Author Archives: Pastor Ricky Kurth

Saul’s Threatenings and His Conversion – Acts 9:1-9

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

Saul wasn’t just slaughtering God’s people and “threatening” to kill more of them.  He was “breathing out” threatenings and slaughter (9:1).  What’s the difference?   Breath is God’s gift (Acts 17:25), a gift that gives life (Gen. 2:7).  But what you breathe out is what you do with the life God gives you.  That means Saul lived to threaten and slaughter the Lord’s disciples.  But after he got saved, he lived for the Lord (Phil. 1:21).  You should use your breath to also! (Ps. 150:6).

Of course, Saul thought he was living for the Lord when murdering the saints (Acts 23:1).  He thought they were heretics who deserved to die (John 16:2).  This is another thing that made him a type of the antichrist (Dan. 8:24; Re. 13:4,7).

He probably would have become the beast if God hadn’t interrupted prophecy with the mystery.  Psalm 27:12 talks about breathing out cruelty, which sounds like Saul, but we know that’s a passage about antichrist and his followers because Psalm 27:10,11 matches the Lord’s description of the Tribulation (Mark 13:12-14).  This is kind of like how John the Baptist would have been Elijah if Israel had accepted the kingdom (Mal. 4:5; Mt. 11:12,14).  They didn’t, so another Elijah will rise in the Tribulation.

And Saul would have been the antichrist, but now another will arise.  I say all that to assure you that Antichrist won’t be doomed to be the Antichrist.  It’s like how the prophets predicted someone would betray the Lord, but it didn’t have to be Judas.  And the prophets also said there’d be an antichrist, but the man will likewise choose to be the antichrist.

Saul persecuted believers in Jerusalem so thoroughly they all left (Acts 8:1-3) so he got authorization to slay them in Damascus (9:1, 2).  That’s another type of the antichrist.  Saul got his authority from the high priest, antichrist will get his from Satan (Rev. 13:2).  Saul persecuted those of “that way” (9:2), i.e., followers of the Lord Jesus (John 14:6 cf. Acts 19:9, 23).

The “light” Saul saw (9:3) was brighter than the sun (26:13).  Saul knew that could only be God (cf. Ps. 104:1,2).  That explains why he fell to the earth (9:4) like Ezekiel did (Ezek. 1:28).  As we’ll see, the “voice” Saul heard belonged to the Lord Jesus, who didn’t ask why Saul was persecuting Him, He asked why he was killing His disciples (9:4).  That’s because God takes it personally when you kill His people (Isa. 63:9; Zech. 2:8) and the Lord did too (Mt. 25:40).

So Saul knows the light is God, and he knows he’s been persecuting the followers of Christ, so he’s figuring out that the “God” he’s talking to is Christ.  But he asks just to be sure (9:5).  God told Moses His name was “I am” (Ex. 3:14), and now 1500 years later He gave His full name: “I am Jesus.”

“Pricks” (9:5) were the sharp goads (Jud. 3:31) Jews used to prick oxen to get them to go where they wanted.  Saul knew the prophets well enough to know that their description of Israel’s Christ matched Jesus, and God used that to prick his conscience.  But Saul didn’t want to believe the lowly carpenter was his Christ so he kicked against the pricks.

Men always “trembled” (9:6) before God (Hab. 3:2, 4, 16).  But why was Saul also “astonished” (9:6) to learn Jesus was Christ if he’d suspected it all along?  He was astonished that the Lord had spoken to him tenderly instead of in wrath as Psalm 2:5 said he would!  The Lord revealed He was sending him to the Gentiles with a new message (Acts 22:15-18).

He told him to go to Damascus where Ananias would tell him what to do (9:6), but not why.  Ananias told him to be baptized for salvation (22:16), but Saul was already saved on Damascus Road (Acts 9:6 cf. I Cor. 12:3).  The Lord wanted him baptized so the disciples would believe he was saved (Acts 9:26,27). Saul wasn’t saved under the kingdom gospel.

Saul’s henchmen heard the voice (9:7) but not the words (22:9 cf. John 12:28, 29) for the mystery was only given to Paul.

Saul was blinded by the light of the Lord’s glory (9:8, 9 cf. 22:11).  But to save a blasphemer like Saul (I Tim. 2:12, 13) God had to introduce a whole new world (Mt. 12:31, 32), a world the prophets knew nothing about—the world of the dispensation of the grace of God.  The mystery (Eph. 3:1-3).

This sermon is also available on YouTube: Saul’s Threatenings and His Conversion – Acts 9:1-9

Part 1: You’ve Got To Stand For Something!

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Back in 1990, entertainer Bob Hope was busy gathering a group of other entertainers to put on a USO show for our troops stationed in the Persian Gulf for Operation Desert Shield. At that same time, country singer Aaron Tippin was on the radio singing a song called, “You’ve Got to Stand for Something, or You’ll Fall for Anything.” Hearing it, Bob realized it would be the perfect song for those brave men who were standing firm in the face of Sadam Hussein’s infamous “million man army,” so he invited Aaron to join the tour.

