Proverbs 14:2, 5, 25 ESV
“Whoever walks in uprightness fears the Lord,
but he who is devious in his ways despises him.
A faithful witness does not lie,
but a false witness breathes out lies.
A truthful witness saves lives,
but one who breathes out lies is deceitful.”
A faithful witness is not just a
singular individual giving a witness to something. A faithful witness is the
true gospel of our salvation from sin, the whole counsel of God. For it teaches
us to walk in uprightness and holiness and in the fear of the Lord. And it
teaches against lying and being devious and against sinning deliberately and
habitually against our Lord and other humans. And it does indeed teach that if
we are devious in our ways (practices) that we do not love God and we are not
in relationship with him.
But there is also a false witness
which is breathing out lies. But it pretends to be the true witness in order to
deceive the unsuspecting and the naïve. For it has some of the character of the
true witness but it also tells many lies and twists the truth and turns it into
lies. Some people refer to this false witness as “the cheap grace gospel.” For
it is a cheapened and diluted and altered version of the true gospel of our
salvation and in order to appeal to and to appease human flesh and the ungodly of
this world of ours.
For what this false witness teaches
is that we can “believe” (not defined) in Jesus Christ, be forgiven all our
sins, and be guaranteed heaven when we die regardless of how we live on this
earth. It teaches that God does not require obedience to the Lord and
submission to Christ as Lord and the forsaking of our sinful lifestyles for salvation
from sin and for eternal life with God. But that is a lie! Jesus and his
apostles taught that we must be crucified with Christ in death to sin and live
to his righteousness.
Proverbs 14:6-8 ESV
“A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain,
but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.
Leave the presence of a fool,
for there you do not meet words of knowledge.
The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way,
but the folly of fools is deceiving.”
Sadly, this is the situation of many people professing faith
in Jesus Christ. They are mockers and scoffers of the true gospel of our
salvation, and although they claim to be seeking the wisdom of God, they are
double-minded, for they don’t really want his wisdom. They want him to approve
their “wisdom” which is really folly. They want God to give a stamp of approval
to their sinful lifestyles and to cover it all with his grace. But his grace to
us is not free license to continue in deliberate and habitual sin.
For what they are really seeking after is cheap grace which
does give them free license to continue living in sin guilt free and without
remorse. And cheap grace makes a mockery of God’s true grace for it criticizes
the true gospel of grace and it calls it legalism, judgmentalism, and works
salvation in hopes that it can deter people from believing the true grace of
God, and in hopes that it will lead many to follow its lies, instead. And this
is because its creator is Satan, not God, for it opposes the true gospel of
grace.
So, we are not to adhere to the lies of Satan and to his
messengers who are teaching cheap grace. And we should not entertain those lies
in our minds. But our minds must be set on Jesus and on his gospel message and
on walks of obedience to our Lord in holiness and in righteousness, in the
power and strength of God’s Spirit living within us. And we must die with
Christ to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, for this is the reason
that Jesus gave his life up for us, to deliver us from slavery (addiction) to
sin.
Proverbs 14:15-16, 22 ESV
“The simple believes everything,
but the prudent gives thought to his steps.
One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil,
but a fool is reckless and careless.
Do they not go astray who devise evil?
Those who devise good meet steadfast love and faithfulness.”
There are many people professing faith in Jesus Christ who
are very gullible and who are easily deceived because they are not testing what
they hear and read against the Scriptures in their full context. For that takes
time and effort, and we live in a fast paced and fast food society which is now
used to things quick, in and out the door. And the media is a huge contributor
to that with all its quick changes of scenes and flashy lights and sounds. And
on social media we have quick and short memes to like or not, too.
So, we are being programmed, if we are not guarding our
hearts against this, to make very quick judgments on what is truth and what is
not truth, and a lot of this is based on how it makes us feel. If it feels
good, many people instantaneously put likes or hearts on it (speaking of social
media here) or they easily accept it as truth, which is evidenced by the
numbers of people who are following charlatans with their smooth talk and charm,
who are dressed up to look like ministers of the gospel.
So, we need to be people of God who are following the Lord
in obedience and who are testing everything we hear or read. For just because
it looks or sounds good doesn’t mean it is good. It could be pure evil
disguised as good. But we need to test these things against the Scriptures in
their context for many lies are produced by teaching Scriptures outside their
context. But many people are plunging right into evil because they are
believing the lies because the lies are permitting them to continue in their
sin.
[Matthew 7:15-23; Matthew 24:11-14; John 10:1-15; 2 Peter
2:1-22; 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 1 Timothy 6:3-10; 1 John 4:1-6; Jude 1:3-23]
Worthy
is the Lamb
By Darlene
Zschech
Revelation 5:12b-13b
Thank you for the cross Lord
Thank you for the price You paid
Bearing all my sin and shame
In love You came
And gave amazing grace
Thank you for this love Lord
Thank you for the nail pierced hands
Washed me in Your cleansing flow
Now all I know
Your forgiveness and embrace
Worthy is the Lamb
Seated on the throne
Crown You now with many crowns
You reign victorious
High and lifted up
Jesus Son of God
The Darling of Heaven crucified
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gae-n0Pb7Q
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