Category: Penny Pulpit

Msg#1611 The Bible Brings the Day Star

Msg#1611 The Bible Brings the Day Star

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

Peter the fisherman was seasoned by the Christ to where his last words have an everlasting impact on the eternal Word of God. In the apostles dying breath he asserts, “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty… and (we now) have a more sure word of prophecy… knowing this… (that) holy men of God spake (the Holy Scriptures) as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2Peter 1:16-21). This powerful assertion for the verbal plenary inspiration of the Word of God, the Holy Bible, is the crescendo of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. It needs no Roman Catholic Synods or endorsement of “Church Fathers.” The apostles themselves and the apostles alone sanctify every inerrant, infallible word; Praise His Holy Name. Of the Holy Bible Peter says, “Ye do well that ye take heed:” it is a light shining in a dark place, as a day dawning and the day star rising in hearts (1:19). It is curious that this alludes to both Christ's coming into the world, and his coming into hearts. He is, of course, “the light of the world” (John 8:12, 9:5), and he is the “day star.” Astronomy buffs know that Venus, the second planet from the sun, often appears just before sunrise, earning it the name “morning star” (cf. Rev 2:28, 22:16). It is also often the first star you see at night. The sun itself is the “day star” referenced in 2Peter 1:19. Be careful here, the Mason's Eastern Star and the “son of the morning” called “Lucifer” (Isaiah 14:12) is a different critter altogether. Peter says it is God's Word that causes the day star to arise in a heart. Awesome.

 

An Essay for week #11 Mar 13, 16

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Msg#1610 Be A Well Studied Soldier

Msg#1610 Be A Well Studied Soldier

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

These essays flow out of what I preach on Sundays; this week my favorite Missionary preached and then his son preached in our pm service. Therein my grandson preached our need to study, sacrifice, serve and soldier. As a school teacher I loved the Apostle Paul's demeanor when he said, “Study to be quiet and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands” (1Thes 4:11). The classroom aside, Paul calls our business the commandments, our walk, and our “lack of nothing” (vr.12). Studying to be quiet and to do our own business implies a diligence in keeping the main thing the main thing. If ever that was important it is in this ugly election year. God trumps politics, people need the Lord. Paul describes our sacrifice as only a reasonable service (Rom 12:1-2). Keeping it so ensures one “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” (vr. 3). Writing to the churches of Galatia Paul asserts, “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Gal 1:10). There is little uglier than fighting and gloating in the servant's quarters; yet Christians do it. Even the disciples fought about who would be greatest. Selflessness, not greatness, is to be a servants aspiration. Study, sacrifice, and servant-hood, culminate in the character of a soldier. “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” (2Tim 2:3-4). Not every fifteen year old can ascribe this outline, but every Christian is to ascribe to it as a way of life.

 

An Essay for week #10 Mar 6, 16

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Msg#1609 The World is Judged

Msg#1609 The World is Judged

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

Israel, the man was redeemed from all evil (Gen 48:16); Israel, the nation was redeemed out of Egypt (Exod 6:6, 15:13); born-again-saved believers are redeemed out of the world (Rev 5:9); Egypt, in Scripture, is representative of the world and all of its evil. In their youth some of Israel, the nation wanted to go back into Egypt for “the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick” (Num 11:5). Sometimes young believers want to go back into the world. The picture of Egypt representing the world is certain. God sent his only begotten Son into this world, but called him out of this world. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1). God fled Joseph and Mary into Egypt just so he could reinforce this symbolism and say, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matt 2:15). In Ezekiel chapter thirty, thirty-one and thirty-two God gives a very clear judgment against Egypt, a condemnation of Pharaoh, and a lamentation for the king of Egypt. “Even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day, it shall be the time of the heathen” (Ezek30:3). In verse five all the bordering nations, ideas and attitudes of Egypt are included in this end time judgment. What is a believer to do in these last days? “Son of man, prophecy and say, thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!” (Ezek30:2). And be a watchman. “When I bring the sword upon a land,… take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman” (Ezek33:2). And always side with Israel (1King 8:16). God will when America won't.

