A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus

by Mike Ratliff

3 Συγκακοπάθησον ὡς καλὸς στρατιώτης Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ. 2 Timothy 2:3 (NA28)

3 Take your part in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:3 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

Some of you who have followed what I have written over the years know that I have a great affinity for John Bunyan. Why is this so? Our enemy is allowed by God to attack me in such a way that I become been sorely tempted by him into despairing of this ministry. Why? This happens as my focus goes inward and with that always comes a sense of my sinfulness and unworthiness to even be called a Christian. I look at those whom God uses to feed me spiritually and I see how small I am. How can God use one such as I? Two things have helped me through this. I have read Bunyan’s autobiography. As I read of his early Christian walk it soon became apparent that there were some parallels with how God is using not only me, but many others like me in these dark times. The well educated and those with large ministries are more often than not the ones who are on the road to apostasy just as in Bunyan’s day. Bunyan was barely educated and his only education in theology was from the Word of God and sitting at the feet of his pastor. God raised him up to do a mighty work in the Church, but it was one that involved much suffering. The second thing that helps me is a gift from God that always comes unexpectedly like this article, which I read during my morning devotions yesterday morning.

Simeon and Anna’s Testimonies

by Mike Ratliff

34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed— 35 and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” Luke 2:34-35 (NASB) 

Apostates, false teachers, those who seek redemption via religion, tares, and goats, have overrun the Church in our time. Since the beginning these people have been part of the visible Church, but now it appears that they have captured it and hold it prisoner. Much of the blame for this belongs to those who should be coming of age to lead the Church who have been compromised by humanistic teachings that make being a minister a “career move.” As a result these people are leading their churches further and further away from the real Jesus to follow one of their own making.

God’s Sovereignty in Regeneration

by Mike Ratliff

3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, 6 but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” Acts 9:3-6 (NASB)

I will be 70 years old in October this year (2021). God had mercy on me in January 1986 when I was 34 years old. I remember it well. I was religious. I was a church member. I took my wife and small family to church every Sunday. I even ushered when asked. We attended Sunday morning services, Sunday evening services, Wednesday evening services, whatever was going on at that church we were part of it. However, I was just being religious. I was just going through the motions like I had done my whole life. I grew up going to church. The pastor of that church and I were friends from High School. However, there was something missing.

Believer’s Faithfulness versus Religion

by Mike Ratliff

28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. 1 John 2:28-29 (NASB) 

All who are truly in Christ must admit that this walk is fraught with doubt as well as pressure to conform to a form of godliness that has no power, to be faithful at doing church as the indication of our genuineness. As many of you know, I grew up as a Southern Baptist. While I am grateful for the deep Bible knowledge that I gained through being in Church every Sunday, I have also learned that much of the focus of organized religion is geared more to creating religious faithfulness rather than to disciple believers to abide in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Following Christ for Loaves and Growing Rich in Christianity

by Mike Ratliff

24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. 25 When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” John 6:24-27 (NASB) 

46 “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, 47 who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.” Luke 20:46-47 (NASB) 

The spiritual blindness of the ‘professing Christian,’ unregenerate heart is a wonder to behold. It is religious to be sure, but its framework consists of rationalizations that are developed in order to “have Christ” on one’s own terms. It allows for things such as compromises by the professor to “work” in such a way to accumulate wealth or position or both in society. It condones doing ministry in such a way in order become wealthy or famous. The focus is on the temporal. These “fellows” use religiosity as their cash cow.

Christ’s Blood and the Atonement

by Mike Ratliff

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:7-12 (NASB) 

A proper study of the doctrine of Penal Substitution will reveal that it is actually a line of contention, or line of demarcation if you will, that divides Orthodox Christianity from those forms whose advocates have in some way come up with their own version of the Gospel. These forms are diverse and too numerous to go into here. As we read the “opinions” of those decrying the validity of Penal Substitution, it becomes quickly apparent that the modus operandi or focus of these people was never from the perspective of God’s glory or His majesty or His righteousness or His justice or His Sovereignty. No, it was always from man’s perspective of either the writer’s religiosity or philosophy. There is never any attempt to use Biblical exegesis to make their points. In other words, those who decry Penal Substitution also seem to have a serious issue with Sola Scriptura. So, instead of focusing this post on these vain arguments and speculations, let us focus on the incredible mercy of the Atonement in which Christ reconciled His people to God the Father and what that purchased for them.

