek out others of like kind to enjoy our gorging onf sin at the banquet of decadence.

Sin remains an enemy. It craves over-indulgence in the sinful pleasures that will consume your thoughts and deaden your feelings. The devil will put a mask on to be your best friend. His lies and deceits will be dripping in honey. Believe me, he is only offering a pile of horse manure with frosting on it. Gag!

Sin remains a tyrant. It’s pleasures will eat your flesh, spit out the bones and abandon you to your reward of smoldering embers and flaming souls screaming in excruciating pain and agony without end or any relief! Don’t be fooled. Satan can counterfeit all good things and package them to be very desirable. Everything in your humanity will be drawn to look, taste and be hooked on sin. When you play with a rattle snake, eventually you will be fatally bitten. Pretend that you are soaked in lighter fluid and be reminded to not play with a lit match!

Sin is the venom of the original serpent from the Garden of Eden. His methods have not changed. He will sink his poisonous fangs into you if you just give him a chance and turn your back on the Cross for only a moment. God cannot help you if you do! You will sin.

A Simmering Volcano

By Rick Mathes

America is in an epidemic of crime that is sweeping the inner-cities and plying on the young minorities to “join the family.” In St. Louis as well as in other major cities the majority of children are born to fatherless homes and ironically most black men killed are murdered by black men. And our prisons are disproportionately populated by a black population. And now the nation of Islam is sweeping up those that our educational system and racial prejudices have left behind. How can anyone be surprised that minority retribution is cloaking itself within the blessings of Allah? Dumbing-down is backfiring! Financed by the white suburban addicts buying up all the “white” heroin and meth anyone can produce, these home grown terrorists are raping and pillaging their own neighborhoods as gang after gang hook up with radical Muslims that will not denounce their evil intentions. The silence of the American Muslim community is deafening.

Is anyone awake? The volcano is about to explode. Prisons are a breeding ground for those who have found violence, crime and drug dealing as a way out of the ghetto. When an inmate is released to society he returns to those “who will take care of him” and stands proudly as a parole that has “earned his stripes.” The young gangsters look up to him and all that he has learned while incarcerated by the “Department of Education.” (Or was that Department of Corrections?) The system doesn’t work and more of what doesn’t work, won’t work! It has been estimated that at the rate of “black flight” from St. Louis, by the year 2037 the last porch light will go out. The city will be desolate and the suburbs will be the new battle ground. That won’t happen but we can’t ignore those that are left behind and the fractured families that are at the mercy of the militant Muslims that make “Osama bin Laden” look like “Mr. Rogers.” American terrorists are finding their way into the Muslim community and masking their violence and crime with the blessings of Allah.

The Koran points the way to a “better society” that excludes those who don’t believe (infidels). So all those unbelievers are the enemy and the victory must go to Allah no matter what it takes or who it harms in the process. The fatal attraction is not in some far distant country, it is within the very soul of our major cities. Someone, someday will pen the “Rise and Fall of America” and maybe we have helped him write the final chapter with our tolerance of the silent Muslim community that may very well be a simmering volcano.

SILENT PARTNER

By Rick Mathes

John 14:26 (NASB77) ²⁶  “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remsembrance all that I said to you.

How humble can you get? The Father’s name is Jehovah, the Son’s name is Jesus but the Holy Spirit doesn’t have a name. He has titles and descriptions but no formal name; an amazing display of humility. His only function is to quicken Christ in us.

He stands in the place of Christ and temporarily fulfills the Lord’s offices until the second coming and the millennium of His government. Let’s just examine a few of the things the Holy Spirit does in our lives and on behalf of us that we barely give notice to or give Him credit for.

Instructor: We all know that the Logos is the Word of God but until the Holy Spirit brings understanding, it is just words with no instruction with power: inspirational but not life changing.

Advocate: At last we have someone to stand firm in our defense!

Comforter: There is no consolation from the cold lifeless arms or humanity. Now a believer has someone to turn to that is there for you.

Faithful: Time after time and time again people will turn against us if is to their advantage. Even supposed friends will sell us out if the return is worth the abandonment of even a life-long friendship.

Loving: I learned this from a loving Holy Spirit. This includes from time to time to lose the battle and with the war with love.

Wise: The Holy Spirit is Sophia (wisdom) personified in God’s Trinity.

