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Sermon 152 – Totem Pole or The Cross

26 Dec

Just about every practicing Christian I’ve interacted with over my 70 years pretends to love God but in reality, secretly lives for the top position of the Totem-pole. The Totem Pole and the Cross are on opposite ends of the spectrum. One is looking good in the eyes of others, the other is looking stupid in the eyes of others. One is God and the other is Mammon … you can’t serve both.

The will of the Father

You don’t get to heaven by being ‘good’ or doing ‘good’ (Ephesians 2:8,9). You can only access heaven by doing His will.

Not everyone that says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of My Father (Matthew 7:21).

His will is not just hearing or sensing His voice and then following it; that could be a demonic deception. It’s His Holy Word that is His will. The Bible is God’s last will and testament in written form. Both the Old and the New are His will. Each individual is responsible to search the scriptures for God’s truth, and not just rely on what the church is telling you. You can blame the church for its failures and mess, but you are personally responsible to discern the Truth of His will found in his Word.

Why is the Bible, God’s will?

God instructed and inspired men to write it so everyone could know what God wants from us. The Bible is that instruction. It is the Word of God, from God. In fact, it’s not just letters on a page; Jesus, Himself is that Word. Jesus, Himself, is the living breath of God. The words below the surface of the Bible are spiritual, and if you really want heaven, you have to search for the treasure hidden in plain sight in His Word, the Bible.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh, ie. Jesus, and dwelt amongst us (John 1:1-17). In the beginning God created everything by Jesus, His Word. He spoke it into being (Genesis 1:3). If the Word created everything, then the Word is the answer to everything. To ignore the written Word or interpret it by your feelings and experience, or just do what the church says, will simply end in your demise and ruin.

How do you know what is His will?

The Word of God is the measuring line. Almost all western Christians think they do God’s will, but few have time to, nor are inclined to, even read The Word, so they rely on the church’s teaching, their feelings, and their experience.

They evidence this belief with being good. By this, they mean … cruisey, cool, hard-working, not having any problems with people, empathy, generous, doing what you’re told, not smoking, not going to discos, not committing adultery, not being boastful, going to church, helping people, not getting angry, not swearing, speaking nicely, giving up bad friends, etc.

But they never weigh up their actions with the Spirit of the Word of God. Rather, they weigh up their actions by their own feelings and experience, and what their feelings think the Word is saying. They never judge their actions as to whether they may be contaminated for totem-pole position, and always thinking they are important and expecting others to like them and favour them, and ignoring the fact that they think they are better than their neighbour, yet denying it to themselves.

If you’ve got a problem with me, you’re the problem

I’ve discovered the average Christian believes the lie … if you’ve got a problem with me, you’re the problem; and if I’ve got a problem with you, you’re still the problem. This is not the will of God. This is simply the selfish deduction of hurt feelings. People that believe this are clearly not Christian.

You won’t find this in the Scriptures, and therefore, it’s your will, not His. This is the will of the anti-Christ. This is totem-pole belief masquerading as Christian.

God has made His will plain regarding … divorce (Malachi 2:16), homosexuality (Romans 1), reputation, pride, judging others, loving your neighbour. Most good Christians accept the adultery bit, and the homosexuality bit, but conveniently ignore the secret things that can’t be seen, like the coveting bit, and the totem-pole bit. From God’s perspective, the totem-pole bit is the crunch point of His reality, and retaining it will block His salvation from you.

The Totem-pole is a direct contradiction to the Cross

As quoted by Indigenous Foundations … “Totem poles are monuments created by First Nations of the Pacific Northwest to represent and commemorate ancestry, histories, people, or events. … Most totem poles display beings, or crest animals, marking a family’s lineage and validating the powerful rights and privileges that the family held”. I suggest. it’s all about showing-off family status.

It’s all about showing-off position … being higher than your neighbor

Today we recognize that a “low man on the totem pole” is a person of no status or power, someone at the bottom of a hierarchy. It’s the same as saying someone is “low on the pecking order” or “the lowest rung of the ladder”.

Human nature hates being on the bottom of the pile, so it quickly learns to keep others happy so it’s never put down. In order to keep the church happy, it tries to do good deeds. In order to keep God happy, it tries its best to worship Jesus and follow His teachings. In order to keep parents and authority happy it tries to do what it’s told, and in order to keep others’ happy it tries to show care, empathy, generosity or helps of some kind, but the underlying motive is always totem-pole, not cross, so it never fully satisfies and never fulfils, although it feels good for a season. 

The Cross

The Cross is the place of … no reputation, the place of mocking because you’re a Christian, the place of loneliness, the place of being misjudged, the place of aligning with Jesus, the place of zero importance. It’s the place of sacrificing the favour of parents/ancestors (Luke 14:26), and sacrificing being liked.  It’s the place where you eventually give up your will to do His will (John 4:34, Luke 22:42). It’s different for everyone, but it’s still the same place of pain.

The modern Western church teaches what the world teaches … you are important, you do have a purpose for life, always strive for the best position … you deserve it, and don’t let anyone put you down. The church teaches that Jesus paid the price so you can live without any pain and always under His blessings. But it’s a lie of half-truths. Jesus said … If they called Me ‘Beelzebub’, they’ll call you it, too (Matthew 10:25).

Even though the Cross is painful, and even though it’s the place of death, it’s also the place of resurrection and relationship with the Father. It’s the place where put-down no longer has its power to hurt and manipulate you.

The Western church doesn’t live by His whole will. It lives by selective will. It lives by keeping people happy, and making people happy, and saying it loves God. It likes to look good; it’s fearful of persecution.

It’s pretty obvious why few are willing to go the way of the cross … everyone loves the praises of men more than the praises of God (John 12:42,43), so why do it the hard way; take the easy ‘good’ and ‘be nice’ way. But you’ll be only fooling yourself and competing against everyone else pretending the same.

It’s all about Will

All humanity is born with a strong self-will … I will, I won’t. It’s this will that must be broken for Christ.

Jesus gave up His will to do the Father’s will. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). That’s the secret to salvation. You can’t do it with just your mind-power; it requires a cross. No cross, no death to ‘will’, no faith, no salvation. Until you give up your will to Christ’s will, whatever you do for God is really only for your totem-pole.

Pastor Anthony McNaughton

 
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Posted by on December 26, 2020 in Uncategorized

 

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Sermon 151 – The Cross or the World

23 Nov

My family was talking about Jesus, when out of the blue, my 10-year-old granddaughter asked me a question … “how come people get sucked into the world?”

I thought for a second and replied … “they don’t. We’re all born into the world and we all love the world. What you have to do is get out of it”.

Why do we struggle to leave the world?

Obviously, the world has a powerful pull or Satan wouldn’t have enticed Christ with it. The world runs in our blood. To be saved, you need a blood transfusion with Christ’s blood. This can only happen with a cross.

The pleasures of the world, the ease of the world, the supply of the world, the striving for people’s value and favour, and the fear of failing or looking bad are too enticing to our pride, and even the hurts of the world tempt us to blame Jesus so we can justify staying in the world and squash the guilt.

How do you know if you’re in the world or out of it?

Perhaps a question that will shed light on the above question is … who do you blame for your cross? For your hassles? For your problems?

Your reaction on the cross will tell you what world you’re in … earthly or Christ’s.

The unrepentant thief blamed Jesus for not fixing his problem. The repentant thief took the blame for his sin. Jesus, Himself, never blamed anyone for his unjustified cross. He held to the Father’s will, not His own, and consequently created a safe pathway for all who will bear His cross.

As soon as you blame someone for your circumstances, you prove you’re just like the unrepentant thief; only interested in getting rid of your cross, and oblivious to your sin.

If you’re stupid enough to blame Jesus for not fixing your cross you don’t deserve to be saved.

If you want to escape the world, it requires a cross

In the modern church, the cross is missing. The world teaches that you can do what you like as long as you don’t hurt anyone. The true reality is that everyone is so desperate for attention and happiness, the world has to set rules so no one gets their feelings hurt. That’s just ‘selfishness’ masquerading as ‘good’.

The church models itself on the same philosophy so it can accommodate the world. But, being good, and caring, and obedient, and nice, and harmonious, is not a cross; it’s actually a graven image of my selfishness. Selfishness just uses ‘good deeds’ to fight for its position above its peers.

Without the cross you won’t recognise your sin; you’ll just talk yourself into your goodness. Without a cross you can’t die and be resurrected to life, and if you’re not dead first, you’re not resurrected. Yes, Jesus paid for our sin and there’s no way we can save ourselves, but without being on a cross you won’t see your sin; you won’t repent; you’ll just blame others for the hassles, and you won’t see the unjust punishment Jesus paid for your salvation. Without a cross you’ll just practice the religious ritual of good works, hoping that God’s looking.

Which cross are you on?

There are four options at calvary. Watching Jesus on the cross, Jesus on the cross and one of 2 thieves on crosses. You can’t be Jesus; you have to be one of the thieves, or someone watching. Most watching, mocked. One thief took responsibility for his sin and was saved. The other said ‘fix it’. Which one are you?

The false church teaches that Jesus died on the cross for your sin. Just repent and believe and you’ll be saved. This is half-true. It doesn’t teach that you are a thief on a cross with an option to choose to see and own your sin, or on the other hand, tell Jesus to fix your hassles.

