Way of the Master FAQ's

1.) I have just read The Way of the Master -- and I am scared that I'm not saved.

It is healthy to examine yourself and see if you are in the faith. Once you have repented of all sin (see Psalm 51, 1John 1:9), don't doubt God's promises. Doubt produces fear. It is also a great insult to God--if I don't trust you, it means I think you are a liar.Here's a recipe for success:
Read your Bible every day . . . without fail. Every day.

Value the Word more important than your food (see Psalm One).
Obey what you read.
Develop a tender conscience.
Never doubt any of God's promises.
Obey the Great Commission by sharing your faith (see John 14:21).

2.) Why not tell a sinner of God's love rather than of His Judgment?

Here's a question: How do we know of God's love for the sinner? Only through the Cross. If you study the NT you will see that God's love is almost always in direct connection to the Cross. Herein is love, For God so loved, God commended His love, etc. Prosperity, blessings, etc., are not a sign of His love. If that is so, He loves the rich far more than He loves the poor. So, the Cross is what we should point to to express God's love to a sinner. How can we point to the Cross without making reference to sin? How can we refer to sin, without the Law?

The correct/biblical way to express God's love to a sinner, is to show him how much he has sinned, how wretched he is (to see himself in truth so he or she understands their desperate need of God’s forgiveness) . . . (the Law/God’s wrath/God’s judgment) . . . then give the grace of God. That will reveal the depth of God’s love for the sinner.

Second. When a criminal stands guilty--on trial--it would be a mistake to speak to him of how the judge loves him and how compassionate the judge is. Better for a criminal to see the frown of the judge, so that he will see the seriousness of his crime, and find a place of true sorrow and grief for what he has done. It is then that the mercy of the judge should be revealed, no sooner. This is very important/biblical and we hope this makes sense.

3.) I am struggling with feelings of being unsaved.

There is a wonderful little verse in First John. It says "Hereby we know that we know Him . . . if we keep His commandments." I don't "feel" God's presence. If I lived by feelings, I would conclude that God wasn't with me. This, then is how I know that I know Him--because there is something in me that wants to keep His Commandments. I have a new heart with new desires. Before I was saved, I couldn't care less about loving and obeying God.Do you believe that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved? Do you believe that if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from ALL unrighteousness? Do you believe that you are a saint (by the grace of God)?

If you don't believe His promises, then you are calling God a liar . . . and there is no greater insult to God than not to believe His promises. See First John.

4.) I have a lust problem.

The Bible says to "guard your heart with all diligence . . . " That means the area of your thought life. If we have a problem with lust, we should be quick to remember that we share that thought with God. That's scary. He is perfect, pure, holy . . . and just. If He considers lust to be adultery of the heart, we are in BIG trouble. That knowledge should send us back to the Cross, where we should confess and forsake our sins.We all have similar battles with unclean thoughts. Be careful what you look at, and what you think about. If you begin to lose the battle in your mind, go somewhere and pray. Confess your sins the moment you become aware of them, and don't let the enemy get a double victory by not sharing your faith or by allowing sin to keep you out of fellowship. Make sure you read the Word every day without fail. That old saying is true: "This Book will keep me from sin (and Hell), and sin will keep me from this Book." Also, be very careful of idolatry. It is easy to change our concept of God so that He conforms to our sins (a god who doesn't mind lust).

5.) What is the place of good works?

Remember that Jesus said that there was no one born of women greater than John the Baptist . . . "But he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." In Christ, your works are pleasing to God. They can't and don't justify you, but you can now make God smile when you do good works, evangelize, love your husband/wife, etc . . . because you are in Christ. The motive for what you do as a Christian isn't tainted by guilt. Love and gratitude motivate your life of godliness. It's like a criminal trying to do something good for the judge before sentence is given. That's an attempt to bribe the judge and pervert justice. But if the judge pays the criminal's fine himself out of his own hard-earned money and the criminal is released on the basis of his fine being paid, he is free to show the judge how much he appreciates kindness. One is an attempt to pervert justice, the other is gratitude in action. One makes the judge frown with displeasure, the other makes him smile.

