Psalms 119:155-160 ESV
“Salvation is far from the wicked,
for they do not seek your statutes.
Great is your mercy, O Lord;
give me life according to your rules.
Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
I look at the faithless with disgust,
because they do not keep your commands.
Consider how I love your precepts!
Give me life according to your steadfast love.
The sum of your word is truth,
and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.”
Who are the wicked? They are all who live wickedly. They are all who practice evil, who practice sin. They are the self-indulgent and the seekers of pleasure who are deliberately, habitually, and even premeditatedly sinning against God and against their fellow humans, even against those closest to them. So, they can be professers of faith in Jesus Christ who put on an outward appearance of faith in Jesus while they continue in deliberate and habitual sin. So they will not receive salvation and eternal life with God.
So, if we want God’s mercy, and if we want his forgiveness of our sins, and if we desire to have salvation from sin and eternal life with God, then it must be according to God’s rules, not according to what men (and women) make up in their own minds in order to appease themselves in their sins. And God’s rules require that we die with him to sin and that we live to his righteousness, not just once, but daily, and that we now walk in obedience to his commands and no longer in deliberate and habitual sin against him.
And there are many professers of faith in Jesus Christ who are also teachers and preachers of the Scriptures who are telling the people lies. For they are telling them that they can make a once-in-their-lifetime decision to “believe” in Jesus Christ (not usually biblically defined) and now all their sins are forgiven (past, present, and future), and now heaven is guaranteed them when they die, but regardless of how they live. And some are telling them that they don’t have to repent and that they don’t have to obey God.
And these people are our adversaries and our persecutors, for not only do they teach people a false gospel of salvation, but then they go on to vilify the Lord’s true servants and messengers who are teaching and who are living the truth of the gospel of Christ. For they are enemies of the cross of Christ who are diluting and altering the truth of the gospel in order to appease human flesh, and in order to deceive the people into following them and their lies. But we must remain steadfast in genuine faith in Christ.
We are, thus, not to entertain their lies even for a second, but we are to refute the lies and proclaim the truth of God’s word in opposition to the lies of the enemy of our souls. For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow him in obedience. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’s sake we die to sin and live to his righteousness, then we have eternal life with God.
For we are to be lovers of God and of his word and of his righteousness and of his righteous rules (his commands to us under the New Covenant). And we are to be those who follow our Lord in obedience and in holy living. For if we do not, but if we walk in sin, and if sin is our practice, and if godliness, holiness, righteousness and obedience to our Lord are not what we practice, then we do not have eternal life with God regardless of what faith in Jesus Christ we profess with our lips.
[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
My Sheep
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Based off John 10:1-18 NIV
My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.
So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.
Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…
They know my voice, so they follow me.
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