If the thief had not been on a cross, he would not have seen Jesus nor owned his sin before Christ, and he would not have been saved. As hard as it was, the cross was his salvation.

You may be standing and watching Christ on the cross, even as a disciple, but you are not saved until you own your sin on a cross of humility, embarrassment, put down and sin exposure before Christ (Luke 22:32).

Only one person was saved that day

The only person who got saved that day was the repentant thief. None of the disciples got saved. They didn’t even know what was happening. They argued over who was the most important. They couldn’t even believe Jesus had risen from the dead. They each had to face the cross of their sin before they could truly repent and then serve Christ for Him and not for themselves, even though they had been walking personally with Him (Luke 22:32).

The 1st cross of embarrassment and failure is where you face your sin and look to Christ to save you (without any self-effort), then give up myself and be resurrected to new life. Baptism is the physical expression of this death and resurrection. The 2nd cross is what you carry for Christ as His witness and disciple. No true disciple can avoid this pathway.

After your death through a cross exposure, the pathway of Christ’s persecuted cross is the same pathway for all who will live Godly in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:12). No wonder, few want to know the real path to heaven.

If you can’t see yourself as the thief on the cross, then you’re not saved. All your goodness is just filthy rags used to preserve your reputation and worldly position.

The cross is where I see my sin, not others’ sin

None of us are Jesus, we’re all thieves. We don’t bear a cross because we’re good, but rather, like the thief, because we’re sinners. If you think you’re carrying a cross because you are good, you’re not saved. The only way you can be free from bearing your cross is when you die to your pride and own your sin. It’s only after death that you’re free from your cross; but you’ll then have the honour to bear Christ’s cross for Christ; but then, Jesus is bearing it with you.

Everybody is trying to please Jesus without going through the cross

Most Christians think the cross is something you have to wear to prove you’re a good Christian; but it’s not. It’s what you have to bear until you see that you’re the sinner and you deserve your cross, and the only way off the cross is to ask the Lord to ‘remember’ you, not prove you are good or that you shouldn’t be there.

The cross is an embarrassment. Everyone is looking at you and mocking. The cross is a humiliation to our pride. The cross is painful to our hurt feelings. The cross is a loss of status … all opposite the current false prosperity indoctrination. Prosperity is not a cross. If you give to get, if you do good to get, it’s not a cross; it’s gambling.

I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me … Galatians 2:20

Everyone’s doing, not dying

If it is something that you have to do, then you prove you are not on the cross, because you can’t do anything on a cross, except admit that you should be there. If you’re on a cross then God’s trying to save you. If you’re not on the cross, then you can’t get saved. If it’s the pathway for both the Master and the thief, then it’s the pathway for all sinners who will follow the Master (Matthew 10:24,25).

Christ’s cross is a daily exercise

If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me … Luke 9:23

The false church (the tares) teaches that Jesus paid the price for your sin; He shed His blood; just accept this fact, say sorry for your sin, and you’ll be saved.  This is half-true. What’s missing is, a cross. The church promotes penance and good works, but there’s no death-to-self-cross in the churches’ picture, just a looking for God to fix my problems, bless me, and provide all my needs because He already paid the price for you so you can bask in His blessing.

Whoever doesn’t bear his cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple … Luke 14:27

The fake Christian believes they’re free from the world so they can enjoy its offerings without conscience. This modern humanistic church system believes that if you are caring, helpful, and nice to people, then that proves you’re saved, so you can stay in the world and believe you are exempt from its influences and its future punishment, and you’re free from the consequences of the ten commandments, just keep them in your heart. It brands and mocks ten commandment keepers, especially 7th day sabbath-keepers, as legalistic, conveniently ignoring the fact that God Himself established the principle at creation, and Jesus Himself kept the principle during his 33 years on earth, and that it was the Romans, not God, who changed it to Sunday. This false church follows the Roman feasts of Easter and Christmas and looks down on those who honour God’s feasts of Passover and Tabernacles (Zechariah 14:16). It’s the false church that will oppose the faithful (Rev. 12:17, Galatians 4:29), and it already is.

The anti-Christ is coming

This generation is happy to worship Him; they want to feel good; they want to look good; they chase happy feelings; but they don’t want a cross; it’s easy to be in the church. They love the pleasures of the world and the church is not discouraging it, but rather promoting it, and tolerating the sin so it can retain its numbers and money, and calling the tolerance, love. Consequently, the world is gaining ground and the church is losing ground.

You can’t have life without a cross

Cross 1st, Repentance 2nd, Death 3rd, Faith 4th, Life 5th, Christ’s Cross 6th. It’s the cross that separates you from the world (Galatians 6:14).

May God open the eyes of His remnant to be willing and ready to first see their sin and die to themselves, then carry their cross for Christ.

Pastor Anthony McNaughton

 
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Posted by on November 23, 2020 in cross, Death

 

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Sermon 150 – GOOD?

14 Nov

I asked a group of practicing Christians a range of questions to challenge their spirits to expose to themselves as to whether they were on the broad-way to hell, or the narrow way to heaven.

Of course, as professing Christians they were all offended that I would suggest that they may not be on the path to heaven, but I persisted that they should not be so proud as to know for sure without at least checking.

What’s the use of being blind to who you really are if it leads you to destruction? Surely, it makes sense to find the truth about what path you are really travelling on, otherwise the journey is all in vain. Sadly, most Christians are too stubborn to be told they may be going the wrong way.

Modernism

Modernism teaches this generation that they have the freedom to choose whatever way they like and no one has the right to tell you what is right or that you’re wrong; and the modern church has adopted this belief under the pretext that love is not offending anyone’s feelings.

Judge by how you make me feel

Modernism is just the old humanism which teaches that I am my own judge and my own god and the way you make me feel tells me whether you are good or bad. If you say nice things and do nice things to make me feel good, then you are good; and if you say or do things that make me feel bad, then you are bad. Humanism bases what is right and wrong on how you make me feel.

The problem

The problem is, righteous correction makes me feel bad, so a humanist Christian can’t get saved because they feel correction as a put-down instead of what they’re doing is wrong and a need to change direction.

Here’s the questions. I suggest you face them honestly yourself, for your own spirit’s sake.

Q.1  What’s the personal evidence that you are a good person?

Q.2  What’s the personal evidence that you are a faith person?

Q.3  What is truth?

Q.4  What is Faith?

Q. 5  What is love?

Q.6  What is a Christian?

I received a range of replies, the core of which are summarised here. I suspect most Christians would agree with their thoughts. Check where you stand.

I’m good

Every person I speak with believes they are good. Humanism teaches this. God’s Word teaches the opposite (Romans 3: 9-12).

They justify their good by their obedience, or niceness, friendliness, hard work, or not having any issues with people, being thought well of, getting something right, helping, or putting yourself out for someone else. The problem is, in almost 100% of cases, all these actions are false good.

The reason I know they are false good is because of their answers to the following questions …

Q.1  Do you think you are good?  Routinely, the answer is always, yes.

Q2.  Do you think you are No.1?  More often than not, the answer is always, yes.

Q.3  Do you look down your nose at your neighbour?  If they’re honest, the answer is always, yes.

Q4.  Do you tell your neighbor how to behave because you know?  If they’re honest, the answer is always, yes.

Q.5  Are you jealous of your neighbour?  If they’re honest, the answer is always, yes.

Q6.  Do you think you are special?  If they’re honest, the answer is always, yes.

Q7.  Do you have a mood if you don’t get what you want, or if people don’t treat you the way you want?  If they’re honest, the answer is always, yes.

Good?

I then asked, ‘are these things good?’, and invariably I get the answer, no.

So, I then challenged their thinking by asking how come you think you are good when the above evidence confirms otherwise? From here on, I usually get dishonesty and not truth. Selfishness doesn’t like to look bad, so obviously, it’s not going to include bad in its list of good because that would make one look bad. False good likes to live in its comfortable lie; to do otherwise makes me feel too embarrassed and self-conscious.

If you think you’re good, then you confirm that you are your own god, because only God is good. So, you’re really doing good for your own selfish self-value. As soon as someone thinks they’re good they confirm they’re controlled by a lying spirit, because the truth is, only God Himself is good. Anyone who thinks they are good is only doing the good so people will think you are good. This is humanism, and the broad-way to hell. It’s certainly not faith; it’s just fake love.

You can’t be No.1 and say God is No.1 too. That’s a lie of self-deception.

You can’t say you love God and say you are good, yet envy your neighbour; that’s a lie of self-deception.

False good vs True good

False good = doing those things that please others and myself for my self-value.

False good is driven by what others think of me. It is measured by how others make me feel and it walks in the fear of what others think about me.

False good lives in the fear of looking bad to others, or being wrong, or getting into trouble, or failing. This false good is always generated by envy towards others who are more favoured or popular, or who can do things better, or the reverse of believing I can do it better than you.

False good either always looks down on one’s neighbour, or feels threatened by one’s neighbour’s status. It contradicts the law of ‘thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’.

False good does good things, but always for self, even if it’s for God.

False good is just plain self-righteousness.

Wise in own eyes

King Saul was wise in his own eyes. David was wise in the eyes of God. Korah was wise in his own eyes, but Moses was wise in the eyes of God. When you’re wise in your own eyes you’ll only see what you do is good and justify your bad as the fault of others. This is the broad-way to hell.

