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And every one that heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man,
which built his house upon the sand: Mt 7:26
Note:
God has laid this message upon my heart. Some of the things I am going to say
may make some of you mad, and some of you may not agree with all that I am
going to say. All I ask is that you would listen with an open mind. If you
disagree with what I say then that is between you and God. I will still love
and accept you whether you agree with what I have to say or not, I ask you to
do the same.
This
message is also not meant as a personal attack against any one particular
person or ministry. I am merely sharing what God has laid upon my heart to help
others to serve and glorify Him in a greater way.
The modern Christian—they drink, they
smoke, they listen to rock and rap music, they dress “sexy,” they tattoo, they
body pierce, they celebrate Halloween, they play bad video games, they go to
the beach, they watch unwholesome shows and movies, they…
Note:
I am not talking about unsaved people who may have done or are doing those
things and they come to church and are saved. I am talking about people who
have been Christians for a period of time and they fail to remove those
practices and or begin to partake of those things.
Do you know somebody like that? I know
plenty of people who claim the name of Christ and partake of those practices.
So what’s the big deal, right? As long as they “love the Lord,” that is the
important thing.
That is what a lot of people who claim
the name of Christ think. Let’s see what the word of God has to say about this.
In looking at the list above, without getting into too much detail, let me
quickly show you how each of those practices violates Gods Word.
Drinking
Alcohol: Puts your stamp of approval
on a product that has destroyed many lives. Is an addictive substance. Causes loss
of mental, and physical abilities. Kills brain cells. Causes a loss of
inhibitions.
Smoking:
Addictive. Harmful to the body.
Rock/Rap
Music: Breeds sensuality, rebellion,
and violence. Addictive. Attracts evil spirits.
Note: many Christians have a hard time
discerning how certain types of music can be harmful. Below are a few bits of
information in this regards, for a thorough explanation read the post; Rock
Music and the antichrist.
“The Guiding Spirits of
Crowley made it quite clear to him that, soon after his death, the world was
going to enter the final stage of preparing the hearts and minds of the people
to accept the Black Magick attitudes and values of Antichrist. Crowley was told
that a very special kind of music was to prepare the hearts and minds of the
people for Antichrist. Rock-n-Roll was that music.”
“In 1981, I
was driving down a jungle road in the Ivory Coast with several African pastors
in the car with me. I had recently received a couple of cassette tapes from our
denominational headquarters that were intended for our teenage daughter.
These were recordings of various ‘Christian rock’ artists. In listening to the
tapes, I was very disturbed in my own spirit that such material was being sent
to our missionary kids.
But not trusting my own reaction alone and realizing that these pastors with
whom I was traveling were very sensitive to the spirit world (both good and
evil), I decided to play the tapes for them. The reaction I got was immediate
and verbally violent!
One of the pastors asked me this question, ‘Do you mean to tell us that this
kind of music is played in your churches in America?’
I answered in the affirmative. His response was filled with disgust and anger
as he replied with another question. ‘What are you doing allowing your church
people in America to call up the evil spirits with their music?’”
The testimony of Rev. Joe Meyers,
Tacoma, Washington, printed in; “What the Bible has to say about... ‘Contemporary
Christian’ Music,” Institute in Basic Life Principles, 1990, p. 8.
Immodest
dress: Violates a direct command of
God to dress modestly. Defrauds.
Tattooing
and body piercing: Graffiti on God’s
temple—the body. Is a practice of occultists and idol worshipers.
Halloween: Is an occult holiday that celebrates and glorifies
death, satan, evil spirits, and the fall of man. Day of human and animal
sacrifices.
Public
beach/pool: Exposes someone to soft
core pornography. If there was a park where people dressed in their underwear
would it be Okay for a Christian to go there? NO. So why is it okay to go to a
place where they dress in brightly colored “less than underwear”? It aint!
Bad
video games/movies/TV: Engages one’s
mind in unwholesome and ungodly thoughts and actions.
All of those things above, either by
principle or by direct command violate the Word of God. Let’s just sum them all
up as sinful worldly practices. And what does God’s Word say about sinful
worldly practices—worldliness?
And be not conformed to this
world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove
what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Rom 12:2
Teaching us that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly,
in this present world; Titus 2:12
Ye adulterers and
adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?
whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. James 4:4
15 Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away,
and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1 Jn 2:15-17.
Friendship with the world is enmity with
God and hinders us from being the kind of people God wants us to be. The goal
of a Christian is to be a mirror image of the Lord Jesus Christ and to have love
as our greatest quality. That is the goal—love. What process must a Christian
go through to progress to that point? It is laid out for us in 2 Peter.
3 According as his divine
power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us
exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through
lust.
