Reject the Lies

REJECT THE LIES

 

Rom.3: ⁹ What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

¹⁰ As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
¹¹ There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
¹² They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

The Roman Catholic Church is a religion that is fraught with falsehoods and even bizarre practices. But this present pope has already shown his damnable lies. In his recent sermon he said that even if atheists do good they are redeemed and will go to heaven. HERE is the link.

Most religious people believe that being a good person can secure you a place in heaven with God. They envision a kind of weighing your good against your bad and then hoping you are more good than bad. This is very common in the religious psyche. But that is religious thinking and not according to Scripture. In fact that is self righteous thinking as well. It minimizes the effect of sin and minimizes the holiness of God. If indeed it were true than why would Jesus have to die?

The entire mental construct of good outweighing the bad is a deception of the evil one. You see the devil loves religion. He rejoices in all the useless activity and moral crusades and denominations. While the church is consumed with prosperity and how to save your marriage and building large debt ridden buildings the devil is busy leading souls to hell. And of course he is also busy deceiving people into believing there is no eternal justice.

There is only one way to gain eternal life and that way is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That has nothing to do with how good or bad you have been. Nothing. The Scriptures declare us all unworthy and completely incapable of even presenting one righteous work of our own. Every good work we have done has been tainted by mixed motives and self righteousness. Before God we stand without a shred of holiness, and without holiness no man shall see God. We are in desperate need of something we can never have on our own. We need holiness and righteousness as well as forgiveness. Only Christ can give us what we need.

We are completely reliant on God’s Word for any truth pertaining to all things spiritual. It is true we can see the existence and power of the Creator just by observing His creation, but to understand His nature and our nature and the redemption of Christ must be ascertained through Scripture. Only God can reveal Himself to His creation. And He has chosen the miracle of Scripture through which to teach and instruct us about Him. It must have been an exceedingly difficult task just because the gulf between us and God is unfathomable. How does Einstein teach an ant the Theory of Relativity? You see?

And in addition to that great chasm of intellectual and spiritual capability there was still the matter of sin. But in the continuing display of God’s amazing grace, He gave us the Holy Spirit to teach us those Scriptural truths. But the miracle and even the mystery of it all is that God used the pens of sinful men with which to scribe His eternal Word. Please understand that the truths of God’s Word did not originate when men penned them in Scripture. God’s Word is eternal and is inherent in His very being. But God took His spirit Word and poured it into ink and paper and gave it to mankind. This, my friends, escapes the realm of human understanding and is fully and only comprehended in the realm of faith, which is another gift of God.

I do not believe that men cannot seek God. It is evident they do. I did. But that verse clearly reveals to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Many people have sought God in their own strength and with selfish motives. They hope to gain something here on earth, or they desire to appear spiritual to others. But without the Spirit using the gospel, God’s Word, sinners are bound to find a god of their own creation and not the God of Creation.

Matt.13: ⁴⁵ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:

⁴⁶ Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

What do men seek? That is a long, long list. Even within the church people seek for all sorts of things. They seek promotion within their firm. They seek good grades from their children. They seek a championship from the kids team. They seek to lose weight. They seek a new house. They seek all sorts of things. Well, how do we know they seek these things? Listen to them speak, and watch how much time and effort they put into these pursuits. What a man hungers after is what a man spends time and effort pursuing. What he truly desires is what he expends his time for.

So if a man was truly seeking the face of Christ and His glory he would be spending uncommon time in God’s Word and in deep prayer and maybe even fasting in order to crucify the flesh and allocate that eating time to this spiritual pursuit. There would be a passion about his schedule that would be overtly different than what the mainstream of church members were doing. But who do you know that you could point to and say that man is almost obsessed with spiritual things and he seeks the face of God with passion?

You see, the reason the man sought and bought the pearl of great price was because he believed it to be of great value. He was seeking goodly pearls but this pearl captured his life and he sold everything and bought it. The application is very obvious. What we truly value is what will consume us, and if it is money and comfort and success then our lives will be spent pursuing those things. And if so, then we will be found in the mainstream of evangelical life. But if we ever see Christ for who He is and much deeper than just within a systematic theology or a statement of faith, then perhaps we may be so capture by His glory and goodness and power and mystery that something deep within us changes. And if that change takes place through the ministry of the Spirit, then nothing can satisfy us but Christ.

And when I say “satisfy” I do not just mean for salvation. Yes, Jesus is the only way to redemption and eternal life. There is no other way. But once the Spirit has drawn us to Christ and we have been born again, is that where we resume our mundane lives? Is there something deeper and richer for the believer who will forsake all and follow Christ? Are there treasures beyond human understanding that will be showered upon that believer who will diligently seek Christ? And if that is so we must now ask the question, “Just what are we doing?” Let us not be satisfied with rebuking false teachers like Rob Bell, Rick Warren, and Pope Francis, but let us press hard after the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

 

But in these last days do not even entertain the deceptions that come forth from lying lips even though they claim to be Christian. Anyone who says that sinners can be saved without a personal faith in Jesus Christ is a liar and a heretic. Let God be true and every man a liar.