Author Archives: Pastor Ricky Kurth

Is God Faithful To His Word?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

In describing the qualifications of a pastor (Tit. 1:6-8), the Apostle Paul saved the most important one for last, saying that a pastor 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).

Pastors should always hold fast the faithful word, the Word of God!  The apostle calls it “the faithful word” because God is faithful to every promise in His Book.

But here’s the thing about that: He didn’t make all those promises to you!  You can pray “give us this day our daily bread” all you want (Mt. 6:11), but God will not be faithful to His promise to rain manna down on you as He did for Israel in the wilderness, and as He will do for them again in the Tribulation (Micah 7:14,15 cf. Rev. 12:14).  God also promised them that “all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Mt. 21:22), but He will not faithfully deliver on that promise in the dispensation of grace either.

And there are still other promises in the Bible that God is not honoring today.  If the people of Israel were obedient to God’s Word, He promised to save them out of all their tribulations (Deut. 4:30), and He faithfully delivered on that promise (I Sam. 10:19).  But God has not made that promise to you!  Today, in the dispensation of grace, God allows us to go through tribulation, and then is faithful to the promise He gives us through the Apostle Paul that “tribulation worketh patience” (Rom. 5:3).  Paul is the apostle of the present dispensation, so you know God will be faithful to the promises He makes us through him.

And Paul gives us other promises to which God will be faithful.  When he says, “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13), he means that in executing the sinful works of your flesh you can live, really live—live it up, spiritually speaking!  If you want to live life on the highest plane imaginable, mortify the sinful deeds of your body and see if God isn’t faithful to that promise.

Finally, God will be faithful to His promise to us through Paul that “when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4).  That’s a promise that will come to fruition at the Rapture, the “salvation” (Rom. 13:11) that God promises through Paul to give us before the “wrath” of the Tribulation is poured out (I Thes. 1:10; 5:9).  When that day comes, God will also be faithful to the promise He gave us through Paul to “reward” us for our labor for Him (I Cor. 3:14).  In that day, you will see that He will be just as faithful to His promise to us through Paul that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).

It is this faithful word—the faithful word given to us through Paul—that pastors must hold fast if they want to obey Paul’s command to “exhort and to convince the gainsayers” (Tit. 1:9), gainsayers like the ones who insist that God is still honoring the promises He made to the people of Israel.

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What Difference Does Rightly Dividing Make to My Worship? – 2 Timothy 2:15

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

This message is also available on YouTube: What Difference Does Rightly Dividing Make to My Worship? – 2 Timothy 2:15

Summary:

Rightly dividing means to see the difference between God’s grace program for us and His law program for Israel.  When Paul began to preach it, the Jews accused him of worshipping “contrary to the law” (Acts 18:12,13).  He refuted that, insisting he worshipped “believing all things… in the law and the prophets” (24:14).  That means we worship in some of the same ways they did back then.

Abraham worshipped by being willing to obey God whatever the cost (Gen. 22:5), and so should you.  “The lad” worshipped by being willing to give his life as a sacrifice, and so should you (Rom. 12:1).  You can worship God by believing all things in the law by putting God first in your life (Deut. 26:10).  If you can worship God when you lose your baby son (II Sam. 12:20) or all your children (Job 1:20,21), you can worship by believing all things in the law.

The Lord said the unsaved Jews worshipped Him “in vain” by teaching incorrect doctrine (Mt. 15:9), which means teaching correct doctrine (as we do) worships Him correctly.  If teaching the commandments of men made for vain worship, then teaching the commandments of God would make for true worship.  And Paul repeats the commandments!

But we worship differently in that the Jews were told to keep the commandments or be cursed (Deut. 11:26-28).  We are told to keep them out of love, not fear (Rom. 13:8-10).  If you love your neighbor, you won’t lie to him, steal from him, etc. And the love He showed you by not sending you to hell for your lying and stealing should constrain you to keep them (II Cor. 5:14,15).

But there were 603 other commandments in the law, many of them like the “touch not, taste not” of Colossians 2:21.  Paul called them “the commandments…of men” (v. 22) because commandments of God imposed on people out of their proper dispensation become commandments of men.

But worshipping God by keeping His commandments involves more than just recognizing that some of the commandments of God are no longer in effect.  It involves recognizing that God gave some new commandments through Paul.  Circumcision was a commandment of God, so for Paul to say it was nothing, but keeping the commandments was everything (I Cor. 7:19), he must have been talking about keeping the commandments given to him (I Cor. 14:37 cf. I Thes. 4:2; II Thes. 3:6,12).  Paul gave hundreds of commandments, and if you teach them you’ll avoid worshipping God in vain, for you’ll be teaching the commandments of God for this dispensation. 

The only other time Paul tells us how we should worship (besides Acts 24:14) is when he says we worship God “in the spirit” (Phil. 3:2,3).  That means to recognize that Gentiles used to be dogs (Mt. 15:26), but now the Jews are (Phil. 3:2) because we are the circumcision (v. 3), the spiritual circumcision.

