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Proverbs 29:10-11 ESV
Seeking someone’s life doesn’t necessarily mean desiring the literal death of someone. Our lives can be destroyed in so many different ways. One of those ways is if we are convinced that we need to compromise our faith with the world and with the flesh and to back down from sharing the truth of the gospel so as to make it more appealing and acceptable to the world.
For, those who hate the godly and the righteous are not just looking to putting an end to our physical lives, but they are looking to putting an end to our witness for Jesus Christ and for his gospel message (the whole counsel of God). So, they will try to convince us that we are wrong and that the majority is right and that we need to be more like the majority.
For, they want us to be more fleshly. They want us to blend in with the culture and to immerse ourselves in our culture so that we can connect with the people of the world. In fact, they will counsel us to find creative ways to connect with the people of the world and to build bridges (compromises) with people who don’t believe what we do, and for the sake of unity.
They will try to convince us that we are too serious about our faith and about God and that we need to lighten up more and to just have fun and hang out and joke and tease and just watch movies and play games and be like “normal” people. For they might think we are weird if our lives are truly sold out to Jesus Christ to doing his will for our lives.
Those who desire for us to be more worldly and to be less spiritual are usually those who are giving full vent to their spirits, who are following after their fleshly appetites and who are looking to serve and to please themselves without regard for God or for who they hurt in the process. And so they want us to be more like them, but we must not yield.
Proverbs 29:16 ESV
The church, at least here in America, has largely gone the way of the world and it is now indistinguishable between the church and the world, for the most part, because they talk the same lingo, watch and participate in the same stuff, and they have the same mindset as the world. They have, thus, lost their saltiness and they have hidden their lights under a bushel.
Because the church has become so much like the world, and since they have largely diluted the gospel message to make it more acceptable to human flesh, many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are still living in sin. They are still enslaved to sin, deliberately continuing in habitual and premeditated sin against God while claiming Jesus as their Savior.
Thus, the church, overall, has lost its witness for Jesus Christ. Few who call themselves Christians are living holy lives devoted to Jesus Christ in submission to his will and are being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And many are living in sin. So, wickedness and transgressions have increased and there are few voices out there speaking out against sin and in favor of righteous living. And this is why our world is where it is at.
Proverbs 29:18-19 ESV
Exactly! This is the present situation in the church in America, as a general rule, but does not apply to every congregation. We no longer seem to have godly men in our pulpits who are preaching and who are living, in practice, the full gospel of Jesus Christ (the whole counsel of God). Far too many preachers today have compromised with the world to please the world.
The vast majority of preachers and pastors appear to be teaching a diluted flesh-driven gospel which is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It may have the appearance of being the true gospel, but it is a half-truth (lie) gospel which does not teach dying with Christ to sin and living to him and to his righteousness as part of believing faith in Jesus Christ.
Instead, they are teaching that we can believe in Jesus and that we can have our sins forgiven and that we can be guaranteed heaven when we die, but it does not necessitate us dying with Christ to sin or walking in obedience to his commands. And so its adherents are continuing to live in sin, believing that Jesus died merely to forgive their sins. And thus they feel they have the freedom to continue in sin, only now guilt free.
Proverbs 29:25 ESV
Many people have compromised their faith out of fear of man, because they don’t have the fear of God in them. They have been strong-armed into compromise by messages which tell them that if they are following Jesus in obedience and in submission to his will that they are following a false gospel of works, or that they are being self-righteous and judgmental.
They are being convinced that teachings on repentance, obedience, and submission to Christ as Lord are legalistic and to be discarded in favor of messages they say are on “grace,” which then permits them to continue living in their sin without guilt and without the fear of punishment. They are, thus, making the life of sin sound more righteous than the life of holiness.
But they are leading many people straight to hell on the promise of heaven when they die, because what they are telling them is a lie from hell. For, if we want to follow Jesus we must deny self, die with him to sin daily, and walk with him in obedience to his commands. We must no longer live in sin, for if we do, we will not inherit eternal life with God.
So, don’t build your doctrine of salvation on the teachings of humans, many of whom are out there to deceive and to get us to be more like the world and not like Jesus. Jesus didn’t die for us on that cross so we would blend in with and compromise with the world and with sin. It is God’s will that we live holy lives separate (unlike, different) from the world.
And don’t live your life according to the teachings of humans, either, for there are many false teachers out there, many of whom are widely respected in the Christian community, too, but who are teaching a social gospel which will easily blend in with a one world religion, for it has nothing to do with the true gospel but with unifying with the world.
So, read your Bibles word for word in context. Particularly read the New Testament, for we are not under the Old Covenant, but under the New. Read the Epistles to the churches wherein we get our instructions on holy living and we receive warnings against false teaching, too.
And know what the Scriptures teach (in context) so that you don’t end up before God one day and hear him say, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of iniquity.” For, the Scriptures teach that if we live in sin, we will die in our sins because we refused to die to our sins.
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Draw Me Close To You
Donnie McClurkin
Draw me close to You
Never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear You say that I'm Your friend
You are my desire
And no one else will do
'Cause nothing else can take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace
Help me find a way
Bring me back to You
Bring me back, oh Jesus
You're all I want
You're all I've ever needed
You're all I want
Help me know You are near
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“Bloodthirsty men hate one who is blameless
and seek the life of the upright.
A fool gives full vent to his spirit,
but a wise man quietly holds it back.”
and seek the life of the upright.
A fool gives full vent to his spirit,
but a wise man quietly holds it back.”
