Author Archives: Pastor Ricky Kurth

How Slow Is Your Belly?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“The Cretians are… slow bellies” (Titus 1:12)

“Slow bellies” is a figure of speech that is generally taken to mean lazy gluttons, and that could be.  But the Greek word for “belly” is usually translated “womb” by our KJV translators, and the word for “slow” is usually translated barren.  And the Bible says that “the barren womb” is “never satisfied” (Pr. 30:15).  Women who long to have children and don’t have them are often never satisfied with any substitutes.

So in calling the Cretians “slow bellies,” it is possible that the Bible is saying they were never satisfied, that they were people who always desired more, who always wanted what they couldn’t have.  The Bible calls that covetousness, and the law of Moses forbad it:

“Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field… or any thing that is thy neighbour’s” (Deuteronomy 5:21).

This was probably the verse that the “vain talkers… of the circumcision” were quoting to Titus (Tit. 1:10), the men who were like those who had “turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law” (I Tim. 1:6,7).  Men who teach the law believe that the only way to help God’s people overcome covetousness is to put them under the law that prohibited covetousness.

But Paul says “we are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:15).  The law cursed all who could not keep it perfectly (Gal. 3:10; James 2:10,11), and we can’t do that any better now than we could before we were saved!

But you don’t need the law to help someone who is struggling with covetousness, for grace forbids this sin just as surely (Eph. 5:3).  That’s why Paul agreed that the Cretians were slow bellies, but prescribed a different remedy for their covetousness:

“This witness is true.  Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:13).

Rather than tell Titus to remind the Cretians that the law says “thou shalt not covet” (Ex. 20:17), Paul told him to rebuke them to “be sound in the faith.”  And he defined what it means to be sound in the faith when he told Timothy,

“Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me…” (II Timothy 1:13).

Being sound in the faith means to hold fast the form of sound words that we’ve heard from Paul.  He’s the apostle to whom the Lord gave “the dispensation of the grace of God” to give to us (Eph. 3:1,2).  So in the dispensation of grace, being sound in the faith means being Pauline!  Being unsound in the faith means anything “that is contrary to sound doctrine; according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God” which Paul says was “committed to my trust” (I Tim. 1:10,11).

That means if you’re not Pauline in your theology, you’re not being Biblical!  As the editor of the Scofield Reference Bible wrote about Paul, “in his writings alone we find the doctrine, position, walk, and destiny of the church” (Page 1252).

So if you’re a covetous slow belly, don’t look to the law for help, look to Paul’s epistles!  He’s the one who went on to tell Titus,

“…the grace of God… hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11,112).

The way to deal with ungodliness like covetousness is to learn more about God’s grace, not beat yourself up with the law!

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Murder or Manslaughter? – Acts 3:17-21

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

“Wot” (3:17) means to know (Gen. 21:26).  But where’d Peter get the idea the Jews didn’t know what they were doing when they killed the Lord?  From the Lord! (Lu. 23:34).  They could have known they were crucifying their God, the prophets described Him so well, but they didn’t.  So Peter reduced the charge against Israel from murder to man-slaughter (cf. Deut. 19:4-6).  Murderers had to die (Num. 35:16) but manslayers could flee to a city of refuge (35:10-30).

Israel’s people didn’t know He was God because they didn’t know their Bibles (John 7:25-27 cf. Micah 5:2).  Israel’s rulers didn’t know He was their Christ because He was from Galilee, and they thought no prophet could come from Galilee (John 7:52).  But Jonah did (Jonah 1:1 cf. II Ki. 14:25 cf. Josh. 19:13-16 cf. Mt. 4:15).

If rulers sinned through ignorance, they too could be spared (Lev. 4:22ff), and if the whole congregation sinned through ignorance, the priest could offer a sacrifice for them as well (Lev. 4:13).

Peter said that God fulfilled the prophets in killing the Lord (Acts 3:18) because in early Acts here God was assuming responsibility for their guilt.  That’s how He could offer this manslaughter charge.  But when they rejected His offer, Acts 13:27 says that the Jews fulfilled the prophets in killing Him.  That’s similar to how God imputed our sins to Christ on the cross (II Cor 5:19), but will impute them back to unbelievers if they don’t get saved (cf. Rom. 4:8).

“Ye” (Acts 3:19) is plural.  Peter offered salvation to individual Jews in Acts 2:38, but here he is offering salvation to the nation.  Remember, the nation of Israel had to be saved before God’s plan to reach the other nations could continue (Acts 1:8), because God planned to use Israel to reach the Gentiles, and He insists His representatives be saved.

As further proof the nation needed to be saved, when the nation didn’t get saved, Paul reminded them that Isaiah had predicted that the nation wouldn’t get saved (Acts 28:24-27).  Paul also told them what God was doing about it, turning to the Gentiles (28:27,28).  See that word “convert” in Acts 28:28?  That’s what Peter was asking the Jews to do in Acts 3:19, but they didn’t repent.