 

An Essay for week #9 Feb 28, 16

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Msg#1608 Not to Faint

Msg#1608 Not to Faint

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

A soldier standing at attention in parade must flex his knees and toes to keep blood circulating else he faint. When blood gets occupied elsewhere and does not keep the brain supplied one faints. Women are constructed for child bearing and may faint from shock or sudden stress because their blood circulation is purposely occupied elsewhere. When the brain does not get adequate blood, lowering it below the heart can relieve the ailment. Fainting gets the head down in a hurry, but not really safely. A poor heart, poor lungs, or being anemic will also cause fainting, as will clogged arteries. When a person faints they do not function, they injure themselves in the fall, and they incapacitate the people who are caring for them. Fainting is contagious; on parade once that first soldier faints they start keeling over left and right. Jesus taught us that men ought always to pray and not to faint (Luke 18:1). On a spiritual plane prayer keeps our circulation good and circumvents the causes of fainting. Prayer then prevents all these disabling results of fainting. It cures spiritual anemia, resolves breathing ailments, and heals heart problems. Pray that you don't faint, but also know that praying prevents fainting just like exercise and flexing the muscles prevents fainting. We can get so busy doing other things, even good things, that like the soldier on parade, focused on other tasks, we keel over, we injure ourselves, we occupy others and we induce others to fall. Flex your knees. How long does it take for you to have a “Sweet Hour of Prayer?” Some take twenty days at three minutes per day. Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.

An Essay for week #8 Feb 21, 16

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Msg#1607 Valentines Day At Last

Msg#1607 Valentines Day At Last

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

God intended that love and marriage be a taste of paradise here on earth. There is no more intimate relationship than marriage. It is holy because it portrays the intimacy that God wants with us, but if a marriage does not follow God's blueprint it will taste like something, alright, but it won't be paradise. The roles of the husband and wife in marriage are clearly outlined in God's Word. They are overtly contradicted in today's Godless society. For wives God uses words like submit, chaste, and keepers at home, for husbands, love, sanctify and leadership. It takes more than a King James Bible and a good dictionary (or Lexicon) to find these words in one's marriage; it takes the Lord Jesus Christ living in the redeemed soul of each participant. We marry to fulfill love, significance, and security in our lives. Humans made in the image of God are designed to love, and to be loved. Imagine the life of one who is significant to no one, and considers none significant. Imagine the life of one who has no security in a significant loved one: unsure if they will even care about or be cared about tomorrow. Each of these essential needs has three dimensions, with physical, emotional, and spiritual sides. Although these 3D needs overlap they are the essential needs that can find complete fulfillment in only two places in this world: they can be fulfilled in marriage, and they can be fulfilled in Christ. When you are properly in BOTH of these relationships you can have that taste of paradise. Valentines Day is strategically placed just before the raging hormones of spring arrive, just so one will pause, and take stock in their love, their significance, and their security. Happy Valentines Day; take inventory of your stocks.

An Essay for week #7 Feb 14, 16

 

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Msg#1606 Friday Day Six

Msg#1606 Friday Day Six

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

It was Friday, the sixth day of the first week when God formed the crowning achievement of all his creation. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion… over all the earth”(Gen 1:26a). It is ennobling to consider that God created every molecule, every creature, every planet and every star as an enhanced environment for this crowning achievement. Any Bible student quickly understands that such ennobling is not vanity. God's overwhelming purpose from Genesis to maps is this, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Rev 21:3). It is true that most of mankind still rebels against God's desire; and would sooner believe that they evolved here. A majority think it okay to kill an unborn child made in God's image and that vile affections, “men with men working that which is unseemly”(Rom1:27), is just an alternate lifestyle. Do not let the depravity of man dishearten you, “the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Exod33:11), and that is why he created you. “The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him… saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev 4:11). For the blood-bought, born-again, it is ennobling to know we are made in his image, he tabernacles in our soul, and speaks to us as a friend. In a ministry of reconciliation our neighbor can have the same friendship. Be ennobled, tell your neighbor about our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

An Essay for week #6 Feb 7, 16

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Msg#1629 Don't Even Ask

Msg#1629 Don't Even Ask

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

Job and his three friends spend thirty chapters debating why Job's calamity came upon him. What Job said was right, upright, and justified; what his three friends said was wrong (42:7); but what God said to Job is sobering: “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding” (38:2-4). After rehearsing what he did in six days of creation, God expounds a list of no less than twenty things that confound the small minds of men. The creation account is stupendous; the twenty wonders, overwhelming. God's answer to the query, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” is this, “How dare you even ask!” “Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold I am vile; What shall I answer thee?” (40:3-4). God says to Job, but wait, there's more. God then shows himself infatuated with dinosaurs. He describes “behemoth,” which we call a brontosaurus, and then “leviathan” which we call… well, God gives such an epic description of this sea-creature that man has never found the like. God says, “Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride” (41:33-34). Behmoth was the chief of the ways of God (40:19), and leviathan was king over all the children of pride (41:34), and God spends two chapters rubbing them in Job's face because Job dared to ask, “Why do these things happen to me?” Learn two things from Job: don't ask that question, and your Father is way bigger than has come to your mind when you do.

