BY J. FARRELL FISHER, OCTOBER 2, 2014

Please, with all of your mental and spiritual feelings and faith, read Romans 9:1-5 with an alert mind and heart! It will reveal where one truly is in his/her faith walk of compassion for others or a lack of it. In Romans 9:1-5 it’s as if my aged Bible has been drenched again and again with tears of sadness. Paul wrote:

“I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,…

Who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.”

Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, came through the “seed of Abraham,” but not all of Abraham’s descendants became “children of promise”, but only children of flesh, because that was their level of commitment, living only with a desire to be “religious” apart from surrender to obedience to God’s Holy Word!

In Romans 10:1-4 Paul went on to write: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge…

For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Paul clearly understood, was spiritually heart-broken over the Israelites who had a “zeal for God,” but not according to the revelation-Truth of the life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of the True, Eternal, and Historic Christ that they never saw with spiritual eyes, understood, or comprehended, but willfully rejected Him, ignored Him, and, yes, willingly had Him crucified!

Most Israelites denied Jesus Christ, deplored His presence in their Holy Book, denounced His preaching, and declared His worthiness only of the Cross. They had no sorrow, but in the prophetic passage of Isaiah 53:3 we learn of Christ Jesus, “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”

I recently found a writing by Harriet Beecher Stowe that speaks of sorrow: “Sorrow is divine. Sorrow is reigning on all the thrones of the universe, and the crown of all crowns has been one of thorns. There have been many books that treat of the sympathy of sorrow, but only one that bids us glory in tribulation, and count it all joy when we fall into divers afflictions, that so we may be associated with that great fellowship of suffering of which the incarnate Son of God is the head, and through which He is carrying a redemptive conflict to a glorious victory over evil. If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.”

Do you see and sense Paul’s sorrow over the Israelites denial of Jesus to be “that great fellowship of suffering” that you as a true believer in Christ Jesus share in? I have no hesitation in saying to you that grief, sadness, or sorrow are but the shadow of God’s Holy Presence over and around your life! It was Edwin Hubbell Chapin who said, “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seamed with scars; martyrs have put on their coronation robes glittering with fire, and through their tears have the sorrowful first seen the gates of heaven.” Glory!!

And we’re examining “children of the flesh” or “children of the Promise” with Paul as a child of the Promise willing to forego His place “in Christ” if His Israelite “family” could take his place! But it doesn’t happen, can’t happen – before Holy God every man stands alone before Him to answer for himself – “What then did YOU Do with Jesus called the Christ?”

Listen to Romans 9:30-33! “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone…

As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

The unbelieving Israelites “stumbled at the stumbling stone and stumbled over the rock of offense” [whose name is Jesus, the Promised Messiah] because they substituted self-effort for the Savior and Lord, and, yes, attempted self-improvement by trying to keep the Law given to expose their need of a Savior, and revealed by their disobedience to God’s revelation that they would establish their own righteousness and crucify God’s righteousness – and things haven’t changed thousands of years later!!

Have you forgotten or omitted what Isaiah had to say at least 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ? It’s reported by Paul in Romans 10:16-17, “But they [Israel] have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Yes, the majority of Israel, then and now, have rejected God’s compassionate heart and redemptive Way, going about to establish their own worthiness and ability to “do right”, failing to understand from Adam and Eve onward, God determined all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are unworthy, taking us all, yes, ALL, and CRUCIFYING US ALL WITH CHRIST!!