Peter is still talking to the nation when he extends God’s offer to blot out their sins (Acts 3:19).  That’s what individuals get when they get saved.  If they don’t, their sins aren’t blotted out or covered (Neh. 4:5), but if they do, their sins are covered (Rom. 4:7).  But God dealt with Israel as a nation, and the nation won’t get their sins blotted out until “the times of refreshing” come (Acts 3:19), i.e., the kingdom.

We see types of this when God forgave Israel every time they fell (Num. 14:19).  If they sinned so badly that God let them be taken captive, they were to “repent” and He would forgive them (I Ki. 8:46-50).  They didn’t repent in Peter’s day, when they were in captivity to Rome, but they’ll be in captivity again after the Rapture, this time to the antichrist.  If they’ll “repent” in that day (Acts 3:19) God will forgive the nation.  We see a type of that when they repented during the Babylonian captivity (Ps. 85:1,2).

But before the kingdom can come, something else had to come first.  Peter was speaking on the day of Pentecost, but the feast of the Day of Atonement followed Pentecost.  That didn’t stand for Christ’s death; Passover stood for that.  The Day of Atonement stood for the day Israel would get the benefit of Christ’s death.  We get that benefit when we believe (Rom. 5:1,11), but Israel won’t get that as a nation until they believe as a nation.  When will that happen?  At the Second Coming of Christ (Rom. 11:26,27).

The kingdom is called “the times of refreshing” due to verses like Isaiah 35:1-10 and Zechariah 14:20.  The heaven “received” the Lord (Mark 16:19) and will continue to receive Him “until” then (Acts 3:20,21). “Restitution” (v. 21) means to restore what’s lost.  Adam lost the right to live in paradise on earth, but the Lord will restore man’s right to do that.  All the prophets spoke about this (Acts 3:21), but none of them spoke about God taking us to heaven in the rapture.  That was part of the mystery given to Paul (Rom. 16:25).

Video available on YouTube: Murder or Manslaughter? – Acts 3:17-21

Peter Saw His Chance and Took It – Acts 3:12-16

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

When a crowd gathered after Peter healed the lame man, he saw his chance to speak to preach to the Jews and took it.  The thing he “answered” (3:12) was the marveling and the looks they gave him, as if he healed him by his own power.  Jews should have known better than to act like the dumb Gentiles in Acts 14:11-15!  That shows the sorry spiritual state Israel was in at Pentecost.  Peter went on to tell them that Christ had worked the miracle, similar to what other men of God had done in time past (Gen. 41:16; Dan. 2:28-30).

What’s holiness got to do with healing (Acts 3:12)? The holiness of the kingdom will fix all that’s wrong with the world and all that’s wrong with lame men (Isa. 35:4-8).  So when that lame man walked, the Jews should have known their God had come (Isa.  35:4) in the person of their king.  They never thought of their kingdom without thinking of their king (Lu. 19:38 cf. Mark 11:10).

Once Peter had them thinking about their king, he reminded them of what they did to Him (Acts 3:13).  The Jews loved Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they just weren’t too sure about this Jesus guy.  In mentioning the patriarchs, Peter is reminding them that there was a time they weren’t too sure about that Moses guy.  But God told Moses to say that the patriarchs sent him (Ex. 3:15).  So in mentioning Abraham, Isaac and Jacob here, Peter is suggesting God raised up another prophet, a prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:15-18).

God “glorified” the Lord (Acts 3:15) in many ways, but Peter must be thinking of a way God glorified Him before the Jews killed Him, for that’s Peter’s point.  He said, as it were, “You killed the One God glorified.”  That had to be when He raised Lazarus (John 11:4).  So Peter’s point was, “You killed someone who could give life” (cf.3:15).

Peter mentions Pilate wanted to let Him go (Acts 3:13) be-cause the Jews were blaming Rome for killing the Lord (cf. Acts 5:28) after saying they’d be responsible (Mt. 27:24,25).

Deny (Acts 3:14) is the opposite of confess (cf. John 1:20), and they had to confess the Lord to be saved (Mt. 10:32).

They denied Him, but were getting a 2nd chance to be saved.

Peter calls the Lord “Holy One” because that’s a name for the Father (Ps. 71:22; 78:41; 89:18; Isa. 1:4; 5:19,24, etc.).  So Peter was telling them that in denying Christ they were denying the Father.He knew that they knew the Father had someone He called “Holy One,” someone who had died and gone to hell (Ps. 16:10).  That was the Holy One that Peter said they denied, and denying Him before Pilate led to His death.

Pilate didn’t know He was God, but he knew He was “just” (Mt. 27:19-24), that is, that He hadn’t broken any of the laws of justice.  And Peter knew that the Jews knew by experience that He’d never sinned, let alone broke the law (Jo. 8:46).