We were circumcised with Christ (Col. 2:10,11) when He was “cut off” (Isa. 53:8; Dan. 9:26).  God told the Jews that He wanted that for them (Deut. 10:16 cf. Rom. 2:29), and promised to give it to them in the kingdom (Deut. 30:6).  But we have that now, so we have no confidence in the flesh.  The Jews had all their confidence in the fact that their flesh was the circumcised flesh of Abraham (Mt. 3:9), and in the fact that three times a year they had to march their flesh to Jerusalem for Israel’s feasts.  But we observe the feasts in the spirit (cf. I Cor. 5:7).  Our confidence isn’t in the flesh of a passover lamb, but in the Lamb of God that was slain!

We gave examples of how we worship as they did under the law, but we gave none of how we worship as they did in the prophets.  But the prophet Isaiah said that in the kingdom the Jews will worship God by looking into the pit of hell to see the suffering of the unsaved (Isa. 66:23,24).  This answers the question I’m often asked of how we’ll enjoy heaven knowing our loved ones are in hell.  God won’t erase our memories, He’ll change how we think about them.  We will agree with God that they are getting what’s coming to them (cf. Rev.16:7).  So if you don’t ever want your loved ones to be “an abhorring” (Isa. 66:4), tell them about Christ!

Common Ground

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

What do Winnie the Pooh and Attila the Hun have in common?  Give up?  They both have the same middle name!

What did the Apostle Paul and Titus have in common?  Give up?  Faith!  At least that’s what Paul told the young man as he opened his epistle to him, addressing his letter…

“To Titus, mine own son after the common faith…” (Titus 1:4).

What an astounding thing for Paul to say!  If you’re not sure why I’d say that, it is because Paul was a Jew, “a Hebrew of the Hebrews” (Phil. 3:5), while Titus was an uncircumcised Gentile (Gal. 2:3).  Jews and Gentiles didn’t have anything in common before Paul came along!

They certainly didn’t eat the same foods as the Gentiles.  God told the Jews under the Law that certain foods were unclean (Leviticus 11).  This was to remind them that certain people were unclean—the Gentiles (Lev. 20:24-26).  And God gave them more reminders that they shouldn’t mingle with Gentiles when He instructed His people not to wear clothing that was mingled with different materials (Deut. 22:11).

God even told them not to plow their field in the same way the Gentiles plowed, with two different kinds of animal pulling the plow (Deut. 22:10).  That was to teach the Jews not to work together with Gentiles, not to harness their strength together with members of those unclean nations.  God further instructed them not to plant their crops as the Gentiles did, “lest the fruit of thy seed…be defiled” (Deut. 22:9).  That was to teach them not to marry the heathen, lest the “seed” of their children be defiled.

Does that give you an idea of what a pariah you would have been as a Gentile in Old Testament times?  If you’re not sure what a pariah is, have you ever heard the expression, “Things that make you go hmmmm?”  Well, a pariah is something that makes you go eewww!  Jews had nothing in common with Gentiles—least of all a common faith.  But beginning with the ministry of the Apostle Paul, a Jew like Paul could write to a Gentile like Titus about their common faith, and to Gentiles like the Romans (Rom. 1:13) about their “mutual faith” (v. 12).  What a revolutionary change was brought about with the ministry of the Apostle Paul!

This dispensational change made it so that Paul could even speak of a Gentile like Titus as “mine own son,” as well as a Jew like Timothy (I Tim. 1:2).  And when he wrote to Titus about “Christ our Saviour” (Tit. 1:4), that was new too!  You see, in Old Testament times, God was the Savior of the people of Israel only.  He told them, “I the LORD am thy Saviour…the mighty One of Jacob” (Isa. 49:26; 60:16).  The adjective “thy” is singular, indicating that God was Israel’s Savior to the exclusion of the Gentile nations.  And while many people think that this changed in the New Testament, Paul declared that “God…raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus” (Acts 13:23).

But beginning with the ministry of the Apostle Paul, Christ became “the Saviour of all men” (I Tim. 4:10)—especially “the Saviour of the body” (Eph. 5:23), the Body of Christ, made up of Jews and Gentiles!  This was all part of “the great mystery” revealed to Paul “concerning Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:32).  To learn more about this great mystery, why not sign up to receive our weekly feature, More Minutes With the Bible.  You’ll be eternally glad you did!

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Witnesses for the Prosecution – Acts 2:32-41

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Video of this message is available on YouTube: Witnesses for the Prosecution – Acts 2:32-41

Summary:

“Witnesses” (v. 32) are people who’ve seen or heard some-thing and testify that it’s true.  The disciples had seen and heard “all” the things the Lord did before He died (Acts 10:39-41), and so were good witnesses that it was Him after He rose again.  That’s why the Lord picked them (John 15:27).

But Peter didn’t know what Paul later learned, that He rose for our justification (Rom. 4:24).  So he charged Israel with the Lord’s death and threatened them with His resurrection.  Saying, “The one you killed is alive and coming back to get you!” And the disciples were witnesses for his prosecution.

