Judges 8:4-28
Following the awesome victory that God gave into the hands of Gideon His servant – 135,000 Midianites lay dead. Not content with this victory over the host, Midian pursued the 15,000 that remained and slew them dead. The two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, were the last two enemies to be destroyed.
This sermon is a plea from God for the same zeal to be enacted on behalf of His people toward sin. We must deal thoroughly and decisively with sin in our lives until every last Midianite is slain. Let us heed the command of God and go up to the fight in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.
Part 11
If one has ever been greeted by a Jehovah’s Witness at the door, after the short and brief courtesies of “Hello, my name is… etc.”, the conversation will inevitably begin with a question like; “What do you think of all the wars in the world today?” or, “Do you think the world is a nice place to live in with all the evil that is in it?”. These questions are leading and are designed to provoke a response of sympathy from the hearer. From this point on, the Witness at the door will proceed to tell of a coming kingdom of peace on earth where wars will cease, and death will be no more. For Jehovah’s Witnesses, Paradise Earth is what the Millennial will be for Christians, except for a few major differences. Firstly, Paradise Earth in Watch Tower eschatology is not restricted to a thousand years but is forever! Secondly, and more importantly, Jesus will be nowhere present on Paradise Earth, He will be in heaven with Jehovah and the angels, governing over the affairs of the earth with the 144,000! I have a question for Jehovah’s Witness: "How can paradise be paradise without Jesus being there?”. Furthermore, what about the new heaven and the new earth which the Bible speaks of, along with the new Jerusalem wherein shall dwell the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb forever, and the Saints shall come in through the city gates? These things along with more shall be the focus of this eleventh teaching part as the beliefs of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society are compared with the Bible.
Download teaching notes (pdf)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/11_Paradise_Earth.pdf
Judges 7:24-25
The world has always been obsessed with outward boast and human glory. Sadly, much of the Western Church is on par with this thinking. If a man has charisma and can hold an audience captive with stories and personal anecdotes, we make him a minister! The pulpits up and down the length and breadth of this country are full of such men. They look more like action men than they do God’s men. It’s not what a man is on the pulpit that counts so much as what he is off it! Character my friends is where it’s at!
How a man conducts himself amid conflict says a lot about his character. Leaders are called to be peacemakers. Having beheld Gideon the man, in this sermon, we behold Gideon the peacemaker. Through one man’s leadership, a nation is spared from civil war. I pray the Lord ministers to your heart through Gideon’s example.
Part 10
Jehovah’s Witnesses have long been a cult that has aggressively opposed the doctrine of hell, as can be seen in their literature and publications. Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, was himself an ardent opponent of this doctrine, as has been every presiding president over Jehovah’s organisation since. Though beginning within the ranks of conservative orthodoxy, by the time Russell had outgrown his teens, he had left both Presbyterianism and Congregationalism because he could not reconcile the idea of a loving and merciful God sending billions to an eternal hell. To this day, after nearly a century and a half, Russell’s disciples continue to hold to his beliefs and teachings.
In this teaching, we examine the beliefs of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society as they relate to the doctrine of hell and contrast this with what the Bible teaches.
Download teaching notes (pdf)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/10_The_Doctrine_of_Hell.pdf
Judges 7:15-23
The Western Church in this hour wants method and process. If the Church down the road marches around the walls AND God gives them the victory, we write a book on it “How to take a city for God!” But in the valley on the borders of Moab, God had His people dig ditches!! In the wilderness of Tekoa, the people praised the Lord! At the Red Sea, He had them stand still! On the hilltop in Rephidim, Moses held up his hand to God! Friends, you can’t make a method out of this, our eyes must be towards the LORD!!!
Oh the that God might perform a work in this hour as He did in the days of Gideon. A work that our only boast may be in the Lord saying; by His right hand and by His holy arm has He gotten Himself the victory!