When they desired a murderer instead of the Lord (Acts 3:14), that was a type of how they’ll desire Antichrist instead of Christ (Jo. 5:43).  Barabbas was a thief and a murderer (Jo. 18:40), and Antichrist will steal physical life and eternal life (Jo. 10:10).  Barabbas was guilty of sedition and insurrection (Mark 15:7; Lu. 23:18,19), and Antichrist too will rebel against Israel’s ruler and declare himself king of Israel.

“Prince of life” (Acts 3:15) means giver of life, as “Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6) means giver of peace.  Peter’s point is that they saved a taker of life and condemned a giver of life!

The “soundness” of the lame man (Acts 3:16) was what the nation of Israel lacked spiritually in Isaiah’s day (Isa. 1:5-7) and at Pentecost.  But if Jews joined Peter in the little flock, they could enter the kingdom, something the lame man typified when he entered the temple with Peter and John.

Finally, it wasn’t the lame man’s faith in Christ that healed him, for he hadn’t expressed any (Acts 3:1-6).  It was the faith of the apostles in the power the Lord gave them to heal people that healed him (Mt. 21:21; Mr. 11:22), i.e., faith in His name (Mark 16:17,18).  So when Paul tells you that you can do things like not let sin reign in your body (Ro. 6:12), we know the only thing keeping that from happening is your faith in what God says that you can do.  He wouldn’t say not to let it happen if you couldn’t let it happen.  So don’t!

Video available on YouTube: Peter Saw His Chance and Took It – Acts 3:12-16

Mouths That Must Be Shut

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Religious deceivers have always been common, even back in Bible days.  That’s what prompted the Apostle Paul to warn Titus,

“…there are many… vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped…” (Titus 1:10,11).

But how did Paul expect Titus to go about shutting the mouths of these teachers of the Law?  When one remembers what a tough man Titus was (cf. II Cor. 7:15), one shudders to think of how he might have chosen to shut the mouth of a deceitful vain talker!  I hear Titus was so tough, he had a bearskin rug.  The bear wasn’t dead, he was just afraid to move!

But while Titus was a tough man, he was also a saved man, and he knew there was a better way to shut the mouths of false teachers.  Do you remember how the Lord did it when He was questioned by the chief priests, the scribes, and the Saducees (Luke 20:19-38)?  He answered their questions so thoroughly that “after that they durst not ask Him any question at all” (v.40).  In other words, He stopped their mouths.

And that’s how Paul expected Titus to shut the mouths of the vain talkers!  He expected him to teach the grace of God so thoroughly and so convincingly (cf. Tit. 1:9) that it would leave these vain talkers men speechless.  And that’s how God expects us to shut the mouths of deceivers who would teach the Law in our own day.

Now you’d think that would go without saying, but I know a lot of grace believers who try to shut the mouths of others by mocking them, ridiculing them, or belittling them.  What an example of how “knowledge puffeth up” (I Cor. 8:1).  Of such people, Paul wrote,

“…if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (I Cor. 8:2).

If you’re one of those who are busy shutting the mouths of others by being rude or condescending, you may know the grace message well, but Paul would say you know nothing as you ought to know it.  You ought to know that the gracious way to stop the mouths of those who teach error is by a clear presentation of the truth.

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An Example of Apostolic Teamwork – Acts 3:1-11

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

Did you ever wonder why only Peter and John are mentioned here (3:1)?  The Lord had three favorite apostles (Mark 5:36-38; 9:2; 14:32), but James seems to have fallen from favor from Luke 22:8 onward.  After that, it was always just James and John (Acts 4:13,19; 8:14).

Perhaps it was because James wanted the best seats in the house in the kingdom (Mark 10:35-37).  Of course, John did too.  But James is always mentioned before John, suggesting he was the dominant brother, and therefore the ringleader in that power grab.  So James may have been an example of how pride goes before a fall (Pr. 16:18; 29:23).

But Peter was guilty of pride too (Mark 14:27-31), and didn’t fall from among the Lord’s three favorites.  That’s why I think James counted himself out of the Lord’s favor.  He probably never forgave himself for failing the Lord—like many Christians do today.  The Lord honored his decision in Luke 22:8 to give him time to heal.  He’ll come back stronger than ever in the kingdom—and so can you if you too are still beating yourself up about some way you let the Lord down.

You wouldn’t think they’d go into the Jews’ temple (3:1) after the Lord denounced it (Mt. 23:38), but remember, He asked God to forgive them (Lu. 23:34) and He did.  So the temple continued to be God’s center of operations (cf. Acts 2:46).  That’s significant since most Bible teachers say God broke off relations with Israel at the cross and didn’t give her another chance, choosing to start something new at Pentecost instead with the Body of Christ.  But that didn’t happen until they stoned Stephen, after which God started the Body with Paul, who did stop hanging around the temple!

