They Deny Him by Their Works

Minds and Consciences Defiled

Titus 1:10-11, 15-16 ESV

 

“For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.”

 

“To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”

 

Not everyone who calls himself a pastor or a preacher or an evangelist or Bible teacher is teaching the truth of the Scriptures. They aren’t all followers of Jesus Christ, either. Many of them are human cockroaches, i.e., they are liars, deceivers, opportunists, manipulators, unclean, and hypocrites.

 

They disguise themselves as servants of righteousness while they are impure, defiled and unbelieving. They are empty talkers and deceivers whose goal it is to lead you astray. They give you the false impression that what they are teaching is the truth, but it is a mixture of truth and lies.

 

They are usually smooth talkers, charming, entertaining, and manipulative, who know how to convince people that what they are telling them is the truth. For, what they are teaching is usually what the people’s itching ears want to hear, which is what appeases their flesh.

 

What they are teaching does not accord with sound doctrine. They are teaching what they ought not to teach, for what they are teaching is the doctrines of people who are turning away from the truth. They are teaching that people can believe in Jesus and have eternal life with God but that they can continue in habitual, deliberate, and premeditated sin against God.

 

And although they profess to know God, they deny him by their works. Their lifestyles, their behaviors, their habits, their words, and their deeds speak the opposite of what they profess with their lips. For, they are disobedient to the Lord and to the truth of his word, which makes them unfit for any good works God had prepared in advance that they should walk in them.

 

Thus, we must be discerning about who and what we listen to. And we must test everything we hear against the word of God, IN CONTEXT.

 

What Accords with Sound Doctrine

Titus 2:1 ESV

 

“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.”

 

So, how do we know what is “sound doctrine”? We can’t go by it just sounding good because it may be bad. And we can’t accept it just because someone shows us a verse in the Bible which they say teaches it. The best way to know sound doctrine is to read the Scriptures in context.

 

When I was growing up I was taught many Scriptures out of context, and a good number of those I was taught wrong. But I didn’t know they were wrong for certain until I began reading the Bible book by book and chapter by chapter. The context began to make things clear for me, though.

 

As I read the Scriptures in their context, and as I read the teachings in the New Testament on the gospel message, as a whole, the pieces I had been taught all began coming together and I could see how there were certain things I was taught early on which did not agree with the context.

 

So, this is why we are encouraged in the Scriptures to test the spirits to see if they are of God. Instead of being lazy and just accepting what we hear because it sounds good, we must study the word of God in its context in order to get the whole picture and not disjointed parts of the whole.

 

For the Grace of God

Titus 2:11-14 ESV

 

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who 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.”

 

Many people today are teaching a false grace gospel, which is only half true but half a lie. They are teaching that God’s grace forgives us our sins and it promises us eternal life with God, but that forgiveness means that our sins no longer matter to God, and that he can’t even see our sins anymore.

 

While it is true that Jesus forgives sin, and he does promise eternal life to those believing in him, there is a whole lot more than that to the gospel of our salvation, which context will provide. In context we will learn what it means to believe in Jesus and the conditions for receiving eternal life.

 

We will learn that coming to Jesus Christ means self-denial, and it means dying with Christ to sin and living to Christ and to his righteousness, and that it means walking with him in obedience to his commands, and it means surrendering our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him.

 

We will learn that it means submitting to Christ as Lord (owner-master) of our lives, and that our lives are no longer our own, for we were bought back for God with the blood of Christ. And we will learn that our Lord does see when we sin, and that if we continue in habitual and deliberate sin against him, and if we refuse to obey him, that we don’t know him, and that we will die in our sins, and we won’t have eternal life with God.

 

For, God’s grace which brings salvation does not overlook our sins. It does not pacify us in our sins or give us a free pass to continue living in sin, only now without guilt. God’s grace delivers us out of our slavery to sin and it empowers us to live godly and holy lives to the glory of God.

 

And his grace trains (teaches, instructs, commands) us to say “NO!” to ungodliness and fleshly lusts, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s soon return. We are taught that we must now walk (in conduct) according to the Spirit and no longer according to our sinful flesh.

 

For, when Jesus Christ died on that cross for us it was so that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He freed us from our enslavement to sin that we might become slaves of his righteousness. He gave his life blood for us on that cross that we might now be his possession and that we might now honor God with our lives.

