By: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 12-13, 2017

Very interesting Verses in Titus 1:15-16 which says: “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they DENY HIM, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.”

Would you be bold enough to say that behavior, aligning with the Holy Word or not, ‘fleshly works’ or Spirit-anointed servants, are easily identifiable by the “fruit” their walk produces? In Matthew 7:15-20 the Lord Jesus said: (Be assured as you read this passage that “false prophets” are representative of “sheep-professing godless lives”!),

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in ‘sheep’s clothing’, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn-bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

Oh, and then in Matthew 7:21, the Lord Jesus really exposes the, yes, visible difference between ‘shepherdless sheep’ and the ‘sheep’ birthed by the True Shepherd! Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who DOES THE WILL OF MY FATHER IN HEAVEN!”

Godless lives and shepherdless sheep are confronted by their own consciences, the call of God to repentance and faith and they shut their ears, minds, and wills to God’s invitation and sacrificial provision, embracing their own ‘respectable goodness’ without any need of God’s “blood redemption”, and insisting that there is no need of being ‘sorry’ before Holy God, because they’ve done nothing to offend “your merciful God; so leave us unbelievers alone”!

Have you ever heard an ‘unbeliever’ say, “I have no desire for Jesus’ broken bread and poured out wine – my pious superiority and intellectual genius blocks out your Savior’s request of me – you and He don’t know who I am!” If the Lord Jesus says, “Trust in the Lord and His finished work at the Cross and the empty tomb and His present reign at the right hand of God as God sits on His throne,” what does the unbeliever say? “I’m OK – you’re OK; stand up for who you are and for what you do in the best effort of human flesh?”

Godless lives, shepherdless sheep, wandering unbelievers, will and do argue with God and His messengers, because they are bound to self-will, bound to self-pleasure, bound to their own ‘lordship’ with no desire to hear what Holy God DEMANDS! In fact, in 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul wrote: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned;” which reminds us of why early in His ministry the Lord Jesus in John 3:3 said to Nicodemus, “a religious leader of Judaism”, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” followed by Verses 5-6, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Is that the natural man ‘born of human flesh’, inheriting the spirit of the natural man, which is “I do as I please without any consideration of the God who made me, lost me, bought me with a price, but in my best mind I discern there was no reason for Christ Jesus to include me on the Cross because I’m a good man”? Yet the Holy Word declares, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” which tells me Almighty God wanted men in their free wills choosing, desiring, longing to be the man He desired for His fullness not their fleshly emptiness, His blessing not their sin-nature curse, His gift of everlasting life through the “Good News” of the Everlasting, Unending, Seeking Gospel not their ‘fleshly benefits’ as they saw them for themselves!

Here’s how Peter described “Guarded, Guided, Girded By The True Shepherd”: In 1 Peter 2:4-5 Peter illumines our minds and hearts saying: “Coming to Him (King Jesus) as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

He enlightened us more, and, yes, inspired us when in 1 Peter 2:9-10, Peter wrote: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.” Oh, but then in 1 Peter 2:24-25, the Apostle identifies lives under the administration of the True Shepherd! He said:

“Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died TO sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” Glory! Are YOU freed from the bondage of sin? Have YOU, yes, DIED TO YOUR OLD SIN NATURE? Have you been healed of your ‘sin disease’? Have you truly returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul? Do YOU see yourself as a member of the “holy priesthood”? Have YOU obtained mercy? Are YOU living daily fully aware of your presence in the Holy Place?

In Hebrews 10:19-23 we read: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, LET US DRAW NEAR WITH A TRUE HEART in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

That 19^th Verse ought to be a daily reminder of what Christ Jesus has done for us. And one thing is for sure: Christ Jesus is the Son of God, Emmanuel, or “God with us”, and yet He said, “I didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give My life a ransom for many.” So the true disciple does not live in pride or arrogance about ‘who I am’, in stodginess, about his/her spiritual relationship with Holy God, or in spiritual pettiness about what he/she does “for” Christ, but determined daily to be dead to self, but in my redeemed, blood-washed life in Christ, I choose to “let Jesus BE Jesus in me”, expressing Himself as only He can!

