Keeping the Faith

There is no question in my mind that we are living in the last of the last days. In the Book of Acts it was the beginning of the last days as we see the Book of Joel quoted by Peter. (Acts 2:14) There are awesome things happening where the knowledge of the glory of the Lord is covering the earth. (Hab. 2:14)

Now the Spirit clearly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith and pay attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

1 Timothy 4:1-3

In these days as well there are sad things that are taking place as people fall for a counterfeit gospel. Paul says in I Timothy that people will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils among other things. In doing this Paul clearly states that people are “departing from the faith” through these actions. Jesus also makes it abundantly clear that just because someone does something in ?His Name? it does not mean that He (Jesus) knows the person.

What is Lawlessness?

In this passage Jesus not only doesn’t know them but is very upset with their “lawlessness”. What does the law do? It reveals what sin is. It defines things. It creates boundaries.

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Matthew 7:21-23

In Romans Chapter 7 Paul shares that apart from the law there is not sin. Sin is defined by the law. Although the law does not bring salvation – it is good. In the inner man Paul delighted in the law of God.

Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good? For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.

Romans 7:12, 22

In Matt. 7:21, for those who told the Lord all they had done in His name, it was not this random mishap or mistake that Jesus addresses in their lives – it was a practice of lawlessness and sin. In other words sin was a normal routine and habit that had been embraced even though they had even been out and about doing “the ministry”.

Are Grace & Holiness Contrary?

What about the grace of God? The primary reason that God?s grace is amazing is because it has the power to transform a person from a lifestyle of sin to living a life that glorifies Jesus, abides in the Holy Spirit and therefore demonstrates righteousness and holiness. This shown revealed by a life manifesting the law of God from the inside out, a life with boundaries being separated from sin in their daily living.

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:20-24

Why holiness matters?

• The first name of the Holy Spirit is “Holy”. This is clear with no mysteries here.

• Holiness is beautiful. It is part of our life of worship to God. Just as the psalmist David wrote from the depths of His intimacy with God – our life of devotion must be just as real and vibrant as we have the fullness of His Spirit in Christ. Therefore the standard does not go down BUT UP! Why? Because we have been entrusted with a greater measure of His Spirit and power not only to live a supernatural life but to emanate a life of holiness that reflects God’s nature in fullness.

Give to the Lord the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come before Him.
Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

1 Chronicles 16:29

In the Book of Revelation you will notice that when the four living creatures worship God they hit on one theme over and over again saying, “HOLY! HOLY! HOLY!“

Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:
“Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!”

Revelation 4:5-11

This is not a passing theme but an eternal theme of the nature of God – even something we must pay attention to among all the other important things many think they need to do for God. Mary of Bethany got this. She understood that sitting at the feet of Jesus was not time lost but time gained while Martha was just being a busybody. Hear what Jesus says when He tells Martha that the ?one thing? that Mary was doing would not be taken away. It would not be taken because it was of eternal value. She was spending time in the Presence of Jesus absorbing His words and nature because she recognized the value of just hanging out with Him.

For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 4:7-8

Paul constantly makes pleas for the people of God to live holy lives without compromise – also saying that he who rejects a life of holiness rejects God Who has given His Holy Spirit.

Keeping In Step With the Spirit

We’ve been called to live by the Holy Spirit. How do we do that? Maybe there are some out there caught up in a double-minded lifestyle where you are trying to live in two different worlds. Jesus loves everyone in this world but He does not hang out with everyone. If you are constantly grieving the Holy Spirit He will not stick around. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

James 4:8

Get started here:

1. Recognize what sin is.
   You have to realize what sin is otherwise you don’t know what needs to change. What is fornication? What is adultery? Read the Bible. Ignorance is not bliss. Download the Bible onto your phone. Do a word search. Find out what is pleasing and displeasing to God.
2. Repent of sin.
   All sin is simply doing the wrong things. Once you figure out what you are doing wrong then repent changing your direction.
3. Ask Jesus to Be LORD over your life.
   This is beyond just getting a Savior, which He is, but if He is not Lord of all He is not Lord at all. Surrender your life to Him.
4. Begin to Change Your Surroundings & Habits
   As a new creation in Christ your way of living has to change with it. Ask God to convict you and show you the stuff in your life that needs changed – this includes relationships, habits and other things that affect your walk with God. Don’t settle for less that God’s best for your life. Surround yourself with people who will encourage you to seek God, worship Jesus, read the Word and welcome the Holy Spirit.