If James and John weren’t under the law any more, you’d also think they’d have stopped observing the law’s “hour of prayer” (3:1).  The Jews actually had three hours of prayer (Ps. 55:17), and Peter never did stop observing them (Acts 10:9), even after the age of grace began with Paul in Acts 9.  The kingdom saints also kept offering animal sacrifices (Acts 21:20).

The Lord healed lame men as a sign He was Messiah (Luke 7:22), but the disciples were supposed to give signs of that too (Isa. 8:18 cf. Jo. 13:33;21:5).  Of course, Paul healed a lame man too, but his first miracle was symbolic.  A Jew was blinded so a Gentile could be saved (Acts 13:6-13).  That’s what’s happening today in the dispensation of grace (Rom. 11:25).  Peter’s first miracle was also symbolic.

You see, the Jews had to walk with God to be saved (Ex. 16:4; Pr. 28:18).  When this lame man was laid outside the temple, too lame to enter, he symbolized the nation of Israel, too lame to walk with God into the kingdom.  Being lame “from his mother’s womb” was a symbol of how Israel’s lameness was caused by her religion (cf. Gal. 1:13-15).  The apostles did “many” miracles (Acts 2:43), too many for the Spirit to record, but the ones He did record were symbolic.

Instead of enriching the nation in the kingdom, the Jews’ religion had reduced them to the status of spiritual beggar, as symbolized by this lame man (Acts 3:3).

Peter had no money (Acts 3:4-6) for he had obeyed the Lord’s command to sell all he had and share the proceeds with the saints to be saved (Lu. 18:18,22 cf. Mt. 19:27-29).

When healers can’t heal you today, they say it’s because you don’t have enough faith.  But this lame man didn’t believe Peter could heal him!  He wasn’t expecting healing.  He wasn’t even asking for it.  This shows modern healers aren’t of God.

When God heals, He heals magnificently (Acts 3:7,8), but modern healers not so much—more proof they are not sent of God.  We see even more proof of this in that this lame man was known by everyone to be lame (Acts 3:9-11), but we can’t be as sure of the strangers “healed” on TV!

What we’re seeing with the healing of this lame man is a taste of the kingdom of heaven on earth (Isaiah 35:1,6).  Now God still knows how to heal, but He is giving you the opportunity to show others that His grace is sufficient for you instead (II Cor. 12:7-9).  Are you showing it?

Video of this lesson is also available on YouTube: An Example of Apostolic Teamwork – Acts 3:1-11

Adherences Can Be Deceiving

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Religious deceivers have always been common, even back in Bible days.  That’s what prompted the Apostle Paul to warn Titus,

“…there are many…vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped…” (Titus 1:10,11).

Since these “vain talkers” were “specially of the circumcision,” they were probably deceiving people with the Law of Moses, something Paul elsewhere called “vain jangling” (I Tim. 1:6,7).  Our Apostle Paul says that “we are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:15), so the Law shouldn’t be taught as something that is binding on God’s people in the present dispensation of grace.  That’s why Paul calls men who adhere to the law “deceivers,” for they are misleading God’s people about the truth for the present dispensation.

But before you decide to look down your nose on those Jews for that, did you notice that Paul says that those vain talkers were “specially” of the circumcision?  That means they weren’t all of the circumcision.  There were Gentiles who were deceiving people with the Law as well as Jews.

If you’re wondering why Gentiles would teach a law that God gave the Jews for a past dispensation, it is because Satan always makes sure that undispensational things are popular.  And things that are popular are also usually very lucrative.  So it is no surprise that Paul went on to say that these deceivers were “teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (Tit. 1:11).  Even today, if you’re a deceitful Gentile preacher who wants to gain a large following and build a big church that can afford to pay you a handsome salary, teaching the Law of Moses is definitely the way to go!

Now if you’re thinking that teaching the law in the dispensation of grace isn’t a serious thing, you’re not thinking like Paul!  Speaking of those “deceivers,” Paul wrote, “whose mouths must be stopped!”  The Law of Moses may be in the Bible, but it is not in Paul’s epistles, the part of the Bible written to people living today in the dispensation of grace.  It has well been said that Satan doesn’t care if you are Biblical in your teaching, as long as you aren’t dispensationally Biblical.

That’s why we here at Berean Bible Society are doing our best to stop the mouths of any and all religious deceivers by standing firmly for the proclamation of “the gospel of the grace of God” committed to Paul (Acts 20:24).  If you’d like to join us in our stand, why not consider forwarding some of our Two Minutes devotionals to your friends after reading them?  It only takes the touch of a few keyboard keys, and you’ll be eternally glad you did!