Part 9
When one begins collating the teachings of the Christian cults, it’s no coincidence that there are many shared common beliefs that the Church has long rejected as heretical. The doctrine in question in this ninth teaching part is no different. While it may not be on the same damnable par as the rejection of the Trinity, the deity of Jesus Christ or the personhood of the Holy Spirit; to deny the immortality of the soul is a false teaching and one that must be strongly repudiated. It should come as no surprise to learn that the Watch Tower along with its siblings – Seventh-day Adventists and Christadelphians, reject the belief in the immortality of the soul. What is surprising is that increasingly, Evangelicals are choosing to adopt the same position as the cults regarding this doctrine.
In this teaching, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is defined and the beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses are examined and refuted from the Word of God.
Download teaching notes (pdf)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/9_The_Immortality_of_the_Soul.pdf
Judges 7:9-15
If God is going to get the glory from your life, it is going to require that we trust Him!!! There’s no escaping this reality!! When the call of God comes to service, it never comes in a neatly packaged parcel with a cute sticky label on the front. We want all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed. We want it safe and predictable, secure and tested, but that’s not how it works. God called Gideon to a work above his natural ability and out of his human capabilities. At every single step along the way, he was a man pressed out of measure and therefore completely reliant upon God. In the two previous signs given to Gideon as a means of encouragement, they came about at the request of Gideon!! Gideon was the instigator! However, in the passage before us, without so much as a request on the part of Gideon, God takes the initiative to offer him a third sign as further proof on top of the further proof he had already given him — GIDEON, I’M WITH YOU FOR GOOD!!!
Part 8
So far, the studies in this series have largely focused on the person of Jesus Christ. Whilst Jehovah’s Witnesses are monotheistic in belief, they are aggressively antitrinitarian in expression. They, like us, believe in one eternal God. The point of divergence comes however when they maintain that the singular being of God is without a plurality of persons. The doctrine of the Trinity affirms that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society denies this truth and attacks this position throughout its written literature.
The purpose of this teaching is to address the heresy of the Watch Tower as it relates to the person of the Holy Spirit. Jehovah’s Witnesses deny the person of the Holy Spirit and instead teach that the Holy Spirit is God’s active force. Journey with us as we examine this heresy in light of Biblical truth.
Download teaching notes (pdf)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/8_The_Person_of_the_Holy_Sprit.pdf
Judges 7:1-8
If I were to ask why you so desire a move of God in this hour I wonder what you would say? When I speak of a move of God, I mean a heaven-sent revival that would turn the hearts of compromising lukewarm Christians back to God in fervent zeal and ardent love. I mean a heaven-sent revival that would awaken the sleeping dead and sweep whole multitudes of lost sinners from this town and beyond, into the Kingdom of God. The Pastor wants God to send revival so that His dwindling Church can be filled! The evangelist wants God to send revival so that he can tell of the great numbers that came to Christ under his ministry.
But you Pastor, I’m not a minister. I don’t care for those things just mentioned, I want God to send revival so that my backslidden husband can return to the Lord and my wayward son could get saved! Now granted, your motivation is radically different from the ego-maniac ministers just mentioned, but it still falls short of the only fitting answer to be given, as to why God should send revival. Why should God send a revival? FOR HIS GLORY!!!
Part 7
The long-anticipated event in the calendar of the Christian Church is not Christmas or Easter, but the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Paul writing to Titus, refers to this event as “…that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:13). Peter refers to this day as “…the day of the Lord” (2 Pet. 3:10), while Jesus calls it “…that day” (Mt. 24:36). Whatever name one wishes to call it by, the fact that Jesus is coming again is the clear testimony of Holy Scripture. What if a group started teaching that Jesus had already come but no one saw Him? Would you believe it? How could you refute such a claim from the Word of God?
Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus came spiritually in 1914. They claim it was an invisible coming despite Jesus stating that His coming would be in the clouds in great glory (Mt. 24:64). How does one get around such a clear statement as “ Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him” (Rev. 1:7)? We shall consider these questions along with others in this seventh teaching part.
Download teaching notes (pdf)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bethesdashalom/7_Did_Jesus_Return_in_1914.pdf