Notes for this Sunday

Below is one of the items we will be covering the next two weeks in class.  These are basic truths we hold dear and sign on to as teachers at LBC.

Truths We Hold Dear

It is our desire to have those presenting the Word of God to be in agreement with the church’s position on essential beliefs.  The following represents those beliefs.  (Revised 08/06)  

• About God – God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe.  He has eternally existed  in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  These three are co-equal  and are one God.
• About the Father – He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise.  He reigns with providential care over the universe and flow of human history goes according to His purposes and plan.
• About Jesus – Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  Jesus has eternally existed and became fully man at His incarnation.  Jesus lived a sinless human life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people by dying on a cross.  He bodily arose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death.  He ascended to Heaven’s glory and will return someday to earth to reign  as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
• About the Holy Spirit – Is the third Person of the Trinity, guiding men into all truth; exalting Christ; convicting of sin, cultivating Christian Character; comforting believers; bestowing spiritual gifts and sealing the believer until the final day of redemption.

• About the Scriptures – The Bible is God’s Word to us.  Human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit, wrote it.  It is timeless and is the supreme source of truth for Christian beliefs and living.  Because God inspired it, it is the truth without any mixture of error.   
• About Human Beings – People are made in the image of God and are the supreme object of God’s creation.  All of us are marred by an attitude of disobedience toward God called “sin”.  This attitude separates people from God and causes many problems in our lives.
• About Salvation – Salvation is God’s free gift to us, we must only accept it.  We can never make up for our sins by self-improvement or good works.  Only by trusting in Jesus Christ as God’s offer of forgiveness can anyone be saved from sin’s penalty.  When we turn from our self-ruled life and turn to Jesus in faith we are saved.  
• About Eternal Security – Because God gives us eternal life through Jesus Christ, the true believer is secure in that salvation for eternity.  If you have been genuinely saved, you cannot “lose” it.  Salvation is maintained by the grace and power of God, not by the self-effort of the Christian.  It is the grace and keeping power of God that gives us security.
• About Eternity – People are created to exist forever.  We will either exist eternally separated from God by sin or eternally with God in Heaven through forgiveness and salvation.  To be eternally separated from God is Hell.  
• About Baptism by Immersion – Scriptural baptism involves being completely immersed under the water, following the salvation experience.  This is how Jesus was baptized as well as all baptisms in the New Testament.  Baptism has no saving power but is the first act of obedience for a new believer.  It represents the believer’s faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and the believer’s death to sin and self.  It is the beginning of a new life and a new walk with Christ.
• About the Lord’s Supper – The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby believers remember the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and anticipate His second coming.   The bread is symbolic of His body and the juice represents His blood.
• About Tithing – At LBC we believe in giving the tithe – 10% of gross income, which is to be done joyfully, and regularly, according to the scriptures.
• About Evangelism – It is the duty of every born again follower of Jesus Christ and of every church to endeavor to make disciples of all men everywhere.  It is the command of Christ for every believer to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by sharing personal testimony and the “Good News”of Jesus Christ.
• About Church Unity – To live in harmony with other believers is clearly the teaching of the New Testament.  It is the responsibility of each believer to endeavor to live in fellowship with each member of the congregation.  It is further the responsibility of each member to bring all gossiping and backbiting to an end.

I agree with and will teach according to these essential beliefs ________________________            Date________

November 21, 2010 - Notes for Class

Hello!  I trust all of you are having a great week IN THE LORD.

Here are some questions getting ready for this Sunday's Lesson:

Please read Romans 2 in it's entirety.

Please read Romans 2:12-16.