“Exalted” (Acts 2:33) means to raise or elevate (Isa. 52:13,14).  God “exalted” the Lord “with His right hand” (Acts 2:33) by setting Him at His right hand (Mark 16:19).  To prove that, Peter quotes David (Acts 2:34).  Earlier he quoted a psalm of David where he talked about rising from the dead before his body corrupted (Acts 2:25-31).  Then he pointed out that David’s body was still in the grave, so he must have been talking about Christ.  Now Peter’s quoting another psalm of David, one where he talked about sitting at God’s right hand.  David couldn’t be sitting there if he was still in the grave, so again he must have been talking about Christ.

And if any of the Jews forgot that Psalm 110:1 ended by saying Christ would sit there till God made His enemies His footstool, Peter reminded them (Acts 2:35).  The Jews loved that psalm, for it went on to say that God would conquer the Lord’s Gentile enemies (Ps. 110:5,6).  But Peter was telling them that by crucifying the Lord they had joined the Lord’s Gentile enemies, and now He would return and judge them too!  Just as Psalm 2:1-12 said He would do, to Jews as well as Gentiles.

Luke 20:9-16 predicted this also, a parable the Lord told about the Jews (Mt. 21:41-45).  Of course, He couldn’t return and judge anyone unless He was Israel’s Christ, so Peter went on to say that He was (Acts 2:36). God declared that by setting Him at His right hand in the heavenly Zion (Ps. 2:5,6). The Jews knew Psalm 2 ended with advice to “kiss the Son” that they’d crucified, and that’s what Peter was telling them to do—and put their trust in Him, as the psalm also advised.

Peter called on them to “repent” (Acts 2:38), which means to change your mind about something.  Preachers today quote that to tell sinners to change their mind about their individual sins. But Peter hadn’t mentioned those!  He charged them with Christ’s death, wanting them to repent of that.  He was quoting Joel’s call to “turn” (Joel 2:11-14).

Preachers say baptism isn’t for salvation, but Peter said it was (Acts 2:38) because the Lord said it was (Mark 16:16). That’s just not God’s message for today!  Baptists also disagree with Peter when he said that if you get baptized you’ll get the Spirit in such a way you’ll speak in tongues, for they don’t believe in speaking in tongues.  But all that confusion could be avoided if they’d just realize Peter was talking to Jews and their children (Acts 2:39).  The “promise” was the Spirit (Acts 1:4,5), a promise God never made to Gentiles.  Those “afar off” were Jews who were scattered when Israel disobeyed God (Dan. 9:7).

Peter told the Jews to save themselves from that generation in Israel (Acts 2:40) because they killed the Lord, and so God was going to judge them for the death of all the prophets (Lu. 11:50,51).  He calls them “untoward” because he’s quot-ing how Moses called them “froward” (Deut. 32:19,20). Jews thought they were saved just because they were Jews, part of the nation of Israel, but that generation was “a froward nation” that God planned to provoke to jealousy with “a foolish nation” (Deut. 32:20,21,28).  When the Lord quoted that (Mt. 21:43), most people think He meant to make that nation jealous by giving their kingdom to the Gentiles.  But the Gentiles are many nations, not one.  “The nation” (singular) that the Lord gave it to was His little flock (Lu. 12:32).  Salvation used to be “of the Jews” (Jo. 4:22), but now it was of “the remnant” (Joel 2:32), so they had to get out of that nation and in Peter’s nation, the believing nation (I Pe. 2:9).

We don’t get 3,000 converts from one message today (Acts 2:41) for the same reason we can’t speak in tongues.  We aren’t filled with the Spirit in the same way they were!

The Cat’s Out of the Bag

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Did you ever wonder how the figure of speech found in our title came to be used for the revealing of a secret?  Some say it goes back to a time when piglets were sold in bags in open-air markets.  In those days, an unscrupulous merchant might sell an unsuspecting patron a bag containing a cat instead of a piglet, and it wasn’t until the hapless patron got home that the cat was out of the bag, and the merchant’s dishonest secret was revealed.  And since cats have always been far less valuable than pigs, the patron was always less than thrilled to learn that the pork he thought he had purchased was only pork substitute!

Well, beginning with the ministry of the Apostle Paul, an infinitely more pleasing secret was revealed!

“Paul… an apostle… in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began… But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me…” (Titus 1:1-3).

If you’re not sure what that word “manifested” means, it is well defined in something the Lord said:

“…nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest, neither any thing hid, that shall not be known…” (Luke 8:17).

So to make something manifest means to make known something that was secret or hidden. 

That certainly applies to the promise of eternal life that God made to a Gentile like Titus!  God promised the Jews eternal life throughout the pages of the Old Testament, and Gentiles who wanted to get saved in those days had to get in on that promise by becoming “proselytes” (Acts 2:10).  But Paul was raised up to reveal that Gentiles no longer had to become Jews to get the eternal life that God promised the Jews.  Paul revealed that Gentiles had their own promise of eternal life, one that God made before the world began, but didn’t let the cat out of the bag until Paul came along.

Humorist Will Rogers is said to have quipped, “Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in.”  If you’ve ever released a cat that somehow managed to get trapped in a bag, you know he’s right!  But there are many who are trying to put Paul’s cat back in the bag.  That is, there are many who hold that Gentiles who want to be saved today must still try to get in on Israel’s promise of eternal life by keeping the Law that God gave them through Moses. Others insist that Gentiles who want to be saved must submit to water baptism “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38), as Peter told “the men of Israel” (v.22) at Pentecost.

