by MIMADMIN | Jun 16, 2026 | Articles
But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, ‘The first.” Matthew 21:28-31 In the closing days of our Lord’s ministry, prior to His crucifixion, Matthew records this parable given to the Jewish religious establishment. The Savior follows the parable with the following application: “Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you. that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it. repented not afterward that ye might believe him”(1) As you can see, the application centers on the response of the second son. He said he would obey his father. but did not. Was this son insincere, or was he lying? The word insincere means, “Not honest in the expression of actual feelings; hypocritical.’` Lying means, “Deliberately untruthful: deceptive: misleading.” Although a grammarian may want to distinguish between these meanings, in practice two they are synonyms. When you are insincere, you are lying; insincere people are deceptive. They mislead others regarding their intentions. Jesus applied this to His generation. They had a history of pretending to follow God, while in...
by MIMADMIN | Feb 23, 2026 | Articles
“To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” I Corinthians 5:5 It is difficult to determine which of the biblical commands Christians most frequently neglect, but certainly disciplining believers who willfully violate the commands of God rates close to the top. This is especially true in an environment where tolerance is considered the queen of virtues. This chapter in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians gives the following principles pertaining to the application of church discipline: It includes all who call themselves Christians It includes all who violate the negative commands and refuse to repent/change All association with them is severed until they repent It is done with a two-fold motive: the saving of the sinner and the purity of the church No exceptions are made for members of the family or their age All men know and attest that behavior has its limits. When Paul says, “And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you,” (1 Corinthians 5:2) he is teaching that pride in being tolerant is a form of arrogance that God hates. To sin and repent is common to all believers; to sin and refuse to repent is to repudiate...
by MIMADMIN | Oct 21, 2025 | Uncategorized
“For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.” 1 Timothy 6:7 With or without believing in the existence of God, certain things are obviously true. No one can be unborn, and in all likelihood, no one can cease to exist. Life is filled with perpetual opposition. We do not decide when we are born, who our parents are, the color of our skin, sex, etc. About all we can do is determine how we will respond to the things over which we have no control. Our culture insists that happiness is a right, and that we are victims if we are not happy. In English the word “happy” comes from “happens, happenstance.” It is a fortunate, momentary event, not a state of being. We now insist that we should be perpetually happy, an assumption that is destined to make us angry. It is in the nature of things that our perception is that in most relationships of life we give to the relationship more than we receive. This is a universal truth that must be factored into our lives if we wish to relate properly to the world in which we live. lf you insist on living with unrealistic expectations. you are destined to live life an angry frustrated person no one wishes to be around. No one can force another to view life correctly; it is a decision each person must make, the consequences of which will be carried into eternity. The terror of the Lord is a mindset that permeates the entire ethos of Scripture. Most repudiate this as...
by MIMADMIN | Oct 21, 2024 | Uncategorized
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7 This principle is found throughout the Bible. We call it the Law of the Harvest. For the most part, this law only applies in the eternal, and when seen in the temporal, you usually cannot make the connection between sowing and reaping. In extreme cases, like a person jumping from a tall building or having sex with one who has a venereal disease, you can probably say he is reaping what he sowed. Most of the time, however, God does not allow you to make the connection. You cannot say that financial loss in a business resulted from a failure to ascertain and do the will of God, any more than you can say that financial success indicates God’s pleasure. God does not want people, Christian and non- Christian alike, to make the connection in the temporal. For this reason sociologists cannot agree that violence on TV produces yiolence in society; such connections are difficult to prove. I suggest that God does not want them proven. He wants us walking by faith, knowing from our conscience rather than experience that our sense of what is just demands the existence of the Law of the Harvest. ...
by MIMADMIN | Jan 30, 2024 | Uncategorized
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” John 8:36 Great confusion plagues the body of Christ regarding the relationship between Law, grace, and freedom. Gentiles have never been under the Law; grace has made us free from trying to gain God’s favor by our works. We do well to remember that whatever “freedom” means, it must be understood within the framework of our eternally being His slaves. Men embrace either reason or Revelation as the final court of appeal in their lives. Selecting God’s Revelation means that you are obligated to obey God’s commands, but are free to determine on your own how He wants you to invest your life. When you live under the authority of the objective Truth of Revelation you are “free indeed.” Those who live under the authority of reason are enslaved by the subjectivism of competing with other people’s reason, for no two people can consistently agree on what is reasonable. This means that justice is defined by the strongest; one day you are under the authority of your parents (children have in common that they think their parents are unreasonable), then of the school, next under the authority of your employer, and you may well end under the authority of a tyrant. The freedom of reason leads to slavery. If Christ makes you free, then you are free indeed, but you will never be autonomous ...
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