With Swords in Their Lips

The subject matter here is that of our enemies (as interpreted in our present day context), of those who oppose us and who come against us who are following Jesus Christ with our lives, because truly they are opposed to God and to his word, at least in some respects, to the point to where they also reject his servants and messengers who are bringing to them the truth of the gospel and who are serving the Lord Jesus Christ with their lives.

“Each evening they come back,

    howling like dogs

    and prowling about the city.

There they are, bellowing with their mouths

    with swords in their lips—

    for ‘Who,’ they think, ‘will hear us?’

But you, O Lord, laugh at them;

    you hold all the nations in derision.” (Psalms 59:6-8 ESV)

Now the word “dog” was a term used in the Scriptures to describe the spiritually unclean but also false prophets and teachers and evangelists. Today they would be all who are deliberately promoting what they know is a false gospel, and for the whole purpose to deceive the masses into rejecting the truth and into embracing the lies. And they have been very successful in doing just that, at least here in America they have. 

Now something the Lord impressed upon my heart this morning is the matter of what constitutes the true message of “the gospel.” For on social media (like Facebook) we get all sorts of ads and “suggested for you” posts that are not from our Facebook friends. And in some of these posts we are being invited either to pray for the missionaries or to support them financially in the spreading of the gospel message to people in other nations. But my question when I read these posts is always, “But what gospel?”

For, you see, the term “gospel” means so many different things to many different people, and so you may support missionaries in their endeavors to preach the gospel to people of other nations, but it may not be the gospel that Jesus and his NT apostles taught (in full context). It may, instead, be a very diluted and altered “gospel” message intended to tickle itching ears and to pacify the flesh of humans and their sinful cravings. For just because it is called “the gospel,” it doesn’t mean necessarily that it is the truth.

For the popular “gospel” message being taught today in America is that we can “believe” (rarely biblically defined) in Jesus Christ, have all our sins forgiven (past, present, and future), then be on our way to heaven, which they say can’t be taken away from us, but regardless of how we live in practice. But “regardless of how we live” is just not biblical. And so we have multiples of people professing Jesus as Lord while they are continuing in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, without true repentance.

So, just because they have the title of “preacher,” or “pastor,” or “missionary,” and they claim that they are preaching the gospel of Christ, that is not an assurance that what they are teaching is the truth that Jesus and his NT apostles taught (in full context). For many of them are pulling Scriptures out of their context, and they are placing them in some kind of Scripturally disjointed formula for people to follow, many of which are not biblically accurate because they are not taught in their appropriate context.

“O my Strength, I will watch for you,

    for you, O God, are my fortress.

My God in his steadfast love will meet me;

    God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.” (Psalms 59:9-10 ESV)

“But I will sing of your strength;

    I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.

For you have been to me a fortress

    and a refuge in the day of my distress.

O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,

    for you, O God, are my fortress,

    the God who shows me steadfast love.” (Psalms 59:16-17 ESV)

In the context of what I have been sharing so far, I see these words in the context of believers in Jesus Christ, who are teaching the truth of the gospel, being opposed and even attacked by those who are promoting a “different gospel” other than the one that Jesus and his NT apostles taught, and that the Scriptures warn us against. So, when we come up against such opposition as this, we should call upon the Lord for the strength and wisdom to know how to proceed and in how to respond, and in what to say.

But then we must continue in speaking the truth of the Scriptures and in refuting the lies of our enemies, in the power of God’s Spirit living within us guiding and directing us in what to say and in how to respond. And we don’t always have to give a response, for some people’s attacks against us are traps being laid for us with the intention to try to trip us up with our words or to get us into some type of endless and fruitless discussion that we know is going to go nowhere that is good. So we need much wisdom.

So what we need to be singing is the truth of the gospel that Jesus taught and that his NT apostles taught. For Jesus said that if we want to come after him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our lives of sin, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow Jesus in obedience, we have eternal life. For not everyone who professes Jesus as Lord will enter heaven, but the one DOING God’s will (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

And Paul taught that by faith in Jesus Christ we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness. For sin is to no longer be what we obey, for if we obey sin, it leads to death, not to life eternal. But if obedience to our Lord is what we obey, in practice, it leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (Romans 6:1-23).

And so the true gospel is going to insist that we die with Christ to sin, that we no longer make sin our practice, and that we now walk in obedience to our Lord in holy living, and in faithfulness, godliness, honesty, moral purity, and love for God and for our fellow humans. And it is going to warn us, and does warn us, that if sin is what we practice, and not obedience, and not righteous living, that we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what faith we profess with our lips. So we need to take this to heart.

Therefore, just because someone says that he/she is spreading the message of the gospel to people all over the place, it doesn’t mean that what they are teaching is the true gospel message. So, before you decide to give them your support, ask them which gospel they are teaching. Have them explain to you exactly what they are teaching. For we are not saved by lip service to God. We must follow him in walks of obedience to our Lord in holy living and not in sin for us to have genuine salvation and eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 10:23-31; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]   

As the Deer 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water

 So my soul longeth after You

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield

 To You alone may my spirit yield

 You alone are my heart's desire

 And I long to worship You

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70

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