If you’re an unsaved Gentile, don’t you fall for it!  God promised you eternal life long before the Law was given, and the apostle who revealed this promise says that eternal life can’t be obtained by the “works of righteousness” of the Law (Tit. 3:5).  He further declares that it is “by the washing of regeneration” (Tit. 3:5) that we are saved, and not the washing of water baptism.  The “regeneration” or new birth of which he speaks is yours “by grace…through faith” (Eph. 2:8), faith in the fact that Christ died for your sins, and rose again (I Cor. 15:1-4).

And if you’re an unsaved Jew, things have changed for you too!  Just as Gentiles who wanted to be saved in time past had to look to Moses, the spiritual leader of the Jews, and be saved through the Law, so Jews who want to be saved today must look to Paul, “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13), and be saved by grace through faith.  That’s how the Body of Christ came to be made up of Jews and Gentiles (I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:28)!

So whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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Peter Tells the Jews to Listen Up! – Acts 2:22-31

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Video of this message is available on YouTube: Peter Tells the Jews to Listen Up! – Acts 2:22-31

Summary:

“Nazareth” (2:22) was a despised city (John 1:46), but Peter mentioned it anyway.  Never be ashamed of the truth!

God approved the Lord by miracles (Acts 2:22), miracles that would tell the Jews that their God had come (Isa. 35:4-6).  The Jews require a sign (I Cor. 1:22) and the Lord gave them plenty of signs that He was their God!  But the Father did them (John 14:10,11) through Him. God was “with Him” (Acts 10:38) but that didn’t mean He wasn’t God (John 1:1).

How’d Peter know they knew about the Lord’s miracles (Acts 2:22)? They were from all over (Acts 2:5). But His fame got around (Mt. 4:24; 9:1,26,30,31; Mark 1:28; Lu. 4:37).

But the Jews killed Him (Act 2:23). God “delivered” Him to them by His “determinate” counsel, even though His “foreknowledge” told Him they’d kill Him.  But that doesn’t mean God forced them to kill Him to provide the world a Savior, despite what He “determined” (cf. Lu. 22:21, 22).  They should have sacrificed Him in faith, not executed Him in unbelief (Psalm 118:250-27 cf. Mark 11:9).

Peter says God the Father raised the Lord from the dead (Acts 2:24 cf. Acts 3:15,26; 10:40; 13:30,34; 17:31; Rom. 4:24; 6:4; I Cor. 6:14; Gal.1:1; Eph. 1:20; Col.2:12; I Thes. 1:10; Heb.13:20; I Pet. 1:21).  But the Bible also says the Lord raised Himself up (John 10:17), and that the Spirit raised Him (Rom.8:11), showing the oneness of the Trinity.

It was “not possible” that death could hold the Lord (Acts 2:24) because “the wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23) and He was no sinner.  True, God put our sins on Him, but God was “satisfied” with His payment for our sins (Isa. 53:11).  So death couldn’t hold Him—or us!  But Peter didn’t know this, so he says death couldn’t hold Him “for” the Bible predicted that He’d rise from the dead (Acts 2:25-27), and all Bible prophecies must come true (cf. John 10:35; Acts 1:16).

Peter quotes a Messianic psalm of David (Ps. 16:8-11), a psalm that was true of both David and Christ.  The faith of both was so strong, they saw the Father in the grave with the eyes of faith, and so couldn’t be moved (Acts 2:25).  You’d think the Lord would be sad He was killed but He was “glad” (2:26) because His flesh rested in the “hope” of resurrection.

The “hell” they both went to (Acts 2:27) was the paradise side of hell (Luke 16:19-31 cf. 23:43).  The Lord “finished” paying for our sins on the cross (John 19:30) and didn’t have to go to the torment side of hell to pay for our sins.

But if the Lord was “glad” (Acts 2:26) in paradise, why’d He want to be raised from the dead?  It was because His flesh was still in the grave, where bodies see “corruption” (Acts 2:27).  So God showed Him the way out of the grave by the path of life (2:28), a way that unsaved men in the grave can’t find (Pr. 2:2-19).  His hope was to see God’s countenance (Acts 2:28), as was David’s (Ps. 17:15)—and ours too!

Peter probably knew that quoting Psalm 16 would remind his hearers of the similar-sounding Psalm 21:6-9, which predicted that after the Lord rose, He would avenge His enemies.  Peter wanted them thinking about that when he later told them to “repent” (Acts 2:38).

Peter’s argument in Acts 2:29 is that David didn’t rise from the dead before he saw corruption, so either he was mistaken when he said he would or he was talking about someone else. Peter knew the Jews would never admit there was a mistake in their Bible, so they’d have to admit he was talking about someone else—someone Peter identified as Christ (v. 30,31).

David predicted Christ would rise from the dead, knowing God had promised him that one of his descendants would be Christ (Act 2:30 cf. II Sam. 7:12,13).So God had to raise Christ to fulfill His promise that He’d sit on Israel’s throne forever.