5 And beside this, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue;
and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in
you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So the process goes;
Faith—virtue—knowledge—temperance—patience—godliness—brotherly
kindness—charity. Here is a little diagram depicting the process.
Notice that the first step after
salvation to building true love into our life is virtue. What is virtue? Here
is one definition;
1. Moral excellence;
goodness; righteousness.
2. Conformity of one's
life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.
Thus virtue or moral excellence is the
practice of living righteously—the removal of sinful practices from one’s life.
When a Christian fails to remove sinful worldly practices from their life the
whole process of Christian growth, and the ability to reach the ultimate goal
of love, breaks down.
Thus the more a Christian is able to
remove sinful practices from their life the more they are able to grow in the
Christian life and attain to true love and godliness. The more sinful and
worldly practices a Christian has in their life the less they are able to grow
in the Christian life and attain true love and godliness.
Here is what the process would look like
if a Christian would fail to remove sinful worldly practices from their life.
Love is the goal and without removing
sinful practices it is impossible to ever attain to it. In fact Jesus himself
told us that in order to love God we must be obedient to his commands including
the removal of worldly sinful practices.
If ye love me, keep my
commandments. Jn 14:15
For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. 1 Jn 5:3
So if somebody says they “love the Lord”
and fail to keep His commandments, including removing worldly sinful practices,
they are deceiving themselves, and God says they are blind.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add
to your faith virtue; and to virtue… But he that lacketh these things is blind,
and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old
sins. 2 Pet 1:5,9
So I say the worldly Christian who fails
to have virtue/moral excellence by removing sinful worldly living from their
life will short circuit the Christian growth process. Further their sinful
worldly practices done under the guise of “liberty” will most likely lead to
enslavement and moral failure in their lives and or the lives of their
children.
For, brethren, ye have been
called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the
flesh, but by love serve one another. Gal
5:13
16 As free, and not using your
liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God
19 While they promise them
liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is
overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
20 For if after they have
escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the
latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for
them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known
it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto
them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again;
and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. 2 Pet 2:16,19-22
Bottom line: you cannot please God and
grow in the Christian faith without the removal of sinful worldly practices. Trying
to live the Christian life without the removal of these practices is like
building a house on the sand.
Now here is the kicker. As I said in the
past I have run into Christians who do some or all of those things that I have
talked about as being worldly sinful practices. And to some of those
Christians, because I believe—based on God’s word—that those things are wrong
they look at me as being legalistic and or a weaker brother. They say I am
weaker because they believe their stronger faith allows them to partake of
these things.
I disagree; the problem is that they
have been deceived by the evil one in thinking that God’s Word does not speak
against those things, when it does. Will they still go to heaven? Yes. But
their ability to love and please God and progress in the Christian life will be
diminished. And further by allowing those things they, or more likely their
children, may fall into major destructive sin and be enslaved thereby.
Now to be fair, on the other hand, there
are people who say things are wrong that are not in scripture; like men have to
be clean shaven, or it’s sin to not wear a suit to church, etc. Things like
that have no scriptural basis and they are going too far the other way.
The Word of God is the key, if God’s
Word condemns it by command or principle then it should be removed from a
Christian’s life or they will be building their house upon sand.
The church needs to open its arms wide
and provide love and acceptance to all people—even the worst of all sinners.
But on the other hand the church must take a stand against and help its members
to break free from these destructive sinful worldly practices or they will be
building their church upon sand.
The goal of a church is not to get
numbers; its primary reason for existence is to glorify God, and worldly sinful
practices do not glorify God. A Church must have love and truth—we must worship
in Spirit and truth.
Many churches in America have lowered
their standards to try and attract a larger audience. Unfortunately they fail
to realize that they are building their “house upon the sand” and will alienate
those in their church who view the lower standards as sinful. This in turn
causes those individuals, who live by principles, and thus are usually the
tithers and faithful workers, to leave.
Sinful worldly practices need to be
eliminated from our lives and from the churches in America. For our sake and
our children’s sake may God help all of us to remove worldly practices and
become more like Jesus. Here are a few prayers that I pray every day in this
regards.
9 And this I pray, that your
love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
10 That ye may approve things
that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of
Christ.
11 Being filled with the
fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise
of God. Phil 1:9-11
9 For this cause we also,
since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye
might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding;
10 That ye might walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and
increasing in the knowledge of God;
11 Strengthened with all
might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering
with joyfulness; Col 1:9-11
10 Night and day praying
exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is
lacking in your faith?
11 Now God himself and our
Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you.
12 And the Lord make you to
increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we
do toward you:
13 To the end he may stablish
your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints. 1 Thes 3:10-13
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