Cheap Grace

Cheap Grace

By Richard Maffeo

 

https://youtu.be/NbuM8ReO3d8

 

We embark today on a series of messages I preached 18 months ago, during the summer of 2019. I feel it important to revisit those messages, especially now. Those who were here last week will remember I spoke of the soon return of Jesus, and how Christians must prepare ourselves for persecution.

 

The subject of preparation is far too vast to adequately cover in just one message, and so I will spend the next several weeks focusing on God’s provision for us in the darkening days in which we now live.

 

Some time ago I read a story about a pastor who received a call from a funeral home director. The man asked the pastor if he would please speak at the graveside of a young man who’d recently died. The director told the pastor, “You’re my last hope. All the other pastors I’ve called have declined."

 

When this minister asked why they’d declined, he was told that the deceased had died of HIV/AIDS.

 

When the pastor arrived at the funeral home, he discovered that the attendees were all men, and he realized many, if not all of them, were gay.

When he finished his words in the pouring rain at the gravesite, the men stayed and asked if he would read various Bible verses which they’d remembered from their childhood. Nearly two hours later, the men thanked him and said it was the first time they could hear Bible verses without a sermon of condemnation accompanying it.

 

I understood his point about story’s point about the pastor’s kindness in reading the men’s favorite childhood passages. But it appeared from the story that that is all the pastor did.

 

And THAT is the problem in a growing number of churches today. Clergy quote the happy verses and ignore the judgment verses. They give people false and damning hope by focusing exclusively on what people want to hear and not what they need to hear.

 

To do that is NOT an expression of Christ's love, who calls all men and women to repentance, to turn from their sins and live holy lives. What we do – what priests and bishops and teachers and other church leaders who do what this pastor did – what they do is help the sinner go happily on his or her way to an eternal hell.  That is certainly one reason the Holy Spirit impelled Paul to write these words to young and timid Timothy:

 

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4)

The Lord Jesus warns us that the path that leads to life is a very narrow one, and consequently, only a few find it. But the road that leads to an eternal hell is a broad one – and lots of people are on that road.

Part of the reason so many travel that broad road is that they hear from pulpits and read in so-called Christian books what is known as cheap grace. Cheap grace is based on a cross-less Christianity, a Christianity exclusively focused on God’s love and rarely if ever on His multiple warnings and examples of His justice and His judgement.

At the end of the 19th century, William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army warned of cheap grace this way:  “The chief dangers which will confront the coming [20^th] century will be religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.”

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Bonhoeffer referred to 'cheap grace this way: “Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

I will add, cheap grace is when people call Jesus their savior, but they do not follow Jesus as their Lord of life and lifestyle. Cheap grace is that grace which costs us little, or nothing. It allows us to go to church, to sing, to read, to kneel, to stand, to receive Holy Communion – but there remains no change of heart, no inner conviction by the Holy Spirit, a demand of conscience toward full and undiluted obedience to the message of the Scriptures.

Cheap grace tells us that as long as we make a profession of faith, we are saved. But salvation is so much more than simply mouthing the words “Jesus is Lord.” It is so much more than being baptized. It is so much more than praying the Sinner’s Prayer or signing a book or walking an aisle.

We are saved by a living and active faith that manifests itself in repentance, obedience, and love for God and our neighbor. As the Lord Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” And there is good reason the apostle Paul, in his letter to Titus, refers to good works no less than six times in those three short chapters.

 

Remember too, holiness itself is a manifestation of our faith and obedience to God. Living a life of holiness is a work to imitate Jesus Christ – and if anyone doesn’t think THAT is a work – to imitate Christ, then they’ve never tried it. Holiness means putting on Christ, living as Christ – in growing obedience to the Father’s commandments.

 

Hear what the apostle John wrote: “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:3-4)

 

In fact, this is one of the verses I often quote to people who excuse themselves from being a Christian because of hypocritical church-goers. Yes, I tell them, such hypocrites are liars who may fool themselves, but they do not fool the Great Judge. Furthermore, such hypocrites in the pew and in the pulpit are nothing less than Satan’s Fifth Column in the ranks of the Church.

 

For those of you who do not know about fifth columns, a fifth column is a group of people within a larger group and who undermine the larger group from within. The activities of a fifth column are often secretive, clandestine, and involve in sabotage and disinformation with the ultimate goal of destroying the larger group.

 

Satan’s Fifth Column dates back easily to the first century. St. Paul talked about them in his second letter to the church at Corinth: 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

 

God help us to not fall prey to the fifth columns in our political and educational structures – and even in some of our churches!  Like pastors and priests and other church leaders who tell people what they want to hear and not what they NEED to hear. Who walk arm in arm with those who persist in living in sin and calling it normal, who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and bitter for sweet.

