The only thing is...are you believing in...the ‘right Jesus’? Or better yet...are you ‘following the real Jesus’? Paul did warn us in 2 Cor. 11:3-4 of the danger in receiving ‘another gospel...another Jesus...and even another spirit’. ‘Another spirit’? Interesting...
Did Jesus not warn His disciples of a day that would come when ‘false Christ’ would arise and lead many astray...if not even the ‘very elect’? (Matt. 24:23-24,11). That may be why Paul told us to ‘examine ourselves’ to ‘test ourselves’ to make sure that Jesus was really in us...lest we fail the test. (2 Cor. 13:5).
One of the downfalls of buying in to a another gospel and ‘trusting in another Jesus’ is this phenomena that takes place if/when you read your bible. You start only seeing what affirms your particular way of thinking/believing. (John 8:43) In other words, you sure won’t see all the serious warnings and admonitions that are woven throughout the NT as well. And friends...there are plenty of them. Warnings to ‘work out our salvation with fear and trembling’ (Phil. 2:12); or “let us fear lest any of us fall short of entering this rest’ (Heb. 4:1) or ‘having these promises let us cleanse ourselves from ALL filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.’ (2 Cor 7:1) because “without holiness, no one will see the Lord”. (Heb.12:14). And then Paul launches off referring to all these judgements that fell on the people wandering in the wilderness telling us these things were written down for our example and warning! (1 Cor. 10:3-11)
What we fail to see sometimes when trying to bridge the OT and the NT...is that God never changes. (Mal. 3:6) And we know that Jesus is the same ‘yesterday, today, and forever.’(Heb. 13:8). And if a false doctrine has captured our hearts, then it can be difficult to hear what Jesus is trying to teach us. Did He not make it clear that the Pharisees back in His day had laid aside the commands of God and were holding on to the traditions of men? (Mark 7). He ‘came to His own...and His own did not receive Him.” (John 1:11). Good thing that could never happen to us, right?
The passage I mentioned the other day...the one where Jesus was talking what happens when an unclean spirit goes out of man looking for a place to rest and when it finds none, it decides to ‘return to the house from which it came’. Finding it ‘empty, swept clean, and put in order’, he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter and dwell there and in the end that man is much worse off than he we in the begining.” (Matt. 12:43-45). That ‘empty’ part is key here (John 15:7, 14:17). But also, make note how many other spirits he returned with him. Then, on your own, flip back to Leviticus 26:21 and read what happens to those who start out with God but then walk contrary to Him and are not willing to obey Him. (I’ll wait while you do that).
Coincidence? You tell me.
Because of the ever increasing problem of sin and rebellion in the world, God set His law in place some 400+ years after His covenant with Abraham. (Gal. 4:19). And when Jesus showed up, He did not come to abolish or do away with this Law. (Matt. 5:17). The reason He came was not only to fulfill the Law Himself, but to lead us to fulfill it as well. God knew because of our defective, sinful nature that we would never be able to live up to His standard of holiness. So He had this elaborate plan to send Jesus who would come and abide In those who repented and came to Him with all their hearts. He would send His Spirit to live IN us and lead us...in this walk of faith. And the first thing He was going to do was remove everything contrary to His nature as ‘we decrease and He increases’(John 3:30). As in, deal with this old nature/man. (Rom. 8:13-14). But you have to follow Him and abide in Him.
IF...we did things His way...as in take up our own cross, follow Him in obedience (Heb. 5:9) an interesting thing would begin to unfold. While we were/are being ‘conformed to His nature/image’ (Rom. 8:29), following His spirit and not our fleshly desires, then the ‘righteous requirements of the law would be fully met in us’. (Rom. 8:4). We would be like those Gentiles Paul pointed out in Rom. 2:14 who even though were ignorant of the law, they were instinctively by this new ‘nature’ were fulfilling the law showing the law had been written in their hearts. And please make note of vs. 13 there where it says ‘not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God but the doers of the law will be justified. (You might also visit 1 Cor. 7:19)
While we are on this, go read 1 Tim. 1:8-10. What does Paul say there about the law? And who is the law ‘for’? Trust me...while in the natural world it may seem like folks who ‘break the law get away with murder’...you can be sure those who transgress God’s laws do not get away with anything. God knows what He’s doing. Make no mistake about it...people who do such things...the wrath of God comes on them (Eph 5:6). And you know what Jesus came to ‘save us’ from? The wrath of God. (Rom. 5:9). How does He do this? He becomes Lord of our lives and then empowers us with His spirit to walk the way He did (1 John 2:6) so that we too end up fulfilling the law...which is summed up as ‘loving God with all our hearts and loving our neighbor as ourselves...with Hs love.
When that rich young ruler came asking Jesus about how to inherit eternal life, what did Jesus tell him? – He pointed him to the law; “Keep the commandments”(Matt. 19:17). This guy ‘thought he had been doing that’...sort of how like many today ‘think they are following Jesus’. But when this young man pressed Jesus for more insight...Jesus told him...there was just one other thing he was apparently lacking and that if he wanted to be perfect, he'd need to cut loose of something Jesus saw in his heart. (Matt. 19:20-21)
The invite to this young man was the same invite Jesus offers to every one of us. “Give up all’...take up our cross (willing to lay down and die to our old nature/man) and begin to follow Him where He becomes Lord of our lives. (Not just ‘savior). Luke 6:46 and Heb. 5:9 Mark 8:34.
The young man opted out. Apparently there was something else in his heart that he loved more...than Jesus. So he turned and walked away....grieved and sorrowful. He was not the only one who declined the invite. There were some ‘disciples’ in John 6:66 who seemingly ‘fell away from the faith’. It happens...more often than we’d care to admit. Have you ever seen those multiple references in the OT how God accused His people of chasing or ‘whoring’ after other gods? Has it ever occurred to you what is actually behind or working in those ‘other gods’? They are demons. ( Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:17; 2 Chron. 11:15). Yeah...they were around back in the OT as well.
What do ‘they’ like to do? - Turn our hearts away from God and pursue other things that we love more. Do you know what we call those things that we love more than God?
God calls them ‘idols’. And if there is anything that provokes the anger of God, it is idolatry. You will probably be shocked to see just how much idolatry exist even today...here in America. It’s just not ‘jungle people bowing down to carved images’. (or the Catholics and their statutes which many Protestants like to point out).
What ‘idol’ was rooted in the heart of the rich young ruler? Any chance you may have some ‘hidden idols’ in your own heart? Want to take a guess why John closed out his first letter with this final warning of “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”? Rev. 21:7-8 may tell you why. Perhaps we can discuss this more tomorrow.
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