Dr. Bob Dalton will be at Vision Baptist Church and the Our Generation Training Center on August 20th and 21st. We will be studying the epistles of John and Jude. You will not want to miss this. If you are a pastor we are going to make special arrangements to take care of you and your staff.
Family: Wife—Jane; Four daughters: Heather, Rebekah, Rachel, Erin
Experience:
*Instructor – Crown College
-Church History, Theology, Education
*President of the Fundamental Baptist Historical Society
*Executive Director of two statewide Christian school organizations
*Pastor for eight years
*Christian school teacher and supervisor
*Author: Struggle for Liberty (church and state separation)
Speaking the Truth in Love (theological dictionary)
Others
John 17:18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
Jesus is praying to the Father here! He acknowledges first that the Father sent Him into the world. This is a tremendous missionary prayer.
He was sent far from home. He was sent into a very foreign and wicked culture. He came to live a very sacrificial life. He came to live a holy life in an unholy world. He came to share the Words of His Father. He came to seek and save that which was lost. He came to do exactly what His Father wanted even if it meant suffering and dying at the hands of the very ones He came to save.
He then tells the Father that He is sending us in the same way He was sent. Granted He is actually talking about the disciples that He had with Him but He mentions those that will believe because of their testimony also. We are those that have believed.
This brings lots of questions to my mind. Do we feel like we have been sent on a mission by the Father, by the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do we try to communicate a heavenly message to a very this worldly group of people?
Do we live holy lives in a very unholy world?
Are we willing to pay whatever price that He has for us to pay?
Do we live in the light of eternity or do we place so much importance in the things of this world that no one would ever get the idea we were here on a mission?
Do you feel like, think of yourself, or believe that you really are here on a mission?
When is the last time you asked God what He wanted you to do with your time, talents, future, money, etc?
Sent like Him doesn’t necessarily mean that we are living like Him or like He would want us to live.
I challenge you today to consider your life in the light of His mission that He has for you!
Today is John Pearson’s birthday. I do not wish every Vision member such a public Happy Birthday but Vision actually began in a conversation between John and me back in 2005. We were on the phone talking about the land that BCWE was going to buy for the Our Generation Training Center.
He was concerned about getting exactly the right piece of land and the one God would have him to purchase for us to use to train young men and women to be missionaries. As he spoke of his concern I told him not to worry about it.
I said just consider me the pastor and leave the final decision to me. He said that sounded good.
Many other things had been happening that were leading me to make a decision that it was God’s will for me to move back to Georgia but that was the deal clincher.
I got off the phone and couldn’t get it out of my head that we were making a big step. We wanted to train young men and women to be missionaries. We wanted to build a training center in the US.
John was going to try to make the purchase. I was going to act as the pastor with the final decision. There you have it. God dealt so strongly with me that I left a ministry that I loved with all of my heart.
I came back to start a church and training center and the rest is history.
Happy Birthday John! You are a blessing to me. Thank you for being such a good friend. Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for the financial sacrifices that you have made for many years. Thank you for praying for me. Thank you for making Vision not only a possibility but a reality.
God has used you around the world in ways that only eternity will tell. I thank God for you and for the friendship that He has let me have with you.
Thank you for being a Christian that just happens to be a businessman rather than a businessman that happens to be a Christian.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
This is a very well known verse but I am not sure if we get its implications! It literally says that no one, absolutely no one, gets to the Father God except through Jesus Christ. This is what makes true Christianity such an offensive truth (religion as others would say!)
Either you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came to earth, took on human flesh, died on a cross for your sins, was buried, rose again, lives forever more, and ascended to Heaven or you cannot and will not be saved or get to the Father. That means that any Christian religion that would have you venerate a virgin, pray to a saint, get prayers to God by any other way would be a lie!
That means that any other good religious leader, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, or nothing for the atheist simply are not good enough and will not get you to the Father.
All roads may lead to Rome but only one way leads to the Father. True Bible Christianity cannot live at peace with any other religion. Either He is the only way or He isn’t. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for compromise.
We love our friends and want to be tolerant. We want to think that if they are sincere and believe their religion that they will be ok but they will not! Good people do not go to Heaven. Only people who see their need of a mediator named Jesus Christ can get to the Father. 1Timothy 2:5.
This places a great deal of responsibility on us to tell the truth. We cannot be quiet. We must warn people that Satan is providing any number of “acceptable” ways to be religious, to soothe the conscious, to feel good about yourself, but that Jesus is the only possible way to be saved.
I appreciate any sincere person but unless they sincerely put their faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross they are sincerely wrong and sincerely lost!
1Timothy 2:3-6 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
1John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men
This Thursday night you will get to see me start the service in my traditional Chilean clothing. This was a gift given to me by the wonderful brothers in Chile in this last trip.
So come and I will even let you wear the clothes and have your picture taken.
John 12:43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
This verse hits me squarely between the eyes. People were believing and knew what was right but were embarrassed to take a stand for Jesus. He sums it up rather succinctly. He says that the problem is that they love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
This made me think of my ministry and many things that I do and have done over the years. How many things do I do to fit in among my brethren? How many times do I try to impress my lost friends and have them like me? Since I know that they do not like Jesus, the Bible, and Holy living how often do I try to live right on the edge when I spend time with them or talk to them.
As a pastor and missionary I ask myself today how many times I try to impress others instead of the Lord. I want the pastors to like me. I want church members to like me. I want to build a church that will get the praise of men.
I feel like I am very guilty of doing things for myself or for others. I want to preach and impress everyone. I want them to like me, what I said, the way I said it. I hunger to be acknowledged and respected.
This was the problem that these early believers were facing. Jesus said that what lost men thought was more important to them that what God Himself thought. I am ashamed but I am afraid that is also true of me.
Someone said that we should preach, pray, and live for an audience of One! There is only one person that we should try to impress. That is so true. I have failed miserably in that.
Over the years I have come to realize that they are never going to really like me anyway. I have found that they will not be impressed no matter what I do. I have found that they can not reward me for what I do.
Only God can! So it is time that I preach, pray, and live for Him and what He wants. Could any of this in the slightest way be a problem for you?
Could it be that you too are worried about what the wrong people think? Let’s live to impress a party of One!
John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Notice that salvation is a give of Jesus Christ to us! He said that He gives eternal life. Eternal means everlasting. Eternal means : having infinite duration, continued without intermission!
It is not something you buy. It is not something you earn. It is a gift of God Romans 6:23.
In case you didn’t understand just how permanent never ending life was He added and they shall never perish.
So we who have been saved by His grace have life of infinite duration that continues without intermission! Not only do we have this sort of life we will never perish.
Never means not ever, at no time, not in any degree, not under any condition!
So I have eternal, everlasting life that continues without end, infinite and without intermission. Then I am promised that I will not perish, not ever, at no time, not in any degree and not under any condition.
Perish means to become destroyed or ruined or to cease to exist! That is exactly what I am promised will never happen to me.
Who made the promise-the Lord Jesus Christ. Who gave me the salvation-the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lastly who hold me in His hand? The Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is by the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a forever salvation. The only way it can be any less is for it to be a salvation produced by your good works, your church, or another being. The salvation that Jesus gives is forever.
You can rest assured that He that saved you can and will keep you. He that started this good work in you will carry to completion Philippians 1:6
We enjoyed three powerful, full of truth sermons on Sunday night. Scott Newton preached a message entitled “Christ Centered Missions”. This is a very timely message as we will be going into our missions conference in 7 weeks.