Are YOU guarded, guided, and girded by the True Shepherd? Guarded? In Genesis 24:27 the servant of the Lord said, “As for me, being in the way, the Lord led me…”! As your “guard” the Lord Jesus will never lead you away from the “straight and narrow” way – in fact, in His abiding presence in you He’s promised “never to leave you nor forsake you.”

But also in the community of faith, in the body of Christ, in the assembly of the saints, as fellow soldiers in the army of the Lord, we do have, (Yes!), the responsibility of looking out for one another! In Ezekiel 38:7 the Word tells us: “Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are gathered about you; AND BE A GUARD FOR THEM.”

There have been times when I served as a pastor of local churches before my “missions ministry” overseas that I had to confront men, women, teenagers in churches I pastored to warn them of dangerous steps I saw them making that didn’t not line up with the Resurrected Christ they professed to be loyal to! It could cost you ‘friendships’ whether they were truly in the faith or not!

Guarding goes hand to hand with “guiding”! In Psalm 78:70-72 we read: “He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; From following the ewes that had young He brought him, TO SHEPHERD JACON HIS PEOPLE, AND ISRAEL HIS INHERITANCE. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.”

No doubt there are times when God’s people have been a disappointment to Him, but He has no desire to cast any away, and in Psalm 106:44, even when God’s wrath had been kindled against His own people, the Word tells us: “Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry.”

Hebrews 5:7-11 tells us about Jesus’ suffering yet guided to the Cross by our caring Father-God! The Word says: “…who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all WHO OBEY HIM, called by God as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

Jesus was “guided to the Cross” by Father-God – and there’s not one true child of faith who will be guided in any other way! Didn’t Jesus say, “Take up your cross and follow Me?” When did that change? Yes, YOU are “guided to take up the cross to your old life that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in your mortal flesh.” ARE YOU WILLFULLY, PURPOSEFULLY, DAILY TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH UNTO YOUR OLD SELF SO CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED THROUGH YOU?

“Guarded”? Are YOU? “GUIDED” by the Word and Spirit? Are YOU? If so, there is the grace of God’s GIRDING YOUR LIFE, YOUR FAITH, YOUR WALK, YOUR MINISTRY AND CALLING! I’m sure that there are many “professing” believers who, when they read Psalm 18:39, are shocked, and I pray alerted to all God desires to do in them, for them, through them, because of their maturing, growing faith in Him! The Word says, “For You have girded me with strength for battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.” (Who rises up against you? Consider the world, your old sin nature, and Satan and his armies of ‘demon distracters’!).

And ALL of the “guarding”, the “guiding”, and the “girding” is because the psalmist went on to say in Psalm 18:46-50, “The Lord LIVES! Blessed be my Rock! Let the God of my salvation be exalted. It is God who avenges me, and subdues the peoples under me; He delivers me from my enemies. You also lift me up above those who rise against me; You have delivered me from the violent man. Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing praises to Your name. Great deliverance He gives to His king, and shows mercy to His anointed, to David and His descendants forevermore.”

In John 8:34-36 the beloved disciple wrote, Jesus speaking, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son (Son of God, the Promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel or “God with us”, Savior and Reigning Lord) makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” Free from the law of sin and death, free from the bondage and slavery of godless men, nations, rulers of the flesh-nature, free from the chains of spiritual slavery that binds people, free from the deceptions of an unbelieving world, free from the masters of governmental rebellion against God nationally, statewide, or locally, free from the ‘masters’ in the world of fleshly deceptions, free from Satan’s lie that one can sin and not die, free from the deception of a good ‘in the flesh’ bloodline without a need of blood redemption, free from the curse of separation from Holy God!