History proved him right, for I can vividly remember seeing a news clip of the hoots and hollers Aaron got when he sang that song to the troops. He really struck a chord with those men who had taken a stand in the desert to defend the line our president had drawn in the sand.

Back in 1968, some grace pastors took a similar stand to defend Paul’s gospel in the face of the doctrinal declension that had arisen in the grace movement. And the stand that those good soldiers of Jesus Christ took when they formed the Berean Bible Fellowship reminds me of the words of that song. You see, if you don’t stand for Pauline truth, you’ll fall for just about anything, because Paul’s gospel is the answer to just about everything!

And the stand they took fifty years ago also reminds me of the question God asked Job in order to give him a sense of His greatness:

“Where wast thou when I… shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth…And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further…?” (Job 38:4-11).

Six thousand years ago God drew a line in the sand of the beaches of the world, and said to the mighty oceans, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!” And fifty years ago, the grace pastors who founded the BBF said to the apostasy in the grace movement, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!” They drew a line in the sand and for the past fifty years they and the men who followed after them have faithfully stood their ground and defended it, overcoming every challenge to the truth that Satan has raised, weathering every storm that has arisen.

And I can think of no finer way to honor those founding pastors, and the God they served, and the truth they preserved, than by NOT talking about the men themselves, but rather by teaching a Bible study featuring some of the faithful men who came before them in the pages of God’s Word. Men of God who took a stand for Him and His truth—sometimes in the face of overwhelming odds, often standing alone in the face of those overwhelming odds. Ordinary men who did some extraordinary things.

Enoch’s Stand

Men like the man we read about in Genesis 5:21,22:

“…Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years….”

Enoch took a stand for the Lord when he decided to walk with God. And if you think that was an easy stand for him to take, you’re probably forgetting that he lived right before the Flood. You know. In the years when the world was so desperately wicked that God had to wipe the human race out and start all over again with Noah. Choosing to walk with God was an extraordinary thing to do in those days!

Do you ever hear Christians complain, “It’s so hard to walk with God these days, the world is so much more evil than it used to be”? When you hear that, think of Enoch, and remember that any stand that you yourself hope to take for Paul’s gospel must begin with a consistent walk with God. It must start with a stand that you yourself have to take to deny ungodliness in the face of an ungodly world.

You see, these messages aren’t just going to be about the faithful men we see in the Bible, or even the faithful men who founded the BBF. They’re going to be about the stand I hope to inspire you to take for God and His truth.

If you are thinking that it’s too late to start walking with God at your age, notice that Enoch didn’t start walking with God until he was 65 years old! That means for the first 65 years of his life he evidently walked in ungodliness instead.

But it also means there came a day when he drew a line in the sand and said to the ungodliness in his life, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further.” So I don’t care how long you’ve walked in ungodliness, or lived selfishly for yourself instead of living for the Lord, it is never too late to take a stand for Him. Just ask Enoch!

In our next reference we see another man who took a stand for God:

“…Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God”  (Gen. 6:9).

Noah’s Stand

Did you notice that Noah wasn’t perfect in his conduct? He was perfect in his generations. When God announced that the seed of the woman would crush Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15), the devil tried to corrupt her seed by having his fallen angels cohabit with women (Gen. 6:1-4) in an attempt to corrupt the line of Christ. The demonic race that resulted from those unholy unions were said to be “giants.” But Noah’s family drew a line in the sand and said to that Satanic corruption, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!”

Of course, now that Christ has been born, the devil is no longer trying to corrupt the seed of the woman. Today he’s attempting to corrupt Paul’s gospel. And fifty years ago, when the founders of the BBF drew a line in the sand and said to the corruption that had arisen in the grace movement, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further,” do you really think Satan gave up on trying to corrupt Paul’s gospel? If you’ve known Pauline truth for very long, you know by experience that he’s still at it, and that there is still a need for men of God to stand firm in the face of apostasy.

So if you’re a grace pastor who’s thinking of corrupting the grace message, or watering it down, or making it what you perceive to be more palatable to your hearers in any other way because you deem it to be unpopular—well, I’m not going to lie to you. You’ll probably go further in life than faithful grace pastors. Speaking of giants, you may even grow a giant church.

But if Berean Bible Society founder Pastor C. R. Stam were still alive, he’d remind you of one of his favorite verses: “buy the truth, and sell it not” (Prov. 23:23). It’s easy to be a sellout. It may cost you to stand for the truth. But who cares what it costs? Pastor Stam and the rest of BBF’s founders didn’t, and neither should you.

You see, Aaron Tippin’s song is about how his dad always stood for what was right. One of the lines says, “We mighta been better off, or owned a bigger house. If Daddy’d done more givin’ in, or a little more backin’ down. But we always had plenty, just living his advice: Whatever you do today you’ll have to sleep with tonight.” Well, as a grace pastor, whatever you do in the ministry in this life, you’re going to have to live with for all eternity. So draw a line in the sand of your heart and say to those thoughts of corrupting Paul’s gospel, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!”

