Jesus Made A Whip

John 2:13-16 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"

Palm Sunday is the day that Jesus came into Jerusalem to celebrate Passion Week. I love the story of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The sad thing is that the very same crowds that were screaming “Hosanna ,Hosanna” would soon be screaming, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him", in a short week.

When Jesus entered the temple, we see him doing something very peculiar. He began making something. He made a whip. I can just imagine the disciples coming over--

“Hey Jesus, what are you making?"
"A whip! "
"Oh"

This is a scripture that we don't dwell on too often. In fact this is a whole side of Jesus that we don't dwell on. We usually picture Jesus as the meek and the mild, but he was much more than that . He had a zeal for the Lord and for the Lord's house--so much so, that he hated sin or anything that would detract from his Father's house.

John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."

Today I want to look at reasons why Jesus made a whip

HE WOULD NOT COMPROMISE WITH SIN.
When Jesus drove out the money changers, he was very intolerant. What was he intolerant of? He was very intolerant of sin. He went in and drove out all the money changers and merchants from the temple and this is the first thing he did when he came into Jerusalem.

I believe that this reveals a divine order. The first thing Jesus wants to deal with is our temple. What is at the center of our affections? Have we compromised? Do we know this zealous Jesus, or are we dismayed at His intolerance for sin? Does this Jesus make you uncomfortable?

Jesus is zealous for his house--and we are his house. Jesus was opposed to sin. He refused to compromise.

One of the things necessary, in order for us to change, is to have the same estimation of sin that God has.

Sin can cause us eternal harm. Some of us have theologically excused sin. We have a theology that says “ Well because we are united with Christ, we have a bulletproof vest against sin, so our behavior is not that important." Oh really? then why does Jesus say...

Matt 10:33 But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

Titus 1:16They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.

If our behavior was not important, why would Jesus warn us about denying Him.
Actions have consequences in our lives. We have to realize that faith did not take the deadliness out of sin. We should have the same attitude that Jesus had towards it.

Do you believe that sin is as deadly as it ever was? If we are going to really change, we need to have the same estimation of sin and compromise that Jesus has. Or have we developed a way to make pets of our sins?

Sin cannot be compromised because Jesus is not here to make you happy but to make you holy. Will we be as zealous for our temple as Jesus was on Palm Sunday. Realize that what God wants most of all is your undivided heart. We will look at more reasons for the whip tomorrow.

Blessings.

Dealing With Anger

Yesterday we looked at ungodly ways of dealing with anger: blowing up or clamming up. How do we deal with anger in a godly way? First we need to

A. Focus anger on the problem not on people!

Anger releases energy in us that can be constructive or destructive . Energies mobilized by anger are often misdirected. We either spew like Mt. Vesuvias at someone or the energies are directed inwards and we just boil internally. While in both instances they are released, these energies are not dealing with the problem.

In contrast, listen to the important words of Ephesians:

Eph 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

If your words are going to actually bring benefit to those who hear and build up, they should be solving the problem, not destroying the person. You see, our words to others -- even when they have wronged us -- must be words that build them up and that give them help; never words that destroy them.

Many years ago during a Knicks-Bullets playoff game, one of the Bullets came up from behind the great Walt Frazier and punched him in the face. Strangely, the referee called a foul on Frazier. Frazier didn’t complain. His expression never changed. He simply called for the ball and put in seven straight shots to win the game, an amazing display of productive anger.

See Walt, channelled his anger. Rather than blow up, or give up in a silent protest, he channelled the energy from anger into his game! We need to focus our energies into solving the problem.
Next, we need to learn to...

B. Deal with problems daily

First let's look at clamming up

Eph 4:26-27 "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

That means that we are not allowed to just stew in our bitterness and resentments but that we have to let go of them. We have to deal with them. That doesn't mean we have to confront everyone but we should confront all of our angers in the day we received them. God wants problems handled on a daily basis if possible.

Matt 5:23-24"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Matt 18:15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.

If we reconcile these two scriptures, the bottom line is this: Whenever an estrangement takes place between believers, regardless of who is at fault, both parties are obligated to take the initiative in seeking reconciliation. If one injures another, he is to go. If one is the injured party he still must go. Thus Jesus ensured that there would be confrontation with the Word. It's always your move. Whether you are the offended or the offender.

Most of the time people think, "John has done me wrong, he should come to me." But Jesus did not give room for that. Even if we are the one who is wronged, we should make the move.

Unforgiveness and bitterness is such a crippling thing. But Repentance and Forgiveness is a powerful thing.

During WW II, the Japanese had committed many atrocities to the Koreans. One of the things was burning a church to the ground with the congregation locked inside. When a group of Japenese pastors visited years later, they learned of the atrocity. They went home, took a collection and paid for a chruch to be built on the site for the Koreans. At the dedication service, all the speeches were made. The song leader closed the service with the hymn “At the Cross.”
The normally stoic Japanese could not contain themselves. The tears that began to fill their eyes during the song suddenly gushed from deep inside. They turned to their Korean spiritual relatives and begged them to forgive. The guarded, callused hearts of the Koreans were not quick to surrender. But the love of the Japanese believers—unintimidated by decades of hatred—tore at the Koreans’ emotions.

At the cross, At the cross,Where I first saw the light,And the burden of my heart rolled away…
One Korean turned toward a Japanese brother. Then another. And then the floodgates holding back a wave of emotion let go. The Koreans met their new Japanese friends in the middle. They clung to each other and wept. Japanese tears of repentance and Korean tears of forgiveness intermingled to bathe the site of an old nightmare

Have you been harboring issues from the past? Choose the freedom of forgiveness and reconciliation so that you can walk in peace.

Now, let's look at blowing up.
The Bible is clear. Blowing up in anger is sin. Anger is supposed to be used to direct energies at the problem not the individual. So what does one do when one feels on the edge of blowing up? Anger must be redirected from harming others or uncontrolled outbursts to a controlled response to the problem.

But people say, "I can't control my temper. I can't." But the Bible says you can. The problem is that you wont.

You ever know someone who could be having a tirade in the house ,when suddenly the phone rings, the same person picks up the phone, and in the sweetest voice says, "Hello, hi how are you? " Maybe we have all been there. What does that tell you? Obviously we can control ourselves when we want to, and we have to take responsibility of our responses. The problem is that we have learned to let ourselves go in some situations and not in others. We have selective self control.

A couple of things we can do:

a. Delay your response. The Bible says that the exploding person must be slow to anger. Counting to ten or fifty is a fine practice. Take a break. Take a prayer walk.

b. Change the subject for the time being. Another thing we can do is tell the person you are speaking to that this is making you angry. Agree to discuss it later

c. Give a soft answer. The one thing you don't want to do is get to the place where your conversation goes beyond the normal and the responses go beyond the normal.

A gentle answer can defuse a situation.

Prov 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Now the above three suggestions are not cop outs. They are simply ways of dealing with the moment so that you can more effectively deal with the problem. One of the best methods I've found in problem resolution is .....

d. The Conference Table: One way of dealing with issues that make you angry, especially in family relationships, is setting up a conference table in your home. By that I mean, a time where you agree to discuss problems at the dining room table . This helps in a couple of ways. It allows you to cool down and know that you will discuss this when you have self control. It allows you to deal with things on a daily basis, without letting the sun go down on your anger. Suggestion for that time:

1.Open in prayer.
2. Start with confession of badly handling situations. Ask for forgiveness of any parties injured. Confession should happen before any confrontation about bad behavior. As you confess and ask forgiveness you will see that it becomes easier to relate, others will find it easier to confess sins, and there is more openness.
3. If tempers begin to flare, the prearranged signal is to stand up to say" We have stopped communicating effectively." This will be a sign that we need to take a break and to sit down when we can discuss things in a more productive way.

