Category: Christian

There’s No Condemnation for Sin but There Are Consequences

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian7 Comments

Part 4 in the series “Knowing the Truth About Sin Will Set You Free”

Message delivered to ZChurch.life August 19, 2023

In part one of this series, we learned that Christ offered one sacrifice for all sin for all time and that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in him. If you really get that message, it might leave you wondering, “why not just go ahead and sin then?” In part two, we’ll answer that question. Learn a New Testament definition of sin and discover how to walk free of the corruption and calamity in this world.

PREFACE

The Old Testament law system is based on works.

New Testament Christianity is based on a free gift.

Most of Christendom has unwittingly mixed the two, receiving salvation by grace, then thinking we have to keep it by works. It’s nothing new, Paul dealt with it in his day too (Galatians 3:3).

In part one of this series we learned that:

  • Christ offered one sacrifice for sins forever (Hebrews 10:12).
  • That sacrifice so paid the price for all sin for all time that there’s nothing left that can ever again condemn anyone who is in Christ (Romans 8:1).
  • Therefore, the Old Testament law system has been made obsolete (Hebrews 8:13), nailed to the cross, and taken out of the way (Colossians 2:14).
  • There is no longer a works based system in effect under which men can be judged.
  • We are either condemned for not believing in Christ (John 3:18), or there is no condemnation to us if we are in Christ (Romans 8:39).

Does that mean there is now no such thing as sin?

Continue reading “There’s No Condemnation for Sin but There Are Consequences” →

An American Covenant

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian, Political3 Comments

When the expedition that founded Jamestown, Virginia, landed at Cape Henry, expedition chaplain Robert Hunt offered this prayer.

“We do hereby dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains, and may this Land, along with England, be Evangelist to the World. May all who see this Cross, remember what we have done here, and may those who come here to inhabit join us in this Covenant and in this most noble work that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled.”

As I heard that prayer read aloud in church this past Sunday, it occurred to me that God honored it. Most of the Bible printing, evangelizing, and mission work that has gone out around the world has come from America.

However, one may be tempted to look at America’s current political, moral, and spiritual ills and think Chaplain Hunt’s prayer has failed us and become a mere relic of history. I say quite the opposite. 

The continued fulfillment of that prayer does not depend upon who is in the White House, the general morality of society, or even a majority of the population. The continued fulfillment of that prayer depends upon each of us who is willing to take it up and make it our own, praying:

“Lord, I join myself with Chaplain Hunt and those of his expedition in the covenant they made with you over 400 years ago. Regardless what others may do, as for me, with the resources of the land that you put in my hand and under my power, I will mark this land deep and wide with the gospel of Jesus Christ and take the Kingdom of God to all the earth.”

No Condemnation for Sin

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian5 Comments

Part 1 in the series “Knowing the Truth About Sin Will Set You Free”

Message delivered to ZChurch.life June 10, 2023

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Knowing the truth about sin will make you free – free from condemnation for sin and free from bondage to sin. First, we need to know the truth of what sin really is. Sin isn’t just a list of dos and don’ts; our spiritual standing with God isn’t just a balance sheet of credits and debits. All your debts have been paid, and nothing more can ever be laid to your charge. But that’s only where the story of life in Christ begins.

Message Outline

WHAT IS SIN?

Is it a system of dos and don’t? If so, is it just the top ten? But there’s a bunch of other commandments in the Bible. Then there’s all the things that our religious traditions have taught us to think are sin. There ends up being more dos and don’ts than a person can keep track of, so how do you identify what’s sin and what isn’t?

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

One definition for the word translated sin is “to miss the mark.” The mark is the glory of God. Anything outside the circle of God’s perfect glory in the center of the target is sin.

If you want to live by a system of dos and don’ts, then the do is to do all the fullness of the glory of God, and the don’t is don’t do anything inconsistent with the perfect glory of God.

Continue reading “No Condemnation for Sin” →

Question Everything… Even God

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, Christian2 Comments

Message delivered to ZChurch, March 11, 2023

It has been said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” God says that His people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Whether the deficit stems from ignorance of the facts or the error of thinking a thing to be true that just ain’t so, the results are just as deadly. You can avoid a world of hurt by learning to question preconceptions and confirm the truth that will keep you from the pitfalls of the enemy.

MESSAGE OUTLINE

Question Authority?

There used to be a bumper sticker that said “Question Authority.” It was understood to mean “question the government,” or “rebel against the established order.”

I went from not questioning the government, to questioning some taxes and regulations, to questioning unconstitutional acts of government, to questioning where government got its authority from, to discovering government got its authority from we the people but then questioning where we got our authority from.

