2 Peter 2:1-3 ESV
“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
There are all sorts of destructive heresies which are being
brought into the gatherings of the church in our day and time, and I am most
likely not even aware of most of them, for it seems as though new ones keep
popping up on a regular basis. But what I am noticing a lot these days is this
move toward recreating the image of Jesus Christ to make him more acceptable to
human flesh. Those who are doing this appear to be working to make Jesus more
like us and less than who he actually was and is.
But there was a reason that Jesus was hung on that cross to
die by those who wanted him dead, and it wasn’t because he only said pleasant
and fine sounding things to the people. But you will hear some people say that
Jesus only said nice things to the people, things which were pleasing to them,
and that he never said anything that they would consider abrasive or critical
or judgmental. But that is not the Jesus I know. For he spoke strong words to
the religious hypocrites and he spoke hard words to the people.
A summation of Jesus’ words in John 6:25-58: Jesus said that
he is the bread of life, the bread that came down from heaven and if anyone
eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that he gives for the
life of the world is his flesh. And whoever is feeding on his flesh and drinking
his blood has eternal life, and he abides in Christ, and Christ in him, and he
will raise him up on the last day. And he said again that whoever is feeding on
this bread will live forever.
Now I believe we are to take some of this symbolically and
not literally, for I believe our Lord’s flesh and blood symbolize his giving of
his life on that cross to put our sins to death with him so that we can now die
with Christ to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. And eating has to
do with partaking, so this is about us participating in his death and resurrection
via us being crucified with Christ in death to sin and us being raised to walk
in newness of life in him now free from slavery to sin and in walks of holiness
and righteousness and in obedience to our Lord (Romans 6:1-23)
And this is not a one-time thing which takes place in our
lives for Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self and
take up his cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him,
which is ongoing. So, if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for
self, we will lose them for eternity. But if we lose our lives for the sake of
Jesus, i.e. if we die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness,
then we have eternal life in him (Luke 9:23-26). And some of the verb tenses in
John 6 are active ongoing verbs like feeding, eating, and drinking.
And Jesus also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord,
Lord,” is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will
of God the Father who is in heaven. For many people are going to stand before
Jesus “on that Day,” and they are going to claim Jesus as Lord and claim the
things they believed they did in his name, and he is going to say to them, “I
never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” because they were
not obeying the Lord. They were not doing his will (Matthew 7:21-23).
And then Jesus said at another time, “If anyone comes to me
and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers
and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does
not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27
ESV but read to verse 33).
Now, if we look up this word “hate” in the Greek interlinear
we learn that it can mean to “love less.” And since we know that Jesus taught
against us hating one another, then we must search to find out what he really
meant. So, the message here was that if we come to him, but we don’t love our
family members less than him, and love him more than them, then we cannot be
his disciples. And we have to be bearing (carrying) our cross, i.e. be dying
with him to sin and to self daily or we cannot be his disciples.
And this is just a sampling of Jesus’ messages which he gave
while he was on the earth. So you see, these were not nicey-nice feel good
messages that made everyone love him. Jesus stood for holiness, righteousness,
godliness, moral purity, honesty, faithfulness, and uprightness, etc. And he
set boundaries for us, and he gave us restrictions and limitations and rules to
follow, and people hated him for what he taught and for the things that he did
and for who he was.
So, when teachers and preachers are bringing into the church
destructive heresies that lessen who Jesus was and is, and which alter his
character, and which teach that he only said pleasant things to the people, and
which do not teach the truth of Jesus’ words, they are leading many people to
believe their lies, and thus to reject the truth. And so many people are being
taught a false gospel of salvation based on lies, and they are being led straight
to hell on the promise of heaven.
So we who believe in Jesus need to be on the lookout for
such things as these so that we do not fall prey to deception.
He
Lifted Our Burdens
An
Original Work / February 15, 2014
Based
off Isaiah 9:2-7
People walk in darkness.
They abide in their sin.
It has power o’er them.
True belief escapes them.
Jesus Christ came to save them.
He gave His life up for them;
Crucified; died for our sin,
So we might be forgiven,
And have life up in heaven.
Many come to know Him.
God’s love now o’erflows them.
They rejoice in vict’ry.
Their sin is but hist’ry.
We were once bound in slav’ry.
Jesus lifted our burdens;
Set us now free from Satan,
So we now walk in freedom.
Sin has no more dominion.
Praise be to our Savior!
He showed us His favor.
He took all our burdens;
Cast them all upon Him.
He is our mediator;
The Light which shines in darkness.
Counselor in our troubles;
He gives peace now in our hearts;
Joy which is everlasting.
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