The problem may not be resolved in one meeting, but doing this shows that it is not personal but that you are committed to solving the problem.

We have used this effectively in our home and have found that it has helped us keep tender hearts towards one another. May the Lord bless you as you learn new ways of relating so that you build others up , deal with prblems, without tearing each other down.
Resolve to deal with issues daily. Don't let issues pile up and fester. You were meant to overcome problems in your relationships. Choose to walk in the freedom of forgiveness. Choose self control. Learn to control your temper and handle problems well. God will be glorifed and the devil will be horrified!

In Your Anger Sin Not

Some of us were raised with very bad examples on how to deal with anger, and we learned accordingly. Some of us had families where anger was always vented and we saw its destruction. Some of us have seen situations where anger was stuffed or internalized and saw problems with that as well. The first thing I want you to see is that ...

ANGER IS NOT NECESSARILY SIN.

Sometimes Christians and others have overreacted and we have labeled the emotion of anger as sinful. Realize that emotions are not sinful in and of themselves. Emotions can be sinfully expressed, but not necessarily. In fact we see many biblical examples of anger.

Very often, the Bible attributes anger to God himself.

Jer 10:10 But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.

The Bible attributes anger to Jesus.

Mark 3:5 He (Jesus) looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."

Even Jesus became angry at the Pharisees for their hardness of heart and we know that Jesus never sinned.

And finally Paul tells the Ephesians that they can be angry and yet not sin.

Eph 4:25-26 "In your anger do not sin":

All emotions can be constructive or destructive based on how we employ them. So, we first have to realize that anger, first of all, is not in and of itself a sin.

If that is true then what is the problem with anger?

INCORRECTLY HANDLING ANGER IS A SIN

There are basically two ways that anger becomes sin. "Blowing Up" or "Clamming Up".

Blowing up is basically giving full vent to your anger. We usually blow up to hurt someone or to manipulate someone. This is clearly sin.

Clamming up is when tensions are sent inwards. The turmoil is internalized. Both cases are destructive and sinful.

Blowing up hurts everybody. It could result in the loss of friendships and could lead to injury. Clamming up can cause internal injury and make the person irritable, sullen, tense and miserable. People who clam up are not good company, since they have it in for somebody.

A lady once came to Billy Sunday and tried to rationalize her angry outbursts. “There’s nothing wrong with losing my temper,”
She said. “I blow up, and then it’s all over.”
“So does a shotgun,” Sunday replied, “and look at the damage it leaves behind!”

Getting angry can sometimes be like leaping into a wonderfully responsive sports car, gunning the motor, taking off at high speed and then discovering the brakes are out of order.
We need to understand that many in the world of psychology say that its okay to blow up. "Hey you know I am just venting." There is such a high premium put on free expression in our culture. The message is that if you don't give vent to your anger than you are not being true to yourself. Such advice, of course, is nonsense to the believer.

Sometimes people in some of this so-called therapy are encouraged to hit pillows pretending that the pillow is the person that they are angry at. But all this does is just encourages the spirit of murder to be sown in the heart and is absolutely inappropriate for the Christian.

Prov 29:11 A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.

Prov 22:24-25
Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man,
do not associate with one easily angered,
or you may learn his ways
and get yourself ensnared.

Clamming Up
Clamming up on the other hand is just keeping all your anger in. We just stuff it. Clamming Up, or internalizing anger, leads to bitterness or resentment. This is also clearly sin according to the Bible. Resentment not only affects relationships but eventually comes out.

Sometimes in horrific ways. You know sometimes there will be a horrific workplace shooting in the news. \co-workers when interviwed say. He was such a quiet person. But then it comes out that he had been passed over for promotion. That his wife left him. Alol these evidence come out of the seething anger that actually was boiling in the inside of him.

One day, two monks were walking through the countryside. They were on their way to another village to help bring in the crops. As they walked, they spied an old woman sitting at the edge of a river. She was upset because there was no bridge, and she could not get across on her own.
The first monk kindly offered, “We will carry you across if you would like.”
“Thank you,” she said gratefully, accepting their help.
So the two men joined hands, lifted her between them and carried her across the river. When they got to the other side, they set her down, and she went on her way.
After they had walked another mile or so, the second monk began to complain. “Look at my clothes,” he said. “They are filthy from carrying that woman across the river. And my back still hurts from lifting her. I can feel it getting stiff.” The first monk just smiled and nodded his head.
A few more miles up the road, the second monk griped again, “My back is hurting me so badly, and it is all because we had to carry that silly woman across the river! I cannot go any farther because of the pain.”
The first monk looked down at his partner, now lying on the ground, moaning.
“Have you wondered why I am not complaining?” he asked.
“Your back hurts because you are still carrying the woman. But I set her down five miles ago.”

That is what many of us are like in dealing with our hurts. We are that second monk who cannot let go. We hold the pain of the past over our peoples heads like a club, or we remind the people that hurt us every once in a while, when we want to get the upper hand, of the burden we still carry because of something they did years ago.

There is only two ways to live : Forgiveness or bitterness. But the fact is that there are some people who have gone decades with feelings of resentment towards others and therefore have let other people control them.

If Blowing up and clamming up are both sinful responses to anger, then how do we handle our anger? We'll get into that tomorrow.

Daniel

Da Vinci Religion Vs. Christianity

What many have failed to mention in all the discussion of the Da Vinci Code is that it is really has its own religious agenda.

This becomes clear as we see Brown's fixation with concepts such as the "Divine Feminine" and pagan sexual ceremonies.

The Da Vinci Code religion is nothing new, but simply warmed over New Age Mysticism.

The goal of the Da Vinci Code is not to be just a thriller but to promote a false gospel. In order to do this it uses the same strategies of many of the cults or false religions.

1. A Different Bible
First, it has to try to discredit the real Bible and come up with a new one. The New Age agenda of Dan Brown is similar to the rest of the New Age. Step one is to discredit the current Bible and to come up with a new one. In this case, Dan Brown promotes the Old Gnostic Heresies of the 2nd Century. He extols their texts and holds them up as superior to the real Bible.

Critics of the Bible usually have a very hard time. History is on the side of the Bible, which is full of cities, names, towns, and kings that can be easily checked. For example: Critics scoffed at Luke’s reference to Lysanius as the tetrarch of Abilene in AD14-29. But archaeologists have recently found two Greek inscriptions which prove that Lysanius was indeed the tetrarch of Abilene at that time. Most professional archaeologists and historians acknowledge the historicity of the Bible. The evidence strongly supports the accuracy of the Bible in relation to history and culture, but in many cases it has been overlooked or rejected because of philosophical objections.
The Bible has been the chief source of information for many ancient cultures, that archaology has gone on to discover through clues in the Bible.

2. A Different Jesus.
Step two of the New Age movement is to discredit the real Jesus and present the false Jesus of their false gospels. Jesus is no longer divine. He is no longer Redeemer. He is just an "enlightened teacher of secret knowledge".