What did Paul tell us in Galatians 2:20? “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Verse 27, I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

Jesus did not die in vain – He died in “VICTORY”!! Yes, He was then raised, by God, from the dead three days later, continuing to live in and through repentant, trusting, surrendered, believing “sinners” who by their repentance are now declared “saints,” servants of Christ, ambassadors of our Lord and Savior, messengers, earthly “point-men” of the Resurrected Christ, witnesses of His winning Way that in “death” there is the new reality of “Life in Christ” alone! In Galatians 3:26 Paul tells us, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

And, having been crucified with Christ, birthed into the Kingdom as babes in Christ, indwelt by His Resurrection Life, it doesn’t mean that “babes in Christ” attain to instant adulthood in the faith, but we learn! It is why in Galatians 5:1 Paul wrote to us, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”

Have you ignored the Word in your daily walk? I remind you that Jesus tells us, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” I’ll guarantee you that most men eat physically three meals a day with snacks in between – but, please, tell me how spiritually the Word of God sits on a table and you only occasionally open it? You “LIVE” by the Word of God, you are to “HUNGER” for the Word of God, you “MATURE IN FAITH” by the Word of God!

Look at Colossians 2:9-10! “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him…” Oswald Chambers made a statement that aroused concern in me for “believers” who take lightly the importance of “studying to show yourselves approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed.” He said: “Disobedience in mind to the heavenly vision will make you a slave to points of view that are alien to Jesus Christ.”

Chambers wrote about a half-paragraph later: “We are apt to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we have had. If there is one standard in the New Testament revealed by the light of God and you do not come up to it, and do not feel inclined to come up to it, that is the beginning of backsliding, because it means your conscience does not answer to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you for going on as a more true disciple of Jesus Christ or for going back as a deserter.”

What do we find in John 6:60-68? It’s a startling revelation for some! It says: Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can understand it?’ When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life…

But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”…

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life.”

Disciples who “went back and walked with Him no more?” Was that “professors” who never fully surrendered to our Lord’s Indwelling Life? Was that “followers” who had never been freed from spiritual bondage? Was that sympathizers with a “cause” who never understood “divine change” from the old man to the new man, from the sinner to the “saint,” from the fleshly to the Spirit-led, from a temporal devotion and not eternal surrender to the Lord of all of life?

Too many ‘church-goers’ are those really who’ve never put their hands to the plow of the Lord in preparing the “fields of their lives” for His seed, fruit, and harvest! Too many so-called “believers” are just like Pharoah on a fleshly pursuit religiously for Moses, but Holy God had removed their ‘chariot wheels’ and Pharoah drowned in the deep waters without a “Life-Preserver” whose name is Jesus! Too many “scribes and Pharisees” impose ‘traditions’ apart from Truth and so burden the people trying to seek that they only are able to talk about their tiredness, their futility, their sadness, their darkness, and not the “Light of the world” whose name is Jesus!

“Children of the flesh” or “Children of the Promise”? What was Paul’s Prayer in Romans 10:1-3? “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”

“Children of the flesh”? Without hesitation they are usually led by people who are “ZEALOUSY WRONG – EVEN OPPOSED TO THE REVELATION, UNVEILING, AND ACTUAL PRESENCE OF THE SAVIOR AND REDEEMER, WILLING ONLY THAT HE BE CRUCIFIED!”

That is a world of people who surround you totally indifferent to the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God to cover and wash away their sins by His precious blood! There is a world oblivious to His grace, mercy, and love! Oh, yes, some have a “zeal” FOR GOD, but they don’t even know, understand, or have a true desire to be reconciled to Him!

Have you ever been around those absolutely “zealous” for their church but void of redemptive love and a desire to truly honor the Lord and Savior through a surrendered walk to His Lordship? Have you ever been around those so vocal, so aroused, but off-base in every scriptural truth, and you wonder: ‘how many have bought their lies, misinterpretations, deceptions, and been led astray?’

But what about those who, yes, kill the opposition to their radical, devilish, unsound, ‘screwed-up’ teachings? It was Jesus Himself who said in Matthew 23:34-36, “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.”

You are aware that there were those, are those, who are so warped in their “religious minds” that they believe and believed that they were anointed servants doing God’s service killing others! How would you describe those unredeemed “scribes and Pharisees”? Would “self-righteous idiots” even get close? How about “spiritual ignoramuses”?

