Loving Unrighteousness.

Blinded to truth because-- we don't want truth.  If you're reading this then the chances are you may be seeking the truth of our Lord and Savior and His salvation. However you may have just stumbled across this message and are reading it out of curiosity, with no thought for the truth of the matter. Truth is offered to all, but not all desire truth. Why wouldn't a person want the truth?

2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 

Having pleasure in unrighteousness.

Pleasure seekers, this is a term coined by society and accepted by society. Who doesn't want pleasure in their life? Isn't pleasure something we are taught to seek out. We are told to find pleasure where we can because life is hard.  And the truth is, the majority of unrighteousness can be pleasurable. If truth interferes in the things we find pleasurable, the chances are we may turn from the truth so we can keep our pleasures.

Psa 11:5  The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that LOVETH VIOLENCE his soul hateth. 

Psa 50:16  But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? 

Psa 50:17  Seeing thou HATEST INSTRUCTION, and CASTEST MY WORD BEHIND THEE. 

Psa 50:18  When thou SAWEST A THIEF, then THOU CONSENTEDST WITH HIM, and hast been PARTAKERS WITH ADULTERERS. 

Psa 50:19  Thou givest thy MOUTH TO EVIL, and thy TONGUE FRAMETH DECEIT. 

Psa 50:20  Thou sittest and SPEAKEST AGAINST THY BROTHER; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. 

Psa 50:21  These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. 

Psa 52:3  Thou LOVEST EVIL MORE THAN GOOD AND LYING RATHER THAN TO SPEAK RIGHTEOUSNESS. Selah. 

Psa 52:4  Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. 

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT BECAUSE THEIR DEEDS WERE EVIL. 

Joh 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 

Joh 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 

Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 

Rom 1:23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 

Rom 1:24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 

Rom 1:25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 

Rom 1:26  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 

Rom 1:27  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 

Rom 1:28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 

Rom 1:29  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 

Rom 1:30  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 

Rom 1:31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 

Rom 1:32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. 

Rom 2:8  But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 

Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 

Rom 12:9  Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 

2Pe 2:13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 

2Pe 2:14  Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 

2Pe 2:15  Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness

3Jn 1:11  Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. 

When we do not want truth, we need to ask ourselves why. When others do not want truth we can comprehend why, God tells us why.

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Rom 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 

Rom 11:6  And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. 

Rom 11:7  What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded 

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. 

Rom 11:9  And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: 

Rom 11:10  Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. 

The rest were blinded. WE are allowed to remain blind because we DESIRE blindness. God does not take a truthseeker and blind him to the truth, but God will allow one who loves  unrighteousness and all that entails to be blinded. If God is allowing blindness, it is because it is desired. If we, want to be among the elect remnant of God we need to desire the truth and to desire it above all else. If we note the unrighteousness in ourselves and desire to keep that righteousness, then we are inviting deception and seeking to be blinded to the truth.  We can't allow ourselves to pretend we want truth, when secretly we only want unrighteousness, God knows our hearts.  If we want truth it will be given to us and once we have the truth, we will tend to stand out from others because unrighteousness has become acceptable and we will not join ourselves to the unrighteous that is now called good.

Isa_5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

We live in a world of evil and yet we can't asked to be taken out of this world, but rather that we are kept from evil.

Joh 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 

May this prayer of Jesus for us to the Heavenly Father be granted! May we be kept from the evil.

All in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, now and forever!

A Remnant.

Rom 11:1  I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 

Rom 11:2  God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, 

Rom 11:3  Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. 

Rom 11:4  But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 

Rom 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 

Elijah- a prophet of God spoke to God and said that the enemies of God had killed all the other prophets of His, that He was alone, the last, the only prophet left and his life was at stake. This was the perception Elijah had from his point of view. Yes, prophets had been slain--

1Ki 18:4  For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) 

--but Elijah had no way of knowing how many prophets God had alive at any given time. Still, because he was frightened for his own life, he sent a plea to God. He told God he alone was left and his enemy sought to kill him, the last one.  God's reply wasn't what Elijah expected. Go had reserved seven thousand men who did not worship Baal.  Seven thousand! Here he was thinking he was alone in his dedication, his faith, his love of God, but he was far from alone. Seven thousand men served God, that was a whole lot of people serving God.  Paul, speaking of the Israelites- those stemming from the bloodline of Abraham- used this example to point out right then and there that there was ALSO a people, a remnant left of those of Abraham's bloodline who belonged to God through the grace of Jesus Christ.  It might seems as if the whole of Israelites other than the few such as Paul, himself and the other apostles, that there were very few who believed in Jesus, and salvation found in Him, but there were many more.