 

Do you think that is not happening in many of our churches across America today?  Then you are not paying attention.

 

And oh, Lord! Keep us all here from becoming ourselves fifth columns, spreading that scandalous heresy of cheap grace, teaching others and being content ourselves with a one-time confession of faith, but never praying and agonizing to make Jesus not only our savior, but our full-time, and all the time Lord, King, Ruler, Master over every nook and cranny and corner of our life. Oh God!  Please help us! Please shake us up. Please remove the chaff from our hearts that we may live fruitfully for you, bringing honor and glory always to you.

 

Salvation is not a transaction; it’s a transformation. Here is what the Holy Spirit tells us through St. Paul:

 

“I beseech you, therefore brethren, but the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living and HOLY sacrifice to God which is your reasonable service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind . . . . (Romans 12:1-2)

 

As I prepared this message, I thought of an incident I had years ago with a spider’s web. I didn’t see the web until I nearly ran into it. The thing was virtually invisible. If sunlight hadn’t suddenly glistened off its strands, I would have walked right into it. So, there I stood, inches from the biggest, ugliest, hairiest spider I’d ever seen. I was glad I wasn’t a hapless bug flitting through the air, totally clueless about the spider’s trap in front of me.

 

But like a spider’s web, in the world of the supernatural, Satan’s subtleties are often invisible to the natural eye – which is why it’s so incredibly easy to get caught in his web. And most of the time we don’t even realize we’re in his web until he has devoured our health, wealth, homes, and families.

 

Sometimes even our lives.

There is no better way, there is no surer way, to avoid Satan’s web than to see the light of God’s word glisten off its strands as a warning: Danger! Don’t go any further.

That’s why the Lord Jesus, I am sure, said this during His Sermon on the Mount: (Matthew 7:24ff) “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Whether or not we obey the prophets and the historic exhortation of the Christian Church, each of which exhort us to know God’s word, Satan remains patiently waiting in his web. Problem is, we won’t see it unless God’s light glistens off the web.

So, what will we each do with this message? I hope at least five things:

 

1. Pray that the Holy Spirit will give to you a hunger to obey God in every nook and cranny and corner of your life. The grace of God that sent Jesus to pay the penalty our sins deserved was not cheap grace. That grace required of God an immeasurable cost. And our response to His grace must also cost US something – that being ever-growing obedience to His commandments, even and perhaps especially when we don’t want to obey.

 

2.  Be quick to repent and turn from your sins when the Holy Spirit gets your attention about something you have done or not done.

 

3. Determine again to faithfully read God’s word, to be single-minded in your pursuit of Christ and to seek godly and Christ-honoring teachers to answer your questions as you seek Him through His word.

 

4. Hide God’s word in your heart – even if it is a verse here and there. Hide it in your heart so you will know when the fifth columns all around us whisper their subtle lies in an attempt to sabotage your eternal soul.

 

5. And do not neglect the spiritual armor of God provides for our protection.

 

Spiritually dark days have fallen across our land and over the Church. That is why we will spend the next several weeks looking at that spiritual armor spoken of in Ephesians chapter six.

How Silly

 Nancy and I read the Psalms each evening. Last night we read this text in psalm 147:4-5: “[God] determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.”

We stopped reading for a moment. Think of it! Of the bazillion stars in the universe, God has given EACH ONE a name. That one over there is Jennifer. This one here is Juan. Those next to Juan are Chaim and Abby and Heather, and Ruth. 

 

Our God, whom Christians know as our Father, knows every single one of them and he follows their courses moment by moment through the universe.

 

And yet there is more. Much more.

 

Besides the stars flung into space, our Father is so intimate with you and me that He knows how many hairs on our head fall out each day, and how many grow back. He has them all numbered moment by moment.

 

Oh yes, God is the original, greatest, and limitless multitasker. And we wonder if God knows our name, and where we live, and what we need.

 

How silly.

 

Breaking Up the Fallow Ground

 My memory verse for this week is from Hosea 10:12, “Sow to yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he comes and rain righteousness upon you.”

The text is similar to Jeremiah 4:3 “For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.”

I wasn’t sure what fallow ground was, so I looked it up. It’s ground that hasn’t been plowed or planted for a while. Consequently, the dirt becomes hard and often overgrown with weeds and thorns.