The principle of impartiality has to face a problem as soon as the two groups, Jews and Gentiles, are considered together.  God has not dealt with them in a similar fashion.  To the Jew He has given special revelation of Himself in scripture that has been denied to the Gentile.  But in this section Paul shows that the Gentile does have a law, and this suffices for a basis for judgement.  Before discussing this law, however, Paul sees in it no power to save.

v 12 - Who is Paul speaking to in this verse?  Why was that important to the Roman church?

v 13 - What is the difference between hearing and obeying the law?  Where do you see this happening?  What is the difference in the person that hears and obeys (inside of the person)?  Does motivation have anything to do with this or is this included here?

v 14-15 - Does this mean that the Gentiles have a more intimate law than the Jews that had it spoken to them?  Who is the judge here?  Where is the battle between what is good or not go on?

v 15 - The word conscience is used although not a great translation as it was not used in the OT.  This is particular to the Greek influence on Paul.  What is written on their hearts?  Is that not written on the Jews hearts?  What does that mean today for those that have seen and heard the bible vs those that have not?  Is there any timeless truth here?

v 16 - What ultimately will happen?  What judgement will be made?  What will be judged?  Is there anything else besides there will be (a time), a judgement (an account), of internal things (secrets and motives)?

v 16 - How does 'through Jesus Christ' make any difference to this verse?  What does that mean for those that are saved and those that are not?  Paul ultimately says that the gospel he preaches includes the prospect of judgment and that it will be conducted through the mediation of Christ.  What does that do for/against those that are not saved?

Are you saved?  Do you know that you know that you know???

See you Sunday!

Searching for Glory

This morning we discussed seeking glory.  I found a great commentary on what the glory of God is and wanted to share it with you...


"What is the glory of God?"

Answer: The glory of God is the beauty of His spirit. It is not an aesthetic beauty or a material beauty, but it is the beauty that emanates from His character, from all that He is. James 1:10 calls on a rich man to “glory in his humiliation,” indicating a glory that does not mean riches or power or great aesthetic or material beauty. This glory can crown man or fill the earth. It is seen within man and in the earth, but it is not of them; it is of God. The glory of man is the beauty of man’s spirit, which is fallible and eventually passes away, and is therefore humiliating—as the verse tells us. But the glory of God, which is manifested in all His attributes together, never passes away. It is eternal.

Isaiah 43:7 says that God created us for His glory. In context with the other verses, it can be said that man “glorifies” God because through man God’s glory can be seen in things such as love, music, heroism and so forth—things belonging to God that we are carrying “in jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7). We are the vessels which “contain” His glory. All the things we are able to do and be find their source in Him. God interacts with nature in the same way. Nature exhibits His glory. His glory is revealed to man’s mind through the material world in many ways, and often in different ways to different people. One person may be thrilled by the sight of the mountains, and another person may love the beauty of the sea. But that which is behind them both (God’s glory) speaks to both people and connects them to God. In this way, God is able to reveal Himself to all men, no matter their race, heritage or location. As Psalm 19:1-4 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands; day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world.”

Psalm 73:24 calls heaven itself “glory.” It used to be common to hear Christians talk of death as being “received unto glory,” which is a phrase borrowed from this Psalm. When the Christian dies, he will be taken into God’s presence, and in His presence will be naturally surrounded by God’s glory. We will be taken to the place where God’s beauty literally resides—the beauty of His Spirit will be there, because He will be there. Again, the beauty of His Spirit (or the essence of Who He Is) is His “glory.” In that place, His glory will not need to come through man or nature, rather it will be seen clearly, just as 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.”

In the human/earthly sense, glory is a beauty or vibrancy that rests upon the material of the earth (Psalm 37:20, Psalm 49:17), and in that sense, it fades. But the reason it fades is only that the material things do not last. They die and wither, but the glory that is in them belongs to God, and returns to Him when death or decay takes the material. Think of the rich man mentioned earlier. The verse says, “The rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.” What does this mean? The verse is admonishing the rich man to realize that his wealth and power and beauty come from God, and to be humbled by the realization that it is God who makes him what he is, and gives him all he has. And the knowledge that he will pass away like the grass is what will bring him to the realization that God is the one from whence his glory comes. God’s glory is the source, the wellspring from which all smaller glories run.

Since God is the one from whom glory comes, He will not let stand the assertion that glory comes from man or from the idols of man or from nature. In Isaiah 42:8 we see an example of God’s jealousy over His glory. This jealousy for His own glory is what Paul is talking about in Romans 1:21-25 when he speaks of the ways people worship the creature rather than the Creator. In other words, they looked at the object through which God’s glory was coming and instead of giving God the credit for it, they worshiped that animal or tree or man as if the beauty it possessed originated from within itself. This is the very heart of idolatry and is a very common occurrence. It is probably safe to say that everyone who has ever lived has committed this error at one time or another. We have all “exchanged” the glory of God in favor of the “glory of man.”