And when we’re blood-bought as a result of Christ’s Cross-payment in our behalf as He suffered and bled and died in our place, and we repent and put our faith in what He did in our place, there is, by the Spirit, our birthing into the new, eternal Life in Christ! Our God, the giver of eternal gifts, yes, GIVES US the good and perfect gift from God, His Son and our Savior and Lord, and blesses us, and keeps on blessing us!

But one more great blessing from God through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior: He “Guarded” us, He “Guided” us, He “Girded” us, HE “Graced” us! And that amazing grace IS His gift of mercy! I remind you of Hebrews 2:9-10! It says: “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, HIS OWN SPECIAL PEOPLE, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy BUT NOW HAVE OBTAINED MERCY.” But YOU have a ‘better way to live your life’ than be the vessel, the temple, the building housing Jesus’ Holy Presence?

From the old “American Hymnal” published in 1933 by The Broadman Press of Nashville, Tennessee, there’s a hymn entitled: “Hark, Ten Thousand Harps” that says:

“Hark, ten thousand harps and voices Sound the note of praise above! Jesus reigns, and Heaven rejoices, Jesus reigns, the God of love; See, He sits on yonder throne; Jesus rules the world alone, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!

Jesus, hail! Whose glory brightens All above, and gives it worth; Lord of life, Your smile enlightens, Cheers and charms Your saints on earth; When we think of love like Yours, Lord, we own Your love divine. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!

Savior, hasten Your appearing; Bring, O bring the glorious day, When the awful summons hearing, Heaven and earth shall pass away; Then with golden harps we’ll sing, “Glory, Glory to our King!” Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Amen!”

Are YOU in the “Amen” corner of praise, thanksgiving, and surrender to the King of kings and Lord of lords? Have you prepared YOUR heart for eternity around His Sovereign Throne, ruling, still, in love, mercy, and grace? This just may be why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD.” Now, say “Amen” to God’s glory because, Yes, YOU are committed to honor Him as you yield to His Sovereign Reign through you!

CLOTHED IN THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST?”

July 25-26, 2017

Do you believe, at least, that Pharoah, leader of Egypt in the time of Moses, was a ‘religious man’? I have no doubts! BUT, when Moses and Aaron went in to Pharoah, with a “Thus says the Lord,” in Exodus 5:1, Pharoah responded, in Verse 2, “Who is the Lord, that I should let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” Pharoah’s “sweet waters” of unbelief became “bitter waters” opening up the floodgates of divine judgment and washing Pharoah’s life of unbelief, rejection, and fleshly independence away!

In James 1:26 the brother of Jesus wrote: “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, this one’s religion is useless.” Without a doubt, there are large numbers of men and women who live religiously with the robes of ‘best efforts’ yet know nothing about “clothed in the righteousness of Christ Jesus”, basically ‘serving’ a useless, ‘best effort faith’ of fallen men!

Is there a biblical truth about “clothed in the robes of true salvation” or are there those who ‘imitate’, choose ‘religious garments’ (?), while “clothed in the righteousness of Christ Jesus” is to them unknown grounds they don’t prefer to walk on, “Just give us our religious robes, and we’re happy!” But is there such a thing as “clothed with desperation” rather than “clothed in deliverance”? The “strange apparels” of religious pretense do not transform sinful hearts and minds into the residences of Christ Jesus!

In Psalm 109 David talked about his “accusers” who were clothed in shame and opposed him in false judgments and accusations. [Is fallen mankind the same regardless of location or historic time periods? I certainly think so!]. What happened to King David does happen today, yes, even when there are those who wear the “religious robes” of ‘best efforts’ while they seek to assassinate true disciples of Christ Jesus! Psalm 109:17-20 tells us David spoke these words concerning ‘religiously-robed, best effort folks’ he considered false testifiers of religious devotion: “As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; as he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, so let it enter his body like water, and like oil in his bones. Let it be to him like the garment which covers him, and for a belt with which he girds himself continually. Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers, and to those who speak evil against my person.”

