Monday, August 3,
2015, 9:30 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “In Truth.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read 1 John 2 (Selected vv. NASB).
Light and Darkness
(vv. 3-17)
By
this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The
one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is
a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the
love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the
one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He
walked…
But
the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and
does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes…
Do
not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the
Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts;
but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
There are many people today who are teaching that God
requires nothing of us at all other than to “believe” in Jesus Christ, though
that “belief” is rarely defined. They tell people that all they have to do is
pray a prayer to receive Christ, but what it means to receive Christ into our
lives is also rarely explained. Those who pray the prayer are then told that
they now have their eternal life guaranteed and that nothing can ever take it
away from them, no matter how badly they sin from that point forward. Not many
are being told they have to repent (turn from their sins), or that they have to
obey Christ and his teachings, or that coming to faith in Jesus Christ means death
to sin and living to righteousness.
Yet, the Word of God teaches us the opposite of what these
people are being taught. It teaches us that we have come to know him if we keep
his commands. If we say we know him, but we do not do what his Word says, then
we are liars. If we hate our brethren, we are still in the darkness. If we take
pleasure in, long for, prefer, and embrace the world of sin, and enjoy doing
what is sinful, as the world does, God’s love is not in us.
Yet, I don’t believe this is speaking of living in sinless
perfection, for v. 1 says, “My little children, I am writing these things to
you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” No one could keep the law perfectly, and
thus we could not be saved by keeping the law, so Jesus died for our sins, so
that through faith in him we could be forgiven of our sins and made righteous
in God’s sight. Yet, faith in Jesus Christ does not mean we are not required to
do anything.
In Romans 8 we read that Jesus died that the righteous
requirements of the law might be fully met in us who walk no longer according
to the flesh, but who walk (conduct our lives) according to (in agreement with)
the Spirit. It says that if we walk (conduct our lives) according to the flesh,
we will die, but if by the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the flesh, we
will live (See: Ro. 8:1-14). Jesus said something similar to this, as recorded
for us in Luke 9:23-25. He said that if we want to come after him, we must deny
self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and self) and follow (obey) him.
He said if we want to hold on to our old lives (of living for sin and self), we
will lose them for eternity, but if we lose our lives (die to sin), we will
gain eternal life.
Many Antichrists (vv.
18-25)
Children,
it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now
many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour… I
have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do
know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who
denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the
Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one
who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you
which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides
in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.
This
is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.
An antichrist is anyone who is against Christ. These
antichrists could be ones who even profess to believe in Jesus, but by their
words and actions they deny him and his word, and they lead others to also deny
him and his Word. In fact, they can be much more effective in leading the
people of God astray if they make pretense at being shepherds of God’s sheep
and/or if they profess to be one of the fold. They are like the thieves and
robbers Jesus spoke of who enter the sheep pen by a way other than through Jesus
Christ. Jesus said that the thief comes only to steal and to destroy, but he
came to give us abundant life (Jn. 10). These thieves may not be ones who
physically leave the church gatherings, but they would be ones who desert and
who deviate from the true gospel of salvation.
I read a news article today about Obama’s new emissions
rules. If you have done much homework at all on the subject of climate change,
you may have come to the realization that “climate change” is a ruse, created
by the powers that rule the world. What they really mean by “climate change” is
a change in political climate, i.e. that a paradigm shift has taken place on
the global stage, and that involves this New World Order “Beast” conquering the
governments and people of the world in order to bring the people of this world
underneath a one-world government and religion. So, all this talk of climate
change is just a cover-up for their true agenda. Thus, the new rules have
little to do with combating global warming, but really have to do with combating
all opposing forces in order to bring them into compliance, whether through
deception or through physical force or intimidation.
In relation to the church, this global agenda being plotted
by people in positions of power globally is about destroying the church from
within through deception, and this has been going on a long while. Their goal is
to take the lifeless, unresponsive and/or inactive church of today, such as is
described in most of the letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3, and to set
a trap (snare) for it. Their goal is to get the church to accept the idea (or
belief) that nothing is required of them at all by God, i.e. that faith in Jesus
Christ involves no effort on their part at all, but that Jesus does it all. That
releases them to live however they want.
Now, that has elements of truth to it, for we are not saved
by works of the flesh, and there is not anything we can do to earn or to
deserve our salvation. It is by God’s grace, through faith, that we are saved.