And if you’re a grace pastor who’s grown tired of standing for Paul’s gospel—tired of not seeing the results that others get who don’t stand for it—may I remind you that Noah wasn’t just an arkbuilder? He was also “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5), a preacher who preached for 120 years (Gen. 6:3)—with no converts! Not a single soul on the face of the earth joined him and his family in the ark.

You say, “Well, he probably didn’t get discouraged because he was preaching what God told him to preach,” and I’d agree. But if you’re a grace pastor, so are you—if you’re maintaining your stand for Pauline truth, that is, and not selling out!

But I’ll go you one further. I don’t think Noah even expected any converts. Did you notice that Peter didn’t call him a preacher of the gospel? He called him “a preacher of righteousness.” God didn’t send him to offer salvation to that demonic race. He just told him to preach righteousness to them—to tell those giants that they were about to be righteously judged of God.

It’s kind of like the message God gave Jonah to preach when He told him,

“…go unto Nineveh… and preach unto it… Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:2,4).

Do you see any gospel—any good news—in that message? Jonah didn’t tell the citizens of Nineveh they’d be overthrown unless they repented. He just preached the coming of the righteous judgment of God. The difference is that the people of Nineveh weren’t made up of the seed of fallen angels, and they did repent.

But just imagine poor Noah preaching for 120 years with no response! Do you think he might have gotten a little weary in well doing—a little discouraged maybe? Well, the next time you get discouraged as a grace pastor, thinking that nobody wants to hear the grace message, just do what Noah had to do and say to that discouragement, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!”

Abraham’s Stand

Sometimes taking a stand for God and His truth will cost you in a way that it cost Abraham. “The Lord had said unto Abram,

“Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee” (Gen. 12:1).

Abraham’s family were a bunch of idolaters (Josh. 24:2). So when God called him to go to the promised land, He told him to leave his family behind. That means taking a stand for God cost him his family! You see, standing for the truth involves standing apart from those who don’t stand for it—even when those who don’t are your loved ones!

That was certainly the case for those grace pastors who took that stand in 1968. The ones from whom they separated when they took their stand weren’t a bunch of faceless, nameless nobodies. They were oftentimes members of their families and friends—
dear friends, lifelong friends with whom they had fellowshipped for years if not decades.

Taking a stand for the truth may cost you in the same way, and you’re sure to have moments of regret if it does. But when those moments start ganging up on you, steel your resolve and do what Abraham must have done and say to those regrets, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!”

But now, as you probably remember, Abraham wasn’t perfect in his stand for God. While traveling through the land of the giants,

“Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah” (Gen. 20:2).

Abraham was afraid the king would kill him to get his beautiful wife, so he just decided to share her. But that king was also the seed of those fallen angels. You see, after God wiped the giants out with the Flood, Satan raised up another crop of giants “after that” (Gen. 6:4). And if that king had slept with Sarah, it would have corrupted the line of Christ.

That means when Abraham lied about his wife he endangered the genealogy of the Messiah, and in so doing endangered the souls of all mankind. If God hadn’t intervened, we’d all be without a Savior.

I point all this out to remind you that you’re not perfect either. Maybe you’ve made mistakes in your stand for God, just as Abraham did. Maybe even serious mistakes that endangered the cause of Pauline truth for which you stand. The good news is that God doesn’t expect you to be perfect any more than He expected it of Abraham. And if He could use Abraham after the shameful way he treated his wife, I guarantee He can still use you.

So don’t let past mistakes keep you from standing for the truth. When thoughts arise that suggest that your past renders you unworthy to stand for the Lord, just say to those thoughts, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!”

Moses’ Stand

Moses began to take his stand for God when he attempted to mediate a fight between two Jews (Ex. 2:13). But how’d that work out for him? They rejected his offer to mediate their dispute and tacitly threatened to expose him as a murderer (v. 14).

Did you ever have something like that happen to you? Maybe you tried to settle a quarrel between two grace brethren, or took a stand for what’s right in some other area of your life, and had it just explode in your face? If that happens, I hope you won’t react as Moses did. He ran away from God for forty years! Forty years of his life were wasted, just because standing for what’s right didn’t work out the way he’d hoped.

Maybe it has happened to you, and you did run from God, and now you’re finding it hard to find your way back to serving Him. Can you imagine how hard it was for Moses after forty years? Maybe you haven’t wasted that much time, but no matter how many years you’ve lost for the Lord, do you know what you should say to all that spiritual waste in your life? “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!”

Joshua and Caleb’s Stand

Now if you want to talk about men who took a stand, how about Joshua and Caleb? What did God say to them about the giants who lived in the promised land?

“Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it” (Lev. 20:24).

But when Moses sent men to spy out the land, what did ten of those twelve spies tell him?

“…we be not able to go up against the people; for they are… giants” (Num. 13:27-33).

But what did Joshua and Caleb say to their countrymen about that?

“…rebel not… neither fear ye the people of the land… the Lord is with us” (Num. 14:9).

In the face of that unbelief, Joshua and Caleb took a stand, choosing to stand on God’s promise that they would inherit the land!