Unwearied: The Holy Spirit never tires of accomplishing it’s task in you.

Active: God doesn’t rest and neither does the devil. So the Holy Spirit is on the scene and at war with Satan every day all day always.

Ever Present: There isn’t anywhere you can go and not have the Holy Spirit at your side. Sometimes when the going gets tough, you may feel alone and abandoned but take the Word’s promise, He is always with you with you without fail.

Successful: The Holy Spirit is not able to fail any more than light can yield to darkness. It is impossible for God the Father or God the Son to have God the Holy Spirit fail. Now that is all the assurance I need to know about my silent partner to trust Him completely.

Shepherd-sheep

By Rick Mathes

John 10:14 (NASB77) ¹⁴ ” I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me,

The Good Shepherd owns the elect. He paid your price on the cross and you are His. He has your “born again” certificate with His name on it as your Father. He has the warranty and guarantee that you are glory-bound. Isn’t that nice to know?

Jesus has the fence of angels around you to keep you safe from any harm and to keep the enemy out of His sheep-pen. There’s nothing to fear, just trust and obey. The Holy Spirit will keep you in His perfect care as He did creation: like a chick under its mother’s protective wing.

“I shall not want” will become a reality. He loves His sheep more than you are capable of loving anyone, even your very own children. It is His privilege to provide all your needs and wants. Let me caution you not to forget He provides when you are spoiled with His provision so don’t forget to thank Him when you are blessed.

God is the Good Shepherd that will lead you untold wonders and protect you from the fiery darts from the abyss. The gate of Hell cannot prevail against you. He will always provide you a way out and never give you more than you can bear.

If you are His you will know Him as your own and if you have a doubt, you aren’t. When He calls you will gladly respond because you will know His voice. You obeyed the bad shepherds one too many times so when the Lord calls, you will surely know the difference. When the Holy Spirit is upon you, you know you know!

The thief came to kill and destroy but Jesus came to bless you abundantly. When He calls your name, you must respond by saying, “Yes Sir!” God so loved the world He didn’t send a committee.

His sheep love Him and fear being offensive. They do whatever they can to avoid sin because it was sin that nailed Hi to that death stake. We as His sheep have no fear because we have put our complete trust in Him and His Word. This is my kind of a Shepherd that I can gladly follow wherever He leads. Let go and let God and realize that the rest of your life is none of your business.

 

SET FREE

By Rick Mathes

John 8:36 “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

John the Baptist, Apostles Paul and Peter and Jesus all began their first recorded sermons with just one word, “Repent!” It’s been two thousand years since and now you won’t even hear post-modern pastors even whisper the “R” word. From a humanist point of view, all religions are corrupt and no different that the sinful world they condemn.

Our churches need to be regenerated and then repentance of our nation will follow in reformation, revival and then revolution. Then what? When our country returns to the God who ordained and founded it, we will have a renewed Fourth of July freedom: What will we be free of?

Curse of the Law: love is not a law it is the effect when the law is abolished and the Spirit of God becomes the Spirit of our freedom. Law then is just an antique reminder of these thing we no longer have a nature to do. We arfe free to do all that is approved of our Lord and we love Him more than sin.

Guilt of Sin: Confession is making public your sin. Repentance is forsaking that sin forever. Guilt is the red flag of unconfessed and repented sin. Put your face in the mud, the blood and the tears at the foot of the cross and leave your sins there to die. Your aren’t disrespecting Jesus, the cross is empty and so is the tomb Take a dump, flush your toilet and don’t look back!

Dominion of Sin: Jesus died on that death stake to free us from the penalty, power and presence of sin. Our record is cleared and the Father won’t even find the dust on sin on us. All He will see when He looks onus is His Son. The back of the devil was broken when Jesus said, “It is finished.” The presence of sin will evaporate when He returns.

The Power of Darkness: Death stung Jesus and died! The only things that can revive the devil’s influence in our lives is doubt and fear. What can man do to you to fear when you have been set free in Him? Nothing!

The sting of death is dead and you have broke the cuffs. There is a tribe in South Africa that had a three day revival, 24 hours a day of non-stop preaching and altar calls. Those that were born again would run through the jungle shouting “Aku Aku” at the top of their lungs. “Freedom, Freedom.” Oh that we in America would experience the same. Come Lord Jesus, come.

