Jude 1:3-4 ESV
“Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
In America, we are presently in this situation to where we are having to contend for the faith on a regular basis. For now it isn’t just “certain people” who have crept into the gatherings of the church unnoticed (largely unnoticed for who they truly are and for what they are really doing), but it appears this now represents a large majority of those serving as pastors of church congregations (or of what is falsely being called “church”).
They give off the appearance of righteousness and of being servants of the Lord, but a large majority of them are serving man and are serving their own fleshly appetites, and they are building their own earthly kingdoms and not the kingdom of God. For they are the ungodly who are perverting the grace of our God into sensuality, and so they deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, because they deny his literal lordship over their lives.
For they have adopted the ways of the world into their gatherings, and they are conforming to the ways of man and of the flesh, because they are marketing their gatherings to the people of the world just like any other businesses of man. And so they are going soft on sin, and they are teaching a diluted and altered gospel message created to appeal to and to appease human flesh and fleshly and ungodly sinful practices.
So many of them are teaching that we can make a profession of faith in Christ once in our lives and now we are “good to go.” They say all our sins are now forgiven, heaven is guaranteed us when we die, and it can’t be taken away from us, regardless of how we live. But that “regardless of how we live” is a perversion of the grace of our God and it is free license for those who believe in it to live sensual and adulterous lifestyles.
For the true grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, trains us to renounce (say “No!” to) ungodliness and fleshly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (see Titus 2:11-14; cf. Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 6:1-23)
So, God’s grace to us is not just forgiveness of sins and the promise of heaven when we die. God’s grace delivers us out of our lives of living in sin and for self, and it empowers us in the Spirit to live godly and holy lives in obedience to our Lord, and no longer in sin. And it teaches us that we must die to sin daily and walk in obedience to our Lord and live righteously or else we will not inherit eternal life with God. But how many are teaching this?
Jude 1:5-7 ESV
“Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.”
Not many are teaching this. So many pastors of church congregations are telling the people that once they believe in Jesus all their sins are forgiven and heaven is guaranteed and can’t be taken away from them. And they are not addressing the Scriptures which teach that we must walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, and that we must die to sin and live to God and to his righteousness if we want eternal life with God.
They are not giving them the multiple warnings throughout the NT Scriptures which tell us that if sin is what we practice, and if righteousness and godliness and walks of obedience to our Lord are not what we practice that we will not inherit eternal life with God. And so they are not giving them the warnings that God gave us about how we should not be like the children of Israel who sinned against the Lord and who did not repent of their sins.
[1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13]
For when the Lord says that they did not believe, he is not saying that they didn’t make a profession of belief, for he equated disobedience to him with unbelief and obedience to him with genuine faith. For if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to our Lord, the Bible teaches we don’t know God, we are not born of God, and we are not in fellowship with Christ, but we are of the devil, instead.
[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]
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
https://vimeo.com/379406352
No comments:
Post a Comment