Tag: church

NO, NO, NO!

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NO, NO, NO!

By Rick Mathes

Galatians 5:25 (NASB77) 25  If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Paul and Jesus teach clearly that there is only one Baptist of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: yes, the Holy Spirit once. When you are baptized you have all the Holy Spirit has and the proof of a genuine baptism is that you walk in the Spirit. When people get to know you they get to know Jesus. You personify the Lord you have pledged your allegiance to.

Fruit of this experience is certainly led by humility: the gentleness of a dove. It was pride that drove Lucifer from heaven and it will be pride that will drive you to hell. It doesn’t take much of a provocation for the devil to jump on your weakness. You can tempt the devil to tempt you with the sin of your weakness.

Lusting for all that is around you is a surrender of your eyes to look outward instead of upward. All the weight of hell is pulling your eyes to look at all the devil’s goodies around you. Taste them and then get so hooked in the flesh you are to proud to admit that you are not strong enough to let go and let God. This battle within you will sap all your strength until you become to weary to get up off the canvas and fight back.

Let the Holy Spirit do His thing! This includes a complete restoration of your soul to its first nature to walk in the cool of the day with God. It’s second nature to turn your back on Jesus and run with the devil. The most outstanding evidence of being good is being to all. Being good to good is manlike but returning good for bad is Christ like.

It’s your responsibility only, no one else’s, to make decisions that are within God’s will. When we go through that turnstile to glory we will meet our King one on one. We will be standing alone and be accountable for all the decisions we have made in our lifetime. So your support ministry is to hold me accountable and mine is to hold you accountable. Together we will sharpen our swords and fight the good fight!

 

NO THANKS

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NO THANKS

By Rick Mathes

John 1:11 (NASB77) 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

I can’t get my mind around the truth that God inhabited the man Jesus. Creator enjoined with the creation is more than science fiction because it really happened so that we could see as much of God as our mind was capable of understanding Him. Heaven kissed earth and was spurned and rejected. He lived to die.

To this moment He is almost an “endangered species” in America, so to speak. The efforts Caesar (our president) has permitted has chased anything Christian to a common grave of separation of Church and State instead of Church from State. This misinterpretation of our religious rights has opened up the mouth of hell to vomit it’s evil in every area our nation can be found from coast to coast.

Our own hometowns that once were models for Norman Rockwell paintings are nowbankrupting and being bull-dozed as a wasteland; so much for Humanism and all its immoral tenets and doctrines of relativity. Now we can’t leave our home without an alarm system and a semi-automatic weapon nearby.

Quite often our friends become “politically correct” and avoid any and every reference to religion or anything that has to do with Jesus. Unfortunately, too many of so called “ministers” of the same and you will never hear them utter words “sin, death, devil, hell, repent, etc.” The Puritans are turning over in their graves and I have no doubts that the actions of many churches are making God gag!

The whole world of denominations has drifted so far from Jesus, it’s hard to tell that they are Christians. Ask yourself if you have any class in Church of the words and works of Jesus. I thought so! I guarantee that if Jesus doesn’t attend your church, it wasn’t Him that moved. You had no room for Him in your Inn.

NO ROOM

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NO ROOM

By Rick Mathes

Luke 2:7 And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Can you even imagine how embarrassed that Inn Keeper was when he learned that he turned away the Messiah of Israel? I’ll bet he’s kicking himself all over heaven right now. How can anyone refuse Christ a room in their Inn when they know it’s Jesus?

My birth father was killed in WWII protecting the Judeo-Christian values that our country has since trashed. All I have left of him is a purple heat and the flag that draped his casket. And all our nation has is an abandonment of all moral values. God has all but left the USA. Our modern society has no room for Christianity or anything it stands for. How sad!

Society is totally composed of humanists consumed by materialism. Greed has conquered creed. The world has even encroached on the church and made it an entertainment center that is void of the Word and Holy Spirit. It is not politically correct to post the 10 Commandments nor even speak the name of Jesus in public places. Jesus, the Creator has been banned from fellowship with His created. Just think about that.

This heathen world has immersed itself in all forms of business and has left the marketplace without any respect for integrity or good character. Big fish eat little fish and so it goes on and on. Commerce above the table has been paralyzed under the table as necessary for success. What is our lost world to do?