Calling your evil, good

What Christians don’t realise when they practice false good is that they’re actually calling their selfishness, good. This folly exposes you to a curse (Isaiah 5:20,21) and ultimate destruction (Deut.29:19,20) unless you face your selfishness and repent.

True good

True good = doing what pleases God without any thought of gaining self-favour

The good of God is measured by your attitude to your neighbour and your respect of God’s ten commandments, and only works when God is first in your life, and not yourself or others. But, God can’t be first if you haven’t sacrificed the pride of looking good in the eyes of others.

The good of God is walking in the fear of the Lord, and not the fear of others. This requires the sacrifice of one’s pride to look good in the eyes of others. Until that sacrifice is made because you love God first, you’re on the broad-way to hell and not the narrow way to the eternal city.

The two great commandments are … love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. As soon as you look down on your neighbour, think you’re better than your neighbour, wish you could do what your neighbour can do, or do things to get value from your neighbour, then all your good is false.

False good is just a lying spirit

Most people agree that Truth is God’s Word. Now, if God’s Word is The Truth and you don’t follow it literally but rather follow it at your own discretion and convenience, even though you’ve convinced yourself that you do follow it right, then obviously you are lying to yourself. But, false good can never accept that. It hurts their feelings too much.

Conclusion

Most people think they’re good, but the truth is, they do everything in order to make themselves feel good. Everyone lives in the fear of what others think. Everyone thinks they are special and have a mood if they’re not treated as such. The truth is, they worship their own image and hate others for being higher ranked. This is what has to be put to death. God may temporarily be in their lives, but, like King Saul, they’re not saved; their Jesus is just a figment of their imagination.

Jesus said you can’t be a disciple until you give up the need to be valued by your fellowman, your parents (Luke 14:26-33), your friends, your employer etc. You actually have to hate self-value, plus you have to be willing to be hated as Christ was (Matthew 10:22-25). Self-love can’t do this. There’s no such thing as trusting God if you like the favour of others’ opinion. Few believe this pathway is valid. Their goodness deduces that they are good and God is good so God wouldn’t make it too hard to get to heaven, so they choose the easy way of just believing they are good. But, if God’s Word is the Truth, and that Word states that death-to-self is the pathway to heaven, then this good person is lying about respecting God’s way of Truth. If one lives in their goodness they won’t want the truth about the hard way.

Good is God. Truth is God. Faith is God. Love is God. If self thinks it’s good, then it doesn’t know God’s truth, or God’s faith, or God’s Love. It just walks in the imagination of its selfish heart.

Gratitude vs Attitude

If you’re truly grateful for what Christ has done for you on the cross, you may make errors, but you won’t allow yourself the right to look down on your neighbour. Under true good, you’ll judge your neighbour righteously, and not from a self-righteous position, because God is the only entity you live for. You’ll know where you stand because false good and bad will hate you for His sake.

May God strengthen His remnant to live the crucified life for His sake.

Pastor Anthony McNaughton

 
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Posted by on November 14, 2020 in Uncategorized

 

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Sermon 149 – WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

08 Jul

Do we really expect God to turn a blind eye?

Call ‘evil’ good (Malachi 2:17)

We abort our babies and call it women’s rights instead of murder, but all that happens when you legalise abortions is you end up getting more and more murders in your society.

We legalise divorce and allow marriages to break their oath to God, and all we end up getting is people preferring to live in selfish flexibility with options to leave and try another relationship. No one calls it adultery anymore; it’s just an affair or a fling. We turn a blind eye to adultery and all we end up getting is everyone neighing after their neighbour’s wife (Ezekiel 33:26).

Legalising evil just breeds selfishness

Everyone enters a relationship to get something for themselves. No one enters to serve and honour the other partner. Consequently, relationships fall apart simply because of the selfishness of demanding that the other person is responsible to make me happy.

Humanism doesn’t teach moral responsibility, it teaches self-choice moral flexibility

Christians have allowed humanism to manipulate the excuse of the immorality of the false church and the government’s lack of concern for our environment, so it can remove the Bible from our schools and let their humanistic teachers train our youth to defy the boundaries, hate God, and to be their own boss, and all we end up getting is disrespect of authority, rebellion, appeasing themselves with alcohol and drugs to dull their pain of lostness and loneliness, and full-body tattoos with African ear-lobe rings.

Feelings guide our judgments

We’re more worried about hurt feelings than honouring the law of God. Consequently, we call it love to legalise homosexuality in direct contravention of God’s law. In so doing we ignorantly announce that evil is now good and thus make a mockery of God who is the true and only ‘good’. When you legally remove the right for an adult to calmly smack a child when that child is defiant and disrespectful (Proverbs 29:15), all you’ll end up with is the child ruling over the adult (Isaiah 3:4,5)

Sabbath defilement

We don’t think twice about merchandising and sporting with the world on God’s holy sabbath instead of respecting it as a day of rest from interfacing with the world. God calls it being ‘partial in the law’, Malachi 2:9

Sin defiles the land

Then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed … Ezekiel 33:29.

God has been trying to get the Christian world’s attention that sin defiles the land, but the western world has blinded itself by its compromise and tolerance of sin. Man is made from the dust of the earth, so what man does directly affects the planet. Righteousness prospers the planet, sin decays it. Climate change is simply the consequences of man’s sin. Corona virus is simply the consequences of man’s sin.

The safe boundaries of God’s laws have been shifted so far out their alignment, we no longer can see the wrong of our sinfulness, preferring to justify our behaviour and secret thinking as acceptable under God’s grace.

Hypocrisy

We’re happy to stand against the authority and protest for Black Lives Matter, but we’re not happy to be told to stop our promiscuity and sexual perversions, our lust for violent videos, our lusts for fun and partying, our rights to be whatever gender we want, and our rights to determine who we are and who we want to be. We’re not happy to be told to self-isolate, besides humanism has indoctrinated our youth to believe the authorities are evil so why should they listen. The sad thing is that once the authorities bow to the will of a sinful society, they are no longer worthy to be believed.

No man can serve two masters

If you don’t serve God, you’ll end up serving your lusts, and if you serve your lusts, you’ll reap the consequences. God promises that lust-worship will get droughts, fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, financial ruin, foreign ownership, and ultimately, foreign control.

No one believes in God anymore. Everyone blames Him for the mess.

The western world thinks it’s Christian, but everyone knows that it’s turned its back against God, so God is raising up the eastern ungodly world to teach the western world a lesson, but sadly, our sin has blinded us to our arrogance, and in our arrogance we think we’ll be able to protect our lands and our lifestyle. God is slow to inflict punishment, so man thinks he’s getting away with it.

It’s an irony that satanic communism is an ungodly regime that won’t tolerate homosexuality, or pornography, satanic music, rebellion, or drugs, but our god-based system will. We’ve lost the plot.

We may have put down Islamic State but there’s a far worse ungodly system rearing its scorpion tail.

It’s blatantly obvious that communist China is coming for us, but at the rate we’re defending our sin, our resources will be famished and our resistance will be a joke.

We love sin

There’s only one solution … say we’re wrong and reverse the curse (2 Chronicles 7:14). Humble ourselves by coming back in line with God’s ten commandments. It’s up to the church to lead the world. Stop the violent videos, block the promiscuous sexual tv programmes, reverse the laws of homosexuality, stop the evil sex-change operations and abortions, and cease importing foreign gods with their graven images (John 14:6), but I fear we’ve adapted to the love of sin to such an extent we won’t listen to see.

People have learnt to excuse their behaviour, instead of saying “I’m wrong”. People have learnt to criticise others’ sin but can’t see they’re wrong about their own. It’s easy to blame someone for hurting your feelings and making you do something wrong, but few if any, take responsibility for doing that wrong. As soon as you say ‘everybody else does that so what’s wrong with it’ you’ve diverted your sin from yourself. People say they trust the Lord, but you cannot if you won’t trust Him with your sin.

God’s moral laws aren’t a bondage, they save you from the consequences of sin

All we’re generating from our sin is just more and worse rape, paedophilia, child sex perversions, more road rage, more home invasions, more domestic violence, more bullying, more mental health decay, more homelessness, more suicides, more gambling addiction, more drug addiction, hospital rage, sex-trafficking, more drought, and fires, murder, more climate decay, and economic disasters with debts that we will never be able to repay. What have we gained by legalising evil?

Our sin is sucking the money out of our societies

In our sin and our lust for pleasure and fun and lifestyle we’ve sold off our country’s assets to foreign entities and sacrificed our independence to foreign companies. We’re spending billions on drought-relief, military build-up, mental health, domestic violence, and our over-crowded hospitals. We want China’s cheap imported goods, but ignore that we’re supporting an evil society that crushes human justice, and on top of that, we’ve allowed our own manufacturing industries to retract to such an extent that we are dependent on foreign supply, and haven’t even got systems in place to rapidly provide masks, respirators and protective equipment to safeguard our medical staff.

The world has changed for the worse

Covid-19 has changed the world, yet no public figure is saying it’s the consequences of our sin. You are what you eat … eat violence on tv and videos, you’ll breed violence in society. If you promote free sex on tv, you’ll get free sex in society and grow sex-trafficking and child sex-abuse and paedophilia even in the church.

