“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (I John 1:3) The Apostle John states the purpose for which he wrote this Epistle in the last chapter: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have sternal life...” (Ch. 5:13) Here in the prologue of the Epistle he sets forth what makes th

“And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:16-19) Jesus is describing the severe persecution His disciples will endure in this life. Among other things, religious leaders will falsely imprison them, harshly judge them, and even try t

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Rom. 8:16) Can I know that I am saved? How can I know that I am saved? These questions are of the utmost importance. Among religious folks we might hear either of two answers that are of opposite extremes, neither of which have solid basis. Many today have a “know-so salvation” based on something they have done - perhaps a certain prayer they said, or a decision they made, or even a feeling

“But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.” (1 Samuel 15:9) Earlier in the chapter, God commissioned Saul, the current King of Israel, to attack the Amalekite people. His instructions were extremely simple: they were to beat back the enemies and destroy everything in their c

“And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7:59) “…and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.” (Acts 7:58b) At the Holy Spirit’s direction, we have in these verses the names of two most remarkable young men, Stephen and Saul. Stephen was a young standout in the early church. He was a devout believer, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. (Ch. 6:5) He was also full of wisdom - able to

“And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.” (Exodus 2:1-3) In Exodus, the land of Egypt (where the Israelites are enslaved) has r

“Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 100:3) It is a trick of Satan to turn our attention away from the most vital and consequential matters to trivial considerations. He managed to turn the eyes of our first parents away from the tree of life, causing them to lust after the deadly fruit of the forbidden tree. Thieves and robbers know very well the advantage that the art of decept

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Romans 3:23) “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” (Ephesians 2:8) These two verses may seem unrelated, since they come from different letters, but together they paint a vivid picture of redemption. Both were written by the Apostle Paul, of course, but the first text was directed to both Jewish and Gentile believers in Rome, while the second was sent to the chur

“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” (Exodus 20:1, 2) These words form the preface of the Ten Words spoken by the Lord to His redeemed people who were assembled at the foot of Sinai after their deliverance out of Egypt. These Commandments are basic to the Moral Law by which the Lord’s people will be set apart from all of the peoples of the earth. This, in itself, is a gre

“My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path.” (Proverbs 1:10-15) Those w

“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (Ephesians 1:6) Acceptance is a condition that meets a basic need of mankind. People are willing to go to great lengths to satisfy the inborn desire for acceptance, including conformity of dress, conformity of speech, conformity of manners, conformity of opinions, etc. Sadly, human beings of all ages will speak and act in ways that are contrary to their real beliefs rather than run the

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9) The Apostle Paul is currently writing to the believers in Rome who were dealing with a large culture clash in the church. Emperor Claudius had once expelled all of the Jewish people from Rome but later allowed them to return. When they did, they found a church that had become non-Jewish in both customs and prac

“Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:17). The book of Jonah opens with a call from the Lord to Jonah telling him to go to Nineveh and cry against the wickedness in the city. Jonah was terrified at the prospect of going to Nineveh and did what he could to reject this call. Why was he so hesitant? It would make sense for his hesitancy to be based on fear because we hear that Ni

“And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.” (I Kings 18:21) According to the word of Elijah to King Ahab, God had withheld rain, causing a great drought in Israel. Three years had passed, and Ahab was seeing Elijah’s face for the first time since the message of judgement was delivered. “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?” These are the words with which the King greeted th

“Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee. But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities. Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands

“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Romans 7:23) In every believer there are two principles, and they are at war with each other. The Christian is therefore a great riddle to those who observe him, and he is equally an enigma to himself. “He is discerned of no man,” not even of himself. In considering this confession of the Apostle Paul, Spurgeon remarked, “I quest

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:” (I Peter 1:7) This epistle is addressed to believers in general, who are strangers in every city or country where they live. Due to their allegiance to God and His Son, they are treated as foreigners on earth because they are “not of this world.” No matter if they have lived in the

“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.” (II Peter 2:9, 10a) The Lord’s ability to deliver His own is not mere theory, but a demonstrated reality confirmed across the sweep of redemptive history. God has never been outmaneuvered by the complexity of our trials or overwhelmed by the opposition w

“Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13-14) Jesus is currently traveling around Judea, preaching, prophesying, and making disciples, who were then baptized by His followers. As is tradition, the Pharisees in Judea were not happy with this

“These things write I unto thee…that thou mayest know how thou oughest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” (I Timothy 3:14, 15) Paul’s assertion here may seem somewhat counterintuitive considering that the Church is built upon the truth. The Church’s Founder, Who is “full of grace and truth,” and is Himself the truth, stated that His purpose for coming into this world was to “bear witness unto the