Just a Thought VII

By Bob Gray, Sr

This series of books are written to provide a daily thought from Scripture in order to reinforce applying Scriptural principles for daily tasks. Each chapter is a book in itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bob Gray, Sr
• Release date: May 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476498393

Bob Gray, Sr

Dr. Bob Gray Sr. pastored for 33 years and has been an ordained Baptist preacher for 40 years. He pastored the Longview Baptist Temple for 29 years. He became their pastor in 1980. Since then the church’s attendance grew from a low of 159 to averaging 2,041 in 2008. Dr. Gray retired March 1, 2009 and LBT called his son Dr. Bob Gray II to be their pastor. The last year Dr. Gray pastored LBT they baptized 4,466 converts. In his 29 years of pastorate at LBT they had 1,116,887 people who trusted Christ for payment of their sins. 253,042 walked the aisles professing faith in Christ and 164,457 of those followed the Lord in baptism. LBT was the number two church in America in professions of faith and baptisms. $ 9, 328,835.69 was given to missions and $ 335, 584.81 to help the less fortunate in those 29 years. Dr. Gray had 506 trust Christ through his personal soul winning with 153 of those following the Lord in baptism in 2009. In his 29 years in Texas he has preached in every state in the union except for North Dakota plus 17 foreign countries. He has personally led 14, 957 to Christ and had 4,399 of those follow the Lord in Baptism in those 29 years. Under Dr. Gray’s leadership the ministries of LBT developed to include the following: TEXAS BAPTIST COLLEGE- a four-year Christian college LONGVIEW BAPTIST ACADEMY- A Christian school for bus kids INDEPENDENT BAPTIST WORLD MISSIONS- A local church mission board NATIONAL TEEN CONVENTION- A nation wide conference for teens NATIONAL SOUL WINNING CLINIC- 29 years of training pastors & workers THE BAPTIST MAGAZINE- 11 years of publishing During Dr. Gray’s ministry at LBT the bus ministry expanded by purchasing a 15,000 square foot building on Cotton street for maintenance of the buses. The church grew to owning 42 buses and operating 30 Sunday school bus routes. He led the church in four major building projects plus the purchasing of numerous properties. The church’s property value grew to over 17 million dollars. Dr. Gray attended the Galesburg-Augusta grade school and high school system of Galesburg, Michigan, and graduated in 1963. He was an All-Conference football player and second team All-State tackle. He attended Michigan State University 1963-67 and was employed in 1967 by Fisher Body Division of General Motors for seven years in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He attended Hyles-Anderson College in Crown Point, Indiana, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1976. He was employed by Hyles-Anderson College while working on his Masters Degree. Dr. Gray has received doctorates from Hyles-Anderson College, Tri-State College, and Texas Baptist College. He has authored 10 books as of this writing. Dr. and Mrs. Lee Ann Gray have been married for 45 years and have four children with ten grandchildren. Both of their sons are in the ministry. Dr. Bob Gray II was installed as pastor of LBT on March 1, 2009. Dr. Scott Gray is a faculty member at Hyles-Anderson College. The two daughters, Kim and Karen, are active in the ministry and personal soul winners. Kim is married to Mark Simmons, a deacon and Sunday school teacher at LBT. Karen is married to Tim Forgy, a Texas Baptist College graduate, and is employed as Youth Pastor for LBT.

Book preview

Just

A

Thought VII!

By Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

Solve Church Problems

P.O. Box 150484 ~ Longview, Texas 75615 ~ [phone]

IndependetBaptist.com

©2012-Bob Gray, Sr.

Published by Bob Gray Sr. at Smashwords

This book is also available in print at www.solvechurchproblems.com

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

©2012 Solve Church Problems

ISBN:978-1-60208-294-6

Printed in the USA by

FBC Publications & Printing

Ft. Pierce FL 34982

www.fbcpublications.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There have been many dear mentors, colleagues, friends, church members, staff members, and family who have contributed greatly to my ministry and to this manuscript. Their encouragement has been unspeakably endless. I am approaching my thirty-ninth year in the ministry and have had the wonderful privilege to pastor thirty-three of those years with ministries averaging from ninety to ten thousand members. Every friendship has been precious to me. However, there is an unsung group of heroines who have often gone unnoticed here on earth, but certainly will not go unnoticed at the Judgment Seat of Christ. The Lord has blessed me with some of the most talented lady staff members a pastor could ever have had the privilege of working with side by side. Their contribution to this manuscript cannot and will not be overlooked. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for these dear ladies who, throughout the years, have made my work appear better than it really was.