SERVANTS

By Rick Mathes

Luke 1:2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have handed them down to us,

There was a breath taking moment when Paul passed the Kingdom on to timid Timothy. Servants of the Lord have been passing the baton form the Cross to this day: faith to faith, saint to saint, the message of salvation survives the generations.

Once you make Jesus your Lord, you become His bond-slave. When He gives a command, you obey. There are no committee meetings or arm wrestling matches. All He wants to hear from you is “Yes Sir!” Obedience is the only response to believing in Jesus. This is not a passing opportunity; it is an immanent requisite to be diligent and humble in His presence. Your reacting to His commandments speaks louder than your words. The hardest part is to be Christ with skin on. Put aside your obstinacy and pride for a moment. This take serious spiritual weight lifting.

The last step of a true Christian is to persevere. No matter what, the Word was entrusted to our care and we must not give up. WE must be the bearers of the good news, down to the last saint, down to the last moment when our Lord returns in glory.

It takes faithful servants. Let me rephrase that, it takes servants that are so full of faith that the gates of hell cannot prevail. Courageous saints of old are the shoulders that life the saints of today. Men of God who are unafraid of Caesar and the enemies of Christ because they know God is with us: what can man do against us?

Now is the time to really devote ourselves to the protection and preservation of the reformation truths as found in the Word of God. We must be uncompromising and without fear to stand above all the kingdoms of the world and declare Jesus is the Lord of His Word. That God has spoken to His own and they better listen carefully because the Lord is near and His Day will soon be upon us to account for our stewardship of the Word.

 

SENT FROM GOD

By Rick Mathes

John 1:6

There came a man sent from God, whose name was John

Verse 1.In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Verse 14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us;

These two mountain peaks loom over this verse to stagger your soul as to why John was even mentioned. At first reading, it lets the air out of my spiritual tires. I go flat. Why, oh why would the Holy Spirit lead brother John to even mention the Baptist in these first 18 verses of his gospel?

My conclusion was that the Word became flesh for John and all those that walk in his footsteps, which should include you if you are His.

Now didn’t Jesus say that of those born of woman none was greater on earth than John? Well, get a handle on this: He is saying that about you right now because you are His trophy and His reward in glory. He bought and paid for you with His blood and there is no one on earth that is greater in the world of unbelievers than you!

Here’s a piece of beef: You have always, yes always been in his will! Let’s get three facts clear before we continue: He is all knowing, present and powerful. Do you agree? Good. Now I want you to think of the most deplorable moment in your life that your memory will recall. Don’t hold back. I want you to think vividly of that horrible deed that you would not even speak out loud to anyone but Jesus. Got it? Great!

Put your seat belt on for this one: He knew the sinful thought you would think before you thought it. He empowered you to do it. He stood there while you were doing it and didn’t stop you when He could have at any moment. Read this again and think about it.

When you repent of all your sins back to the day you were born, you are sanctified and in His perfect will. When you sin and He holds back His Holy Spirit as He did to Job, you are in His permissive will. Perfect will and permissive will but none-the-less in His will. Each is designed by the Creator to form you into the man of God He has called you to be!

When we look at the back of a tapestry we only see the knots and tangles but when we turn it around we see the beauty of the creator’s imagination.

So it is with the Lord. One second the other side of glory you will look back and be totally astounded at His genius in fashioning your life in His perfect and permission will but always in His will! There was a man sent from God and his name was ______(You!)

 

SELF-IMAGE

By Rick Mathes

Romans 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.

The contract between a sinner and a saint is very stark. There is no mistaking who is who after a short period of observation. My heart still goes out to those poor souls that still think they can gain God’s favor and their own salvation by what they do to attain it.

They walk up the aisle for an altar call, say a rosary and get baptized in “kool aid” or any other such nonsense to corner God into forgiving their sins. They will also annoy Mother Mary with endless “Hail Mary” prayers like squeaking a wheel to torture her into persuading her Son to have mercy on you. The Bible teaches that we are elect and predestined by His will to save us only for His pleasure and because He feels like it. It has nothing to do with you or what you do.

Man continues to insist that we can save ourselves if we do more good than bad. So we invent religion, prayers, doctrines and rituals to do what we can to mold God into our image and likeness. Absurd!