So before the farmer plants his seed, he must first break up the hard ground and get rid of the weeds and thorns. That might remind you of the Parable of the Sower which the Lord spoke to His disciples. Here it is from Mark’s gospel:

“Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mark 4:3-9)

If it has been a while since you read the parable, I hope you will read the Lord’s explanation of it in verses 14-20 in that 4th chapter. But the section that caught my attention most of all were these verses related to fallow ground and weeds and thorns:

“And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

As I worked to commit the verse in Hosea to memory, I wondered what are the weeds and thorns in my life? Where has my soil become hardened against the promises, exhortations, and warnings of Scripture? What attitudes do I need to ask the Holy Spirit to dig up and cast from my heart that make me unfruitful for the Master?

It is surprisingly easy for my soil to become hard and overgrown with weeds.

Don't Confuse the Two

 Mom married Tommy Maffeo when I was twelve. He soon adopted me and my sister. That’s how I got my last name.

Tommy hated God. I never knew it because God was rarely mentioned in our home anyway. It wasn’t until I met Jesus in 1972 that I learned not to talk to him about my faith. I’d tried it two or three times and was quickly and severely rebuffed. My father made it very clear he had no use for religion.

 

I never understood his animosity toward the One I’d grown to love, until I asked my mother for some insight.

 

Tommy and his brothers and sisters were raised in the Catholic Church. The whole family faithfully attended Mass and supported their local diocese. But when his saintly mother – who raised six children virtually single-handedly – when she died suddenly, she was unable to receive the Sacrament of Viaticum (the Last Rites). In those days, without the Last Rites, their bishop would not permit her to be buried in a Catholic cemetery – a place considered by every Catholic of the era as ‘Sacred Ground.’

 

Oh, how that devastated the family. It slashed so deeply into their psyche that every one of the children – four sons and two daughters – left the Church. Tragically, in leaving the Church, they also left God because they so closely associated God and their Church so as to be one and the same.

 

When the bishop refused their saintly mother to be interred in sacred ground, Tom and his siblings consciously or unconsciously transferred their anger against the Church to the One who had nothing to do with the bishop’s merciless decision.

 

When Tommy died several decades later, he died still bitter and angry at God. He had lived his life convinced that God had refused a proper burial for his beloved mother.

 

Oh, if only he could have understood that God is NOT synonymous with the church, whatever its label. And we must never confuse the two. The church is led by and comprised of sinful humans who sometimes make very bad decisions. But God is not that way. He is pure love, and mercy, and compassion, and full of forgiveness to any penitent.

 

Do you know people who have turned from God’s unfathomable love because of a gut-wrenching experience with the Church – any church?  Are YOU such a person? I still grieve for my father because he never knew how much his Father in heaven longed to embrace him and soothe his wounded spirit.

 

But, now to the real point of my essay:

 

If YOU are like Tommy, I pray right now as I type these words that your family and friends will not grieve for you because you never came to know how much YOUR Father in heaven longs to embrace and soothe your wounded spirit. And please know this: This God who loves you without measure is only a prayer away.

Be Pepared

 You can listen to this message on YouTube: https://youtu.be/z1POQPtIW2o

 

“Therefore, be on the alert—for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening, at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— in case he should come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you I say to all, ‘Be on the alert!’” (Mark 13:35-37)

 

The title of my message today is, Be Prepared. This is as important a message as I have ever preached. It is as necessary and timely a message as I have ever preached.

First, I want to say I am not a prophet. I do not have any special knowledge or insight into the future.  But because I see things occurring in our country, and because I have some knowledge of end time Bible prophecy – limited as my knowledge is – I feel it important to bring you this message today.

I believe we are living in the last hours of the last days before Jesus returns. Societal, cultural, technological, and political changes are occurring at such breakneck speed, I cannot hardly take it all in.

Each of these changes, when viewed separately, can easily be interpreted by those knowledgeable about Bible prophecy as pointing to the fulfillment of end-time prophecy. But when taken TOGETHER, they form for me an unmistakable pattern of prophetic unfolding.

And because I feel an urgency about the times in which we are living, I am compelled to bring you this message today.

Several days ago, I read a report on Breitbart News of a Catholic Cardinal from Mexico who is warning his flock about what he considers a rapidly approaching ‘New World Order’ under the guise of the global pandemic restrictions.

He said global government and business leaders want a great ‘reset’ as they call it, a reset that will ultimately lead to a single world government, with a single currency and economy. And they want a single religion, that will certainly NOT be Christianity.

He said this pandemic is being used to impoverish nations and destroy their economies. The pandemic is also being used to close churches and limit the number of people who can worship. But above all, political leaders are using the pandemic to create terrible fear among the people.

And when people live with fear they can be more easily led as sheep.

I believe the Cardinal is recognizing a fulfillment of the prophecies spoken of in the books of Daniel, the Gospel apocalyptic chapters, and the book of Revelation.

