The Freedom Of Truth

     There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12) I'm a child of the 60's. What do I mean by that? I was influenced by the language of that time. SEX, DRUGS and ROCK AND ROLL! Yeah! Light and Lift up a candle, light and smoke a joint (I never inhaled, oh sure, dude, just ask Bill) It was a time of supposely great freedom to do whatever you wanted. Morals, right and wrong were whatever you made it to be. It was relative. And like a sock that has a tear in it, if not repaired it keeps getting bigger and bigger until it's only fit to be thrown out. I"m afraid that is where our nation is at this time and its not getting any better.                                                                            

That "Hippie" if it feels good mentality, that subjective morality, has infiltrated every aspect of this nations existence. Good has become evil and evil has become good. But before you can understand what evil is, you have to understand what is good.      You must have a standard or anarchy reigns and confusion corrupts every aspect of a persons mental abilities, actions and words.                                    

My mother died from a disorder called dementia. This affliction destroyed her ability to be rational. She was always right, In her own eyes. It was impossible to tell her anything that would be of help to her. She refused to accept anything was wrong with her. She didn't want any help. She didn't accept help because she didn't think she needed help. That is the way of the spiritually blind in the world today. Scripture says, "they follow the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who works in the sons of disobedience and are BY NATURE children of wrath."                                                                         

Say Oprah..... everyone is not a child of God. They'll be those who understand what I am saying and others who think I am a nut case. (See Eph. 2:1-3) So be it. But to explain so you may understand it's like Neo In the Matrix picking up the red pill and suddenly sees the world for what it really is. A lie. He realizes he's been inhabiting a deception created by a heartless, unfeeling machine. The reality of this world is much worse.                                                                                                                           

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (2 Cor. 4:4) The god of this age? Luke 4:1-8 reveals " Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.... The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.  And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'           

There's a real devil. ....( John 8:44 NIV You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ) He'll tell you just want you want to believe. That "adultery, fornication (sexual immorality) uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, homosexuality, thieves, the greedy, revilers, and swindlers and the like... are fine. And you'll believe it because there is a way that seems right to a person but in the end it leads to death... but in reality "those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." (Gal. 5:19-21; 1 Cor 6:9-11) .                                                                

What the world needs now is LOVE. Not an erotic love which our modern society is pummeled with in every nook and cranny... around every corner and behind every door. But a selfless, sacrificial love. In the original language of the New Testament it's called "agape. " It's the kind of love God showed when he sent His only Son to accomplish where our first parents failed. OBEDIENCE AND TRUST.          

The world needs a real Saviour not some phony who claims to have all the answers and solutions to all our problems. One who satisfies the itching ears of those who turn away from truth. A truth that truly will set you free. And save you from yourself. By the unmerited favor of God, it's called grace.              

I am a Christian. That is I believe that Jesus is the Christ. The Messiah. That He came down from heaven, lived a perfect sinless life, was crucified, died and rose again for the sin of mankind. I remember when God opened my heart, convinced and convicted me of my own inheritant evil. I believed and repented. I knew at that moment I was forgiven and my life would never be the same again.                                                                                                                                             

The Bible became my food and His Word my meat. Do I still sin. You bet. (1 John 1:⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.) Do I want to obey. You bet. But  I am still wrapped in the corrupted perishing flesh of a dying world. But as a believer my citizenship is in heaven, from which I also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.                                                  

All of us will spend an eternity somewhere. Either in heaven or hell.  As the prophet Daniel penned in the Old Testament " And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." That is being forever conscious of your guilt. Knowing you heard the truth but denied it. 

As The Apostle Paul wrote " when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels,  in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power... And that is the saddest fate of all to those who can not see a truth that sets one free. 

If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. you will be saved. Then you begin your journey to Trust and Obey. 

One of the Few

                         

