Never Blinded

“If our gospel be hidden, it is hidden by those who are being lost,

through whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unfaithful.”

2Corinthians 4:3–4a

There were false prophets among the [Old Testament] people,

just as there will be false teachers among you, . . . 

and many will follow them.”

2Peter 2:1a, 2a

“False messiahs and false prophets will rise,

and they will . . . . mislead, if it were possible, even the elect.”

Matthew 24:24

From the above scriptures, the wise receive two important truths.

The first truth is that Peter’s prophecy was true, that there are false teachers among God’s children who have large followings, just as happened in the Old Testament.  Many ancient Israelites are in hell now because they rejected the true prophets God sent to them, but the above scriptures tell us that they rejected them because they believed the false prophets who claimed to speak for God, but did not.  They were turned away from the truth by false prophets!  This was a grief to God and to the prophets He truly sent.  God lamented, “I did not send these prophets, but they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied” (Jer. 23:21).  And Jeremiah, seeing God’s people following false prophets, cried out, “My heart within me is broken because of the prophets!” (Jer. 23:9).

The second truth is that no matter how persuasive false teachers are, it is not possible for them to persuade the pure in heart to follow them, just as Jesus said.  That promise lets us know that if we follow after the Spirit and keep our conscience clear, God will always be there to help us sense what is right and what is wrong.  He promised through Isaiah, “Your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’ (Isa. 30:21a).

In trusting that precious promise, we can more easily obey Jesus’ command to be anxious about nothing (Mt. 6:25–32).  Our heavenly Father does not want us to spend our lives worrying about whether or not we will be deceived.  It is better to focus on loving Him and doing His will.  If we do that, we will never be blinded by false teachers, for Jesus will be there, protecting our hearts from men who know how to look and sound good, but who are not.  Keeping a clear conscience, we will hear, in even the most confusing times, God’s “still, small voice” whispering in our ear, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Out of Ur, into the Unknown

“The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your land [Ur of the Chaldeans],

and from your kindred, and from your father’s house

 to the land that I will show you.”

Genesis 12:1

“By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obediently went out,

not knowing where he was going.”

Hebrews 11:8

“Hear me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord!

Look to the rock from which you have been hewn,

and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug!

Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you,

for I called him alone, and I blessed him and multiplied him.”

Isaiah 51:1–2

God calls all His people of out of Ur of the Chaldeans, so to speak, and all who are like father Abraham respond to God’s call without knowing where they are going.  All that Abraham knew, in the beginning, was that God had called him to leave his homeland and to follow Him.  Likewise, all that Abraham’s children know, in the beginning, is that God is calling.  And knowing that is all they need to know, in the beginning.

For us, to leave Ur means to cease trusting in the earthly things with which we are familiar and to trust God to be our hope, our Protecter, and our Avenger.  Every sincere child of God has felt that sweet, desperate need for God’s guidance, but not one of us knew, in the beginning, where that guidance would take us.  We only know what we felt.  That wonderful feeling was God’s call to leave the world and follow Him into a spiritual place about which we, at first, knew nothing.

Coming to the Border

No one who cries out for the knowledge of God possesses what he is asking for; otherwise, he would have no need to ask for it.  And many have prayed for the knowledge of God but have been unable to embrace it when God answered their prayer.  A brother named Jimmy once testified that one day, years before, he was down on his knees pleading with God for grace to truly know Him and serve Him, a voice spoke to him and said, “Many have come this far and turned back.”  Jimmy wasn’t exactly sure what the Lord meant.  But he knew that he had reached the border of a spiritual place unknown to him, and that many others had prayed themselves to that same border but were unwilling to cross it with Jesus into the unknown.

If you have been praying to know God more perfectly, you have been praying for something you do not yet have.  Prepare your heart for God’s answer.  Jesus told us to seek, for God will always let us find, but Jesus did not say we would like what we find.  He told us to knock, for God will always open the door, but Jesus did not say that we would walk through the door that God opens.  He told us to ask, for God will always give, but Jesus did not say that we would accept the gift that is given.  Many have sought, knocked, and asked, and God has always responded, but just a few have the faith of Abraham to leave their own Ur of the Chaldeans, the things of earth with which they are familiar, and go with Jesus to places they have not known.

With all their asking, the wise also ask for faith to believe God’s answers, whatever they may be.  For they understand that God can surprise and even frighten us with His astonishing truth.

Wasted Years?

“I will restore to you the years that the locusts ate,

my great army that I sent against you, 

and you will eat in plenty and be filled,

and you will praise the name of the Lord your God

who dealt wondrously with you.

My people shall never be disappointed.”