Holy God, yes, sovereignly provides for His faithful followers His divine covering and unending watchcare, but to the ‘religiously robed, best-effort’ folks, Holy God allows their own cursings, their own adversarial leanings to God’s truth, to become the power and influence as their ‘reward’ – they end up rewarded with their own bitterness, their own indictment of the faithful, exercising for themselves the button releasing God’s judgment! They ‘presume’ in their hearts and minds to know more than God about spiritual matters.

And, Holy God WILL reserve punishment for the day of judgment as the “self-robed crowd” lives on thinking they’ve overcome ‘warped beliefs’ to live religiously independent of eternal truth! In 2 Peter 2:1-11 Peter wrote: “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom THE WAY OF TRUTH WILL BE BLASPHEMED. By covetousness they will EXPLOIT YOU with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) – then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, AND ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO WALK ACCORDING TO THE FLESH IN THE LUST OF UNCLEANNESS AND DESPISE AUTHORITY. They are PRESUMPTUOUS, SELF-WILLED. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation before the Lord.”

The thing I want you so aware of is that what we’ve just read is about ‘people’ assuming leadership roles in local churches when their intent is to promote ‘fallen flesh’, not honor King Jesus! They USE ‘great swelling words of emptiness,’ they ‘allure people in the church’ through the lusts of the flesh, they’ll despise faithful preachers who faithfully preach the truth, they’ll walk excusing their worldly ways as they ‘walk according to their sin natures in the lust of uncleanness’, easily recognizable because they “despise authority.”

Their outward character is “show-off-ish”, solidly presumptuous, strongly self-willed, spiritually brute-beasts, and more likely than not strongly opposing what they can’t explain biblically, because they are in the perishing process of their own corruption, their own unrighteousness, and covered inwardly with spots and blemishes they can’t explain, eyes full of adultery, wills unceasingly yielded to the sin nature, covetous, accursed, loving their sinful ways!

Are you aware of empty hearts, empty minds, empty words, as they seek to lure the ‘border-line’ disciple into their world of error? Are you truly aware of those around you, yes, in some church fellowships, who are living in ‘error’, slaves of corruption, in bondage but they don’t even know it, though they are just like ‘sick dogs’ who go back to feast on their vomit? It’s a shame that many in the church are unaware of the “perdition of ungodly men” who too often, in some churches, promote what Satan stands for and approves of!

The beloved John was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write his gospel and his letters, and in 1 John 3:7 he wrote: “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, JUST AS JESUS IS RIGHTEOUS.” If so, in Christ are you walking “righteously” before the Lord? And, in your world of daily living are you releasing the Indwelling Christ or the “best religious devotion a man can muster up”?

“Religious robes of best efforts”? Have you any awareness and awakenings of the “do-gooders”, the “try-your-best-crowd”, the “strong debaters of self-justification in their ‘spiritual assemblies’(?)”, the “church attender who thrives on “self-justification” as he/she tries his/her best”, or the “religious elite”, like in Jesus’day when He confronted the religious ‘elite’ of Pharisaism or Judaism, experts at strict observance of temple practices, never understanding Christ’s desire to BE the Holy Presence within their personal temples, when in John 8 upon their response that they were Abraham’s children, Jesus said, in Verses 39-47, “IF you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.

Then they said to Him, We were not born of fornication; we have one Father – God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. YOU ARE OF YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL, AND THE DESIRES OF YOUR FATHER YOU WANT TO DO.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

“Religious robes of best efforts” OR “Clothed in the righteousness of Christ”? In 2 Peter 1:1-4 Peter wrote: “To those who have obtained LIKE PRECIOUS FAITH with us BY the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, AS HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN TO US ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO LIFE AND GODLINESS, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue (manmade glory, manmade virtue?), by which HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO US exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

Walking in God’s presence one becomes a “partaker of His divine nature”! Walking in God’s presence in Christ one escapes the corruption that is in the world through lust! Walking in God’s presence in and through the Indwelling Christ who is our ‘hope of glory’, we ARE BEING TRANSFORMED BY THE HOLY WORD AND HOLY SPIRIT, as the Word and the Spirit always has and always will honor Christ Jesus, the Sovereignly-appointed Savior and Lord of Holy God’s eternal Kingdom!