 

For, if we continue in habitual and deliberate sin against God, while claiming Jesus as our Savior and heaven as our eternal home, we must know that we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God. But if we return to our Lord in repentance, he will restore us and revive us and we will have the hope of eternal life with God.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Jn 6:44; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2]

 

Jesus, Rescue Me  

 

An Original Work / September 18, 2011

Based off of Romans 7:7-8:39

 

Jesus, rescue me today.

Listen while I bow and pray.

I need Your help to obey You;

Live for You always.

Meet me in my hour of need, Lord,

As I pray to You.

Help me walk in fellowship, Lord,

Living in Your truth.

Jesus, how I long for You to

Change my heart anew.

 

Father, God, my heart’s desire

Is to live for You this hour

In Your Holy Spirit’s power

Living in me now.

Teach me to walk in Your love, Lord,

Guiding me each day.

Help me to show love and kindness

To the lost, I pray.

Father, teach me to love others

As You love always.

 

Holy Spirit come in pow’r.

Revive our hearts in this hour.

Change our hearts to be like You, Lord;

Live for You each day.

Help us to forsake our sins, Lord,

As we humbly pray.

Teach us how to live for You, Lord,

Obey You always.

Holy Spirit come in power,

Revive us today.

 

https://vimeo.com/126092919

The Nation whose God is the Lord

The Counsel of the Nations

Psalms 33:10-12 ESV

 

“The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

    he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

    the plans of his heart to all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

    the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!”

 

The USA is touted as a Christian nation, but is it, in reality? And can a physical nation be Christian? And do we, as a nation, truly trust in the One True God – Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit? Do we, as a people, honestly give God our worship, our reverence, and our obedience?

 

First off, only individual people can be Christians, and we are only Christians by personal God-given faith in Jesus Christ. Via faith in Jesus Christ, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. So, we must no longer live in (walk in) sin.

 

Only individual people can trust in the One True God, and this trust in God, in Jesus Christ, involves us denying self, and daily dying to sin and self, and us walking (in conduct, in practice) according to the Spirit, in obedience to our Lord. It involves us leaving our lives of sin behind us and us walking in purity of devotion to our Lord with our lives surrendered to him.

 

Now collectively, those of us who believe in Jesus, who trust him with our lives, as described above, are the church, the body of Christ. We are a nation, but it is not a physical nation, but a spiritual nation. For the church is not a physical building, but a spiritual building, not built with human hands, but with individual believers in Jesus Christ (as living stones).

 

Therefore, a physical nation, such as the USA, cannot be a Christian nation. The individual people within that nation can be Christians, but only the body of Christ collectively is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

 

But the body of Christ is not everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ, but it is those who walk in that faith, who honor Christ as Lord, who obey his commands, who leave their lives of sin behind them, and who are walking according to the Spirit, and who are not walking according to the flesh.

 

A False Hope for Salvation

Psalms 33:13-17 ESV

 

“The Lord looks down from heaven;

    he sees all the children of man;

from where he sits enthroned he looks out

    on all the inhabitants of the earth,

he who fashions the hearts of them all

    and observes all their deeds.

The king is not saved by his great army;

    a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

The war horse is a false hope for salvation,

    and by its great might it cannot rescue.”

 

Now, the USA does have a large majority of people within its borders who claim faith in Jesus Christ and/or Christianity as their religion of choice. But that doesn’t make one a Christian. Only through dying with Christ to sin and living to Christ and to his righteousness, in obedient walks of faith in our Lord, are we truly the Lord’s. And we are in the minority.

 

The USA is a physical nation of people of all walks of life who believe in many different gods, and who practice many different faiths, even if many of them claim Christianity as their religion. The USA is also a very worldly nation, it is extremely powerful, but it is not what it appears to be on the surface. The de facto government of the USA is the elite of the world.

 

And these elite of the world do not have the mind of God, nor do they worship the one true God, but they are of Satan and of the beast of Revelation whose goal it is to conquer the entire world and to bring the entire world under a one world government (of the beast) and a one world religion (not faith in Jesus Christ).

 

And so, they devised a plan for the destruction of Christianity so that they could get professing Christians to be no different than people of other faiths. They convinced the church at large to become corporations of the state and to turn their gatherings into businesses to be marketed to the world just like any other business, appealing to the fleshly desires of humankind.

 

And they convinced them to alter the gospel of Jesus Christ to make it more acceptable to human flesh and to the people of the world so that the people don’t turn away from their sins, but they continue walking in sin, only now without guilt or fear of punishment. Therefore, they are not born again of the Spirit of God, but they are still headed to hell, only now on the promise of heaven when they die.