The only salvation for any civilization is Christ’s Church. The backbone of the true faith is Bible only, Jesus only, grace only and faith only. There is no salvation apart from that formula, the Gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The Church, or rather the Body of Christ is composed of all the homes that are dedicated to the Lord and His blessings. Oh, we don’t have blood over our door posts these days that is visible but that blood of Christ, although invisible, covers those who believe in His Lordship and resurrection.

We all bleed red and we all have a heart that we can give to Jesus. When we do, His blood runs through our veins and our heart beats with His. Yes, we always have room for Him and will never turn Him away!

 

NO RETREAT

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NO RETREAT

By Rick Mathes

Mark 13:13 And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.

Real Christianity is exclusive. There is only one Jesus and He is the only way to the Father and entry into heaven. The hard truth is that everyone else is going to be tortured in eternal flames forever. Jesus said that He was “the way, the truth and the life.” And that no one, no one, without a qualifier can get past Him. This is why Satan’s world of false religions hate us so is because this is the truth or we have joined th army of hypocrites.

Our walk must express our tlk or we have joined the army of hypocrites the devil is marshaling against us; when your profession of allegiance to Jesus is violated. You’ve just gien the demon foot soldiers a victory. This arouses their confidence of victory over your shaky faith and they double their efforts to defeat you with doubt and fear.

In other words, your actions speak louder than your words. You are shaming our Lord when your walk is sabotaged by your own lack of resolve. If I were set out to destroy your relationship with Jesus I would just leave you alone. Without a church of believers to lift you up, you will trip and fall.

It’s just a matter of time. WE are mortal and God knows our death date and I do too. Would you like me to tell you the year, month, week, hour and minute of your last heartbeat? Ok, here it comes! You will die the moment your assignment on earth is accomplished. It is then He will take you to your reward.

There are three things that cannot be recovered: 1. A sped arrow, 2. A spoken word and 3. A passing opportunity. Your words are irrecoverable so use them carefully and protect them like precious jewels.

Lastly, your habits are the actions of your habits. Makes sense to me to do those things that strengthen my stanfd for Christ and in time my habit will be to stand firm, put on the armor and lift up the sword. No that’s a great habit and its essence of the hate those who refuse Him will have against us. We just don’t retreat!

 

NO RESURRECTION

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NO RESURRECTION

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 15:12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

The very heart and soul of our faith is the resurrection of our Lord from the dead of His own volition. The empty tomb is His Deity immortalized. It was my mission to prove that it wasn’t so. I thought my wife was really weird believing such nonsense so I went to work to think through really strange believing such silliness so I went to work to think through the alternatives from the book “Evidence Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell. Not necessarily in order of importance but here are a few alternative views:

Fraud Theory: The soldiers were paid by the Jewish leaders to say that the Apostles stole the Lord’s body while they slept. There was a death penalty for the guards of the tomb if they fell asleep. Even if this was true, do you really believe all the Apostles that were martyred confessed with their last breath insisted He rose from the dead if He didn’t?

Swoon Theory: Some claim the vinegar was drugged to make it appear that He died when He really went into some kind of a coma. The Centurion who put the blade of his spear into the Lord’s heart knew better and so did those who buried Him. He was really dead.

Vision Theory: I suspected that all those who saw Him alive were just stoned on drugs and were all hallucinating. Well this doesn’t hold water because they couldn’t have all been seeing the same illusion for forty days and then imagine Him to disappear into a cloud. I don’t think so!

Spirit Theory: I was taught that Jesus the man became Jesus the God at His baptism and died Jesus the man when He gave up His Spirit the God from the cross. Believing that God could be crucified and die was not a consideration. The Bible teaches Jesus was fully God and fully man at all times and that His renewed body is how we will be. The angels testified that He would return (bodily) as He left the ground and we who believe have been looking skyward in expectation of Him ever since.

The conspiracy theories and stories have been merchandised ever since but we who are born again know the truth because He lives on in us. I know, I know my Redeemer lives. How about you?

LEFT BEHIND

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LEFT BEHIND

By Rick Mathes

Acts 26:28 And Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.”

