Mentoring Men for the Masters
104 King Arthur Drive, Wilmington, NC 28403

1. The Spread of Pornography - 2 Timothy 3:13 declares, “Evil men will grow worse and worse” in the end times.  This prophecy is being fulfilled now in the growth and profusion of Pornography.  A generation ago people still had a little shame about the use of Pornography.  Those who sought it had to seek for it under “the counter” of magazine shops or else visit posts in Times Square, New York or Las Vegas.  

 The word “Saved” is a very significant word among evangelical believers.  But what does this word mean?  The word saved implies that we are in GRAVE danger until we are SAVED.  The question is “Saved from what?”  For if saved, we were saved from something very dangerous - even deadly - SIN.  However, many profess to be “Saved” with no reference to sin whatsoever:

 The issue of Obama Health Care is the hottest issue in America today.  In fact this issue may determine the next President of the USA.  But in contrast God has a Spiritual “Health Care Plan We Can Believe In”, designed by God Himself, and which if followed would increase the health of millions and reduce the cost of Health Care billions of dollars until we could afford it.  

 If the Bible is not the very Word of God, the Bible itself lies because it emphatically claims to be just that.  In the Old Testament alone the words “God said,” or “the Word of the Lord came” occur nearly 4000 times  (700 in the first 5 books).  Thirteen hundred years later, the apostle wrote these words about the Bible, “All Scripture is God-breathed…” (2 Tim. 3:16).  The Apostle Peter wrote “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21).  Jesus Himself made the ultimate statement to His Father about the Bible, “Your Word is truth.” (John 17:17)[1]

My father taught me “A man is no better than his word.”  Neither is God, and “He is perfectly willing to lay His reputation on the line behind the veracity of His Word, but we should have solid and verifiable reasons to believe the Bible is really God’s Word.”[2]  There are 7 irrefutable reasons as I see it.

 There is no more intriguing and beneficial study in my judgment than the History of Satan.  In a day when many people deny the existence of Satan and others do not realize that he is much more than a “Pitchfork and a Pointy Tail,” the truth about Satan is especially needed.  So please note with me seven Great Stages in the Life of Satan:

 Perhaps the most Amazing Statement and Promise Jesus Ever made is found in Matthew 6:33, which in effect says, “PUT ME FIRST AND EVERYTHING ELSE WILL FALL IN PLACE.”  Every one of us is confronted with innumerable choices every minute of every day on this earth, but the question we should ask, “What is the most important priority?”  If you put it FIRST, every other single thing will fall in place.  If you fail to put the FIRST THING FIRST, then nothing will fall in place.  Your life will be in constant turmoil, frustrated, restlessness, failure, which describe the average life of the average guy on this planet.  The great preacher, Dr. Vance Havner, lived a generation ago, but he said to me prior to his death in 1983 - “Modern life can be summed up in three words:  HURRY, WORRY, BURY.”  But not the life of the obedient child of God.

 How many persons on  the earth will desire to do well in 2012?  All 7,000,000,000 of them and that includes you and me.  Then will everything have to go well and make sense for us to do well in 2012?  Absolutely not, for everything is not going to go well and make sense in the life of anyone of us in 2012.  So the question is, has anyone ever done well in life when nothing makes sense and everything went wrong?  Yes, two persons - Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Joseph.  You would say, “I’m not surprised to hear that Jesus did well under all circumstances for He was the Son of God and I cannot expect to emulate Him.”  Okay, but Joseph was a human like you and me and yet he did well every year he lived.

 We cannot think of Christmas without thinking of a Birth, a Miracle Birth, the Virgin Birth of Jesus, the Son of God.  While the Virgin Birth is paramount, there are six other Miracle Births mentioned in the Bible, making seven in all, whose impact upon humanity, history and even eternity are so enormous that we are justified in calling them “Miracle Births.” 

 Just suppose that you were a citizen of Planet Mars and you knew absolutely nothing about Christmas.  The citizens of Planet Mars raise money to send you to Planet Earth.  You arrive during the middle of December.  As you moved around over the earth, you witnessed the shopping spree, attended Christmas parties, watched television, went to Christmas parades, read Christmas cards and visited homes on Christmas Eve.  What impression would you get?

 Introduction:   Not even Santa’s Christmas list has everybody on it, for even He eliminates the “Naughty.”  As the popular song implies, “Santa Claus is coming to town.  He is making a list and checking it twice, he’s going to find out who’s “naughty” or “nice,” Santa Claus is coming to town.”  But our Great God, revealed by the coming of the Babe on the first Christmas, has included both the “naughty” and the “nice” on His Christmas list.  This glorious truth is shouted out in the most familiar verse of the 31,132 verses in the whole Bible:  “For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He (even) gave up His only-begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish – come to destruction, be lost – but have eternal (everlasting) life” – John 3:16 Amplified Bible.