 

So, they are convinced that faith in Jesus Christ forgives them of their sins regardless of how they treat the Lord and regardless of how they live their lives from that moment forward. And if they do feel guilty about their sin, they are told to just “claim who you are in Christ,” and that is supposed to alleviate the guilt and to make them feel better about themselves.

 

Or, if they do have somewhat of a conscience about their sin, they may take steps, in the flesh, to try to resolve their own sin issues. But since they never surrendered their hearts to Jesus, they will keep going back to their idolatries and adulteries. They will try to convince themselves that they are free from their addiction to sin, but it is all a façade. They aren’t!

 

Some people will turn to human counselors and to computer software packages to help them overcome their addictions to sin, and they may be able to help to a point, but if they are of the flesh, empowered by the flesh, and not by the Holy Spirit, they will fail, for only Jesus Christ has the power to deliver us from our bondage to sin and to set us free!

 

On Those Who Fear Him

Psalms 33:18-19 ESV

 

“Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,

    on those who hope in his steadfast love,

that he may deliver their soul from death

    and keep them alive in famine.”

 

Only the true gospel will lead us to genuine faith in Jesus Christ, which then results in lives which turn away from sin and which surrender our hearts to Jesus Christ. The gospel that many are teaching today only goes half-way, but it doesn’t teach death to sin and living to righteousness as part of obedient faith in Jesus Christ, so it has no power to change lives.

 

So, those who are buying into this “cheap grace gospel” are only fooling themselves when they convince themselves that they are now forgiven their sins and headed to heaven. They are only fooling themselves that they are no longer under condemnation and that heaven is their destiny. For there can be no freedom from sin without dying with Christ to sin.

 

In other words, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t hold on to your sinful practices and think eternal life is guaranteed you. You can’t keep on living in deliberate, habitual, and premeditated sin against God and convince yourself that you have been set free from your sin. For we are slaves of the one we obey, and if it is sin, it ends in death, not in eternal life with God.

 

So, if you are believing in a gospel which is telling you that you can believe in Jesus and be guaranteed heaven when you die, but that you can continue walking according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit, please know you are believing a lie.

 

For, if we walk according to the flesh, we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God. But if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live with Christ eternally.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

 

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

 

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg

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Faith which Accords with Godliness

 Titus 1:1-3 ESV

 

“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior.”

 

Servants of the Lord

 

All of us who have been born of God into the family of God through God-given faith in Jesus Christ are the Lord’s servants. We belong to him. He owns us. We are his possession. For Jesus bought us back for God with his blood so that we would now honor God with our bodies (our lives).

 

We died with Christ to sin that we might live to Christ and to his righteousness. Our old self was put to death with Jesus so that we would now walk in newness of life in him. Jesus delivered us from our slavery to sin so that we would now be slaves of God and of his righteousness.

 

And this word translated “servant” here literally means “slave.” We belong to God now. We are his bond-slaves. For he died on that cross that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us. We now willingly live under Christ’s authority as his devoted followers.

 

We have given up our ownership over our own lives. We have surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ. Now we submit to his Lordship over our lives, we forsake our sins, and we follow our Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands, not to earn our salvation, but as part of believing faith in him.

 

The Faith of God’s Elect

 

We can’t even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father draws us to Christ. And the faith to believe in him comes from God, is founded in Jesus Christ, and is perfected in us by Jesus Christ, too. Thus, this faith will conform to God’s divine will and purpose for our lives.

 

This word “faith” means to be persuaded, in this case by God. It is a gift from God, and it is not something that can be produced in our own flesh. And to be persuaded by God means to die with Christ to sin and to live to Christ and to his righteousness, and it is to walk in obedience to him, too.

 

It is to be divinely persuaded as to God’s holiness and righteousness and of our need to submit ourselves to him and to his holiness and righteousness. And it is to prefer what God prefers, which is what is holy, righteous, pure, honest, moral, upright, loving, kind, and obedient.

 

And this faith is present tense, not just past tense, and it must be ongoing, and it must continue to the very end. And it is a faith which is evidenced in our lives as being genuine by the things that we do, not of the flesh, but of the Spirit of God in submission to Christ as Lord of our lives.

 

Which Accords with Godliness

 

Amen! Our faith in Jesus Christ must accord (agree, correspond, be consistent) with godliness. So, if you say you believe in Jesus, but then you believe that God requires of you no repentance, obedience, or submission to him as Lord, your faith is of the flesh, not of God. It will not save you!

 

For godliness involves reverence for God, which involves devotion to our Lord, showing him respect, honor, and obedience. It is to worship him. And the Scriptures teach that giving our lives to God as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him, is our acceptable worship of him.