But again they have a hard time here since there are some 300 Old Testament prophecies that were literally fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ and these messianic predictions make no sense apart from His life. The odds of his fulfilling all these prophecies is astronomical. The most explicit and powerful of all messianic prophecies is Isaiah 52:13- 53:12

But a true messiah, means a true Savior. A true Savior implies something to be saved from. Sin. But the New Age doesn't want to go THERE!

3. A Different Religion
Finally, they have an altogether different religion.
I don’t really need to go into all the crazy theories of the "sacred feminine", sex rites, etc. do I?

The Lies:
"History is written by the winners"
"Every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith—acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove." (Page 341)
"Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.... Religious allegory has become a part of the fabric of reality. And living in that reality helps millions of people cope and be better people." (Page 342)

The Truth Such a claim is preposterous. To begin, anyone who knows anything about Christian history knows that the early Christians were anything but "winners." The early Christians were fiercely persecuted by the Roman authorities (as well as by Jewish authorities). Christianity itself was outlawed by the Romans in the second century, and in the third and early fourth centuries, there was widespread persecution and murder of Christians.

Which is another powerful evidence for it's reality. No one chooses to die for something that they believe was the so called "con of man"!

John 18:20-21 "I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. 21 Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said."

People love a conspiracy but Jesus didn’t speak in a hidden way or point us to secret mysteries. He told us very plainly of the Father and of the way to salvation. The truth is not hidden, but thank God is very plainly presented in a Bible that we can be confident is the “real deal”.

I will leave judgment to God but will remind us of the Word.

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

Gal 1:7-9 Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

I hope this discussion of the Davinci Code has helped you be better equipped to give an answer to those who are sincerely confused or are sincerely questioning because of this movie. My prayer is that the movie will provoke much discussion leading to many coming to the truth.

Blessings!

The Da Vinci Code Vs. the Real Jesus

Yesterday we looked at Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code's attack on the authenticity and veracity of the New Testament. Today, let's look at how this leads to his formulation of a different Jesus.

The Council of Nicaea and the Divinity of Christ

The Lie: Constantine needed to strengthen the new Christian tradition . Many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon. Until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers a s a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.

"…hold on . You’re saying Jesus divinity was the result of a vote?" "A relatively close vote at that. Constantine turned Jesus into a deity. "

Dan Brown explains the Council of Nicaea of 325AD as some kind of power grab by the Roman Emperor Constantine, to establish the church as the only means of salvation.

The Truth: This is total nonsense. There is no other gospel that talks more about the divinity of Jesus than the gospel of John and as we have seen, the earliest fragment of John we have is dated about 117 AD. The divinity of Jesus was a core doctrine of Christianity from the beginning. Such is beyond question, even to liberal scholars. The council of Nicaea did not meet to vote on whether Jesus was divine or not. In fact it was the heresy of Arianism, that questioned the divinity of Jesus, that galvanized the Council of Nicaea to meet. They didn’t vote on whether or not Jesus was divine but to officially condemn Arius and Arianism and the vote wasn’t close at all. It was 300 to 2.

Was Jesus married to Mary Magdalene?

The Lie: "The marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record."

Based on the Gnostic Gospel of Philip, Brown asserts that "the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, 'Why do you love her more than all of us?

"As any Aramaic scholar will tell you the word "companion" in those days, literally meant spouse."

The Truth:
There is no evidence in any record from eyewitnesses at the time of Jesus that implies a marital relationship between Jesus and Mary. Not even the Gnostic gospel of Philip makes this contention.

There is not a shred of any real evidence form the first century onwards that Jesus married and had children.

The funny thing is that the Gnostic gospel of Philip, which Brown quotes, is written in Greek not Aramaic! And the Greek word translated "companion" is Koinonos which is used several times in the New Testament and nowhere implies a sexual relationship.

In addition the Gospel of Philip is dated about 250 AD!

Lie: Dan Brown says that Jewish men at the time of Jesus were forbidden to be unmarried. It would only make sense that Jesus was married.

Truth: Some try to argue that since it was expected of every Jewish man to get married, then surely Jesus must have followed custom and gotten married. Such an argument is unconvincing. First, note that a number of major prophets were never married—including the likes of Jeremiah and John the Baptist. Second, note that there were whole communities of Jews which included unmarried men—such as the Essene community at Qumran. Third, note that Jewish leaders often granted exceptions to the general rule of marriage.

The Lie:"The Priory of Sion—a European secret society founded in 1099—is a real organization. In 1975 Paris's Bibliotheque Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo da Vinci."

A central contention of Dan Brown is that there is a secret society guarding the secret of Mary Magdalene and the descendants of Jesus called the Priory of Sion.

The Truth.
It's all based on a proven hoax. Let's think for a minute, we have had these heresies since the 2nd Century trying to say that Jesus wasn’t who he said he was. The Gnostic gospels are real and documented. What damage could anymore false Gnostic gospels do that would be worthy of some organization to protect the secret? It's nonsense.

Brown obtained much of his information on the Priory of Sion from a book entitled Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. In this book, we find a dependency on the above–mentioned parchments which allegedly prove that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had a baby named Sarah, and, following Jesus' death on the cross, Mary relocated to a Jewish community in France. Their descendents were allegedly French royalty.

Now, here is the big problem with all this. These parchments are completely bogus. Historically, in 1953, a Frenchman named Pierre Plantard spent time in jail for fraud. In 1954 he founded a small social club named the Priory of Sion. The purpose of the club was to call for low–income housing in France. The organization dissolved in 1957, but Plantard held on to the name. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Plantard put together a number of bogus documents which "proved" the Jesus–Mary Magdalene theory, with French royalty being their descendants. Plantard claimed that he himself was one of the descendents of this couple.

Some time later, a friend of the French president found himself in legal trouble and Plantard ended up being called to testify in the case. While under oath, the judge asked him about these documents about Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and he admitted he made the whole thing up. An associate of Plantard's also conceded that Plantard made the whole thing up. All this has been thoroughly documented by several French books and a BBC special.

Go watch some documentaries on the History Channel, or national Geographic and you will see that not a single real Biblical Scholar endorses the wild theories of the Da Vinci code.

Da Vinci Code Vs. The Bible

I comment on popular culture infrequently, but when a book sells 40 million copies and a major movie is made, as the Davinci Code, it really demands an answer. It needs an answer because the Da Vinci Code makes a direct assault on the basics of the Christian faith in the guise of a thriller.

My purpose is to help equip believers to answer the questions that their friends and family may have as a result of reading the book, or seeing the movie, which just opened on Friday.

The author, Dan Brown, on his website has the audacity to claim that his book is not anti-Christian. But let me tell you the basic plot and you can decide.

A symbologist investigating a murder at the Louvre uncovers a secret plot where an organization called the Priory of Sion is charged with guarding the greatest secret of all time: Namely That Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and his descendants became a line of French Kings. Many artists and Grand Masters of history belonged to this society, and because of fear of repression by the Catholic church, hid the message in their paintings. The movie is a race to find the evidence.

The story goes on directly to attack, the historicity of the Scriptures and the divinity of Christ. In my mind, you can’t get any more anti Christian than that.

A the beginning of the novel, Brown has a page labeled "Fact". Here he makes claims about the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei and that all the descriptions are accurate. Then in interviews, on the one hand he says the book is fiction, on the other hand he defends his wild theories as fact.