This is the mistake many people continue to make: trusting in earthly things, earthly relationships, their own powers or talents or beauty, or the goodness they see in others. But when these things fade and fail as they will inevitably do (being only temporary carriers of the greater glory), these people despair. What we all need to realize is that God’s glory is constant, and as we journey through life we will see it manifesting here and there, in this person or that forest or in a story of love or heroism, fiction or non-fiction, or our own personal lives. But it all goes back to God in the end. And the only way to God is through His Son, Jesus Christ. We will find the very source of all beauty in Him, in heaven, if we are in Christ. Nothing will be lost to us. All those things that faded in life we will find again in Him.

Additional Information/Commentary on the Wrath of God

As our discussion last Sunday had some questions regarding how and where the wrath of God is shown I thought the following was appropriate to post.  See you Sunday!

1. (18a) The greatest peril facing the human race: the wrath of God.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

a. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven: The idea is simple but sobering - God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against the human race, and the human race deserves the wrath of God.



b. We sometimes object to the idea of the wrath of God because we equate it with human anger, which is motivated by selfish personal reasons or by a desire for revenge. We must not forget that the wrath of God is completely righteous in character.

“It is unnecessary, and it weakens the biblical concept of the wrath of God, to deprive it of its emotional and affective character . . . to construe God’s wrath as simply in his purpose to punish sin or to secure the connection between sin and misery is to equate wrath with its effects and virtually eliminate wrath as a movement within the mind of God. Wrath is the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness.” (Murrary)

c. In Romans 1:16, Paul spoke of salvation - but what are we saved from? First and foremost, we are saved from the wrath of God that we righteously deserve.

“Unless there is something to be saved from, there is no point in talking about salvation.” (Morris)


d. In this portion of the letter (Romans 1:18-3:20), Paul’s goal is not to proclaim the good news, but to demonstrate the absolute necessity of the good news of salvation from God’s righteous wrath.
The wrath of God is not revealed in the gospel, but in the facts of human experience.

Notes for November 7, 2010

Hello All!

I trust that you all are having a great week and giving the Lord your all every day.

Here are the notes for November 7, 2010:

Please pray for God’s will, not yours, to be done and the Holy Spirit to guide you through the verses of His word.

Please Read all of Romans 1

• What does it mean in verse 18 that the wrath of God is revealed against all godlessness and wickeness of men?  How do we see God’s wrath revealed?  Use specific examples...
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• What does it mean in verses 19-20 by God’s qualities?  What has been made plain?  How can you explain these verses to someone else?
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• What examples can you give of today’s people doing the same things as verses 21-23?
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• what do verses 24 and 25 mean in your own words?  Is there anything in your life where you have exchanged the truth for a lie?  What is the truth?
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• Although vs 26 sounds just like vs 24 these are two different things that God is giving people over to.  In verse 24 God is around a practice of cultic prostitution where fertility cults would prostitutes and devotees to the gods and goddesses would have relations with them to encourage the gods to do likewise and, in turn, help the people where the latter (verse 26) and a practice in the day where the latter is about perversion in sexual relations at a personal level.  How does Genesis 1:28 come in here and against verse 26 and 27?  What is your stance on homosexuality and why?  How do you explain yourself or to others these verses?
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• Read vs 28 - what does it mean to be given over to a depraved mind?  How do we do this even sometimes?  Does this happen in your life?  How are verse 28 and 29-31 related?  What are the items noted in 29 -31and how are they related to verse 28? 
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• Make a list of the items in verses 29-31 - Check which of these you have been involved with at any time in your life.  Are there any that you struggle with today?  
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• What else do the people that do these things do with others?  What does it mean to approve that others do these things?  Can you give examples past the homosexuality issue that show others doing these wicked things?

• How would you summarize Romans 1?