Joel 2:25–26

The locusts that ate up Israel’s crops were sent by God to punish Israel for her many sins.  That is why God called those locusts His “great army”.  But then God spoke of a day when He would heal her land and bless her so much that it would make up for the years of her being cursed.  In other words, because Israel learned from her error to obey God, her years of being apart from God had not been wasted after all!  God’s abundant mercy transformed even them into part of her blessed life.

Sometimes we look back at our past with regret for what we consider to be wasted years.  But those years are not wasted if we learned from them to obey God.  The very fact that we can see the foolishness of those years means that our eyes have been opened by God to see them as He saw them then.  It means we have grown!  No time is wasted that brings us, one way or another, closer to God.  We make even the years of our rebellion against God valuable when we get the point.  For those who are in Christ, there is no such thing as a wasted year.  He gives us a new past, a past of perfect victory from the beginning of time, a past which taught us the fear and the love of God!

God used Abraham’s lie about Sarah being his sister to bless him and increase his wealth.  The time Abraham spent alone and miserable because of his lie was not wasted time because his loneliness drove him closer to God.  As a result, God turned Abraham’s lie into an investment that paid great dividends.  My father once was dying of cancer because of disobedience, he told us, but he repented and was healed.  Was the time of his suffering with cancer wasted time?  He didn’t think so; he thanked God for it and often referred to “that blessed cancer”, for through that ordeal, he learned to fear and love God better.

Nothing in your old past need ever burden you if Jesus has given you a new one.  He used whatever you went through to get you to him – and using those things, he succeeded!  Every soul who gets the gold from their old past ends up thanking God for all of it.  Every trial is an opportunity, and every failure is merely a stepping stone for those who come to Jesus.

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This blog is so good. It’s tough sometimes when I think back on the times of my teenage years that I was away from the saints and the precious things Jesus was doing in peoples lives at that time, and to remember the foolishness of my youth. I remember my thinking at that time and how I thought I was wanting to do my own thing, but really, I was just running from God. I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. BUT, when Jesus started tugging on my heart, and I began to humble myself to his call, my life changed, my attitude changed, everything changed.  (I was 26 by then.)  Then I started seeing and feeling the remorse of the things I had done and missed. As time went on, it would be heavy on me the more I learned and felt in the Spirit. I would pray and ask Jesus for help and relief often. One night in a meeting, the Spirit was blessing us all, and in the middle of that, I heard “I have restored what the canker worm has eaten”. Shew! That went straight down to my heart. I knew from that moment on, everything that was happening with me in Jesus was new and not repentance from the past. What a sweet feeling that was!

Then, a few years later, after that relief, I would ask Jesus why I went the places I did, like why was it so bad the way I acted and some of the places I ended up in my life. I read a blog you wrote on “The losers are the winners” written for Uncle Joe. When I read it, I just cried and cried. It put me under conviction. I got still and read it over and over again. At the end of it, I heard the Spirit say to me the answer to my question of why it was the way it was. The answer was so tender: “Because I wanted you” 💛 That put an end to the wondering and the feeling so bad about things.  It allowed me to be happy and understand. Now I say, I’m so sorry I was that way Lord, but thank you for rescuing me! And he put a joy down in my heart that is everlasting!

When I read the GCC stories, and read parts of him feeling the feelings of things he had done wrong in his past, he said they made him go to God instead of going away from Him. That really pricked my heart. And I have tried to implement that in my own journey with Jesus. Sometimes I “need a little help from my friends” but I’m so thankful that I have a love in my heart for the truth and life Jesus has given me. The love of the truth and what Jesus has done for me has saved me thus far.

So, I agree that my years are not wasted. I have learned so much through my mistakes. And Jesus gave me what I needed to see those things for what the are, the love of God for me. I do wish I would have taken the higher road many times, that’s the best way, but I needed to learn who I was in order to be who I am. 🙌🏻

Shew, that brings tears to my eyes. I love this life, and I love you all who Jesus has put around me.

Amy B

Receiving God’s Life

“Who will ascend to the hill of the Lord,

and who will stand in His holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who has not received my life in vain.”

Psalm 24:3–4a

“The Spirit is life.”

Romans 8:10

There is such a thing as receiving the Spirit, God’s life, and then losing your soul.  We must continue in holiness to obtain eternal life.  Being born again is wonderful, but Jesus said that “he who endures to the end, the same shall be saved” (Mt. 24:13.  For “we are made partakers with Christ if we hold fast our first confidence firm until the end” (Heb. 3:14), that is, if we “believe to the saving of the soul” (Heb. 10:39).

There is such a thing as becoming a believer, and then, through disobedience, have it be in vain.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I proclaimed to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are being saved if you are holding fast that message which I preached to you; otherwise, you believed in vain” (1Cor. 15:1–2).  Of a believer who does not hold fast to the gospel, Jesus said that in the Final Judgment he will cut him off “and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.  In that place, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (Mt. 24:51).