Now most of the time when preachers preach about those two faithful men, they tell you that you can beat the giants in your life by just being faithful. They promise that faithfulness will even enable you to conquer obstacles as huge as cancer, or poverty, or whatever other giant challenges you face in life.

But faithfulness stems from faith, and faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). And God didn’t say in His Word that members of the Body of Christ will slay the giant of cancer, or vanquish the giant of poverty. So you can’t point to a verse that says you will, as Joshua and Caleb could point to God’s promise that they would possess the land. So for you to say you will conquer giants like that isn’t faith, it’s presumption.

God plans to conquer your giants differently. After talking about the giants of “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword” (Rom. 8:35), Paul went on to assure us that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (v. 37). You see, God’s plan isn’t for you to merely conquer your giants. He plans to make you more than a mere conqueror by letting your giants conquer you.

“How’s that work?” Well, don’t forget Paul prefaced God’s promise to make us more than conquerors with the words, “we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (v. 36). That’s a reference to what Isaiah said about the Lord as He hung on Calvary’s cross, and how…

“He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter…” (Isa. 53:7).

Christ’s Stand

Was Christ a conqueror on the cross? Before you answer, let me ask you: Did He come down off the cross and whoop up on the religious “giants” who nailed Him there? He could have conquered them if He wanted to. Instead He became more than a conqueror by letting those giants conquer Him by taking His life. He didn’t rest on any promise to save Him from His giant religious foes. Instead, He rested on God’s promise to raise Him from the dead after His enemies conquered Him (Psa. 16:10). He was even “glad” that those religious giants killed Him (v. 9), and He tells us why He was glad when He prayed,

“Thou wilt shew Me the path of life; in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore” (v. 11).

The Lord was able to gladly endure the giants who so viciously opposed Him because He knew that someday He would sit at God’s right hand—and so will you! In fact, Paul says you’re as good as there (Eph. 2:6). With glory like that in your future, you can gladly tell your giants, “Go ahead and run me over, then back the truck up and run me over again. No matter what you do to me, my Savior is keeping a seat warm for me at the right hand of God!”

That’s the reason Paul cites Isaiah’s words about the Lord in telling us that we can be more than conquerors through Him. If we look at our giants in the way that He looked at His, we can be as glad as He was about having to face them!

This explains why Paul himself was glad when he asked the Lord to slay his giant—his giant thorn in the flesh—and He answered,

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities… for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:8-10).

If Paul had his druthers, he druther be sick than well, for he knew the Lord’s power was released in his suffering, just as the power of salvation was released in the Lord’s suffering for us on the cross. So just as Christ was “glad” that His enemies conquered Him, Paul suffered his giant thorn in the flesh “gladly.”

“What kind of power is released in our suffering?” The power to overcome the discouragement that comes when you forget that God’s strength is made perfect in your weakness! And the power of your testimony for the Lord is made perfect as well. When you not only don’t gripe about your infirmities, when you “take pleasure” in them instead, that’s a testimony that literally screams to unbelievers that you have something they don’t have!

Your Stand

And if you can’t take pleasure in that, you need to adjust your priorities. I’m talking about manning up and taking a stand in life, and being the man of God that He has called you to be. Learn to “endure hardness; as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim. 2:3).

Aaron Tippin’s song ends with these lines:

“Now I know that things are different than they were in Daddy’s day. But I still believe what makes a man really hasn’t changed.” And I know that things are different today than they were in Bible days. They are even different than they were back in 1968 when those men of God took a stand for Paul’s gospel. But what makes a man of God really hasn’t changed. You’ve still got to stand for the truth of Paul’s gospel, or you too will fall for anything!

So “quit you like men, be strong!” (1 Cor. 16:13). There are untold thousands of believers who are falling for the kind of presumption that passes for faith these days. It’s time that grace believers everywhere stood up to all such errors, and to any and all declension from the truth, and said, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!”

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The Aftermath of the Samaritan Revival – Acts 8:9-25

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

If you’re wondering what kind of “sorcery” (v.9) was available to men in Bible days, that word is first used to describe men who were able to do legitimate miracles (Ex. 7:10,11; 20-22; 8:6,7).  And when Verse 9 says Simon not only did them, he gave out that he himself was “some great one,” that makes him a type of the antichrist (II Thes. 2:3, 4, 9).

Antichrist hadn’t come yet back then, but I John 2:18 said there were “many” antichrists, and Simon was one of them.  The “last times” were interrupted by the dispensation of grace, but Simon is giving us a picture of what the world will look like after the Rapture when God restarts His prophetic clock and guys like Simon start running around again working miracles and claiming to be some great one—just like the Lord predicted (Mt. 24:3-5).  And you know how those false christs will “deceive many” don’t you?  The Lord went on to say he’ll use “great signs and wonders” (Mt. 24:24).  And all those false christs will be types of the antichrist.

When everyone in Samaria “gave heed” to Simon (v. 10), that’s a type of how everyone in the world will wonder after the beast (Rev. 13:3; 17:8).  When Acts 8:11 says Simon be-witched them “long time,” that exact phrase is used to describe the three years the Lord was with the 12 (John 14:8,9)—the same amount of time the Antichrist will bewitch people during the first half of the seven years of Tribulation.

