It’s a good thing to be set free.

And, it’s even a better thing...to stay free.

Unfortunately, that is not the happy ending story for many who at one point in their lives did come to Jesus and began a walk with Him. All that joy and happiness and freedom they tasted early on and basked in...is a distant, dusty memory. But by golly...they sure remain faithful to that church they have attended all these years. No doubt, they keep paying tithes and devote countless hours of time and energy to serving that local body.

Now that’s not to say that being committed and involved to a local church body is a bad thing either. But if at best, you have been reduced to walking in a ‘form of godliness’...honoring Him with your lips but your heart has waxed hard and grown cold...and you are devoid of experiencing the power and freedom Jesus came to bring...well...that’s another story. And not a good one either.

And it doesn’t have to be this way.

God tells us that His people...His ‘flock’...can easily be taken captive...and destroyed...for a lack of knowledge. (Jer. 13:17; Hosea 4:6). Why, if you look at the last part of that verse in Hosea 4:6, He mentions something about ‘forgetting His law’...and the tragic repercussions of doing so as well.

I heard this quote years ago when taking a world history class in college, where the professor had written on the board, the first day of class, this statement: “The only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.” That will preach!

I mentioned yesterday, in closing, that being ‘re-captured’ by the enemy really is ‘a thing’ that happens far too often to God’s people. And it happens basically, for one reason: A lack of knowledge. Friends, ignorance may be ‘bliss’ in some situations, but not when it comes to God’s kingdom. Why Paul writes in a few places that he does not want us to ‘be ignorant’.

I know, you are holding on to that promise where Jesus said ‘no one can snatch you from the Father’s hand.’ (John 10:28). And that is a wonderful promise. But you might read the verses just prior to that because Jesus seems to suggest that promise is to His ‘sheep’. And He tells us clearly that His sheep ‘hear His voice and follow Him’. (John 10:27). That’s why they don’t get taken captive or ‘snatched’. They do what He says. (Luke 6:46)

I hope you looked at that short passage I left you with yesterday in Matt. 12:43-45 where Jesus seems to clue us in as to how people can be ‘re-captured’. It happens; a lot. And it boils down to pretty much one reason: sin. We should know what ‘sin’ is by now as well. Sin is lawlessness. (1 John 3:4). Lawlessness simply means ‘breaking the law’; God’s law to be exact.

When you sin, you break God's law. Sin has consequences as well. Be not deceived, brethren. (Gal. 6 :7-8; Eph. 5:6; James 1:14-16).

Take a look at Psalms 107. We read there in vs.10 how God’s people ‘sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons...”

Sounds like a place of captivity to me. Do you care to know how they ended up in that miserable condition? Read the next verse: “Because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.” (11). That too, was ‘a thing’ over and over and over again as you read through the OT. And while you are at it, check out Lamentations 1:5.

Good thing that can’t happen to us today, right? (Or so we’ve been taught). Yet, look what Jesus shared in Matt. 18:23-35 in the parable of the unmerciful servant. Fast-forward to the end of that chapter where Jesus cuts to the chase and explains that if we fail to forgive others of their sins as God has forgiven us...then we get handed over to ‘who’, of all things? (34-35). Sounds like a similar place of suffering those folks in Ps. 107:10-11 found themselves in, does it not?

Yet, there is good news for those who are captive. In Ps. 107, we read where God ‘sent His word and healed them’. (20). Guess who God sends to us today to heal and free us? The same ‘Word’...who ‘became flesh and dwelt among us.’ (John 1:1,14; John 8:34-36; Luke 4:18)

We were examining, yesterday, that passage in 2 Tim. 2:26 how people are ‘taken captive’ by the ‘devil to do his will’. This idea of being taken captive is not a new thing either. In fact, when you read through the book of the Law, or Deuteronomy, you see this warning issued by God repeatedly...failure to keep His law leads to...captivity. (Deut. 28:42)

Now, take a few minutes and read through Leviticus 26:14-38. Again, the same warnings of being taken in to captivity and eventually destroyed if they forget to heed God’s law and commandments. Oh, and for a side note (I’ve mentioned this before) – that passage in Matt. 12:43-45 where Jesus was teaching what happens to a man if/when an ‘unclean spirit’ comes back and takes him captive again? How many other ‘spirits’ does he bring with him that leads to that person’s condition being much worse off in the end? Now read Lev. 26:21.