But Paul says God raised Him for our justification (Rom. 4:25).  Peter and Paul didn’t preach the same thing!  We must remember Christ according to Paul’s gospel (II Tim. 2:8), not Peter’s!  Finally, Peter wasn’t trying to be unkind in charging Israel with Christ’s death, he was just trying to get them to mourn for Him (Zech. 12:10), as they someday will.

Disciples Who Passed the Sobriety Test – Acts 2:14-21

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Video of this message is available on YouTube: Disciples Who Passed the Sobriety Test – Acts 2:14-21

Summary:

When the crowd at Pentecost heard the Lord’s 120 disciples (Acts 1:15) speaking in different tongues (2:4), some thought they were drunk (2:13).  So Peter corrected them (v.14,15).

It’s important to notice Peter was talking to Jews (v.14), because some say the Body of Christ began at Pentecost.  But the Body is made up of Jews and Gentiles (I Cor. 12:13), so Peter wouldn’t have excluded the Gentiles.  That’s just one of many proofs we’ll see that the Body did not start here.

After pointing out that it was too early to be drunk (2:15), Peter told them that what was happening fulfilled Joel 2:28-32 (v.16).  But that means the Body couldn’t have started here, for “the church, which is His Body” (Eph. 1:22,23) was “a mystery” (Eph. 5:32), and a mystery is something that wasn’t made known to the prophets (Col. 1:26).  Plus, Peter says that Joel called what was happening “the last days” (Acts 2:17).  That means Pentecost wasn’t the first days of the Body of Christ, it was the last days of Israel’s program.

In those days, the kingdom was supposed to come (Isa. 2:2-4).  The last days started with the Lord’s coming (Heb. 1:1,2). You can’t have a kingdom without a king!  And you can’t have the kingdom of heaven without the Spirit, who made it so they couldn’t sin (I Jo. 3:9;5:18).  That’s the only way to get rid of war (Isa. 2:4 cf. James 4:1,2).

The pouring out of the Spirit was also a time when God filled His sons with His word (cf. Pr. 1:23).  It was supposed to change the earth back to Eden-like conditions (Isa. 32:12; 35:1,2).  It didn’t because the dispensation of the mystery interrupted God’s prophetic program.

Some say God brought Israel back to the land in 1948, but He says He won’t do that until He pours out His Spirit again (Ezek. 11:19).  That’s when He’ll put a new spirit in them and cause them to walk in His ways (Ezek. 36:25-27) and stop hiding His face from them (Ezek. 39:29) as He’s done for the past 2,000 years now.  That’s also when they’ll mourn for Christ (Zech. 12:10).

When Peter said God poured out His Spirit on “all flesh” (Acts 2:17), that can mean everyone (Gen. 6:12).  But when Peter tells Jews that God would pour Him out on “your” sons and daughters (Acts 2:17), we know it means all Jewish flesh, all Jews who believed on Christ.

“Dreams” and “visions” (2:17) are the same thing.  They are how God talked to the prophets (Num. 12:6).  That’s how He communicated His Word to them (Num. 24:4).  And that’s what was happening here at Pentecost on all 120 of the disciples who were prophesying (Acts 2:18).

Blood and fire and smoke and wonders (Acts 2:19) are mentioned a combined 58 times in Revelation, the book that describes the Tribulation, so we know the time for the Tribulation had come.  Some of the wonders in heaven included the darkening of the sun (2:20), the beginning of the day of the Lord (Isa. 13:9,10; Rev. 6:12).

But Peter says the sun would be darkened before “that great and notable day of the Lord” (2:20), and the Lord said it would happen “after the tribulation” (Mark 13:24).  But while the entire 7 year 70th week of Daniel is the day of the Lord, the last 3 and a half years are the “great and terrible day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31).  So the sun will be dark after the first half of the Tribulation, but before the second half.

If it bothers you that only half of Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled after Peter said “this is that” (Acts 2:16), the Lord only quoted part of Isaiah 61:1,2 in Luke 4:16-20.  He left off the part about “the day of vengeance” because He added “this day is this scripture fulfilled” (Luke 4:21).  He knew it wasn’t time for that, so He didn’t quote that part.

But then why did Peter quote all of Joel’s prophecy, including the part about the day of God’s vengeance?  It is because he didn’t know that it wasn’t time for the vengeance.  The mystery that interrupted the vengeance wasn’t revealed until Paul.  We know Peter eventually learned the last days had been postponed because he later talked about what “shall” happen in the last days (II Pe. 3:3), and said if you want to learn more about the delay, see Paul! (v.15).

Conduct Unbecoming a Christian

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“…speak thou the things which become sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1).

The word “become” here means fitting or appropriate. Even if you never served in the military, you have probably heard that if an officer misbehaves he can be charged with “conduct unbecoming an officer.” That serious charge is levied against an officer who has not been conducting himself in a manner that is fitting or appropriate for his rank and position.

And the word become is used that way in Scripture as well. Paul told the Romans,

“I commend unto you Phebe…a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea…receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and…assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you…” (Rom. 16:1,2).