If you feed on satanic music, you’ll get satanic minds and mosh pits. If you declare sex-change as good and normal, all you’ll end up getting is identity-confusion, family dysfunction and dissolution, and drug addicted youth trying to escape the torment.

Defaming God by comparing all religions as equal only earns God’s wrath and punishment

If you contaminate your land with anti-Christ mosques and statues to Buddha and bring all manner of foreign gods into our Christian society, you’ll end up worshiping the gods of the Asians, and get the demons of Asia and the diseases of Asia and the destructive forces of nature that hit Asia. Mixing religions never works; it only generates envy, racism and dissent.

Economy over morality

If you promote homosexuality on tv, you’ll change the God-ordained normal into a homosexual society and reap the consequences of Sodom and Pompeii, and history proves that If a society makes its political judgments based on money, then that society will reap financial decay, and become the servant to the lender.

We used to be Christian

Our forefathers stood for God and His principles, but prosperity has softened our under-belly and vexed us to believe that freedom is doing what we like without anyone telling me what to do, and without any consequences.

America’s bank notes are stamped with “in God we trust”, but it doesn’t. It loves its money.

Great Britain’s national anthem is … ‘God save the Queen’, yet the Queen, who attends church every Sunday, won’t speak out against her society defaming the laws of her God, and ends up condoning their sin by her silence.

In Australia, the national parliament opens with the Lord’s prayer, yet that same parliament ignorantly calls ‘evil’ godly by legalising homosexuality in direct defiance against God commands, and deliberately accepts every foreign and anti-god religion as society’s rights to selective freedom (I AM the Way, the Truth and The Life. No one comes to the Father but by ME … John 14:6).

When a society discards the principles of the Bible, it’ll get the principles of Satan … envy, greed, disrespect, violence, and hedonism. When a Christian-based society turns its back on God and degrades His laws with its own laws, then that society is bound for punishment, and if ignored, then destruction.

Christians are lights in the darkness

We should not be discouraged by the evil that’s growing around us (Proverbs 29:16). God warns us that society is going to deteriorate (Matthew 24:6-14), and evil will hate the righteous (Luke 21:17). Our eyes should be focused on Him, not the decay, but we should not be complacent about the decay.

 

May God sustain His remnant!

 

Pastor Gareth Poltzman

 

 

 
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Posted by on July 8, 2020 in Complacency

 

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Sermon 148 -You can’t get NEW Nature by fixing your OLD Nature

20 Jun

Most Christians believe that they’re good with a few character flaws. If these character flaws are ever challenged or exposed, they try their best to fix them.  Most often, the motivation for the fix is so one doesn’t look bad or feel bad. Consequently, old nature isn’t changed, just better camouflaged.

Old nature

Everyone is born with a nature that is prone to sin … all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The thing that drives this sinful nature is our pride. Our old nature is really just an expression of our pride. Pride wants to be superior and look cool, but pride is also the mood of inferiority or failure. Ultimately, pride doesn’t like being told what to do, or told it’s wrong, but it likes to tell you that you are wrong.

Every time our pride rises up, our old nature will automatically show itself, and we will have a mood, either silently and internally with a smile, or outwardly with a change of facial expression, and quite often, conveniently ignorant that we are even having a mood. Fixing our old nature is simply just another self-tactic for reinforcing our pride and promoting one’s ability. Trying to get ourselves right by our own will power will never produce new nature … it’s just more pride.

The problem of Pride

The reason God hates pride (Proverbs 8:13) is that it gives Satan licence to dictate over your spirit (2 Timothy 2:24-26 KJV). Pride keeps you in old nature and makes you susceptible to operate under Satan’s evil works against the kingdom of God, whilst all the time you believe you are a Christian and a good person. Pride pollutes your heavenly walk and if left to run its course, will block you from heaven.

New Nature

New nature is the nature of God. This nature cannot be produced by our own effort. Rather, it’s a gift from God. The modern church teaches that this gift is free, but that’s not the whole truth. Yes, it cannot be bought with money or earned with effort or good works (Ephesians 2:8,9), but there is a price that you have to pay to receive it.

The price for New nature

The price for new nature is death. The death I’m referring to in this case is … saying NO to yourself. In other words, giving up your want because you trust what God wants is the best. You can’t enter new nature without this trust.

The old nature is quite capable of improving itself and stopping itself from doing wrong. You don’t have to be Christian to achieve that. Old nature can be made to look like new nature, but, it can never become genuine new nature.

The new nature of God is implanted in someone’s spirit when they decide to follow Christ, but this doesn’t mean they are saved for heaven. Judas and King Saul both had the new nature of God but they fell to their old nature, did not repent and return to new nature, and consequently missed out on heaven. You can lose the new nature of God and be cut off the vine, but you can also be grafted back into the nature of God.

How do we make sure we run the race to the end with God’s nature?

Jesus taught that you have to die to yourself, daily. Just about every Christian I’ve counselled believes that if they address a character fault or sin, then they’ve fixed it and it shouldn’t have to be dealt with again. But, that’s just a fallacy of pride. The reality is, that your character fault will live with you forever, and Satan will be forever tempting you to fall to it. Thus, Jesus said it’s a daily battle to say No to yourself, even if the issue is the same as it was yesterday or last month.

Why must I say No to MYSELF?

The only way you can enter new nature and also return to new nature after failing, is, via the cross. The modern church teaches that once you accept Christ as your Saviour, then you are under His grace, you’re a child of God and a son of God and joint heir with Christ, so therefore you should expect His blessing and His favour. This half-truth deceives the average Christian into thinking that Christianity is a casual and comfortable walk to heaven under God’s grace. The modern church doesn’t teach death as the path to heaven, but rather, it promotes only the benefits; namely, the pursuit of happiness and contentment, attached to niceness and helping.

The Cross

The cross is not the path to happy feelings. Rather, it’s a path of pain, and embarrassment, and put down for the name of Christ. It’s the path of being misjudged, of being mocked, of being hated, even by family. It’s having to wait for God’s plan instead of purporting your own. It’s the path of separating from the world even though you live in it. It’s the path of disciplining yourself to say No to yourself, and Yes to Christ. It’s the path of accepting correction, and not necessarily defending your rights.

The cross is serving God, not man, and setting your path to heaven, no matter the cost. The cross is hating your pride (Proverbs 8:13). The cross is trusting God with the unfair deal, and ironically, the peace of God only comes via this pathway of the cross.

The cross is the only way to heaven. You can’t get there by just asking Jesus into your heart. Without the cross, Jesus is just your buddy, but not your Saviour.

The cross is the action of your faith (James 2:17,18), yet, you can’t walk the pathway of the cross by yourself … it requires His faith (Galatians 2:20).

The easy path

Obviously, the false church is not going to promote this path. The easy path of happiness and fun and friends and purpose and wealth through giving, is far more favourable and enticing. The church promotes the broad way to heaven, not the narrow way. But God calls His disciples to be soldiers, not comfortable pew sitters and TV watchers. God calls His people to be separate in spirit from the world; not comfortable to mix and mingle with the world.

God calls his disciples to not expect the fair deal. God calls his disciples to object to the world’s moral decline (Proverbs 8:13), generally silently in our hearts, sometimes publicly, but always on alert, and never complacent and tolerant of sin, especially our own pride.

The reason for the problems we face is so we learn to not look to ourselves but turn to Christ and trust His plan. Problems toughen us against Satanic attack. We’re not fighting flesh and blood but demonic principalities and evil powers (Ephesians 6:12). You can’t fight Satan except through the cross. By saying NO to yourself, and instead, trusting God, you walk the path of the cross and inhibit the evil work of Satan.

The Fear of the Lord is to hate evil (Proverbs 8:13)

Who do you fear the most … God or man? God calls His people to fear Him, not man. The fear of God is the fear of missing out on heaven and ending up in hell. If you love the Lord, you must hate your pride; that’s the fear of God. Disciples must walk in the fear of upsetting God, not man; they must object to giving one’s self the right to have a mood, give up the right to expect fairness, give up the ambition of looking good in the eyes of people, and give up worldly position. This is the cross. The cross is God’s training ground for learning how to fear Him, because you have to face the fear of man. It’s a process of being born again and maturing into His faith. It can take years, but, if you don’t walk the way of the cross, you’re simply stating your lack of fear and love of God.

The primary objective of Christ should be the same for every disciple of Christ

Jesus came to earth. From the moment He arrived, He was targeted. He healed the sick and preached the gospel of good news, but, His primary objective was to die on the cross. If He hadn’t, no one would be saved. Despite all your goodness, is the cross your primary objective?

Friend of the world, enemy of God (James 4:4)

If you’re comfortable with the world, if you like the comforts of the world, the Word of God describes you as an adulterer. That is, a fake Christian who says they’re married to Christ but who is actually intercoursing with Satan.

Thy will be done, not mine

This is the prayer of Christ on the cross, this is the commitment of Jesus on earth (John 4:34), this is the Lord’s prayer, and this is the prayer of every genuine soldier of Christ.

 

May the Lord stir His remnant to look beyond the pain, to look beyond the moral demise of society, to say No to one’s self, and be servants to His will only.

 

Pastor Frederick Jamieson

 

 

 
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Posted by on June 20, 2020 in new nature

 

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Sermon 147 – IMAGE

22 Mar

I was counselling two Christian men who were struggling with each other’s attitudes. I asked them if they thought they had an ‘image’ problem. They each declared that they didn’t think they had. I was flabbergasted at their blindness.

