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Tag: Luke

  • Because the days are evil – 4 – The Devil made me do it.

    Because the days are evil – 4 – The Devil made me do it.

    and do not give the devil an opportunity.

    Ephesians 4:27

    The Lie of the Devil

    There’s an iconic TV character who we know for a common excuse for sin, “the devil made me do it.” We laughed because we have heard it (or something like it) from our friends and loved ones so many times. Inside some of us cringed because we have said it ourselves knowing the truth of our own desires.

    Two lies of the devil are that God doesn’t exist and neither does Satan.

    This, of course, is why he is called the great deceiver of mankind and most who deny God believe the devil to be a myth.

    What deceit?

    διάβολος – diabolos

    Diabolos, in fact, actually refers to any man or spirit of deceit prone to slander or accusing falsely. Metaphorically, applied to a man who, by opposing the cause of God, may be said to act the part of the devil or to side with him.

    “The devil made me do it,” your conscience rationalizes, full-well knowing good and evil yourself and willingly justifying this sin falsely.

    Yet in our hearts you and I always know our deceivability toward this easy lie. We wanted to do this sin, to commit this trespass, even convincing our selfish rebellious will that God has forgiven every one of our sins already (for some reason).

    Not so; just another lie. For the Lord calls believers to permanent change.

    Who will side with sin?

    The devil will tempt you before this small opportunity for revelry against God claiming ‘all sins are not equal.’

    Did God really say this, the devil will ask, slandering the Lord God?

    You can get away with this because you have accepted Christ, slanders the very enemy of Christ.

    We don’t have to read the Bible, the deceiver whispers to your heart. Did God really say that, anyway?

    THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER EXPLAINED

    Jesus tells this parable to a large crowd then explains it to the Apostles and also to those who study scripture.

    “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky devoured it…

    Luke 8:5 CSB

    The Tempter clouds justice and the dark reality of God’s punishment of sin.

    “The seed along the path are those who have heard and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. – Luke 8:12

    You do not believe scripture and you fail to take God’s word to heart.

    Although Jesus points to the devil here in the parable, further examination of our tendency toward loving sin prompts other evil actions of ours. Here is a SAVED ‘christian’ (‘once saved, always saved’).

    “And the seed on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy. Having no root, these believe for a while and fall away in a time of testing. Luke 8:13

    You showed great enthusiasm for Jesus. Though you claim to worship at a house built on a rock, your faith is that of seed on a rock. You cannot take root as the heat of the world withers your faith. And little have you realized it was the devil who tempted you to believe, ‘now I am safe to sin.’

    Other subtle slandering by the devil

    “As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches, and pleasures of life, and produce no mature fruit. – Luke 8:14

    I went to church, check. Listened to the uplifting praise band, check. Texted a friend about something important (or maybe it wasn’t). Okay, probably shouldn’t have done that. Got in my listening to scripture in church this week, check. Gotta go! Rushed out to do some Sunday shopping and see the game. Busy week at work ahead, must work on a few things to get ready.

    Pleasures of life: have you seen their ads? Sexxy, enticing, everybody wants to be part of this. (No worries there.) Lies of the devil, the one who you can claim later ‘made you do it?’

    No wonder pastors struggle to shepherd church-goers lacking in mature fruit of the Gospel. They don’t read scripture and easily deceived. Yet Jesus encourages those who resist the devil and our own urges, those truly saved who yield the mature fruit of faith in the Cross, resurrection and eternal life with God. (Yes, it’s another lie of the devil that ALL get to heaven.)

    “But the seed in the good ground ​— ​these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring, produce fruit.

    Luke 8:15 CSB

    The days are evil, but the devil didn’t MAKE you do it.

    October — Halloween — New Year’s, Mardi Gras, summer solstice, Oktoberfest — when does it all end?

    At judgement, where will you stand? What is your fruit in witness against the great deceiver and slanderer who continually fights against Almighty God, our Lord Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

    The First Letter of John

    The Apostle John writes a letter to believers encouraging them:

    Beloved, now we are children of God…

    Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

    The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. – excerpt from 1 John 3, NASB

    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 3:10

    He didn’t ‘make‘ you do it, but is the devil deceiving you, dear friend?

    What is your fruit of righteousness?

    Because the Days are Evil
To be continued...