 

Godliness also incorporates holiness and righteousness. And holiness has to do with living our lives separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being conformed to the likeness of Christ. And righteousness has to do with what is right in God’s eyes, which is what is pure and holy, etc.

 

So, the kind of faith which results in our salvation from sin and eternal life with God is of God and thus it submits to Christ as Lord, it dies with Christ to sin, and it lives to God and to his righteousness. It walks in obedience to his commands, and it no longer walks according to our sinful flesh.

 

Hope of Eternal Life

 

Our hope of eternal life is not guaranteed upon some secular and fleshly faith in Jesus Christ which is created in the minds of humans and not of the will of God for our lives. Our hope of eternal life with God has biblical conditions, and if we fail to meet those conditions, we don’t have it.

 

We must deny self, daily die to sin and self, and follow Jesus Christ in obedience. We must listen to our Lord and heed his words and do what he says to do as a matter of practice, not necessarily in sinless perfection. But lack of perfection is no excuse for deliberate and habitual sin.

 

Righteousness must be what we practice if we are to be righteous, and sin must no longer be our practice if we want to have eternal life with God. For we are all going to reap what we sow in this life. If we sow to please the flesh, from the flesh we will reap destruction, but if we sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit we will reap eternal life.

 

If we remain slaves to sin, that will lead to death, not life eternal. But if we are slaves of obedience to Christ, that leads to righteousness, and its end is eternal life. If we walk according to the Spirit, by the Spirit, and we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will have eternal life.

 

And we must keep his commandments as a matter of practice. If we say we know God, but we are not obeying his commands, we are liars, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have fellowship with God, but we continue to conduct our lives in darkness (sin), we will not have eternal life.

 

So, we need to take this to heart. We are not saved from our sins, and we are not guaranteed eternal life with God if we continue living in sin, making sin our practice, i.e., if we habitually, deliberately, and premeditatedly choose to sin against our Lord instead of obeying what he says.

 

For, true faith in Jesus Christ results in us dying with Christ to sin and living to Christ and to his righteousness. It results in us no longer being enslaved to sin but us now being bond-slaves (servants) of our Lord (owner-master). And it results in us walking (conducting our lives) no longer according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (in accord with godliness).

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Jn 6:44; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2]

 

Songs in the Night 

 

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

 

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

 

Lord, I praise You forevermore.

You, my Savior, I now adore.

Hope in heaven awaiting me,

Because You died at Calvary.

 

I have been forgiven,

And I’m bound for heaven.

Jesus set me free from

All my sin, I say.

I will praise Him always!

 

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:

Overcame death, my vict’ry won!

Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!

I rejoice in His love for me.

 

I will walk in vict’ry!

My sin is but hist’ry!

I am free to please Him

With my life today.

I will love Him always!

 

Lord, I thank You for giving me

A new life bought at Calvary.

Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.

Tender mercies now flow within.

 

Lord, I am so thankful;

Through my Lord, I’m able

To sit at His table;

Fellowship with Him.

I will thank Him always!

 

https://vimeo.com/379484387

The Way of the Upright

Whoever Walks in Uprightness

Proverbs 14:2, 5, 25 ESV

                      

“Whoever walks in uprightness fears the Lord,

    but he who is devious in his ways despises him.

A faithful witness does not lie,

    but a false witness breathes out lies.

A truthful witness saves lives,

    but one who breathes out lies is deceitful.”

 

To fear the Lord is to honor, respect, reverence, worship and obey him. It is to walk in uprightness. Amen! It is to do what is right and acceptable in his eyes. It is to cleanse ourselves of every defilement. It is to make it our goal to please him, to be holy. And it is to offer to God acceptable worship, which is to give our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him.

 

In context, it is obviously to walk in truth, as well, and to not be devious. It is to not lie, to not bear false witness, and to not accuse others falsely (deliberately and knowingly). But it is to tell the truth as we know it in order to save lives, not to destroy lives through deceit and trickery.

 

And how critical is that to our salvation? His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. Anyone who fears God and does what is right (in his eyes) is acceptable to him. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. And we who fear him are rewarded with eternal life.

 

So, we are to be truth tellers, not liars and deceivers, not destroying lives, but saving them. We are to conduct our lives in holiness, in purity, and in uprightness, in the fear of the Lord. We are to forsake our sinful practices, and we are to walk in obedience to our Lord, giving him honor and praise.

