Notice the following:.
Notice the following:
We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar , and the truth is not in that person. (I John 2:3,4)
How about the individual who says, "I believe in Him," but does not do what He commands?
The New Testament is filled with the commands of Christ and His Apostles. But I fear in numerous instances, the ministers do not tell the people that we have to keep the commands of Christ and His Apostles. Instead they tell their congregations that they are saved by "grace." They go to Heaven by "grace." We should keep Christ's commands to the best of our ability. But in the last analysis, we are saved by "grace."
This is not what the Bible teaches. It is "rebellion," and it leaves us vulnerable to the shaking that shall occur in the last days.
The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12:27)
I think it is the philosophy of Humanism that has caused us to substitute "grace" for obedience to God. God is kindly and merciful. He also is a Spirit who requires obedience. We have made a new gospel, the "gospel of grace." It shall be shaken out of the Kingdom of God as something made by man. It has not come from God.
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. (I John 2:7,8)
"Sin" is disobedience to God, nothing less and nothing more. Either we obey God and keep His commands, or we do not. If we do not obey God and keep His commands, we are in rebellion.
To mix "grace" into this simplicity is to do Satan's work. "We ought to do God's will, but we are saved by grace. We are in rebellion but we are saved by grace. God sees us through Christ; He overlooks our rebellion because He is saving us by grace."
But the process of "saving" us actually means breaking the chains of sin that prevent our being in God's image. How then could God "save us by grace" when the Divine salvation is not actually occurring?
What I am declaring is that a great part of the Christian Church is believing a lie, a humanistic lie. Consequently numerous Christians are going to be shaken out of the Kingdom of God in the days in which we are living.
In this morning's newspaper (April 2, 2015) there was the result of a poll: "Most Americans now say Jesus actually sinned."
This is the direction America is following.
How could such a monstrous belief be true of American people? It is because of the teaching of "grace." The core of God's message to believers, whether of the old covenant or the new, is that we are to behave righteously. But we, in our humanistic rebellion, have made an alternative to God's will. That alternative is "grace," meaning that God is not really serious about our behaving righteously.
What does the world see in the Christian churches, who are the "lights" of the world? They see the behavior of people who do not believe that we are to take the commands of Christ and His Apostles seriously, and who are waiting for an any-moment "rapture" to carry them to Heaven where they can play all the day.
The thinking of the world is, "if these people are portraying Christ, then He must be a sinner like the rest of us."
The moral "light" is growing dimmer each day because of the teaching of "grace," which is another name for "rebellion." Paul used the term "grace" so the Jew could leave the Law of Moses and serve Christ, not so the Jewish believer could be worldly, sinful, and disobedient to God. What a deception!
The following are just five of the behavior we must practice if Christ is to be formed in us:
Look carefully for Jesus' will at all times. Do not make your own plans and walk by the light of your own fires.
Rome wasn't built in a day. Christ will not be formed in you in some dramatic experience but after years of cross-carrying obedience.
Life consists of a number of details. Each detail must be committed to the Lord Jesus Christ in order to gain His wisdom, strength, and energy.
Your goal is to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus in personality and behavior, and to be at rest in the center of God's Person and will.
Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
Do you believe that most American church-goers would take these admonitions seriously? Would an American pastor or evangelist insist on these as being essential to a fruitful discipleship? Rather, they would protest that if we just would "accept Christ," spiritual maturity will somehow be taken care of.
That is a good way to create "a great people and a strong," isn't it!
Let us say you have entered a race. As you started to run, you were told that you already have won. How vigorously would you exert yourself?
The truth is, salvation always is "today." If we are not moving forward in Christ today, we are not being saved.
This is why American Christians are not revealing the light of good works.
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. (Matthew 10:22—KJV)
One standard Evangelical edition of the Bible has this footnote to Matthew 10:22 (I am paraphrasing): "We must remember that salvation is a sovereign work and does not depend on our enduring to the end."
How could any Christian scholar say the Lord Jesus did not tell the truth? Yet, what I have recorded here is accurate. It reveals the depth of the present deception.
The result is what Satan desires: "Christians who say they believe the Gospel, but by their works deny their profession of faith."
They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. (Titus 1:16—KJV)
There is a totally unscriptural doctrine prevalent. It is termed "eternal security," or "once saved, always saved."
This terribly destructive doctrine, which goes against the tenor of both the Old Testament and the New, is that once we make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ we will go to Heaven when we die, no matter how we behave after our profession. The doctrine of eternal security is a comfortable bedfellow of grace and Humanism.
But this concept is horribly unscriptural, no matter how today's Bible commentators twist and turn, using aspects of the Greek language we know little about.
If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done. (Ezekiel 33:13)
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them, (II Peter 2:20,21)
Is there such a thing as a "way of righteousness"? If there is, does it consist of believing doctrine, or does it refer to godly behavior?
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