Beware of False Prophets

"The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The prophecies they gave you were false and misleading."

Lamentations 2:14 NIV

I can already anticipate some of the criticism I am going to get from posting this blog.

Q: Matthew 7:1 says we are commanded not to judge.

A: I believe that verse has been memorized by more people who are not followers of Jesus Christ than those that actually do follow Christ. This verse has been used to attempt to silence Christians and keep them from speaking out.

This verse does not tell people not to judge. It tells us not to use our personal views and opinions as the standard by which we judge. When we judge sin and immorality we are simply affirming what God has already judged.

Q: I am using a page that is dedicated to the advancement of the Gospel in order to push a political agenda.

A: The Gospel must impact every aspect of the believer's life, which includes politics. We are told by Jesus to 'render unto Ceasar that which is Ceasar's and to God what is God's' (Matthew 22:21). Even though we are citizens of the heavenly country, we are placed here on earth as stewards. As such we have civic duties which go beyond simply paying our taxes. We are called salt and light. Salt has an impact on how food tastes; we are to have an impact on our world.

Around the beginning of October there was an article published in The Christian Post entitled, "We Are Pro-life Evangelicals For Biden." Among those who signed this are John Huffman, Richard Foster, Jerushah Duford, Brenda Salter McNeil and John Perkins. The article urges evangelicals to support the Biden/Harris ticket and even provides a website where people can sign on their support. 

Their position is that while disagreeing on the Biden/Harris position on abortion they claim that other issues such as health care, climate change, poverty and racism are actually the more 'pro-life' issues that we Christians should be concerned about. The fact is, none of those issues really have anything to do with being pro-life and an honest look at those issues will demostrate that they have nothing to do with solving the actual issues but rather have been used as an excuse to advocate for more government control. 

What is particularly disturbing is the article goes beyond simply stating their position. They are actively urging other Christians to take their position and even SIGN the document.

Talk about a deal with the devil! They would do well to take to heart what Jesus said in Matthew 18:6:

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."

Jesus said it, not me.

I find it interesting that so many people take issue with President Trump's arrogance and recklessness yet cannot see the arrogance and recklessness of these 'leaders.'

Then we have John Piper weighing in with his opinion. He somehow equates President Trump's 'charactor flaws' with the policies of death and immorality of the left. I would like to ask Mr. Piper a few questions:

How do you feel about God calling King David a man after God's own heart? He had the same charactor flaws that Mr. Trump has, (or had) and beyond. What about when God commanded Elijah to anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi to be the next King. He was anything but a godly man. Talk about arrogant and reckless. The people knew it was him from a distance because of the way he drove his chariot. Yet God chose him to completely destroy the house of King Ahab. 

Can anyone say, "Drain the swamp?"

Here are some personal observations about President Trump. I lived in Palm Beach County, Florida for nearly 3 decades. Donald Trump was a household name. I had some friends who worked for Mr. Trump and I even did a small job in Maralago myself. To those who think he is arrogant, bombastic, and crass; he is NOTHING like he was before. I did not vote for him in 2016 because of what I knew about him. But I see someone who is remarkably different than he was before.

Maybe he has changed.

The United States of America is at a crossroads. We are in perhaps the most important election of our lifetime, maybe in our history. We have the choice in preserving our freedoms and our morals, or we can go down the road towards tyrranical socialism. To those who have been lifetime democrats, you need to understand. The democrat party is not the party of JFK. That party loved our country and what it stood for. The modern democrat party has been highjacked by the radical left who want to impose socialist totalitarianism on us. There are many fine people who still vote democrat who don't seem to realize that. As I write this I am in Williamsburg, Virginia. We visited the old Jamestown settlement and battlefield at Yorktown where this new nation won their independance. I was sobered by the fact that so much blood was shed in order to gain our freedom. I also think about the blood that has been shed since that battle at Yorktown in order to preserve our freedom. 

Are we so willing to give it up? Are Christian leaders willing to sell their souls to convince us to give them up?

Jesus warned us about false prophets in Matthew chapters 7 and 24. He didn't say there would be a handful of false prophets sprinkled in the multidude of true prophets. He said there would be MANY false prophets. Maybe there would be more false ones than true ones.

So how do we keep from being deceived?

Acts 17:11 gives us a fine example from the Bereans:

"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

If we are not searching the scriptures daily it is not a question of will we be deceived. It is a question of when and to what extent. 

Let us be people who search the scriptures diligently.

May God richly bless you all.

Why We Struggle With Strongholds

"But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."

James 1:14‭-‬15 NIV

"The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings."

Joshua 7:10‭-‬11 ESV

Imagine a general leading his troops to battle in a war. He makes his battle plans with his leading officers and then, to the general's dismay, they are defeated. This happens time and time again. 

One night he can't sleep and he leaves his tent to take a walk in the dim moonlight. As he is returning he notices a light on in the tent of one of his captains and sees the shape of a man crossing the clearing and entering the captain's tent. Out of curiosity he goes to the tent to see what is happening and to his shocked horror sees the captain, plans spread out, showing them to a man in a uniform of the enemy. 

His captain is a traitor. Now the general knows why they've been losing the war.