Seeking someone’s life doesn’t necessarily mean desiring the literal death of someone. Our lives can be destroyed in so many different ways. One of those ways is if we are convinced that we need to compromise our faith with the world and with the flesh and to back down from sharing the truth of the gospel so as to make it more appealing and acceptable to the world.
For, those who hate the godly and the righteous are not just looking to putting an end to our physical lives, but they are looking to putting an end to our witness for Jesus Christ and for his gospel message (the whole counsel of God). So, they will try to convince us that we are wrong and that the majority is right and that we need to be more like the majority.
For, they want us to be more fleshly. They want us to blend in with the culture and to immerse ourselves in our culture so that we can connect with the people of the world. In fact, they will counsel us to find creative ways to connect with the people of the world and to build bridges (compromises) with people who don’t believe what we do, and for the sake of unity.
They will try to convince us that we are too serious about our faith and about God and that we need to lighten up more and to just have fun and hang out and joke and tease and just watch movies and play games and be like “normal” people. For they might think we are weird if our lives are truly sold out to Jesus Christ to doing his will for our lives.
Those who desire for us to be more worldly and to be less spiritual are usually those who are giving full vent to their spirits, who are following after their fleshly appetites and who are looking to serve and to please themselves without regard for God or for who they hurt in the process. And so they want us to be more like them, but we must not yield.
Proverbs 29:16 ESV
“When the wicked increase, transgression increases,
but the righteous will look upon their downfall.”
but the righteous will look upon their downfall.”
The church, at least here in America, has largely gone the way of the world and it is now indistinguishable between the church and the world, for the most part, because they talk the same lingo, watch and participate in the same stuff, and they have the same mindset as the world. They have, thus, lost their saltiness and they have hidden their lights under a bushel.
Because the church has become so much like the world, and since they have largely diluted the gospel message to make it more acceptable to human flesh, many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are still living in sin. They are still enslaved to sin, deliberately continuing in habitual and premeditated sin against God while claiming Jesus as their Savior.
Thus, the church, overall, has lost its witness for Jesus Christ. Few who call themselves Christians are living holy lives devoted to Jesus Christ in submission to his will and are being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And many are living in sin. So, wickedness and transgressions have increased and there are few voices out there speaking out against sin and in favor of righteous living. And this is why our world is where it is at.
Proverbs 29:18-19 ESV
“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,
but blessed is he who keeps the law.
By mere words a servant is not disciplined,
for though he understands, he will not respond.”
but blessed is he who keeps the law.
By mere words a servant is not disciplined,
for though he understands, he will not respond.”
Exactly! This is the present situation in the church in America, as a general rule, but does not apply to every congregation. We no longer seem to have godly men in our pulpits who are preaching and who are living, in practice, the full gospel of Jesus Christ (the whole counsel of God). Far too many preachers today have compromised with the world to please the world.
The vast majority of preachers and pastors appear to be teaching a diluted flesh-driven gospel which is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It may have the appearance of being the true gospel, but it is a half-truth (lie) gospel which does not teach dying with Christ to sin and living to him and to his righteousness as part of believing faith in Jesus Christ.
Instead, they are teaching that we can believe in Jesus and that we can have our sins forgiven and that we can be guaranteed heaven when we die, but it does not necessitate us dying with Christ to sin or walking in obedience to his commands. And so its adherents are continuing to live in sin, believing that Jesus died merely to forgive their sins. And thus they feel they have the freedom to continue in sin, only now guilt free.
Proverbs 29:25 ESV
“The fear of man lays a snare,
but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”
but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”
Many people have compromised their faith out of fear of man, because they don’t have the fear of God in them. They have been strong-armed into compromise by messages which tell them that if they are following Jesus in obedience and in submission to his will that they are following a false gospel of works, or that they are being self-righteous and judgmental.
They are being convinced that teachings on repentance, obedience, and submission to Christ as Lord are legalistic and to be discarded in favor of messages they say are on “grace,” which then permits them to continue living in their sin without guilt and without the fear of punishment. They are, thus, making the life of sin sound more righteous than the life of holiness.
But they are leading many people straight to hell on the promise of heaven when they die, because what they are telling them is a lie from hell. For, if we want to follow Jesus we must deny self, die with him to sin daily, and walk with him in obedience to his commands. We must no longer live in sin, for if we do, we will not inherit eternal life with God.
So, don’t build your doctrine of salvation on the teachings of humans, many of whom are out there to deceive and to get us to be more like the world and not like Jesus. Jesus didn’t die for us on that cross so we would blend in with and compromise with the world and with sin. It is God’s will that we live holy lives separate (unlike, different) from the world.
And don’t live your life according to the teachings of humans, either, for there are many false teachers out there, many of whom are widely respected in the Christian community, too, but who are teaching a social gospel which will easily blend in with a one world religion, for it has nothing to do with the true gospel but with unifying with the world.
So, read your Bibles word for word in context. Particularly read the New Testament, for we are not under the Old Covenant, but under the New. Read the Epistles to the churches wherein we get our instructions on holy living and we receive warnings against false teaching, too.
And know what the Scriptures teach (in context) so that you don’t end up before God one day and hear him say, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of iniquity.” For, the Scriptures teach that if we live in sin, we will die in our sins because we refused to die to our sins.
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 3:4-10]
Draw Me Close To You
Donnie McClurkin
Draw me close to You
Never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear You say that I'm Your friend
You are my desire
And no one else will do
'Cause nothing else can take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace
Help me find a way
Bring me back to You
Bring me back, oh Jesus
You're all I want
You're all I've ever needed
You're all I want
Help me know You are near