Truth

The truth is, everyone is born with an image problem. Satan has an image problem. He is full of his own importance. He hates Jesus Christ being the Son instead of him. When Satan manipulated man to sin, he implanted the lust for ‘image’ into our spiritual DNA.

When Adam and Eve hid from God, they were protecting their ‘image’. They didn’t have the problem before Satan sucked them into it. When they lied, they were simply protecting their ‘image’. When they blamed each other, they were protecting their ‘image’. When Cain killed Abel, he was simply envious that God liked Abel’s sacrifice and not his. Cain’s image was hurt.

Questions?

  1. Do you get offended if your opinion is challenged, mocked, or misunderstood? If so, you have an image problem.
  2. Does your inner self react with self-defense when you are intimidated, or made to feel stupid? If so, you have an image problem.
  3. Do you have a mood if you don’t get what you want or it doesn’t work out the way you want? If so, you have an image problem.
  4. Do you think you are stupid, or someone else is stupid, and do you crave to be someone special? If so, you have an image problem.
  5. Are you envious if someone is more intelligent, comes up with an idea you wish you had’ve thought of, is more popular than you, or more suave, or has more money than you? If so, you have an image problem.
  6. Do you think you are more intelligent, more creative, more capable, or more skilled than someone else? If so, you have an image problem.
  7. Do you believe you should figure it out yourself and asking for help is a show of weakness? If so, you have an image problem.
  8. Do you get offended if you’re corrected or told you didn’t do it right? Do you say … how come I’m getting corrected? They’re just as bad as me! If so, you have an image problem.
  9. Are you willing to share your knowledge and expertise and money, or would that threaten your ego? If not, you have an image problem.

Deceived

Image is really just ego. If you believe, like these two men, that you don’t have an image problem, then, the truth is, you have a serious image problem. To deny that you have an image problem, is the height of arrogance. This means your spirit is blind to God even though you think you serve Him to the best of your ability.

Fake

No one believes that God would reject them if they’ve tried their best. But, the truth is, that’s an image problem. That’s telling God how He has to do it. The Word of God says the opposite … by grace you are saved through faith. Not of yourself; it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8,9).

What’s this got to do with salvation?

The answer is … everything. The Word of God declares that you cannot be His disciple until you give up your image. Salvation lies on the other side of killing your image. That’s what God means when He says ‘hate your own life’ in Luke 14:26, and ‘die to yourself, daily’ in Luke 9:23.

How?

You have to make a choice but you can’t do it with just a choice. First, you need God to open your eyes to your lust of yourself, and see that you DO have an image problem. Then you have to repent of your selfish lust. Then you have to commit your will and life to His plan. The only way you can beat the image problem, is death. It’s only through death that your image is annulled.

Repentance

Sadly, most people say sorry for hurting someone’s feelings or for getting caught for doing something wrong, but they never repent of promoting or protecting their image. Consequently, they have never truly repented. They’re just practicing image defence, like Adam and Eve.

King Saul vs. David

Image is always the fruit of making yourself great in your own eyes (1 Samuel 15:17). Image is always more concerned with what people think of me (v.30), than what God thinks. King Saul was only interested in preserving his image in the eyes of others, whereas, David, by God’s grace, saw the evil of his image and repented. It wasn’t good deeds that saved David, because what he did was completely evil. It was the sacrifice of his image … the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart (Psalm 51:17).

False teaching

Image is really the love of yourself. The modern church thinking teaches that you must love yourself first, before you can love your neighbour. That’s a lie. The Word of God teaches you must hate yourself first (not the hate of spite, but the hate of your evil image), before you can love God and your fellow-man. You can’t love God and love yourself at the same time; that’s a contradiction. Jesus came to save you from the love of yourself.

10 Commandments

Most people defend their image … I don’t lie, I don’t steal, I don’t kill, I don’t commit adultery, so I must be a good person. The problem is, image can’t see that it worships itself. It can only see that you are hurting my feelings or you are being unjustly nasty to me.

But, worshiping your image, blindly or not, is a fracture of the 2nd commandment. It may not be graven in stone or wood, but nevertheless, it is image worship. From that foundation, it’s impossible to worship God 1st, and whether you accept it or not, you are lying to yourself, you are killing your neighbour with hate and envy, and you are committing adultery in your heart. You are literally living in the deception of your image. It’s all a lie.

Consequence of your choice

If you choose to die to your image, Satan will hate you and throw everything at you … family, friends, employers, work colleagues, the church, the world … and you’ll have to rely on God to sustain you. It’s persecution that strengthens your will to His will (Mark 13:13; 2 Timothy 3:12). Stand up silently against homosexuality, divorce and re-marriage, abortion, and fornication and you’ll soon find out how unpopular is that position. If you’re not being persecuted, in some form or other, for your love of Christ, then know that as much as you say you love Him, the real truth is you love yourself more.

No persecution, no salvation.

If we be dead with Him, we shall live with Him. If we suffer (for Him) we shall reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will deny us. 2 Timothy 2:11,12

The modern church is doing its best to escape persecution by tolerating sin and calling it grace and love. Thus, it will never find my God, only the refection of its own image, and it will walk in the imagination of that image.

 

I suggest you get on your knees and cry out to God for Him to expose you to you.

 

Pastor Jonathan Samuels

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2020 in image

 

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Sermon 146 – OBLIGATION

16 Mar

Obligation = because I did this for you, you will do what I want.

It’s holding someone in debt to your goodness. It comes from the Latin word obligare = to bind.

Goodness, with debt attached, is a lie and a manipulative deception of Satan.

Over many years I observed a father destroy his family under the weight of obligation. God used it to show me a hidden spiritual truth.

Power

Every father has immense power over his children; the power to obligate them to be good for him so his image looks good to others; the power to obligate them to serve his agenda because he provides protection, or money, or gifts, or love; the power to obligate you to serve his will by the selfish application of intimidation and fear; the power to obligate you to serve his will by the manipulation of making you feel sad for him if he’s having a selfish mood.

Slavery

In every instance this power is selfish and contaminated unless the chain of obligation to his own father has been broken by being separated to Jesus Christ by faith.

I watched as this man’s children struggled to break free from a bondage they didn’t know had them chained by obligation to their father’s image, because he was chained to the value his own father’s image. Beneath the cover of this fine family lay hate for each other. They silently competed over each other for the father’s favour and thus chained themselves to the obligation of servitude to their father’s will. Eventually, the fake happy family crumbled under its lie of dysfunctionality.

Don’t tell me what to do

Humanity hates being told what to do. Whilst you remain chained to the obligation to keep your parents happy, your inner self will be tormented by having to be obligated to honor your parents, which you want to do and are designed to do, but you crave the freedom to do it without being told you have to. Thus, in your inner hidden confusion, you lie to yourself that you are serving in love, when it’s really chasing favour, and serving your own image, too. You end up being chained to the evil spirit of obligation and trying to make your children do the same for you. Consequently, envy and hate become the roots of your love. You call it love, but it’s really envy and hate masquerading as love, and at a point of correction, you will defy authority with ‘don’t tell me what to do’, and thus your lie will be exposed, and underneath the fakeness will be the envy of anyone who has a higher position of favour.

If you sew it, you will reap it

If you complain about being obligated by others, then you will ignorantly, and automatically, and uncontrollably obligate others to serve your will. The thing that you’re offended by is the thing you blindly practice against others.

That’s exactly what I observed eventually spew out of this fake Christian father. He had a silent mood about being obligated, but couldn’t see that it was him practicing it against others. He obligated others and got offended if they didn’t comply. The pride of his own image blinded him to see himself. He could only see what others weren’t doing for him, and unfortunately it drowned him in his own hatred. He hadn’t separated to God, he had manipulated others to serve him and used Christianity to validate this service so they would serve him, but it was all a lie.

Chained

If you’re chained by obligation to your parent’s will, then you will chain your children under your obligation, too. When you obligate your child to serve your will, you expose your chained servitude to your parents’ will, and at the same time, you ignorantly serve others with the expectation that they will be obligated to serve your will. Thus, when anyone opposes or contradicts your will, especially after you have served them, it causes your selfish spirit to be angry with the injustice, according to your perverted vision. You will either openly rebel against the injustice, or silently surrender to it and exist in a spirit of begrudgingness. Either way, it’s not love, but selfishness parading as love.

Cranky, outwardly or inwardly, about being obligated, just means your serving begrudgingly. It means you’ve never loved God by cutting the chains, and you selfishly obligate others to do your will. You will serve Him on a foundation of envy and hate and label it ‘love’, and create a ‘lie’ to support your fake truth, and no one will be able to tell you otherwise.

Hate

I always wondered why the Word of God uses ‘hate’ in Luke 14:26, to describe separation love. It’s now clear to me.

The greenies hate humanity because it hurts the environment. The vegans hate humanity because it hurts animals. This is the fruit of spite.

But, I hate humanity because it hates my God. It’s not spiteful hatred, but the hatred of their love for evil in spite of my God. I could not have stood at the cross and watched humanity crucify my God just because He wouldn’t comply with their religious dogma. It would have crushed my spirit. Because I love my God, I hate, not spitefully, but painfully, any humanity that hates Him.