We must receive God’s life, His Spirit, in order to have any hope of salvation.  And what a precious hope that is!  But we receive His life in vain if we are disobedient after receiving it.  That is why the man of God said that the resurrected Jesus “became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb. 5:9).

May God grant us the grace to receive His life and then fulfill our purpose.  Let us rejoice in the truth and bear good fruit to God!

From the Darkness

“Behold, the wicked are bending a bow!  They have fitted their arrow

to the string to shoot from darkness at the upright in heart!”

Psalm 11:2

“He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

John 8:12b

Faithful children of God are open and sincere because they love righteousness and desire fellowship with others in the kingdom of God. They know that “if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1Jn. 1:7). This is the kind of life to which God calls all His children.  Even in the Old Testament, the prophets called upon the Israelites to live this way.  Isaiah cried out, “O house of Jacob!  Come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord!”  

Unfaithful children of God, however, drift toward secretiveness, and if they do not return to openness and sincerity, in time, they will be shooting barbed words from the darkness at those who are upright.  And because they are in spiritual darkness, they do not realize the spiritual condition into which they have fallen.  David said that “the wicked do not know; neither do they understand; they walk about in darkness” (Ps. 82:4–5).  And Solomon explained that “the way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know at what they stumble” (Prov. 4:19).

This is a very valuable lesson to learn because if we learn it, we might catch ourselves if we ever wander off the right path, and repent.  Preacher Clark did that.  When he was young in the Lord, he met a brother one day that he had gossiped about, and he felt ashamed.  He could hardly look him in the eye.  And he made up his mind from that moment on, he would never say anything to anyone about another child of God that he would not say in his presence.  In other words, he would never again shoot from the darkness at anyone.

Communion with God through Dead Things?

“He cuts down trees of a forest.  He plants a fir,

and rain makes it grow.

He warms himself.  Yea, he makes a fire and bakes bread.

But then, he makes a god and worships;

he makes it a graven image and bows down to it.

Half of it, he burns up in a fire. 

Over that half, he cooks a roast, eats meat and is filled.

Moreover, he is warmed and says,

‘Ah!  I am warm.  I see the firelight.’

And the rest of it, he makes a god, his graven image.

He bows down to it and worships,

and prays to it, saying, ‘Save me!

For you are my god!’

They do not know, nor do they understand,

for He has besmeared their eyes

so that they cannot see, and their hearts,

so they cannot understand.

Yea, no one takes it to his heart,

nor has the knowledge or understanding to think,

‘Half of it, I burn up in a fire, and on its coals I also bake bread,

roast flesh, and then eat, and with the rest of it,

I make an abomination, that I might bow down to a block of wood.’

Communing with God through ashes‽

A deceived heart has led him astray, for it will not save his soul.”

Isaiah 44:14–20

We might say the same thing about water.  Christians drink some of it, and with the rest, they wash their sins away.  Or fabric.  With some fabric they make blue jeans, and with some of it they weave holy garments.  Or wafers.  Some wafers they eat with peanut butter, and with other wafers they commune with God.  Some light candles on a birthday cake, and others they light as prayers for dead people.

Communion with God through water and fabric?  Communion with God through wafers and candles?  Is there no knowledge of God anywhere?  How can a man commune with the living God through dead things?

We have communion with God only through the Spirit of life, which Jesus died for us to have.

Being Cruel

“By the word of your lips have I avoided the paths of cruelty.”

Psalm 17:4

There is never a justification for us to be malicious and cruel.  Some people think it is OK to be cruel to people who are wrong, but others being wrong is no excuse for cruelty.  Simeon and Levi justified their barbaric cruelty to the inhabitants of Shechem because their sister had been mistreated, but their father Jacob cursed them because of it (Gen. 49:5–7).  They learned the truth of Solomon’s admonition to his son: “A merciful man does good to his own soul, but a cruel man troubles his own flesh” (Prov. 11:17).

Besides that, what if the person you think is wrong is not wrong?  Men justified their injustice and cruelty against Jesus because they thought he was wrong.  But even though Jesus knew his enemies were wrong, he did not retaliate with cruelty against them.  Peter said, “Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his footsteps, who committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return, and when suffering, did not threaten, but committed himself to the One who judges justly” (1Pet. 2:21–23).  And so, as Peter went on to say, “Let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator.”  So, if someone has been cruel toward you, trust God and be patient.  He will be your avenger in due time.

In this world, if you are an upright person, you will suffer for it, and increasingly so as this world drifts deeper and deeper into darkness.  Be prepared.  Do not retaliate in kind, but “turn the other cheek” as Jesus said to do.  Peter wrote in another place, “Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin” (1Pet. 4:1).  You can consider the abuse of sinners against you as evidence that you have ceased from sin, and that is a good thing.  Paul taught the same thing: “All who are willing to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2Tim. 3:12).