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14

Holiness is not an option but a requirement that comes from living in intimacy with God.

His Perfection Revealed In You

Holiness is not some religious outward appearance but an effortless outflow of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you. Not to say the Holy Spirit may need to change the way you look and dress outwardly. (i.e. modesty, I Tim. 2:9) We are the ?temples? of the Holy Spirit. (I Cor. 6:19) God used to dwell in the Ark of the Covenant. Now, because of the blood of Jesus Christ, He dwells in us by the Presence of the Holy Spirit.

You don’t have to be perfect. That is not what holiness is about. Yet you have a choice to welcome the Holy Spirit who is perfect to come dwell inside of you. It is the Holy Spirit that will change the way you live from the inside out. What you do have is a choice. You have to choose to be filled with the Spirit continually. That is why Paul encouraged God’s people to “let the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all”.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:14

Intimacy with God has the power to change your life. Like Mary of Bethany, you have to make the choice to spend time developing your relationship with God. It would be superficial if I said, “I know so and so” but never even spent any time with the person or ignored what they had to say – never listening.

These things we also speak, not in words which man?s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

1 Corinthians 2:13-15

His words are a big part of our intimacy with Him as well. If we ignore His commands we cannot be His disciples (John 8:31-32). He has to be our Teacher, even the Holy Spirit, and we have to follow His instructions.

The Purpose of God’s Grace

The grace of God enables you to live after the Holy Spirit, not after the lusts of your flesh. The grace of God empowers you to follow Jesus. The grace of God causes you to overcome in righteousness.

The grace of God is not a scrub brush to use after you sin so that you can go right back into it. There is no godly sorrow or fear in that way of thinking. That is double-minded living (2 Cor. 7:10-11). Godly sorrow leads to repentance and godly fear is normal for those who follow Jesus. It does not mean you won’t make a mistake but it is not a lifestyle of sin you embrace. It means you’ve changed the overall direction of your life, not living in presumption of God’s grace but seeing God’s grace as empowerment to live pleasing to Him.

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven? Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:25, 28-29

The writer of the Book of Hebrews states that you’ve not resisted sin to the point of shedding your blood – reminding us that Jesus is the standard (Hebrews 12:3-4). Have grace to serve the Lord with godly fear.

Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude 1:3-9

Take notice that lewd living is not endorsed by God. Also take note that grace does not empower it. His grace comes to us giving us a heart of repentance from sin, renunciation of sin, surrender to God and cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ then enables us to experience the grace of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hearing His Voice & Abiding in Him

God loves everyone but He does not love sin or the sinful lifestyle. Jesus gave His life for the entire world but not everyone comes to Him.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world?the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life?is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 2:15

There is a great delusion in these last days. It is a doctrine that teaches that people can do whatever they want and God won’t mind and it’s no big deal – grace covers it. Nothing could be further from the truth. God’s Spirit empowers us to live a godly life not a self-consumed life that feeds the flesh (sinful nature), its lusts and desires. People who have a form of religion but deny the power of God to live like Christ are deceived (2 Tim. 3:5).

For I am the Lord, I do not change.

Malachi 3:6

Our God is a consuming fire. He has not changed. John 3:16 is one of the most amazing and recognized verses about the salvation that Jesus gives. Yet we don’t want to miss what He continues to say in the following verses.

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.

John 3:19-21

This is why our relationship with God is to be continual and abiding. God calls us to ABIDE in Him, ABIDE in His words, ABIDE in His Spirit and ABIDE in the secret place of His Presence. Make sure you are not hearing just what you want to hear.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

2 Timothy 4:3-4

God is for us. He works with us where we are to bring us along. The main thing is that we cooperate with Him, heed what He says and live after His Spirit. Your actions will speak that you are heading His direction. Give your whole heart to Him as you live a life set apart in holiness for His purposes.