While you are asleep at night, Satan is doing push-ups and planning the lies about Christianity he will begin broadcasting when the sun comes up. We are at war and it’s about time you signed up.

Let’s set the record straight: Christian faith is not an irrational leap of faith. The faith we enjoy is perfectly rational and is not an emotional crutch as so many non-believers claim. Our emotions harmonize when we are in tune with the angels.

Superstitions do not have verifiable facts and hundreds of witnesses. No, it is not some old wives tale or legend. Don’t fall for the secular claims that the so called lost gospels of Christ prove that much of what we understand Christianity to be is bogus. I will admit that by my reckoning, only two-percent of those that claim the are born again really are.

Some are run off because they believe that our faith is nothing but a long list of rules: do’s and don’ts. It’s true that the Pharisees were very rigid on their traditions and alleged violations of Scripture but Jesus set them straight and the Bible breathed the breath of freedom once again. We are not under the law anymore. It was instituted to define what repulsed God. But when we submit to His Lordship we only gravitate to holiness.

Christianity is not just a lot of rituals. Christianity is a person: Jesus. All the rest is not relevant. The early church met in a home, near water for baptisms. They sang hymns, reaffirmed the Decalogue, heard a Scripture reading, and had communion and a fellowship dinner afterwards. All the Roman Catholic Popery is nonsense and has no Biblical basis. It is completely made up by the religious elite that think they can invent their religion as they go along. Paul said that if you change anything in what was originally taught, you should be kicked out of the church and relegated to Hell.

Christians have been called fanatics. Do you know what a fanatic is? It’s someone who loves the Lord more than you do!

The most absurd claim by unbelievers, the World Council of Churches and other liberals is that there are many ways to get to heaven. Jesus does not leave that option open to anyone. He said, “No one comes to the Father but by Me.” This is very clear but most don’t get it.

LAST WORD

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LAST WORD

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB77) 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, ” All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  19 ” Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew ended his gospel with the final thoughts he wanted the readers to note and do something about. Our Lord’s last words here have more the weight of pure gold. It’s my understanding and the teaching of the word is to be a Christian is to be Christ-like.

Christians are being persecuted in every quarter of the world More have been killed for their faith in my lifetime than from my birthdate back to the Cross! Satan has accelerated his attack at an unprecedented pace and the only thing that will save us is the fearless preaching of ministers that are totally consecrated to Him and pursuing holiness with all that is within him.

What must oe do I these perilous times to keep the faith, fight the good fight and finish the race? How can we as mortals take a tan against Lucifer and his fallen angels?

It takes spiritual testosterone and fearless preaching! I am so ashamed of the so called ordained that are feminine wimps. How can we fight against the Caesars of thie secular war when the pulpits are silent on abortion, homosexuality, immorality, alcohol & drug abuse, child molestaing, etc. I am aghast  at the horror show I see on our local news each night of murders, sodomy, terrorists, war, starvation, plagues, and wht do you hear from our Lord’s professing ambassadors on the altars across our lands; nothing but baby food, cute jokes & illustrations but mostly just entertainment. A cross we must carry to save our civilization is a persecution of our faith. The revolution with the Sword of the Word must rage now or the America our forefathers founded will be D.O.A.

The solution for you and I is to put Jesus first, follow Him and deny self. Reformed faith and revival of primitive Christians hinges on what eachof us does about Jesus. Your family and mine ae the building blocks of the Christian society Satan is hell-bound on destroying. We know the end result; we win but we must get into the battle as the Lord last word commands us!

 

LAST SERMON

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LAST SERMON

Luke 23:35 35 And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.”

“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

Bless His bleeding heart. He began this sermon with forgiveness of those who have sinned against Him. This is an intercession of charity that has forever been unmatched in human history. It was the major opening theme of all who met Him and spoke the good news to those who would listen and it is the heart of the pulpit message to this day.

“Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Now that’s what I call an assurance of salvation. Note that the thief never even looked at a Bible, he didn’t attend a church service, he never experienced an immersion baptism nor did he have any outstanding gifts nor display any signs and wonders.

“Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother.”

The only thing we can take with us to heaven is our family. What greater love can a son have but to love and care for the mother that gave him life. There is something special in a son’s love for his mother.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?”