Irony

This hate doesn’t stop me loving humanity; it stops me bowing to humanity’s lusts and enticements. God himself hated humanity and destroyed it all with a flood, but loved it so much he sent His Son to die for it.  He even sent his Son to hell to preach to those who hadn’t had a chance to hear about Him before the flood (1 Peter 3:19,20); that’s how much He loved humanity. But, He won’t tolerate humanity’s hate of his Father; especially hate that’s expressed by defaming His Father’s commandments.

Consequences

If you call homosexuality, love; if you legalise abortion, divorce, and defacto, ungodly religions, and if you control people to your will, do you naively think God is going to turn a blind eye and bless your evil. Earthquakes, floods, wars, bushfires, economic chaos, the rise of Communism and Islamic State, domestic violence, drugs, climate change and corona virus are the fruit of man’s selfishness, whether he thinks he’s good or bad. But, no one’s facing the warnings, they just blame God and dig further into their own inner strength.

The hatred of man’s evil is the expression of your love for God

I hate humanity for legalising homosexuality in defiance of my God’s instructions. I hate humanity for legalising the murder of unborn babies in defiance of my God’s instructions. I hate humanity for legalising divorce and adulterous defacto relationships against my God’s instructions. I hate humanity for endorsing and supporting demonic religions in defiance to my God’s instructions, John 14:6 … I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. And, Acts 4:12 … there is no other Name given among men whereby you can be saved.

I hate any humanity that is taught about the true God and then turns their back on Him and goes and serves other gods. But, my hate is driven by my love for Him.

True Serve will always require a price

It’s impossible to serve Jesus Christ whilst you remain obligated to serve your father. You can’t be free to serve God until you break the chains of obligation to your father, and you’ll know it’s chains when you feel the fear of contradicting your father’s selfish will … the fear of what others will think of you; the fear of what the church will say against you; the fear of what your family will say against you; the fear of being wrong; the fear of hurting his feelings; the fear of his aggression. But, fear is just a threat to your image and that’s why it’s also the door to freedom, and until you walk through it you won’t find salvation.

Fear

There is no fear in love, and God is love, so God is on the other side of fear. That’s why fear is a spirit force of Satan to stop you finding God. Bound parents are chained to fear and the spirit behind them will try and chain you to the same fear. They can act like they love God, but if you truly choose Christ, you’ll soon feel the threat of their fear.

Fake

A genuine Christian parent will give you the freedom to serve God without requiring you to love them as well. A fake Christian parent will give you the right to serve God as long as you don’t stop serving them too. The fake parent will dictate over you with fear, and the fake child will seek the value of their parent to boost their selfishness, and gain points over their siblings, and thus be chained to that fear.

Persecution

Hopefully, now you can see that you can never truly serve God until you break the chains of obligation to serve your parents. In most instances, the parent has never broken their chains of obligation to their parents, and they will thus demand, either openly or silently, your servitude to their wishes. When you face the intimidation to stay under a parent’s will, you will experience the honor of being persecuted for the Name of Christ. The Satan trick is, no child expects a Christian parent to be Satan’s defiant and opposing force. You’ll need the faith of Christ to help you get free.

Even Jesus had to tell His mother to back-off because she was interfering in His commitment to the will of His Father, God. He had to tell Peter to back-off because Satan was working through him to entice Christ to not go to the cross.

How do you break free to serve God?

By faith, you have to face the fear of upsetting your parents and trust God. If you’re seeking to serve Him, the demonic will be seeking to scare you from serving Him. The most powerful weapon Satan has to inhibit your service, is a parent. You actually have to hate the evil of their obligation to hold onto you for their selfish value, and if they won’t let you serve God, then there is only one pathway; the pathway of complete separation.

Samuel was free to serve God because Hannah gave him up to God. Thus, Samuel could stay, not attached to Hannah, but connected with her by the love they both shared for God. If the parent won’t allow this to happen, there has to be a leave and cleave, and that’s the price of salvation.

Separation

The church no longer lives by this principle because it needs numbers and money to run its business. Separation is a price that costs everything to walk with Christ (Luke 14:33). It’s easier to believe in grace, because grace just means to the average Christian that you have the free-will to love Christ and the free-will to tolerate sin in others without the legal obligation to be too intense to faithfully submit to his laws. This is a lie of Satan propagated by the church. Have an honest look at Matthew 5:18,19.

If you’re tolerating sin in others, then it just means you obligate them to tolerate the sin in you.

Many called, few will choose

If you genuinely have a call on your heart to serve the living God, know that you won’t be able to fulfil that call until you love your parents by disobeying them if they are blocking that call. This is what God calls ‘hate’.  If you feel obligated to serve your parents’ will, then know you are being dictated to by a demonic spirit. The Spirit of God in a Christ-like parent will give you freedom to serve God without obligation. That pull to stay chained to your parent is so strong that God said … many are called but few are chosen.

Myway or Yahweh

Jesus doesn’t obligate; it’s your choice. Love Him and do what He wants because you love Him, or serve Him and do what He wants your way. They’re miles apart. One is free, the other is chained.

 

Pastor Jonathan Samuels

 
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Posted by on March 16, 2020 in intimidation

 

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Sermon 145 – FRIENDS?

22 Feb

I was counselling a young man who was struggling with the unfair behaviour of his friend. I confirmed that he was right that his so-called friend was behaving badly, but I then suggested he was having a mood because his ‘friend’ box was humanly defined to suit his selfishness. Seeing he was able to hear the truth, I went on to say, that if you’re a friend of God, friends might hurt your feelings, but they won’t drive you into a mood. There’s something wrong with your friendship with God.

What’s a friend?

I’ve asked this question on many occasions, and the general response is … ‘someone who is kind to me’, ‘someone who listens to me’, and ‘someone who makes me feel good’.

All humans are designed to want and need friends. It’s normal and it’s natural. But, there’s a problem. Our definitions and expectations are all about what someone should do for ME.

Jesus said … you are my friends if you do what I command you, John 15:14. This is the opposite to the human definition above. God expects you to keep Him happy and do what He wants; not the other way around. It’s pretty clear that the other way around is just a Satanic plot to trap humans in the fairness argument and divert them from doing it the way God says.

Jesus didn’t accumulate friends. He didn’t do good deeds to give Himself self-value and followers. More often than not, He lost friends (John 6). That’s because He was only interested in doing the will of his Father. If God is your friend, you won’t need friends to prop up your self-value, so if a friend does wrong by you, it might hurt your feelings but it won’t hurt your spirit.

Why do we have to do it God’s way?

The issue is spirit. God’s way usually doesn’t make sense, but If you don’t do it the way God says, and you do it the way of fairness, Satan will take power over your thinking. Satan will control your will and manoeuvre you away from God. This is confirmed in 2 Timothy 2:24-26 KJV.

Friendly vs friend

There’s a vast difference between being friendly with God, and being a friend of God. Friendly infers an expectation that God will look after me and care for me. That’s the human expectation of friendship and it’s contaminated by selfishness. On the other hand, if you want to be a friend of God, you have to give up your human right of fairness and trust His judgment and do what He wants; that is, not expect Him to serve your needs and wants, or be obligated to keep you happy.

You can’t be friend of God and a friend of the world at the same time, James 4:4. They are opposites. And you can only be a friend of God if you aren’t a friend of the world. The world is friendly with God, and therefore, the world expects to go to heaven if they’ve been good. But, they are not friends of God, and they won’t go to heaven. It’s the direct opposite for a true Christian; if you’re a friend of God you can be friendly with the world, but you can’t befriend the world. As soon as you try to collect worldly friends you threaten your friendship with God.

Irony

Under human friendship rules, no one has real friends. The reality is, everyone is just using and collecting other people for their own self-value status. However, if you’re a friend of God, you can have friends, because it doesn’t matter if they’re using you. All that matters is what God wants. However, if that friend opposes or challenges your friendship with God, you are required to separate. They should no longer be counted as a friend.

Example

Because God is my friend, and because my wife supports that friendship, then my wife is my friend, too. In fact, she’s my best-friend. It’s my friendship with God that sustains and uniquely blesses my relationship with my wife. If she opposed my friendship with God, how could we be friends?

How do you keep the laws of God?

This question may not sound related to’ friends’, but it is. Most people, even non-Christians, recognise that it’s good to try and keep the Ten Commandments. Everyone tries to do what’s right by the commandments, but it’s humanly impossible. God, Himself, has given us a simple instruction that doesn’t require you to be ruled by rules.

It’s found in Matthew 7:12 and it’s simply … treat others as you would like to be treated, because this fulfils all the law and the prophets, and it’s re-confirmed in Matthew 22:37-40. This means you don’t keep the laws of God by trying to be good and obey the rules, but rather, you can only keep the laws of God by first, being a friend of God and, second, by obeying his two directions towards other people. Those two instructions are … treat others as you would yourself, and hold no grievance against your friend or enemy, but instead trust His plan and purpose. Impossible to do unless you’re a friend of God.

If you walk in His love, you automatically keep the rules. If it’s not His love, the rules will give you a boundary of safety from the suction of worldly evil, but they won’t save you.