Are you willing to live a godly life before men?  If so, then you will suffer their abuse.  But that’s OK because “if we persevere, we will also reign with him” (2Tim. 2:12).  And remember, no matter how wrong we think someone else is, it is never right for us to be cruel to them.  We overcome evil with good, not with more evil.

What Our Blessings and Gifts Are For

“You said to Jehovah, ‘You are my Lord!  

My goodness is not for you,

but for saints who are on the earth,

for them and the rulers of all those in whom is my delight.’”

Psalm 16:2–3

The Son of God here was confessing to his Father that the great power that his Father had given him was meant to benefit those on earth who loved God, not God Himself.  There is nothing anyone in heaven or on earth can do to make God healthier, holier, or richer than He is.  And the same can be said of the Son, whom God has exalted above heaven itself (Eph. 4:10) and has made “most blessed forever” (Ps. 21:6).

No matter how good or great anyone is, there is nothing that any creature can do to make Jesus healthier, holier, or richer.  No gift or blessing we receive is intended to help us make Jesus greater in any way; all the good things we have received from our heavenly Father are for the blessing of our brothers and sisters on earth.

The only way you can bless Jesus is to bless one of God’s other children, for Jesus said, “As often as you do it to one of the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me” (Mt. 25:40).  We cannot bless Jesus himself; but we can make him happy by blessing those on earth that he loves.  I like what my father once lovingly said to his little flock: “I want to give Jesus a hug, but he’s not here; so, until he returns, I’m going to take it out on you!”  That’s how to bless Jesus!

Every one of us have good things from God, but are His children, Jesus’ brothers and sisters, being blessed by your good things?  If so, you are blessing the Father and the Son the only way you can.

“Be Anxious for Nothing”

The night is coming when no one can work.

John 9:4

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Psalm 11:3

This world is coming apart at the seams, but when Jesus said, “Be anxious for nothing,” he meant not to be anxious about it.  More important than the world falling apart is many believers are coming unglued, too, under the pressure of the gross immorality being adopted as normal by this culture.  This is what Jesus foretold when he said that near the end of this age, the love of many of God’s children would wax cold because wickedness would be so prevalent that it would influence their spirits.  The foundations of faith in Christ are being undermined, destroying many saints’ love for truth.  When that love is gone, God’s servants will not be able to work, for there will be nothing to work with.

But Jesus said not to worry even about that.  He saw the night coming.

Sin is being redefined now in order to accommodate detestable lusts, and righteousness is dismissed, sometimes even made illegal.  And men are not doing this in secret, but openly and proudly.  Tragically, weak saints are yielding to the pressure to fit in with the world.  (Build yourselves up by praying in the holy Ghost!)  We are seeing for ourselves the truth of Paul’s words concerning people in his day (including God’s people) who once had a conscience: “claiming to be wise, they were turned over to foolishness” (Rom. 1:22).  Foolish people will not tolerate the truth, and where no truth is welcome, God’s servants cannot work.

But Jesus said not to worry about it.  He knew the night was coming.

We can rejoice because in spite of all that men do, God is faithful.  He has given His children promises which neither the world nor backslidden believers can nullify.  In Him is not even a hint of turning.  He is entirely unaffected by anything humans say or do, and He has made the way for us to be just like Him.  When Jesus said the night was coming when we could not work, it was because men would become so blackhearted that God would stop working to try to save them.

I cannot adequately describe the fury and supreme contempt I felt from God the evening He said to me, “What difference does it make, what men say about anything‽”  It was as if the word men was, to God, a filthy “four-letter word”.  And He continued, with great rage, “If men call a man a pastor, does that make him a pastor‽  If men call a man a prophet, does that make him a prophet‽  If men call something the body of Christ, does that make it the body of Christ‽” etc.  And at last, He added, “Am I confused by your delusions‽”  So, what of it, if men call good evil, and evil good?  What of it, if men call us evil?  It means nothing to God.  What of it, if we can’t work, if there is nothing we can do for some people?  God still loves us, and He has not changed.

Set your eyes on Jesus, and rejoice that you have been chosen for the honor of bowing low at Jesus’ feet.  Whether or not we can do any work is not up to us, but up to God.  That is why we may be anxious for nothing.

Blessing a Robber

The wicked man blesses a robber, and spurns the Lord.

Psalm 10:4

All who have ever come before me are thieves and robbers,

but the sheep did not hear them.

John 10:8

The world loves those who love the world, but God calls His children who love the world adulterers and adulteresses: “You adulterers and adulteresses!  Do you not know that the friendship of the world is enmity against God?  Therefore, whoever would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God!” (Jas. 4:4).  Likewise, the world rewards those who say what they want to hear about God, but God condemns His children who reward such ministers: “When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and your portion is with adulterers!” (Ps. 50:18).