The Joy of The Resurrection

by Mike Ratliff

22 καὶ ὑμεῖς οὖν νῦν μὲν λύπην ἔχετε· πάλιν δὲ ὄψομαι ὑμᾶς, καὶ χαρήσεται ὑμῶν ἡ καρδία, καὶ τὴν χαρὰν ὑμῶν οὐδεὶς αἴρει ἀφʼ ὑμῶν. John 16:22 (NA28)

22 “And therefore, you now have grief, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and no one takes your joy from you.” John 16:22 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

According to my stats page, What is Joy?, is by far my most popular post. It was also one of the first ones I wrote when I started this ministry in 2006 and its focus has been the focus I have attempted to maintain since I started, which is the edification of the Body of Christ by pointing all to the true source of our joy instead of what the world attempts to sell us as a replacement, which is just temporal happiness. That true source is our Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that we have eternal life in Him. He has also given us the Encourager, the Holy Spirit and eternal promises from the Father that we are not left here alone. Also, and by far that which is strangely overlooked today, is the joy that we have in the promise of the Resurrection. The fact that our Lord was dead on our behalf, but is now alive and has promised that we too will be raised to be with Him with glorified bodies forever is not well understood by most believers today. 

What is an Almost Christian?

by Mike Ratliff

16 θεὸν ὁμολογοῦσιν εἰδέναι, τοῖς δὲ ἔργοις ἀρνοῦνται, βδελυκτοὶ ὄντες καὶ ἀπειθεῖς καὶ πρὸς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἀδόκιμοι. Titus 1:16 (NA28)

16 They profess to know God, but by their works, they deny Him, being detestable and as to every good work, unfit. Titus 1:16 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

In Puritan Matthew Mead’s The Almost Christian Discovered we find the very definition for what is plaguing the visible church in the 21st Century.  If Pastor Mead was alive today preaching as he did in the 17^th Century, he would be quite controversial, but isn’t that what we who are called of God to stand for His truth in the lost and dying world supposed to do? In our time we lament what cheap grace and easy-believism and post-modernism have done to our churches’ ecclesiology, watering down the Gospel and doing away with rightly dividing the Word of Truth while turning the what should the weekly gathering of the local church into some sort of sales promotion or entertainment event. Those terms would be unknown to Pastor Mead, but he would have been quite familiar with one coined by Martin Luther, antinomianism. This describes those who desired to be called Christian, with all of its benefits, but shunned all of its obligations.

Born Again to a Living Hope and Called to be Holy

by Mike Ratliff

6 ἐν ᾧ ἀγαλλιᾶσθε, ὀλίγον ἄρτι εἰ δέον [ἐστὶν] λυπηθέντας ἐν ποικίλοις πειρασμοῖς, 7 ἵνα τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως πολυτιμότερον χρυσίου τοῦ ἀπολλυμένου διὰ πυρὸς δὲ δοκιμαζομένου, εὑρεθῇ εἰς ἔπαινον καὶ δόξαν καὶ τιμὴν ἐν ἀποκαλύψει Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ· 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NA28)

6 In this you greatly rejoice, for a little while now, if it is necessary, having been grieved by various trials, 7 that the tested genuineness of you faith—infinitely more valuable than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:6.7 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

There are some who insist that the doctrine of imputation will create antinomianism because we will not “work out our salvation,” since we have been declared righteous, we can live any way we want. However, that “charge” is unbiblical for another very large and important doctrine, the doctrine of regeneration. We understand Sacred Scripture to teach that God regenerates all those He calls to believe and draws to the Son. This regeneration changes everything. It is supernatural. Here is how Paul described it in Ephesians 2:4,5, “ὁ δὲ θεὸς πλούσιος ὢν ἐν ἐλέει, διὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγάπην αὐτοῦ ἣν ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς, καὶ ὄντας ἡμᾶς νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασιν συνεζωοποίησεν τῷ Χριστῷ, – χάριτί ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι –” or “But God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when were dead in trespasses, he made us alive with Christ – by grace you have been saved —”. Regeneration is God making a person who is spiritually dead spiritually alive in Christ by His grace. Let’s look at what Peter has to say about this along with our imputed righteousness along with the call for us live unto the holiness of God.

Poverty

by Mike Ratliff

41 Καὶ καθίσας κατέναντι τοῦ γαζοφυλακίου ἐθεώρει πῶς ὁ ὄχλος βάλλει χαλκὸν εἰς τὸ γαζοφυλάκιον. καὶ πολλοὶ πλούσιοι ἔβαλλον πολλά· 42 καὶ ἐλθοῦσα μία χήρα πτωχὴ ἔβαλεν λεπτὰ δύο, ὅ ἐστιν κοδράντης. 43 καὶ προσκαλεσάμενος τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἡ χήρα αὕτη ἡ πτωχὴ πλεῖον πάντων ἔβαλεν τῶν βαλλόντων εἰς τὸ γαζοφυλάκιον· 44 πάντες γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ περισσεύοντος αὐτοῖς ἔβαλον, αὕτη δὲ ἐκ τῆς ὑστερήσεως αὐτῆς πάντα ὅσα εἶχεν ἔβαλεν ὅλον τὸν βίον αὐτῆς. Mark 12:41-44 (NA28)

41 And having sat opposite the Treasury He was observing how the crowd put copper coins into it; and many rich people were putting in much. 42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins which is a penny.  43 And having summoned His disciples He said to them, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow put in more than all the others who put into the Treasury; 44 for everyone else put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.” Mark 12:41-44 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

In the passage above the word “poverty” translates the Greek noun ὑστερήσεως (hysterēseōs) the genitive, singular, feminine case of ὑστέρησις (hysterēsis), which means, “need, poverty.”  This refers to a beggar, someone who was completely destitute, having nothing.