What was it Paul said in Romans 10:2-3? “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”

Fleshly righteousness or divine righteousness? The sinners’ righteousness or the Savior’s righteousness? Self-righteousness or God’s righteousness? Self-improvement righteousness or Sovereign-declared righteousness? Ignorant righteousness or Spirit-inspired, implanted righteousness? A righteousness that declares one “guilty” before Holy God of a cheap imitation or Jesus’ righteousness that declares one eternally innocent before Holy God? “Fig-leaf righteousness” or “tree of life righteousness”? Head-strong righteousness or the “new Heart” righteousness? “My own estimation” righteousness or God’s robe of righteousness? God-insulting human attempts or God-inspired finished work? Righteousness by hook or by crook or righteousness in and through Christ alone? Feverish attempts tirelessly or the faithful Atonement truthfully, refreshing us without end? Righteousness in what we do or righteousness because of Who Jesus is and what Jesus did 2000 years ago on the Cross? Salvation by man’s grit or salvation by the Master’s grace? Salvation by one’s “best efforts” religiously or salvation by the willingness to rest in the “blood-bought” release from guilt and eternal separation and “death” by the sacrifice of Christ in “my,” “our,” “your,” behalf! DO YOU SEE, UNDERSTAND, RECEIVE, REST IN BEING “A CHILD OF PROMISE”?

I close this teaching with words from Oswald Chambers from his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.271], “The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be. We will cling to the natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us into contact with the life of Jesus Christ which can never be described in terms of the natural virtues.” Can I tell you, “Jesus crucified your worst and your best” so that you, as a child of promise could live by the Life of Another, yes, Emmanuel, “God With Us,” “God in us,” and “God through us”!! That’s “children of the Promises!!

By: J.Farrell Fisher, Sept.20-22, 2017

You are aware that in the early days of human existence, physically breathing because of the grace of God, that much of fallen humanity ‘bowed’ before idols of theirs’ and Satan’s manufacturing, because Satan for sure didn’t want to see his ‘captives’ turning to the One True Living God! Yes, Satan in different disguises wanted humanity in his kingdom of darkness, self-worship, and deep depravity! Sadly, across the world there are still many under his dark cloud!

Intellectual ‘geniuses’ are mindful of the mind but oblivious and darkened in the heart, guided by ‘pigs’ ears’! Sadly, most of fallen humanity still lives with the dangerous plague of unbelief and self-deceit, fully confident in themselves to do “as I damn-well please”, deafened to the loving call of God because of a serious plague and sickness of ‘flesh-stubbornness and mindful ignorance’ of the eternal need of Holy God to make the difference in their earthly existence!

They either know and don’t care or know but desire to please ‘flesh’ first, and if they have time, maybe later, they’ll consider the claims of Christ! They resist Paul’s holy word in Romans 6:4, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death (That’s “crucified with Christ!”), that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, EVEN SO we also should walk in newness of life.”

But, enjoying the ‘old man’, even knowing it WAS “crucified with Christ”, unbelieving men and women ‘live’ (?) to ‘enjoy’ the rotten fruits of the ‘dead tree’ of their own hearts! The truth is, some delight in their old sin natures, EVEN fully aware the Word declares, because of Christ’s blood sacrifice, “sin shall not have dominion over you,” (Romans 6:14), with Paul then hitting the “grand slam Of Biblical Truth” in Romans 6:15-18, when he said: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not (May it never be!)! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you ARE that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But GOD BE THANKED that though YOU WERE slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. AND having been SET FREE FROM SIN, you became slaves of righteousness.”

And, if you are a ‘slave of righteousness’ through Christ’s finished work at the Cross and the empty tomb, why would one even ‘think’ that sin in the flesh is still “my option because ‘Jesus understands’”?

The brother of Jesus, James, was inspired to write a very powerful word in James 1:2-8 when he said: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a “DOUBLE-MINDED MAN”, unstable in all his ways.”