Promoting our good deeds is a form of self-worship because no matter how we mask it in humility, we are receiving all the glory and honor ourselves. We approach God in pride and say, Look at what I have done for you; ain’t I something!” This makes God gag.

When you live for yourself everything, yes everything begins with the word “self.” Anytime I want to really repent of my sins I get out my thesaurus and go to the page after page of words that start with “self.” Every one of them is a sin.

Living for you develops a self image which is the opposite of the image and likeness of God you were created to mirror. When you are self-centered and look into your own vanity mirror, look beyond your image and you will see giddy demons laughing and dancing in the flames of delight that you will be joining them shortly. Can you feel the heat?

SEEK THE LORD

By Rick Mathes

Isaiah 55:6 (NASB) ⁶ Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.

The eyes are the entry level to the soul. They ignite the mind and heart to have passion for that which they linger on. Satan is a slick critter that puts all the weight of Hell on your eyes to drag them down to look out instead of up. When you do that you have lost sight of our Savior and have been enticed to feast on the visions of pleasure the admen of Hades can offer up on the platter of Heron’s pleasure. You are at risk of losing your head!

Remember I Chronicles 7:11 and onward? Humble, pray, seek and turn THEN He will hear, forgive and heal. Well, seeking His face needs to be a 24/7 effort.

I financed by party-money in college by shooting pool and playing poker: 5 cards, 3 draw. I was diabolical in the game. I didn’t just want to win, I wanted to take all you had and then walk away the victor. I wanted to hurt you. When it comes to seeking the devil or Jesus, I fold my hand of cards. There is no choice but to seek Jesus and live. My knees drop to the floor as I seek His face in all my travels.

You won’t find Him in a liquor store, nightclub, or bedroom of a whore. My best advice to you seekers is to find a Paul to follow and Timothy to drag along with you. Follow the pastor that follows the Master an you will not only seek the Lord, you will find Him with eyes that have been opened by His Holy Spirit.

The Word says that He will come back like a thief in the night when you least expect Him.

There you are in bed with a whore, a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bag of dope. The heavens are an amphitheater of all the souls that have passed into glory: all the Apostles, disciples, prophets, loved ones. They are all watching you in that state of sin.

The Father says, “I created them in my likeness.” Jesus says, “I died to atone for their sins.” The Holy Spirit says, “I have given them the power to refuse sin.” All three do thumbs down!

When we as saints go to glory, there won’t be anything but “yes” to Jesus, and no Satan to say “no” to. Now is the only time we can seek the Lord while he can be found and say “yes” to him and “no” to Satan.

He said from the Cross, “It is finished,” but has yet to say “it is done.”

So seek Him now while He may yet be found and do not tarry. The door is about to close and the final chapter is almost written and ready for print. The flames are drawing nearer!

 

SEE AND HEAR

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 11:4 (NASB) Jesus answered and said to them,

“Go and report to John what you hear and see:

Kentucky Fried Christianity seems to be the menu of most American Churches. It’s called carnal and worldly and is confused with the real thing by the master of deceit, Satan himself. Our language and rituals have all been duplicated to suit the congregation of Hell of which too many of us are faithful members.

Future Shock, Power Shift and Third Wave were written by Alvin Toffler in ten year intervals that looked into the future of economics and politics. They had a major influence in shaping my view of the next 10 years.

• In Future Shock he explained that “He who has the biggest weapons wins.”
• In Power Shift he explained that “He who has the most money can buy the weapons.”
• In Third Shift he explained that “He who had the knowledge and both of the above.”

I would suggest that the Gospel has all the power, wealth and knowledge we need for the next 10 years and the infinity beyond. All we need to do is hear and see.

Satan has pulled darkness over our understanding until we look up instead of looking out. You seek, all of hell is weighted on your eyes to look out at the world that is in the devil’s dominion instead of up to the glory of the coming King. We hear and see the damaged churches, faiths, doctrines and other heresies the “hounds of hell” have been busy spreading about to all that will take notice.

Humanism is the faith of the Devil and is so enticing to have because it avoids repent, submit and obey. You will never hear hell, death, devil or hell from the demon that might just be in your pulpit this Sunday. There is a way to find out!

Get a steno-pad, you know the one with the line down the middle. Take it with you to church this Sunday and every time your preacher says “I, me or mine” put a stick count down and every time he says, “He, Him or His” do the same. At the end of the service, total both columns and see who he was preaching about!