                                                              One Of The Few 

                  "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matt. 7:13-14)          
            Only  a few? The words of Jesus Himself. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Not exactly how  He is portrayed by a vast number of Christian teachers today. It seems most want Jesus to be a cosmic bellhop at their beck and call.
           “Hey Jesus, I need you to take this seed money of mine and  multiply it a hundred fold.” “Woe, Jesus, dude, how about a healing now, you said none of your children should be sick.” “Come to Jesus and all your troubles will melt away, why he wouldn't want His children to suffer.”
            Jesus is not some hopping from here to there,  crowd pleasing, plate balancing vaudevillian tap dancing his way into your heart. That's  a skewed  view by those whose god is their belly and their glory is in their shame.They set their minds on earthly things. (Philippians 3:19)   In their greed these false teachers exploit you with stories made up. (2Peter 2:3) and for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.” (2Peter 2:17)  
          Jesus said,  "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” There's that will of God again. Not our will, but His will. Sound familiar? Jesus praying in the garden, sweating great drops of blood, knowing that shortly they would come for him, try him, pronouncing  “Crucify, Crucify .”  The outcome being His death on a cross.
         Yet, God's Holy One, of whom the Father said “In Him I am well pleased, Hear Him” uttered “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup from me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done.” Jesus always but always did His Father's will. And we should rejoice in His choice. That's the gospel, the good news. Why? Only Jesus had glory with the Father  before the world was. (John 17:5). “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” And He being in very nature God, humbled Himself  in the likeness of  men so that He who had no sin might be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (Phillippiaans 2:5-11;  2Corinthians 5:21)              
         Try as they must various groups of heretical teachers have declared Jesus was only a prophet or a good man and even sinless or He was the archangel Michael,  God's first creation, or an avartar of enlightenment.  Friends if they are right there is no hope. No hope that anyone gets to heaven.
         Psalm 49 says “the redemption of souls is costly...that he should continue to live eternally and not see the Pit.”  None of us by or for ourselves can do anything worthy in the sight of God to save ourselves from the wrath of God. “We are all like an unclean thing and all our righteous acts are like fithy rags;” (Isaiah 65:6)
       Theologian Matthew Henry sums it up in his commentary of this verse with,”we are so corrupted and polluted that the best of our performances are but fit for the dunghill. There is not only a general corruption of manners, but a general defection in the exercises of devotion, too. When we would do good evil is present with us. And sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and cannot endure to look upon.”  
        The author of Hebrews  speaks of the first covenant having a tabernacle where a priest performed the services where once a year the blood of goats and calves was offered for the priests and for the peoples sins.” (Hebrews 9:7) “According to the law almost all things are purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)  No forgiveness without the shedding of blood of a spotless lamb.
       Harkening back to  the time  before God hardened the heart of Pharoah in anticipation of Israel's exodus from Egypt , God through Moses said , “take a lamb without blemish, a male of the first year.”  This young innocent lamb was sacrificed and the blood put on the door posts and door frames of their houses and Israel's  firstborn were spared when the death angel passed through Egypt claiming the lives of all their firstborn. (Exodus 12).       
         “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John the baptist proclaimed when he saw Jesus walking toward him. (John 1:29) And Paul wrote “Indeed Christ, our passover, was sacrificed for us.” (1Corinthians 5:7). Seven hundred and fifthy years before Jesus birth Isaiah the prophet  wrote about a man without beauty, despised and rejected,  led like a lamb to the slaughter,  stricken for the transgressions of the people, bearing the sin of many. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him,  "He  was wounded for our trangressions, bruised for our iniquities, and by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53)     
      John the Apostle said,  “In this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for sin.” (John in 1 John 4:10.)  Paul proclaimed, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His Grace.” (Ephesians 1:7)  and “God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” (Romans 5:8-9).
        Your eternal destination depends not on what you do but on who you know or rather who knows you.  No confession (Romans 10:9)..... No salvation.... No repentance (Luke 5:31; Acts 20:21). No forgiveness by the only one who can forgive....Jesus....the only name under heaven by which we can be saved. (Acts 4:12) Jesus who came to save His people from their sins. Those given to Him by His Father.  Saved unto eternal life in the presence of God and the glory of His power.(2Thessalonians 1:7-9)
        Scripture tells us it is appointed to men to die once, and then the judgement. Jesus tells us "the Father judges no one but has committed all judgement to the Son , that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” (John 5:22-23) He is the image of the invisible God, who being the brightness of His glory and exact representation of His being and sustaining all things by His powerful word.   After he had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  So He became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.(Hebrews 1:3-4) As He said, I and My Father are one.
        His is the name to which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.(Phillippians 2: 10-11) He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36).It is Jesus who saves us from the wrath to come.
        Where does your hope lie? In your own self righteous adherence to a  religious  system of do this or that and God  may  open the gates of heaven for you. Or have you been born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade kept in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:3)  
        Whether you are present on earth when the Lord comes down from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel and trumpet call of God. Or you depart this life before his return  and pass into eternity, remember you  will spend forever somewhere.         
        Peter wrote “ be even more diligent  to make your call and election sure” . And Paul said, “ “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” Are you relying on your own filty rags of righteousness to secure entrance into heaven? Or are you resting in the way, the truth and the life, Jesus the Christ. The only way to come to the Father. (John 14:6)
       As Paul pleaded 2000 years ago his words still  ring true today “ Do not receive the grace of God in vain. For God says, “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salavation I have helped you. Behold , now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:2-3)
      Will you be one of the many who travels this temporal life on the broad and wide road that leads to destruction and hear Him declare “Depart from Me, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. I never knew you.” Or one of the few who enters by the narrow gate and hears the Masters words, “Well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord.  