The reason Paul had to tell the Romans to receive a sister in Christ was that women in those days were not always well received in Roman society. That is, they weren’t always as welcomed as a man would be. But Paul says to not receive a sister like Phebe would constitute conduct unbecoming a saint of God.

By the way, this is one of many examples in Scripture that show how those who say that Christianity puts women down are wrong. Christianity lifts women up, as you can see from Paul’s words here, and from the words found in many other places in Scripture as well. If you want a religion that puts women down, and teaches that it is okay to mistreat them, look to Islam, not Christianity.

Of course, having said that, there are Christian men who mistreat women as well, and Paul says that behavior like that isn’t very becoming to men who claim to be saints of God.

The word “becoming” also means to make someone look good. A husband might say to his wife, “That dress is very becoming on you.” At least that’s what he says if he knows what’s good for him, right ladies? But what he means when he says that is that the dress makes his wife look good.

And the Bible uses the word that way as well. Paul told the Philippians,

“…let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).

Two of the Philippian women were feuding like the Hatfields and the McCoys (Phil. 4:2), and Paul’s admonition for the church to be “of one accord” (Phil. 2:2) suggests that some in the church were siding with Eudoias and some with Syntyche. As far as God is concerned, that’s conduct that is unbecoming to the gospel! They were making the gospel look bad in the eyes of the lost sinners in Philippi, not good.

So when Paul tells Titus to speak the things which become sound doctrine, he was telling him to speak to believers and tell them how to act in a way that was fitting for someone who embraces the sound doctrine found in Paul’s epistles. He then went on to tell “aged men” how to do that (Titus 2:2), “aged women” (2:3), “young women” (2:4), as well as “young men” (2:6), and even “servants” (2:9).

Beloved, no matter what your age, gender, or position in life, it’s not enough just to believe sound doctrine, and it’s not enough just to teach it. God wants us to live sound doctrine—live it in such a way that makes sound doctrine look good. If that’s the burden of your heart, why not make it the prayer of your heart?

You’ll be eternally glad you did.

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.


The Apostles Spoke With Forked Tongues! – Acts 2:4-13

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Video of this message is also available on YouTube: The Apostles Spoke With Forked Tongues – Acts 2:4-13

Summary:

“Cloven” (v. 4) means divided.  The Spirit divided their tongues by giving them the power to speak in other languages as part of the “taste” of the kingdom that He was giving Israel (Heb. 6:4,5).  It would be heavenly not to have to worry about serpents, poison or illness (Mark 16:17,18).  But what’s so heavenly about the gift of tongues?  Well, Jewish disciples will need the gift of tongues when the Gentile nations look to them to teach them about God (Zech. 8:23).

When it says, “every man heard them speak in his own language,” it sounds like the disciples spoke their language, but people heard them in their language.  But that would be the gift of ears, not tongues.  The disciples were filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4), not the Jews to whom they preached.

“Confound” (v. 6) means amazed (v. 7,8).  The people of the lands in Acts 2:9-11 all spoke known human languages, and not the gibberish that passes for tongues today.  Since there are more than 12 tongues mentioned, this suggests all 120 believers spoke in tongues (Acts 1:15), not just the 12.

If you could speak in tongues, wouldn’t you preach the gospel? Instead, the disciples talked about “the wonderful works of God.”  They might have done that to draw a crowd so they could hear Peter’s message.  Or it could be that they were being sneaky!  That exact phrase “wonderful works” is only used 8 other places in the Bible, and half of them are in Psalm 107, where it says God stills the wind and waves (21-31).  Aren’t those the wonderful works of God you’d talk about, ones that would identify Christ as God (Mark 4:36-39).

When it says some thought they were “full of new wine,” wine is a type of the Spirit in the Bible.  The Lord taught that the new wine of the Spirit couldn’t be put in the old bottles of the apostate leaders in Israel (Lu. 5:37,38), it had to be put where God put it, in the new bottles of the new leaders in Israel, the little flock of the Lord’s followers (Lu. 12:32).

Our Pentecostal friends know they can’t speak in legitimate languages, so they insist that they speak in the tongues of angels (I Cor. 13:1).  But angels in Scripture are never said to have their own language.  An “unknown tongue” (I Cor. 14:2) is just a language that someone didn’t “know” (cf. Jer. 5:15).

We know the tongues in Corinth were the same human languages they spoke at Pentecost because Paul says that if they didn’t interpret their languages that “learned” men couldn’t understand them (I Cor. 14:13,16).  That means that learned men could understand them.  Learned men can often speak more than one language, but they can’t speak angel. 

Tongues in Corinth were also given for a different reason.  At Pentecost they were given to the Jews as a sign that God was about to offer them the kingdom in which they’d teach the Gentiles in their own languages.  In other words, it was a sign of God’s blessing.  But once the Jews rejected their kingdom, tongues were given to the Gentiles as a sign God was judging Israel, not blessing them.

To explain the gift of tongues to the Corinthians, Paul quoted Isaiah to say, “with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people” (I Cor. 14:21).  That’s not a gift of tongues that God gave to the Jews to teach the Gentiles.  That’s a gift of tongues He gave the Gentiles to speak to the Jews.  That’s what Isaiah meant.  God had spoken to Israel in Hebrew through the prophets, and they didn’t listen, so He threatened to speak to them through the Gentiles by letting the Gentiles conquer them (Isa. 28:11).