Worst of all is when one of God’s own children becomes a thief, teaching for money what men want them to teach.  We can hardly bring ourselves to think of ministers hired to teach about Jesus as wicked, but God has no such qualms: “To the wicked man, God says, ‘How dare you declare my statutes, or take up my covenant into your mouth!’ (Ps. 50:16).  To teach people about God for money is the sin of Balaam, and it is one of the greatest sins that a servant of God can commit.  Jesus was still angrily speaking of Balaam’s sin in the last book of the Bible, over three thousand years after Balaam committed it, because there were men among the saints doing as Balaam did (Rev. 2:14).

  Ministering for hire makes a man a thief because a minister who is hired is stealing from God’s people the money that should be given to Jesus’ faithful servants.   Paul had to warn the saints not to encourage such men, for many had already begun to follow Balaam’s example in Paul’s day: “There are many rebellious, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things they should not for the sake of base gain” (Tit. 1:11).  By “whole houses”, Paul meant whole congregations, for the saints met in houses at that time.  John also warned the saints, “If anyone comes to you not carrying this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, and do not offer him a greeting, for he who welcomes him partakes of his evil deeds” (2Jn. 1:10–11).

Jesus said that all who came before him were thieves and robbers, and I will add that all who have come after him are thieves and robbers –– unless he has sent them.  When the sheep see a thief, that is, a minister who is following Balaam’s example by being hired to teach about God, they will not bless him!  They know that those who bless robbers make themselves adulterers and adulteresses in God’s sight.

Frustrated

Israel’s false prophets and priests were prosperous and respected, and it frustrated God’s true servants, such as Jeremiah, to see it: “You are righteous, O Lord, though I complain to you.  Nevertheless, let me speak with you about your judgments.  Why does the way of wicked men prosper?  All those who deal treacherously are at ease.  You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit.  You are near in their mouth, but far from their hearts” (Jer. 12:1–2).  As far as we know, God never answered Jeremiah’s question as long as he lived.

David’s friend, Asaph, felt the same frustration: “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.  But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; my steps were almost gone.  For I was envious of those who are praised.  I saw the happiness of wicked men, for there are no bonds on them until death, and their bodies are stout.  They are not in trouble as other men are; neither are they plagued along with other men.  Their eye stands out with fatness; they have more than heart can wish.  They mock and speak wickedly of oppression; they speak loftily.  Therefore, His people turn away [from truth] after them, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.  Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease; they increase in wealth.  Truly, I have kept my heart clean for nothing, and washed my hands in innocence, for I am plagued all day long, and correction comes to me every morning.  When I tried to understand this, it was hard for me, until I entered into God’s sanctuary; then, I considered their end” (excerpts from Ps. 73:1–17).

The end is all that really matters, and in the end, both Asaph and Jeremiah found eternal rest, while the false prophets and priests who prospered on earth were cast into Torment.

Who Will Be Able To Stand?

The wicked shall not stand in the Judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

Psalm 1:5

Moved by the Spirit of God, David declared that in the Final Judgment, not one ungodly person will escape the wrath of God; not one ungodly soul will be able to stand before God.  It will not be possible.  David said again, “You alone are to be feared, for who can stand before you, once you are angered?” (Ps. 76:7).  Other prophets asked the same rhetorical question.  Nahum: “Who can stand before His indignation?  Who can withstand the fury of His anger?” (Nah. 1:6).  And Malachi: “Who can endure the day of his coming, and who will stand when he appears?” (Mal. 3:2).  The obvious answer is, only the righteous.  To be judged worthy to stand in God’s presence will be a very great blessing, and Jesus exhorted his disciples to pray for it: “Stay alert and always pray, so that you might be counted worthy to escape all the things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man” (Lk. 21:36).  

But David did not limit his declaration to the Final Judgment; he said also that the ungodly will not stand in a righteous congregation.  God’s children who drift away from righteousness can no more stand in a congregation of godly people now than they will be able to stand in the Final Judgment.  For just as God will be the Judge in the end, so “God presides in the Assembly of God, and He judges among the gods [His people]” (Ps. 82:1).

If any group of saints will keep themselves pure, God will not allow an ungodly person to stand for long among them.  And if any member of that congregation becomes ungodly, and sets his mind to it, he will not be able to stand among them, either.  God will give him a “good” reason to leave.  That judgment of God has always been, is now, and will always be the same.  That is why “the wicked shall not stand in the Judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.”

In Psalm 15, David asked God to reveal to him who would be allowed to stand in His presence.  Take good heed to God’s response:

Psalm 15

1. O Lord, who shall abide in your tabernacle?  Who shall dwell on your holy mountain?

2. He who lives blamelessly, and does righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart,

3. he who does not gossip with his tongue, nor does evil to his fellow, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;

4. in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord; he who swears to his own hurt, yet does not change;

5. he who does not lend his money at interest; and a bribe against the innocent, he does not take.  He who does these things shall never be moved.

