Sheep or a Goat

Matthew 25:31-46

"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' "Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' "Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

 In the previous post we talked about how ALL mankind is going to stand before Jesus and be judged by Jesus according to their deeds. In Revelation 20:11-14 it talks about the books that Jesus is going to judge out of according to their deeds. In this context of Scripture, all men are broken into two groups. 

First Group = Sheep

Second Group = Goats

The Sheep go on the right and they are blessed of God the Father and will inherit the kingdom. Why is this? Lets see:

Jesus says to those on the right:

1. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat;

2. I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink;

3. I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 

4. Naked, and you clothed Me;

5. I was sick, and you visited Me;

6. I was in prison, and you came to Me.

The Righteous will answer:

Lord, when did we do all these things... Notice its the righteous...

Jesus says to those on His left:

Depart from me accursed ones in the eternal fire. Why...because they did not do these things...These will go into eternal punishment but the RIGHTEOUS into eternal life.

Sum up:

Those on the Right = Sheep

Sheep = those that are  righteous and they do the 6 things above that Jesus says we are to do.

Righteous Sheep enter into eternal life (Gods Kingdom) 

So where does ONLY having FAITH fit into this? Those accursed ones call Jesus Lord. Yet, they were considered goats. If ALL we had to do was to believe in Jesus as our Lord and do nothing else, our faith is DEAD! 

James 2:26 (14-26)

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. 

Remember what our commanded task given by Jesus was to do - Go out into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in My Name! Search it out.

• WE CAN NOT ENTER INTO GODS KINGDOM (ETERNAL LIFE) BY FAITH ONLY! 

• THIS IS DEAD DOCTRINE AND IS COMMONLY FED AS TRUTH. 

• IF THIS WAS THE CASE, THE BIBLE WOULD BE MUCH SMALLER THEN IT IS. TO MOST IT IS SMALL BECAUSE THEY DO NOT READ IT.

Matthew 7:13-14

"Enter through the narrow gate; for the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Jesus Himself says that there are few that find the way to life. Many people today think they have found this, yet most don't read what Jesus says. They only listen to their pastor or priest that may be saying things that don't exist in the Scriptures.

The only way to prove out what your teacher is saying to you is to look into it yourself. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read! Prove what your pastor is saying is either truth or his own ways. That is what a true disciple is. 

Are you a sheep? 

Or are you a goat?

Instructions to Jesus Disciples

What is a job of a Christian? Or lets rephrase that and just talk about what job or instruction Jesus gave His disciples while He was on earth. Remember a disciple is someone that is learning or is a student.

Matthew 10:1 - Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

Jesus gives authority! This word authority is the word exousia - power, authority, right, liberty, jurisdiction, strength. Jesus gave His disciples the power or right over unclean spirits and to cast them out, and to heal people of diseases and sickness. Interesting that Jesus gives this to someone, not a man, not a certificate or anything like that. Its Jesus that gives someone this right. Lets keep reading.

Matthew 10:5-15 - These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. "And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. "Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support. "And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city. "As you enter the house, give it your greeting. "If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. "Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. "Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

So Jesus gives His disciples power to DO things. He also gives them specific instructions:
1. Do not go to the Gentiles but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
2. Preach that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
3. Heal the sick,
4. Raise the dead.
5. Cleanse the lepers.
6. Cast out demons.

These are instructions that Jesus' disciples were told to DO. Interesting that Jesus told them to preach the Kingdom of Heaven. We have been seeing this phrase repeated a lot at the beginning of the gospels. But notice too that Jesus never says anything about going out to tell people to ask Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, He tells them to talk about God's Kingdom where Jesus is Lord! Jesus gives them SPECIFIC instructions.

Matthew 3:2 - Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. - John the Baptist, man sent from God

Matthew 4:17 - From that time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. - First thing Jesus starts talking about in HIs public ministry is repenting or in other words, telling people that they are going to have to change their minds from their own dead ways. FIRST THINGS FIRST.