That’s what God was doing in Corinth.  He gave the Jews’ gift of tongues to the Gentiles next door (Acts 18:11) as a “sign” (I Cor. 14:22) He was judging them for rejecting Christ

Doesn’t God still want the Jews to know that He is judging their nation?  If so, why isn’t He still giving the gift of tongues?  The answer is that God is using His Word to tell them this today, in the dispensation of grace.  That’s why tongues and prophecies ceased when the Bible was complete (I Cor. 13:8-10).  God no longer needed prophets to speak through, He had His Word to speak through.And He no longer needed to give the Gentiles the gift of tongues as a sign He was judging Israel.  He now has His Word to do that too.

How Did God Speak to Moses?

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“If no one can see God’s face and live (Ex. 33:20), how did He speak to Moses ‘face to face’ (Ex. 33:11)?”

The phrase “face to face” can be taken literally (2 John 1:12), but it can also be taken in a figurative sense. For instance, God is said to have spoken “face to face” with the people of Israel when He gave them the law (Deut. 5:4), but they didn’t see His face (Deut. 4:12). So we must conclude that the phrase “face to face” there is a figure of speech.

What does it mean? Well, compare how God defines speaking face to face to Moses:

“If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so… With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold” (Num. 12:6-8).

In speaking to Moses, God spoke apparently (clearly), and not in visions and dreams and dark speeches. That’s the figurative meaning of “face to face.”

This understanding is the only answer to our Pentecostal friends who say that tongues will not “cease” (1 Cor. 13:8) until we get to Heaven. They insist that “that which is perfect” (1 Cor. 13:10) is Heaven since that’s when we’ll see the Lord “face to face” (v. 12). What Paul was actually saying is that once the Bible is perfect or complete, the will of God can be understood as clearly as if we were in His presence!

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.


The Fullness of Pentecost – Acts 2:1-4

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Video of this message is available on YouTube: The Fullness of Pentecost – Acts 2:1-4

Summary:

“Pentecost” (2:1) was one of Israel’s 7 annual feast days.  Passover (Lev. 23:4,5) typified the cross (I Cor. 5:7).  Unleavened bread (Lev. 23:6) typified how He died without the leaven of sin, so we should purge sin from our churches and our personal lives in response to Christ being sacrificed for us (I Cor. 5:7).  Firstfruits (Lev. 23:10) typified Christ’s resurrection, and how He was the firstfruits of the resurrection of believers in Israel and in the Body of Christ (I Cor. 15: 20,23).

Then came Pentecost, which means “fiftieth.”  It came 50 days after firstfruits (Lev. 23:15) and spoke of the coming of the Holy Ghost (John 14:16-18).  The Lord taught the apostles for forty days (Acts 1:3), leaving them 10 days to pick a replacement for Judas (Acts 1:15-26).  Now here in Acts 2, the fiftieth day feast was “fully come” (2:1).

It was fully come symbolically too.  Just as all those passover lambs in the past were types of the fullness of Christ’s sacrifice, so all the Pentecosts in the past were types of the fulness of the coming of the Spirit at this Pentecost.

“Rushing” (2:2) was associated with the Spirit (Ezk. 3:12) as was the wind (John 3:8).  The windy Spirit power of God could be used constructively (Ezek. 37:9,10) or destructively (Isa. 40:6-10).  The filling of the disciples with the Spirit here in Act 2 was constructive, but Jews who rejected their message will face His destructive power.

The sound filling the house (2:2) was typified in II Chron. 5:13, where Solomon’s temple was filled because of the oneness of the 120 priests (v. 12).  Since the temple will be a restoration of the kingdom as it was in Solomon’s day (Acts 1:6), the oneness of the 120 disciples here (Acts 1:15) was a taste of the kingdom.

These cloven tongues were not the fulfillment of Mt.3:11. John was talking about the fire that will come at the Second Coming of Christ (v. 12 cf. II Thes. 1:7,8).

They were given visible tongues of fire on their heads (Acts 2:3) to notify them they were being filled with the Spirit, sort of like Luke 3:21,22.  They were given tongues of fire to signify how they’d now speak in tongues (Acts 2:4).  “Cloven” means divided (Lev. 11:7), further signifying how they’d speak in different tongues.  It also symbolized how they were to walk separate from the Gentiles (Lev. 20:25,26) and from unsaved Jews (Ps. 1:1; Pr. 9:6), and how the Spirit that filled them was about to enable them to walk separate from sinners (I Jo. 3:9; 5:18).  They couldn’t sin at Pentecost!

What’s that tell you about our Pentecostal friends?  They insist they are filled with the Spirit, and can imitate the ability to speak in tongues.  But if you’re going to say you are filled with the Spirit as they were at Pentecost, you should also be able to not sin as well.  That’s a little harder to imitate.

I don’t mean to be unkind in saying this.  I only mean to assure God’s people that they are not missing out on a blessing that our Pentecostal friends tell them they are missing out on, the ability to speak in tongues.