Are you aware that a “double-minded man”, unstable in all his ways, professing faith in Christ, will insult the Spirit of grace as they, yes, willfully and rebelliously resurrect the old, crucified remains of the ‘carnal life’, revealing a ‘love affair’ with one’s still ‘independent individuality’ as deserving indulgence in it as often as he/she feels ‘constrained’ to bow before the idol they loved so dearly without God interfering?

Oh, and for those who don’t believe their careless indifference to their “old” sin natures makes a difference in their NOW professed faith, consider what John records about Jesus in John 2:23-25! “Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.”

In Luke 12:41-46 the disciples then learned what awaited wise and unwise followers of Christ or the faithful and evil servant. Jesus said: “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, that he will make him ruler over all that he has. BUT if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.” (Check out Jeremiah 34:18-20!). Does that speak of believers forfeiting their salvation in Christ because of a ‘greater love for sin than the Savior’? Did Jesus say ‘the master’ cuts him into and appoints his portion with the unbelievers?

I don’t believe you’ll find anywhere in the Word that if Holy God says, ‘Come to Me and I’ll give you rest’, that that ‘rest’ is relief from trouble, storms, dark clouds or dark moments, even trials, tribulations, or ‘testings’ of our true faith in Christ as our Lord, Savior, and Master of our lives. Christ Jesus WALKED on the stormy seas – He wasn’t exempt from them and neither are you or me!

In Romans 8:35-37 Paul wrote: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And, hear me! The Christ who lives in you lives in you in the fullness of God’s amazing love for Him and for you! And if Christ does live in you by your repentance toward God and your faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross, and that He lives resurrected right now at the right hand throne of God, He does so interceding in your behalf, releasing His overcoming power and might to strengthen you, sustain you, and empower you to overcome through Him any or all satanic, demonic, worldly forces who’d rather see you dead than “Living in Jesus”! If YOU are “in Christ”, you WILL face trouble on the horizon if it hasn’t already come! Your enemy? The world, your old sin nature, and Satan himself AND his numerous demonic forces!

In Matthew 11:28-30 Christ Jesus said: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Have YOU ‘taken Christ’s yoke’ upon your life of faith, trust, and obedience to the King of kings and Lord of lords? Sadly, some have substituted Christ’s yoke with ‘church membership’, refuting the necessity of, yes, ‘being bound’ under His Lordship!

It’s really amazing and uplifting to receive and rest in Hebrews 10:12-14 as the Holy Word declares: “But this Man (speaking of Christ Jesus!), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Through Christ’s shed blood Holy God “justifies” us as we repent and turn fully to Him, but the Word declares our “sanctification” as a “being sanctified” process as day by day we take the sentence of death daily to our old sin natures, choosing by His grace, mercy, and love of the Father, to be BLESSED with “being changed” into the likeness and image of our Lord and Savior! And Jesus said, John 16:26, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds (or “comes out of the Father”!) from the Father, He will testify of Me.”

The necessary question right now to every believer? “Having trusted Christ, are YOU obeying His Word to, yes, all disciples then and now”, John 20:22? Jesus breathed on His disciples, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!”

Earlier, in John 16:7-14, the Lord Jesus clearly explained the necessity of every ‘new-born life’ receiving the third person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit. He said: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. AND when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they do not believe Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”

The question of the moment for you? Have YOU received the “faithful guide”, is Christ being “glorified” in you and through you, and is He, the presiding Holy Spirit, daily sustaining and unveiling to you ALL CHRIST JESUS WANTS YOU TO KNOW BY HIS PROMISED HOLY SPIRIT?

In Psalm 143:8-12 David sang another song of entreaty for, yes, the guidance of the Holy Spirit in his life. He said: “Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You.

Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; in You I take shelter. Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness. Revive me, O Lord, for Your name’s sake! For Your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. In Your mercy cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul; for I am Your servant.”