This is what a stronghold looks like. It is a traitor within us that causes us to keep losing the battles and unless we deal with it we will never have victory over whatever it is.

The traitor is our flesh. Our flesh desires to sin and will try to undermine us in our efforts to overcome sinful habits. Often our battle with sin looks like the general futily fighting the opposing enemy, while his traitorous captain is fighting for the enemy.

When we were saved we were given a new heart, (Ezekiel 36:26) and our minds are being renewed. (Ephesians 4:23: Romans 12:2) But our flesh is still the same flesh with all its sinful desires. Paul described it as a 'body of death' (Romans 7:24) 

Often we are fighting sin issues and strongholds just like a general going out to battle with a traitorous captain within our ranks. Until that general deals with this captain he is going to continue to suffer defeat. In the same way, if we don't deal with our sinful flesh we will continue to suffer defeat as well.

Where We Go Wrong

In Matthew 5 Jesus described the problem in the examples he gave about murder and adultery. Even if one can keep themselves from committing the actual acts themselves, the sin nature hasn't been cured. James explains it well in the above cited passage:

"But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

James 1:14‭-‬15 ESV

The real problem is our sinful flesh. But all too often we fight sin on the external levels -- 'If we can simply eliminate the thing that tempts us we would be fine.' But as James said, it's not the 'thing' that is the real issue. It is our sinful desires WITHIN US. And until we deal with that we will continue to be defeated.

Our flesh doesn't want us to have victory over sin.

Here's an illustration from a conversation I had over coffee years ago.

The gentleman told me about the struggle he had trying to quit smoking. He said he tried everything; the patch. nicorette gum, even hypnosis -- nothing worked. Then one day he went outside for a cigarette break, he put a cigarette in his mouth and was about to light it, but instead he tossed the cigarette, his lighter, and the rest of the pack into a nearby trash can and never smoked again. He then asked me if I knew what the difference was. I had no idea but he had my attention.

He continued, "Before that, I hated the effects of smoking. I hated the fact my breath and clothes stank. I hated the fact it was ruining my health. I hated the fact I couldn't break the habit. BUT I DIDN'T HATE SMOKING. But on that day, the idea that I was going to light that cancer stick and suck the smoke into my lungs absolutely repulsed me -- I NOW HATED SMOKING!"

He went on; "That's the reason we have such a hard time in our struggle with sin. We hate the effects of sin but we don't actually, truly hate the sin. We hate feeling guilty. We hate the fact we failed. We hate the fact we hurt our loved ones. We hate the fact we disappointed God (grieved the Holy Spirit). And we hate the fact that we don't have victory over the sin issues. BUT WE DON'T HATE THE SIN!"

The fact is, in our humaness, we won't do what we hate unless we are forced to.

Let's take the issue of pornography, something many men struggle with. Would men look at pornography if they hated it? No, of course not. Our flesh is drawn towarrd it. We hate the guilt we feel when we look at it. We hate what we are doing to our loved ones and the fact that we grieve the Holy Spirit when we parteke. But if we truly hated pornography we would not look at it unless we were forced to.

So what is the solution?

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

1 John 1:9 ESV

All too often, in our confession, we confess that we have sinned. But we don't confess our inherent sinfulness. The truth is we don't, in our humanity, truly 'have the mind of Christ.' 

Psalm 51 is the confession David wrote when he was confronted with the sin of his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah to cover it up. 

"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."

Psalm 51:5 ESV

David did not merely confess that he had sinned when he committed adultery and murder. He confessed that he was inherently, completely sinful. That is the true confession, and that is what we must do. We must confess that we are completely sinful and that our human nature loves sin. Then we must claim the promise in 1 John that God says he will forgive us AND CLEANSE US FROM ALL SIN.

Back to Psalm 51:

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy  blot out my transgressions.   Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!"

Psalm 51:1‭-‬2 ESV

David did just that. In verse 1 he asked for forgiveness and in verse 2 he asked God to remove the sinful desire.

David was a mess. He was a polygamist and an adulterer before this. We have no record that David ever did anything like this again. It is significant that 1 Kings 1:4 mentions that when they brought the young virgin, Abishag, to minister to David that it says he had no intimate relations with her.

David was a different man. His repentance was complete.

Final thoughts

A major problem with the modern church is we have embraced a lot of worldly psychology and thereby polluted the gospel. We do not want to admit that we are inherently sinful and evil. Often we focus on external stimuli to explain why we do bad things. That is pandering to our human nature and shirking responsibility. I can only imagine the way modern psychology would have explained David's sin; Perhaps blame the rejection David experienced demonstrated when Jesse didn't even think it was important to have him come when Samuel visited. Then they would have made it Bathsheba's fault because she was bathing in plain sight of the palace.

David accepts full responsibilty for his sin and his sinfulness. And because of his complete confession God completely forgives and cleanes him:

"David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord .” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.' "

2 Samuel 12:13 ESV

God called David a man after his own heart. He calls us to be men and women after His own heart.

We are not meant to walk in defeat. We are meant to walk in victory. But we can only walk in victory if we are truly submitted to God and His way.

God bless you all.