And I want to explain why it is so important that you ‘come to the knowledge of the truth and repent (for believing a lie) so that you may come to your senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will.” (2 Tim. 2:26; Acts 26:18).
If I’m starting to sound a bit more ‘bold’ (if nor repetitive) in driving home this point, it is not accidental. I am feeling more compelled and empowered to declare to you the whole counsel of God and the sooner people begin to see the truth of God’s word, and the power it holds, the sooner people will be set free, and be free indeed. (John 8:34-36)
As always, you are free to believe what you choose to believe. But when you reject the truth of God’s word, you put yourself in danger given what Paul warned in 2 Thess. 2:10-12 that when people refuse to ‘receive a love of the truth that they might be saved...God will send to them, a strong delusion that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness.” I know...sounds so serious and dramatic. But for good reason: It is. People are perishing and being destroyed for a lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6; 2 Thess. 2:10; Luke 13:3,5)
It's one thing to be told that you ‘were a sinner’. We all were sinners before coming to Christ with all our heart.
It’s another thing all together to be told you ‘remain a sinner...(saved by grace) and will always be a sinner (saved by grace) because of course....you ‘are not perfect, just forgiven.’ Then, to be reassured that you are ‘saved’ and all is well with your soul, you then buy in to ‘another gospel’ that offers you a sense of false security. “Peace, Peace...” they promise you. You might want to take a moment and read Jeremiah 23:16-22; & Ezek. 13:10.
Do you know that in Deut. 29:19-20, the people of God were told that if they think or claim that they can ‘have peace even though they follow the dictates of their own heart’...that all the ‘curses written in this book would settle on them and the Lord would blot out their name from under heaven.”
Oh, you say ‘Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law’? (Gal. 3:13). Would you like to guess who the “us” he is referring to there who have been redeemed? Those who abide in Jesus and no longer walk according to the flesh, but the Spirit. These are the ones who are ‘no longer under the law’ given they ‘no longer fulfill the lust of the sinful flesh nature’. (Gal. 5:18,16). That, is why they are under ‘no condemnation’. (Rom. 8:1) They are following Jesus in obedience and are in fact, walking like He walked as all the ‘righteous requirements of the law are fully met in them. (Rom. 8:4) And who does Paul say will be ‘justified’ in the end? – Answer: Not the hearers of the law, but the doers’(Rom. 2:13)
But here’s the lie we all bought in to: - “That’s impossible for anyone to walk like Jesus”. Really? Then why did John write that those who ‘claim to abide in Him ought themselves to walk just as He walked’? (1 John 2:6). And let’s not forget Peter’s similar exhortation that we should “follow His steps...He who committed no sin...” (1 Pet. 2:21-22)
What did Jesus explain how ‘all men would know who are His disciples”? Because they would be loving others as He loved us. (John 13:34-35). It goes without saying, this is impossible to accomplish if we are not abiding in Him. (John 15:4-5). When we continue in the flesh, we cannot love others with this kind of love. And loving as Christ loved us is the fulfilling of the law.
So back to how this deception leads us into destruction.
I was talking about driving and staying in your own lane, (abiding in His presence of peace and joy). You could, at any time, swerve into oncoming traffic and the outcome would be death. Now if you have been told: “you surely shall not die....if you eat off this tree, (of sin and death)” then what harm is there in swerving in and out of oncoming traffic if there is no danger? Everyone has a bad day now and then and gets lazy. I mean, we all gonna sin just a little bit, are we not? God understand. Besides...what harm is there in ‘sinning’ every ‘now and then’? At least you don’t ‘really sin’ like you used to, right? (And heaven forbid if you were like one of those really ‘bad sinners’ –(Luke 18:11) God will understand...and it’s not like some bolt of lightning is going to fall out of the sky and fry you on the spot. So you just ‘sin a little bit’ ignorant of the warning there in Hebrews 3.12-13:
“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
That is what sin does. It hardens our hearts, be it so deceptively slowly and subtly that we are not even aware of what is happening to us. It hardens them to the point that our consciences become ‘seared’ and our ears begin to deafen and we wonder why we don’t ‘hear from God’ anymore. What did Jesus warn us about there in Matt. 24:12 that would result with the “increase in lawlessness’ (sin)? The hearts of most would wax hard/cold.
I would submit to you that one of the core problems amongst so many people today is they lack a clear understanding as to what ‘sin’ actually is. And that, my friends, is because we don’t hear any teaching on the law today as it has been lost, just like it was in previous generations. Most have little understanding as to its relevancy to us today having been taught that all that is in the past and we just have to ‘have faith in Jesus and trust Him’ and all will be well with your soul.
Friends...God is trying to awaken a sleeping church that has ‘fallen away’ from the faith. (2 Thess. 2:3). And I will continue to sound the alarm as long as I am compelled to do here.
I have a question for you, here in closing: Say you own a vehicle and every single time you start it up and drive it anywhere, the engine ‘backfires’ with a loud obnoxious exploding sound as it spews an odorous smell of exhaust out the pipes... and does this continuously until you turn the engine off. So finally, you take it in to the dealership or local garage and have it looked at to be fixed. Days later, you are told it is ready...so you write out a hefty check to pay for the costly repairs and out the door you go, happy to have paid that bill given you are told the car is as ‘good as new’.
But now, the car only backfires ‘occasionally’, only doing so every other time you drive it and while not repeatedly as you drive, it still backfires multiple times. And admittedly, maybe not as loud and often as it did before, but it still backfires.
Here’s the question: Has the problem been fixed? Is the car really ‘good as new’?
If you take it back to the garage and the mechanic, who seems like a really nice, honest guy, tells you...well “all cars backfire, and your car will always backfire”...but that is no reason to be concerned. If you don’t like the sound of it, just turn the radio up louder and it will drown out the noise. Are you going to be good with that response?
I doubt it.
So why are we satisfied with that response that we get from so many pulpits today?
That was a pretty hefty 'check' God wrote out to 'fix our problem' so that we could be 'good as new'. (John 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:17)
That was a pretty hefty 'check' God wrote out to 'fix our problem' so that we could be 'good as new'. (John 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:17)
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