They Glory in Their Shame

Philippians 3:17

 

“Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.”

 

I don’t know personally very many people who are walking (in conduct, in practice) according to how Paul and the other New Testament apostles conducted their lives, as a matter of practice, in all holiness and righteousness and in purity of devotion to the Lord Jesus. I see a lot of worldliness around me coming from those professing faith in Jesus.

 

So, watch carefully who you decide to imitate, i.e. who you decide is a good model of the Christian faith to follow after. For even the most godly are still humans, so don’t put any human on a pedestal or he or she might fall. Don’t look to humans to lead you in the right way to go. Look to God. Look to the Scriptures. Look to the model of Jesus Christ. And follow Jesus.

 

Philippians 3:18-19

 

“For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.”

 

I Tell You With Tears

 

I shed tears over this, too. And this is rampant in the gatherings of the church here in America, for the most part, and among those professing faith in Jesus Christ. So many who claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior are living as enemies of the cross of Christ, still living in sinful addiction, still habitually and deliberately sinning against the Lord and against other humans.

 

And behind all of this is a false gospel which is permeating the church today. It is well advanced and emergent and largely accepted among evangelical Christians and among the immature and the naïve. It is highly deceptive, too, and the masses are being fooled by it. They are being tricked into believing that the false gospel is the true one and the true gospel is false.

 

Those who have introduced this false gospel into the gatherings of the church and among the immature and naïve are false shepherds of the people who are false teachers and wolves in sheep’s clothing who sneak into the gatherings of the church disguised as servants of righteousness while they are those who are serving themselves, instead.

 

They slowly have introduced this false and fully developed gospel into the gatherings of the church one subtle lie at a time so that the people would accept the lies one after another after another. And their evil plan has worked because they did this stealthily and secretly in a way that was hidden and underhanded and not easily discerned by the immature.

 

My Eyes Were Opened

 

For they disguised their false gospel as the true gospel. They inserted their lies within the pages of Scripture and within the teachings on the gospel and in gospel and witnessing presentations. And when I was more immature in my faith I bought into some or much of what was not as obvious as what some of these false teachings are today.

 

We were taught how to present the gospel of Jesus Christ by taking selected Scriptures and using them as steppingstones in presenting the gospel, but I did not know that many of these Scriptures they were using were being used outside their context in a way that was not true to the Scriptures. I didn’t discern many of these subtle manipulations of truth until much later in my walk of faith.

 

But then the Lord opened my eyes to see what was going on. He gave me discernment to see these subtle lies and false inserts into the truth of the gospel that are not true to the Scriptures. And then he called me to a ministry of exposing these lies and of proclaiming the truth so that many eyes will be opened to see the lies they are believing as truth.

 

I Was Then Censured

 

So, I rejected the lies and I began proclaiming the truth and exposing the lies, and then I came under condemnation from the church because I was casting out these lies and I was proclaiming the truth and they didn’t want that. They who are following after the lies and who are rejecting the truth began to censure me, but not just me, but any of us who are exposing the lies for what they are and who are proclaiming the truth of the gospel.

 

And what this has resulted in, this holding on to the lies and this rejecting of the truth, is a church filled with self-indulgent addicts to sin who are living for self-pleasure, and who are living in adultery and in sexual immorality because they are being taught that they don’t have to repent of their sins and that they don’t have to obey the Lord but that they can keep on sinning because God’s grace covers it all.

 

And the church at large is doing nothing about it. Some of them may provide small support groups for addicts but they are not confronting these addicts with their sinful addictions and showing them the way out of slavery to sin and to living in freedom and in holy living. But many of them are coddling them in their sins, and so they are continuing in their addictions.

 

And addiction to sin is not a sickness, and it is not incurable. We are all addicted to (enslaved to) sin before we die with Christ to sin and we are born again to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. Addiction to sin is sin. And if we remain in sin, making it our practice, we will die in our sins no matter what faith we profess. We will not inherit eternal life with God!

 

Philippians 3:20-21

 

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

 

The false gospel does not lead people to true repentance and to changed hearts and minds, so it leaves them still addicted to sin and living as enemies of the cross of Christ. For they are being convinced that repentance and obedience to the Lord are not required of them to be saved from their sins and to have eternal life with God.

 

But the true gospel teaches that we must repent of (turn away from, forsake) our former lives of living for sin and self, and that we must be changed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God away from walking in sin to walks of obedience to our Lord Jesus. For, if we do not forsake our sins to follow Jesus in obedience, we don’t have eternal life with God.

 

So, our citizenship is only in heaven if we have repented of our sins and if we have turned to the Lord to walk in obedience to his commands, and if we are continuing to daily put sin to death and to walk in obedience to our Lord, and if we remain on that course until the very end. It is what the Scriptures teach. So, please believe the Scriptures and obey our Lord Jesus.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]

 

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

 

Words by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907

Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Thou art the potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Search me and try me, Master, today!

Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,

As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Wounded and weary, help me I pray!

Power, all power, surely is Thine!

Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Hold o'er my being absolute sway.

Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see

Christ only, always, living in me!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z11avpKNLsA

Caution: This link may contain ads