Listen to this section from the 13th chapter of the Book of Revelation. The chapter highlights the appearance in these last days of the unholy trinity of the Dragon (who is the devil) the Beast (the Antichrist), and the False Prophet, John tells us:

“And the dragon (the devil, see Revelation 12:9) stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast (the Antichrist) coming up out of the sea . . . And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority . . . It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.  . . . Then I saw another beast (i.e. the false prophet) the coming up out of the earth . . . He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform . . .  And he causes all, the small and  the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

What Americans have recently witnessed regarding massive censorship of speech and the ominous restrictions on businesses and even family gatherings are only the beginning of what we will endure as the months move on. We only have to look at the history of fascism, Nazism, and communism to recognize where this is all headed.

Here is a headline from a January 15th Breitbart report: Big Tech Coalition is Developing a Digital COVID Vaccination Passport.”  The gist of the story is that once that digital passport is developed, people will be unable to travel, and perhaps enter stores and malls and other places without proof that they have been vaccinated against the COVID virus.

 

And Christians STILL think we are not within whispering distance of Revelation 13?

 

Okay, and that is enough of the bad news. My purpose today is not to generate paralyzing fear in our hearts. My sole purpose is to remind us of the LIGHT. It is in that LIGHT alone that we find direction, comfort, and assurance of ultimate victory.

 

So, how then shall we prepare ourselves for possible persecution in these last moments of these last days?  I want to recommend to you three preparations we need to make before such things happen: 1) Know Jesus. 2) Know your Bible. 3) Know you are saved.

 

Number one. Know Jesus. Every so often I see a bumper sticker with this message: No Jesus, No Peace. Know Jesus, Know Peace.

It’s a simple message. If we know Jesus – really KNOW HIM, and not just know about Him, then we will have peace. But if we have NO Jesus, then we will not have the peace in dark days, a peace that He promises passes all understanding.

And let none of us EVER be content to think we know Jesus well enough. That kind of hubris will get us nothing but trouble. Even the great apostle Paul felt as if he didn’t know Jesus as he wanted to know Him. Here is what he wrote to the Christians at Philippi:

I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. (3:8-10)

I hope you caught that. The great St. Paul cried out: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

My brothers and sisters in Christ – prepare for the persecution by learning to know Jesus as your best Friend. Know Him as your most intimate lover. Ask the Holy Spirit to burn into your soul these truths:

He promised to never turn away from you, to never leave you. NEVER. He will ALWAYS feed His flock like a good shepherd. He will gather the lambs in His arm and carry them in His bosom. And oh! He will gently lead the nursing ewes (Isaiah 40:11) – even through the storms that are gathering.

Seek to know Jesus. Pray that the Holy Spirit will supernaturally enlighten your heart to know Jesus in the depths of your soul as your Savior, as your champion who RESCUED you from the clutches of the prince of darkness – and who CONTINUES to guard you with His omniscient eye and omnipotent arm.

Know Jesus in His majesty and power to protect. John gives us this description of Jesus in that first chapter of Revelation: His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. (Revelation 1:14-17)

If that image speaks of ANYTHING it speaks of Jesus’ unspeakable purity, His fiery holiness, and His inescapable judgment of the wicked.  He is majestic in His authority over every earthly authority. Isaiah tells us all of the nations of the world are as a speak of dust on God’s scales. (Isaiah 40:15) The psalmist tells us God derisively scoffs at the proud and arrogant world and national leaders who oppose His righteousness. (Psalm 2)

And Christian, THIS is your God and Father!

If we want to be better prepared for the dystopian society of the Antichrist – that society that may be within whispering distance of us – then we MUST KNOW JESUS better. And that will happen only through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit as we grow to know Jesus through His word. For good reason St. Jerome wisely noted: Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.

Which brings us to the second principle of preparation: We must know the Scriptures better. I am NOT talking here of intellectual knowledge of the Bible.

The Pharisees and Sadducees knew the word of God inside and out. But their knowledge didn't change their hearts, and so they crucified the Word made flesh. 

More currently, did you know Nikita Khrushchev, the blood-thirsty leader of the Soviet Union, memorized each of the four gospels as a child? But the message of Bible never moved from his head to his heart. Khrushchev prided himself on the scorn he had for God. After rising to power, he was a worse scourge to Christians than even Stalin.

It didn’t matter that Khrushchev had memorized large portions of the Bible. He died a militant atheist, never allowing the Word of God he’d memorized to change his life.

There is an eternally wide chasm between a simple academic knowledge of the Bible and a heart saturated with a love for the Bible and for the God of the Bible.