When Acts 8:12 says all the Samaritans believed the gospel, that’s a picture of the “multitudes” that will get saved in the Tribulation (Rev. 7:9, 14) despite being bewitched by the antichrist—just as the Samaritans believed despite being bewitched by Simon!  When it says they believed “the things concerning the kingdom” that Philip preached, that’s even the same gospel they’ll believe in the Tribulation (Mt. 24:14).

Now you know that’s a different gospel than what we preach, for when the Lord sent the 12 into the world to preach it, He told them that people had to be baptized to be saved (Mark 16:15,16).  That was true under the kingdom gospel that was preached at that time.  That’s why “both men and women” were baptized (Acts 8:12).  I say that because Jews were also baptized to make them priests (Ex. 19:6; 29:4) and only men could be priests.  But men and women needed to be saved!

Tribulation Jews will be motivated to go into all the world to preach the gospel because they’ll be running from persecution (Mt. 24:9, 14)—just like Simon was (Acts 8:1-5).  Saul was a type of the antichrist and Philip was a type of the saints who will flee him and go to places like Samaria to preach the gospel.  The Lord told them to flee to the mountains (Mt. 24:15) and Samaria has mountains (Amos 3:9).

But how can Simon be a type of a false christ if he believed and was baptized (Acts 8:13)?  Well, he didn’t believe to the saving of the soul (Heb.10:39), he believed like the men who saw the Lord’s miracles (John 2:23-25).  Simon saw Philip’s miracles and saw they were greater than his, so he wanted to infiltrate the church to learn how to do them.

You see, he was making money doing miracles. That’s a type of how false teachers will infiltrate the church in the Tribulation “having covetous practices” (II Pet. 2:1, 14).  But eventually those false christs will learn to make money as Balaam did (II Pe. 2:14, 15), by turning on Israel (2:3).  Evidently there will be a bounty on the heads of believers in the Tribulation, and those false christs who infiltrate the church will collect it. And we’re seeing all this pictured with Simon.

Jerusalem sent apostles to Samaria (Acts 8:14) because Samaritans in the past had believed on Israel’s God but refused to acknowledge the headquarters of Israel’s God in Jerusalem (John 4:9, 20).  So when these Samaritans in Acts 8 believed they too had to recognize the authority of Jerusalem.  That’s why God sent them apostles.  He wouldn’t give them the Spirit (v.15-17) till they got it from Jerusalem’s apostles.

This was important since Samaria got saved out of order before Jerusalem (Acts 1:8), something that might have tempted them to think God moved His headquarters to Sam-aria.  The 12 had to sanction this change to God’s “Jerusalem first” policy, just as God later had them sanction it when the Gentiles got saved out of order under Paul (Gal. 2:9).

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The Aftermath of the Samaritan Revival – Acts 8:9-25

Did Paul Lose His Ability to Heal?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“We say that Paul lost his ability to heal since he didn’t heal anyone in his later ministry. But is this a good proof? If he was in prison during his later ministry, how could he have healed anyone?”

Well, first of all, people in prison need healing just as much as other people! Sometimes even more so, due to the harsh conditions found in prisons in those days, and the “stripes” and other beatings that were often laid on Roman prisoners (Acts 16:23; 18:17).

But Paul was under a sort of house arrest during his first imprisonment, as we see in Acts 28:30:

“And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him.“

Under this house arrest type of incarceration, he was able to receive “all that came in unto him.”  That would have afforded him plenty of opportunity to heal people if he still had that ability.  And he seemed to be in the same kind of bonds during his second imprisonment, with people being able to visit him, and even stay with him (2 Tim. 4:9-13).

We know he lost his power to heal during his first imprisonment, however, when he gave Timothy medical advice (1 Tim. 5:23) instead of sending him a blessed handkerchief as he’d done before (Acts 19:11,12).  And during his second imprisonment, he mentioned having to leave a beloved co-worker behind “sick” in between his two incarcerations (2 Tim. 4:20).

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A Timeless Testimony

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“Christ died for our sins… and… rose again… and… He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once…” (1 Cor. 15:3-6).

This mass-sighting of our risen Savior reminds me of a story I heard recently regarding the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. There were over 500 people in Ford’s Theater the night in which the president was slain, and one of them later talked about what he saw that day on television. Samuel J. Seymour was 5 years old that night in 1865, and in 1956 he appeared on the television game show “I’ve Got a Secret” That means he testified to what he witnessed that fateful night for 91 years.

And that means that some of the 500 witnesses who saw the risen Christ told their story to the members of their generation for the better part of the next century. Imagine the impact they had in the lives of countless others during those many years.

Now how ‘bout you? Do you testify to the Lord’s resurrection? The testimony of those 500 brethren now lies silent in the grave. If you don’t witness that “Jesus our Lord…was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:24,25), then the story of His saving grace will go unheard among the members of your generation. Imagine how many people you can reach in your life if you just start now.