*Mrs. Annette Martin *Miss Debbie Billadeau

*Mrs. Jennifer Petticoffer *Mrs. Diana Faye Ayres

*Mrs. Lu Anne Spencer *Mrs. Cheryl Zinn

*Mrs. Pam Smith *Mrs. Crystal Matney

*Mrs. Amy Walters *Mrs. Mary Robinson

*Mrs. Karen Forgy *Mrs. Martha Duckett

*Mrs. Stacy Freeman *Mrs. Nicole Clapp

*Mrs. Karen Mendez *Mrs. Debbie Kilpatrick

*Mrs. Joy Bleak *Mrs. Heather Alderson

*Mrs. Elaine Howie *Mrs. Charity

A CORRUPT SACRIFICE

Malachi 1:14, But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the LORD a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

If I were to give a summary statement of the Bible and what it is, I would say the Scripture is a book about sin and what to do about it! The Scriptures start off with sin, and throughout its entirety the Bible tells us what to do with sin. At the end of the Bible we are told where man will spend eternity based on what he or she does about those sins! For the wages of sin is death.

Throughout the Scriptures they tell us we will have Heaven on earth or Hell on earth, as a redeemed child of God, based on what we do with sin. There are two Heavens and two Hells. One is for eternity and never ends, while one is for a lifetime and ends. Some people, the saved, are living in Hell on their way to Heaven while some people, unsaved, are living in Heaven on their way to Hell. Some of the unsaved are living in Hell on their way to Hell, while a remnant of the redeemed are living in Heaven on their way to Heaven, and all of this is in line with what man does with sin.

God’s argument with Israel, in Malachi 1:14, was concerning sin and the sacrifice. The only thing you must settle in order to go to Heaven is the sin question! One can settle every other question in life, but if one does not settle the sin question, then man will miss Heaven and go to Hell for an eternity.

Man can settle the church question and still go to Hell at death.

Man can settle the baptism question and still go to Hell at death.

Man can settle the communion question and still go to Hell at death.

Man can settle the worldliness question and still go to Hell at death.

However, man cannot go to Heaven without settling the sin question. The Scriptures are given to man so man will know what to do about sin and its cure! God’s big argument with Israel was concerning that cure! When Israel sinned, and when God initiated the great type of Calvary and of Jesus called the Passover, God gave specific instructions concerning the sacrifice that would be acceptable to God!

This whole concept of the Bible is this, Sin must be paid for! Man must pay for it or man must find an acceptable suitable sacrifice to pay for sins. God told Moses to tell the people that on the tenth day of the first month they were to choose a sacrifice.

First, God wanted that sacrifice to be a lamb.

Second, God wanted that sacrifice to be a male lamb.

Third, God wanted that sacrifice to be a male lamb without blemish.

Fourth, God wanted that sacrifice to be a male lamb without blemish and observed for four days.

Fifth, God wanted man to put his hands on that lamb to picture the transfer of sins to that lamb.

Sixth, God wanted the lamb slain and the blood captured.

Seventh, God wanted the blood of the slain lamb to be applied to the doorposts and lintels of the house.

All of this was pointing to Jesus, Who would someday be God’s only acceptable Sacrifice for man’s sin. Not only were they to choose a lamb, a male lamb, a male lamb without blemish, and a male lamb without blemish that was observed for four days, but also they had to literally lay their hands on its head to symbolically picture Jesus Christ as man’s only acceptable Sacrifice for sin by God.

The whole issue here is the sin question! One may turn over a new leaf, but it will do no good without settling the sin question. One may join every church in town, and it will not suffice without settling the sin question. One may confess sins in a telephone booth to one who needs his own confessional booth, but until the sin question is addressed, it will do no good. One may take the Lord’s Supper every week and it will not accomplish any good without settling the sin question.

In Exodus chapter 12, the great Passover chapter, the Death Angel passed over and the Death Angel took the firstborn of every family that refused to apply the shed blood to their doorposts and lintels of their house. The result? Good people died while bad people lived because the issue was not goodness or badness. The issue was the applied, shed blood of the acceptable sacrifice to God. Church members died and church members lived because the issue was not church membership, but was the shed blood applied? People who took communion died while people who did not take communion lived, because the issue was not communion, but at issue was this question; was the shed blood applied?

