“Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1:3-4 NASB1995)
And this is where we are today, but this is not a small
matter, and this is not confined to just a small area of the world. For today there
are false teachers of a perverted and altered gospel message who have twisted
the Scriptures to their advantage who are spreading their perverted gospel
message all over the world. But they have it disguised as truth, and so they
quote Scriptures, but they quote them out of context. So it has the appearance
of truth, but it is a mixture of truth and lies, and so it is very deceptive.
And many of these false teachers of a false half-truth
gospel are people who are well known, and very popular, and highly respected.
And so some people will believe them just because they are highly regarded and
respected, and so they assume that they are telling them the truth, and
partially they are, but it is twisted truth, and thus it is a lie. But they are
very clever at what they do, and they know how to say things to make them sound
like truth while weaving in their web of deception in order to catch the
unsuspecting.
And there are many different types of this false gospel, and
many different degrees of deception, so not all look alike and sound alike, but
they have the same result, which is to deceive the people into believing the
lies and into rejecting the truth. And they use mind-manipulation tactics to
convince many people that their lies are the truth, and that the truth is the
lie, and so they have many they have taken captive to their lies who are now
living the lie and not the truth, fully convinced that they are on their way to
heaven.
One of the biggest ways in which they deceive the people is
by teaching the grace of God as though it is free license to continue living in
sin, only now without feeling guilty about their sin. And if they begin to feel
guilty about their deliberate and habitual sin, many are being told to just “claim
who you are in Christ.” But we are not “in Christ” if we have not died with
Christ to sin, and if we are still living to please our flesh, and if we are
not walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, by the grace of God. For..
The grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, is
training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live
self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for Jesus’ return. For 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.” “For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (See Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians
2:8-10)
And many are teaching obedience to our Lord’s commands as
legalism, and as someone trying to earn their own salvation. And they teach
forgiveness of sins as carte blanche to keep on in deliberate and habitual sin
without punishment. And they teach God’s grace as insurance so that they can go
on living recklessly without consequence. No repentance, no walk of obedience
to the Lord’s commands, and no submission to Christ as Lord required. But that
is man’s gospel, not the gospel of Christ taught in the Scriptures. For..
By God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own
doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to
walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as
slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no
longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires.
For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is
what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with
God (see Romans 6:1-23).
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John
6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1
Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32;
Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2;
1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
Seek the Lord
Based off Isaiah 55
Musical Instrumentation by Mark
Bradley
An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
“Come to Me all you
who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and
eat what’s good today,
And your soul will
delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and
you will live.
I have made an
eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of
the Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while
He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked
forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the
Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons
him.
“For My thoughts are
not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My
ways,”
declares the Lord,
our God.
“My word that goes
out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return
to Me unfulfilled.
My word will
accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal
I intend.
You will go in joy
and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will
burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees
clap their hands.”
Contend Earnestly For The Faith
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