Grace Fellowship Baptist Church

Passages showing that God always goes before His people. Exodus 13:21, 23:23, 32:34, Deuteronomy 1:30, 9:3, 31:3, 8, and from the New Testament: John 10:2

God did not pass by or skip over the houses with the blood, He actually leaped over the doors of those houses that had blood on them to protect all the first within from the destroyer, so that those who were within those bloodstained houses were protected under the shadow of God's wings.

By faith, Moses, when he had come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. For he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the riches of Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible."

In Joseph "mentioning" the departing of the children of Israel from Egypt, it wasn't as if he said, oh let me mention this to you. No, beloved, what he was telling them was, you are not to root down in Egypt, this is not your home. Live here as a departing people. This is how we are to live our Christian lives in this present world, as a people who will be departing from it!

What a lovely picture of God's kindness to us for Jesus' sake!

At the beginning of Mark 13, Jesus' disciples asked Him two questions. In this passage, Jesus answers their questions.

In this passage, Jacob bestows the birthright blessing of his house upon Joseph in his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

In this study of the marks of a true church, we must know that there are no perfect churches on the earth, just as there are no perfect Christians. But that does not mean that we shouldn't strive in every way, with the Holy Scriptures and the Spirit of God to gather as a true church here on the earth. First, a true church is made up of a regenerate membership, meaning it is made of of saved persons or saints. The second mark is, love. (Ref. 1 Corinthians 13:1-7, 13). We should be a loving people and we should show the love of Christ to any who would visit our gathering. The third mark is faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we read of Isaac's faith, when he was dying, when he blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come, it's initially difficult to see Isaac's faith in how this whole situation unfolded. Because Isaac thought he was blessing Esau, when he was actually conferring the birthright blessing upon Jacob.

After Jesus departed the temple, the apostles spoke of the amazing stones of the temple. They were in awe of the temple and buildings. But Jesus told them, in the days to come, it would be leveled to the ground and destroyed.

Deborah exalts the LORD and His power in the victory of Barack over Sisera. But she also wrote about how this happened in Israel, their sin and idolatry caused all this oppression to come upon them, just like it will do in our lives when we sin.

In John 8:56, Jesus told the caviling Jews, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." This, I believe teaches us that Abraham saw a lot more about Christ than we may think. It would be, in this the most difficult trial of Abraham's life, that God would show Abraham much more about that Man whom he rejoiced to see!

These all died in faith, not having received the promises. Who were these? Abraham, Sara, Isaac, Jacob, and all of the OT saints listed in Hebrews 11. In this text, we are able to see into Abraham's and these other OT saints faith, and we are able to see that they ultimately looked afar off to the promise of the Seed (or that Man) that God promised would come to save them from their sins, and from this present evil world.

In Judges 5, we read Deborah's song after Barak's victory over Sisera. In this song, we read of Deborah's thanks to the LORD, because it was the LORD who had gotten Barak the victory. It is a lesson for us that we ought to be a people of thanksgiving to the LORD for all that He does for us in our lives! The LORD is worthy of our praise and thanksgiving!

After God saves a sinner, it is critical for that former sinner, now saint of God to be under the authority, protection, care, and under-shepherding of a local New Testament church. The local New Testament Church is the means that God has provided to feed, nurture, and care for His people. Jesus said, I will build by church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

You will often hear naysayers. who will criticize the church and Christianity saying there is too much hypocrisy in them. But there has always been hypocrites in the church and among professing Christians, it's not something new, today we see that it existed in Jesus day. In this text, Jesus rebuked the hypocrisy of the most learned among the people, the scribes of Israel. They were supposed to be shepherds to the people, but they were not.

With Deborah, Barak went forth to the battle. He would not go to battle without her. And the honor of this victory would go to a woman, but not Deborah, but to Jael.

Although Sara struggled to believe the promise of God, in the end, she believed and trusted in the faithfulness of God to give her strength and the ability to have a son with Abraham her husband, when he was 100 years old and she was 90 years old.

After no one dared to ask Jesus any more questions, Jesus then asked them as question. References Isaiah 11: 1-2, Psalm 110:1, Jeremiah 23:5-6

Abraham's great faith in his God. He is the father of our faith and we are to walk in the steps of Abraham and emulate him in our Christian lives.

By faith is written at least 16 times in this 11th chapter of Hebrews. We must be very careful that we glorify not these Old Testament saints, but God, who deserves all of the glory and honor in granting each of them that faith which we so admire. Faith is the gift of God to all whom God saves! Salvation is of the LORD! And yet, once God has graciously given to us faith, now it's ours, and God expects us to live by it. The just shall live by faith.

One of the most important things we do as Christians is pray! This doesn't mean we are constantly on our knees in prayer, but rather, that we continue in prayer throughout each day to our heavenly Father.