 

An Essay for week #29 Jul 17, 16

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Msg#1615 Don't Attack Jeroboam

Msg#1615 Don't Attack Jeroboam

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

Almost five hundred years after Gideons outnumbered three-hundred won a great victory over the Midianites, Abijah was outnumbered two-to-one against his own brethren. Curious. After Gideon there were seven more judges, Samuel, Saul and King David. Solomon built the Temple of God on the rock at Ornan's old threshingfloor, and his son, Rehoboam acted foolishly to divide the Hebrews into two kingdoms. Now Rehoboam's son, Abijah, king of Judah, was about to be whooped in battle against Jeroboam king of Israel. “And Abijsh stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which is in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me thou Jeroboam and all Israel” (2Chron 13:4). For the next seven verses Abijah expounds all the Bible errors and worship errors that were initiated by Jeroboam and followed by Israel. It is eloquent, accurate, and succinct, but seems perfectly feckless. While Abijah reasons with them Jeroboam out flanks and surrounds them. The apostate church is repleat with Bible errors and worship errors. They lead untold millions into a Christless eternity. They will out number us, out flank us, surround us and attack us. Victory over the apostate church is certain, but to be accomplished without our attack. “Then the men of Judah gave a shout, and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah … and the children of Judah prevailed because they relied upon the LORD God of their fathers” (2Chron 13:15, 18b). Every denomination stands in brazen error, denying the pre millennial return of Christ and Israel as his chosen people. and they will attack God's remnant. Give a shout against the apostasy but focus on preaching the gospel to every creature, not on attacking the church across the street.

 

An Essay for week #15 Apr 10, 16

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Msg#1616 Jumping Jehoshaphat


Msg#1616 Jumping Jehoshaphat

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

“Jumping Jehoshaphat” was an expression often heard and it originated because a king of Judah jumped into bed with Ahab, the vilest of the kings of Israel. “Can't”, “Quit”, and “Compromise” should be eliminated from a Christian's vocabulary. A Baptist pastor memorably said, “they all start with 'K' so just rip that page from your dictionary.” Jehoshaphat's jump illustrates the ugly cost of a Christian's compromise. Jehoshaphat was a righteous and blessed king.“Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab” (2Chron 18:1). The believer having “affinity”, i.e. a feeling of kinship, with the apostate church is a dangerous compromise, never to be jumped into. Jehoshaphat and vile Ahab named their children alike, and Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram “walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD” (2Chron 21:6). Then Jehoshaphat's grandson Ahaziah was slain with his wicked grandma Jezebel when God sent Jehu (Hebrew meaning Jehovah is He) for her “Payday Someday” (as R.G. Lee put it). Could it get worse? Yes. Jehoshaphat's daughter in law Athaliah, Ahab's daughter, “arose and destroyed all the seed royal,” and set herself up as the first and only Queen of Judah (2Kng 11, 2Chron 22-23). Jumping Jehoshaphat brought in generations of abominable idolatry and a depraved woman leader into Jerusalem. The prophet of God said to Jehoshaphat, “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD” (19:2). Don't compromise with the seeker sensitive, modernist bible, rock-n-roll apostate church. It will cost more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay.

An Essay for week #16 Apr 17, 16

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Msg#1626 Where To Get Truth

Msg#1626 Where To Get Truth

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

 

What is truth and where does one get it? In the epic Hebrew poem of Job, the first of the sixty-six books penned in God's Holy Word, Job has truth and his three friends have error. Where did they get their ideas, what were their sources? They had no Bible to reference. Eliphaz says a spirit talked to him in the night and gave him his insight (4:12-16). Be very careful around those types. Bildad says he just believes what his forefathers believed (8:8). He was only a couple generations from Noah himself, but his rhetoric was still errant. Job responds with talk about his Daysman (9:33). Zophar expounds secretes of man's inner wisdom, kind of like the world's first philosopher (11:6). All three sources prove faulty and gave false information (42:7-8). In their second round Eliphaz the spiritualist checks his horoscope (15:11,15); that is abomination (Deut 4:19). Job responds with a prophecy fulfilled in the crucified Christ (16:10-11). Spirits flee before the resurrected Christ. Bildad the historian talks of terrors of death and punishments of brimstone (18:11-16), and Job assures, “I know that my redeemer liveth… (19:25). Zophar the philosopher hangs on to his own thoughts and understandings (20:1-3), but Job reveals that the human light will be put out (21:17), and the fear of the Lord that is wisdom (28:28). Eliphaz the spiritualist is up for a third round and makes the “name it and claim it”, “blab it and grab it” argument of the modern TV preacher (22:23-24). Job's answer is perfect, he says, “I will just wait to hear from God himself” (23:2-5). Man still uses these errant sources for their “designer truth.” God still insists his Word is truth, in fact he sent his Word, and he said “I am the… truth” (John 14).

 

An Essay for week #26 Jun 26, 16

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