Category: Penny Pulpit

Msg #1421 Healing and Anointing Oil

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.” (James 5:14-15a) Oil is not mystical or magical for healing. It is not filled with power, but obedience is. It does not get a hold of God, but prayer does. It can not heal any disease, but God can. In James 5 anointing oil is only a symbol. Baptismal water is also a symbol. It does not wash a single sin away. A communion wafer is also only a symbol. It is not a sacrament filled with magical power. It is not physically the body of Christ, nor does it magically turn into the body of Christ, it is a symbol. Jesus spent half of John chapter 4 trying to get the Samaritan woman to let go of the physical and get a grasp on the spiritual. Healing is promised to the believer and in James chapter 5 it is connected to a symbolic anointing oil. Oil is first mentioned in the Holy Bible when Jacob poured some on stones that were his pillow at Bethel. It symbolized the presence of God. Oil olive gave light where God dwelt with man, in the Tabernacle of God. Anointing oil was on the alter of incense, typifying the prayers of saints. The the meal offering included a log of oil in sacrifice. Oil anointed the priest. Oil anointed the King. The parable of the 10 virgins teaches that we cannot barrow oil from another. Many who say they believe, leave the powerful promise of James 5:14 out of their vocabulary. You can trust His Holy Word.

An Essay for week #21 05/25/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

Revival msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs140525.mp3

Msg #1422 The Kingdom is Within You

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Although it is an often repeated phrase in the New Testament of the Holy Bible, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” is an undervalued commodity in post modern Christendom. Even Fundamental Christians are so busy trying to persuade men to go to heaven that we forget we are to compel them into the kingdom of God, and that is what secures them a home in heaven. Except ye be “born-again” ye cannot “see” the kingdom of God, ye cannot “enter” the kingdom of God.(John 3) Except ye be converted… ye shall not “enter: the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18) I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so I still remember the day I realized that I was not “saved” into heaven, I was not “saved” into the Church, I was not “saved” into the family of God, I was “saved” and placed into the “Kingdom of God.” I now had a membership in the kingdom of heaven! I frantically looked up all the verses dealing with my salvation, the couple just mentioned in particular, and found, sure enough, I was presently a member of his kingdom, and no longer a member of the kingdom of this world. I am simple, but suddenly, with this realization, a flood of things made better sense to me. This world is not my home, I am only passing through. I'm asked to walk “circumspectly” in this world, because the prince and power of the air here is like a roaring lion, seeking whom, of God's kingdom, he may devour. Wow that was thirty years ago for me, but when I revisit that discovery, it still sets my soul on fire. Right now the kingdom is within you. (Lu 17:21) I am now a child in his kingdom. That's a life changing truth.

An Essay for week #22 06/01/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

Missionary msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs140601.mp3

Msg #1420 Babylon is Fallen, is Fallen

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Just as God's chosen people, Israel, portray the great hope of mankind and the profound assurance that God will keep his promise, Babylon portrays the great damnation of mankind and the profound assurance that God will display his wrath. Isaiah 13 begins, “The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.” One thousand five hundred and thirty years earlier man gathered, right after the world flood, to build a kingdom that would reach up to heaven. There, in Mesopotamia, the land of two rivers, God confounded their languages and called their kingdom building, Babylon. On hundred and six years after Isaiah, the seer, saw this burden, Nebuchadnezzar, the brand new King of Babylon would lay siege to Jerusalem. It was his very first conquest. That is not a coincidence. God, for a 70 year season, to chastise his own, surrendered his chosen people to a Babylonian captivity. When released from this bondage his chosen people were a wholly different people. They never embraced idolatry again. God had gotten hold of their stiff neck and stoney heart. The born-again believer has been released from a Babylonian bondage and entered into the Kingdom of Heaven. No longer under the prince and power of the air, we are in the world, but not of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ will soon return to receive his Kingdom. Before he comes there will be a new world order, and a center of world commerce. That center will be called and located in Babylon, and its fall is depicted in The Revelation of Jesus Christ chapter 14. We expect the rapture of the church any day now. The Lord is coming for his saints and then with his saints. Israel will receive her King. What a day that will be.