When we tell our Pentecostal friends that God is not filling men with the Spirit today the way He did at Pentecost because God started a new program with Paul, they will sometimes ask, “Then why Paul did Paul say to be filled with the Spirit?” (Eph. 5:18).  But the filling of the Spirit didn’t always cause men to speak in tongues in the Bible.  Sometimes it caused them to know how to build a tabernacle (Ex. 31:3-5), or prepare men for the Messiah (Lu. 1:15-17) or assure Mary that the Lord would “perform” what the angel said (Lu. 1:41-45), or prophesy (Lu. 1:67).

What does the filling of the Spirit do today?  Well, at Pentecost, it caused men to speak in tongues.  Today it causes men to speak in psalms and hymns and thanksgiving (Eph. 5:18-20).

How can we be filled with the Spirit?  Colossians 3:16,17 says that being filled with the Word of God causes men to speak in psalms and hymns and thanksgiving.  That means to be filled with the Spirit today, in the dispensation of grace, you must be filled with the Word of God.

The Election of An Apostle – Acts 1:15-26

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Summary:

Peter takes the lead in things (1:15) because the Lord put him in charge of things (Mt. 16:18,19) like binding a new apostle. The 12 were also involved (Mt. 18:18), but the kingdom gospel and program were committed chiefly to Peter (Gal. 2:7).

But Peter didn’t act like a leader when he denied the Lord three times.  But rather than dismiss him as the chief apostle, the Lord called him back into His service three times (John 21:15-17).  Peter probably thought the Lord was rubbing it in because he had denied Him three times, but the Lord was actually saying, “Yeah, I remember you denied Me three times, but I still want you to feed My sheep.”

We know the Lord knew Peter would deny Him, for He told him in advance what to do when he was “converted” from denying Him (Lu. 22:31,32).  And to make that happen, the Lord called him back three times—just as He originally had to call Peter three times to follow Him.

The number 120 (Acts 1:15) is significant.  Moses lived that many years (Deut. 34:7), and he represented the law.  So the 120 disciples represented the death of the Old Testament of the law and the birth of the New Testament.  You know.  The New Covenant where the Jews will be “a kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:6).There were 120 priests in Solomon’s temple (II Chron. 5:1,12), and when the 12 asked if it was time for the Lord to “restore” the kingdom (Acts 1:6), they meant restore it back like it was under Solomon.  So these 120 Jews were a taste of the kingdom where the Jews will be priests.

The “scripture” Peter is talking about (1:16) is one he’ll reference later, but basically it said Judas had to be replaced.

Judas was “numbered” with the apostles (1:17), but not with the saints.  The Lord chose him to be an apostle, but he had to choose to be a believer, just like Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5).  Jeremiah did, Judas didn’t.

Betraying the Lord was iniquity, and the 30 pieces of silver that Judas got for it was “the reward of iniquity” (1:18).  Matthew 27:5 says he hanged himself, but when the earth-quake came (Mt. 27:50,51), the limb from which he hung broke and he fell and all his bowels gushed out (Acts 1:18)

In Acts 1:20, Peter quotes the Scripture he referenced earlier, Scripture that was found in two psalms.  We know that Psalm 69:25 is about Judas, for v.21 speaks of the Lord on the cross.  And we know Psalm 109:8 is about the Judas, for verse 16 says he oppressed the poor.  Judas was the treasurer for the 12 and stole from the bag (John 12:6), the bag out of which they gave to the poor (John 13:27-29).

That made Judas a type of the antichrist, who will also oppress the poor.  All believers will be poor because they’ll have to sell all they have to be saved (Luke 18:18,22), making them poor.  The kingdom will begin with Anti-christ’s death, just as the taste of the kingdom we’re seeing in early Acts here began with the death of Judas.

How’d Peter know to make following the Lord a prerequisite for replacing Judas (Acts 1:21-23)?  It’s because that’s why the Lord chose him and the other apostles (John 15:27).  The candidates were probably chosen from the 70 (Luke 10:1).

How’d they know they should pray before picking a helper?  I mean, Moses didn’t (Ex. 18:13-25)!  But the Lord prayed before picking the 12 (Lu. 6:12,13).  But did you notice Moses picked men to “judge” Israel?  Isaiah says in the kingdom, God will “restore” their judges “as at the first”—as in Moses’ day. Those judges will be the 12 apostles (Mt. 19:28).  That’s why they needed 12 apostles, to judge the 12 tribes!

When it says Judas died and went to “his own place,” that’s more proof he was a type of the Antichrist.  Doesn’t hell sound like a place that the beast would call his own?

People say that rolling dice was no way to pick an apostle (1:26), and that proves the 11 shouldn’t have been picking a replacement for Judas, they should have waited for the Lord to save Saul. But that was a legitimate way to determine God’s will then (Pr. 16:33), and Paul didn’t qualify as one of the 12.  He hadn’t followed the Lord till after His ascension.  He’ll be in heaven judging angels instead (I Cor. 6:3).

Video of this sermon is available on YouTube: The Election of An Apostle – Acts 1:15-26