6.) I love your teaching about sin and repentance, but doesn’t this fail to exalt the cross?

A man committed what he believed was a petty crime. He didn’t have any money to pay his fine, so the judge kindly paid it for him. Another man committed what he understood to be a very serious crime and didn’t have any money to pay his fine, so the judge kindly paid it for him. Which criminal do you suppose was more grateful to the judge--the one who thought that his crime was no big deal, or the one that saw how serious his crime was? It was more than likely the latter. So it is that those who think lightly of sin, think lightly of the Savior. That’s why it is most important to show sin in its true light—that it is “exceedingly sinful.” When a sinner understands that his sin is a very serious crime against God, His mercy in Christ is seen as an unspeakable act of kindness. The more he understands his sin, the more he appreciates the cross, and the way to make a sinner understand how sinful sin is, is to take him through the Moral Law (the Ten Commandments) because it’s the Law that makes the offence abound. That’s the meaning of Romans 5:10:20: “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound . . . ”Every preacher should have one resolute eye on Calvary as he speaks of the serious nature of sin. He is the kindly doctor, talking with the patient about the seriousness of his disease. He must convince him of the terminal nature of the disease, so that he will appreciate and appropriate the cure. So he thoroughly speaks of the disease, with one eye on the cure he is about to reveal. The cure of the cross is the centrality of the preacher's message. He must exalt the love of God in Christ, and the way to do that is to do what Jesus did, to do what Paul did, what Spurgeon, Wesley and Whitefield did. He must thoroughly expose the blackness of sin so that the light of the glorious Gospel will shine in all its splendor. To fail to speak about sin in depth, is to demean the grace of God in Christ. It is to fail to exalt the cross.

7.) How can I witness to the unsaved when I am depressed?

I would witness anyway. Think of it this way. I have a cure to cancer. How can I give the cure to dying people, when I am feeling down myself? The answer is -- my feelings are secondary. If you have that attitude, I am sure your joy (the "joy of the Lord") will flood back. That joy will then be your strength and sustain you in your trials.

8.) Do you sin as a Christian?

I have sinned since I became a Christian -- but it is against my will. I may take the largest piece of chocolate cake, or let a impure thought enter my mind, but I hate it. However, if I sin willfully, then I am a hypocrite and not a Christian at all. The first Epistle of John makes that very clear. When I am aware that I have done something wrong, I ask for God's forgiveness, and immediately turn from that behavior.

9.) What about those who haven't heard the gospel?

Those who have never heard the gospel will be given justice. People don't go to hell primarily "because they don't believe in Jesus" but rather because they have sinned against God. If they have lied, stolen, murdered, committed adultery, etc., God will punish them -- not because of their ignorance, but because they have sinned despite the light God gave them via their conscience. If you really care about those who haven’t heard about Jesus, take the Gospel to them and tell them how they may be forgiven and be saved from Hell.

10) I have my own thoughts on what god is like.

This is transgression of the First and Second of the Ten Commandments: "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before Me . . . You shall not make to yourself a graven image of any likeness." You are creating a god in your mind that you are more comfortable with—a god to suit your sins. Man has always made gods to suit himself. My opinion doesn't matter when it comes to God's character. What matters is the truth--and He has revealed what He is like through the Bible.

11) I am afraid of witnessing because I have a fear of not being able to answer questions.

If you learn to use the Moral Law (Ten Commandments) in evangelism, you will find that there won't be too many questions because you will be dealing with the conscience, rather than the intellect. By that I mean, if you get a man to admit that he is a liar, a thief, a blasphemer and an adulterer at heart, "hypocrites in the church," Darwin's theory-tale, etc., become non-issues. Study how Jesus dealt with questions in Luke 13. He didn't spend much time at all on them, but took the sinner back to the fact that he has to face God on Judgment Day. To learn how to use the Law in Evangelism, go to our free audio lessons page, where you can listen online to several of the messages out of the 16 message audio set (available on CDs). We have created The Evidence Bible specifically to answer this fear. The Evidence Bible has answers to over 100 of the most common questions and objections about Christianity. You can see these answers in our free online resource called "Answers to 100 Questions from the Evidence Bible” To build up your courage, you may also want to consider reading God Doesn't Believe in Atheists.