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What’s the Difference?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“How would you differentiate between God’s instruction to Israel to purge Canaan of the various people groups located there and radical Islam’s jihad to purge the world of infidels?”

Many a Christian has wondered about God’s instructions to Israel to exterminate whole peoples in Canaan (Deut. 20:16,17), but there were reasons for this genocide, reasons that do not exist today.

When fallen angels took wives from among the daughters of men, they produced a race of giants in the early earth (Gen. 6:1-4). The purpose of the Flood was to exterminate that demonic race, Noah’s family being spared because he was “perfect in his generations” (6:9), i.e., not infected with this cursed seed.

Genesis 6:4 then describes another outbreak of giants that appeared “after” the days of the Flood, as Satan tried again to pollute the seed of the woman, frustrate the promise of Genesis 3:15, and prevent the birth of the Messiah. But since God had promised He would never again destroy the world with a flood (Gen. 9:11), it was left to the sword of Israel to wipe out this second eruption of giants, including Goliath, Og (Deut. 3:11) and many others (Num. 13:32,33; 2 Sam. 21:16-22).

This explains the seemingly heartless instruction to Joshua to exterminate the squatter nations that were sent there by Satan to contest the claim of Abraham’s seed to the land including, “all that breathed” (Josh. 10:40), “young and old” (Josh. 6:21), even their “little ones” (Deut. 2:34). But no such conditions exist on earth today, so any program that calls for the deaths of “unbelievers” is foreign to the Word of God rightly divided.

The story is told of a king who vowed to destroy his enemies, then proceeded to invite them all to a lavish feast. After the banquet, the king’s aides asked him what had become of his oath. “I did destroy my enemies,” he replied. “I destroyed my enemies by making them my friends!” Likewise, God’s only authorized method of destroying unbelievers today is by making them believers!

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A Friend in Seed is God’s Friend Indeed

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“It seemed good to me… to write unto thee… most excellent Theophilus” (Luke 1:3).

“The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus…” (Acts 1:1).

As you can see, both the Book of Luke and the Book of Acts were written by Luke to a man named Theophilus. We’re not really sure who Theophilus was, since the Bible only mentions him in these two references. But all names have meanings, and in the Bible, the meaning of names often has spiritual significance. Of course, Pastor Harland Shriver used to joke that Theophilus got his name when he was born, and his father said, “That’s the-awful-est looking kid I’ve ever seen!”

The name Theophilus actually means “Friend of God.” That’s significant, for in the Bible, only “Abraham… was called the friend of God” (James 2:23 cf. 2 Chron. 20:7). So when Luke wrote his gospel to a man named Theophilus, that’s one of the many ways God tells us that Luke’s gospel is written to Jews, the seed of Abraham, the friend of God.

Now I know that that’s not what most Christians believe. Most Christians think that Luke was written for us, members of the Body of Christ, living in the dispensation of grace. But the Book of Luke describes the earthly life of the Lord Jesus, and Paul tells us that “Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision…” (Rom. 15:8). So the Gospel of Luke is written to and for and about the Jews.

But if the Book of Acts is also written to Theophilus, that tells you that it too was written with the Jews in mind. That’s important to remember, for most Christians believe that the first two chapters of Acts are not a continuation of what had come before, but the start of something new. They believe it was the beginning of “the church, which is His Body” (Eph. 1:22,23).

But if Luke says that his first treatise was about “all that Jesus began to do and teach” the Jews (Acts 1:1), then this second treatise must be about all that the Lord continued to do and teach the Jews — through the twelve apostles. It is only after the Lord’s friends in the house of Israel stoned Stephen, showing that they refused to repent of wounding Him in the house of His friends (cf. Zech. 13:6), that Luke records how God interrupted His ministry to Israel by saving Paul and sending him to the Gentiles.

That means that Paul’s conversion marks the beginning of the church of today, not Pentecost! And that means that the specific information you need to live your Christian life is found in his epistles.

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The Aftermath of Stephen’s Stoning – Acts 8:1-8

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

The “Saul” here (8:1) is the man who later became an apostle of Christ, but who began his career as an enemy of Christ (7:58).  We know that he was probably more than just the hatcheck boy who watched their clothes (7:25) for he later said he could wish himself accursed for the sake of his people (Rom. 9:3,4).  He probably felt that strongly because he had been the driving force behind Stephen’s death—the death that caused God to close the book on his people.

When it says Saul was “consenting” unto Stephen’s death, that indicates he was already a voting member of the council, for the word “consent” means to give your permission for something to happen (Dan.1:11-14).  We know for sure that he was eventually a voting member for he said he gave his “voice” against believers (Acts 26:10).

It’s also reasonable to believe the “great persecution” that followed Stephen’s death (8:1) must have been led by Saul, for it stopped when he got saved (Acts 9:19,20).  He never forgave himself for this (ICor.15:9;Eph.3:8) but didn’t let his dark past hinder him from the ministry.  Instead he used it to propel him forward in the Lord’s work (ICor.15:10)—and  so should you, if you have things in your past that haunt you!