Lawlessness, Part 3

“To the Son, God said, . . .

‘You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;

therefore, God, even your God, 

has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.’”

Hebrews 1:8–9

Recently, the Lord put the above scripture together with another one that I had never associated with it.  That second scripture is from 2Peter 2, where Peter is describing self-willed believers, saying, “The Lord knows how . . . to preserve the unjust under punishment until the Day of Judgment, but especially those who walk after the flesh in corrupting lust and despise government.  Bold and self-willed, they do not tremble when speaking evil of authorities” (2Pet. 2:9–10).  It was a new thought to me that to be “without law” is to despise government, but that is exactly what it is.  And to be lawless, that is, to despise government, is a damnable offense in the kingdom of God.  It is rebellion, and in God’s sight, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (1Sam. 15:23), and as we know, witches “are an abomination to the Lord” (Dt. 18:12).

Paul exhorted the elders in the Assembly in Thessalonica to “warn the unruly”.  To be unruly is to be lawless, or we could say, to despise government.  But because God rules among the saints through men He anoints to be visible representatives of His Son, for a believer to be unruly means to refuse to submit to those through whom God rules.  And to be lawless means to refuse to submit to those through whom He administers His law.  And to despise government means to refuse to submit to those through whom He governs.  There is no rule, law, or government in God’s kingdom as a thing; God’s rule, God’s law, and God’s government are a person, Jesus Christ, and Jesus governs the saints through his ministers.  That has always been and will always be true, and because of that, the unruly, the lawless, and the despisers of government are those who do not have a right relationship with those who are over them in the Lord.

You can only love and obey the true God by loving and obeying Jesus, His Son, whom God has anointed to be over us all.  And you can only love and obey His Son by loving and obeying the ministers he appoints to be over you.  To think otherwise is to be lawless.

Lawlessness, Part 2

“To the Son, God said, . . . 

‘You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness;

therefore, God, even your God,

has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.’”

Hebrews 1:8–9

Because the King James translators preferred to translate anomia (lawlessness) as “iniquity”, the  apostles’ emphasis on the goodness of the law of Moses is missed.  Lawlessness (anomia) is certainly iniquity, but the apostles’ point was to condemn deeds that were contrary to the law which God gave to Moses.  The following are our translations of all the New Testament verses which contain the word anomia.  We have tried to make the meaning clearer by adding the emphasis on the law that the apostles had in mind.

Matthew 7:23 (concerning the Final Judgment): “Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you.  Go away from me, you who work lawlessness [KJV: iniquity]!’”

Matthew 13:41: “The Son of man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who do lawlessness [KJV: iniquity].”

Matthew 23:28 (to the Pharisees): “Outwardly, you appear very righteous to men, but inwardly, you’re full of hypocrisy and lawlessness [KJV: iniquity].”

Matthew 24:12 (concerning the end times): “Because of a great increase of lawlessness [KJV: iniquity], the love of many will grow cold.”

Romans 4:7 (quoting Psalm 32:1): “Blessed are they whose lawless deeds [KJV: iniquities] are forgiven and whose sins are covered.”

Romans 6:19: “Just as you once presented your members as slaves to uncleanness, and lawlessness upon lawlessness [KJV: iniquity unto iniquity], so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto holiness.”

2Thess. 2:7a–8 (concerning the antichrist): “For the mystery of lawlessness [KJV: iniquity] is already at work.  And then, the lawless one [KJV: that Wicked] shall be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the appearance of his coming.”

Hebrews 1:9 (the Father to the Son): “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness [KJV: iniquity].”

Hebrews 10:17 (quoting Jeremiah 31:34): “Of their sins and their lawless deeds [KJV: iniquities] will I never be reminded again.”

Titus 2:14: “[Jesus] gave himself for us so that he might redeem us from all lawlessness [KJV: iniquity] and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good works.”

2Peter 2:16 (concerning Balaam): “He had been rebuked for his lawless conduct [KJV: iniquity]; a dumb ass, speaking with human voice, restrained the madness of the prophet.”

Next:  Lawlessness and Government

Lawlessness, Part 1

“To the Son, God said, . . . ‘You have loved righteousness

and hated lawlessness;

therefore, God, even your God, has anointed you

with the oil of gladness above your fellows.’”