But are you aware or alerted to the sad fact that one, religiously, can live with inclinations without ever appropriating the promises of God through Christ? Are you aware there can be ‘religious thoughts’ without Spirit-transformation? Has it dawned on you yet that there can be argumentation with God without acceptance by God? Are you aware of “professional theories” without accepting His perfecting Truth? How many have you witnessed in your own spiritual journey who walk with you having a ‘spiritual thirst’ but no desire for the “Living Water”? I heard Senator John McCain speaking after his surgery encouraging U.S. senators to leave “Tribal politics and get back to the U.S. Constitution”, and I said to myself, “When will ‘professional religionists’ get back to Christ, the only hope of the manifestation of the glory of God in our needy world?”

Is this why Peter continued his anointed word in 2 Peter, saying in 2 Peter 3:17-18, “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, BEWARE lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, BEING LED AWAY WITH THE ERROR OF THE WICKED; but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

In Matthew 13 Christ Jesus had spoken to “great multitudes who were gathered to Him”, explaining “The Parable of the Sower”, and in Verse 10 the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Verses 11-16 tells us Christ Jesus’ explanation of speaking with parables! Jesus said: “Because it has BEEN GIVEN TO YOU (TRUE DISCIPLES!) to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them (the crowd out and up for its own religious leanings!) it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have an abundance; (Does your heart overflow with joy for what has so far been revealed, but you long for, hold onto, and press in for more and more unveiling of eternal Truths?); but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.(Are there those who ‘limit’ what they want to know about God’s plan and purpose for their lives, yes, limitations as to how far they are willing to go with Him?).

Therefore, Jesus says, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: (BECAUSE they possess no desire for LIVING TRUTH because of eyes willfully closed and cold, dull hearts to “Amazing Grace” since “grit” fits them better than Christ Jesus and His grace!),

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, SO THAT I (The Living, Merciful God) should heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes (repentant, broken, needy disciples!) for THEY SEE, and your ears FOR THEY HEAR; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

Are YOU a ‘hearer who hears but does not obey’ or a hearer who says: “Yes, Lord, what would YOU have me to do?” Are you living as a “professing disciple” who “does the ‘best’ I can”, blocking God’s flow of the River of Life in Christ, or a repentant, trusting, surrendered, yielded life to Christ alone, His Resurrection Life, His Resurrection Hope, and His Resurrection Power? “Christ alone, my hope of glory”!! The path of radical change is the life that rests in the radical life of Christ who embraced the Cross as God’s will for His life! Have you truly chosen “this day” WHOM you will serve?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 15-17, 2018

The Random House College Dictionary, by Random House Inc., published in 1975, describes “delusions” as follows: “…a false belief or opinion..or false misconception, like divisions of grandeur.” Is a strong delusion “a false impression”, or imitation of the true, real thing? Is a strong delusion actually, in some, “a false show of something”, or related to “make believe” when in reality what the core or heart of one’s life truly is turns out to be “a false profession”? For instance, there are those “who say”: “I’m a child of God” when in reality there’s never been the transformed, new-born life in Christ!

“In reality?” Strong delusions OR Eternal Light in Christ?” There is such a powerful, convicting, life-changing word from Christ Jesus when in Matthew 7:15-23 He said: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. (Known by your fruits? The fruit of flesh or the Fruit of the Spirit? The fruits of “best effort” or the fruit of Divine Presence in the Resurrected Christ living through you? The fruits of the “best of self-determination” or Sovereign Administration through “Christ in you the hope of glory”?)

“Strong delusions”? Brother John, in 1 John 4:1-6, delivers an anointed challenge when he said: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and IS now already in the world.