An Essay for week #20 05/18/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

In audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs140518.mp3

Msg #1418 Awesome Name in an Awesome Chapter

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

God's revelation lets man know what God has done, what God is doing, and what is going to happen next. It is marvelous for the believer to read Isaiah 12 and see a description of the New Covenant relationship that we have in Christ. Penned by God through Isaiah 746 years before the Only Begotten Son of God became our propitiation it begins, “And in that day…” It defends the use of that word, “propitiation,” with this insight, “though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away.” (vr.1) We know now that Isaiah's wording “and thou comfortedst me” is prophetic of the Comforter that Jesus sent after his ascension. “Behold God is my salvation: I will trust and not be afraid,” is descriptive of the New Covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The personal name of God is only spelled out in English four times in the Holy Bible. All other times this most revered name is handled in English, as it was in spoken Hebrew, by substituting LORD in its stead. Appropriately two exceptions are when Moses and David spell out what his name actually was in Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18. The remaining two exceptions drip from the pen of Isaiah when he writes about God being our salvation in a New Covenant (Isa. 12:2) and Israel's salvation in the 1,000 year kingdom reign of Christ. (Isa. 26:4) The meaning of that carefully, reverently used name is given in Exodus 3:14, “I Am, that I Am.” In Jesus Christ, called the Mighty God, called the Everlasting Father, we have our salvation, and our Saviour is called by that most revered name. Here, for the “first-fruit” inhabitants of Zion's kingdom (vr.6), that Holy One of Israel is our salvation. What an awesome chapter.

An Essay for week #18 05/04/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

In audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs140504.mp3

Msg #1419 Mothers Day and Healing

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

On this Mothers Day we want to give special tribute to moms who have lost loved ones to, or are right now wrestling with America's health crisis called cancer. There is a known cure, it is preached here each Sunday, “Christ is the Answer.” This old world cannot even fathom the problem. America loads our food with growth hormones and antibiotics, artificial flavor, artificial color, artificial preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and then laden s us with artificial air fresheners, color enhancers and cleaning products, and then asks us to walk a million miles and spend a million dollars to figure out why our bodies are having artificial tissue growth. The Bible still instructs us best about all this, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” (1Cor 6) Our God who now lives in his temple, is still the Great Physician, and can heal all our infirmities. In Proverbs 31 King Lemuel's mom teaches 7 things that all mothers need to teach us, the first is Prophecy, or “Thus saith the LORD.” She follows with 12 characteristics of a virtuous woman given in 22 verses of unparalleled Scripture. The crowning virtue of all 12 is the fear of the LORD. The LORD we fear still commands, “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray… Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.”

An Essay for week #19 05/11/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

In audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs140511.mp3

Msg #1417 The Seven Spirits of God

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice 

“Christ is the Answer” is the theme of the 66 books of the Holy Bible, and the 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah. That is not a coincidence. After seven woes in six chapters Christ comes on the scene as a son born to a virgin in 7:14, then as a child given five unbelievable titles in 9:6. A dire woe is extended to all of mankind in chapter 10, and then, in chapter 11, after God's anger against Israel “is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still,” after he assures the Gentile nations that “he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and they shall fall by a mighty one,” his Christ is introduced in chapter 11. That introduction presents him as the Rod, a righteous judge, and a Branch, a giver of everlasting life. The Rod comes from an obscure stem, and the Branch from an all but destroyed root. The Rod and Branch of God which springs from the line of David, son of Jessie, refers to Christ's humanity. Theologians might disagree, but the Bible is clear, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, he set aside the omni and the infinite and became finite. Without the omni and infinite attributes, Jesus used the Seven Spirits of God to accomplish all that he did while in the flesh. The Spirit of the LORD, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear of the LORD. These, in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, are called the Seven Spirits of God. Isaiah 11 gives an awesome description of the Messiah. But the Seven Spirits listed are available to all believers. That is why Jesus said that we could do even greater things than he did in the flesh. (John 1412)