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Were the Lord’s Disciples Communists? – Acts 2:41-47

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

The Lord’s disciples may have lived together in a communal state, but they ate their meat “with gladness” (2:46), so the answer is no!  Communism never produces gladness!

We know they were saved because they “continued” in the apostles’ doctrine (v.42 cf. John 8:31).  We see further evidence that they were saved when they continued in the apostles’ “fellowship” (v. 42).  In our Lord’s day, “salvation was of the Jews” (John 4:22), but after the Jews crucified the Lord, salvation wasn’t just in the Jews in general, but in the “remnant” of believing Jews in Israel (Joel 2:32).  That’s why Peter told them to “save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:40), and get into fellowship with the believers in the Lord’s little flock of believers.

The “breaking of bread” (v. 42) can mean just eating meals (Lam. 4:4), but there’d be no need to tell us they continued eating meals!  Here that phrase refers to how they continued to observe the Lord’s Supper, where the Lord also broke bread (Mt. 26:26).  The Lord told them to observe it (Lu. 22:19), so they were observing it!

Finally, Verse 42 says they also continued in prayer, even though they were filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4).  How much more should we who aren’t Spirit filled continue in prayer!

Fear came upon “every” soul (v. 43), even the believers.  The word “fear” here just means reverence, as it does in Psalm 89:7.  And reverence is just honor and respect, the thing kids should give fathers (Heb. 12:9) and wives should give husbands (Heb. 12:9)—and what we should give God (Phil. 2:12).  Fear also came upon unbelievers (cf. Jer. 33:9). As they saw how the believers were living unselfishly for one another, they reverenced the God that enabled them to live that way.

The “tongues” they spoke in (Acts 2:4) are here called “signs” (2:43), and signs like that ceased when the Word of God was completed (I Cor. 13:8-10).

They weren’t all “together” (v. 44) in the temple, for there were 3,000 of them (2:41).  They were together in spirit.

Did you ever wonder who told them to live with “all things common” (v. 44,45)?  Luke hadn’t recorded Peter saying so, but he mentions the “many other words” he preached that day (v. 40).  Since he spoke those words in response to the question of how to be saved (Acts 2:37), we know he told them to do what the Lord said to do to be saved and sell all they had and share the proceeds with others (Luke 18:18-22).

Pentecost was a taste of the kingdom, but this is not how they’ll live in the kingdom.  At Pentecost, no man called anything his own (Acts 4:32), but they will in the kingdom (Micah 4:3,4).  But these disciples were heading into the Tribulation, when the Beast will make it impossible to buy or sell without his mark (Rev. 13:17,18).  They’ll need to share with one another to get through that.  After that, they’ll hunger and thirst no more (Rev. 7:13-16).

You couldn’t continue “daily” in the temple (2:46), or in church for that matter, for you have to go to work!  How come they didn’t?  It was because part of what they sold was their means of making a living (Luke 5:10,11,27,28).  This matches how the Jews will be “a kingdom of priests” in the kingdom (Ex. 19:6).  Priests weren’t allowed to work!  They were allowed to keep their primary houses though, and so eat bread from house to house (2:46).  That’s because they weren’t allowed to sell their inheritance (I Ki. 21:1-16).

“Singleness of heart” (2:46) means they didn’t have a double heart, and so could keep rank and stay focused in times of war (I Chron. 12:33).  That’s what the Spirit-filled disciples had at Pentecost, a laser-like focus on serving the Lord!  The kind Paul says we should have too (Eph. 5:18).  Isn’t that what you give your boss (Col. 3:22)?  Why not the Lord?

This kind of living caused them to have favor with the unbelievers (2:47 cf. Pr. 16:7).  “Such as should be saved” are not some elect group God chose to be saved.  Peter’s already told us who should be saved—those who call on the Lord! (Acts 2:21).

Video of this message is also available on YouTube: Were the Lord’s Disciples Communists? – Acts 2:41-47

How To Rule The Unruly

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

A young man had just graduated from Bible school and wanted to be a pastor.  But when he was offered a temporary job as a police officer, he accepted it, thinking it might give him some good insight into human nature that would come in handy later in the ministry.  One of the questions on the police academy exam was, “What would you do to disperse an unruly crowd?”  The aspiring pastor thought for a moment, then responded, “I’d take up a collection.  That’ll disperse any crowd!”

Speaking of unruly people, the island of Crete where Titus was stationed (Tit. 1:5) had it’s share of them.  We know this because after Paul told him to ordain elders in the island’s churches, he told him the reason he needed to ordain them:

“For there are many unruly and vain talkers…” (Titus 1:10).

The dictionary defines the word “unruly” as people who don’t want to be ruled.  That’s probably why the only other people in the Bible who are called “unruly” are people who didn’t want to be ruled by the rulers of their local church.  Speaking of those spiritual leaders, Paul told the Thessalonians,

“…know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; And… esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake… warn them that are unruly” (I Thessalonians 5:12-14).