 

[Lu. 1:50; Ac. 10:34-35; 2 Co. 5:6-11; 2 Co. 7:1; Phil. 2:12-13; Heb. 12:28-29; Rev. 11:18; 14:7; 15:4; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 8:1-17]

 

The Prudent discerns His Way

Proverbs 14:6-8 ESV

 

“A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain,

    but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding.

Leave the presence of a fool,

    for there you do not meet words of knowledge.

The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way,

    but the folly of fools is deceiving.”

 

Who is the scoffer? He is one who derides, who mocks, makes fun of, and has contempt (hatred) for others who are not like him, who are different, who don’t believe what he believes. This isn’t just about disagreeing, or having a difference of opinion, but this is about attempts to destroy another who is different than oneself or to destroy the gospel of our salvation.

 

Though he seeks wisdom, it will not be given to him, for he fights against it with all his might. For, wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and he refuses to walk in the fear of God because he thinks he knows better. He refuses to believe the whole counsel of God, and he prefers to believe in cherry picking Scriptures which, out of context, tell him what his itching ears desire.

 

James talked about this in his writing (in the New Testament). He said that if we seek wisdom from God, but we doubt God, that we are double-minded, and so we won’t receive anything from the Lord. If we can’t trust God to tell us the truth, so we rely on our own wisdom, instead, we will never be wise.

 

We, as well, should not rely on the wisdom of the foolish, especially on those who make it their practice to lie and to deceive others. It doesn’t mean we go around accusing people of lying, without knowledge, but that we do not put our faith and trust in their wisdom. We are cautious and discerning.

 

The Tent of the Upright

Proverbs 14:10-12 ESV

 

“The heart knows its own bitterness,

    and no stranger shares its joy.

The house of the wicked will be destroyed,

    but the tent of the upright will flourish.

There is a way that seems right to a man,

    but its end is the way to death.”

 

No other person truly knows what goes on in another person’s heart. Only God truly knows. We can test the spirits, and we can look at the fruits of a person’s life, and we can know what is obvious, what is outward, what is seen and clear, but we can’t really know another’s true heart.

 

Those who are not strangers, who are close to another, such as a spouse, if they have known each other a long time, and if that spouse or that close friend or family member is at all observant of habits and attitudes, he or she may be able to discern to some extent what is going on inside the other person, but not with complete accuracy.

 

But our Lord knows us inside and out, better than we know ourselves, because he is the one who made us, and he is the one to complete us. So, we can turn to him in prayer when we are going through difficult times or when fears are trying to have their way with us, and we can rest in the Lord and rely on his strength to make it through every trial.

 

Our Lord knows our hearts, and he knows who are his, but there are also obvious and outward signs which also indicate who truly belong to the Lord and who don’t. For, if we are conducting our lives in deliberate and habitual sinful practices, we are not walking in the fear of the Lord, and Scripture says we will die in our sins. We won’t inherit eternal life with God.

 

But if we die with Christ to sin, and we are raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, and we are walking according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, and we are submitting our lives to the will of God, and we are walking in obedience to his ways, we have eternal life.

 

Those Who Devise Good

Proverbs 14:15-16, 22 ESV

 

“The simple believes everything,

    but the prudent gives thought to his steps.

One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil,

    but a fool is reckless and careless.

Do they not go astray who devise evil?

    Those who devise good meet steadfast love and faithfulness.”

 

It is not good to be naïve and overly trusting of everything we hear, for there are many liars and deceivers out there, even within the gatherings of the church, whose goal it is to deceive us and to trap us and to trip us up so that we don’t follow our Lord in surrender to his will for our lives.

 

It doesn’t mean we go around accusing everyone of lying, without knowledge, but that we exercise godly wisdom and discernment, and we show caution. We don’t believe everything people tell us, no matter who they are, but we test everything we hear coming from friends, family, preachers, government heads, the news media, and social media, too.

 

For, there are many people out there who are those who devise evil, who make evil their practice, whose goal it is to deceive and to lead people astray. Some of them do this because they want to continue living in their sins and they don’t want others to know what they are doing, so they not only plot evil deeds, but they also plot coverups for their evil deeds.

 

Others do this willfully in order to lead others astray, to get them to not follow the Lord in obedience, or to try to accuse them in some way or to attempt to trip them up with their words. For, they work for Satan, and their goal is to get people to not believe the gospel and to not obey Christ.

 

But for us who devise good, even though we might be falsely accused of doing evil (as they did to Jesus), we will meet steadfast love and faithfulness. These will be the hallmarks of our walks of faith in Jesus Christ. We will follow our Lord in wholehearted devotion to him, we will walk in his ways, and we will abide by his truth. For we love him!

