1. When Queen Esther approached the king to save the Jewish nation, she didn't rely upon her physical beauty, his love for her or her position as queen. Instead she relied upon Almighty God and sought his favor and help through fasting (Esther 4:15,16).
2. The Lord Jesus spoke the following from the cross:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
We can pray to God for him to forgive people in our day who would reject the message of Scripture and try to oppose the work of God. If such people had their spiritual eyes open, they would never reject Jesus, our life and hope of glory, or oppose the work of God even in the slightest way. Remember, unsaved people know not what they are doing or they would be putting into practice the word of God.
3. A great sin that is not readily recognized as such is referred to in the following Scripture:
[The Jews] who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit (1 Thess. 2:15, 16).
Hindering soul winners from speaking to others so the hearer(s) may be saved is heaping up your sins to the limit. Notice also, the unsaved need to come in contact with the word of God before they can be saved. Spreading the gospel (the plan of salvation) was one of the chief goals and characteristics of the earliest Christians, as shown in the Bible, and has never changed. You too, if you are a real Christian, have been entrusted with the gospel. What are you doing about it?
4. Are the Jews God's chosen people today? Certainly, they were in times past before the new covenant:
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples (Deut. 7:6,7).
But now in New Testament days, God's chosen people are identified differently:
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col. 3:12).
Paul wrote that to Gentile Christians and prefaced that truth with this:
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all (Col. 3:11).
A person is either in God's family because he is doing the will of God with Jesus as the focus of his faith for salvation (Mt. 7:21; Lk. 8:21; 1 John 2:3,4; etc.) or he is a child of the devil on the road to hell. One's nationality has nothing to do with it. Peter similarly wrote the following about God's chosen people for our day:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Pet. 2:9).
That was written to all, regardless of nationality, who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus (1 Peter 1:18,19). Dear reader, if you are currently saved, you are part of God's chosen people.
5. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with burning sulfur because of their sexual immorality and perversion:
Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens (Gen. 19:24).
In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire (Jude 7).
God using burning sulfur on those wicked people is not unique for God's judgment on the wicked, especially in eternity future:
On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot. For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face (Psa. 11:6,7).
But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs on his behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur (Rev. 19:20).
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Rev. 20:10).
6. Rev. 20:10, which was just cited, is one of many verses that can be submitted to disprove the teaching of ultimate universal salvation for everyone. This is also important to know because many have and are currently deceived about the soundness of the “ante-Nicene fathers.” Some think their writings can be used as a type of New Testament commentary to learn exactly what the Bible says, but that is nothing more than serious error that could lead people into deadly false doctrine. Those so-called “fathers” sometimes contradicted themselves and Scripture. For example, Origen was an “ante-Nicene father,” but he also believed/taught ultimate, universal salvation for everyone, including the devil himself!
For the Catholic, who has been wrongly taught that Sacred Tradition is equal in authority to the Bible, this is also a mortal problem. Why? Because it destroys the truth that the Bible alone is final authority. The leaders in Catholicism have focused in upon certain points which certain people of the past have taught that can substantiate their doctrines, but avoid the non-Catholic doctrines as well as heretical doctrines, such as universal salvation even for the devil. There is no unanimous consent of the fathers.
7. There will be no pre-trib rapture. If we are the last generation we will face the antichrist. Before the antichrist gets thrown into the lake of burning sulfur (Rev. 19:20) he will cause great pain and suffering for the saints. Those are very important Bible truths to remember. One of the most stirring verses for that time is Rev. 13:7:
He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.
With today's technologies one can easily see how the chief global leader (such as the antichrist will be) can easily locate and overpower the saints who try to hide from him. The victory for the individual Christian is not in any physical power(s) but instead in the spiritual:
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death (Rev. 12:11).
To be an overcomer, the Christian must be willing to die physically to remain faithful to Jesus or else take the mark of the beast and be tormented with burning sulfur (Rev. 14:9-12).
I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God (1 Tim. 2:9,10).
Modest apparel, that is, clothing that is not revealing or form-fitting, is important so that others don't lust in their heart after your body and commit mental adultery (Mt. 5:28,29). Make sure you remember that as very important among these Bible truths. To thus stumble another into sin is very serious for that person sinning and the one being the cause. Both men and women must take this seriously for the sake of God's kingdom. In other words, no Christian should ever wear shorts or tight clothing. Such are not modest. This is true even in hot climates, where lusting goes on just as it does elsewhere.
1 Tim. 2:9,10 also refers to not wearing expensive clothes. Ponder this truth and how the prosperity teachers have glaringly missed that important detail, as well as others, about the Christian life.
Peter wrote this to wives:
Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands (1 Pet. 3:3-5).
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