It is a gift from God. Yet, scripture teaches that Jesus died that we might die
to sin and live to righteousness; and that we might no longer live for ourselves,
but for him who gave himself up for us, and that takes effort on our part, but the
effort involved is in submission to Christ, surrender to God’s will, and
obedience to God’s word, and all in the power and working of the Spirit of God
within us. They want you to believe that you can pray a prayer and have heaven
guaranteed, but continue in sin, because they know they are lying to you, and
that they are giving you a false hope, and that is what Satan wants. He wants
you to keep on sinning, thinking you will still go to heaven.
Not only are they convincing many people that faith is
nothing more than an acknowledgment of Jesus’ gift of salvation to us, and that
no labor at all is required of them, but they are using these dead or nearly
dead churches to entertain the world, and to make the world feel good about the
church and to have fun there, so they will want to return to the meetings.
There was a time when my husband and I got caught up in this to a certain
degree. We felt we had to provide games, do advertising, spend money on stuff
to give away to people, have look-alike T-shirts, provide snacks and drinks,
have the right atmosphere, and utilize marketing gimmicks in order to draw
people to our Bible studies, so people would want to come back. But, for all
the time, effort and money we spent on all that, we only gained one person to
our group who was not invited by someone in the group, and not one person came
to Christ as a result of it all, either.
I remember well the day the Lord Jesus spoke to me through a
song which said, “It's all about you, Jesus. I'm sorry Lord, for the thing I've
made it” (The Heart of Worship – M. W. Smith). He was reminding me that it is
all about him, but that we have made it about all this other stuff that has
nothing to do with leading people to Jesus Christ. He kept taking me back to the
cross of Christ and away from all this other stuff. And, eventually, my eyes
were opened to see all the deception that was going on, and how Satan has
tricked the church into thinking that they have to entertain the world in order
to reach the world, but for what? So many people need to have heart
transformations of the Spirit of God away from living for sin and self to
following our Lord Jesus in obedience and in surrender to his will for our
lives, yet so many of these churches have been caught in the devil’s trap, and
are entertaining sinners rather than leading them to repentance and genuine
faith in Jesus Christ. They have bought into the lie that “love” means
tolerance of sin, and not offending people with the truth about sin and eternal
punishment.
The goal of this global agenda is to do away with what
divides us as the people of this world, i.e. to do away with the gospel as
taught by Jesus and by his apostles, because it divides people into saved and
unsaved, and because it teaches repentance and obedience as required for
salvation, and that only serves to divide us further. They want all religions
to come together in unity, which means we must be tolerant of all faiths, and
we must not do anything to offend others or to make them feel uncomfortable. And,
they are speeding up this agenda both in the church and outside the church. So,
for those of us who stand on the Word of truth, and who do not compromise the
truth in order to appease the world, we are being targeted for extinction. That
has become quite obvious through the government’s responses to news events,
which they helped orchestrate in order to advance their agenda. They have been
building a case to target those they term “extremists,” and they have made
their agenda to unite all people of the world and to demolish all which divides
us quite clear.
Abide in Him (vv.
26-29)
These
things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As
for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have
no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all
things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide
in Him.
Now,
little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence
and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is
righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of
Him.
Yet, we are not to be shaken in our faith by all of this. We
are to continue to abide in Jesus, and to have his words abide in us, and to
let it continue to teach us in the way we should go. And, in the power of the
Spirit within us, we are to practice righteousness, i.e. we are to conduct our
lives according to the Spirit who lives within us, and no longer according to
the flesh. We must resist Satan, flee temptation, and draw near to God.
In Truth / An
Original Work / January 10, 2012
Fellowshipping with my Lord, Savior, King.
He is Lord of all; Lord of ev’rything.
He is with me through ev’ry hour of day,
List’ning to me speak, as I humbly pray.
He cares for my needs,
and He intercedes for me,
‘cause He loves me in ev’ry way.
Obey His commands, and do all He says.
Sitting at His feet, daily in His word,
Let His word speak to me in ev’ry way,
Giving comfort and healing through each day.
Oh, how Jesus loves,
And He cares for you,
Which is why He died for our sins, in truth.
Love our Lord God, Savior, and King of kings.
Worship Him in truth, for He reigns supreme.
He created us with a plan in mind
For us to be His servants, and Him mind.
Follow Him in truth;
Go where’er He leads.
Share His love with others, and their needs meet.
Others: their needs meet.
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