Biblical Truths from West Palm Beach church of Christ

We have been spending our evenings looking at various people of faith in the scriptures to give us encouragement and hope to continue to follow our Lord and Savior. We have looked at Joseph, Jacob, and David most recently. For our next series I would like us to look at the life of Solomon as told by the Chronicler. I have noted before that there are key differences in the purposes between the author of the book of Kings and the author of the book of Chronicles. One of those key differences is that the book of Kings is teaching how Israel fell. The sins of Israel and Judah and their kings are highlighted and revealed. However, the book of Chronicles is not exploring how Israel and Judah fell. Rather, the concern is how to be restored. It is unfortunate that the Chronicles accounts can be neglected when studying Israel’s history because we can miss the way back to God. We saw this principle when we looked at David earlier this year. The writer of Chronicles does not write about all the sins of David. Two sins are noted both of which are showing the necessity of proper worship as the means for God to live with his redeemed people. The life of Solomon has a similar lens. The Chronicler presumes that you know Solomon’s sin story and has no interest in addressing those points in his life again. In fact, the Chronicler does not speak about any of Solomon’s sins in his account. Rather, Solomon is pictured as the son of David, a foreshadowing and prototype of the Son of David, Jesus, who will be the means for God’s people to be restored. Please open your copies of God’s word to 2 Chronicles 1 and let’s consider how Solomon’s life begins according to the Chronicler…

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John has proclaimed amazing words of encouragement and hope. In the second chapter of 1 John the author has declared that he is writing so that we will not sin. But if we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. God has provided the defense attorney we need. Jesus is the advocate and helper needed because of our sins. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all (cf. 1 John 1:5). Therefore, our sins are a very big problem, separating us from having a relationship with the Father. But we have an advocate. We have Jesus who is the propitiation for our sins and for the sins of the whole world. Since the advocate, Jesus Christ, has been appointed on our behalf, then we need to know the advocate. So how do we know that he is our advocate? How do we know that he is interceding for us? How do we know that his atoning sacrifice for sins have been applied to us? John is going to answer this question in 1 John 2. Please open your copies of God’s word to 1 John 2:3-6…

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How do you handle being told that you are doing something wrong? How do you respond when someone is willing to confront and tell you that you are wrong? I think all of us would like to think that we always do things right. In fact, we might first want to show how the other person is wrong and or does not know what they are talking about rather than admit that we could be wrong and that they are right. But how we handle being told we are wrong or need to change is fundamental to our walk with God because God is always telling us that there is more than needs to change in our lives. God through Jeremiah is going to expose this problem and teach us through a prophecy found in Jeremiah 11. Open your copies of God’s word to Jeremiah 11 and let’s see what God wants us to learn about ourselves and how we respond to him…

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John is writing his letter so that his readers can know that they have eternal life (cf. 1 John 5:13). John is also writing so that his readers would experience complete joy as they have fellowship with God and the apostles (cf. 1 John 1:4). The name of this short series is Complete Joy: Live In Light. In our last lesson we noted that God is light and we must walk in the light to have fellowship with God. God cannot live with darkness or in darkness. Walking in the light means that the rule of our life is to follow God’s desires and not our own desires. Walking in the light also means that we are sin confessors, not sin hiders. But in our last lesson I raised an important question because it is the problem of human history. Since God is light and in him there is no darkness at all, how are we going to be able to be in fellowship with God? How can God have a relationship with us considering the problem of sin? John even declared that if we say that we have not sinned, we are making God a liar, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us (cf. 1 John 1:8, 10). So how can we know that have eternal life and can experience complete joy when sin is our greatest problem? Open your copies of God’s word to chapter 2 of 1 John and we are going to see what God has done for us to make this relationship with him possible…

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We are completing our study of taming the tongue from James 3. James taught us at the beginning of chapter 3 that the tongue sets the direction for our lives. Use your tongue in righteous ways and this will set your life direction toward righteousness. Use your tongue in evil ways and this will set your life direction toward sinfulness. The tongue is like a rudder of the ship and the bit in the horse’s mouth.

Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. (Proverbs 13:3 ESV)…

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John writes the book of 1 John so that Christians can know that they have eternal life (cf. 1 John 5:13). Not only this, but John proclaims that he is writing these things so that our joy may be complete (cf. 1 John 1:4). True joy and pleasures forevermore are in the presence of God (cf. Psalm 16:11). We were made for relationship. Ultimately, we were made for relationship with God. Our greatest joy and true life satisfaction will only be found by being in fellowship with God. But John now wants us to consider if we have that fellowship with God. Open your copies of God’s word to 1 John 1:5-10 and we are going to read about the confidence and hope that God wants us to have with him…

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We are in short series on how to tame the tongue. In our last lesson we looked at the direction that the tongue provides. The tongue is like the bit in the horse’s mouth and like the rudder of a ship. The tongue has the power to set the direction for your life. Therefore, we need to control our tongues so that we can go forward in the direction of righteousness and holiness. But James has another point about our tongues that he wants to teach us that further impress on us the necessity of taming the tongue. Open your copies of God’s word to James 3…

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I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13 ESV)

Do you know that you have eternal life? The apostle John says that this is something you can know. You can know if you have eternal life. Our walk with God does not need to be a mystery. We do not have to wonder about our spiritual condition before God. John writes a message to give us the hope, encouragement, and confidence we need to walk with God. What John is going to do is teach us the things that we need to know. Open your copies of God’s word to 1 John 1:1-4…

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Last year we did a short series from the book of James called Authentic in which we looked at the practical teachings James gives to Christians from chapter 1. It is my plan to come back to this book from time to time to listen to the wisdom and critical teachings James has for us. One of the areas that James spends quite a bit of time talking about is the tongue. In James 3 we see James talk about taming the tongue the direction, the destruction, and the discernment of the tongue. Lord willing, this will be our plan for the next three weeks. We will talk about the direction of the tongue, the destruction of the tongue, and the discernment of the tongue. For our lesson this evening we are going to talk about the direction of the tongue…

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Our theme for 2024 is We, Not Me. We have spent some time in the first part of this year looking more about how to think about each other over ourselves. But for the second half of 2024, Lord willing, we are going to lean and push into this theme even stronger than we have so far. Our upcoming series in 1 John and in James are looking at scriptures that will help us practice “we, not me” behavior. But one of the books in God’s word that was written was specifically written to Christians in a city where there were divisions. It was a church with a lot of problems. Listen to how Paul had to start his letter to the Christians in Corinth.

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. (1 Corinthians 1:10-11 ESV)…

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