An Essay for week #17 04/27/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

In audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs140427.mp3

Msg #1416 You Gotta Love Easter

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year for you… Your lamb shall be without blemish… and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.” (Exod 12) When Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month Abib, later called Nissan, the only begotten Lamb of God became our Passover Lamb. Three days after that crucifixion when he rose victorious over death, he became our High Priest. There is only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (ITim2:5) The world tries to drown out this truth with Cadbury eggs from clucking bunnies. Religionists with robes and backward collars assist with annual Easter egg hunts. But the truth remains “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Despite the grand cover up, regardless of the compromised clergy, Jesus, the way the truth and the life, is the True Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9) He judges and tries the reins and the heart. (Jer 11:20) All know his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. (Rom 1:20) Easter is a time when the resurrection of Christ is rubbed into an unbelievers knowledge of God. It can make them uncomfortable. His witnesses can use Easter to touch loved ones and neighbors with the Words of God which are sharper than any two edged sword. Christ the Lord is risen today, Allelulea. Sons of men and angels say, Allelulea. Believers love Easter. We need to learn to use it better.

An Essay for week #16 04/20/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

In audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs140420.mp3

Msg #1414 Great Deception and The Hand of God

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Isaiah records national actions and reactions with God's eye. National judgments are recorded for a spectra of nations, two with Godly heritage. These are full scale models of nationalistic behaviors, and the USofA is presently following the second best model, Israel. Mind you, the best of the best, Judah, has its flaws and ends in captivity. With all the Godly heritage and founding, a miraculous redemption from the world, and established as a God fearing nation with laws and constitution, one would expect that she follow justice, truth, and Jehovah God. Yet before 300 years, the whole head was sick. (cf Isa.1:5) “Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries… and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.” (Isa 9:11-13) In this chapter, and in this model, things turn out bad for Israel's rebellion. It is a mirror for America. They say we have no Creator, just two rocks in a primeval sea doing spontaneous generation! The masses believe them! They say we have no Judge bringing calamity to smite our land, it is caused by “Global Warming” from our burning fossil fuels and breathing out CO₂! The masses believe them! They outlaw light bulbs, shut down coal plants, and pursue “Green Energy” as their lord and savior. “Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened… For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” (vr. 19,21) This message is not to the deceived masses, they are quite deceived. God says instead, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves.”

An Essay for week #14 04/06/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

In audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs140406.mp3

Msg #1415 Your Alabaster Box

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

Jesus' last walk to Jerusalem is wrought with drama, Pharisees and lepers, Lawyers and blind men, Scribes and short publicans climbing trees. Not to mention disciples fighting over their greatness as they chased little children away from their Lord! The trip culminates with the two high drama events of John 12. The only one who really understood why Jesus was come to Jerusalem was Mary who once again anointed him with an ointment from an alabaster box. She was forgiven much, and she loved much. She also had a relationship with her Lord and Saviour. A relationship found lacking in the 12 disciples. Even today it is only a few who comprehend the importance of the Christ's selection on that Palm Sunday. The Passover Lamb anointed by Mary six days before Passover was, on the 10^th of Abib, four days before Passover, exactly as recorded in Exodus 12, separated from the other sheep with the cries of the crowd. Their cries of “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest,” (Matt 21:9) were soon followed with the question, “Who is this?” (Matt 21:10) Then after four of the most recorded days in human history, the same crowd cried “Crucify him!” It behooves a believer to study this trip, this week, and that relationship with great vigor. Set aside all Roman and Reformed theology and study him in the events of this week. Therein one can find a relationship akin to what Mary had. It is a rare thing in “Christianity” today, it was then. It is worth falling in love anew with the Passover Lamb. Let this Easter be one where your alabaster box is broken, and your expensive ointment is poured out.

An Essay for week #15 04/13/2014

In paperback at www.lulu.com/spotlight/GSBaptistChurch

In audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs140413.mp3