See the connection?  After speaking about rulers, Paul told them to warn the unruly.  In the context, these were obviously people who didn’t want to be ruled by the church’s pastor and elders.

But how could Paul have known that there were unruly men who didn’t want to be ruled by leaders in Crete?  Their churches didn’t have rulers yet!  Remember, Paul had left Titus in Crete to ordain elders (Tit. 1:5).  So how did Paul know that some of the Cretians were unruly?

Well, it was because of the way that pastors are supposed to rule.  Paul explained how leaders are to rule in the dispensation of grace when he told the Corinthians,

“Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand” (II Corinthians 1:24).

Pastors aren’t supposed to rule by having “dominion” over God’s people, that is, by dominating them.  People stand by faith, and faith comes by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17).  That means pastors are supposed to rule by teaching people the Word, and then letting the Word rule them.  Beloved, the only way you are going to have any joy in life is if you let God’s Word rule your life!

But that’s how Paul knew there were unruly men in Crete.  When he was there among them, he had seen that there were Cretians who didn’t want to be ruled by the Word that he had taught them.  So he told Titus to ordain some elders to teach those unruly men more of God’s Word.

Perhaps you are thinking, “How would that help?  If they didn’t want to be ruled by God’s Word, why ordain leaders to give them more of His Word?”

The answer is that God doesn’t have a “Plan B” when it comes to helping people with their joy!  That means when people don’t want to be ruled by the Word, a pastor shouldn’t chuck the Scriptures and look around for something else to give them.  Instead, he should continue to teach the Word, and ordain elders to do the same.  You see, growing in the Word is a believer’s only hope of living the joyous Christian life God wants each of us to richly enjoy.

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Hold Fast or the Gainsayers Will Get Ya!

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

As the Apostle Paul came to the end of his list of qualifications for the ministry, he closed by insisting that pastors should always be

“Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (Titus 1:9).

Here we know that Paul is talking about the faithful Word of God that Pastor Titus had been taught of him, for he told Pastor Timothy to “hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me” (II Tim. 1:13).  If you’re a pastor, and you’re not holding fast to the form of sound words found in Paul’s epistles, you’ll never be able “to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (1:9).

Of course, if you’re not a pastor, you’re probably wondering, “What’s a gainsayer?”  A gainsayer is someone who contradicts what you say.  A gainsayer in the Bible is someone who contradicts what God says in His Word.  And each time the word gainsay is used, it is used of men who opposed God’s Word dispensationally.

For instance, Jude talked about “the gainsaying of Core” (Jude 1:11).  If you don’t remember who Core was,

“… Korah… and Dathan and Abiram… gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them… all the congregation are holy, every one of them… wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation…?” (Num. 16:1-3).

In the Law, God had made it clear that He had sanctified Moses and Aaron, setting them apart from all others in Israel as holy unto Himself.  But Core chose to gainsay His Word by insisting that all the people were holy.  This was a dispensational error.  All the congregation of Israel will be holy in the coming kingdom of heaven on earth.  God has promised that they will be “an holy nation” and “a kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:6).  But they weren’t in Moses’ day!

Over in the New Testament, the Lord promised His followers, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist” (Lu. 21:15).  He made good on that promise at Pentecost, when “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4).  Stephen was one of those who were filled with the Spirit (Acts 6:5), “and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake” (v. 10).

But the people of Stephen’s nation stubbornly clung to the old dispensation of the Law, and refused Peter’s offer of the new dispensation of the kingdom (Acts 3:19) when they stoned him.  That’s how they became “a disobedient and gainsaying people” (Rom. 10:21), people who contradicted God’s Word dispensationally.  Only men like Peter seemed willing to change. When the Lord told him to go minister to a Gentile, something that was “unlawful” under the Law of Moses (Acts 10:28), Peter obeyed this new dispensational command “without gainsaying” (Acts 10:29).

The gainsayers in Crete, where Titus was stationed (Tit. 1:5), were the “unruly and vain talkers… of the circumcision” he mentions in the next verse (Tit. 1:10).  They were “unruly” because they refused to recognize Paul’s new dispensational “rule” (Gal. 6:16) that “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision” (v. 15).  They were making the dispensational error of thinking that circumcision was still part of God’s program, and contradicting the faithful word that Titus had received from Paul.

Beloved, the only answer to dispensational error today is “holding fast the faithful word” that we have heard from Paul.  Pauline truth alone can save us from any and all other dispensational errors.  Let’s hold it fast!