Is it, for YOU, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit who glorifies Himself through you, or, have YOU been deceived into a mind-set of “fleshly best” with a ‘demonized attitude’ of your best in place of “crucified with Christ” and “raised to new life” in and through the Holy Spirit? In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul wrote: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” In fact, earlier, in 1 Corinthians 12:3b, Paul said: “…and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit,” explaining in Verses 7-11, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to EACH ONE for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually AS HE WILLS.” How clear is that to you, and if someone says to you, “If you don’t speak in tongues, you don’t have the Holy Spirit,” just how clear is their deception to you?

I ask YOU: “Is your life in Christ the resident temple-presence of the abiding Holy Spirit?” Yet, how many do you know who are ‘dumb-founded’ by the truth that every disciple in Christ is a tree of life upon which the Holy Spirit manifests the “FRUIT” of the God-head bodily in them?

In 2 Corinthians 13:4-5 read carefully!! “For though He (Christ Jesus) was crucified in weakness, YET He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.” If you are “in Christ”, have you never sensed, been awakened to, or been empowered by the ‘surging wind of Holy Spirit presence and empowerment’ in you? You have “no waves” of strong Holy Spirit presence? It may be time to seek counsel from a truly gift-bearing servant of Christ known by his or her fruits!

In Matthew 7:15-20 the Lord Jesus 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. 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.”

What ‘world’ have you chosen to live in? The world where you “call the shots”, the world that has so attracted your ‘flesh’ that the Holy Spirit is shunned, the world where the ‘worldly man’ is satisfied with satisfying his old sin nature, turning away Christ’s knock at his heart’s door and mind? When the remnants of the old sin nature call, many, professing faith, will run to the door to welcome the world, the flesh, and Satan himself, because they, yes, choose darkness rather than light, this world around them rather than the Kingdom of God, and the enticing ‘friends’ of “Christ-forsaken” rather than choosing to be “the friend of God”!

It was Robert Burns, in his writing “The Cotter’s Saturday Night”, who wrote: “Compared with this (true devotion and Redemptive Faith!), how poor Religion’s pride, In all the pomp of method and of art, When men display to congregations wide, Devotion’s every grace, except the heart!” Does that ring a warning bell in your heart and mind as to ‘who’ really and truly walks with Jesus as Lord, Savior, and Master over their hearts and lives?

The wise man of Proverbs, Proverbs 16:18-19, wrote: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” Earlier the wise man wrote in Proverbs 3:34-35, “Surely God scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble. The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools.”

Be assured: The scornful, the proud, the unbelieving who resist God’s grace, love, and mercy inherit the ‘shame’ of unbelief and take their place in eternity within the palace walls of Hell itself with Satan and his hosts who reject the amazing love and grace of Holy God! And, yes, there are ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing who come to you to lead you astray in their ‘way’ which is not “The Way” of Christ alone!

I want to lay the foundation for this chapter in Romans 1:16-24! Paul wrote: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for IT IS THE POWER OF GOD TO SALVATION FOR EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES (trusts in, relies upon, and adheres to!), for the Jew first and also the Greek. For IN IT the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: ‘The just shall live by faith.’

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, (sponsored by Satan!) who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for GOD HAS SHOWN IT TO THEM. For since the creation of the world the invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God (knew He existed!), they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Darkened by the willful rebellion of Satan in heaven BEFORE THE WORLD WAS EVEN CREATED?).

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and (in cooperation with Satan!) changed the glory of the incorruptible God into ‘images’ made like corruptible man (and Satan himself!). Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves (as Satan does with his demonized partners!), who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, (“The Lie?” “Satan said, YOU CAN SIN AND NOT DIE!”), and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Though fallen man does not realize it, he ‘worships’ Satan and his ways, even in the “best of ‘flesh’ adoration”! So… God gave Satanized-mankind up “to their vile passions,” “to debased, devilish minds,” ignoring “the righteous judgment of God” against Satan and his ‘disciples’!