The Christian faith is not a philosophy. The Christian faith is based on an actual person who lived, died, and was resurrected in a certain time in history. Ours is a historical faith. History is important to the Christian. The Apostle Paul states that if Christ is not resurrected, ( an historical event) our faith is in vain. Those that question the historicity of our faith, are challenging our faith. Brown is being disingenuous when he says on his website that his book debates different viewpoints. There is no debate in his book. His characters are all agreed on the wild assertions presented as history there. It behooves the Christian to know some history or else risk being a dupe for the wild speculations and fantasies of the cults, new agers and revisionists who seem to be quite popular nowadays.

Most of the novel operates on the level of thriller until we get to the tedious exposition of Brown's wild theories around the middle of the book. Many of these theories are dangerous because they out rightly question the historicity and adequacy of our present Bible.

The most important challenge that the Davinci Code makes is to the authenticity of the scriptures we call the New Testament. One of the most important things to understand is the evidence for the authenticity and veracity of the scriptures. I will quote Dan Brown’s charges and answer his contentions with the facts.

The Lie: “The Bible is a product of man, my dear, not of God. The bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book. p 250 (hardcover)

This is an incredible charge that we must answer seriously. Is the Bible that we have essentially the Bible that was written? Of course we understand that the Bible did not fall magically from the sky.

2 Peter 1:19-21 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The Christian teaching is that the Bible was written by men who were led by the Holy Spirit.

Let's look at some of the real evidence.

Quantity of Documents
The quantity of New Testament manuscripts is unparalleled in ancient literature. There are over 5000 Greek manuscripts, about 8000 Latin manuscripts, and 1000 in other languages. In addition, there are tens of thousands of citations of New Testament passages by early church fathers who lived from and wrote 100 and 300 AD. What is the typical number of existing manuscripts for any of the works of the Greek and Latin authors, like Plato, Aristotle, Caesar, Tacitus? FROM ONE TO TWENTY!!

Age of the Documents.
The John Rylands Fragment of the gospel of John is dated 117-138 AD, only a few decades after the gospel was written. The time span for most of the New Testament manuscripts is less than 200 years from the date of authorship, and some manuscripts are within 100 years!!

Compare the New Testament to one of the “better” ancient manuscripts:

Caesar's writings. Date written: 60 BC. Earliest copy: 900 AD. Number of manuscripts: 10.

New Testament. Date written: 47-100AD, Earliest copy: 130 AD. Number of Manuscripts: 14, 000!

Early Church Fathers
The Church Father's left behind a signiifcant body of writing from 100 to 300 AD . In fact, there are enough quotations from the early church fathers that even if we did not have a single manuscript copy of the Bible, scholars could still reconstruct all but 11 verses of the entire New Testament from material written within 150 to 200 years from the time of Christ.

Translations and Revisions?
What about the charge that it has gone through countless revisions and translations?Well, obviously the Bible was written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic and it has been translated into English. Therefore, a good knowledge of the original language is important in interpretation. But as far as revisions go, as we saw before, based on the quantity of documents, the age of documents, and quotes from others in the first two centuries, we can be very confident that the Bible we have is the Bible that was written.

So the charge that the Bible has been continuously changed and added to since the time of Christ is absurd.

THE BIBLE THAT WE HAVE IS THE BIBLE THAT WAS WRITTEN.

D. The Canon
The Canon means ruler or measuring stick. The canonization process was to see which books measured up to be authoritative . Let’s look at Dan Brown's claims about this .

The Lie: More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament and yet a relative few were chosen for inclusion…….the Bible as we know it today was collated by the pagan roman emperor Constantine the Great.

Dan Brown claims that at the council of Nicea in 325 AD, Constantine presided over what was to be acceptable scriptures or not

The Truth: This was not the purpose of the council if Nicea. Nicaea was called to refute the heresy of a man named Arius, whose theory called into question Jesus' divinity. It had nothing to do with the canonization process.

One of the early church fathers, Iraeneus, lived from 130- 202, a full hundred years before the Nicene Council. Here is something he wrote in a book called "Against Heresies."

Iraeneus 3:11. It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the "pillar and ground"of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars

Dan Brown claims the Gospels were chosen from out of eighty that were vying for attention. But that is preposterous, when early on, way before Constantine, the four gospels emerged as being authoritative.

Constantine was never involved in the canonization process. From the first century onward at least 20 of the 27 books of the NT were indisputably reliable. How do we know that?

One piece of evidence is that in 140 AD, a man named Marcion, created a huge uproar which led to his excommunication from the church, when he tried to eliminate certain books of the Bible from his church. If the process of canonization hadn’t already begun, his actions would not have caused an uproar.

Constantine did not collate the Bible. The New Testament is made up of 27 different books that had been in circulation through the church in the first century. These books were written by the 12 Apostles and their associates. The criteria for inclusion were. 1) did it find general usage and acceptance in the churches? 2)Was the authorship apostolic? 3) Did it have the history of life changing truth and acceptance in the churches?

There were debates over which of the books were canonical. But anyone who cares to study this, will find that the debate did not include the so-called Gnostic gospels.

Much of the official systemization of the canon came about in the 2nd -4th centuries, and came about as a defense against the heresies that challenged the faith of the Apostles--not as some kind of political power grab by Constantine as Dan Brown claims. Ebionitism humanized Jesus and rejected the writings of Paul, resulting in a more Jewish than Christian faith. Gnosticism attempted to blend oriental theosophy, Hellenistic philosophy, and Christianity into a new religion that saw the physical creation as evil and Christ as a celestial being with secret knowledge to teach us.

Do the Nag Hammadi and Dead Sea Scrolls prove the inaccuracy of our current Bible?

The Lie:

“ These are photographs of the Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea scrolls which I mentioned earlier,, Teabing said, the earliest Christian records:
: The Nag Hammadi gospels "highlight glaring discrepancies and fabrications ... [in] the modern Bible." (Page 234)
The Nag Hammadi scrolls are "the earliest Christian records." (Page 245)

The Truth:
The Dead Sea Scrolls are Jewish. The Nag Hammadi is neither early, nor Christian.
The Nag Hammadi and the Dead Sea Scrolls are two separate documents. The Dead Seas Scrolls do not mention Jesus Christ at all. Because they are not Christian at all. They are ancient Jewish Documents, discovered near the Dead Sea in Israel. Most of them were written way before the time of Christ.

The Nag Hammadi, discovered in 1945 near the village of Nag Hammadi in Egypt, were copied by a sect that had been influenced by Christianity but had very different beliefs. None of these documents can be dated before150 AD. Most of the are from the 200’s or 300’s . The Nag Hammadi are essentially excerpts from the Gnostic Gospels. Who were the Gnostics? The Gnostics were different religious groups that sprang up in the 2nd and third centuries . Gnostic means knowledge. There were different groups but essentially believed in a dualistic view of the universe and that secret knowledge or gnosis was necessary to know God.

As far as these Gnostic gospels go. They are nothing new. They prove nothing new nor do they reveal "real" Christian beliefs. Christians have been concerned about false gospels since the early years of Christianity. In his classic Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies), Irenaeus (A.D. 130–200) refers to "an unspeakable number of apocryphal and spurious writings, which they themselves [heretics] had forged, to bewilder the minds of the foolish."15

One of the Gnostic gospels discovered at Nag Hammadi in 1945 is The Gospel of Truth, about which Irenaeus says: "It agrees in nothing with the Gospels of the Apostles, so that they have really no Gospel which is not full of blasphemy. For if what they have published is the Gospel of Truth, and yet is totally unlike those which have been handed down to us by the Apostles...

