by HARVEYOPP | Jul 1, 2014 | Scott Henry
So often what we think comes out in our words and actions. We often think our thoughts are harmless, but in actuality, our thoughts have the power over what we do. This is especially true in our relationship with others. One characteristic of love is a pure mind as we see in 1 Corinthians 13:5: “love thinks no evil.” While you may never slander or speak ill of someone you love, your thoughts could tell a completely different story. However, true love not only speaks well of others, but it also thinks kindly of them as well.
Imagine if every thought you had was spoken the minute you thought it. Imagine if thoughts were no longer private, but everyone around you could hear what you were thinking. How would your thoughts change? Would people that you say you love hear that you find them annoying, self-centered, or irritating? Many times we think things we would never speak, but we must realize the danger of our thought life because our thoughts will eventually become our words. Proverbs 23:7: “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Jesus said in Matthew 15:18-20: “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man…”
Our thoughts are considered private, known only to us, but the truth of the matter is that God knows and hears everything we think. 1 Chronicles 28:9: “…for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts.” Psalm 94:11: “The LORD knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.” Isaiah 66:18: “For I know their works and their thoughts.” Matthew 9:4: “But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” 1 Corinthians 3:20: “The LORD knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”
Scripture clearly teaches that God knows our every thought, and He takes our thoughts very seriously. Jesus said in Matthew 5:28: “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Therefore guarding our thoughts and not thinking evil of others should be as important to us as what we say or do. This is why Solomon wrote in Proverbs 4:23: “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”
What are your thoughts concerning those you call your friends? Do you find yourself, on many occasions, degrading them in your mind? Our text is clear … “love thinks no evil” (1 Cor. 13:5). Take some time at this moment to ask God for forgiveness for your sinful thinking and ask Him to help you think of others in the same manner you would speak about them. As Jesus said in Luke 6:31: “And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.”
by HARVEYOPP | Jun 24, 2014 | Scott Henry
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
When it comes to religion, most people in our society think there are many roads that lead to heaven. They say if a person is sincere, lives a moral life, and behaves properly then surely they’ll go to heaven … no matter what they believe. But the Bible teaches there’s only one way to heaven, and anyone who teaches any other way is a liar who is deceived by Satan. Scripture teaches only one way to be saved from the guilt and consequences of our sin, and that way is the person and work of Jesus Christ alone! (Acts 4:12) Only by the love and grace of God raising sinners from spiritual death and uniting them to Jesus Christ by true faith is there salvation from sin and eternal damnation. Christ is the ONLY way sinners can be saved. Jesus said in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Do you believe Christ is the only way to heaven or do you think there’s more than one way of salvation? Do you think if a man is faithful and sincere in what he believes, no matter what it may be, that he will be saved? Sadly, many church members think this is the case. Too many people, who profess to be Christians, say foolish things like, “Oh, yes, Christ saves, but let’s not be unloving by saying Christ is the only way to heaven. That would mean all other religions are condemned.” You see, the gospel of Jesus Christ will be tolerated by most people if it’s presented as one way among many. But when it’s proclaimed as the only way, the exclusive way, then it becomes offensive to a pluralistic society.
However, is it truly loving to tell people there are many roads to heaven? Is it loving to tell them that if they’re sincere and do their best then God will accept them? No, it’s hateful because it’s a lie, and love always rejoices in the TRUTH!! (1 Corinthians 13:6). Our text is very clear … apart from true faith in Jesus Christ you will perish! Jesus does not say He is one way among many … No! He says He is THE ONLY WAY a sinner can be saved from sin and come into the Father’s presence. Our text teaches there is salvation only in Jesus Christ! There is no salvation in the superstitions, philosophies, or the man-made religions that abound in our world. All other beliefs apart from true faith in Jesus Christ are doctrines of demons sent among men to deceive, and the ONLY loving thing a Christian can do is boldly and loudly proclaim the truth that Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life, and that NO ONE comes to the Father except through HIM! (John 14:6). As we read in Acts 4:12: “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.”
And so Jesus declares, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
by HARVEYOPP | Jun 21, 2014 | Scott Henry
“Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing” (Psalm 100:1-2).
