Post by Gaz on Aug 18, 2020 15:08:25 GMT 10
Gaz's Sunday sermon on Sunday...lol
Living a Good and Righteous Life Before the Lord
The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 3:1 that as we start approaching the end times, that the love of many will grow cold and that lawlessness and immorality will start to abound. It also says in this verse that men will become lovers of self and money, along with becoming unholy, blasphemers, unloving, unthankful, disobedient to parents, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, traitors, headstrong and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
As bad as the moral state of man is right now, believe it or not, it is going to get a lot worse in the coming years according to the above verse.
When it comes to the real big picture with our Lord, the age old question is simply why – why did Satan and one third of the angels have to choose with their own free wills to go against God and His holy and righteous ways?
Why couldn’t they just do the right thing and stay loyal to the Lord and choose to live good and righteous lives before Him?
And then when God decides to create a second race of beings, the human race, again, why couldn’t Adam and Eve have chosen with their own free wills to obey one simple little command from the Lord to stay off one forbidden tree?
And then when they couldn’t pass their one simple little test, and then the rest of the human race is created and born into a now fallen and cursed world, we now once again still have the same old problem. Again, why does a certain percentage of the human race still have to choose with their own free wills to go against God and all of His holy and righteous ways just like one third of the angels managed to do?
As you will see in the verses I will list below, God has written His basic laws into the heart of every created being.
We all know basic right from basic wrong, and yet so many of us still choose to this day with our own free wills to do the wrong thing at certain times, with some of the more evil people in this life doing some really bad and evil things that a normal person would never consider doing like robbing, raping, killing, kidnapping and torturing.
There is not a day that goes by that we do not see some kind of extreme evil being committed on some kind of a regular basis across the entire world.
With all the advancements in technology, and with the world now becoming a much more smaller and closer space due to how inter-connected we all now are, many still have not learned from the history lessons of our past, and we still have many people who are out there acting out on their evil and fleshly impulses with no regard as to who they hurt, kill, or destroy. Some people are as primal now as they were 5000 years ago.
Many people who have had some type of evil crime committed against either them or one of their close loved ones have always asked themselves why when it happens to one of them?
How can some people commit such horrible and evil acts on another fellow human being?
Why can’t we just all live in peace and harmony with one another?
And not only can man not get along with his fellow man, but we also have nations always wanting to stir up trouble with other nations, as the Bible tells us that as we approach the end times, that there will be wars and rumors of wars, and that nations will be going against other nations and that kingdoms will be going against other kingdoms.
When you step back and look at the real big picture, it is just heartbreaking to see all of this kind of carnage play itself out every single day across much of the world.
And again, why can’t most of the human race just get it right with the Lord and learn how to follow His holy and righteous ways so we can all learn how to live in peace and harmony with one another?
God has given all of us a free will, and we all have the ability to choose between the good and righteous side of this life or the evil and dark side of this life.
Even though we still have demons, who are still roaming in the air trying to get us to do their evil bidding, God will still hold all of us personally accountable for any kind of bad and evil acts we will end up committing in this life.
Though Satan was the one who tempted Eve to disobey one simple little command, God still held both Adam and Eve totally responsible for what they did in the Garden of Eden, even though it was Satan who was the one who put the pressure on them to try and get them to do it.
For most of us, the excuse that “the devil made me do it” will not be washing with the Lord once we die and cross over and meet Him head on for all of our own personal judgments.
For the most part, demons cannot make you do anything against your own free will, as God will not let them violate that space that you have within your own being.
All demons can try and do is persuade you and tempt you to do evil things.
But the choice will always remain up to each one of us as to whether or not we will fall for their evil suggestions. Just because a demon plants a thought and a desire in your head to go out and kill someone does not mean you have to actually try and do it.
Unless you are mentally ill to any serious degree, God will watch your response to these demons just like He did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden – and He will then hold you personally accountable if you decide to act out on any of their evil suggestions.
If you decide to act out on any evil thoughts or desires that are playing in your mind, your day of judgment will eventually come before the Lord, and you will then have to pay the full price for your sins if you do not get saved and get those sins fully forgiven by the blood of Jesus before you die and cross over.
Even the apostle Paul, who I believe was the greatest of all of the New Testament apostles, had a problem in controlling his flesh and dark side. Here is the verse straight from this man’s mouth on he himself having some problems controlling some of his own thoughts and actions. This statement is a classic statement on the sin nature that we all have in us.
“For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.” (Romans 7:15)
In other words, Paul is finding out like the rest of us that we all end up doing things in this life that we know we should not be doing.
We can all witness to this classic statement, as we all have problems from time to time in doing things that we know that are not right in the eyes of God.
As we have said before, no man, no woman, and no angel is ever going to become the 4th person of the Divine Trinity. Only God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are completely and totally perfect in Their divine personalities. They are completely and totally perfect all the way down the line in every single one of their personality qualities.