So the Gnostics have been refuted by the Church from the time of Christ. So, because the Dead Seas Scrolls have nothing to do with Jesus, and the earliest texts of Nag Hammadi are Gnostic and written 50 years after the New Testament texts, these cannot be called the "earliest Christian records." They were neither early or Christian. Much mischief is continued because of these Gnostic gospels as we will see tomorrow. Blessings!

Testing Through Tough Times

We looked at the fact that God is a God that tests his people. How will God test us? By any means necessary. God will use whatever is necessary for each of us individually to mature. Most of the time he will use simple situations that we find difficult to bear. It's kind of amusing how sometimes the things that God uses to test us are really minor things.


I was in a drug store last Christmas, and a woman cut in front of my kids who were in line at the store. When I informed this woman of this, she began to call me every name in the book. I kept my mouth closed even though I was even more angry because she was using such foul language. Finally, at the register a man came up to me and said. “Wow that was really good self control” and I said, “Thank God”. See, the Lord allowed me to be a witness to this man. You never know who is watching you. You see it's a test. Will you keep your peace? Will you keep your joy in the midst of a trying circumstance, or will you react negatively?

I believe we need to be more aware that so many of the situations in our lives are tests. God permits situations that are uncomfortable, where we are going to be tested. God uses everything that comes into our lives.

I don't know about you , but have you ever been bothered about the things that bother you? I mean sometimes the Lord permits something into my life and I am upset about the fact that it really bothered me. It's kind of amusing sometimes to see what the Lord uses, and then you say , “Lord I thought I was over that. I thought I was more mature than to let that bother me.” But the Lord shows you , you are not as mature as you think you are.

Every day we are tempted to be negative, tempted to be critical. Every test is an opportunity to come up higher. We don't realize how much of life is a test.

You wouldn't be going through this test unless you needed it. We are not going to be promoted until we pass the test.

Deut 8:1-3 And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

The Lord permitted Israel to go through the wilderness for 40 years, because they had to be tested. They had to be prepared. They had to learn how to believe God. They had to learn to obey God completely.

Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years because they needed to be there. They were not ready for the promised land. The Lord had to humble them. To test them to make a people ready for the promised land. Did you ever think that maybe you are not entering into your promised land, because you are not ready for it?Time to quit worrying, getting upset. We have to grow up if we are to inherit what God has for us.

You notice that Israel seemed to be going around in circles for quite awhile. But why did that happen? Something had to be worked out of them. God was working on them

You will not cross from your wilderness into your promised land until you pass the test.

Just like the Israelites. God is working on us. And he will often let things into our lives that we would not rather have. A tyrant for a boss. A coworker who just rubs us the wrong way. We get upset over someone who cuts us off in traffic. Or who steals a seat on the subway. Or the guy that plays the bongo on th e subway.

But realize that God is not going to promote you unless you pass the test. Quit worrying about things you can't change. Most of the time we want to get out of it. We try to pray our way out. We try to rebuke our way out. Yet we find it still with us. But God i s saying. I;m not going to change it. You change. In other words he permitted that thing into your life so that you would change.

I challenge you, be more aware of the tests all around you. It's not coincidence that you are in the situation you are in. You work around a person who is difficult, You are not getting the recognition you should. Remind yourself, this is only a test. Instead of fighting it, go with the flow.

Have you been recognizing the tests all around you? Are you determined to pass, so you can get into your promised land? Do you realize that its the little things in your attitude sometimes that God is really after? Praise God , he has called us to pass!

The God Who Tests You

1 Thess 2:3-4 On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.

Some people have a real problem with associating any kind of testing with God. They feel that a good God would never put us through anything like that. But let's not make any judgments until we look at the biblical record. We have to realize that God is not Santa Claus. He is a real Father and a real Father disciplines and intervenes in their children's lives.

John 6:5-6 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

What you find in the scriptures is that God often tests his subjects. Now, why would Jesus want to test Philip? Is it that Jesus doesn't know what is in Philip's heart? Yes, but he wants us to learn something about ourselves. See, one of the ways that people learn is by taking tests. Tests show what is really on the inside of you. Believe it or not, we are capable of easily deceiving ourselves.

If you have ever seen American Idol you may have seen some auditions from people that very very obviously cannot sing. Yet when appraised of this by the judges, they begin to protest in the most violent and vehement fashion. They are positively convinced that indeed they can sing and should be immediately signed for a record deal. If American Idol proves anything, it proves that the capacity for deception is alive and well in mankind.

So the auditions were just a test. A test to see what's in you. In the same way God puts us in uncomfortable positions to see what's in us.

God tests you so that you can know what's really in you.

You can only attend to what you understand. You will only deal with wht you recognize. If you don't understand, you will not change.

Now we know from James, that God does not tempt us to sin but he does test us.

God also tested Abraham
Heb 11:17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.

God tested Abraham in his obedience when he challenged Abraham to give up His own son. You know, sometimes we read a story and we think it tends to impugn Gods character, because we say. “Isn't God horrible to test us?” But we need to realize that God knows what he is doing and he permits things into our lives because God is our Father and he is determined to grow us up.

The Lord even commands us to test ourselves:

2 Cor 13:5-6 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test?

Your maturity is important to God.

God is trying to mature us so that he can take us to the next level. God wants to promote us, but often we are our own worst enemies. For instance, sometimes it seems that we continue to lose our peace or get upset when we don't get our way. We are in traffic and we lose our peace, or we might let little things blow up into big arguments with our spouse. We are mad because a promotion that we thought we deserved went to somebody else. We cry to God, "when is it going to change?"

But God is not going to remove it because He wants us to chang. We have to be pliable. Next time you go through a difficulty, say “No I don't care about this setback, I don't care about this problem. I recognize that this is just a test. I'm going to keep my cool and go with the flow. I am going to keep my joy, my peace. This is just a test, and I INTEND TO PASS.

Do you realize that the situation you are going through could be a test from God? Do you realize that you have a Father that wants you to grow up? --that He wants you to have a humble estimation of yourself so that you will learn to trust him more and yourself less?

Made Right With God

Yesterday we looked at one part of our new covenant with God: That we are made right with God through faith in him. Let's explore this further.

It's so important to realize that those that put their faith in Jesus are already sanctified, that is why they are called "saints"!

2 Cor 6:14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

Believers are here called righteousness and light! Is that what you were taught? You see, I am going to shock some of you: 61 times in the New Testament, Christians are referred to as "saints".

What is a saint? Some churches teach that it is some kind of super Christian, but literally it means "holy one". What is a holy one? One that has been set apart for God.

The word is "hagios" in the Biblical Greek. Now here is another theological word. "Sanctify." "Sanctify" is the same exact word as "saint" except it is the verb form. It means to make holy, to make into a saint.

When anybody puts there faith in Jesus, God sets them apart. Let me give you an example.

1 Corinthians 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified(past tense) in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:

Most often , the word sanctified is in the past tense in the New Testament. You see when you put your trust in Christ something happened to you. You became a new creation. You entered into the new covenant. You became a saint. You became a "holified" one. You became right with God. How? Did you do anything to deserve it? No It was given to you as a gift!

Righteousness is a Gift
Rom 5:17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Righteousness means right standing with God, and according to the Word, right standing with God is a gift!

There are two kinds of righteousness in the Bible. The "fruit of righteousness", which is the actual good that you do, but then there is the "positional" righteousness.

Every single believer is the righteousness of God simply because we are in Christ.

