Dr. Barclay's Bible Study - The Book of Daniel Part 18

Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - NO SIN

 NO SIN

At times when you read the Bible, and take it literally, what you read can seem confusing and even contradictory. For example, it states in 1 John:

Whoever abides in Him does not sin. 

Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 

(1 John 3:6)

Whoever has been born of God does not sin… 

(1 John 3:9)

And yet, elsewhere in the Bible it states that:

There is none who does good, 

No, not one.

(Psalm 53:3) 

This phrase is repeated again in Romans 3:12. Even Paul, after his conversion and as he wrote in Romans, stated that:

…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… 

(Romans 3:23)

and he admitted that:

For the good that I will to do, I do not do; 

but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 

(Romans 7:19) 

So how does one correlate this with the statement that:

Whoever has been born of God does not sin…

and he cannot sin because he has been born of God.

(1 John 3:9)

No matter who we are or how close we seem to be to God, we all continue to sin either in thought, word, or deed. If Paul was of such a mind when he wrote the book of Romans, it indicates that even after accepting Christ we all still tend to sin in some way and most likely every day. Therefore, the statement that whoever has been born of God does not sin has to be understood in a way which is not strictly literal and may, in fact, refer to the two classes of sin recognized in the Jewish Temple. 

So the priest shall make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally…

to make atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him. 

(Numbers 15:28)

But the person who does anything presumptuously…

that one brings reproach on the Lord, 

and he shall be cut off from among his people. 

(Numbers 15:30)

In other words, those unintentional sins committed from day to day by essentially all of us could be forgiven. However, those of a category considered premeditated or intentional could not. That is essentially what this passage in 1 John is about. No one is free from sin on a day to day basis but hopefully, if one is in Christ, the desire to willfully sin is essentially gone. Thus, that which we do against God is really unintentional and spontaneous and not premeditated. For:

all have sinned [and continue to do so] 

and have fallen short of the glory of God

(Romans 3:23)

but

Whoever has been born of God does not [wilfully] sin… 

[and therefore has no willful sin in him.] 

(1 John 3:9)

There is a difference between not sinning, which we all do, and not sinning in a willful or premeditated way: 

He who [is a lover of sin] is of the devil, 

for the devil has sinned from the beginning. 

(1 John 3:8)

He who practices righteousness is righteous… 

(1 John 3:7)

…if our heart does not condemn us, 

we have confidence toward God. 

(1 John 3:21)

And that should give us something further to think about.

Dr. Barclay's Bible Study - The Book of Daniel Part 17

Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - BOOKS

 BOOKS

Did you ever consider the number of books that must exist in the world? It is said that the US Library of Congress contains over 39 million books and other printed materials held on approximately 835 miles of shelving. And that’s only one library out of many throughout the world. Today, we have many more ways to disseminate knowledge in addition to books. Obviously, it would be impossible to assimilate even a fraction of the information contained in these volumes, even if one lived many lifetimes.

The Bible, although a collection of books itself, also mentions a number of other tomes within its pages. There are, in fact, quite a few including the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 24:7), the Book of the Wars of the Lord (Numbers 21:14), and the acts of Rehoboam:

are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet

(2 Chronicles 12:15)

In addition, we read of the Book of Enoch in Jude and, of course, among many other books mentioned is the Book of Life.

“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, 

and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life…”

(Revelation 3:5)

And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.

(Revelation 20:12)

And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

(Revelation 20:15)

One of the most amazing books, of course, is the Bible itself. Written over a period of 1000 to 1500 years, with no human there to guide its pages over that period of time, the Bible gives us in Genesis the creation of heavens and the earth, the beginning of the curse, the appearance of death, and the disappearance of the tree of life. In the last book of the Bible we see the creation of a new heaven and earth, the end of the curse and of death, and the reappearance off the tree of life.

But the primary purpose of the Bible is not to give us a summary of human history but to give us a way to know God. As it states:

…the world through wisdom did not know God… 

(1 Corinthians 1:21)

…when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. 

(Galatians 4:8)

They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him… 

(Titus 1:16)

By knowing God, then hopefully our names will be in the book that takes us to heaven and not stricken from same so that we end up elsewhere. But we can’t read all that’s written in the books we have now and so can’t know everything that is to be known about earth, so how can we get to know God just by reading the Bible? We really can’t, but at least it would give us the Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth. And perhaps, in essence, that’s why there is an eternity. It will probably take that long to get to know in any real way the creator and sustainer of the universe.

Just one more thing to think about.

Matthew Trott Feb. 18, 2024

Sunday Service

 

Master's Hand Ministry will have a service this Sunday February 19th at the Hillside Community Hall 27 Chance Harbour Rd.

Matthew Trott will be bringing the message.

Master's Hand Singers willl be leading worship.

Service is at 6 PM

Come and bring a friend or make some new ones.

Dr. Barclay's Bible Study - The Book of Daniel Part 16

Dr. Barclay with Something to Think About - DAILY BREAD

DAILY BREAD

After an expression of the desire for God’s will to be done, the first request in the Lord’s Prayer is this:

Give us this day our daily bread. 

(Matthew 6:11)

Considering that in the time this was written, at least most, if not all, people would have a daily ration of bread, why would a request be made for something readily obtained? Was it because of the fact that manna was given daily during the passage through the desert that bread was to be requested on a daily basis or is there something else in the meaning here? Asking the Lord to ensure our food every day certainly is important considering how, at present, so many people, now more than ever, have problems obtaining their daily sustenance.

But as we all know, bread in the Bible has more than one meaning. In the Book of Deuteronomy it states that:

…man shall not live by bread alone; 

but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of Lord. 

(8:3)

and this is repeated again in Matthew 4:4 and in Luke 4:4. So, man is not to live by material sustenance alone, i.e., not by merely fulfilling material needs and wants.

Jesus, in fact, stated the same thing when He said that:

“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, 

and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 

(John 6:35)

So, if Jesus is The Word as in John’s gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, 

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God…

…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… 

(John 1;1,14)

And also the bread as in John 6, then does the passage in Matthew 6 refer to the material bread or the spiritual bread or to both? Are we not to live by both the physical and the spiritual on a daily basis? If such is the case, then our daily bread refers to both our physical nourishment and our spiritual Word.

Just a further way of looking at our daily bread and at the same time also something further to think about.  

 

Rev. Vincent Hanley - Feb. 11, 2024

Service Cancelled (Again)

 

The service for Sunday evening (Feb. 4th) is cancelled due to the weather.