What Difference Does Rightly Dividing Make to My Witness? – Acts 24:14-15

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

A “witness” is someone who saw or heard something and is willing to testify that it is true, like Paul (Acts 24:15).  But that means, technically speaking, we can’t be witnesses.  But we can still testify for Him with something “more sure” than “eyewitness” testimony—the Scriptures (II Peter 1:16-20). If you’ve ever seen a magician, you know you can’t trust your eyes, and witnesses often lie.  But God can’t (Tit. 1:2), and He wrote the Scriptures!  But can you see how, when we testify using the Bible, our witness is different from that of the apostles who saw and heard the Lord?

Our witness is also different from the witness of God’s people in the Old Testament, for they didn’t do any witnessing.  God witnessed for Himself (Acts 14:17), so He didn’t need the witness of men.

Another reason He didn’t need the witness of men is because of the way He witnessed for them (Heb. 11:4) by devouring their sacrifices with fire (Lev. 9:24; I Chron. 21:26; II Chron. 7:1; I Kings 18:24).  Hey, if you offered an animal sacrifice on your front lawn and God devoured it with fire from heaven, would you need to tell your neighbor that your God was the only true God?

God also witnessed for Himself by witnessing to His people through the miracles He did for them.  Parting the Red Sea testified to a Gentile named Rahab that He was God, causing her to believe on Him (Joshua 2).  A Gentile named Naaman believed when God healed his leprosy (II Ki. 5:15), an incurable disease.  Nebuchadnezzar believed when God delivered the three Hebrews (Dan. 3:29), and Darius believed when He delivered Daniel (Dan. 6:26,27).

But now that God is not testifying to Himself by working miracles like that any more, can you see how important it is for you to witness for Him?

God’s ability to tell the future also testified that He was God.  He taunted the false gods that they couldn’t tell the future (Isa. 41:23).  But we live in the dispensation of the mystery.  God is not making and fulfilling prophecies today, nor fulfilling Old Testament prophecies, to prove He is God.  So if you don’t witness for Him, He won’t witness for Himself.

All the time God was witnessing for Himself with miracles, He had one problem He couldn’t overcome—the sinfulness of His people.  So in the New Testament He introduced a new plan to witness that the Jews were His people, and in so doing witness to Himself.  He filled them with His Spirit and caused them to obey Him, just as He predicted He would (Ezek. 36:37), so much so they couldn’t sin (I Jo. 3:19; 5:18).

A misunderstanding of all that has impacted the witness of Christianity in a negative way.  When a Christian sins a lot, men say he that he can’t be saved, because the Lord said you could know believers by their fruit (Mt. 7:20,21).  Now that was true at Pentecost, and will be again in the Tribulation when God again fills His people with His Spirit, but it is not true today.  Just ask the Corinthians.  They were carnal, but Paul called them saints (I Cor. 1:2).

But a failure to rightly divide the Word in this instance has led to a heresy called Lordship Salvation, which says if Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all!  This causes Lordship Salvationists to witness to sinners by telling them to “make Jesus the Lord of your life” to be saved.  But if you promise to make Him your Lord, you’re promising to obey Him (Lu. 6:46).  And if you promise to make Him your Lord to get saved, what happens if you do get saved and disobey Him by sinning?  You’re going to be tempted to think you’re not saved at all!  Can you see the important difference that rightly dividing the word of truth makes to our witness?

Finally, our witness is also different than the Lord’s, who testified to the world of their sinfulness (John 7:7), as did John (Mt. 14:3,4).  But they were trying to establish the kingdom in which no one will sin!  Paul says the only sinners that we should tell are sinners are believers (I Cor. 5:9-12).  Telling unsaved sinners they are sinners just alienates them, and causes them to turn a deaf ear to the gospel.

Video of this message is available on YouTube: What Difference Does Rightly Dividing Make to My Witness? – Acts 24:14-15

How Fast Are We Talking Here?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

As the Apostle Paul came to the end of his list of qualifications for the ministry, he closed by insisting that pastors should always be

“Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (Titus 1:9).

Here we know that Paul is talking about the faithful Word of God that Pastor Titus had been taught of him, for he told Pastor Timothy to “hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me” (II Tim. 1:13).

How “fast” should pastors hold the “sound doctrine” that Paul taught Titus, and the rest of us, in his epistles?  Well, after God allowed Satan to take away Job’s health, his wealth, and his family, God used that same phrase to say of Job, “still he holdeth fast his integrity” (Job 2:3).  Pastor, will you hold the truth of Paul’s gospel that fast?  Will you say with Job’s degree of conviction,

“…I will not remove mine integrity from me.  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go…so long as I live” (Job 27:5,6).

Is that how fast you’ll hold to Pauline truth if you lose everything you hold dear?

Will you hold the truth as fast as Tribulation saints, whom the Lord warns, “hold fast…if therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief” (Rev. 3:3).  Those believers will have to hold fast to their truth, and endure to the end of the Tribulation to be saved (Mt. 10:22; 24:13).  You don’t have to hold your truth fast to be saved—but you should hold it fast as if you did, as if your very eternal life depended on it.  After all, the eternal life of your hearers will depend on how tight a grasp you maintain on the truth of Paul’s gospel.