Believers are the Righteousness of God!
2 Cor 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It says that all of our sins were laid upon Jesus, so that "In him we would be the righteousness of God. The key word is "In Him".

The Gospel is good news. That is what gospel means. And the good news is that Jesus has come to die for sins and to make you right with God and to put his very nature inside of you.

Understand, Jesus has not saved you in your sins but from your sins! That's a very important distinction. God removed your sins from you, gave you a new nature, forgave you, and made you right with Him. He didn't just decide to take you you to heaven with your sins, without changing you. No, He did something about it, praise God!

The Fruits of Knowing that you are the Righteousness of God

Makes us More like Jesus.
2 Peter 1:5-9For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.


If we are not seeing character change, this verse says that the first thing we should look at is that maybe we have forgotten that we have already been cleansed! Until you rest in the finality of the cross , you will never walk in the power of the resurrection.

Until a person knows he is righteous, the Devil can control him. Sin and disease are his masters. But the instant he knows that he is the righteousness of God in Christ and stands in that, the devil is defeated.

It is the deepest need of the human heart to be right with God. You see, God's cure for this is to cover every person by perfectly restoring the fellowship with the Father . But unfortunately, many of us have not understood how complete this provision is.

The sense of righteousness restores to us faith. A faith that dares to trust in God not by looking at the physical evidence but because of who He is and what He has done for us--
a faith in His promises. This sense of righteousness gives us the confidence to exercise our authority in Christ over the enemies of our souls.

It restores to us peace because we are not burdened with a sense of lack, guilt and anxiety but know that we are at peace with Almighty God.
It gives us the sense of being a child of God. I restores the joy of our sweet fellowship with the Father. No longer do we have a sense of inferiority.

Restores Confidence in Prayer in prayer: We are bold in prayer because we know we can come boldly before the throne of God because of the blood of Jesus.

We are not living in the days of Moses. We are not living in the days of Elijah. We are living in the days of a resurrected Jesus! We are living under a New Covenant that makes provision for us to be right with God. A Christian is a saint, one who has been cleansed of his past sins and , made a new creation, and is now the righteousness of God. Stand in your place and live according to who you are!

New Covenant Righteouness

Imagine a soldier has been given orders to guard a certain place. While he is guarding the location, he begins to run out of ammo. Before he has a chance to radio for more, he doubts that he has any right to ask for more from his superiors. So he doesn't make the call. Suddenly, an opportunity arises to take away a stronghold position of the enemy, only 20 yards away. But he is afraid to take the initiative because he doubts his own ability. Finally, when the enemy begins a renewed assault, the soldier hides and doubts whether he has any authority at all to shoot back.

Just like our unfortunate soldier, lack of knowing your position with God robs you of faith to ask God for anything, robs you of taking initiative in opportunities, and cripples you in your exercising authority over the enemy. The soldier doubted his relationship to his commanding officer. He refused to take initiative because he doubted his delegated authority.

You know unfortunately, a lot of believers can be like that to. We don't realize our relationship or we are in doubt about it and so we don't stand the way we should. You know, when you join the army, you are under certain rules of relationships, and when you become a Christian you are under a whole new set of principles. You are under a contract. What is that contract called? It's called the New Covenant.

So, let's start with definition. What is the New Covenant?

The word "covenant" means a formal, solemn, and binding contract between two parties. Now A Divine covenant is a binding contract established by God. It's a one way matter. God makes the promise and sets the terms.

Now, I don't want to go into great detail about all the covenants in the Bible, such as God's Covenant with Adam, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Moses, the covenant with David, but I do want you to see in the light of all these covenants, how important covenant is to God. They feature prominently in the dealings of God with man. The New Covenant was ushered in by Jesus Christ!

In fact, a proper understanding of covenant is essential to understand the Bible and to understand the work of Jesus Christ.

Many believers run into trouble because they don't know what covenant they are under. I want to mention some things about the New Covenant, because it is only as you understand the New Covenant that you will be able to walk in all the promises of it.

Hebrews 8:6 But our High Priest(Jesus) has been given a ministry that is far superior to the ministry of those who serve under the old laws, for he is the one who guarantees for us a better covenant with God, based on better promises. If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. But God himself found fault with the old one when he said: "The day will come, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant, so I turned my back on them, says the Lord But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds so they will understand them, and I will write them on their hearts so they will obey them. I will be their God and they will be my people. And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their family, saying, `You should know the Lord.' For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will already know me. And I will forgive their wrongdoings, and I will never again remember their sins."When God speaks of a new covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and ready to be put aside.

Every covenant has some things:

The parties involved: God and all people
We see here in Heb 9:15 that although the covenant was prophesied to be made to the house of Judah and Israel that it was interpreted to go beyond them to include all people.

The promise: A new righteousness, a new nature, a new life, a new relationship

What if one day someone told you that you had a billionaire uncle that you didn't know about. He died and left you in the will. Wouldn't you want to know what was in the will? You see the New Covenant is like a will that describes the inheritance that belongs to every believer in Jesus Christ? Don't you want to know what's in it?

The ratifier: the blood of Jesus.
Heb 9:18This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.

You see, if you do not know what's in the will, you are not going to act accordingly.
In the New Testament letters, the phrases "in Him", "in whom", "in Christ" appear about 134 times. It is so important that we look at those passages to understand all the things that we have in Christ and all the things that we are in Him.

The Bible declares that the people that put their trust in Jesus are made righteous. Meaning, that they are right with God. A change has been made!

But a lack of understanding of our righteousness holds more people in bondage than almost anything else. Because of not knowing their righteousness, these are the symptoms.

1. Lack of faith- So many people , because they think that they are worms and condemn themselves, fail to believe God for anything in their lives because they think they are unworthy. And precisely because of this, they get robbed of what God wanted to do in their lives. Just like the soldier in our skit, they fail to beleive that God wants to do something for them.

2. Inferiority complex- People who don't know they are righteous, think that they are unworthy or unqualified to receive anything from God. And so Mr. Fear comes in and makes his home with that person. This person becomes paralyzed in his growth and in his expectation in life. Just like the soldier in our skit, they become paralyzed by inferiority.

3. Lack of boldness in prayer- People who are condemning themselves are not going to come boldly into the presence of God to find what they need. If they think God is mad at them, they stay in the outer courts, but God says "you have not because you ask not." Just like the soldier in our skit, he fails to exercise the authority that he has been given.

You see, these three things are very significant problems for the Christian. When are we supposed to enjoy peace with God? Is it only in the afterlife? When are we supposed to enjoy the fact that in Christ there is no condemnation. Is that only going to be in the judgment at the end of days?

No, that is meant for now! That is the good news! But the Bible says. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, behold all things come as new. 2 Cor. 5:17

Is that now or do we have to wait until heaven for that?

You see righteousness or right standing with God is something that is to be enjoyed now!

We are either new creations or we are not!
We are either walking in the New covenant or not. But we have good news. All these things are for us to experience now!

Tapping Into His Presence

Yesterday we looked at the fact that we are the Temple of God--that the God of the universe lives inside of us. How do we benefit from this?

We can’t be passive about tapping into the presence and power of God in us. We’ve said before that the Holy Spirit is not going to make you into a robot. The Holy Spirit nudges and reveals and guides, but He is not a slave driver. The Holy Spirit is meant to be your helper. What does that mean? That means that He is not sent to do the job but to help you do the job. How does he do this? ---Through FAITH !

Daniel’s definition of faith--Believing, Declaring and Acting on the Word.