However, this now leaves God with a bit of a dilemma. This means that every single being that He will ever create is not going to be perfect like He is and they will now be capable of malfunctioning to the dark side.
With one third of the angels malfunctioning to the dark side, and a good percentage of the human race now doing the exact same thing, there is simply no other conclusion that we can come to.
We are simply all fallen and sinful creatures and only the blood of Jesus Christ can make us righteous and clean enough before God the Father to get us into heaven, as the Bible tells us that all men and women have sinned and fallen way short of the glory of God.
As you will see in one of the verses I will list below, we are actually born into this world through our mother’s womb in sin and iniquity. In other words, we are all born doomed and damned right off the bat unless we receive and accept the free redemptive pardon that Jesus Christ is offering to each one of us through His sacrificial death on the cross.
Here are 7 verses showing us that we have all been born into this world as sinners in the eyes of God – but if we accept what Jesus Christ has done for all of us on the cross, then His very own righteousness can then be imputed upon all of us where God the Father will then take us back and grant us entrance into heaven once we die and cross over.
The first verse I will list below will perfectly spell this out for us. The rest of the verses will then show us how we have all been born into this world as sinners, and that there is absolutely no one in this world who is truly righteous and holy before the eyes of God the Father.
· “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
· “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5)
· As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one …” (Romans 3:10)
· “… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God …” (Romans 3:23)
· “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22)
· “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned …” (Romans 5:12)
· “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind.” (Isaiah 64:6)
Once you really think about and meditate on these specific verses, it just blows the human mind to think that God the Father would allow His very own righteousness of His Son Jesus to be imputed upon us so we can all be made righteous enough before Him to be able to cross over into heaven when we die and cross over – especially when we ourselves have done absolutely nothing to be able to earn or achieve any of this on our own.
This is all simply a free and holy gift that is being given to us by the Lord.
The last verse above says that even if we did try to be as good and as perfect as we possibly could before the Lord, that all of our good works would be nothing but as filthy rags before Him because we simply do not have the ability within our own natural makeups to attain His state of perfection and holiness.
If we are really honest with ourselves, we can all see how we are really sinners before a holy and righteous God, and that no matter how hard we try, there is simply no way we can ever achieve any state of true perfect holiness that would be pleasing enough to God. And again, the apostle Paul in the above verse perfectly sums up that reality even for himself.
However, as Christians, we now have something that the unbeliever does not have on himself.
Not only are we born again with the Holy Spirit, who is now residing in our human spirits, but we are now also clothed with the very righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself, which will now be good enough to grant us entrance into heaven once we die and cross over.
However, there is now one more thing each Christian must get a real grip on after they have fully realized this astounding fact and revelation.
Even though we are now all fully clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself, and we have now been cleansed and are now able to enter Heaven through Gods Grace to us through Christs love and sacrifice, this does not mean that we can try and abuse or take advantage of this grace and righteousness that we now have upon us from the Lord.
We still have to make every concerted effort on our end to try and live a good and righteous life before the Lord.
This gift of righteousness that we now have in Jesus Christ does not give us the liberty, the right, or the excuse to be able to keep on sinning.
We should all still be doing our best to try and live a good and righteous life before the Lord and staying out of any unacceptable sins.
And when we do find ourselves falling short or having a hard time in staying out of certain sinful activities, we now have the Holy Spirit Himself, who can now give us His divine power to be able to pull put of any heavier sins that we may have fallen into.
Bottom line – once we have become saved and born again through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we should all do our best to allow God to start the sanctification process within us.
And once God the Father starts this sanctification process within each one of us, we should then do our best to live this life the way that He will want us to live it, not the way we or the world will want us to live it.
The Bible very clearly lays out all of the ways and commandments of our Lord, and exactly what He wants all of us to do, and exactly what He wants all of us to stay away from in this life.
We also have the Holy Spirit on the inside of each one of us whose job is to not only guide usand teach us in this life, but to also convict us when we do start to stray and get off into any sinful activities that the Lord will not want us engaging in.
In this life we may never become perfectly holy like God is, but we should still make every effort on our end to try and live good and righteous life before the Lord so that we can become well pleasing to Him, and so that He will then approve of the way that we have lived our lives down here and conducted ourselves among our fellow man.
· “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:10)
·
· “In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death.” (Proverbs 12:28)
·
· “But to him who sows righteousness will be a sure reward. As righteousness leads to life, so he who pursues evil pursues it to his own death.” (Proverbs 11:18-19)
·
· Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness … blessed is the man who does this … and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” (Isaiah 56:1-2)
·
· “The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but He loves him who follows righteousness.” (Proverbs 15:9)
·
· “The labor of the righteous leads to life, the wages of the wicked to sin. He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses reproof goes astray.” (Proverbs 10:16-17
·
· “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” (Proverbs 21:3)
· “The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.” (Proverbs 20:7)
·
· “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness, than vast revenues without justice.” (Proverbs 16:7-8)
·
·
· “Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God.” (1 Corinthians 15:33-34)
·
· “All unrighteousness is sin …” (1 John 5:17)
·
· “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16-17)
·
· “Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on … But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” (Proverbs 4:14-19)
· “It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, for a throne is established by righteousness.” (Proverbs 16:12)
·
· “Mercy and truth preserve the king, and by loving kindness he upholds his throne.” (Proverbs 20:28)
Notice how many times the Bible says that righteousness will lead to “life” and that any kind of unrighteousness is actually considered sin in the eyes of God.