When those Jewish kingdom believers hightailed it out of Jerusalem and fled to Judaea and Samaria, that makes it sound like they were obeying the Great Commission (Acts 1:8).  But we know the Lord was telling them that Jerusalem had to be “filled” (cf. Mark 7:27) with God’s salvation before it could go to Judea and Samaria.  Someday that’s how it will happen (Isaiah 52:9,10).

But here the saints who left were fleeing for their lives from Saul’s persecution—“except the apostles” (Acts 8:1).  They were the only ones obeying the Great Commission, for they were the only ones who remained behind in Jerusalem to try to get the city redeemed, at the great risk of their lives.

Stephen’s name means crown.  That’s why the Bible takes the time to mention his burial, for it was symbolic of the burial of his nation’s opportunity to wear the crown and reign with Christ in the kingdom (Rev.2:21; 20:4).  The men who buried him are called “devout” (Acts 8:2) because that word means devoted to God, and such devotion can be expressed in ways like burying the dead, cutting the church grass, serving in the church kitchen, etc.

The “havock” that Saul wreaked in the church (8:3) is described in passages such as Acts 22:5, 26:11, Galatians 1:13,14, and Philippians 3:5,6.  The word “haling” (Acts 8:3) means to drag (cf. Lu.12:58).  Saul was ruthless!

When Acts 8:4 says that these saints “went every where preaching the Word,” pastors say that they were obeying the Great Commission in spite of Israel’s refusal to be God’s channel of blessing in the world.  But they didn’t go out preaching the gospel “to every creature” as the Lord had said (Mark 16:15), they only preached to Jewish creatures (Acts 11:19).

“Philip” (Acts 8:5) was one of the ones chosen to help make sure the widows weren’t neglected in Acts 6:1-5.  He was faithful serving tables, so God counted him faithful and put him into the ministry, making him an evangelist to Samaria.  God always rewards faithfulness with more responsibility (Mt.25:21).

The Samaritans liked what they heard, and believed on Christ “with one accord” (Acts 8:6).  Compare that to how the unsaved Jews in Jerusalem stoned Stephen “with one accord” (7:57).  What you are seeing here is the fulfillment of something the Lord told the Jews in Luke 13:28-30.  When the kingdom is established, Samaritans who were the “last” to hear the gospel will be the “first” to sit in the kingdom with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And what we are seeing here is an example of God reaching forth His hands “all day long” to individuals in Israel (Rom.10:21).  Even though God had closed the book on the nation of Israel, He continued to give individual Jews in Israel a chance to be believe and be saved.

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The Aftermath of Stephen’s Stoning – Acts 8:1-8

Creatures of Habit

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Mahatma Gandhi wrote:  “Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.”  Since the word “habit” is a synonym for pattern, this quote reminds me of the even higher calling that Paul issued to Titus when he wrote,

“In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works…” (Titus 2:7).

You see, the child of God is not called upon merely to achieve an admirable “destiny” for himself in life by the thoughts and actions that fill our everyday lives.  We are called upon to achieve an admirable destiny for others, by showing ourselves a pattern of good works to which they can look in order to mold their own destinies in life.  That’s an infinitely higher calling than just aspiring to better yourself!

It’s true that beliefs become thoughts.  If your belief is that salvation is “not by works of righteousness” (Titus 3:5), then that belief should become a thought in you, causing you to think “that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works” (3:8).  A life filled with habitual good works is exactly the kind of life that can serve as an excellent pattern for other believers. That’s why Paul exhorted Titus to be “zealous of good works” (2:14).

But you need to show yourself to be a pattern of good works in such a way that people know you’re not doing good works to pay for your sins, but instead to show your connection to the Savior who paid for your sins.  We see this illustrated in a striking way not long after the people of Israel entered the Promised Land.

Upon arriving in the land, God allowed the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh to take up residence on the wilderness side of the Jordan River because they were cattle-

men, and the land there was more conducive to raising cattle than in Israel (Num. 32:1-33).  But “when they came unto the borders of Jordan” they “built there an altar by Jordan” (Josh. 22:10).  This was a “trespass” (Josh. 22:16), for God had chosen a place in Israel for His “habitation” (Deut.12:5), and it was there that His people were to bring their sacrifices (vv. 5,10,11).

But when the other tribes in Israel took these cattlemen to task about their altar, they defended themselves by saying,

“Behold the pattern of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you” (Joshua 22:28).

These faithful tribes admitted that they had patterned their altar after the one God ordained in Israel, but they protested that they never intended to offer animal sacrifices on their altar.  That is, they didn’t raise that altar to try to pay for their sins, they raised it to show their connection to the altar in Israel that paid for their sins (vv. 21-27).

In the same way, the reason you want to be a pattern of good works in all things isn’t to pay for your sins, but to show your connection to the Lord who paid for your sins.  People need to know that that’s why you do good works, so they know that salvation is “not of works” (Eph. 2:9).

If you’re saved, you are in Christ, “and if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (II Cor. 5:17).  And Paul says that we were “created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (Eph. 2:10).  No creature of God is ever happy unless he is doing what God created him to do.  Birds were created to fly, horses were created to run, and fish were created to swim, and none of them are happy when they are caged.  And you’ll never know true happiness in life unless you’re walking in the good works “which God hath before ordained that we should walk in” (Eph. 2:10).