If we would just believe that God is in us, declare the truths regarding that, and act accordingly, we would begin to see God rise up in us, lead us and see more of his power manifesting in our lives.

Unfortunately, we see a lot of people begging God to do things. "Lord please be with him. Please be with me." But did you know, according to these truths that we have been examining, that this is a prayer of unbelief? Why? Because God is on the inside of believers. He is already with us!!!

You see, knowing that the God of the universe is inside of us is going to do us little good unless we believe it, confess it, and act like it!

Believe that God is in You!

Declare that God is in you !

Act as if God is in you!


We got to stop being inferiority minded, weakness minded, problem minded. We have to get God-inside minded.

Eph 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

The God of all ability is in me now! The God of all Love is in me now. He is in you to guide you into all the facets of His ministry. You are a fellow worker along with God.

An American Indian tells about a brave who found an eagle's egg and put it into the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them.
All its life, the changeling eagle, thinking it was a prairie chicken, did what the prairie chickens did. It scratched in the dirt for seeds and insects to eat. It clucked and cackled. And it flew in a brief thrashing of wings and flurry of feathers no more than a few feet off the ground. After all, that's how prairie chickens were supposed to fly.
Years passed. And the changeling eagle grew very old. One day, it saw a magnificent bird far above in the cloudless sky. Hanging with graceful majesty on the powerful wind currents, it soared with scarcely a beat of its strong golden wings.
"What a beautiful bird!" said the changeling eagle to its neighbour. "What is it?"
"That's an eagle - the chief of the birds," the neighbour clucked. "But don't give it a second thought. You could never be like him."
So the changeling eagle never gave it a second thought and it died thinking it was a prairie chicken.

Isn't that a sad story? The poor eaglet never recognized who he was. Don't let the world define you. Realize in Jesus Christ, not only are you children of God, but you are the temple of God!

Oh Father, how much you love us that you would even make your home in each one of us. Father help us to see how great you are. It is written that we are the temple of God. Father, we declare that this is what we are--not what man would call us, or what we would even call ourselves. Thank you that you are there to help us.

You are the Temple of God

It's so important to know what the bible says about believers. You become what you identify with. If you identify with Jesus and the new life in you, that's what you become. If you identify with the old life and the old habits, how can you change? Everything in the Christian life comes by faith.

Today, I want to look at one of the most awesome privileges of the New Covenant, and that is the promise of having God make his home in our mortal bodies. Let’s look at this…

BELIEVERS ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD

Heb 9:6-10 When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. 7 But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 This is an illustration for the present time


I want to call your attention specifically to verse 8. It says, in essence, that there was something incomplete about the old covenant. In the Mosaic covenant, the Israelites worshipped God at a Temple. The presence of God was in what was called the Holy of Holies, where the ark of the covenant was. If people wanted to worship correctly, they had to come to the Temple at certain times during the year.

Once a year, the high priest went into the Holy of holies to offer the yearly atonement for the sins of the people. The writer of Hebrews makes the point, that the way to God was not made complete or manifested but that now, through Christ, the way to God has been made clear.

Remember that at the crucifixion of Christ, Jesus cried out “It is finished", and the Temple curtain that hid the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom. Historians say that that curtain that separated the Holy of Holies was forty feet wide, twenty feet high, and four inches thick. When Jesus said it was finished, he meant his fulfillment of the Old Covenant. When that curtain was ripped from top to bottom by God, that meant that the presence of God no more was going to be confined to a Temple!

How do we know that ?

John 4:19 "Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

Jesus was saying that a time was coming when you wouldn't go to Jerusalem to get into the presence of God. We are living in this time. This is the most incredible thing. The holy divine presence of God the Holy Spirit, dwells in every believer now. We are in such a privileged position.

1 Cor 3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?

You see, this is the most amazing truth that we can ever know: The God of the universe, not only has forgiven our sins, not only has completely recreated our spirits-- but He makes our bodies His own home.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE AWARE OF THIS TRUTH?

a. Fulfilled instead of lonely or abandoned. -
John 14:16-17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

The purpose that the Holy Spirit was sent, was to be with us and comfort us and live in us. When we are aware of the God inside of us, we realize that we have a comforter, a counselor, a friend, a helper and we do not have to feel like orphans or abandoned or lonely. Thank God for the presence of the helper--The Holy Spirit.

b. We Have The Peace of God.
You see, many of God’s people have not learned to stand on God’s Word, and we just want to commiserate and share our needs and struggles and have someone tell us it is going to be alright. That is okay, as far as it goes, but if we are really aware of and reminded of the presence of God in us, we will go to Him, and be reminded of His power and His ability as well. We will not be fretting about everything. The Bible tells us not to be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer, to give our requests to him, and the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds. (Phil 4:6) We can communicate with God and find peace. We can go directly to God, because we have God in us.

c. Spirit oriented as opposed to experience oriented
Many have had certain experiences with the Holy Spirit, where they felt really good about their relationship with God, then they go through trials, or their zeal has faded away for some reason, and then they want to get the feeling back, and so they go on a goose bump chase: looking for a prophetic word or some experience, instead of standing on the truth that the God of the universe is on the inside of them, waiting for them to turn to Him! When we are aware of the Holy Spirit inside of us, each of us can tap into the indwelling presence and power of God today! We don't have to look for yesterday’s experiences or feelings.


d. Spirit oriented as opposed to place oriented
Some of us have put too much emphasis on buildings. How many times , and I have done this myself, have we called the building where the church was meeting in, “The house of God.” But in fact, it isn’t. The house of God is the people! People yell and raise their voice in the street, then somebody yells inside the church building and somebody says “sssshh, you shouldn’t speak like that in the house of God!” Now I’m not saying that people shouldn’t be reverent when God is moving, but we need to be careful of putting too much importance on places and objects and miss Jesus altogether--which is what the religious Pharisees did.

e. Possibility minded as opposed to impossibility minded
When we are aware of God inside of us , in every circumstance of life we should say "I am a victor not a victim." We should say "I am more than a conqueror. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." The more conscious we are of God living in our bodies, the more it will affect our view of what is possible. Many times people are challenged to do something and they immediately think “ I can’t do that” . Why? Because they are trusting in their own sufficiency and abilities . But if we really believe that God is himself in us, we begin to eliminate "can’t" from our vocabulary and begin to say what the Word says:

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. " I am more than a conqueror. God will meet all my needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. "

f. Fearless of the devil
1 John 4:4 because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

The greater one in you is the Holy Spirit. The one in the world is the Devil. Some people think that the Devil is a mythological creature, but the Bible is very clear that he is a real personality. A large part of Jesus' ministry was actually casting demons out of people. So we need to realize that we don't' have to fear anything demonic, if we know that we have the Greater One on the inside of us.

How big are you on the inside? If you are big on the inside, nothing can stop you on the outside!

g. Guided by God
The more aware we are of the presence of God in us, the more we will look to Him for guidance and direction, and believe that He will communicate with us.

h. The fruit of the spirit
The more aware of the presence of God in us, the more we will bear the fruit of the spirit: love, peace, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. This is what the Holy Spirit is trying to produce in us.

Let us remember, every day, that because of our faith in Christ, that God himself has made us into His temple. He dwells within us to commune with us, to guide us, to strengthen us and comfort us. Hallelujah!

What Are You Storing Up?

Matt 12:35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

What do you store up inside of you? You store up THOUGHTS. If someone does good to you, you start to think. "I like him." You are grateful and thankful as you are storing up optimistic, happy thoughts.