We truly need to remember God's ways are not our ways, God's thoughts are not our thoughts.

Isa_55:9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

According to the election of grace there were a remnant left that belonged to God.

While people might want to doubt there are any believing in the truth of the Savior unto salvation, because this world is so awful and it is so hard to walk in the Spirit-- God has a people reserved, a remnant that belong to Him. We can only hope and pray that we are among those of the remnant.  We long to belong to God!

The Preaching of the Word of God- Foolishness?

Rom 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

Hearing the word of God will increase our faith. Seriously. We pray for faith, we pray to believe, we want more faith and yet we ignore the very thing that can ignite the faith within us- the Word of God.

The precious word of God. The powerful word of God. If it were not so powerful would Satan have tried so hard to rid the world of it? And when he failed at that endeavor and the word of God spread far and wide, many believed and so what did he do next? When Satan realized there was no hiding God's word from people he changed tactics and made it readily available to the masses in the most advance societies in the world. Once it became readily available it began to lose its appeal as a forbidden book. People not only have one but several Bibles in a single home and yet they lay largely unutilized. In some countries where it is still illegal to own the Bible, people hide them, they sneak bits and pieces of them and live in fear of being found out. Most of us can't imagine that. Is there a single person who has access to a computer and has somehow been able to find this Bible study in a country that forbids Bibles? If so, may God bless them with a very special blessing increasing their faith a hundredfold. We need to hear the word, and our faith needs to be increased.

I doubt very highly anyone who isn't interested in God and faith is reading this right now, yet we need the knowledge of them too don't we?

1Co 1:18  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 

The word of God is FOOLISHNESS to those who perish. The word of God is the preaching of the cross, it is the message of salvation, it is grace through the sacrifice of our Savior, it is the knowledge gained through the truth. We find the truth in the word of God, yet those who do NOT care about the word of God are among those who will perish.
 

If you do NOT care for the word of God, if you care but do not read the word of God even though you care about it, how will you truly grow in faith? Faith comes by the word of God. If you don't care if you perish or not, you probably aren't even reading this. 

1Co 1:19  For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 

1Co 1:20  Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 

1Co 1:21  For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 

It pleased God --- by the foolishness of preaching -- to save them that believe.

The foolishness of preaching.   The word of God given to people. So many people have access to the word of God, so few have any excuse not to hear the word of God.

1Co 1:22  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 

1Co 1:23  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 

1Co 1:24  But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

The word of God is CHRIST CRUCIFIED- CHRIST the POWER of GOD, the WISDOM of God.

What an amazing treasure we have at our fingertips! Please Lord, please help us to seek Your Word, the Word of GOD. 

Believe with our hearts, confess with our mouth- Jesus Christ.

Rom 10:8  But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 

Rom 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 

Rom 10:10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

Rom 10:11  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 

BELIEVE.

The word is in our MOUTHS, we CONFESS, we are NOT ashamed.

The word is in our HEARTS, faith is in our HEARTS,  we believe with our HEARTS.

If what comes out of our mouth is from our hearts then we must CONFESS Jesus Christ as our LORD and SAVIOR. Our Lord- He rules over us. Our Savior- He saves us. We need to be ruled by Christ Jesus, we need to be saved by Christ Jesus. We have no righteousness of our own, but if we believe in our hearts of the righteousness of our Savior, we are believing unto our salvation. 

Christ is the end of the law- for us who believe.

Rom 10:1  Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 

Rom 10:2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 

Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.

Remember we talked about there being many laws? The people Israel, God's chosen were used to a lot of ceremonial laws, their lives revolved around these laws. Their way to God as through these laws and they knew nothing else. They didn't want their ceremonies taken away, they didn't want their way to God taken from them and they were too spiritually blind to take the leap of faith necessary to believe that Jesus Christ was in fact the way to God the Father. Christ as their sacrifice, Christ, the Son of God the Father, His death was the ULTIMATE sacrifice. Instead of placing their faith in the death of an animal upon which they'd place their sins through the rituals of the Priests, they were being told they'd have to place their faith on the death of God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. They were being told the Priests were no longer necessary to go between them and God, Jesus would stand before God for them and they had to believe this! Faith in Christ as their righteousness.

Today we need to do the same, we need to place our faith in Christ and no other.

Our lives are dependent upon our Savior's love, His grace, His mercy.

Christ is my righteousness.

Christ is your righteousness.

Christ Jesus our Lord He is our law and IN Him, THROUGH Him, the law is kept perfectly.