God’s Great Love

by Mike Ratliff

4 ὁ δὲ θεὸς πλούσιος ὢν ἐν ἐλέει, διὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγάπην αὐτοῦ ἣν ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς, Ephesians 2:4 (NA28)

4 But God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which he loved us, Ephesians 2:4 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

God’s love (ἀγάπη (agapē)) is often viewed today as some sort of shallow sentimentality, but God’s love is deeper than we can even begin to comprehend. When the average person today says “love,” they do not even know what they are saying because they do not mean “self-emptying self-sacrifice.” Love today is more “self-gratifying” than “self-emptying.”

Speaking the Word of God

by Mike Ratliff

34 ὃν γὰρ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὰ ῥήματα τοῦ θεοῦ λαλεῖ, οὐ γὰρ ἐκ μέτρου δίδωσιν τὸ πνεῦμα. John 3:34 (NA28)

34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. John 3:34 (NASB)

In John 3:1-21 our Lord spoke the words of God to “ a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.” In this passage our Lord clears the table and tells it like it is. He tells Nicodemus in v3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Of course, Nicodemus doesn’t “get it at first and asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” in v4 and, “How can these things be?” in v9. In between those two perplexed questions, our Lord, the Λόγος (logos) or Word, the living Christian proclamation as a whole of the New Testament proclaimed τὰ ῥήματα τοῦ Θεοῦ or “the words of God” to Nicodemus in a way that he had never heard before. He said,”Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” As we read in John 3:34 (above), He spoke or uttered the ῥήματα τοῦ Θεοῦ to this man and all who read John 3. What did he say? Only those born again are part of the Kingdom of God and to be born again is to born of the Spirit. Notice carefully that this rebirth is not something controlled by or contained by or comprehended by people of the flesh. Everyone truly born of the Spirit are so by the work of the Holy Spirit not by the works of men. These are the ῥήματα τοῦ Θεοῦ. 

Watch Therefore

by Mike Ratliff

13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour. Matthew 25:13 (ESV) 

Just a few days before his crucifixion, our Lord spent some very valuable time with His disciples, pouring Himself into them, preparing them for the time when He would no longer be physically with them. In Matthew 25 we have some of what He gave them. Much of the apostasy we are witnessing in our time in the visible church is a direct result of its mishandling of or forgetting of these things. In fact, any form of what is referring to as “progressive” or “liberal” “Christianity” proves that it is not valid because it does not adhere to the truths found here and the rest of God’s Word. You see, there is no wiggle room. There is no gray area. Why? It is because when we get into these human “rights of choice” forms of “so-called christianity” they are all based on what people do and choose, but when we get to God’s truth and what the real Gospel is and what the nature of the real kingdom of heaven is like, we find our Sovereign God at the center of all things with the elect worshiping Him. 

Do Not Give Up

by Mike Ratliff

12 ἐν ᾧ ἔχομεν τὴν παρρησίαν καὶ προσαγωγὴν ἐν πεποιθήσει διὰ τῆς πίστεως αὐτοῦ. 13 διὸ αἰτοῦμαι μὴ ἐγκακεῖν ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσίν μου ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν, ἥτις ἐστὶν δόξα ὑμῶν. Ephesians 3:12-13 (NA28)

12 in whom we have the boldness and access in confidence through our faith in Him. 13 Therefore, I ask you not to give up over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory Ephesians 3:12-13 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)

In this post let us look at an important word from Ephesians 13 which many Bible translations render as ‘faint,’ ‘discouraged, ‘ or ‘lose heart.’ The words “not to give up” above translate μὴ ἐγκακεῖν. Μη (mē) expresses absolute denial. Paul is expressing his desire to the Ephesians that they DO NOT do something. That something is ἐγκακεῖν that is the Present tense, Infinitive mood, Active voice form of ἐκκακέω (ekkakeō), which literally means, “to turn out to be a coward, to lose one’s courage, to faint or despond in view of trial or to be utterly spiritless.” So perhaps my translation of “do not give up” seems insufficient in light of this, but what we must see is that the verb structure Paul used here is speaking of a way of life not a one-time action.