 

Only Hope

 

By Jonathan Foreman

 

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

 

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours

I know now you're my only hope

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads

They Love Sin Rather than Righteousness

Whoever is Believing in Him

John 3:16 ESV

 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

 

God the Father loved the people of this sinful world so much that he gave his only begotten Son Jesus Christ, God the Son, to die on a cross to deliver us from our slavery (addiction) to sin. Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us on that cross that we might become the righteousness of God.

 

So, in his death, our Lord Jesus put our sins to death so that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness; so that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who died for us; and that we might become God’s possession, and now honor God with our lives (our bodies).

 

He did this so that whoever is believing (present tense) in him should not perish but have eternal life with God. So, this means we don’t have eternal life with God based on a past profession of faith in Jesus Christ, but on a present reality of genuine God-persuaded faith being lived out in one’s life.

 

For, to believe means to be persuaded (convinced) by God as to who Jesus is, and as to what he did for us on that cross, and what that means for us, and that includes what is required of us, too. For, when we are believing with God-given faith, which originates with Jesus, and is being perfected by Jesus, we die with Christ to sin, and we are rebirthed of the Spirit of God.

 

We entrust our lives to Jesus Christ to deliver us out of our bondage to sin so that we can now become slaves of God and of his righteousness. He is now our Lord (owner-master), and we belong to him. And now we are to walk in the works which he planned in advance that we should do.

 

Now we no longer walk (conduct our lives in practice) according to the flesh, but now according to (in agreement with) the Spirit of God. Daily by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, saying “No!” to sin and “Yes!” to walking in obedience to our Lord in the power of God’s Spirit.

 

This is the only faith that saves us from our sins, and which promises us eternal life with God. It must be a present reality in our lives, it must be what we put into practice in our lives, and we must continue in this faith until the very end, and then we have eternal life with God.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Jn 6:44; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2]

 

We are Saved Through Him

John 3:17-18 ESV

 

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

 

Many people read this first sentence here and they draw the conclusion that Jesus Christ will never judge any of us. That is not true! It is true that when he came to the earth the first time, he came not to bring judgment on the world but to save the world. But when he returns for his bride, he will judge those who did not believe in him (Matt 7:21-23; 2 Co 5:10; Acts 17:31).

 

For truly it is our unbelief which condemns us. And many who proclaim faith in Jesus Christ are guilty of unbelief because they never submitted to Christ as Lord nor obeyed him. They never died with him to sin, and so they were never reborn of the Spirit of God. And presently they are still living to the flesh and not according to the Spirit, so they will die in their sins.

 

But our God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. And repentance is not a mere change of mind away from non-belief in Jesus to some human-originated faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance is making a spiritual U-turn. We are turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that we might receive forgiveness of sins.

 

And repentance is essential to our faith and to our salvation. Jesus taught repentance for salvation as did John the Baptist, and as did the apostles. It means we die with Christ to sin, we are raised with him to newness of life in him, and now we walk in obedience to his commands. We were going one way, and now we are going the exact opposite way (the U-Turn).

 

People Love the Darkness

John 3:19-21 ESV

 

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

 

Jesus Christ is the light, as is truth and righteousness. The gospel is the light. Jesus Christ came into the world. He spoke the truth of the gospel to the people, that they must deny self, die daily to sin and self, and walk in obedience to his commands, and leave their lives of sin behind them.

 

He told them that if they held on to their old sinful lifestyles that they would lose their lives for eternity, but if they lost their lives for his sake, i.e., if they died with him to sin and lived with him to his righteousness that they would have eternal life with him (Lu 9:23-26; cf. Rom 8:1-17).

 

The Apostle Paul taught the same thing, that we must die with Christ to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, that we must forsake our lives of sin to follow our Lord in obedience to his commands, or else we will die in our sins, not have eternal life with God (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17).

 

But the light is being distorted by humans who, in their flesh, want to have the promise of heaven when they die but who do not want to live for the Lord on this earth. So, they have adulterated the true gospel and have reduced it to something contrary to the true gospel of grace.

 

They have turned God’s grace into a license for lasciviousness by telling people that they can say some magic words or just acknowledge who Jesus is and what he did and they are saved and bound for heaven no matter how they live their lives from that moment forward.

 

Many today are taking it further than that, and they are outright stating that faith in Jesus Christ requires no repentance, no obedience to Christ, and no submission to him as Lord. In fact, they are calling that “works-based salvation,” and they are demonizing the true gospel.

