TITUS, PHILEMON, HEBREWS, AND JAMES

It's Sunday morning!  Praise God for Sundays!  I'm so looking forward to being with God's people this morning.  It has been so strange to have bad weather keep us from meeting and we are almost starved for church.  I cannot wait to see all of God's people this morning.  I hope you feel the same way. I'm finishing up the New Testament and I read in Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James this morning.  I enjoyed it so much!  What a blessing to be able to read the Word of God.  Here are just a few things that jumped out at me this morning as I read: 1)  SOUND DOCTRINE IS PRACTICAL DOCTRINE TOO! - In Titus 2:1 it says: "But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:"  And then the rest of the chapter address instructions for five groups of people and how they ought to live in light of their Salvation.  The five groups are: aged men, aged women, young women, young men, and servants.  You see "sound doctrine" was simply instructing them how they should live life as a follower of Jesus Christ.  It told them how to behave in this world as God's representatives to a lost world.  It tells them how they are to respond to each others as well.  It is very practical Christian living, but that is also what sound doctrine is! 2) JESUS IS GOD!- Hebrews 1 is one of the strongest passages in the Bible to teach us of the fact that Jesus is God!  Here are the phrases that point this out: (vs.1) "by whom also he made the worlds" (creator); vs. 3- "express image of his person" (reflects the image of God the Father); vs. 3- "upholding all things by the world of his power" (sustains all things); vs. 5- "Thou art my Son" (God speaks to Christ); vs. 6- "And let all the angels of God worship him." (only God receives worship); vs. 8- "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom."  (God the Father calls Jesus the Son, God!); and vs. 10- "And, Thou, LORD, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands;"  (again, Creator of all things!)  Jesus is God!  To deny this is to lose out on Salvation.  Jesus said: "If you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."  Only Jesus as God could pay for our sins!! 3) ONCE- What Jesus did for us, He did once for all.  In Hebrews 9:12; 9:27; 9:28; 10:10; we see that all that Jesus did, He did "once" for all time! It is finished, takes on an all new meaning when we see that it was all finished by Christ with His birth, life, death, and resurrection!  Now that the work is done, He stands to receive us and one day come for us!  Once.... precious thought!! Well, I have so much more to say, but my time is gone, gone!  See you tomorrow sometime.  I fly out very early so it will be posted in the afternoon I'm guessing! Pastor Mike Mutchler