You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

What “strong delusions” that have gripped and are grinding away at every life that ignores, dilutes, or rejects the “hallowed mercies of Holy God”! Our natural world, whether body, soul, and spirit, in the “pretenders” or “imitators”, is filled with lives that have shunned, neglected, not interested, or completely have ignored God’s grace, mercy, and love! Counterfeits, yes, abound and disgrace “Amazing Grace” and the “Abounding love of God lived out through the life, death, burial, resurrection, and Ascension of Christ Jesus”!

“Strong delusions” are real, devastating, and can be eternally life-changing without any hope or blinded to the love, grace, and mercy of Holy God! And when one is fully devoted to his/her false hope about ‘life’, one becomes gripped, clutched, and blinded, to the reality of God’s constancy of eternal love! Interesting words in Deuteronomy 16:18-20, after earlier in Deuteronomy 14:2, Moses had said, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples of the earth,” with Deuteronomy 16:18-20 revealing,

“You shall appoint judges and officers (maybe pastors and elders today?) in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. You shall not pervert justice; you SHALL NOT SHOW PARTIALITY, or take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” (Should I dare ask if “In Christ” there is “the covenantal Law of grace, mercy, and love” that awakens, alerts, and advises us to get back on “The True Path” of the present Christ in us as our hope of glory?

At times, some “believers”, truly knowing God Himself is the “giver of eternal life” in and through Christ alone, are, yes, often “victimized” by “the father of lies, Satan”, and they see themselves as warriors against “the roaring lion” when in reality they are motivated by the “Adam life”, in Satan, more than Christ’s “Resurrection Life, Hope, and Glory”!!

“Strong delusions” grip and suffocate many lives because they “lean to their own understanding, or to the opinions of fallen men concerning life’s purpose, or willfully committed to ‘satisfying their sin-natures’ rather than be captive to God’s “amazing grace”!” Do you ever encounter “despondent devotees to their ‘flesh natures’ who resent your “interference in their self-chosen, flesh-loving life styles”, even offended that you suggest Christ as their “Savior” as well as your life; but then you realize, “Though Christ Jesus died to free us all from the law of ‘sin and death’, there are large numbers committed to that “law” of a “death nature”!”

I traveled to India, mostly, over 30 years of mission endeavors, and often heard, yes, “death threats” – “You come back to our neighborhoods again, and we’ll kill you,” so faithfully I went! My interpreter, Pastor Anand, said to me: “Are we coming back here tomorrow?” I said, “Same time, same location”, but not just two young men but at least a dozen with their machetes. Anand said, “No more music, Pastor Farrell; PREACH THE WORD!” I did, for about fifteen minutes, then prayed, and when I looked up I saw the original two on their knees before me, asking me if they could be saved by Christ Jesus! They were “born again”, and Pastor Anand baptized them in his church, and they became faithful witnesses! (Unsure about the remaining ten who didn’t respond!). The “strong delusions of religious devotion” are rampant around the known AND unknown world, even the kingdom of darkness where Satan celebrates his deception among devotees who are, yes, totally committed to their sin natures!

“Strong delusions, permeating one’s opposition to the love and mercy of God, but, at least, for many, living under the assumption of “do your best”, remain blinded to the eternal, exceptional, earnest, and able ‘love of Christ” to wash them, birth them, and live victoriously through them as His Holy Temple of “abiding, resurrected Presence”, ignoring the Path of crucifixion and empty tomb for “Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope”!

It will be interesting, alarming, and alerting to “true mental believers” to awaken one day to the voice of Jesus when He has to say, as He did in Luke 5:31, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” “Sinner? How repulsive to hear Him say that He came to call ‘sinners’ from the bondage of darkness to His Kingdom of Light! We’ve never been in darkness, and it’s offensive if you say that we must come to the Light! We settle for “best effort”, “try hard”, and “be proud of your dark nature and godless life!”, knowing nothing of “saved by grace through Christ” OR the precious gift of repentance and faith in Christ’s “finished work at the Cross” AND His empty-tomb Presence, refusing His “knock on the door” of every human heart!

