Pastor Marc Bertrand

Flood, fire, famine and pestilence: Four Horsemen ride Revelation 18:8, KJV: "Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." What does Revelation 18:8 mean?. According to this verse, Babylon—a corrupt and ungodly culture or political entity—will end abruptly. Her destruction will be sudden, not gradual. It will be decisive and terrifying. In the end times, the demise of this symbolic Babylon will be as surprising and sudden as the death of King Belshazzar. He profaned the temple's sacred vessels, was opulent, immoral, and egotistical. However, while he and a thousand of his lords were partying, a hand appeared on the plaster of the palace wall. The terrifying sight caused him great alarm, and he sought someone to interpret the writing. After his wise men failed to interpret the writing, Daniel was fetched to do so. He announced that the writing spelled t...

RETURN TO GOD. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth. The Bible, the Word of God in its originally revealed form, is the Word of Truth. The great joy and responsibility of every Biblical student is to rightly divide God’s Word, because we only have the true Word of God to the extent that it is rightly divided. To rightly divide the Word, we must read it, study it, and put diligent effort into unders tanding it. As we do, we can show ourselves approved unto God as workmen who need not be ashamed. Everyone can divide the Word when they read it. The question is not whether we divide the Word. The question is whether we rightly divide it. I once heard a story of a man who said he could prove from the Bible that there is no God. He used Psalms 14:1 as his reference and quoted, “There is no God.” Psalms 14:1: …There is no God…. Pulled out of context and set by itself, the second section of this sentence certainly says, “There is no God.” But set in the context of the first part of the verse, i...

God’s Word Is Light In I John 1:5 we read that “…God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” God is Light, and His Word is also light. As we learn God’s Word and live accordingly, our lives will reflect the brilliance of God. The light of God’s Word that we shine forth overcomes the darkness of this world. God’s Word is light, and when we live in that light, we shine as lights in the world. The first recorded words of God are in Genesis 1:3. He said, “Let there be light.” And what happened? Verse 3 continues, “…and there was light.” God simply spoke it into being. God’s Word brought light into the situation. God’s Word overcame the darkness. Light shines in darkness, but darkness cannot overcome light. John 1:5: And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended [overcame] it not. When God said “Let there be light,” there was light! The darkness had to flee. The greatness of all that God has done and will do is to make light available to man. The light of God’s Word...

What Is True Faith in God? What is faith? Under comfortable environments, with our works going well and family lives being peaceful, many of us will have the faith to follow the Lord, actively reading the Bible and attending meetings; however, once something unpleasant happens, we will become weak immediately. For example, when we are facing living difficulties because of losing our jobs, when ou r families lose peace due to something against our wishes happening, or when we are always refused a new job in spite of our praying, we begin losing our faith in God. Then, in consideration of all these things, what is real faith exactly? As for this question, there are two passages of words that speak clearly, “What does faith refer to? Faith is the genuine belief and the sincere heart that humans should possess when they cannot see or touch something, when God’s work is not in line with human notions, when it is beyond human reach. This is the faith that I speak of. People are in need of f...

How to Grow in Faith - Life, Hope & Truth In real life, every time we face unfortunate events such as setbacks and illnesses, we may think that God has forsaken us and no longer protects us, and thereby sink into negativity and lose our faith in God. Yet as long as we pray to God in these situations and understand His will, our mistaken viewpoints will be turned around. In your belief in God, wh at do you expect to receive from Him? Do you want peace that is present regardless of time or place, or the blessings that you ask for? For everyone, the witnessing of marvelous grace is more popular than truth and sermons. It seems as if the Lord is forever the embodiment of grace, blessings, compassion, and mercy. And because of this, after we believe in God, we expend ourselves for Him with great enthusiasm, and are willing to follow Him all our lives. Then, there comes a day when God turns His face away from us and baptizes us in discipline, frustrations, diseases, and trials. At such ...

The Gospel. The entire Bible centers on a single, surprisingly simple theme: God loves you so much that He made a way to be forgiven for every sin, so you can spend eternity with Him. That’s the essence of the gospel, and the central subject of the Scriptures. The written Word of God is intended to help us understand this “good news.” By studying the Bible, we learn that each person needs to be s aved (Romans 3:23), each person can be saved (Romans 1:16), and God wants each person to be saved (2 Peter 3:9). What separates us from God is sin. No matter how good we think we are, every person is guilty of sin (1 John 1:10). Since God is absolutely perfect, no one deserves to spend eternity in heaven. Instead, we deserve to be separated from Him forever (Romans 5:16). No amount of effort, no good deeds, no money, no talent, no achievements are enough to take away this guilt (Isaiah 64:6). Fortunately, God doesn’t want us to be separated from Him, so He made a way to fix what’s broken (Joh...

What does Romans 5:1 mean? Romans 5 begins by describing some of the benefits that come with being declared righteous by God because of our faith in Christ. We have peace with God, and we stand in His grace. We rejoice both in the hope of God's glory and in our temporary suffering. We have hope that will not disappoint, because God has already proved His love for us. Paul then compares the work o f Adam in bringing sin and death into the world with the work of Christ in dying for sin in order to offer God's free gift of grace to all who believe. Romans 5 begins a new section of Paul's letter to the Christians in Rome. He has finished his argument, in chapters 1—4, that nobody can be made right with God by following the works of the law of Moses. This "justification" is impossible by works, because nobody follows the law well, let alone perfectly (Romans 3:10, 23). Human beings can only be declared righteous and escape God's angry judgment on our sin by faith ...

The Need of Righteousness John 16:8 said that the Holy Spirit will convict the world, not just of sin but also of righteousness. In other words, the world, which does not know what sin really is, does not know what true righteousness is, either. Unconverted people imagine that external morality will suffice. They desire not the righteousness of God but their own righteousness. They desire a righ teousness that comes from their outward acts, such as obedience to the law of God. But our acts of obedience to the law can never justify us before God. In Isaiah 64:6 the prophet describes all self-made righteous acts of the people of his day as “filthy rags.” Even our best religiously motivated self-perceived righteousness is in fact the opposite: unrighteousness. But the righteousness of Jesus is sufficient for us. It meets all the claims of the law of God. It counts with God the Father. And we can claim it for ourselves through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The righteousness which is demand...