Believing.

Joh 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Believing.

Faith.

We believe- Help Our Unbelief!  -- My prayer!

Christ OUR Righteousness.

Rom 10:1  Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 

Rom 10:2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 

Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 

How many of us have a ZEAL for God, but NOT according to knowledge? How many of us establish our own way of righteousness, ignoring the truth of the righteousness found only in God through Jesus Christ? People don't generally want to submit themselves to anyone, including God.  The righteousness of God is Jesus Christ.

2Pe_1:1  Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ

Rom 3:21  But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 

Rom 3:22  Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 

Rom 3:24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 

Rom 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 

Rom 3:26  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 

Christ's righteousness SAVES US and nothing more. Not a single law saves us. Not a single good work saves us. Not one tiny bit of our own right doing saves us. WE CANNOT save ourselves!!!!!!!

Yet we set up so many boundaries and fear if we step out of those boundaries we are no longer saved.  How can we have it both ways? How can we believe in Jesus to save us, and still try to save ourselves in ways other than believing in our Savior to save us?

Setting up laws, laws given by God and taking those laws and twisting them so much we can't listen to God any longer leaves us where? When you take something someone has given you and make it your own, it is no longer truly what you were given. If you were to give it back you would be giving back something different, not something the same. God gave His laws for a purpose- ceremonial, dietary, moral, laws for so many things from day to day living, to many happenstances in the lives of people. God gave these laws and He did so for a reason. People were so incredibly far from God when He gave Moses what he needed to get His chosen free from slavery. They needed to know God, the love of God. Over many hundreds of years they took those laws and gradually altered them in subtle ways. They took the love of God out of the laws entirely. They lost sight of God's prophets and the prophecies they gave for the future. And when Jesus came, the very righteousness of all things, the complete embodiment of the law, they were not prepared to receive Him, in fact they held fast to their own righteousness and they found that righteousness in keeping all the laws to the letter. Laws they'd changed to suit themselves. They couldn't take that leap of faith necessary to believe.

Faith in Jesus Christ to be our righteousness, it isn't easy to fully believe it because we want to have a hand in our own salvation.

More on all of this tomorrow by the GRACE and MERCY of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!!

The Lord is Not Slack Concerning His Promise.

Rom 9:28  For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. 

Truly it is a short work that the Lord is making upon earth.

We NEED to remember that our HEAVENLY FATHER is NOT a human being! God's time is not our time. We have a CREATOR, and our Creator is so incredible wondrous that for us to try and bring God down to our level is preposterous. What I mean is, the mere thought of ETERNITY to us is something unfathomable. We put a timetable on everything around us- right or wrong in our methods we do this and we even date the earth scientifically, and we date all sorts of things. We've even come up with a time for the Sun itself to burn out- the date is so far in the future no one here and now is concerned at all, none of us will be here in five billion years, right? We are more focused on burning up our own planet, or rather letting global warming destroy it bit by bit. The thing is, so many want to take God out of everything that those who do bring God into their lives are still tempted to put them on their own time. It's so easy to forget this--

2Pe 3:8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 

ONE DAY… you know what a single day is, a rather short period of time in the scheme of things. Our years are 365 days. But to the Lord ONE THOUSAND YEARS - if we take our count for a year that's- 365,000 days- is but a SINGLE DAY to the LORD!  How incredible is this? Putting this into a tiny bit of perspective- if a person lives to the age of 72, they've lived approximately 26,280 days. 

When we really comprehend to the best of our finite ability that one day is as a thousand years, and  a thousand years as one day with the LORD, then we have to believe that the LORD is NOT slack concerning His promise to redeem us.

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 

The Lord IS making a short work on upon the earth.

In the face of eternity- our idea of time is lost.

We long for the Lord to return, we long for the Lord's will to be done in all things.  And while it may not seem short to us whose life spans are truly short, the Lord is making a short work of things and HE WILL return, make NO mistake about it, none!

You can't take prophecy and follow it through the years and then suddenly say the rest of the prophecy doesn’t matter and won't come to pass. You are being delusional if you think that is the way of things. The sad thing is, too many people aren't aware of histories prophecies that have come to pass over the last six thousand years. Too many people don't WANT to learn either. When you are face to face with the truth, it can be very frightening because it will rock your whole world and cause you to comprehend things that you never have before.

May God help us to seek TRUTH, all of HIS TRUTH and realize the times we are living in, knowing that one day every single prophecy will have been fulfilled and those who are the LORD'S will live on into eternity with our Father God, our Redeemer Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit!

All in the name of our SAVIOR, now and FOREVER!