Matthew 10:7 - And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand. - First thing Jesus tells His disciples to go out and tell people about. Are you seeing a pattern yet?

Here are other mate Scriptures that go along with how Jesus sent out His disciples.

Mark 6:6b-13
Luke 9:1-6
Luke 10:1-20

Something I have heard too was that this was just referring to those disciples. This isn't something you or I need to do today. Thats why God made pastors and preachers right? To do that for us? Lets look at the LAST thing Jesus says before He is taken back into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father. 

Matthew 28:16-20 - But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

• Jesus has been given ALL AUTHORITY (same word that Jesus used to give His disciples - exousia) has been give to Him in heaven and on earth.  

• We are told to: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you;

Mark 16:15-18 - And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. "These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

Again, specific instructions:

1. Go into all the world and preach the gospel (this gospel is the kingdom of heaven!)

2. Believe in Jesus

3. Be baptized (in Jesus' name)

(note: that JESUS SAYS these two things combined equal salvation)

And even similar signs accompany those that go out in His name just as His disciples did earlier. 

So what is a duty of a disciple or Christian? Study these out and see what the Lord shows you. Ask yourself if where you are going to learn about Jesus is talking about these things. These are still active and Jesus' disciples should be DOING these things. 

Next we'll look at why these things are so imperative to take part in. 

Remember to be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

What is a Christians Job?

Yesterday afternoon I jumped in my car and the radio was on from that morning. I started listening to the guy on the other side talk about statistics of Christians. There were five general catagories . It went something like this:


8/10 Christians - told others that they were Christians
7/10 Christians - did not believe in all of the Bible but only parts of it
2/10 Christians - were considered "born again" or saved
1/10 Christians - actually went out and told others who they thought were not saved about Jesus and to accept Him as their Savior


The man speaking was very surprised at these stats. I mean he couldn't believe how many didn't believe that all of Gods word (Bible) was true and that they liked to pick parts out that pleased them. But out of all of this, how many actually went and told others about Jesus.


So this got me thinking...do Christians know that they have a job? Or do we think that our job is church on Sunday and maybe a Bible study in the middle of the week (if we have time)? 


What this also got me thinking about is how many people go to church on Sundays and actually want to DO something. They want to go out and share the message but they just don't know what to share. I mean where do you go or what do you talk about once you told someone to ask Jesus in their heart? What do you build on after that? Maybe what actually is happening is the pastor or minister is not empowering the church to DO. But guess what, Jesus will! Its actually commanded, did you know that? 


All mankind will be judged on whether we did the LORD Jesus' work! This is a good thing if you are doing it. We are going to take a look at what Jesus requires of His true disciples!

Commentary and Bibles?

Have you ever found yourself at a Christian Book store, searching through the isles trying to find that perfect Bible in which you can just delve into and learn and build an intimate relationship with God? You walk through the doors and you are bombarded with big flashy signs of best selling Christian authors’ with books about how to get that relationship you always wanted, how to become a millionaire God’s way, or the Idiots guide through the Bible. You have to walk past all these books till you make your journey towards the back of the store to where you find that ever so dwindling section of Bibles. Now that you found the Bibles you are just sitting there searching through each one curious as which one is better than the other; wondering why there are so many different translations; what translation is the best; and then you start thinking you are in over your head; maybe I need one of those idiot guides to the Bible first before I get into the Word… Oh wait here I found the perfect Bible; it’s a study Bible and it has commentary that explains everything for me. It is like an idiots guide to the Bible in the Bible itself; PERFECT!

Now I am not trying to make fun of anyone, nor am I putting anyone down that has a Study Bible; it is one of the first Bibles I started out with and there are some that have handy geographical references in them. The problem I have found with Commentary Bibles is a lot of mans thoughts get brought into God’s word and I have even seen some that completely contradict the Bible.
I don’t know if people are familiar with what a page out of a commentary bible looks like but here is an example:

This is what the average page looks like half of it is scripture and then the other half is a man’s interpretation of what the scripture is saying. The definition of commentary is “The expression of opinions or explanations about an event or situation.”