Let us not simply read and memorize Scriptures but ask the Holy Spirit to nourish and feed our souls with His supernatural word until it become to us “sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalms 19:10).

Do we have time during our days to watch the television, or read the newspaper, or play board games, or bingo, or any of the other activities that fill our time? Then we have time to read the Bible. I’ve said it dozens of times before, it takes only a few minutes – ten minutes or less – to read a few chapters of Scripture AND reflect on its message.  And how long does it take to select a verse or two – ONLY a verse or two – each WEEK to commit to memory?

 What will happen to our faith if we no longer have access to a Bible because of a widespread persecution of Christians? The time to start reading AND memorizing Scripture is NOT when we no longer have access to a Bible.

Which now brings us to the third principle of preparation for dark days of persecution. In addition to knowing Jesus and knowing the Scriptures – KNOW for certain that because of your OBEDIENT faith in Christ’s atonement for your sins, KNOW you ARE saved.

I routinely meet Christians who tell me no one can be sure of their salvation. And I wonder, what Bible are they reading? Here are only a few of God’s PROMISES to anyone who comes to Christ for salvation and lives obediently to Him:

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

John 6:37 Jesus said, “The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” 

1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Ephesians 2:4,5, 8-9 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ . . . For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” 

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified (declared by God as guiltless) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Romans 5:9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”

I could cite for the next hour Scripture after Scripture in which God assures anyone who trusts AND obeys Christ, that person is saved. When God tells us we are saved, we need to stop arguing with Him.

Let me stop a moment and comment about obedience to Christ. The Bible is quite clear regarding God’s definition of sin – which is usually foreign to our culture’s definition of sin. If we are living a lifestyle of sin of any kind, or if we refuse to forgive others their offenses against us, then we have no right to presume we are saved.

But if we practice, to the best of our frail human abilities, a lifestyle of godliness, confessing and repenting of sin as often as we are made aware of our sins, then God promises us His mercy to forgive us our sins and make us to stand before Him cleansed by the precious and sacrificial blood of Jesus.

This is a critical point. When we face persecution, even to the point of death, if we do not have the assurance that God will bring us safely to His kingdom, if we are not CERTAIN that we are saved, then the devil will slip his lies through that huge chink in our spiritual armor.

But if we are sure that we are sure that we are saved, then even if we come face to face with Satan himself, we will stand firm against all his lies. I think now of that text in Revelation 12 where we are told Christ’s servants overcame Satan himself “because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. 

As we enter 2021 and the troubles that may come to us before next Christmas, keep at the forefront of your minds how to prepare for the coming persecution: Know Jesus Better. Know the Bible better. And know for certain you are a SAVED because of your obedient faith in Jesus’ blood sacrifice for your sins.

And if you have not yet done so, then today is the day to start that preparation.

 

Popular Erroneous Sayings

 “God helps those who help themselves.”

How often have you heard that maxim? Scores of times in your life, I bet. You might have used it yourself, and think it comes from the Bible.

But it does not.

Benjamin Franklin – who made no claim to be a Christian – wrote the fallacious text in his 1773 “Poor Richard” almanac. And the adage has been passed on as a Biblical truth ever since.

Scripture, however, tells it differently. It tells us God helps those who CANNOT help themselves. For example:

“Those who trust in themselves are fools.” (Proverbs 28:26)

“Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul. (Psalm 54:4)

“For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help, the afflicted also, and him who has no helper.” (Psalm 72:12)

“For You have been a defense for the helpless, A defense for the needy in his distress, A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat . . .” (Isaiah 25:4)

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6)

So, yes. Franklin was wrong.

There is another popular adage circulating among those who sit in pews and occupy pulpits, but that also has no basis in Scripture: “We are all God’s children.”

No, we are not.

We are all God’s creation – yes. But we are not all His children. For example, Scripture tells us:

“[Jesus] came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:11-13)

“But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9)

Jesus, speaking to the religious leaders: “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father . . ..” (John 8:44)

“The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. . . By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:8,10)

In other words, God tells us we are NOT all His children. We are either His through our faithful obedience to Jesus, or we are a child of the devil.

Scripture offers no third option.

The good news to that bad news is that no one needs to remain outside of God’s family. The Holy Spirit promises everyone: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved . . . For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9,13)

Have you called on the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved from a lifestyle of sin and an eternity away from His presence? Are you a child of God through your faithful obedience to Christ? He will help you when you realize you cannot help yourself.

And so, I urge you, please test every philosophy, idea, and popular saying against God’s inerrant word. It’s too easy to be deceived by Satan’s subtilties.