Hebrews 1:8–9

In the King James Bible, the word “iniquity” is used sixteen times in the New Testament.  Ten of those times, “iniquity” is a mistranslation of the Greek word anomia, or “lawlessness”.  The King James translators almost always translated anomia as “iniquity”, but that translation comes short of what was in the apostles’ minds concerning the law of Moses.  Long after the Spirit came, the apostles were still defining sin as any deed contrary to Moses’ law, for they understood that sin is contrary to the kind of life prescribed by that law.  In one verse, 1John 3:4, the King James translators did communicate the emphasis upon the law which is contained in anomia: “Whosoever committeth sin also transgresseth the law (anomia): for sin is the transgression of the law (anomia).”  This is our translation of that verse: “Everyone who practices sin is also practicing lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”  The apostles all understood well that the law which God gave to Moses was holy and good, that the kind of life it prescribed was holy and good, and that if any person in any nation was living a righteous life, he was living as the law of Moses said to live.  Paul plainly said this in a letter to the Romans: “Whenever Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, they, not having the law, are a law to themselves” (Rom. 2:14).

The New Testament standard for God’s people which Jesus instituted is not contrary to Moses’ law; it cannot be contrary to it because the law was “holy, and just, and good” (Rom. 7:12).  The new standard confirms that the law was of God by taking it even further.  Jesus loved the law and taught that it would not be destroyed (Mt. 5:17–18), but said that what he taught was better.  Several times, concerning what the law taught, Jesus declared to the people, “You have heard it said, . . . but I say . . .” (cf. Mt. 5:21–48).  He was not saying that what the people had heard was evil; he was only saying that God was about to give them a higher version of it.

To love whatever is righteousness is to hate whatever is not in accord with the law that God gave to Moses, and God richly rewarded His Son for doing so: “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore, God, even your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.”

Next: Some New Testament scriptures where anomia is used.

Keeping God’s Judgments

You must keep my statutes and my judgments,

for the man who does them shall also live by them.  I am the Lord.

Leviticus 18:5

God’s judgments are the way, the only way, to eternal life.  Wise people desire them and walk in them.  We should keep in mind the following truths concerning God’s judgments.

God’s judgments are found only among His people.

Dt. 4:7–8: “What great nation has God so close to it, as Jehovah our God is in all that we call upon Him?  And what great nation has righteous statutes and judgments as all this law which I am setting before you today?”

Ps. 147:19–20: “He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel.  He has not done the like for any other nation, and they have not known His judgments.”

God’s favor is upon His people when they live according to His judgments.

Lev. 26:18–19: “You shall do my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them, and then you will dwell safely upon the land.  And the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat to the full and dwell safely in it.”

Dt. 7:12: “And it shall come to pass that because you take heed to these judgments and keep them and do them, Jehovah your God will keep with you the covenant and lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers.  And He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you.  He will also bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your ground – your grain, and your new wine, and your fresh oil, the offspring of your cattle, and the offspring of your flock – in the land which He swore to your fathers to give to you.  You shall be blessed above all peoples.  There shall not be a barren male or female among you or your livestock.  And Jehovah will turn all sickness away from you and all the malignant diseases of the Egyptians, of which you know.  He will not lay them upon you but will put them upon all who hate you.”

If God’s judgments do not satisfy us, He will give us other ones.

Ezek. 20:23–25: “I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the Gentiles and disperse them among the nations because they did not execute my judgments. . . .  So, I also gave them statutes that were not good and judgments by which they could not have life.”

God makes His people able to keep His judgments.

Ezek. 36:26 –27: “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and I will enable you to walk according to my statutes and my judgments, and you will diligently keep them.”

My prayer is that one day, we will all be together on the new earth with Jesus, enjoying the peace that God has promised to those who keep His judgments.

The Honor of God

“Now, it came to pass after the death of Joshua that the children of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Who should go up for us first against the Canaanites to fight against them?’  And the Lord said, ‘Judah shall go up.  Behold, I have given the land into his hand.’”

Judges 1:1–2

“And no one takes this honor upon himself, but one called of God.”

Hebrews 5:4

In Judges, if any tribe other than Judah had attempted to go up first against the Canaanites, they would have failed because God had chosen Judah to receive that honor, and nobody can annul God’s choices.  When some wicked men tried to stir up envy in John the Baptist’s heart toward Jesus, he sharply answered, “A man can receive nothing unless it be given to him from heaven” (Jn. 3:27).  What a wise man!  John knew that if Jesus was accomplishing a holy work, then God had chosen him to do it, and that if Jesus was doing his own will, whatever he was doing would amount to nothing.  That understanding left no room for envy of Jesus, for all true honor comes from God alone, and it cannot be stolen.

Some years ago, some of us were listening to an old reel-to-reel message by my father to the congregation in Louisville, KY.  In it, he made this statement: “I may not always be right, but I am always pastor.”  That bold and humble statement struck me, and I have never forgotten it.  He was saying, in effect, “Even if I have failed at times to perfectly fulfill my office, God chose me for this honor.”  That is a very humbling thought because it is more than just a thought; it is real life.  I know my own foolishness, weakness, and faults, and I have confessed them to God many times in prayer.