12) Do you believe in "Once saved always saved?

"Unfortuantely, when commenting on the subject of eternal security, many books and sermons from respectable men and women of God, seem to be evidently silent on the subject of true and false conversion. This is in spite the fact that it is incredibly relevant to the topic of eternal security. The New Testament deals with this in great depth. It tells of Judas' profession of faith (he was in truth a thief, and was referred to by Jesus as a "devil"), and relates the parables of Jesus about the true and false "believers" sitting alongside one another. It speaks of Demas, who forsook Paul because he "loved this present world." As such, he revealed himself to be an enemy of God--"Whoever is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.”In one book, the author referred to a pastor/friend who was found to be "romantically" involved with another woman. The pastor had made his mind up to divorce his wife and marry the woman. I presume he means that he had been committing adultery. Instead of challenging the man as to the validity of his faith, and therefore warning him that "adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God," he spoke of the man's "loss of rewards." We do believe in eternal security for a true convert. He puts his hand to the plow and doesn't look back, because he is "fit" for the kingdom (Luke 9:62).Those who are fit for the Kingdom are not hypocrites as was Judas. The true convert is eternally secure in his faith, because his faith in Jesus is genuine rather than false.However, if a man steals, lies, kills, rapes, hates, lusts, covets, commits adultery, etc., and calls himself a Christian, he would be very wise to examine himself and see if he is "in the faith." The Bible makes it very clear that hypocrites will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. If a man has no understanding of true and false conversion (in his ignorance), he may make a calculated decision to forsake a few future eternal rewards and trade them for the immediate and temporary pleasures of sin. His confidence is in an interpretation of scripture that may have eternally tragic repercussions. We think that teaching on true and false conversion would clear the air when it comes to the contentions between two opinions that so often divide the Church. It would bring closer together those who say you can lose your salvation at the drop of a sinful hat, and others who think that Christians can get away with murder and still be assured that they are saved, because they once professed faith in the Savior. For more information, freely listen online to "True and False Conversion" from the 16 message audio set (available on CDs).

13) I was just wondering what the best way to witness to someone is who doesn't believe that the Bible is the Word of God.

It really doesn't matter if someone says that he doesn't believe that the Bible is the Word of God (or that they don't believe in Hell or Judgment Day). If we have rightly used the Law (the Ten Commandments -- to bring "the knowledge of sin"), we merely say, "It doesn't matter that you don't believe the Bible. You still have to face God on Judgment Day, and you've admitted that you are a liar, a thief and that you have committed adultery in your heart." His conscience will afirm the truth of the Commandments, and the Word of God (regardless of his or her lack of belief in it) is faithful to bring conviction throught the power of the Holy Spirit.We then, gently (in love), explain to him that if he walked on a freeway, saying that he didn't believe in trucks, his unbelief wouldn't change reality.
© 2006 The Way of the Master. A Ministry of Living Waters Publications
Design by Snow Media Inc.

Church Members (Christians?)

LOCKED DOORS
OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH
Church Members
Chapter 17

Most every church member has heard the Ten Commandments at one time or another. But when was the last time you actually heard them preached in your church service? Has it been a few months? Today, it seems that pastors are more involved in preaching a “series” than preaching God’s Word on a weekly basis. Does this sound familiar? They might say, “today we are preaching the first of a three week series on stewardship” or “this is our final message of week seven of our core values at our church.” Theoretically it is possible that if a church has five core values that they could stretch that out to cover anywhere from five to eight months. A nonbeliever could walk into church for three weeks and hear nothing but messages on missions or stewardship. Don’t get me wrong, those are important messages but they would be better served in a Bible study or Sunday school class setting. For the church that has a lost soul in their midst it is extremely important that they hear the Word of God and His Commandments. Unless he understands why he needs a Savior, he will leave church more confused about why people go to church in the first place.
Now, seriously think about your church. There are people sitting in there who are not saved. They profess Jesus but they have no idea they need to repent of their sins. It is quite possible they do not even know what sin is. So what about your church? Do you go there because they preach the Word of God, not just Scriptural but preach judgment, repentance and God’s grace? If all you hear is grace filled sermons with no mention of Hell or repentance then go find a church that will help you to truly be a disciple of Christ. Sure they might offer a Disciple class 101, but unless you see them actually getting out in the real world reaching the lost then challenge them on it. Find out why they do not do what they preach. God hates hypocrites. Churches are full of them.