  • Supernatural Before Adam – Because the days are evil – 2

    Supernatural Before Adam – Because the days are evil – 2

    Demons, evils spirits and of course Satan are all part of the unseen supernatural. They oppose the Lord and deceive many, but Jesus knew them all and exercised power over their evil.

    We introduced this series, Because the Days are Evil, with a quote from a letter written to the first century church at Ephesus. Now we’ll take a brief look at the relationship between Jesus and the spirit world and the seen and unseen we question in this day.

    The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!”

    And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

    Luke 10:17-18 ESV

    Before Adam

    Genesis answers some of our questions about the supernatural and creation of the physical universe, yet seems to lack an explanation of the origin of spirits, angels, Satan and the supernatural.

    Consider an explanation of creation from Genesis 1 and Adam, Eve, original sin and the serpent all come to mind. But follow this timeline from Genesis and you may wonder about the creation of the serpent in the garden.

    Moses relates God’s covenant with the forefathers of the Hebrews and includes some explanation of the beginnings of things. We clearly see supernatural occurrences orchestrated by the Lord.

    In the garden, a perfect setting God created for man, we observe supernatural events and a supernatural explanation of the influence of evil by Satan, a talking serpent, a snake with poisonous words against God tempting man (adam) to death.

    Jesus claims the supernatural more than once, offering insight into the eternal not understood in the chronology of mankind. He says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

    Have you ever wondered where that fit into the timeline of creation?

    Natural vs Supernatural time

    How do the created measure time of the Creator?

    The supernatural is sometimes observable, but not naturally measurable.

    Science provides reliable natural explanations of the observable, but fails in unproven theories of the supernatural. We just don’t get it – we want to understand everything as if we are above a creation not of our making.

    We want to be gods of the unseen and the immeasurable. Yet we cannot be and should not try to be God!

    Therefore a human measure of the infinite with billions and billions of stars and trillions and trillions of atoms in this visible place is just as unfathomable as time and its supernatural beginning.

    A world introduced to the risen Christ Jesus once measured time in terms of the Son of Man, King above all kings who proved, “I and the Father are One.”

    This year is A.D. 2019, that is, anno Domini (from the Julian calendar) or ‘in the year of our Lord‘ twenty-nineteen.

    Theories of time immemorial and explanations of the unobservable supernatural have come and gone. Even faithful men of God and followers of Christ have come up short in our proofs of the unprovable.

    Yet by faith all men must start with faith that One exists in the unseen realm of the supernatural who was and is and will always be – One who reigns over a vast and glorious creation.

    The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky displays what his hands have made.

    man is like a breath - quote from Ps 144 and photo of sun and blue sky breaking through the clu=ouds

    One day tells a story to the next.
    One night shares knowledge with the next
    without talking,
    without words,
    without their voices being heard.
    Yet, their sound has gone out into the entire world,
    their message to the ends of the earth.

    Psalm 19: 1-4 GW

    Christ, Lord over the supernatural

    Luke 10: excerpt

    After this, the Lord appointed 70 other disciples to go ahead of him to every city and place that he intended to go. They were to travel in pairs.

    He told them, “The harvest is large, but the workers are few. So ask the Lord who gives this harvest to send workers to harvest his crops. Go! I’m sending you out like lambs among wolves…

    Jesus, Son of Man, sends followers to proclaim the Gospel to an unbelieving world.

    “But whenever you go into a city and people don’t welcome you, leave… If the miracles worked in your cities had been worked in Tyre and Sidon, they would have changed the way they thought and acted… Judgment day will be better for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to heaven? No, you will go to hell!

    So Jesus warns of hell and speaks of judgment day. Many refuse to believe it because they can’t quantify it.

    Woe to those deceived by the great deceiver Satan, the serpent of sin who enters the natural creation with slithering supernatural power over those who turn against God!

    Do you believe only your eyes?

    Jesus continues instruction to faithful followers:

    16 “The person who hears you hears me, and the person who rejects you rejects me. The person who rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

    He had commissioned the eleven Disciples again after after He rose from the grave:

    “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

    Mark 16L15b

    Some men and women will not believe you, He previously had told seventy-two disciples. Yet, ‘Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves, Jesus had commissioned them. [Luke 10:3]

    17 The 70 disciples came back very happy. They said, “Lord, even demons obey us when we use the power and authority of your name!”

