Romans 15:30-33 ESV
I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
There are many people today who are opposed to the gospel of
Jesus Christ and whose goal it is to destroy the gospel and its messengers.
But, they are not blatantly so, but deceptively so. For, many of them give an
outward appearance of righteousness and of following after God while they twist
the scriptures to their advantage in order to tear apart the truth to destroy
it, and in order to discredit those who are proclaiming the truth, too.
So, these are people who have studied the scriptures and who
can probably quote chapter and verse by heart. But, their goal is not to learn
more about the Lord so that they can follow him with their lives, but for them
it is like studying the enemy so that they can find ways to use his own words
against him, like the Pharisees often did with Jesus, for they were continually
looking for ways to trip him up with his words, and this is still happening
today.
For, they are opening up the scriptures to say things the
scriptures do not teach, for they take scriptures out of context and/or they
twist them to say something they don’t really say.
So, they basically undress the gospel of its God-ordained boundaries,
and they open it wide to permit “believers” in Jesus to continue on in their
sinful addictions. They remove God’s corrections, and they open wide the gospel
to become a love feast of the devil, and not of God, where “believers” in Jesus
can continue in all sorts of evil.
And, then they demonize the true gospel and its messengers
so that they make what is evil appear righteous, and what is righteous appear
evil. And, they are very skillful at what they do, too, and believable, and
many people are being led astray by their hypocrisies and by their deceptions
and manipulations of truth.
For, they are campaigning heavily right now to prove that
those who still hold to the tenets of the faith, and who are still proclaiming
death to sin and living to righteousness, that they are evil, i.e. that they
are hateful, bigoted, intolerant and “extreme.” So, they will find scriptures,
too, out of context, to support what they are trying to prove, and in order to
stop the spread of the truth of the gospel from going forward.
So, they are turning their backs on their own people, too,
whom they once claimed to support and love, and are betraying them. So, we need
to be praying for one another in these matters, for our mutual encouragement
and strengthening in the Lord in these troubled times.
Romans 16:17-20 ESV
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
So, we need to realize that this is happening. And, for us
who live in the USA, we need to understand that this is happening in our own
nation big time, primarily with regard to free speech on the internet.
For, there is in the works a plan to get centralized
regulations with regard to “hate speech” on the internet, or to what they
regard as “extremist speech,” in particular. For, they want to rein in all “extremist”
speech, which includes the proclamation of the true gospel in its fullness.
For, the cheap grace gospel, which is adulterated, fleshly,
worthless, variable, without boundaries, and which dances around the truth,
i.e. which denies and evades it, and which keeps people trapped in their sinful
addictions, repeating the same sins over and over again, is in a leading and
dominant position on the internet.
So, those who are proclaiming this cheap grace gospel are
leading people to believe that “putting on Christ” is nothing more than a
surface level acknowledgment or acceptance of his grace. No repentance, no
obedience and no submission to Christ is required under the cheap grace gospel.
So, they are also in the process of removing from the
internet the competition and the opposition to their message, which is why what
is coming is going to be internet controls set in place to restrain the
teaching of the true gospel. And, they are going to be globally enforced
eventually, for this is the goal, the plan, to suppress the truth and to
advance the lies so that people will reject the truth and believe the lies, for
this is of Satan.
So, we need to be in prayer for one another within the body
of Christ, but particularly for those who are proclaiming the gospel of
repentance, that they will be unhindered in the sharing of truth, and that God
will open people’s hearts and minds to receive the truth, too, for the days are
evil, and there are so many liars and deceivers leading the masses astray.
So, too, we need to pray for the lies to be exposed for what
they are and the truth to be revealed for the truth that it is so that blinded
eyes will be opened and so many will be saved before our Lord returns for his
bride.
Romans 16:25-27 ESV
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
The cheap grace gospel changes no one. It delivers no one
out of slavery to sin, nor does it free people to walk righteously before God.
So, it has no power to save anyone from their sins or to promise them heaven as
their eternal destiny. For, it is all smokes and mirrors intended to deceive the
masses into rejecting the gospel according to Jesus, and as was taught by the
NT apostles. For, it is of Satan, not of God.
For, the true gospel, which is able to save from sin, instructs
us to say “NO!” to ungodliness and worldly passions (fleshly lusts) and to live
self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we wait for Christ’s return (Tit.
2:11-14).
The true gospel, as well, demands death to sin and living to
righteousness, all in the power of God at work within our lives. It demands we
forsake our former lives of living for sin and self, and that we now walk
humbly before our God in surrender to his will and purposes for our lives (Rom.
6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; Eph. 4:17-24; Gal. 5:19-21; Gal. 6:7-8; 1 Jn. 1:5-9).
And, this is because Jesus died on that cross, not just to
forgive us our sins so we can escape hell, and so we can go to heaven one day,
but in order that we might die with him to sin and live with him to
righteousness. He redeemed us, i.e. he bought us back for God with his blood
that we may now be God’s possession, and that our lives would no longer be our
own to be lived how we want, but that we would now honor God with our lives (1
Pet. 2:24; 2 Co. 5:15; Eph. 2:10; Tit. 2:14; 1 Co. 6:20; Eph. 4:17-24).
For, true faith in Jesus Christ is obedient to Christ, for
it is God-ordained, and God-persuaded, and it is a gift from God to us, so it
submits to Christ as Lord of our lives, and it walks in obedience to his
commands. It does not demand absolute perfection, but it does require walks
(lifestyles) of surrender to our Lord in obedience to his commands, and in the
forsaking of our sinful addictions to now become slaves of his righteousness,
and all to the glory and praise and adoration of our only God, the “I AM.”
Monday, May 20, 2019
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