The first thing we see in verse 1 is the command for the whole earth to worship the Lord. The Psalmist says: “Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!” The “joyful shout” is the rejoicing of loyal subjects when their king appears among them. Think of King Saul and David when they defeated the Philistines … the women came from all towns of Israel to meet the king with shouts of joy! In the same way, the psalmist says all the peoples of the earth ought to worship the Lord with gladness and joyful songs. And this is not a suggestion, but rather a command to all the peoples of the earth. Psalm 2 tells the nations to “Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.”
Not only are all people required “to shout for joy to the LORD” but they are also commanded “to serve the LORD with gladness.” The great sin of unbelievers is that they will not worship and serve the one true God. “Worship” means to give God his worth, and this is something unbelievers will not do. God created man to praise and glorify Him, but because of sin man worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator, who is king over all and blessed forever (Romans 1). And those who do not obey the call to worship the LORD with gladness do so to their eternal condemnation. “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent…” (Acts 17:30)
And notice in our text that worship is not a sad and gloomy activity, but something that’s done with great joy. “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.” There’s nothing greater than gathering together as God’s people to give God His worth by hearing and obeying His Word, singing praise to His holy name, and serving Him in this temporal life with gladness. Psalm 122: “I was glad when they said unto me let us go up to the house of the Lord.”
Is this your response to worship, or do you wake up on Sunday morning and say, “Do we have to go to church again?” Do you behave like a believer or an unbeliever? The unbeliever does not understand what a joyous thing it is to worship, praise, and thank the Lord because he’s not in a covenant of peace with God; the unbeliever only knows God in judgment. But God’s people … those who know the Lord in salvation … ought to have great joy and rejoicing when it comes to worshiping the Lord. But sadly, how often does it seem that we put on our most miserable face when we come into the presence of God? Our text declares “make a joyful shout to the Lord!” Meditate on this text and pray that the Holy Spirit gives you a joyful spirit of worship so that you “come before His presence with singing.”
by HARVEYOPP | Jun 17, 2014 | Scott Henry
“Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing” … “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise” (Psalm 100).
A mark of a true believer is a delight in the worship of God. What about you? Do you wake up on Sunday morning rejoicing to go to worship or is it a burden to you? Would you rather stay home and sleep or go to the ball game on Sunday morning? What about you young people? What do you think when Mom or Dad wakes you up on Sunday morning and says, “Get ready for church”? Would you rather be at the shopping mall or home watching TV? Do you rejoice or do you mumble and groan when you hear the word “church”?
You see, how you respond to worship on the Lord’s Day reveals what’s going on in your soul. And if you’d rather be some other place when the church gathers together for public worship then you reveal, at worst, an unbelieving heart, or at best, a heart of a spiritual infant. Every Sunday morning we ought to sing these words: “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.” We ought to delight to “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.”
By God’s grace, believers are those being conformed into the very image of Jesus Christ. Was Jesus ever burdened by worship? Was He ever burdened to hear the Word of God? NEVER! Therefore, as believers, we ought to delight in the worship of God by hearing His word on the Lord’s Day. Parents, you must teach this principle to your children. They must learn what a great joy and wonderful privilege it is to go to a church that faithfully stands on the truth of God’s Word. If you parents don’t rejoice to worship God neither will your children! You must teach your children to cultivate a spirit of worship for the true and living God out of a thankful heart.
Today there’s such a famine for the preaching of God’s Word and a famine for the hearing of God’s Word. Too many “preachers” don’t preach the Word of God and too many church members don’t desire to hear God’s Word preached … and yet they call themselves followers of Christ? The duty of a follower of Christ is to obey His Word. Jesus said in John 10: “My sheep hear my voice and they follow Me.” And the sheep hear Christ’s voice on Sunday morning when the preacher faithfully proclaims God’s Word. Therefore, every believer has a responsibility to be in a place of worship on Sunday morning where the Word of God is faithfully preached and taught in order that they might bow their necks in faithful obedience to the God who has saved their soul by the person and work of Jesus Christ. As believers, we must be seen ‘entering into His gates with thanksgiving” and we must be heard entering “into his courts with praise.”
by HARVEYOPP | Jun 12, 2014 | Scott Henry
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18).
