“And He was casting out a demon, and it was mute; when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.’ Others, to test Him, were demanding of Him a sign from heaven. But He knew their thoughts and said to them, ‘Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? So they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.’” (Luke 11:14-23 NASB1995)
We live in a day and time when what is being called, “the
church,” is very divided. On one side are those whose faith in Jesus Christ is
genuine biblical faith. Those who believe in Jesus have died with Christ to
sin, and they have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him,
no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his
righteousness. They have put sin to death, by the Spirit, and they are obeying
God, in practice. Sin no longer has mastery over their lives, for they want to
do God’s will.
On the other side of what is being called, “the church,” are
those who have made verbal professions of faith in Jesus Christ with their
lips, but their hearts are far from God. Sin is still what they practice, and
not obedience to God. They are still the masters of their own lives, and so
they do what they want to do without regard for God and for his plan and
purpose for our lives. For they have accepted the lie which tells them that if
they profess faith in Jesus, now all their sins are forgiven, and heaven is
guaranteed them.
Now many of us who are teaching the gospel that was taught
by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles are being accused of teaching what
is false, that we are the liars, and not them, and that we are legalists and
haters and disunifiers and the like who are trying to put a yoke on people that
is not of God. So, in essence, they are accusing us of being of Satan and of
doing his work when we are, in truth, doing the work of God according to what
the Scriptures teach in their appropriate and biblical context, by God’s grace.
But they are supporting their lies by teaching the
Scriptures out of context and by making them say what they do not say if taught
in the appropriate context. Such as they teach John 10:28-30 without verse 27
which tells us who that applies to. And they teach Ephesians 2:8-9 without
verse 10 which proclaims that we are created by God to do his good works. And
they teach Romans 8:1 without verses 2-17 which completes the picture. And
Romans 10:9 is being taught out of the context of the whole of the book of Romans.
What is “the church” which is divided? It is all who profess
faith in Jesus with their lips but who live the opposite of the faith that
Jesus and his apostles taught. They claim Jesus as their Lord while they remain
lords over their own lives. They claim him as Savior of their sins, but while
they continue living in their sins, and so they are not, in truth, saved from
(delivered from) their sins. And they hide and they deny that they are sinners
who need salvation by proclaiming that they are already saved by God’s grace.
And the true church, the biblical body of Christ, is all who
have died with Christ to sin and who are now living to God and to his
righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living and for whom
sin is no longer their practice. But that does not make us perfect. It doesn’t
mean that we will never or that we have never failed to be all who God designed
us to be. It doesn’t mean that we can never fall away and need to be brought
back into a right relationship with God. But then we must obey God and not sin.
For we cannot live for the devil and for God at the same
time. The two don’t mix. We are either on the side of God or we are on the side
of the devil. And how we choose to live our lives, in practice, determines
which side we are on. For to be with God requires death to sin and walks of
obedience to his commands, in practice. It requires that we learn to know the
will of God and to do it, to follow our Lord wherever he leads us, and to do
all that he requires of us in thought, in word, and in deed, all in his power
and strength.
So, all who are still living in control over their own
lives, making their own choices, doing their own will, and not the will of God,
even if they profess faith in Jesus, they are not of God, and they will not
stand when judgment comes. For the Scriptures make it clear that all who walk
in sin will die in sin, and all who do not obey God, in practice, will not
inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what their lips profess. But all
who deny self, die to sin, and walk in obedience to God, in practice, will
inherit eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn
10:27-30; Ac 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; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb
12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
My Sheep
Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
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.
With God or Against Him?
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