 

So, they are those who love the darkness (sin), and thus they want to continue in their habitual and deliberate sinful practices, and so they won’t come into the light. They won’t die with Christ to sin, and they won’t deny self and follow him in obedience, and so they stand condemned.

 

But whoever does what is true (makes truth and righteousness their practice) comes into the light, i.e., is crucified with Christ in death to sin and lives to Christ and to his righteousness, in the power of God, as a matter of lifestyle, their walk of faith in Jesus Christ, which results in eternal life.

 

[See the Scripture references in the first section]

 

Only Hope

 

By Jonathan Foreman

 

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

 

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours

I know now you're my only hope

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads

Do Not Cease to Bear Fruit

Trust in Man

Jeremiah 17:5-6 ESV

 

“Thus says the Lord:

‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man

    and makes flesh his strength,

    whose heart turns away from the Lord.

He is like a shrub in the desert,

    and shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,

    in an uninhabited salt land.’”

 

If our trust is in other humans and in the flesh and not in God, we are cursed. We will die in our sins. We will not have eternal life with God. This is not just Old Covenant teaching. This is New Covenant teaching. For, if we walk (in conduct) according to the flesh, we will die in our sins.

 

If we “pray the prayer” to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, but we never submit to him as Lord, and we continue living in habitual and deliberate sin against our Lord, we will die in our sins. We will not have eternal life with God, no matter what we profess with our lips.

 

If we try to live the Christian life in our own flesh, and we are “good deed doers,” but we never surrender our lives to our Lord, to be his possession, to do the works he prepared in advance that we should do, for we are still holding on to control of our own lives, we will die in our sins.

 

For, you see, Jesus did not die that horrible death on that cross just to forgive us our sins so that we can go to heaven when we die. He died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who died for us.

 

If we believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded and God-given faith in Jesus Christ, we will die with Christ to sin, and we will live to him and to his righteousness. We will submit to Jesus Christ as master of our lives, we will leave our sins behind us, and we will follow him in obedience to his ways.

 

So, if we claim to believe in Jesus Christ, but we don’t repent of our sins, and we don’t submit to him as Lord, and we don’t follow him in obedience, because we want to continue living in our sins, just know that God will judge us. For if we sow to please the flesh, we will reap destruction. But if we sow to please the Spirit, then and only then will we reap eternal life.

 

Trust in the Lord

Jeremiah 17:7-8 ESV

 

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

    whose trust is the Lord.

He is like a tree planted by water,

    that sends out its roots by the stream,

and does not fear when heat comes,

    for its leaves remain green,

and is not anxious in the year of drought,

    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

 

We are blessed of God if our trust is in the Lord and not in our flesh. And to trust the Lord with our lives means he is in charge. He is on the throne of our lives, and our lives are surrendered to him to do his will. For that is the meaning of the word “Lord.” He is our owner-master. We belong to him.

 

To trust in the Lord means that we depend on him for all of our needs, that we trust him to heal us when we are sick and to give us wisdom and guidance in making decisions for our lives. It means that we are submitted to following him wherever he leads us to do whatever he commands.

 

It also means that he is our life, not just part of our life. He calls the shots. He directs our paths. He shows us the way to go that we may walk in it. He trains us for godliness and for the work of the ministry. He gifts us and he equips us, and he calls and assigns us to specific parts in the body of Christ.

 

Our lives are no longer our own to be lived however we want, for Jesus bought us back for God with his blood shed on the cross for our sins. Besides that, if we truly trust Jesus with our lives we want to surrender our lives to him. We want to do his will. We want to make him truly Lord of our lives.

 

For, this is what we were designed for. This is what we were created for, to worship God with our whole being and to be his and only his for the rest of our lives. In Christ, we were created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. We were made to be like him in all that we are and do and say.

 

This is where we find true peace and joy and purpose for living. This is where we find fulfillment. This is where we find healing and hope. In Christ we live for him to do what he has called us to do, and we bear spiritual fruit for his eternal kingdom, and we make a difference in other people’s lives, too. All for the glory of God and for his honor and praise and purpose.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:7; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10]

 

Only Hope

 

By Jonathan Foreman

 

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

 

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours

I know now you're my only hope

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads

Where Does Your Faith Rest?

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

The Wisdom of Men

There are two kinds of messages in this world – God’s, and the world’s. We either are listening to the wisdom of God, or we are listening to the counsel of men (or women) and their fleshly or worldly wisdom. And we are either following the Lord Jesus with our lives, or we are following the flesh.

