Truth will Set You Free Forever

Often people interpret what you say in their own frame of mind. If they are happy they will place a joyful frame of mind to what they read. They will put a positive spin on it. If they are angry people inside they will see everything as an attack or with wrong motives in other words a negative spin to it.

Selfish people will frame everything as foolish if it does not pertain to them or an attack if it corrects them even if their name is never mentioned.

We see this in the account of David with Nathan. Nathan told David the story of a man who stole another man's lamb. David was furious about the man who did this, but the story was about him. In David's case he was ashamed and repented, but in today's culture when we even so much as hint that someone did something disgraceful those hearing are not only not ashamed but angry that you might have meant them in your story.

The story of David taking another man's wife was in 2 Samuel 12. David was restored to a relationship with God by His deep sorrow over his sin against God. However, in our culture today most people become angry that you told the truth about them and will punish you for the rest of your life for not supporting their sin.

A born-again believer ought to be ashamed and confess when someone points out their sin, so why do so many defend their sin and punish the one who addresses it?

Because for two generations the church has been teaching false gospel that coddles the sinner and beats up on the truth-teller when sin is addressed.

The false gospel that God doesn't care about sin anymore is coming from the prosperity Pentecostals who love to elevate themselves as special instead of confronting their own sin.

How could anyone who is rational and reasonable believe sin was no longer important when Christ the Savior had to die to pay the penalty for it? It is irrational and unreasonable to think because Christ paid for sin with His blood it is alright to sin all we want and still be saved from hell.

Since God cared so much about sin that He gave His Son to pay for it we ought to understand that He hates sin as much as He always did and sent the Holy Spirit to help the one who has trusted in Him to be able to reject and hate sin as much as God does.

Romans 12:9 "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good."

There it is, we are to hate evil and when we hate something we avoid it, even run from it when it confronts us.

Proverbs 6:16-19

"There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers."

Those who say sin doesn't matter anymore are lying about God, about sin and about the ability of the Holy Spirit in believers to avoid sin. These people are sowing discord among the brethren.

Psalm 119:104

"Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."

1 John 3:9

"No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God."

Hebrews 10:26-31

"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

These are the people who claimed to be Christians but were never born again.

1 John 2:18-20 "18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us. 20You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.…"

Those who speak lies against the Word of God were never born again. There are many in the church today who claim Christianity but have never been born again. We know this because of the following passages.

Matthew 7:21-23 "Matthew 7:21-23

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’

23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I NEVER KNEW YOU; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’"

Acts 20:30

"Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth to draw away disciples after them."

We must be vigilant in remaining faithful to the Word of God. When we don't understand something don't go to others, because few can be trusted, God to Christ Who lives in you and He will give you the answer.

I have done this many times and some of those times it took a while for the answer to come. Once the answer was clear from the Holy Spirit there was no going back to the ways most Christians think. When God makes something clear it is embedded in our minds forever.

John 8:31-32

The Truth Will Set You Free

"31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Examine Ourselves to Grow in Holiness

I heard a newscast this morning that was evaluating the impact of social media on relationships.

The conclusion the "psychologist" was coming to was that social media was "making people more aggressive and less empathetic."

I disagreed with this assessment and believe all social media is doing is allowing people to be their real selves when they have no consequences for their attitudes and actions.

Nothing makes us become what we are not already on the inside. Our culture is becoming more tolerant of the natural bent to be selfish, mean and rude. Since there are no consequences for the natural bent toward self-love, many have become comfortable being their real selves when all they have to do is push the "delete" button when others call them to account for their rudeness or crassness.

There is an old saying; "Circumstances don't make the man they reveal the man."

If someone blows up in anger or snarks at a disagreement this is the evidence of arrogance and pride within the person that they were hiding all along.

Let us all evaluate our own hearts, pay attention to our responses to people and ask the Lord for cleansing when we act out in the flesh. Perhaps our own responses are coming from fleshly pride rather than godly evaluation of the circumstances.

Judging Others Based on Gossip

Christian narcissists are those who never get to know anyone but have many judgments about those they dislike. Their dislike is based on correction or disagreements. These people see disagreements as personal attacks worthy of retaliation. They see themselves as so special that anyone who does not agree with them will be their enemy.

Even if the only thing wrong is that these people are arrogant and self-righteous judging everything in those they don't like when they don't know the details and when the person they judge is not sinning but just different from them. These are self-righteous ones special in their own eyes.

Luke 18:9-14

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

"9 Now He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:

10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

11 The Pharisee stood and began praying this in regard to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, crooked, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’

13 But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to raise his eyes toward heaven, but was beating his chest, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’

14 I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Sadly many people in the pulpits today who are paid to be there have this superior attitude that since they were formally educated by men and paid to be the center of attention in the church, they should be treated more highly than anyone else.

I once heard a "pastor" say to someone that he needed to "protect his pulpit." There is no place in God's Word that says such a thing. No one man should be so powerful as to be in control of others. The Holy Spirit is the One Who is in control of every born again believer. Pastors who are not paid are there to guide and be an example, they have no authority over anyone and they have no pulpit.

It is human nature to elevate those who have been "formally educated" as though those men teaching them are higher than the Holy Spirit. No one can teach better than the Holy Spirit Who lives in every born again believer.

Those who tell the truth of God's Word are hated by those who think they are special and deserve heaven when all the fruit of the Spirit is missing in them.

When people can never tell on themselves but are continually judging others for things that are not sin, they are presuming they are above the Holy Spirit having all knowledge.

When we are walking with Christ the slightest thought that does not meet with God's standard is dealt with immediately. We confess a problem in the heart before it becomes an action.

Those who are not depending on the Holy Spirit will justify wrong attitudes by accusing others of causing them in us rather than being convicted to confess and be cleansed.

Those who do not confess regularly often regress and even become bitter in their walk, justifying every mean and sinful action as someone else's fault.

Those who listen to gossip love it because believing something about someone else that is distasteful makes them feel better about themselves.

No one is completely free from sin in their heart, we all have sin in the flesh that we must battle continually.

Galatians 5:16-18 "16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.…"

No one who is born again has reason to look down on anyone else over disagreements of differences that are not sin. We must be loving and tolerant of differences that are not sin as well as compassionate when someone has sinned and is confessing it to be cleansed.

Galatians 1:1-2 "1Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."