The Old Testament Prophet Amos does this consistently! He has God enumerating the sins of wicked people, Nations particularly!

Eight times, I just counted, the Prophet uses this same sobering pattern! For eight different people groups.

Amos 1:3 is a good example: “Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof …”

God noticing sin?

Yes!

Jonah 1:2, with a vast gentile city in mind … “Their wickedness is come up before me.” The Lord told Jonah that!

Even late in the Bible … “For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Revelation `18:5, speaking of wicked Babylon.

And perhaps the classic Biblical occurrence of this fact … “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” God is carefully watching, measuring their sins. Quoting Genesis 15:16.

And this … “Behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:23

Now, some good news!

In Hebrews 8:12 the Lord promises to some … “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”

God not remembering?

Again in Hebrews 10:17 … “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

Even better yet … sins forgiven, washed away!

“The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7, King James Version.

Get this … “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood …” Revelation 1:5

Now I choose to say …

JESUS, WHAT A DIFFERENCE HE MAKES!

Is He your Saviour?

Perhaps my favorite “How to be Saved” Verse …

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”  These are the Words of Jesus Himself, found in John 5:24.

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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In the later days of the New Testament (Paul and John and Peter particularly, their Epistles) a false belief had risen that is called (today) gnosticism.

Part of this system of heresy was the thought that Jesus did not have a literal body. That He was merely spirit, nothing physically substantial about Him!

But friends, the heart of the Doctrine of the Virgin Birth is the fact that Mary gave birth to an infant, the little God-man! Jesus, Who grew up and died on the Cross to forgive our sins!

God had to become man (literally man) in order to accomplish this great Salvation for us, for whosoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1:14 says God became “flesh,” that alone convinces me!

So … to combat this “ghost, apparition, spirit” idea about Jesus … the Apostle John opens his First Epistle with these words … “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.” Whom John immediately identifies as Jesus in verse 4 of the same chapter! (Look at it … 1 John 1:1-4 … when you can.)

Our hands have handled … not a ghost!

Whom we have seen … not invisible, not ethereal!

And we have heard … not some mystical experience!

May I assure you today … Jesus IS God’s Son in a human body. Now granted, after His Resurrection, truly a glorified human body. One sitting at the right Hand of God presently interceding for us! But still a body!

And when we next see Him (some golden daybreak) He will be God in flesh … coming to get us for all eternity!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

1 John 4:2-3 … “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist.”

Wow!

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Not so much in the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew and Mark and Luke … but especially in the fourth Gospel is Jesus found often referring to “His Hour.”

He told His Mother in John 2:4, “Mine Hour is not yet come!”

Then in John 7:30, when an attempt was made to arrest Jesus … “Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.”

John 8:20 adds … “These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.”

His “Hour,” not yet come!

Jesus seemed to live under the impression that His Hour was on the way, and that it was the most important Hour in His Life and Ministry.

Then, finally, in John 12:23 we learn … “Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.” The “Hour” had arrived!

John 12:27 adds, Jesus bearing His Heart … “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.”

I believe this “Hour” was the Crucifixion of our Lord.

“Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” John 13:1

And at the beginning of Jesus’ longest prayer on record, John 17, He utterrs these words … “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.”

Just prior to His arrest!

And Jesus faced His “Hour” with honor and dignity and through His sacrificial and vicarious Death on the Cross … made eternal salvation possible for everyone who believes!

That Hour is (undoubtedly) the most important HOUR in all history!

Have you reckoned with that HOUR in your life?

Because of that HOUR John 5:24 can be a reality in your life …

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

Believe on Him today.

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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My title is a misnomer.

David is in Heaven today, enjoying the presence of the Lord he loved so dearly.

But what I’m trying to say is that (though he had his spiritual ups and downs) David ended his earthly life well!

For example, 2 Samuel 23:1-3 records …

“Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me …”

Verse 5 of the same chapter …

“God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.”

Wow!

David is no Demas, “having loved this present world!”

David is no Judas, having “betrayed” the Lord!

In fact, the Paragraph of Scripture I just cited comes close to Paul’s great closing to his life …

“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8

David started well, had a lapse or two, but recouped and finished strong!

His life is an encouragement to many a Christian.

On his deathbed David said … “The LORD liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress.” 1 Kings 1:29, what a testimony! A great illustration of the faithfulness of the Lord!

David’s actual death?

“So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.” Quoting 1 Kings 2:10, with even a city, the Capital of Israel, being named after the King!

David … “the sweet Psalmist of Israel.”

David … “the man after God’s Own Heart!”

David … what an end!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

By the way, his name occurs 1,085 times in the Bible! From Ruth 4:17 to Revelation 22:16!

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Yes, David sinned with Bathsehba.

Yes, after a while (though months and months later) David repented of those sins. (As usual, one sin led to another. Fornication, I should say adultery, then deceit, ultimately even murder!)

But when David confessed all that wrongdoing, the Lord forgave him! That’s Grace indeed! (2 Samuel 12:13)

But … even though forgiven now, David heard these words from the Lord. Words spoken though the mouth of the Prophet Nathan …

“Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.” 2 Samuel 12:10

Wow!

Sins, even when confessed and forsaken … still have consequences?

Yes they do.

Wait a minute …

Let’s see if this threat (promise) from the Lord really happened. I strongly suspect it did. God never speaks idly!

First of all, the little baby the expectant Bathsheba bore David … the child died! In the Bible 2 Samuel 12:15-19 tells the sad story. The grief has already begun!

Some time later David’s Son Amnon raped David’s Daughter Tamar! (Do we reap when we sow? God is not mocked!) See 2 Samuel 13:1-17, a detailed account!

After that one of David’s Sons Absalom killed the rapist Amnon (a half brother)! Read 2 Samuel 13:28-29, if you want the Scriptural Record.

There’s more?

The sword never departed from David’s house, folks!

His beloved son Absalom led a rebellion against his own Dad, One that nearly succeeded! David did have to temporarily abdicate the Throne! But even this ended in tragedy, in death. (2 Samuel 18:14-15 relate the killing by Joab, David’s military commander.)

One more of David’s Sons, Adonijah, was put to death after the King died, King Solomon having ordered the assassination in 1 Kings chapter 2. This unnecessary death was (again) due to insubordination. Even more bloodshed!

The “point” of today’s Lesson, briefly stated … “Sin, the most expensive thing in the world!”

Not only for the sinner, the lost man … but even for Believers who will go to Heaven when they die!

Sins can be forgiven … but still the scars remain!

At least they did with David, a man after God’s Own Heart!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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