Continue reading “Question Everything… Even God” →

In the Name of Jesus

On By Robert W. PeckIn Blog, ChristianLeave a comment

This message was presented to ZChurch.life, August 6, 2022 (see full service at https://youtu.be/ym2nYxgiqLI)

Most Christians are accustomed to ending their prayers “in Jesus’ name, Amen.” Many have even been told that we are to cast out devils and heal the sick “in Jesus’ name.” But what does it really mean to do these things in Jesus’ name? Is the name “Jesus” the Christian equivalent of a magic word? Is it like saying, “abracadabra, devil go away… in Jesus’ name?” Do we automatically get what we ask for in prayer simply by uttering the sound of Jesus’ name?

It may surprise you to know that there is no power in the mere letters, syllables, and sound of the name “Jesus.” Nevertheless, all authority both in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus and made available to the new covenant church through Him.

Learn where the real power of the name of Jesus lies and how to access it in this message by ZChurch elder, Robert Peck.

___________________

In the Name of Jesus

Most Christians are accustom to ending their prayers with “in Jesus name, amen.” Many have even been told that we are to cast out devils and heal the sick “in Jesus name.” We get this from passages like:

Continue reading “In the Name of Jesus” →

The Normal Christian Life

On By Robert W. PeckIn ChristianLeave a comment

Message delivered to ZChurch May 21, 2022

The normal Christian life isn’t just a checklist of things you do or don’t do, nor is it a matter of being an “average” Christian, and it certainly isn’t about being ordinary and boring. The normal Christian life was designed to be supernatural by nature and it cannot be lived by natural means. To live the normal Christian life requires a conscious choice to feed, exercise, and develop our inner man in spiritual things so we can grow up and walk with God in His supernatural ways of knowing, being, and doing.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

1 Corinthians 2:9-14 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Ephesians 2:6 And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Galatians 5:16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

Matthew 7:7-8 (AMP) Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened.

What Love Really Is

On By Robert W. PeckIn ChristianLeave a comment

Message delivered to ZChurch February 19, 2022

Many Christians struggle with the idea of loving others. In great part, this is due to our having confused love with an emotional feeling. Men especially struggle with love as they’re just not very emotional. However, real love is so easy even a man can do it, yet it’s so far beyond mere emotion that not even a woman can do it by emotion alone. Real love – the God kind of love – is tied to the value the Creator has placed on His creation and our commitment to treating others according to that value. Discover the value God has placed on both you and your neighbor and how that knowledge compels us to care for our fellow man’s well-being as the object of God’s love.
___________________

NOTES

Mark 12:29-31 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

1 John 4:7 Beloved let us love one another for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

Love is the value we place on a person or thing. Love values to the point of treasuring and becoming devoted in faithful allegiance to the object of value so that we seek the good of and care for the well being of another. The God kind of love begins when we value another equal to or greater than our self. ~ Robert Peck

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”

Matthew 6:21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

True love compels to action that seeks another’s well-being, and that seeks another’s well being at any cost ~ Robert Peck

John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Revelation 2:4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

Romans 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The Entrance of God’s Word Brings Light

On By Robert W. PeckIn ChristianLeave a comment

Message Delivered to ZChurch December 4, 2021

On a planet plunged into darkness, God has a plan for the restoration of all things. Through the teaching, preaching, prophesying, and praying of God’s words, the church has a part to play in reintroducing light and displacing the darkness.

NOTES

Psalm 119:130 (NKJV) The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.

(Break open your words, let the light shine out…)

John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.”

Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Isaiah 55:10-11 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

Acts 3:21 (Jesus Christ) ….whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

Ask: “Lord, what words of Your Word, that You have authorized for earth, do You want us speaking into earth now?”

Healing is the Natural Effect of the Creator

On By Robert W. PeckIn Articles, Blog, Christian2 Comments

“Healing is the natural effect of the Creator coming in contact with His creation.”

This thought actually came to me several years ago. My local church has a Thanksgiving testimony service the night before Thanksgiving Day. One of the guys shared about praying for another guy at the men’s prayer meeting and how the other guy was healed. To be honest, my flesh wanted to recoil a little and pridefully think to itself, “Why did that happen for him? He’s not that super-spiritual, gifted, or anointed.” But, on the other hand, I suppose the carnal mind thinks that healing has to be something spectacular that can only happen after a week of fasting to work up enough “super-faith.”

I believe the Spirit prompted me in that moment to realize that supernatural healing is the most natural thing there is. It’s what happens by nature whenever the Creator is allowed to come in contact with His creation. Healing is something that can occur whenever the smallest act of child-like faith opens the door wide enough for God to come in and come in contact with His creation. It’s actually impossible for anything in creation to come in contact with its Creator and not be saved, delivered, healed, redeemed, renewed, restored, and made whole.

I’m all for growing in faith, and it’s something I’m seeking for myself. However, I think we err when we get the idea that to receive healing, we have to be so super-spiritual that sparks fly off us when we walk into a room. Instead, I perceive it’s more important to simply get enough doubt and unbelief out of the way so that simple, child-like faith can open the door and let the Creator come in, have contact with His creation, and do what He naturally does.