This means that real righteousness is all black and white. There is only God and the devil, heaven or hell, and good and evil when you really sum everything up.
It now becomes up to each person as to which side of the fence they are going to walk on in this life. Again, Joshua could not have said it any better:
Joshua 24:15 New King James Version (NKJV)
15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
You will either decide to serve and follow God and follow His ways and live, or you will choose to follow yourself, other people, or the devil and eventually die.
There are no middle or neutral grounds as far as God is concerned.
God has made it as easy as He possibly could. But we only have one lifetime, and a very short lifetime at best, to make that one final and fateful decision which will then determine what the rest of our eternal life will be like once we die and cross over to the other side, which will either be heaven for the saved or hell for the unsaved.
Being Righteous in our daily lives brings these blessings from the Lord:
We will receive life
We will keep and preserve our soul
We can have a long life here on this earth
Great peace will be given to us and it will be like a river
It will go well with our children
It will keep us from perishing
God will subdue our enemies
Our way will be made prosperous and we will have good success
Our heart will be rejoiced
Our eyes will be enlightened
The law will warn us and keep us out of harm’s way
Again, all of God’s ways and commandments are all being given to us for our own good and for our own protection. These commandments are not meant to stunt our spiritual growth or steal our joy in the Lord.
They are all meant to increase our spiritual growth and increase our peace and joy in the Lord.
As earthly parents, one of the first things we will do with all of our children as they are starting to grow is to tell them what they can and cannot do in this life.
We know that if we do not give them fair warning ahead of time as to what they should be staying away from in this life, that we risk them getting seriously hurt, if not possibly killed.
We thus give them the basic commandments they are to abide by in this life so we can keep them safe and out of harm’s way.
It is the exact same way with God the Father. Except with God the Father, He has full knowledge on exactly what we should all be staying away from in this life since He has absolute perfect knowledge on all things.
As such, we should all listen very carefully to what God is trying to tell us in these basic commandments, as they are all being given to us for our own good and protection. God is not trying to hurt us or harm us with all of these basic commandments, He is trying to help us and protect us.
If you really want to see how important it is that we seek to obey all of God’s laws and commandments, just take your time and meditate on some of the above verses.
King David especially was able to see how important it was that he try and learn the ways of Godso that he could continue to spiritually grow in Him. That is why some of the above verses are telling us that we will find true life in this life if we can learn how to live righteous lives before the Lord.
Since God has given each man and each woman a full free will to make their own choices in this life, He really has no other alternative but to sit back and watch this horror show unfold with the people who will end up rejecting Him, His ways, and His message of eternal salvation through His Son Jesus.
To think that a good percentage of the human race is going to end up in the most horrible place imaginable when they die and cross over, when they could have easily chosen the Lord and His message of eternal salvation for them, is enough to break your heart into a million pieces.
I do not believe there is a day or an hour that goes go by where God and Jesus are not crying and weeping for the souls who are descending down into hell with no chance of ever being able to make it back out again.
God initially created all of these lost souls for Himself, and He now has to watch all of them choose with their own free wills to reject Him and His Son Jesus during the course of their earthly lives.
And then when they do die and cross over, He has no other alternative but to let them descend down into the pit of hell itself, as they now have to be held fully accountable for all of the horrible choices they have made in this life.
As Christians, we do not have to worry about this kind of horrible and final fate. We will all be given full entrance into heaven the minute we die and cross over.
But until that final and glorious event actually occurs with each one of us, we should all be doing our best to try and live a good and righteous life before the Lord so that He will be well pleased with us when we do meet Him for our own personal judgments at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
From the heart, words from Gaz:
Brothers and Sisters, I see the love you have for God and for each other, I see the hardships and struggles some of you go through daily. Gods word tells us that you are not alone other go through the same things as well. Do not give in or up, stand on Gods word and read and dwell on it daily.
Let your lives not be worldly, but Godly in righteousness and with out sin. Don’t use vulgar speech or worldly sexual images, do not glorify demonic things by sharing them or there images. The world does that spreading filth and graven things, where we as Gods holy people need to put up things that Glorify Christ and enhance and grow Gods children. Let us keep our thoughts pure, do not repeat gossip or things that are not holy or righteous before God or each other.
I cry out to each of you to be Holy because Christ Jesus is Holy and allow the Holy Spirit in you not to be grieved.
God bless and keep you all,
Yours in Christ.
3