From God’s perspective, everything is measured by your relationship with your fellowman. Love is measured by relationship, not by rules. If you practice love to your neighbour with the secret expectation that ‘you get back more than what you give up’, it’s breaking the commandments of God. Be as nice as you like to your fellowman and then have a mood and hold a grievance when he hurts your feelings or attacks you without justification, and it simply means you are running by the friend rule, not the God rule.

God doesn’t say … hold a grievance when your friend hurts your feelings and turns against you. On the contrary, He actually commands us to pray for our enemies, Matthew 5:44. That takes faith and trust.

You can’t practice this strategy unless you’re a friend of God. You can try but it won’t work.

What’s LOVE?

Love = giving up something for someone else. The opposite to love is pride. Therefore, PRIDE = expecting someone to give up something for ME. This definition is confirmed in Matthew 7:12, John 6:38 & 8:29. Good friendship may look like love, but If love is motivated by pride, then it’s not love, it’s pride, no matter how it looks.

Contamination

You wouldn’t serve an omelette with 5 good eggs and one rotten egg. The omelette would be rotten. When you do a good deed for someone, that’s love, but as soon as you expect a good deed back, that’s pride. Counting up your good deeds and ignoring your pride deeds and ignoring your secret selfish motivation, does not equal love, but selfish usury. You can argue with God about your good deeds, but He’s measuring your love by the contamination.

Example

Greater love has no man than he lay down his life for his friend (John 15:13). That’s love, but it’s not love if it’s contaminated by self-value. This is confirmed in 1 Corinthians 13, where the Word of God also states that you can give your body to be burned but it will profit you nothing if it isn’t love. These statements seem contradictory but they’re really saying the same thing. That is, nothing’s genuine uncontaminated love unless you’re a friend of God, because if you’re a friend of God, then it’s His love that flows, and His love is not contaminated by pride.

Gratitude or attitude

Jesus proved Himself as love by dying for the human race. He did lay down His life for His friends and it worked because He didn’t do it for Himself but for His Heavenly Father. He did it the Father’s way, and rejected the ‘self’ way. Have you responded with a gratitude of commitment of being His friend, or like the selfish majority, are you friendly with God so that He’ll be friendly with you? One is death to self, the other is get for self.

If you have a mood or hold a grievance because someone hasn’t done right by you, you’ve got a friendship with God issue.

There’s a price to pay to be a friend of God. A Christian cannot accumulate worldly friends for their own status and self-value. A genuine Christian is someone who is a friend of God and not a friend of the world, James 4:4.

 

May God open our eyes to our selfish fairness that believes we’re Godly when it’s really just living for our own image, instead of for God’s.

 

Pastor Samuel Abbel

 

 

 
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Posted by on February 22, 2020 in friends

 

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Sermon 144 – It all depends what you call it

01 Feb

I’m only helping

I was addressing a young woman who couldn’t believe that she was doing anything wrong. Her defense was … I’m only trying to help. But what if the help is contaminated with selfishness? Her defense challenged the authority of my query about her underlying motive, and actually confirmed my suspicions. Holy Spirit would not have retaliated against my inquiry.

You see, selfishness always calls it something else other than what it really is. Everything we do is either the love of God or it’s selfish. 1 Corinthians 13 states that you can give all your money to the poor, and even your body to be burned, but it will profit nothing if it isn’t for God.

You call it helping. I call it showing-off.

You say “I’m just helping”, but more often than not, it’s a lie. What you’re really doing is showing-off how capable you are, or how clever you are. Your inner spirit is saying … “don’t tell me what to do. Look at me, I already know without you telling me”. This is really having a spirit of self-authority, which means your spirit disrespects authority. When someone questions, either verbally or silently, the correction of an authority, they reveal what spirit they are of. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The façade image has to be broken if you want to be truly honest about your heart.

You call it helping, but it’s really trying to gain points of favor

I once asked a young man … why are you so willing to help? His reply was more honest than I was expecting. He said … so that when I’m having trouble, you’ll be obligated to help me. This is selfish help. God calls it holding a debt over the person you’ve helped. That’s sin, not love. It gains no heavenly credits.

You call it helping, but it’s really so the person will be obligated to like you or help you back.

You call it charity. I call it control and obligation to get others to do what you want.

You call it helping, but it’s really trying to gain position due to hatred-envy of your more favoured sibling.

You call it helping, but it’s really to make yourself feel worthwhile and look good in the eyes of others.

It’s hard to pin contaminated help. Helping is a tricky way of promoting your pride because no one can say you’re doing something wrong. But, you can smell contaminated help … eventually, it smells ‘off’.

You call it used and then dumped

I call it … asked to leave because you wouldn’t do what you were told

You call it independent thinking

I call it … challenging the thinking of the authority, so you can live in your own self-authority. I call it … no one’s going to tell you what to do.

You call it friendship. I call it servitude.

When you expect a friend to act a certain way towards you so you feel good and valued, that’s not friendship, it’s servitude. On many occasions I’ve asked people … what’s a friend? The common reply is … someone who will listen to me, support me, and be kind to me. Sounds right, but it’s all a lie.  God says ‘friendship’ is serving God, not keeping people happy (John 15:14). I’ve discovered that selfishness gathers friends for its own self-value and wants, because that same person that demands friendship will invariably TELL that friend how they’re supposed to behave towards them, expect them to be loyal to them first, and TELL their friend off if they are not being nice to them. That’s usury. There’s no freedom to have a differing opinion, share another friend, or say any truth that might offend their feelings.

You call it sorry. I call it selfish

I queried a young man as to why he felt so sorry for a woman who was having a mood because she was told she was wrong? His response was … so that when I have a mood, others will have to be sorry for me. This is contaminated sorry. It’s not love; it’s fake and selfish.

You call it protecting. I call it possessive, manipulation and control

I once queried a young Christian man as to why he was so protective of his family. He informed me that his domineering father had demanded of him to protect his mother. He complied because it gave him value in his father’s eyes and made him feel good. It fed his self-value. The value of protection became inherent is his spiritual DNA. His own family loved his protection, but they also feared his control. His protection looked good on the outside, but it was contaminated and used to manipulate the family to do exactly what suited his agenda. There was no freedom of opinion or choice. It was all a sham to protect and promote his own personal image. Protection made him feel ‘the man’ and it won his family’s support and value.

I’m good

You can’t correct ‘good’, or ‘help’, or ‘protection’; they look good. But, if they’re contaminated, they’re evil. If I find myself challenging a person’s ‘good’, I’m actually challenging the demonic spirit. It’s easy to forget that Satan comes in sheep’s clothing.

Many times I’ve challenged the evil in people’s spirit, but they invariably discredit my correction by justifying their goodness. All they’re really doing is preserving their image by trying to manipulate me to focus on their goodness, and hide the spirit that dwells within them. From God’s perspective, it’s what’s behind the image that’s important. If I’m correcting, I’m addressing the evil spirit behind the human façade. If you protect your image all you’re doing is reinforcing your pride, hiding the evil in you, and running away from God.

Good and help is not of God until your image has been smashed.

Keys to the Kingdom (Matthew 16:19)

The one key that unlocks the door to the kingdom of heaven, is “the DEATH of IMAGE”. That is, how I look in the eyes of other people. Until you give up the preservation and promotion of your image, you can’t be saved. King Saul talked himself into thinking he was great (1 Samuel 15:17). The fruit of that decision was envy and hatred of David because people sang his praises more than Saul’s. The consequence was hell.

‘Self’ rises up daily, so ‘death-to-self’ needs to be a daily exercise (Luke 9:23-26). You can’t do this in your own strength and you can’t do it without being treated unfairly, and like Christ, you learn to take it for His will.

The Ten Commandments are simply designed to expose my image

Image is another word for idol. Promoting or protecting IMAGE is a contravention of God’s second commandment … ‘do not make a graven image’. It may not be graven in stone or wood, but it’s engraved in your spirit. Protecting or promoting my image is the same as worshiping myself. The reason people lie and pretend to be good is simply to protect their image. It’s either image or it’s God. You can’t have both. Image is seeking the world’s favor. You can’t serve God and the world. Most Christians live in the middle, but that’s really just keeping the world happy so you don’t look bad in the eyes of the world, or get persecuted by the world.

James 4:4 … friend of the world, enemy of God.

Devaluing the Ten Commandments is a satanic plot to con humans to lower their resistance to sin and thus promote their image so they miss out on heaven with God

Satan tricked Eve with the temptation to be her own god (Genesis 3), and the same scam is still working today. It’s a clever GRACE scam, but it’s idol worship without even knowing it. It separates you from God because it’s wilful sin (1 John 3:4). Be as good as you like, it won’t save you. In fact, it conversely promotes evil (Proverbs 28:4 … they that forsake the law, praise the wicked), and that’s why the world is rising up and Christianity is decaying under the world’s intimidation.

The fruit of devaluing God and His commandments is a chaotic world, climate disasters, wars, disease, and a fake church that silently condones the world’s behaviour and undisturbingly watches sin being legalised. The world calls homosexuality, ‘love’. I call it ‘hate’ God. The world’s argument is … if God is irrelevant, then His laws are irrelevant, and thus I can do what pleases my flesh without any conscience. Plus, if a man is allowed to have sexual relations with a woman, who says it’s wrong for a man to have sexual relations with another man as long as they’re both consenting. The world defiantly says … I will do what I like and no God is going to tell me what I can and can’t do!