Before you were saved, you were “accustomed to do evil” (Jer. 13:23).  You were a creature of habit—bad habits.  Why not determine right now to become a creature of good habits?

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A Holding Pattern That Casts the Lord in a Good Light

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Apostle Paul gave some advice to a young man named Titus that all Christians would do well to take to heart:

“In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works…” (Titus 2:7).

If you’re not sure what a “pattern” is, do you remember reading about the “seven lamps” that made up “the candlestick” in the tabernacle (Num. 8:1-4)?  If so, you may remember that this candlestick was carefully made “according to the pattern which the Lord had showed Moses” (Num. 8:1-4).  It was a pattern that typified the Lord Jesus Christ, who later declared,

“I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).

When the Lord walked among men, He was the light of the world because—like the candlestick that typified Him—He was “made under the law” (Gal. 4:5), and He walked “according to the pattern which the Lord had showed Moses” in the Law, as He offered the light of eternal life to men.  But later He added,

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5).

Now that the Lord is gone, the world has a different source of spiritual light, one that Paul described in Philippians 2:15,16.  Speaking to members of the Body of Christ, he wrote,

“…YE shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life.”

Now that the Lord is no longer here on earth, it’s our turn to be the light of the world, as we offer the light of eternal life to the lost!

But we don’t shine as lights in the world as our Lord did, by walking according to the pattern of the law.  “We are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:15), so we shine the light of grace by walking according to the pattern of good works we find in the epistles of Paul, the apostle of grace.  If you are still observing Israel’s sabbath, or adhering to the restricted diet of Leviticus 11, etc., you are telling people we’re under the Law!  And that’s not shining the right light of life to lost sinners.  It’s hard to get saved by grace if you think we’re under the Law!

We know that walking in good works is an important part of shining as lights in the world, for in telling the Philippians they were the light of the world, Paul prefaced his words by saying,

“Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:14,15).

That’s Paul’s way of saying that you shouldn’t be trying to shine the light of life to men if you yourself are walking in darkness!

But as you shine the light of grace, adorned by the testimony of your pattern of good works, it is important to let people know that you’re not walking in good works because you’re a good person.  You need to let them know that you’re doing it because you’re a child of God!  That’s what the Lord had in mind when He said,

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Now, you know why He had to say that.  When men see you do good works, they tend to glorify you instead of God, saying things like, “Isn’t he a good man for doing something like that!”  The Lord said not to let them think that way, to let your light shine in such a way that they will glorify God instead.  How do we do that?  There’s only one way to do it, and that’s to let people know that you belong to the Lord!  That way God gets the glory when men see your good works, and not you.  It’s the only way to cast the Lord in a good light, so tell someone today!

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Your Career in Christian Modeling

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Back in 1993, professional basketball player Charles Barkley made headlines when he declared, “I’m not a role model. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”  He was right about that last part, but he failed to realize that when you play in the NBA, being a role model to millions of aspiring young athletes just comes with the territory.  The only question for such men is, are you a good role model or a bad one?

The same is true in the Christian life.  You may not think you are setting an example for anyone, but no matter who you are, someone looks up to you.  And if you name the name of Christ, the only question is, are you a good example of what a Christian should be, or a bad one?

This is true even for young Christians.  That’s why Paul told a young man named Titus:

“In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works” (Titus 2:7).

As all Christians know, you can’t be saved by doing good works; you can only be saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8,9).  But as Paul went on to say in his letter to the Ephesians, Christians “should” do good works because God saved us freely by His grace (v. 10).  As he says there about good works, “God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Now, if you find that you need some incentive to choose to become a pattern of good works, let’s compare how God motivated His people to walk in good works in time past under the law of Moses.  He told Ezekiel to tell the people of Israel,

“…shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern… shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof…” (Ezekiel 43:10,11).

If the people of Israel in Ezekiel’s day weren’t ashamed of their sins, God told him to have them look at all the trouble that He had gone through to forgive their sins.  He told him to show His people the magnificence of His “house,” the temple that He had Solomon build to receive their animal sacrifices, and all the comings and goings of the priests in the temple, and all the intricate rules and regulations of the priesthood.  In other words, He wanted them to “measure the pattern” of their religion to remind them of the lengths to which He had gone to forgive their sins, and then ask themselves if they should continue in sin in light of all that He had done for them.

Of course, today we don’t look to the temple to measure the lengths to which God went to forgive our sins, nor do we look to Israel’s priesthood, or anything else in her religion.  Today we look to the cross.  In light of the unspeakable sacrifice Christ made there on our behalf, it would be the height of ingratitude for “we, that are dead to sin” to “live any longer therein” (Rom. 6:2).

That’s why, in learning to walk in good works, we study the cross and not the Law, and let “the love of Christ” constrain us, “that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (II Cor. 5:14,15), as Isaac Watts wrote in that sacred hymn centuries ago:

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

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