Sunday, June 5, 2016, 6:30 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Seek the Lord.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read 2 Corinthians 11 (Select vv. ESV).

Being Led Astray (vv. 1-6)

I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

When we trust in Jesus Christ to be Lord (master-owner) and Savior of our lives, we die with Christ to sin and self and we are resurrected with Christ to newness of life, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24). Jesus bought us back for God with his blood, shed on a cross for our sins, so our lives are no longer our own to be lived how we want. He died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; that we might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who gave his life up for us (1 Pet. 2:24; 2 Co. 5:15). He is our husband and we are his bride. We are to live our lives wholly devoted to him, and he is to be our only Lord. We are to have no other gods. And, we are to be faithful to him, not running after the gods of this world in order to satisfy the deep longings of our souls.

We serve a jealous God (See: 1 Co. 10:14-22; Jas. 4:4-5). He is jealous for us with a divine jealousy, which Paul also experienced for the believers in Christ. God knows what is best for us, which is himself, and which is living in freedom from slavery to sin, and it is walking in Christ’s holiness and in the Spirit of God. When we lived in slavery to sin, we were free from the control of righteousness (See: Ro. 6:1-23). But, now that we have been freed from sin, we are to come under the control of his righteousness, and we are to live holy lives, separate from (different, unlike) this sinful world because we are being made into the image of Christ. We should no longer conform our lives to the patterns and ways of this sinful world, but we should be living in surrender and in submission to God’s purposes and to his will for our lives. And, he is to be our only Lord (master-owner).

Yet, not many are teaching this type of teaching these days. The vast majority appear to be teaching a social gospel free from the cross of Christ in the lives of his followers. They encourage a prayer to receive Christ that has nothing to do with forsaking sin or living in holiness, and they tell their adherents that they don’t have to repent, and they don’t have to follow Jesus in obedience, and that they can continue in sin and still have the hope of heaven when they die. But, this is not the gospel according to Jesus and his NT apostles. It is a man-made gospel intended to appeal to human flesh that will not offend anyone, and that will make the gospel message more acceptable to the world, in order to gather followers for human businesses, called “church,” but not to gain true followers and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and self) and follow (obey) him. He said if we hold on to our old lives (of living for sin and self), we will lose them for eternity. But, if we lose our lives (die with Christ to sin), we will gain eternal life (Lu. 9:23-25). Paul reiterated this when he said that Jesus died that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us who walk (conduct our lives) not after the flesh, but according to the Spirit. He said if we walk after the flesh, we will die in our sins, but if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, we will live (See: Ro. 8:1-14; cf. Ro. 6:1-23; Eph. 4:17-24). John said that if we say we have fellowship with God but we walk in darkness (live sinful lifestyles), we are liars and the truth is not in us (1 Jn. 1:6).

So, don’t accept this social gospel which feeds you lies. Believe the word of God, and the teachings of Christ and that of his NT apostles, and walk in the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh, and you will live eternally with God!

Disguised as Apostles (vv. 12-15)

And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

There are many false teachers in today’s Christian church, especially within the institutional church here in America, which is incorporated as a business under the authority of the Federal Government of the USA. When the vast majority of church congregations here in America incorporated under the 501c3 not-for-profit under the authority of the USA government, they made the government the head over the church instead of Christ. They agreed to abide by the rules set forth by the government, by which the US government can dictate what can or cannot be preached from their pulpits. And, we are beginning to see that the tentacles of such a government’s control over the church here in America is spreading even further. I believe this was the plan from the beginning, back in the early 1950’s when the 501c3 was first proposed to the Christian church. And, it is all leading up to the rule of the beast over the apostate church, and to God’s judgments on such a church.

Again, we serve a jealous God. We were promised to one husband, Jesus Christ, not to Jesus Christ and the federal government of the USA. We can’t serve two masters. The church is a living organism with Christ as its head. It is not a business or a corporation of human-origin under the headship of the federal government. Thus, there is a distinction to be made between the institutional church, which is not the true church, and the body of Christ, which is the true church. They are not one and the same. As well, Jesus has promised judgment on this false church which has humans as its head in place of Christ, and which has deserted its first love, unless they repent of their spiritual adultery. And, he is calling out to his true church to come out from “Babylon,” and to be separate, so that we don’t share in her sins, for her sins are piled high to heaven (Rev. 18:4).

Many false teachers have come into the church, as well, some of whom I believe were generated by this unholy union with the federal government. And, some of these are on a national and even global level. They have taught pastors and church leaders in the ways of the world and of big business, and of marketing schemes and gimmicks used to attract the world to the church. Many church meetings are not about honoring God as holy or about walking in his holiness, but they are about entertaining the world with worldly means and methods, as well as they are about demoralizing the church so that it no longer walks according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh, in many, many cases.

So, the Lord Jesus is calling his church, his bride, back to himself in revival, for he wants to be her only Lord and husband, and her only head. He wants her to find her satisfaction in him, and in him alone, not in her “Egypt,” which she has turned to in place of Christ.

Seek the Lord / An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,
And your soul will delight in richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will live.
I have made an eternal covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all that I desire,
And achieve the goal I intend.
You will go in joy, and be led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into song… before you,
And all of the trees clap their hands.”

 
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