    Jesus has power over demons you also do not believe exist — if you are deceived.

    18 Jesus said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

    Jesus told an unbelieving religious establishment, “Before Abraham was, I am!” Here the Lord witnesses to disciples, “I watched Satan fall from heaven…” Yet unless some see Satan or demons or unseen supernatural powers they will dismiss all as myth.

    Seventy men came back to Jesus, the Gospel records, and witnessed:

    “Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.” [KJV]

    Yet many do not believe because they cannot see these supernatural beings of spirit.

    a Supernatural Serpent

    Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, —

    Genesis 3:1a KJV

    STOP! Two things here in Moses’ narrative of creation.

    1. A serpent (who we later learn is Satan) is talking. Not only is that crafty, but seems to an unbelieving world an impossibility.
    2. The supernatural serpent asks an evil question of the woman, “Did God actually say … (you know the questions object about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). Satan is asking Eve to question the word of God!

    Then the serpent tells the woman a lie.

    3:4 וַיֹּאמֶר הַנָּחָשׁ אֶל־הָֽאִשָּׁה לֹֽא־מֹות תְּמֻתֽוּן׃

    The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!

    Genesis 3:4 Hebrew & NASB

    Go ask her then, “Eve, do you believe the evil one who told you, ‘You will not die?”

    Of course not even followers of Moses could do that, because Moses also records that both Adam and Eve died. After their original sin of disobeying the Lord God, their flesh and bones returned to the dust.

    Therefore, consider the supernatural influence of spirits, demons, fallen angels, men possessed by evil and especially Satan could have on your life and death, your merciless judgment or eternal life by grace.

    Jesus IS the Lord, One with God the Father of all creation and the Holy Spirit. God loves you and asks for your eternal love of good.

    Yet Satan would sway the uncertain toward the gravity of Hell and battle of evil against good.

    Choose this day who you will follow. Christ Jesus our loving Savior? Or Satan the angel of darkness asking you to prove, “Did God really say…?”

    To be continued...

  • Jude -2- Necessity is the Father of Exhortation

    Jude -2- Necessity is the Father of Exhortation

    To Correct or Encourage?

    Do I just keep encouraging my child, servant or follower, or must I instruct them with words of exhortation? Every parent, master, or leader must judge between the value of correction versus positive reinforcement.

    Jude, a leader of the church no less loving of the recipients of his letter than the Apostles, faces this familiar dilemma of the parent. I want to encourage you, my beloved children, by acknowledging all of the good things you do. BUT, (Oh, oh, here it comes…) I have this against you.

    If this approach of dealing with the church and individual wayward relationships to the Lord and each other sounds familiar, it should. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John exhortation to the seven churches also takes this form.

    Like John, Peter, Paul and others, Jude has a close relationship with many individual saints of the church. As a father encourages a son or daughter, so the words of Jude touch the hearts of the hearers of his letter.

    They will hear Jude’s letter as words from a beloved mentor. Many know Jude, Servant of Jesus Christ as the brother of James or know of him.

    Jude’s greeting:

    Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

    Jude 1:2 KJV

    ἔλεος Mercy to you, Jude writes.

    It means kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them. Jude not only knows them but cares about their struggles and community.

    When Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan, our Lord convicts us that we often fail to show mercy to our fellow man. We too tend to qualify which neighbor we choose for our mercy. Yet like those who questioned the Lord we know which one acted as Christ would act.

    “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.
    Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”

    Luke 10:37 CSB

    Jude shows the church compassion and mercy, also greeting them with peace and love multiplied. If you are one of those called by the Father you will recognize the same peace of Jesus Christ regardless of what exhortation will follow.

    “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

    The words of Jesus Christ, the Good News of John 14:27 NASB

    ἀγάπη – Love

    Love is much misaligned and misdirected in and by the church. Jude speaks here of agapē [ah-gah’-pay], the love by which all hearers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be known.

    ἀγάπη – Agape is affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love; that visible relationship between Christians. One key reason Jude and others must exhort individuals to such love is so that others will always recognize us as beloved children of our loving Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Jesus warns us in the Gospel of Matthew:

    “Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold.

    Did our Lord not describe this familiar brokenness of the church in these last days? Jude must warn the saints faithful to the Lord.