So is commentary good or bad? We can look at scripture to see.

Deut 4:1-6 – God gave Israel statutes and judgments to perform so that they may take possession of the land in which God had given them. In vs. 2 He tells them “ You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you”,  those who held fast to the LORD God also staid alive.  Verse 6 is neat too because it shows that by keeping the statutes and judgments (just as the Lord spoke them; not adding or removing anything) it was their wisdom and understanding.

Deut 12:32 “Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it”

If you ever read about Moses it is really neat because the Lord would speak to him and then Moses would go and speak to the people word for word what God told him too. None of Moses’ thoughts were intertwined with what God wanted him to speak to the people.

Proverb 30:6 “Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar”

Ecclesiastes 3:14 “I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him”

In Matthew 24:35 Christ says “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” so Christ’s word will never pass away, it will remain forever, we are not to add to it nor take away from it, but are to fear God.

Revelation 22:18-19 “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; (19) and if anyone takes away from the words of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book”

So is commentary adding to the Bible? I believe people need to make that judgment call on their own. I also believe people need to give themselves more credit than they do about their ability to understand the Bible. It is a mystery however; the neat thing about it if you are truly seeking after the Lord He will open your heart to act on the scripture. We can see an example of this in Acts 16:14 with Lydia. She was a worshipper of God and was listening and the Lord opened her heart to respond to things spoken by Paul. So God knows those that are truly seeking after Him and He will not disappoint. The Bible is written at the reading level of a 12 year old, it’s not a hard book to read; however, to really understand it you need to go to the Author of the Book. Just like any book out there to get what the author really meant its best to get the answers from the source.

2 Tim 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

2 Peter 1:20 “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, (21) for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

So I will end on this.

When you pick up your Bible next time to read; I encourage everyone to earnestly pray to God that His Holy Spirit would guide you into all truth and reveal His word to you. Start going to God for the answers and you will see the Bible like you have never seen it before. And remember this verse:

1 Peter 2:2 “Like newborn babies long for the pure (unadulterated) milk of the word, so that by it you may grow unto salvation”

Conquering Sin

So Steve brought out some interesting things in the Milk and Honey post and a scripture that he so kindly allowed me to expound on. John 8:34 Jesus is talking here and says “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. This scripture is cut and dry, there are only two people in the world; those that are slaves to sin and those that aren’t and in this context they are called sons.

So now arises the question, how are we set free from being a slave to sin? The answer lies within my favorite scripture (which is why Steve saved if for me). If you want to open up your Bible to Romans 6 and take some time and read the entire chapter, it is only 23 verses but those 23 verses are jam packed with answers.

Paul starts out with a rhetorical question to the believers in Rome “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” 

Interesting concept right, continue on in sin so God’s grace is glorified? There is a phrase for that today, its called “come as you are”. Ask yourself one question; what was the first thing Christ preached when He started His ministry? I will give you a clue; come as you are isn't in the Bible.  Here are the scriptures of how Jesus started preaching. Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”.  Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”.

Repent in the Greek is translated Meta-nous it’s a compound word simply put it means “change your mind”. Coming as you are does not equal changing your mind, it means the opposite; it means I’m fine where I am at, even if I partake in drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, sensuality, strife, and jealousy; I’m only human God understands... Jesus was very clear about those that do not repent it is in Luke 13:3. We as people have two options; change our mind and do things God’s way or perish. There is no plan C its life or death that’s how serious it gets.

You can see this in Paul’s response to his own rhetorical question in verse 2 of Romans 6. “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

So this brings us back to our original topic; how are we freed from sin? Paul is speaking to a group of believers that have already been freed from sin it says in 2 that they died to sin.  How do you die to sin though?