Paul’s confession in 1Corinthians 15:10 means a lot to me.  After admitting that he was unworthy to be an apostle, he said, “Nevertheless, by the grace of God, I am what I am.”  That is all that anyone can truthfully say who has been chosen by God to receive any honor.  Wise souls walk worthy of the honor that has been given to them by God.  And because that is true, I desire your prayers, that I might be found faithful in handling the honor that God has given to me to be your pastor and teacher.

With a Pure Heart

Pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace,

along with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

2Timothy 2:22

God once told Isaiah that the people of Israel “seek me daily, and delight in knowing my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the judgment of their God.  They ask me for righteous judgments; they delight in approaching God” (Isaiah 58:2).

That kind of people sounds like good company for sincere people to keep.  It is good to seek God every day, to delight in knowing God’s ways, to ask for God’s righteous judgments, and to enjoy approaching God.  But God was sending Isaiah to these deeply religious people to show them their wickedness, not to congratulate them for their religiousness!  He was angry with these people and commanded Isaiah, “Cry aloud!  Do not hold back!  Lift up your voice like a shofar and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins!” (Isaiah 58:1).

God is not a beggar, grasping after and thankful for any praise He can get.  He is the Creator, and a very great King.  It is a great honor for us if He accepts our prayers and our worship, and wise saints offer praise with humility and fear.  Our God is worthy of more devotion than we can even offer, but He is good, and He will humble Himself to accept worship from a pure heart, a heart completely subdued before Him.

We get no “brownie points” for worshipping God; what we get is a blessing if He accepts the worship that we offer Him.  Knowing this, David cautioned God’s people to “serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling!” (Ps. 2:11).  God will, and has, rejected the worship of many, many people around the world.  People of the earth can be impressed with the appearance of devotion, but God never is.  He is impressed only with genuine, obedient faith.

In Isaiah’s day, Israel had become proud of what God had given them, of being His chosen people, of how often they gathered to seek His face, and how often they asked Him for more revelation.  Yet, they were neglecting to live according to His judgments, which they knew.  Theirs was a life that was “like righteousness”, but they were not righteous within.  They had all the appearance of a holy people without hearts that were after the holiness of God.  May God save us from an appearance of holiness and to learn to live truly, from the heart, in the holy way of Christ!

Every Yoke

“If you put away from the midst of you the yoke. . .”

Isaiah 58:9b

On several occasions, I have reminded my congregation that the “yoke” within us, mentioned by Isaiah, represents the desire to impose our will upon others.  A yoke is an instrument used by a man to control an animal, but the yoke Isaiah is talking about is spiritual; it is one person manipulating and controlling another.  I have known people who stay unhappy if others do not do as they want them to do; they are not content unless they have hitched up someone else to their will.

God is not like that.  He would rather we have our way than His – except that He loves us and knows that if we do our own will, we will end up hurt and sad.  So, He counsels us to do His will.  If you have been around very long in Christ, you know that God will back off and allow you to do things your own way if that is what you insist on doing, and you have no doubt learned better than to do that.  God has no yoke in His heart that He will impose on us; on the contrary, He has love in His heart and is willing for us to learn that His way is best.

Other Yokes

But that yoke is not my point in this message, for as I said, I have taught that message a number of times.  Though I have read Isaiah 58 often, I noticed this morning for the first time that other yokes are mentioned which may burden God’s people.  Here is what Isaiah said: “Is this not the fast that I have chosen? to undo the bonds of wickedness, to loosen the thongs of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you remove every yoke?” (Isa. 58:6).  The “bonds of wickedness” are spiritual ropes that bind people, and ungodly men use those “thongs of the yoke” to oppress and control others.  And there are other yokes, or influences, upon God’s people which NOTHING but the anointing of God will destroy.  And thankfully, God has promised that someday, His anointing will destroy every yoke that burdens His people:  “It shall come to pass in that day that He will remove [the evil man’s] burden from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck!  And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing” (Isa. 10:27).

God’s point in Isaiah 58 is that we may “be about our Father’s business” now, before that final, complete deliverance from all yokes, by removing the yokes that evil men have put around the necks of His people.  These yokes are superstition, sickness, false teaching, fear of man, and whatever else that His children are moved by besides the Spirit.  To be led by the Spirit is life and peace, and we have the opportunity now to show God’s people the way to live that happy life.

Jesus said, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.  My yoke is easy, and my burden light.”  His yoke is not a yoke at all; it is a new heart that wants nothing but what God wants.  His yoke is to make it our nature to agree with God and love to do His will.  Every other yoke is against us and leads us astray, and Jesus came to set us free from every one of them.  This is the liberty he was talking about when he said, “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

May God give us all the wisdom and power, first, to destroy any yoke that is within us toward others, and second, to destroy every yoke we see that has been hung around the necks of God’s children.  That is part of what God considers to be a true fast, and fasting that way produces wonderful fruit.