God promised the people of Israel, “I will give you pastors according to Mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jer. 3:15), and He will make good on that promise in the kingdom of heaven on earth that He went on to describe (v.16-18).  What’s a pastor according to God’s heart?  Well, God said of those same pastors in the kingdom, “I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more” (Jer. 23:4).  Thus a pastor according to God’s heart will hold the truth fast, and not allow fear to cause him let it go. 

That’s the kind of pastors God will have in the kingdom of heaven.  And if the pastors of our grace churches will hold fast to Pauline truth without fear of what it will cost, all of God’s people can experience a little bit of heaven on earth now, in this dispensation.  We have God’s Word on it.  If you’re not a pastor, why not encourage your pastor to stand firm with all the pastors who are “holding fast the faithful word?”

Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.


What Difference Does Rightly Dividing Make to My Walk? – Colossians 2:6

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

Our “walk” (Col. 2:6) is how we behave (Ps. 101:2), our manner of life (Gal. 2:14), i.e., how we live our lives.  God has always wanted His people to walk in ways that please Him, but as we rightly divide the Word, we know that how to walk to please Him changes dispensationally.

For instance, God told Israel to walk in the law (Ex. 16:4), because they got saved by the law.  But He tells us to walk as we received Christ (Col. 2:6), and we received Him by faith, by believing something (Acts 16:31).  So we should walk in Him by believing some things!

What things?  Well, Paul uses the word “walk” often, so let’s let him tell us.   First, he says to walk in “newness of life” (Rom. 6:2-4).  If you believe you died and rose with Christ and have been given a new life, you should walk in it.

Paul gloried in the cross (Gal. 6:14) because the Galatians were glorying in circumcision.  The Jews walked in circumcision (Acts 21:21), that was their rule, but we walk in the “rule” that only the newness of life of the new creature matters (Gal. 6:15,16).

We’re spiritually circumcised (Col. 2:10,11), so we have what the symbol of circumcision symbolized.  We also rest in Christ, which the sabbath symbolized, and we have the cleansing that water baptism symbolized (Tit. 3:5).  See how rightly dividing makes our walk different that 7th Day Adventists and Baptists?

Paul also says to walk in the Spirit so you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:16).  How?  By believing that we’ve already crucified the flesh (v. 24,25)!  If God sees you as sinless, why not walk that way, if you believe it.

Paul also says to walk “honestly” by not sinning (Rom. 13:13).  If God sees you as sinless, and you sin, you’re not being honest with yourself.  The way to stop that is to put on Christ (v. 14).  How?  By believing that you already have put Him on (Gal. 3:27).  He’s the “new man” you put on when you trusted Christ (Col. 3:9-12).

Paul also says to “walk by faith” (II Cor. 5:7).  Isn’t that what we’ve been talking about, walking in Christ by believing some things?  He had to add “not by sight” because that’s how the Jews walked.  God saved Abraham by faith (Gen. 15:5,6), but he didn’t have to take God’s word for it that he was saved.  God gave him wealth he could see (Gen. 13:2) to prove he had the salvation that he couldn’t see. He did the same for Job, who lived around the same time (Job 1:3).  But we don’t walk by sight like that, for God doesn’t enrich His people financially today.

God also enriched the Jews (Deut. 8:18), and gave them other things to see, like parting the Red Sea.  They didn’t have to walk by faith when they saw that, but we do, for God isn’t doing miracles like that any more.

Rightly dividing also affects our “walk” (I Cor. 7:17) when it comes to the subject of divorce (v. 12).  Paul says to stay married to an unsaved wife, but under the Law God told the Jews it would give Him “pleasure” if they would divorce their unsaved wives (Ezra 10:2-11).

Rightly dividing also affects our walk in that the Lord said not to work for food and clothing, that God would provide it (Mt. 6:25-33).  The Jews to whom He said that were heading into the Tribulation, when God would feed them with the “daily bread” He taught them to pray for (Micah 7:14,15),  But Paul says we should work for our bread (I Thes. 4:11,12).

Can you see why Paul tells us to walk as he walked, and mark them which walk otherwise, so we have him as an example (Phil. 3:17)?

You hear a lot about identity theft these days, but you didn’t steal Christ’s identity, God gave it to you as a gift.  Men who steal your identity don’t love you so they charge things to your account, knowing you’ll have to pay for them.  When you sin, you’re acting like you don’t love the Lord, charging things to His account that He’s already paid for.  Why not “walk worthy of the Lord” instead (Col. 1:10)?

Video of this lesson is available on YouTube: What Difference Does Rightly Dividing Make to My Walk? – Colossians 2:6