I can answer that: so that He would never leave nor forsake us. How horrible that the Godhead was ripped apart in the black night of mid-day. God turned His back on His Son and let the full weight of all hell’s sin crush the life out of Him.

“It is finished!”

Yes but it is not done. We still have time to go about the Father’s business. The full understanding of this dropped me to my knees to accept His forgiveness and it is as new, profound and fresh today as it was then.

“I thirst.” “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

He wet His parched lips to announce His homecoming! Having said and done all that the Word prophesied. It was time to go home. He was the second Adam but the first-born to everlasting glory and when our duty here on earth is complete, we will join Him and all the saints that have passed before us. Won’t that be quite a party!

LAMB OF GOD

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LAMB OF GOD

By Rick Mathes

John 1:36 and he looked upon Jesus as He walked,

and •said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

The eyes are the window of the soul. They are the entry level to who you are and who you are becoming. Satan uses your eyes to linger on sin until you taste of it and become to proud to admit it and repent. The Holy Spirit has an entirely different plan for your eyes and of course the destination of your soul. You are sovereign over y0our body and your eyes will only look where your will directs them. So I want to encourage you to learn the following lesson and do some spiritual weight lifting with me.

  1. Look Backward: Don’t allow Satan to run your nose through your dirty past to steal your joy. But look backward to a dying Savior nailed to the tree gasping “Forgive them.” He stretched out His arms and said, “I love you this much,” and it was finished. Your past is now past. In fact my favorite verse in the KJV is, “It came to pass!”
  2. Look Upward: Put your face in the mud, the blood and the tears at the foot of the cross and then look up into His suffering face and eyes. Can you see the love and pity He has for you? Like giving birth, He suffered the pain so that you might be born again. He loves you so much He would go through it all again just for you.
  3. Look Inward: Christ lives in you. The old has gone and the new has come. You are now Christ with skin on. He became the hand you are the glove. When people get o know you do they get to know Him? You might be the only gospel another person may ever see. What a good life it is!
  4. Look Forward: Stepping through “Heavensgate” will be the most thrilling experience of your life! He’s coming back and we are pressing on! In the Old Testament the prophets looked forward through the telescope to the Cross. Now we have spiritual vision and see the glory we have been promised forward to His second coming.

He said that the gates of Hell will not prevail against us. He will never give us more than we can handle. He will always give us a way out. He will never leave nor forsake us. No one can take us out of His hand and where He is we will be. He said it, I believe it, that settles it!

LACKING

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LACKING

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 19:20 The young man •said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?”

People of wealth are usually owned by what they own. Things of affluence and comfort can choke the Word of God out of their golden lives: all sizzle and no steak. We are the culmination of all that past before us and we are the product of that which will be: garbage in – garbage out. A look in our mirror only reflects what we want to view and too often, we don’t see with His eyes. The Light of Jesus is an illumination that discloses real life without the shadows of demons that lurk behind money, power and prestige.

Satan offered Jesus the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down and worship him. It stands to reason that he couldn’t have offered them if he didn’t have them. A glaring example of this is Las Vegas NV: the capital of self-indulgence, decadence and materialism. Sins of pride and covetousness are the magnets that irresistibly draw you to your slow death of spirit and ultimately even your life.

Jesus said that He was the way, the truth and the life!

There is no love in sin. The feeling you get is a pathetic feeling of hate and self-loathing. God made y ou in His Image and Likeness. What can you add to that? Then why try? Your spirit is restless for what you see on the outside instead of who you are, in Him, on the inside. So Satan captures your eyes, flesh and then pride hostage and you become addicted to more, more and more until you finally red-line yourself to death: dead. Christ is your only salvation, got it?

This peace that protesters seek will not and cannot be produced much less even discovered apart from Him. Our hope is then reawakened. The unbelievers shift their center of gravity from divine to human where each becomes god and determines morality, integrity and character upon the basis of “self.” This omission of God is a fatal attraction that Satan relishes in.

The joy we lack is replaced with any counterfeit we will fall for. The devil knows the right buttons to push and even though he can’t make us sin and lose our joy, he can lead us to despair and unhappiness with what appears to be worldly prosperity.

Face the fact that your only security is in the capable hands of your Maker. God alone has all the true wealth and it is all yours in glory if you will let go of it here on earth.