You shall have no other God’s before me.
You shall not make yourself any graven image.
You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.
You shall remember to keep the Sabbath Day Holy.
You shall honor your father and your mother.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not lie.
You shall not covet.

There you have it, the Ten Commandments. Do you have them memorized yet? At the end of this book I will show you a great way to learn and memorize the Commandments.
It might or might not surprise you but some of the best churches in America are not the mega-churches. They are the churches way out in the middle of farmland. They are the old country churches where the pastor still preaches against sin. He preaches the Ten Commandments and then offers God’s grace to the fallen, repentant sinner. They are the pastors who have stayed true to God’s Word. No bells, no whistles, no drama presentations, no foot stomping bands blasting through high-tech stereo systems. They have no fear in preaching against sin. Does your church offer every possible kind of support group but does not preach against sin? Does your church cater to special interest groups in order to grow the membership rolls? If so, you have a couple of options. Demand that your pastor start preaching the Ten Commandments in church, or leave. If you are a true believer, you know that church is a time of worship. Not an hour of entertainment filled with popcorn!
As a church-going Christian what does it mean to be a follower of Christ? Do your neighbors know you are a Christian? Do you possess these qualities?

Compassionate
Loving
Forgiving
Servant
Patient
Kind
Sincere
Peaceful

If you truly love God, you will love your neighbors as yourself. You have already seen how you are a sinner and how you need a Savior. Have you shared that same information with your neighbor? If you truly love them you will not want them to perish. Talk to them. Share the Ten Commandments with them then share the grace of God.
What does being a Christian mean to you? Go to church on Sundays, read your Bible, be a good person? What do your weekdays look like? Do you follow Christ on Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? Do you take Him with you throughout the rest of the week? Have you talked to anyone about Christ? Have you presented God’s Law and grace to an unbeliever this past week? It is not just the pastor who is called to reach the lost and make disciples for Christ. We are all called to go!

The above was taken from my book, Locked Doors of the American Church. tomorrow the topic will discuss Christians who do not go to church.

Elders and Board Members!

LOCKED DOORS
OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH
Elders and Board Members
Chapter 16

To the Elders and board members of the church, please read the following chapter with a prayerful heart and see if your church has strayed from being a Biblical church.
Before getting into the preaching taking place in your church; I want to focus on your requirements for your pastor search team. What exactly do you look for in a pastor? After looking at this list would Moses be able to preach for you if all you had to look at was his resume? How about John, Peter, Timothy, Barnabas? How about Paul? I have gone to many websites with listings of open pastor positions. Up front, I will tell you that I am a single man (just like the Apostle Paul); I have a son (adopted and no longer school aged). As a pastor I have to ignore listings because of certain requirements set forth by search committees.
Here is a sample listing – is your church similar to this sample listing?

Church seeking Full-time pastor/preacher/minister/evangelist.
We are a loving congregation that is lucky to have a great youth group.