If you continue on reading it answers that question. “or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death”

So this group of believers that had died to sin, died to it by being baptized into the name of Jesus Christ. In Acts 4:12 it says “for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved”  Baptism has to be done in the name of Jesus Christ, you can’t be baptized into a church or anything else because there is no other name that can save you.

There is a list of promises if you keep on reading through Romans 6 that all follow baptism.

1)      Become united with Christ in the likeness of His death

2)      Also be of His resurrection

3)      Our body of sin is done away with

4)      You are no longer a slave to sin

5)      Have the ability to live with Christ

6)      We are alive to God in Christ Jesus

7)      Enslaved to God (in which we derive our benefit resulting in sanctification and eternal life.)

There are more things that come through baptism that are listed in other scriptures like in Acts 2:38 we receive the Holy Spirit when we repent and are baptized.

Our main focus however is how to be set free from sin. As Steve brought out before, Israel could not serve God in Egypt because they were under bondage and Egypt was the pleasures of sin. So put two and two together they were slaves to sin. Nothing has changed since then; people can not genuinely serve God while they are still slaves to sin, they have to act on what the scripture says.  When Christ said “repent and believe the gospel” believe actually derives from an Anglo Saxon word that means “by life” it is more than just “knowing it is real or exists” it means LIVE IT. So now put that into what Christ said, “Repent and make the gospel your life.” Has a bigger impact I think.

So if you have struggles overcoming your flesh and you are ready to stop fulfilling the lusts of your flesh there is an answer and it works. The Bible is truth and I believe Romans 6 says it better itself than I could ever explain it. There is a neat scripture in Isaiah 43:2 it says “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” Christ meets you under the water when you take that step of faith to be baptized into His name and He gives you the victory and sets you free from sin. Praise the Lord!

 Like always if you ever have any questions feel free to ask and if you are thinking about getting baptized feel free to write and we will try and answer any questions you may have about it in greater detail.

Until next time, keep those Bibles open and searching the scripture through.

Milk & Honey

So last night at Bible Study we were looking into Moses and the exodus of Israel. We found that Jesus was actually the one that had given Moses instructions on where and when to lead the Hebrews out of the land of Egypt. And one thing I found very interesting was that the LORD did not lead them the short route but he lead His people by the sea. 

Why could the Hebrews not serve God in Egypt? Why did they have to leave at least a three days journey away? What is Egypt?

Exodus 6:2-9 - Egypt = Bondage and Burdens
Hebrews 11:25-26 - Egypt = Pleasures of sin

The Hebrews could not serve God when they were still slaves to sin! So the LORD sent Moses to lead them out and show them the route back to God. 

Today, can we serve God while we are yet in sin and do not have the power to overcome it? 

John 8:32-59 - Jesus says that if we sin, we are slaves to sin. How then can we serve God if we are still enslaved to sin? How do we get over this struggle? (Maybe Joe can help explain this one.)

Our whole point in life is to return back to God and worship and serve Him His way, not ours.

Isaiah 55:6-9 - Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

By following Jesus' ways, we will be free. In John 8 Jesus states that the Son can make us free indeed. But it first takes repentance (which means to change our minds - like in Isaiah) and to have faith on God. After Moses crossed the sea with all the Hebrews, it says they feared the LORD and believed in the LORD and Moses. They believed because they just witnessed the LORDS salvation. How can we believe something that we have not practiced and proven out for yourself?

Many people today try serving Jesus while they are still in bondage and a slave to sin. This is impossible to do. We must first change our mind about our ways and start reading about God's ways. Man will tell you that you are fine as you are - but the first thing Jesus preached was Matthew 14:17 - "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

That doesn't sound like the words, "You are alright as you are and I love you anyway." Thats all I heard in church. But Gods word proves otherwise. You be the judge...

So lets go on to this Land of Milk and Honey...what is it?