Bring Out the People Who..

“Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes,

    who are deaf, yet have ears!

All the nations gather together,

    and the peoples assemble.

Who among them can declare this,

    and show us the former things?

Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right,

    and let them hear and say, It is true.

‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord,

    ‘and my servant whom I have chosen,

that you may know and believe me

    and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed,

    nor shall there be any after me.

I, I am the Lord,

    and besides me there is no savior.

I declared and saved and proclaimed,

    when there was no strange god among you;

    and you are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I am God.

Also henceforth I am he;

    there is none who can deliver from my hand;

    I work, and who can turn it back?’” (Isaiah 43:8-13 ESV)

Who would this be talking about today? I believe this would be speaking of all who make professions of faith in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of their lives, who believe that all their sins are forgiven, and that they are on their way to heaven, but their professions of faith are lip service and surface level only. For they portend to have spiritual eyesight but while they are still spiritually blind. They think they have knowledge, but it is head knowledge only, for it has not reached their hearts and changed their practices.

They claim to be in intimate and covenant relationships with Almighty God, but while sin is still their practice. For they are the self-indulgent and the addicted to sin and the lazy and the slothful who think only of themselves and of their own sinful pleasures without regard for what God has purposed for their lives and without regard for how their actions will impact other people. So, the spiritual authority over their minds and hearts is not God, but their own flesh, and their own selfish and fleshly desires.

Rather than submitting themselves to the will of God for their lives, they submit to their own fleshly desires. Rather than putting the Word of God, that they know intellectually, into daily practice in their lives, they crave the sinful passions of the flesh, and many of them escape into a fantasy world, which then just blocks out God’s voice and his will and purpose for their lives. Pornography addiction is huge among professing Christians, but this includes sexually charged movies and videos and pictures of any kind.

But they may put on a show of righteousness and godliness when they want to make others believe that they are living godly lives. And they may recite the Scriptures and talk about them, even with great knowledge, but then never put them into practice in their daily living. And they may do this to fake wisdom and discernment, to make it appear that they are actually searching the Scriptures, and as though they are listening to God, and as though they are being led by the Spirit, but while sin is still their practice.

They can be like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, in other words, who look clean on the outside but inside are full of all sorts of wickedness, such as sexual immorality, idolatry, laziness, pride, vanity, self-indulgence, hate, lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, slander, and the like. They give off an outward appearance of living righteously, but it is faked. They fake their Christianity to appear righteous in front of others, but often it is just a coverup for all the evil that they are committing in secret when no one else is looking.

Even if they repeat the commandments of God, they shut them out from their minds when their flesh wants to do the opposite. Instead of yielding to the Lordship of Christ and following his commands, and exercising restraint and control over the flesh, they shut out God and his word, and they refuse to exercise restraint and self-control, and they shut out from their minds the potential consequences of their sins, and who might get hurt by them, and in pure selfishness they give in to the flesh to do what ought not to be done.

Even though Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross so that we can now die with him to sin and walk in obedience to his commands, by his grace, and in his power, many professing Christians are ignoring what Jesus did for us and they are closing their hearts and minds to our Lord’s sacrifice for our sins, and they are assuring themselves that their sins will not impact their eternal security and that God’s grace just covers it all. But Jesus died to free us from slavery to sin and to empower us to live holy lives unto Him.

So, they forfeit what could be theirs through genuine walks of faith in obedience to God when they reject what the Scriptures teach and when they choose their own sinful pathway, instead. But we all need to realize that we cannot be true Christians and ignore God’s commands and just go our own way. For not everyone who calls Jesus “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the ones DOING the will of God the Father in heaven. And many will hear Jesus say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” because they would not obey God, but their own flesh, instead.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

My Sheep  

An Original Work / June 24, 2012  

Based off John 10:1-30 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.

https://vimeo.com/114938263