The pastor we desire must…
Be between the ages of 30-55 (Biblical?)
Be a talented speaker (like Moses?)
Be a leader who can help the church grow to its fullest potential (membership numbers or spiritual growth?)
Be married with a wife and children that are school aged (too bad for Paul! Too bad for guys with toddlers)
Have between 5-10 years experience (the early church grew from the message more than from the actual person)
Be able to sing or play a musical instrument (are you kidding? I am still looking in the Bible for this one!)
Have an Mdiv degree (already shown that a Seminary degree is not a true measure of a successful preacher)
Be able to get along well with people (nice, probably couldn’t think of anything else to say, huh?)
Be experienced with computer technology (again, it is God’s message that transforms lives)
Follow the leadership of the Elders (a pastor is “called” into his position by God. An Elder is someone who aspires to the position. Let the pastor follow the leadership of God. Work along side your pastor. Remember, Paul wrote letters to the churches encouraging them and admonishing them when they had fallen from their first love.)
Be willing to follow the leadership and work with the former gospel preacher (great, if he was truly a man of God who preached the Bible and preached against sin by using the Ten Commandments. But if the church members did not actually get out of the church to reach the lost, why follow him. Why not allow someone who is following God’s lead by making disciples for Christ? Sure he was probably a nice man but listen to God leading the way)

Do a Google search on pastor jobs and you will see that these requirements (or a variation of them) are expected by a very high percentage of churches.

Please understand that I have a lot of respect for Elders and for the Board members. It is their love for the church that they desire only the best for it. Unfortunately, many blindly do more harm than good for their churches.
Instead of allowing God to send the perfect man to your church, a man able to motivate and encourage and get people out of the pews into the streets doing real ministry for God, you have locked out potential leaders because of your unbiblical requirements.
A pastor does not have to be married. If he is married, he must be married to only one woman and not have been divorced. While I am at it, a marriage is between a man and a woman the way God created it to be. The Bible never ever says that it is a union between a man and a man or a woman and another woman. If a man is not married, just understand that the single man is able to devote his time wholly to the church (look at Paul). Maybe you worry that a single man is not able to minister to the married couples in the church. A single man that knows God and His Word can minister to any person regardless of the situation.
Too many churches are looking for the polished performance led pastor. He must be entertaining with a good sense of humor and able to relate the Bible to today’s society in a way we can understand.
Have you noticed though, that all of the pastors who relate story after story that the Bible is relevant for today, they fail in the one aspect that can bring about true change. They do not look you in the eye and tell you that adultery is a sin. They do not look you in the eye and tell you that looking at a member of the opposite sex with lust in your heart is a sin. They do not preach about Hell. More than entertainment, what this country needs most is a pastor who will speak for God. SIN IS SIN! Stop and repent now, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We need a man of integrity in the pulpit.

(UPDATE) This post was taken out of my book, Locked Doors of the American Church. On Friday, Nov 30, I will post a message geared towards the church-going Christian. On Saturday, Dec 1, it will be a message for the non-church attending Christian and on Sunday, Dec 2, I will be talking about the non-Christian. Be sure to look for each article as I am sure you know someone is each category (including the previous post on Seminaries, Bishops and Pastors)

The Ten Suggestions...

The words -- Ten Commandments, sounds like such harsh words, so judgmental! Maybe we need to soften it a little bit by calling it the Ten Suggestions. And while we are at it, lets rephrase some of the "suggestions."

1. God loves you, so why won't you take some time to love Him back?

2. God will help you "prosper" so go to church and "make some money!" but don't bow down to any wooden idols, okay? but if you want to be a god, you can!! (just ask Tom Cruise or any other scientologist or Mormon)

3. God loves you, won't you please stop using His name as a cuss word? Please????

4. God created the world in six days! Isn't that awesome? You need to work six days too, okay?

5. God loves you and if your parents are two homosexuals or two lesbians, that's okay, because all that matters is that they love you like God loves you and you need to love them too.

6. Now put that gun down. we don't want to kill anyone. If you hate someone, just try to put yourself in their shoes for a second. Good boy!!

7. Just because you see people having sex on TV is no reason for you to do it. If you see people making a million dollars selling ice cream, would you do it too?

