Corrupting Human Minds and Hearts

[Christsfreeservant]

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 ESV

“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

The Wisdom of Men (Humans)

We have many people in our churches (or what are called churches) today who are feeding the people what is not of God and what is not true to the Scriptures. Now, what they are teaching or proclaiming may have some elements of truth in them, but these people are largely teaching the Scriptures out of their true context, and they are twisting them to say what the Scriptures do not teach. Usually they teach a very clever blend of truth and lies so that they are able to deceive the unsuspecting and naïve.

For what they are serving up to the people as the gospel of Jesus Christ has a bug in it, i.e. it contains error (lies, deception) which is something that will corrupt your life if you buy into it. It will corrupt your minds and your hearts and your thinking and believing about God and about Jesus and about our salvation and about our eternal life with God. And it will mess up your ability to function as God designed you to function. For it will cripple your ability to walk in the ways of God and to serve him with your lives.

For what so many are proclaiming as the gospel of our salvation is shallow, superficial, and unsubstantial because it is the teaching of human beings and not the teachings of the Scriptures, although they may be teaching the Scriptures, but not in truth, but perhaps in half-truths which are still lies. For what so many are safeguarding is not purity, righteousness, and holiness, but they are safeguarding their ability to continue living in deliberate and habitual sin while falsely promising themselves eternal life with God.

For so many of them are getting their “gospel” from books written by mere mortals who are writing in the flesh and not under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And they are getting their gospel from “Christian” marketing literature and from church growth seminars and church leadership training sessions and from some (or many) Bible colleges and Seminaries, too. And a lot of this is being promoted at top levels of church denominations and then is being passed down to their pastors and to their church workers.

And what many of them are teaching as “the gospel” is a diluted and altered gospel message to make it more palatable to human flesh and to the people of the world. For they are teaching that we can be saved from our sins and have the guarantee of eternal life with God without dying with Christ to sin and without living to him and to his righteousness, and even if you continue in deliberate and habitual sin without genuine repentance, and even if you refuse to obey the Lord. But the Scriptures don’t teach that!

The Wisdom of God

But Paul and the other apostles did not teach the diluted and altered gospel message which is being passed off as “the gospel” today. They taught that Jesus died on that cross that we might die with Christ to sin and live to God and to his righteousness, and that we might live for Jesus and no longer for ourselves. For Jesus shed his blood for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) so that we would now be God’s possession, and so we would now honor him with our lives.

They taught that when we believe in Jesus with God-given faith that we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, not like our old lives, but created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. We deny self and daily we take up our cross (daily we die to sin and to self) and we follow (obey) Jesus Christ. For our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

So, we are to no longer let sin reign in our mortal bodies, to make us obey its passions, for sin is to have no more dominion over us now that we are under grace. For if sin is what we obey, in practice, it will end in death, not in life everlasting with God. For the wages of sin (the practice of sin, obeying sin) is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. And that gift of grace trains us to say “No!” to ungodliness and fleshly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await Jesus’ return.

For God the Father sent Jesus Christ to die on that cross in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk (in conduct, in practice) not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For if we walk according to the flesh, our minds are set on the things of the flesh, and that will end in death, not in life eternal. For if we live according to the flesh we will die in our sins. But if by the Spirit we are putting to death the works of the flesh, we will have eternal life with God.

So, if we claim to have fellowship with God but we walk (in practice) in darkness (sin), we are liars. And if we claim that we know God but we do not make obedience to our Lord our practice, then we are liars. And if sin is what we practice, and if righteousness and obedience to our Lord are not what we practice, then we are not born of God, but we are of the devil, and so we are not in relationship with Jesus Christ, and salvation is not ours to claim, and heaven is not our eternal destiny.

For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father who is in heaven. And so many people who profess Jesus as Lord and who do what they believe are good deeds, in the name of Jesus, but who do not submit to him as Lord, and who do not obey him, but they obey sin, instead, are going to hear him say in the end, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.”

[1 Pet 2:24; 2 Co 5:15,21; 1 Co 6:19-20; Rom 6:1-23; Eph 4:17-24; Lu 9:23-26; Tit 2:11-14; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

So, please take this to heart. For Jesus Christ came into this world to deliver us from our slavery (addiction) to sin and to empower us to live godly and holy lives for the praise and glory of God, in obedience to our Lord Jesus.

Welcome To Our World

By Chris Rice

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child, Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home

Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world, Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born, Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God, Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world

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