Acts 12:1-17
There are seasons in life’s journey where the calamities of this world come to visit the door of the righteous and the unrighteous alike. Sorrow and sickness, death and disease, trials and tribulations, all come at their appointed times and there seems to be no discrimination as to where they fall and come to rest. How does one explain the ‘why’s’ of how some of God’s godly Saints are taken home in the prime of their life and service; why some are left in sickness and are not healed? Is there injustice with God? Can we charge God with evil?
The truth of the matter is that we see only through a glass dimly, the reflection is poor and sketchy. Limited to our own fixed time and space dimension, we tend to view things with tunnel vision only ever having in focus our immediate need at a particular moment. Yet, has it ever occurred to you that God is aiming at the bigger picture, that may well not involve your deliverance in this present world for reasons known only to the Almighty “...who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (Eph. 1:11)? There are some answers that perhaps we will never know this side of eternity and yet still we’re called to trust in the ever living God who never changes and who works all things for the good of His Saints.
Numbers 22
Many Christians can make a mental recitation of their standing with God. They can shout and sing of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, His atonement and their adoption as sons and daughters. Yet, for some, this is nothing more than a mental assent to facts that have yet to be fully realised in their Christian experience. Faith is the means and the only means by which the great truths of God are appropriated to our lives so as to become living realities in our experience.
There are many Christians who though they name the name of Jesus Christ are still bound by the lies of Satan which would convince them that he still has power and authority over their lives. So we’re told; if your father was a Freemason, then as a Christian you need to be delivered from the curse of Freemasonry; if you unsaved mother is a witch, then you need to be delivered from the curse of witchcraft! David shows from the Word of God that this is not Scriptural and that if we are in Christ then we have been delivered from the power of Satan and have been conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Col. 1:13) and that there is no sorcery against the child of God!!
Part 6 - The Doctrine of Man
Opinions abound today as to the purpose of man’s existence. Through evolutionary thought, man has been reduced to nothing more than a process of random mutations over millions of years. For some, man has no purpose except for the furtherance of future progeny; while for others man is making great leaps and bounds in his upward progression toward godhood! In a world where suggested theories as to the purpose and meaning of life abound, what sense if any are we to make of them all? Man finds himself, perhaps like never before, having to wrestle with the many competing voices and the Christian cannot take himself out of this struggle. However, where natural man is left to his own thoughts and devices, the Christian turns to the Word of God to find answers to the great questions of life.
We shall in this sixth teaching part seek to address the question of where we came from and who we are and shall conclude by answering the big question; what went wrong! When one looks at the world today, one is confronted with death, disease, suffering and evil. Is this how God created the earth? Is this how He intended everything to be? The answer to these questions is no side issue but is fundamental in laying the foundation upon which the gospel stands.
Download teaching notes (pdf)
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