The majority of people, it would appear, are following the flesh and human wisdom, and they are not following Jesus Christ and the wisdom of his word. Even many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are not his true followers, for they are still living by the flesh, and not by the Spirit.

So, what is it that these preachers are teaching who are using lofty, smooth, or charming speech? Mainly they are teaching a gospel of salvation which is created in the minds of humans which is a half-truth gospel, and thus it is a lie. It appeals to human flesh for it makes no requirements for death to sin.

The adherents of this half-truth gospel, thus, feel as though they can continue living in sin without guilt, for they are convinced that their sins are forgiven, and that heaven is guaranteed them when they die, regardless of how they live or how they treat Jesus from now until then.

For, the messages they are listening to, and which they are accepting, manipulate and adulterate the Scriptures. They remove many Scriptures from their context, and they teach them out of context, and they distort them to give a message which is not true to Scripture (in context).

But it sounds good to their ears, so they believe what they are hearing without actually checking it out for themselves to be certain of its truth. It appeases their flesh, requires no genuine repentance, or obedience to Christ, or submission to the Lordship of Christ. “Easy believism,” it is sometimes called. Others call it “the cheap grace gospel.”

Jesus Christ and Him Crucified

Paul said he decided to know nothing other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, this did not mean that he only taught that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins so that we can be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God. Paul taught the “whole counsel of God.”

He taught what it means to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. And he taught the fulness of the message of the cross, not only that Jesus died to take away the sins of the world, but why he died, what he died for, and the fulness of what that means for us who believe in him.

For, Jesus Christ didn’t come into this world and die on that cross merely to forgive us our sins so we could go to heaven when we die. He died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for us.

When we believe in Jesus with God-given faith, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, we are transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and we are given new lives in Christ Jesus for the glory of God, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

We are delivered from our slavery (addiction, bondage) to sin so that we can now be slaves of God and of his righteousness. Now we walk (in conduct, in practice) not according to the flesh, but according to (in agreement with) the Spirit of God, living holy and godly lives, pleasing to our Lord.

The Power of God

Paul also taught in the power and wisdom of the Spirit of God. He relied on the leading of the Holy Spirit to lead him to all truth and to give him the words to say. He wasn’t getting his messages from other men, nor from books written by other men (not God-breathed).

He didn’t go through “church planters training” classes nor did he attend Bible college or seminary where he learned how to interpret and how to preach the Scriptures. And these days it is also where they learn to market the church just like any other business to the flesh of humans.

The Holy Spirit was his teacher and trainer who taught him the Scriptures, and who taught him the New Covenant, and who gave him the words to write in what is now our New Testament. And the Holy Spirit is to be the one who teaches us the Word of God, too, and who gives us the words to say.

We, too, need to be teaching “the whole counsel of God” and not a half-truth gospel based off Scriptures which are removed from their context and twisted to say something the Scriptures don’t teach. We need to be teaching the fulness of the gospel and of what it means to believe in Jesus Christ.

But, first of all, we need to be living the gospel (the gospel of Jesus, not of man). We must be those who have died with Christ to sin, who are dying with him daily to sin, and who are living to him and to his righteousness, who are walking not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Our lives must be surrendered to Jesus Christ, and he is to be our Lord (owner-master). We are to be those who are following him in obedience, not just to his commands (to his instructions), but daily we must listen to him speaking to us directing us where to go, and what to say, and what to do.

For, Jesus died for us so that we would be God’s possession and so that we would honor God with our lives – that we would live to please him in all that we do and say because we love him, and because we are so thankful for what he did for us in dying so that we could be set free of our sins.

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

A Believer’s Prayer 

An Original Work / July 31, 2012

With my whole heart, Lord, I pray 

To be Yours, and Yours always.

Lead me in Your truth today.

May I love You, and obey.

Lead me in Your righteousness.

When I sin, may I confess;

Bow before You when I pray;

Live for You and You always.

Love You, Jesus, You’re my friend.

Life with You will never end.

You are with me through each day,

Giving love and peace always.

You will ne’er abandon me.

From my sin You set me free.

You died on that cruel tree,

So I’d live eternally.

Soon You’re coming back for me;

From this world to set me free;

Live with You eternally.

Oh, what joy that brings to me.

I will walk with You in white;

A pure bride, I’ve been made right

By the blood of Jesus Christ;

Pardoned by His sacrifice.

https://vimeo.com/114796263