But if you store up all the things that people have done to you, or where you think God let you down at a certain time, you can become an angry, bitter person, pessimistic person. Those thoughts are what you are storing up.

You know how good people become good? The good person stores up good thoughts inside of him.

What are you storing up? Are you storing up that --God is for you--that you are healed by His stripes--that you are a new creation--that you have been forgiven of our sins--that God will take care of all your needs. That you are the righteousness of God. That you can ask God and he will answer you. That you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. If your are storing those things up, you will overcome.

You see the mind is like a hard drive. What you put in your mind is like software. If you don't like what the computer is giving out, you might have to change the software and put the right software in it. The software is the info you put in.

Now some of us may have downloaded a lot of junky, virus filled software. You might have had a parent that said "you will never amount to anything". Maybe a spouse cheated on you and you said, "I am not worthy of anything good." That's the info you got. That's what's been downloaded on your mind.

Not all programs are good. But the Bible is the Authorized software. As we take it and put it in our minds, we are not going to get viruses. We are going to get strong.

1 John 2:14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you,

We are strong because the word of God is in us. You are not strong just because you got saved. No, we don't get strong just be coming to church. Wouldn't it be great to just be able to walk into a gym and see muscles start popping out all over. You don't become a spiritual Swarzenegger just by showing up.

Remember our definition: Faith is Believing, Declaring and Acting On the Word of God.
But this is something we grow in.

Rom 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.

It doesn't say be transformed by being born again, or be transformed by being baptized. No how do you get transformed? By the renewing of your mind. Changed lives takes place only as the mind is renewed. We have all grown up with a mind that needs renewing.

It's not just about being saved. The mind being transformed is what is going to transform you. You need information.

Somebody might ask,
"what do you think about euthanasia?"
"I know exactly what to think because of the Word."
People say "But what do you really feel? Just leave the Bible alone for a minute. Get rid of all the software."
"The Word tells me how I feel!"
"You have been brain washed."
"Yes by the pure word of God."

2 Cor 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

To look like what? We are being transformed into His likeness. With God nothing is impossible. And if you will trust him, He will do the impossible.

Now at this point you are saying. "I want to be transformed but my mother told me this, my father told me I could never amount to anything. People told me that I could not heal the sick. I can see all this now. I just want to change."

You don't like the old software? You need to click "delete". You ever notice on the computer, when you are going to delete software, sometimes a message pops up that says something like:
"Are your sure? If you delete this some programs associated may not work properly. "

"Oh oh, what do I do? I'm not sure." And the software stays in there. It's as if the software laughs and says, "ha ha I'm still in here"

You need to tell the devil, "I'm living a different life. I m not going to be angry and defeated, or bitter. I don't care if the devil says that if I love people, I'm going to be treated like a doormat. I don't care. I know that's the best way to live. I'm going to treat people with respect. I'm going to lay hands on the sick.

And when the devil says, "Are you sure you want to push "delete." You push delete.
"Yes I am on God side not on the devils side. I am not going to go that way anymore."

Be consistent in your mind set. Get single minded with regards to the Word of God. Don't depend on your own reasoning, what you can see, touch, and feel. No, you have to go deeper. You have to believe, declare and act on His Word and nothing will be impossible for you.

Being Single Minded

A while back we looked at taking control of our minds. We realized that what we think is so important to the life of faith.

Some of us are in a rut. It's time to break out of the rut. Many times we are in one because we keep thinking the same stinky thoughts. Stop thinking that you are unqualified. We need to stop thinking, "It's never going to work" "I've always been this way" "Nothing ever works out for me."

How are we going to bust out of the rut? By being single minded. How are we made double minded? Because we are of two opinions regarding the will of God. God is not looking for us to be of two opinions. We are living in a world that puts such a premium on the five senses or Reason, Sight, and Feeling.

But that is not how it works in Christianity. The Christian Life is a life of faith. Faith is not living according to sight. Faith is not living according to feeling. Faith is not living according to what we can reason out. Faith is living by the Word of God. As a matter of fact I like to define faith:

Believing , Declaring and Acting On The Word of God.

We are so used to living by our senses. But living by the senses is a faith killer.

The famous preacher, Smith Wigglesworth had an awesome ministry. One day, somebody asked him, "How do you live on a day, when you wake up and you just don't feel good?"

Smith Wigglesworth responded, " I never woke up and asked Smith Wigglesworth how he feels. I wake up and I tell him how he feels."

You see, so often we want to go by feeling. But the Christian life is not a life of going by feeling.

But Pastor you don't understand, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
"What's the wrong side?"
"This side."
"Just put that side of the bed against the wall"

We need to tell ourselves. "I have a covenant with God. I am bought with His blood. I am forgiven of my sins. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I'm a new creation. I have the faith of Almighty God. Nobody is going to get me down. The joy of the Lord is my strength. I have a covenant with God. I am a blood bought child of God." You tell yourself how you feel.

We have to stop living by our senses and start living in the Spirit.

Faith is the opposite of living by the senses.

2 Cor 5:7 We live by faith, not by sight.

Heb 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Living By the Senses leads to Doubt
James 1:6-8 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

If we are double minded, it will hinder us from receiving from God. The Bible says that we receive by faith. Jesus healed, said "your faith has healed you." If we are of two opinions, we are just going to delay our answers. You have to start thinking: "God is for me. He has forgiven me. He has a destiny for me. He has a plan for me. It's not over yet. It doesn't matter what I've been through. I can overcome."

Let's look at a famous example of doubt

Matt 14:25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." 28 "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." 29 "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"

Here we have an example of Peter hearing the word of God and literally stepping out on the word of Jesus, but ultimately doubt undermines him and he begins to sink. Why? Because he began to look at the wind. He began to meditate on the wind instead of Jesus and His Word. You see, God’s best for him was to walk on the water. But doubt will sink you. Faith will keep you on afloat.

Doubt keeps you from fulfilling God's best in you life.

You see doubt is a verb. Doubt acts on unbelief. Doubt disputes with the word of God. Doubt is unbelief in action.

Jesus was, in essence, saying to Peter "Why did you dispute with my word? Why did you take sides against my word?" That is what doubt really is. Doubt is not just the absence of faith.

Oh, if we would just believe in the goodness of God. God wants us to be enthusiastic about him. Living life of expectation of his blessing.

Look at the many examples of his provision. God has clothed you. God has made it possible for you to be here today. God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. God has fed you, taken care of you. Is there anything that God would withhold from you?

There are untold thousands who have talked their way out of faith. The mind is very powerful. If you feed it lies, your whole body will respond to it. But yet we are so enamored with the reason of men. Here is what the Lord thinks of the reason of men:

1 Cor 1:20-25 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

Carl Rogers, the U.S. psychologist, was 22 years old when he entered Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1924. While there, he participated in a seminar organized to explore religious doubts. Rogers later said of the group, “The majority of members...in thinking their way through questions they had raised, thought themselves right out of religious work. I was one.”

Living By the Senses leads to Fear

Phil 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Now why would you be anxious about anything? Because you are meditating on the circumstances. You are meditating on the problem. You believe in the problem more than you do the Word of God. What does God say to do? He says, "present your requests before God, with thanksgiving." Why thanksgiving? Because you believe that He is going to take care of these troubles and you begin to release your faith by thanking Him.

Now the devil will try to make us pick up our cares and worry again. You will be very