God’s plan has been centered on the sin question, that there must be an innocent, acceptable substitute for man’s sins.

Here is what was happening in the book of Malachi! There was a group of people who did not obey God’s law and God’s instructions concerning the sacrifice for sin. Maybe someone chose a female lamb, or a different kind of animal, or maybe a male lamb with an illness, or they chose a lamb that was a male that had some kind of a wound, or maybe they did not observe the lamb for four days.

Please understand when God said, Without blemish He meant Without blemish! However, the people were bringing the lambs that were not good to eat. They were sickly lambs that were not going to live, anyway. Maybe it was a lamb with an awful disease to soon cause death. They would bypass the male lamb without blemish and bring a diseased, dying lamb to offer on the altar to God.

Thus, God writes the book of Malachi to His people telling them that the lambs they were bringing were not acceptable to Him. Likewise, they were bringing the wrong kind of bread and putting polluted bread on the Table of Shewbread. God said, I cannot and will not accept that kind of polluted bread or corrupt offering.

God dedicated an entire book of the Bible to His people about a lamb that was sick being offered, a blind lamb, or a crippled lamb and God said, That lamb is not acceptable because it is corrupt! Why must it be a lamb? Because it pictures Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. Why must it be a male lamb, a male lamb without blemish, and a male lamb without blemish observed for four days? Because it pictured the coming Messiah! Why must it be a male lamb without blemish observed for four days whose shed blood is applied on the doorposts and lintels? Because it represents Jesus Christ!

Jesus is our perfect, sinless, male Lamb Who was killed, Whose blood was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat in Heaven, and is the Substitute for all of the sins of the redeemed. It is not just the shed blood of the Lamb of God, but, also, the applied blood of the Lamb of God that saves a man’s soul from Hell! A dead, male lamb will not do the job! The blood of that lamb must be applied in order to satisfy the sin question!

On that Day of Atonement, when the innocent sacrifice was made, the High Priest would take the blood of the innocent lamb and go inside of the Holy of Holies to sprinkle that particular blood on the Mercy Seat. If that blood had stayed out on the Brazen Altar, the High Priest could not have hollered, It is finished! The result would be no atonement, because God would not accept it without the shed blood being applied.

hat can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Mankind’s hope for Heaven, and the answer to the sin question, is an acceptable sacrifice in the presence and the sight of Almighty God. Remember, the sacrifice pictured Jesus, which means Jesus must be virgin born in order to acceptable to God.

John the Baptist, on the banks of the Jordan, pointed to Jesus. He did not say, Behold the example to the world, or Behold the King of kings, or Behold the Lord of lords, but he did say, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

God comes to His people in the days of Malachi and says, You have corrupted My altar by bringing blind animals, sick animals, and dying animals. God also comes to the liberals of our day and says, You have polluted and corrupted My altar because you are preaching a Saviour who is not virgin born. Literally, another Jesus!

If Jesus is not virgin born, then He is not a Lamb without blemish. And if He is not a Lamb without blemish, He cannot save the soul of one single person. God says to the liberals of our day, You have polluted and corrupted My altar. If the seed of a Roman soldier conceived Jesus, then He is not an acceptable Sacrifice. If Jesus was born to an adulteress, He is not an acceptable Sacrifice. If Jesus committed one sin, He is not an acceptable Sacrifice.

Many will not like what I am about to write, but that has never stopped me before. The writers and publishers who are responsible for other versions of the Scriptures, that lead the reader to the conclusion that Jesus Christ was merely born of a young woman, are polluting the altar. Those who attack the preserved inspiration of the English King James Bible are polluting the altar. They are also liberals, in the clearest sense, for when you attack the Written Word you are attacking the Living Word.

Jesus, the Living Word, is still alive and Jesus, the Written Word, is still alive. To infer any other thought is an attack on the Lord Jesus Christ being without blemish. If the Living Word is without blemish, then it only makes sense that the Written Word must also be without blemish. Liberals do not like that thought! Unfortunately, we have so-called fundamentalist who are offended at being called liberal while doing the same thing as the liberals do in attacking Jesus Christ the Living Word via attacking the Written Word. No difference!

Think about this for a minute. If we are saved by His life, as Romans 5:10 says, then there has to be a Written Word that is also alive, breathing, and inspired, in order to keep the redeemed saved. What a fascinating thought! Anyone who says differently is a LIBERAL!

Jesus’ hands never took anything they