8. If someone takes something that is yours, just do an OJ and go get it back! But do it lovingly!

9. We aren't supposed to tell lies, okay?

10. If you want what your neighbor has, all you have to do is pray about it and God will give it to you!

UUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

It makes me sick to hear the way today's contemporary church has fallen apart! We don't want people to feel offended so we sugar-coat God's Word. We are not doing anyone a favor by doing that. I love some of my Mormon friends. It kills me to think that they are headed to hell because they are following a Jesus that is not the Jesus of the Bible. They are being led astray by false teaching and they are blinded by the truth. Please, please, please -- Chris B, Kim, Cole, and Josh and Van, I pray that your eyes be opened to what Scripture says. Please read my blogs on Mormonism and do not let your lifetime in the LDS Church cloud your judgment. I love you all so much and I do not want to see you head to hell. Please also, do not look at today's contemporary church and feel that is an example of what Joseph Smith said when he said "all" churches were apostate. God's Word tells us that His Word will live on forever and will NEVER fail. There are many good churches and many good Godly preachers (such as John MacArthur), but unfortunately, Satan has infiltrated the contemporary church with his lies (much the same way he has been involved in Mormonism). You want the truth? Look below...

The Ten Commandments

1. You shall have no other god's before me (this does not say that there actually are "other god's" it just means don't have something that takes His place)

2. You shall not make for yourself any graven image (you show not bow down to false idols - much the way Catholics worship Mary and the Pope. Much the way Mormons worship Joseph Smith)

3. You shall not take the Lord's Name in vain (you shall not blaspheme the name of God. You shall not, in God's Name, proclaim another gospel and call it Christianity!)

4. You shall remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy (I know how LDS people keep Sundays holy, but if you are worshiping a god that is not of the Bible, you are wasting your time on who you give worship too)

5. You shall honor your father and your mother (only to the point that it does not contradict the Bible. Jesus said that if you are not willing to leave your father and your mother for His sake, then you are not worthy to enter heaven!)

6. You shall not kill (Jesus said that to hate is as bad as murder. There are Christians and Mormons both who are guilty of this one. They hate the other group.)

7. You shall not commit adultery (Jesus said that anyone who looks with lust is guilty of adultery in their heart. With the pressure of women to make it to heaven as eternally pregnant women, they have to rely on a temple worthy man to get them to heaven. Guys are looking to women because it is important for them to sire as many children as possible to be pleasing to God)

8. You shall not steal (don't take that which is not yours)

9. You shall not lie (or bear false testimony)

10. You shall not covet (or desire what your neighbor has)

The Bible tells us that no one has kept the first of the Ten Commandments and that we are guilty of breaking all of the commandments if we break just one of them. You are headed for hell by breaking His Commandments. What do you need to do to go to heaven? It is not have several babies (that is "works" based! salvation is a free gift), it is not do temple work (that is also "works" based!), it is not tithing (again, "works" based), it is not going to church ("works" based), it is not abstaining from certain foods ("works"). It is solely putting your trust and faith in Jesus Christ to save you. Repent and be obedient to His Word as you have been saved by grace and not of works. You might say that to repent is to do "works." No, when you are saved, you are given the "fruit of repentance." Again, I ask that you read the part of Mormo and the Mormons and also the 33 things mormons won't tell you. If you want me to provide you with documentation on what I am saying, I will. It will come straight from the Doctrine and Covenants (not taken out of context but shown in its entirety) as well as out of The Ensign, the Book of Mormon and most importantly THE HOLY BIBLE. The Bible is correct and is translated correctly as being God's Word. When you only look at one line of Scripture and try to make it mean something that it doesn't, you are defiling the Word of God. You are creating a God to suite your needs (which is breaking the 2nd of the Ten Commandments). I have had someone tell me that the 33 things were all lies and that I was a liar. You know me well enough to know that what I am saying is true. For all of the people around the world who are reading this...

Please keep our Mormon friends in your prayers. Please keep our churches in your prayers as too many of them have fallen away from biblical preaching. And please, get out of your house today and go and reach the lost the way Jesus did -- PROCLAIM THE TRUE GOSPEL!!

There is only ONE WAY to heaven and that is through the shed blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Sorry, Oprah, you are headed to hell if you don't acknowledge your sins to God and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Sorry, Tom, you are headed to hell if you don't put aside your own theology and realize that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh.