Jeremiah 6:10 ESV
“To whom shall I speak and give warning,
that they may hear?
Behold, their ears are uncircumcised,
they cannot listen;
behold, the word of the Lord is to them an object of scorn;
they take no pleasure in it.”
Many professing Christians here in America are stopping up
their ears and they are refusing to hear the truth of the gospel. So, if you
are teaching the truth of the gospel (the whole counsel of God) you can expect
to be opposed, perhaps not so much by people in the world making no profession
of faith in Jesus Christ, but by those who profess faith in Jesus, who believe
that all their sins are forgiven, and who believe heaven is their eternal
destiny regardless of how they live on the earth.
So, they take no pleasure in the word of the Lord, except in
passages of Scripture usually taught outside their context and twisted to say
what the Scriptures, as a whole, do not teach. For so many of them see the “gift
of God” as freedom to keep on in their sin, only now without guilt. But they
aren’t willing to see that the “gift of God” is deliverance from slavery
(addiction) to sin and it is empowerment of God to live holy lives, pleasing to
God, in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands (Luke 9:23-26;
Romans 6:1-23; Ephesians 4:17-24; Titus 2:11-14; Romans 12:1-2).
Thus, if you try to share with them the truth of the gospel,
in opposition to the lies of Satan and of his messengers, if they don’t want to
hear it they may ignore you, fight against you, call you names, accuse you
wrongly of what you did not do, “unfriend” you on social media, try to shame
you into backing off on the truth, or they may try (attempt) to trick you and
to bate you and to trap you into saying something to where they can accuse you
of something, much like Jesus’ opponents did with him, but he did not bite.
Jeremiah
6:13-14 ESV
“For from the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.”
And this is exactly where we are again today, at least here
in America we are. For so much of what is called “church” here in America has
gone the way of the world, and they are following after the ways of the world
and after the ways of man in their humanistic teaching and philosophies and marketing
strategies (schemes) and goals, etc. And so many of them have adopted an
altered and diluted gospel message, too, which does not require the believer to
die to sin and to walk in righteousness and in obedience to the Lord Jesus. So,
they either oppose that or they make it optional.
And a big reason for this, I believe, is greed, because so
much of the church has turned the church into a marketplace to be marketed to
the people of the world, and thus they are adapting the church to the ways of
the world in order to attract the world to their gatherings. And since they
want the people of the world to feel comfortable and at home in the gatherings
of “the church,” they have modified the whole concept of who the church really
is, and they have altered the gospel to make it more acceptable to the world.
So, they are “healing” the sin wounds of the people with a
diluted and soft-pedaled “gospel” message which does not deliver them from
their slavery (addiction) to sin and which does not teach walks of obedience to
the Lord, but which coddles them in their sins, and which gives them false
promises of forgiveness of all sins and of heaven as their eternal destiny,
while many (or most) of them are teaching against repentance and obedience and against
even the works of God in our lives which God prepared in advance that we should
walk in them (Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:11-14).
Jeremiah
6:16 ESV
“Thus says the Lord:
‘Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.’”
And this is the part I love! We are to stand by the
crossroads, and look at the options before us, for this is concerning a crucial
point to where a decision must be made as to which way we are going to go. Are
we going to go the way of the world and of the flesh and of the adulterated
gospel message? For if we do, it will land us in hell, not in heaven, regardless
of what faith in Jesus we profess with our lips. Or are we going to go the way
of the Lord, which is the way of righteousness, holiness, and walks of
obedience to our Lord and to his commands (New Covenant)?
Well, the counsel here is for us to ask for the ancient
paths, which are the ways of God which are taught to us both in the Old
Testament and in the New Testament. For our Lord and his divine will for our
lives have not changed from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. His moral
laws still stand, only Jesus summarized the commands of God into two commands.
The first one is to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, mind, strength,
and soul, and the second one is to love our neighbors as ourselves. For if we
do that, we will not deliberately sin against God and other humans.
Now, we are to walk in the good way, which is the way of
God, which is the gospel of our salvation. For the gospel of the Scriptures
teaches us that faith in Jesus Christ involves us dying with Christ to sin, not
just once, but daily, and it involves us walking in obedience to our Lord, in
practice, in holy living. Then we will have eternal life with God. But it also
teaches us that if we choose to not obey our Lord, and if we choose to continue
in deliberate and habitual sin, we will not inherit eternal life with God, but
we will face his wrath, instead. So, we have to choose which path we are going
to take.
Amazing Grace
By
John Newton
Amazing
Grace! How sweet the sound
That
saved a wretch like me!
I
once was lost, but now am found
Was
blind, but now I see.
'Twas
Grace that taught my heart to fear,
And
Grace my fears relieved.
How
precious did that Grace appear
The
hour I first believed.
Through
many dangers, toils, and snares
I
have already come.
'Tis
Grace hath brought me safe thus far
And
Grace will lead me home.
The
Lord has promised good to me.
His
Word my hope secures.
He
will my shield and portion be
As
long as life endures.
And
when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And
mortal life shall cease;
I
shall possess within the veil
A
life of joy and peace.
When
we've been there ten thousand years
Bright
shining as the sun,
We've
no less days to sing God's praise
Than
when we'd first begun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw2VWje6tEo
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