In The Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.( Hebrew  בְּ רֵ אשִׁ ית b·rashith in·beginning) the Hebrew bible proclaims in its first words that the heavens and the earth had a beginning.  And  God (Elohim) is the one who is the creator of all the material universe and everything in it. 

In the New Testament book of Hebrews chapter 11:3  God's word says "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible." In other words before there was God's creation of all things there wasn't any material matter populating the universe. There was nothing. And as that notable theologian and sometimes called the fifth Beatle, Billy Preston sang so many years ago, "nothing from nothing leaves nothing." You don't get something from nothing. because nothing is just that. No-Thing. ***"In an era indefinitely remote, the whole matter of the universe was called into being. It is not eternal--it had a beginning.  For Genesis  2 says " The earth was without form, and void; it is a shapeless mass. It is empty-void-or destitute of life. 

It is of a darkness that the human mind can not conjure. The blackness of darkness. A  darkness without a hint of light for illumination. A fearful darkness unlike any seen or imagined that if we were present  would engulf and swallow the bravest of hearts into a sealed cocoon of protective insanity.  This is one of those secret things that belong to God and to God alone.  For mere mortal flesh can not withstand the workings and contrivances of the the only true holy and righteous God--omnipotent (all powerful),  omniscience (knowing all things) , omnipresent.(present everywhere at the same time)  He alone is God and there is no other God.  Only  Elohim-Yahwah. 

Darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (gen. 1:2) 

***Here we have the first indication of the plurality of Persons in the unity of the Godhead. Verse 26 says, "let us make..." and in the very outset ,we have mention made of God--of His WORD "God said; and of his Spirit,"The Spirit of God moved."*** So as it is proclamied in Ps. 33:6  By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. (***studies in Genesis Robert Candlish***) 

Then God said let there be light.....the first of His created order. Light. The First of eight creation ordered accounts. 

And in the New Testament we come to realize that the One who spoke it out was God the Son himself..."In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. (John 1:1-3)

The Apostle Paul likewise through the wisdom given to Him by God the Holy Spirit, wrote in his letter to the Colossian believers  "By Him(Christ Jesus)  all things were created visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.." (Col. 1:15-17)

Another way to say this is that in Christ Jesus "all things hold together." That is He unites parts into one whole. Every atom, every proton, every neutron, every nucleus, every cell, every galaxy, every star, our solar system, the earth itself, everything is united and held together in their proper place by Jesus the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, who himself has existed from all eternity, with God the Father. 

When you see those Hubble photos from space of the billions of galaxies and stars know that the one who created all of them and holds them all together is the very Word  who was in the beginning with God and was God. The Word that  became flesh and dwelt among us. ***And  when you honor the Son you honor the Father who sent Him.  He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life, but the wrath of God abides on him.*** As God the Father spoke to Peter, John and James when they witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus in His radiant glory, we too should heed God's words, "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him."(***1 john 5:12; John 3:36***)

Jesus the Christ is ***the one mediator, between God and mankind,*** the one go between between you and God. There is no other. ***For it pleased God the Father that in Christ Jesus all His fullness should dwell.*** Jesus the Christ, the Son of God is the brightness of God the Father's glory  and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,  having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.*** (1 Tim 2:5; Col. 1:19; Heb. 1:3-4)  

Jesus is the One promised in Gen. 3:15 that would come to "bruise the head"of the serpent, the devil, satan....for he tempted our first parents to deny the truth of God and believe the lie that they would be like God, if they ate from the tree in the mist of the garden of Eden. In disobeying God the whole creation was subjected to futility (pointlessness, hopelessness, vanity (Rom. 8:20) 

But God the Father sent our hope into the world. A blessed hope. (Titus 2:13-14) It was His mercy , not giving us what we do deserve, which is eternal damnation absent from the presence of God and the glory of his power. But to all who believe, trust and obey by grace through faith. The gift of forgiveness of our sins, and righteousness, (in the eyes of God) sanctification, (the process of being made holy and set apart for God)  and justification. (Not because you did anything to deserve it, but because Jesus the Christ did everything needed for you to have a place in the Kingdom of God. (Eph. 2:8-10)

Jesus Christ is the One person who was/is our prophet, great high priest, king and the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. God the Father Himself said "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him." (Matt. 17:5)

When you confess with your mouth Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved. Not only from the wrath to come  but to everlasting life in the presence of God,  and the glory of his power. (Rom. 10:9; 2 thess 1:7-10)