Every believer must make diligent use of the means of grace that God has given for our spiritual growth, and at the same time we must also avoid things that are harmful to our growth. The same is true in the physical world … if a farmer wants his livestock to grow healthy he feeds them good food, but he also keeps them away from poison. So also in our spiritual life … there are many things that are harmful … it’s what the Bible calls “the world, the flesh and the devil” (1 John 2; 1 Thess. 2). We must be careful who we associate with because “Evil company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). The believer must also put away sinful activities such as sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, and things like these. We must replace these vices with the virtuous qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, truth, and righteousness.
But especially destructive to spiritual growth is the sin of the tongue: gossip, slander, and backbiting not only damages others but also ourselves. James 3:6: “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.” We must speak gracious and wholesome words that promote spiritual growth, and we do this by having the love of God as the law of our tongue. Colossians 4:6: “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt…”
But if we are to grow spiritually, we must also have spiritual rest. As an infant needs rest in order to grow, so also believers need rest if we are going to grow spiritually. We need to have peace of mind. We can become so restless by the trials, temptations and suffering of this life. Therefore we need to rest, and we do this by trusting that we are accepted by God on the basis of Christ’s merits and that our future is certain and secure because it rests on nothing but the blood of Jesus. Spiritual rest is trusting completely in the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf and this gives us the confidence that He will keep us safe until the end! If we are to grow spiritually we must cultivate a restful spirit through faith in Christ.
The Apostle Peter says: Grow in grace that you might stand and not be led astray by the error of the wicked. But Peter also says we must also grow because in this way God is glorified as we are conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. May God give every believer the grace to continue to grow in Jesus Christ and may we be faithful in exercising the means of grace God has given us so that we also might say with the Apostle Peter: “To God be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”
by HARVEYOPP | Jun 6, 2014 | Scott Henry
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18).
Every true believer is the product of God’s grace. He is one who has been born of the Spirit of God and called to live according to the principle of grace, which now reigns in his soul. That means spiritual growth is only possible when the life of Christ has first been implanted in a person’s heart. A Christian is not just a person who is a church member that has been baptized, catechized, confirmed, and partakes of the Lord’s Supper. Important as all these things may be, they do not make a person a believer, although if you are a believer you’ll delight in doing these things! Rather a Christian is one who has been born from above by the Spirit of God and given new life in Jesus Christ. We read in Ephesians 2:4-6: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…”
And out of this new life we must grow. Just as every sapling tree that is alive must necessarily grow and produce fruit, so the one who has received new life in Jesus Christ must also grow and produce good fruit. And Christian growth is not simply the piling on of external things. Christian growth is being conformed to the likeness of Christ and it reaches more and more into every area and aspect of our life by dominating our thoughts, words and deeds as the mind is being continuously renewed by the Word of God. Literally, Christian growth means to enlarge or increase in graciousness as one is being conformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
This Christian growth is a vital, living, and active work of God in the believer, but it’s also gradual. It never reaches perfection in this life. The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 114 states: “Can those who are converted to God keep these Commandments perfectly?” “No, but even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of such obedience, yet so that with earnest purpose they begin to live not only according to some, but according to all the Commandments of God.” As long as we are in this world we have the remnants of sin to struggle against every day (Romans 7). And this is important to understand because many people think spiritual growth is instant, but Scripture teaches that Christian growth is gradual. Philippians 3:12: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” Spiritual growth is a gradual growth through many trials, temptations, sufferings, persecutions, and just as a plant grows by taking in the sun, rain, and nutrients from the soil, so the Christian grows spiritually by feeding on the Word of God, the sacraments, prayer, and fellowship (Acts 2:42). You grow as a believer by living every day according to what you’ve learned in God’s Word.
What about you … are you growing in Christ? Is your life progressively being conformed into the likeness of Christ? You must be if you’re truly a Christian. John 15:2: “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” May you truly be a fruitful branch united to the vine, Jesus Christ.
Recent Comments