    Jesus added an encouragement to this caution about our potential loss of agape love:

    “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

    Jude will exhort believers to keep in Jesus’ love, abide in His love or live as Jesus taught us by His example.

    “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

    If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

    Encouragement of Jesus – Gospel of John 15:9-10 NASB

    Occasion of Jude’s Letter

    Jude – NRSV

    Jude clearly states the reason for his exhortation replacing unsalted positive encouragement.

    3 Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4 For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

    His indictment is clear, a warning to the saints to watch out for those ungodly ‘christians’ who have stolen their way into the trust of the church. They pervert grace into licentiousness.

    Because now we rarely hear such pointed exhortation, let’s look just a bit closer into the problem outlined in verse 4.

    • Certain intruders pervert God’s grace.
      • It’s not everybody or even the majority of the saints.
      • These sinners were marked out beforehand for condemnation, pointing to their same sins from the Old Testament. Jude’s following verses point to these OT examples.
    • This is Jude’s and the church’s general condemnation of ungodly persons who turn from the grace of God, as opposed to the repentance possible for those God allows to return to righteousness.
    • They pervert the grace of God into licencentious.
      • one of Jude’s two serious indictments
    • and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

    How can ANY man or woman identified as a ‘christian’ deny Jesus as the Messiah (Christ), Lord God & ONLY lord and master of your mortal and eternal life?

    Jude, bondservant of Jesus, would have us ask this question of every hearer of his letter. Who truly serves Jesus Christ as your Master and Lord?

    Other Description of Jude’s purpose

    The Geneva Bible of 1599 states:

    3 He warneth the godly to take heed of such men, 4 that make the grace of God a cloak for their wantonness:

    Like licentiousness, wantonness leaves us thinking of an archaic approach to sin rarely mentioned in this day and translated gently for contemporary readers of Jude’s exhortation.

    All will agree that Jude urges the saints (all Christians) to contend earnestly or defend the true faith handed down to the church by Christ and through the faithful word of God in the the Old Testament. From there we easily stray when called upon to confront a false claimant of Christ.

    Who are these?

    Jude writes, ‘certain men have crept in unnoticed,’ or ‘by stealth’ some versions translate.

    Let’s examine Jude’s two-part accusation.

    ἀσέλγεια – Licentiousness

    Defined: unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence

    We tend to think of the sin of these men Jude describes as sexual sin, a sin which may accurately describe just part of their specific acts against God. Yet other sinful behaviors men and women would hide from the saints with whom they worship certainly apply to Jude’s warning.

    Jude’s exhortation describes a general conduct thought to be private which would cause a public disgust. These shameless excesses could include gluttony, tyrannical demeanor, greediness and other excesses of the fleshly senses, which include hunting for victims prone to your sins.

    You may notice the similarity of the Greek word translated as licentiousness, ἀσέλγεια, and it’s Hebrew root, ἄλφα.

    “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

    Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 22:13 KJV

    This Greek description as a compound negative participle of Alpha, the word of God and Christ, indicates an antichrist, a description other New Testament writers use of those opposed to the Gospel.

    ἀρνέομαι Ἰησοῦς Χριστός – Deny Jesus Christ

    This is the most serious of Jude’s two accusations against these antichrists who have found their way into the church, men and women against whom he must warn other followers of the Lord.

    Ungodly persons [ἀσεβής] καὶ τὸν μόνον δεσπότην καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἀρνούμενοι, that is: “only Master and Lord our Jesus Christ deny.”

    • Jesus is our Lord, the LORD God
    • The LORD IS our only Master
    • Jesus IS the Messiah, the Christ
    • We serve ONLY Him.

    Many deny the Lord, our personal Master whom we serve as Christians. Ungodly persons may claim Jesus or claim God, yet not serve Him. Many more will claim a god or antichrist because they oppose the LORD.

    Jude is not alone in his exhortation for believers. The Apostle John also warns of such antichrists:

    … so now many antichrists have come. …They went out from us, but they did not belong to us… I write these things to you concerning those who would deceive you.

    First Letter of John, excerpts from 2:18-19 & 26 NKJV

    Biblical warnings from the Old Testament

    Next we will continue in Jude’s letter to saints of the first century church with his Old Testament examples. Remember, the Old Testament was the only Bible for Jesus, Jude, James and the Apostles. But feel free to preview these few verses as if you knew only this Bible, still applicable today.

    To be continued...