You can’t REPENT until you let God smash your IMAGE

Gideon smashed the image, then God could use him. Phineas speared the mocking evil that was destroying the Israelites (Numbers 25:8). You can’t escape destruction until you repent of your sin, and you can’t see your sin without letting God smash your image.

There’s a big difference between … I’m sorry for hurting your feelings, or … If I’ve done something wrong, I’m sorry, or … I’m sorry, but you make mistakes too, or … I’ll say sorry if you say sorry, too!

and, … I’m wrong, and I apologise unreservedly, and Lord God, I’m sorry for protecting my image and feelings instead of trusting you. Please forgive me.

The Truth

Why are people trying to be good? The answer is … Fear of looking bad and the pride of looking good. Until you sacrifice the fear and pride of what the world thinks of you, and the need to promote yourself in the eyes of others, and instead, give up your image to the will of God, Jesus will not open the door of heaven to you (Luke 14:33).

 

May God open the eyes of His remnant.

 

Pastor Samuel Abbel

 
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Posted by on February 1, 2020 in image

 

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Sermon 143 – Which Jesus do you really serve?

09 Jan

Wild Grapes

2 Corinthians 11:4 talks about ‘another Jesus’. Most Christians ignorantly serve the wrong Jesus. They appear to worship the same Jesus, but like King Saul, they’re deceived by their own goodness, they worship the work of their own hands, skills and ability and inwardly think they are great (1 Samuel 15:17), and in the deception of their mind they become their own authority. God calls these people ‘wild grapes’ (Isaiah 5:2).

Wild grapes look like grapes and act like grapes but they’re deceptive, shrunken in size, thick skinned and taste less sweet or sour, and the vines can be invasive weeds.  Wild grapes are the saltless church. Wild grapes are the picture of the church that worships the wrong Jesus and takes advantage of what God offers. The Seed is sown but the lust of the flesh, the cares of the world, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life, chokes it (Mark 4:19).

The problem with the modern church is that the pastors practice the same deception (Jeremiah 12:10 & 50:6), so the people can’t trust the religious authorities and end up only trusting themselves and thus never know the truth about themselves, or God. The fake pastors are destroying the church.

Wise in own eyes

The instruction from the Word of God is … you shall not do whatever is right in your own eyes, Deuteronomy 12:8, Romans 12:16. Once you do that, you’ll interpret the Word of God according to how you see it, and you’ll be deceived. You’ll devalue the laws of God, and use the Word of God to justify your own ends. Contrary to the Word of God, you’ll follow the thinking of the majority and end up believing that homosexuality is normal, that women in leadership is right, that all religions lead to the same heaven, and that the earth is suffering because of climate change, instead of seeing that it’s man’s sin.

Most Christians I have counselled over the last 3 decades, believe they are good people serving a good God who will look after me and protect me and give me good things and meet my needs, and this is why they choose to serve Him. It’s really all for me and not for Him, but the fake Christian must deceive himself with the pretence that it’s not for one’s self. Their IMAGE is everything. They serve Him for reward.

Woe

The Word of God declares … Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight, Isaiah 5:21.

“Woe” is a bad consequence. ‘Woe’ means that if you choose to praise your own goodness and chase your own value and favour, devalue the laws of God, and disregard the warnings from true prophets of God, you will ultimately earn grief, misery and calamity, even though you worship God. Anyone who thinks they’re good and ultimately expects good, will end up in ‘woe’.

Woe means …

‘Woe’ means that eventually, women and children will rule over the men, Isaiah 3:4, 12, 1 Timothy 2:11,12.

‘Woe’ means that children will disrespect their parents and authority, Isaiah 3:5.

“Woe’ means that eventually God will punish a Christian nation that tolerates and begins to worship foreign gods.

‘Woe’ means that God will punish with calamity any nation that calls homosexuality, divorce, abortion or sex-change, or foreign religions, good. It’s blasphemy & defamatory to call evil, ‘good’, when God labels it ‘evil’.

‘Woe’ means that eventually a foreign evil nation will rule over you.

‘Woe’ means that God will remove His hedge of protection and expose you to Satan’s evil, Isaiah 4:5.

‘Woe’ means there are repercussions for calling sin (e.g. adultery, sexual affairs, pornography, abortions, clairvoyants, divorce, homosexuality, hyper-violence, 1 Corinthians 6:9) good by making it legal or TV acceptable, or justify the wicked for reward especially in direct opposition to the righteous, Isaiah 5:23.

‘Woe’ means that God will shake terribly the earth, Isaiah 2:19.

‘Woe’ means there are consequences when you merchandise the Word of God.

‘Woe’ means fires, droughts, storms, earthquakes, climate change, pollution, foreign ownership, foreign dependence, sickness, disease, unemployment, domestic violence, excessive loneliness, homelessness, dysfunctional families, murders, authority disrespect, educational dysfunction, hospital over-crowding, civil war, political dysfunction, piles of excessive waste, excessive alcohol and drug abuse, wars and destruction.

Serving a False Jesus

One or more signs of serving a false Jesus …

  • Doesn’t like being corrected, but rather defends their reputation.
  • Worry about my image. Worry about what people think of me.
  • Measures success by ability or wealth, education or talent, and position.
  • Judges people from their own higher position.
  • Envies those who are higher up the totem pole.
  • Does what authority says as long as it’s what I think is right.
  • Likes to tell you what’s right because it knows.
  • Do good deeds to feel worthwhile and elevate my image, but believe I’m doing it because I care.
  • Think they’re good, and thinks that good works will get them to heaven.
  • Friends are those who listen and are empathetic to my hurts, agree with my opinion, and make me feel good and valued.
  • Expect God to bless me because I’m good.
  • Expects you to say sorry, too.
  • Believes that grace supersedes God’s Ten commandments.
  • Believes the blood of Christ saves us from the curse, and therefore, no bad should happen to us, and if it does happen to you, then you are in sin [John 9 contradicts this lie], but conveniently ignores the fact that the sweat of ‘work’ is part of the curse.
  • Believes that faith is evidenced by good things happening for me.
  • Believes that if something bad happens to you, then it’s evidence that God is punishing you for offending or challenging me.
  • Gets threatened, or offended, if you question their thinking.
  • Gets threatened, or offended, or mocks if you have sabbath on the seventh day (Saturday), even though God Himself did, and Jesus Himself did. [Genesis 2:2, Matthew 5:17-19)
  • Lives in fear, expressed by either cooperative submission, or on the other hand, intimidation.

Serving the True Jesus

Signs of serving the True Jesus …

  • Making myself of no reputation (Philippians 2:7). Defending God’s reputation.
  • Leaves God to be the judge by confidence in His judgment.
  • Knows that grace is the fruit of Faith, and the backbone to faith is God’s Ten commandments, Matthew 5:17-19 &.
  • Expect only God’s perfect plan and perfect will for my life, whether that be good or evil (like Job), blessing or suffering (like Jeremiah), for the glory of God (Habakkuk 3: 17,18).
  • Lives under the constant persecution of misjudgement and mocking by the world and fake Christians. The fake church brands those who value, respect and seek to live by the Ten Commandments as legalistic. A true Christian is a threat to the kingdom of Satan and is thus constantly under attack physically or emotionally for the Name of Christ, Revelation 12:17.
  • Has given up family and friends for the will of God first (Luke 14:26-33).
  • Correctable through respect of authority without a ‘but’, because it trusts God’s ultimate justice.

Marriage

When you marry, you make an oath to God … better or worse, rich or poor, in sickness or health, till death. How come when you marry Christ, you expect Him to only give you good? Only pride expects good because it thinks it’s good. Humility serves the will of God by faith in His “I AM”.

Examples of the True Jesus

  • Love is doing the will of the Father; not being nice to people, John 5:30
  • Saved Jacob and hated Esau, Romans 9:18
  • Gave a demonic spirit to King Saul
  • Destroyed the whole Egyptian army at the Red Sea
  • Enabled Judas to have the powers of the Holy Spirit
  • Called the Syrophoenician woman, a ‘dog’
  • Criticised Peter for not walking on water
  • Didn’t go to Lazarus’ funeral
  • Couldn’t do any mighty works in Nazareth
  • Destroyed the whole of humanity with a flood
  • Killed Ananias and Sapphira simply for lying
  • Made Rahab, the harlot, one of Joseph’s ancestors
  • Criticised and mocked the pharisees
  • Offended His followers by saying eat My body and drink My blood
  • Expects His disciples to be persecuted for his Name, 2 Timothy 3:12
  • Challenged a fake religious system

Who says God should do it the way I think is right?

Only those who are wise in their own eyes expect God to do it the way they see it. God doesn’t do things the way we think. He’s above our thinking and understanding. Diminishing the living eternal Creator to conform to my friendship rules and doing it the way I think is right, is arrogance and sheer pompousness.

Only pride expects good because it thinks it’s good. Humility serves the will of God by faith in Him, for better or worse.

The Truth, even though it’s not nice

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach, Proverbs 14:34, and brings woe.

They that forsake the law, praise the wicked: but those that keep the law contend with the wicked, Proverbs 28:4

The true church is called to separate from the false, 2 Timothy 3:5

 

May God open the eyes of his remnant to suffer for His Name and to conform only to His will for His kingdom.

 

Pastor Daniel Smithson

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2020 in Fake Christian

 

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