In Revelation 3:19-22, Christ Jesus still speaks! He said: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

“Strong delusions”? Are you familiar with “the cheated life of philosophy and empty deception”? Have you ever tried to balance “the traditions of fallen men” with “the Truth of Holy God”? Traditions of fallen men are ‘human’ in origin with the absolute necessity of exchanging “the lie” for Eternal Truth! Religions of the world ARE “strong delusions”, even agreeing with the crucifixion of Christ to elevate one’s OWN religious persuasion!

What I’m about to do is absolutely essential and necessary! Don’t give up on me as I share almost an entire chapter in Matthew 23 because the religious world today is also dominated by egotistical “scribes and Pharisees”! Jesus said: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. (Self-appointed!). Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but DO NOT DO ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS; FOR THEY SAY, AND DO NOT DO.

For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (“Aren’t you glad that WE live in a day when scribes and Pharisees ,who are hypocrites, no longer exist?” If YOU buy that ‘leaning’, you probably are the most needy intellectual, pretending, well-trained, scriptural ‘liberal’ in biblical history!).

For YOU shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in (even if they have to crucify YOU!). Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore YOU will receive greater condemnation. (Can’t you just imagine the “self-centered celebrators” of “self-centered ‘hypocrisy’ who reveal only the Name of Christ Jesus but not His Word?).

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, (faithful attenders of every church gathering!), hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much as a son of hell as yourselves.

Woe to you, ‘blind guides’, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the the temple (the very beauty of their rich churches!), it is NOTHING; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? And Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ [Was Christ Jesus THE “gift of God” on Calvary’s Cross, and you to choose to by His crucifixion and His Resurrection Presence in you, your only hope of glory?].

Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. And who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faith. These ought you to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. (NO CLEANING AND WASHING OF THE HEART AND MIND AND SOUL OF A “BELIEVER” IS TO ESTABLISH A “TEMPLE” VOID OF THE PRESENCE OF THE RESURRECTED CHRIST!!).

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?

Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, BUT YOU WERE NOT WILLING! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Left desolate refers not only to the ‘temple’ of Jerusalem in Christ’s day, but the desolation of everyone and everything you hold onto that does not give Him glory in who you are and what you are about! But there are those in whom the explanation of their lives IS “JESUS ONLY”!! Let me “shift gears” or come to God’s Way, which is, Colossians 1:27, which says: (It’s called “the mystery” which has been hidden, but now “revealed to the set-apart saints” who live for the glory of God alone!), “To them God willed to make known what are the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man PERFECT IN CHRIST JESUS.” Can YOU say, “HALLELUJAH! GLORY TO THE NAME OF JESUS ONLY!”

Do you understand “the elect”, or those “chosen by God”, according to “the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification (or setting apart) of the Spirit, FOR OBEDIENCE AND SPRINKLING OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST?” (That’s 1 Peter 1:2!) How is it that you hear in some modern-day, even evangelical pulpits and classes, that “obedience is an option in the age of grace”, “that obedience is a calling for some, but not all,” and that if you say, “True believers obey”, that you’ve assumed ‘salvation is by works and not by faith’? HOW WARPED AND BLIND SOME HAVE COME TO ETERNAL TRUTH IN CHRIST ALONE!

It was Peter who was so inspired to write, in 1 Peter 1:3-23, the following: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a LIVING HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

(Let me shift for a moment to Revelation 1:1-6! “The Revelation of Jesus Christ (God’s unveiling of the one true Redeemer and Savior of fallen mankind!), which God gave Him to show His servants – things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy ,and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Back to 1 Peter 1:6-23! “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation (or unveiling of Christ Himself IN YOU!) of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls!

Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, (the righteous remnant!), searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand (Isaiah 53!) the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which NOW have been reported to you through those WHO HAVE PREACHED THE GOSPEL TO YOU by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven – things which angels desire to look into. THEREFORE

Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober (serious-minded before Holy God!), and “rest” your hope fully upon the grace that is brought to you at the revelation (or unveiling) of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to your former lusts, as in your ignorance; BUT as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (Is that by “trying” or by trusting in His finished work at the Cross and His Resurrection after three days from the tomb?).

Verses 17-23! And if you CALL ON THE FATHER, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that YOU WERE NOT REDEEMED WITH CORRUPTIBLE THINGS, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believe in (trust in, rely upon, adhere to!) God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (alone!). Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, HAVING BEEN BORN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever!”

Dare I tell you that there is nothing more shameful and sorrowful and eternally deadening than ignoring God and His Holy Word filled with “divine privileges” rather than a “best effort religious mentality”? I HAVE, AND WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO AS LONG AS I LIVE!

In closing these words, I remind you once again of 1 Peter 1:13-15! “Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober (or “serious minded”), and REST YOUR HOPY FULLY upon the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to your former lusts, AS IN YOUR IGNORANCE; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “BE HOLY, FOR I (GOD) am holy.”

Marcus M. Wells, in the old “Broadman Hymnal”, published in 1940 by Roadman Press, wrote a hymn entitled “Holy Spirit, Faithful Guide.” It says: “Holy Spirit, faithful guide, Ever near the disciple’s side; gently lead us by the hand, Pilgrims in a desert land;

Ever present, truest Friend, Ever near Your aid to lend, Leave us not to doubt and fear, Groping on in darkness drear;

When our days of toil shall cease, Waiting still for sweet release, Looking up to heaven in prayer, Joyful that our names are there:

Weary souls forever rejoice, While they hear that sweetest voice, Whispering softly,”Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”

When the storms are raging sore, Hearts grow faint, and hopes give o’er, Whisper softly, “Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.”

Fearing not the dismal flood, Pleading nothing but Jesus’ blood, Whisper softly, “Wanderer, come! Follow Me, I’ll guide you home.” When the “storm clouds come”, Who is it or what is it YOU follow? Robert Lowry and W.O.Cushing, in the same hymnal wrote: “Follow On.” It says: “Down in the valley with my Savior I would go, Where the flowers are blooming and the sweet waters flow; Everywhere He leads me I would follow, follow on, Walking in His footsteps till the crown be won.

Down in the valley with my Savior I would go, Where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow; With His hand to lead me I will never, never fear, Danger cannot frighten me if my Lord is near.

Down in the valley, or upon the mountain steep, Close beside my Savior would my soul ever keep; He will lead me safely in the path He has trod, Up to where they gather on the hills of God.

Follow! Follow! I would follow Jesus! Anywhere, everywhere, I would follow on! Follow! Follow! I will follow Jesus! Everywhere He leads me I will follow on!”

Is that your testimony? Is it your “Song of Rejoicing”? Are YOU discerning the eternal differences between “Strong Delusions” and the “Eternal Light” that is in Christ Jesus? Are you casually influenced by the world’s “strong delusions” OR are you converted, kept, and overflowing with the “Eternal Light”? Receive the Spirit’s conviction, His conversion power, and His eternal consecration! Take “hands off” of your spiritual journey – be “guided by the Holy Spirit and the eternal Word” on His terms alone!

Dr. James Dobson, in his book, “When God Doesn’t Make Sense”, wrote, (p.65), “If human intelligence and perception are undependable in assessing every-day reality, which can be seen, touched, heard, tasted, and smelled, how much less capable is it of evaluating the unfathomable God of the universe?”

But merciful, loving, caring, able God moves in, comes on, and releases the awesome power of the Holy Spirit in “conviction, convincing, conversion, and consecration”, yes, setting you, man of repentance and faith, as an unveiled son of God through the shed blood and eternal ableness of His Holy Spirit! Dare I tell you? Don’t resist the Holy Spirit, but allow Him to release “Christ in you the hope of glory”!