Yeah...I’ll give you a moment to chew on that one as well.

When I tell you over and over that we have failed to fully understand the depth and relevance of God’s law that still stands today, it is the one reason why so many sincere people have suffered needlessly; or as Hosea stated: “been destroyed for a lack of knowledge...in forgetting His law” (4:6)

And Jesus did not come to do away with or abolish this law either. (Matt. 5:17).

Now please pay attention to this next part because this is where the majority of us were ‘highjacked’ and taken captive by false teaching and led astray. Or, as Paul said, carried away by ‘doctrines of demons’. (1 Tim.4:1; 2 Cor. 11:2-4). If you are like me, it probably came across sounding something similar to this:

“Given the sinful wretched state that all of us humans found ourselves in, being sinners and all, it was impossible for any of us to fulfill God’s holy law. Therefore we all stood condemned and in need of a savior. When Jesus came, He did indeed announce that He did not come to abolish the law but rather to fulfill the law as stated there in Matt. 5:17.

Now here comes the ‘head fake’ of deception – Most have been taught that : “Since Jesus fulfilled the law, being the only 'perfect human’ to ever do so, being obedient to the Father even to the point of death on the cross (Phil. 2:8), all we have to do is ‘put our trust in Jesus’ and in what He did...and then all that what Jesus did is imputed on to us and we are 'made righteous' by our faith in Christ alone.” (Now Please...take your time with this...as it is so important!)

There’s good reason why we all get so tangled up in that mess of words. It sounds so good and convincing and ‘gets us off the hook’. We don’t ‘have to do anything’. It’s a ‘free gift’ and is ‘by grace we are saved, through faith, not of ourselves lest any of us boast’. (Eph. 2:8-9).I am in total agreement with those verses.

But wait! That is not the end of the story. Professing that you believe in Jesus does not exempt you from the penalty of the law should you break it. That is, what sin is, in case you forgot. Sin is breaking the law. That same law that Jesus came to fulfill.

You have to fulfill it too. In fact, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees ...you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:20). His words, not mine.

Wait....say what? We have to...’keep the law’? What if...it’s not just a ‘heads or tails’ answer? What if it’s ....both?

Does Paul not tell us that it is ‘not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers!” (Rom. 2:13). Does Paul not remind us there is no conflict with the law and faith as he writes “On the contrary, faith upholds the law’? (Rom. 3:31)

Guess what Jesus came to do, among a number of things? He came to lead us to fulfill the law as well. He was not interested in a stadium full of people cheering Him on for doing that (fulfilling the law)...and then being misled to believe that because they cheered Him on and said they believed in Him that they too...would be ‘counted righteous’ based on their ‘profession of faith’.  *News Flash* - He then invites (commands) us to take up our own cross...and forsake all and follow Him. (Luke 9:23; 14:33)

Where is He going to lead us to? I’m glad you asked: He leads us to put to death all the deeds of our sinful flesh nature (Rom. 8:13) so that we can have His nature produced in us so that we too...can fulfill the law of God which is to ‘love Him with all our hearts and to love others as He loved us.’ And you will never accomplish this walking in a form of godliness and trusting in doctrines that do not conform you to godliness. Just like Jesus, you too...have to ‘die’ to self, so that you might ‘live for God’. Failure to understand the truth of this aspect of God’s law, has led many into darkness and destruction. But for those, who do take up their cross and follow (trust and obey- Heb. 5:9) they no longer walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

And this is the promise to those who do: There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are ‘in Christ’; - and all...of the righteous requirements of the law are fully met in them’...who walk not according to the flesh, but the Spirit. (Rom. 8:1-4)

I know...that’s a lot to take in. But you need to allow the Holy Spirit to ‘connect more dots’ for you here. He will...if you are willing to be still...and know that He is God. And you need not fear the word of God either.  More tomorrow....