It’s ALL about Love – Lies of the Enemy #2 – Purity 1014

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a row of park benches bathed in the dusky, dusky light of the sun setting over Lake Ontario comes to us from Rocco Scea of Celestial Blue Photography, who shared this photo on social media last night commenting that his evening ended well with a bike ride at sunset. We thank him for bringing his camera along for the ride and capturing and sharing these magnificent views, uh, that he shares with his friends. Well, it is Tuesday, and tonight is the last scheduled meeting of the Freedom in Christ course that I facilitate online, where I try to share the biblical worldview, uh, that the course materials put forth as a framework from which we can experience our freedom in Christ. In tonight's session, we will be sharing the Course's guidelines for our walk of faith, and so I share them here. And, um, so the God— God's guidelines for the walk of faith say: Success comes from having the right goals. Success is accepting God's goal for our lives and by his grace becoming what he has called us to be. Significance comes from the proper use of time. What is forgotten in time is of little significance. What is remembered for eternity is of great significance. Fulfillment comes from serving others. Fulfillment is discovering our own uniqueness in Christ and using our gifts to build up others and glorify the Lord. Satisfaction comes from living a quality life. Satisfaction is living righteously and and seeking to raise the quality of our relationships and the things we do. Happiness comes from wanting what we have. Happiness is being thankful for what we have— what we do have, rather than focusing on what we don't have, because happy are the people who want what they have. Fun comes from enjoying life moment by moment. The secret is to remove unbiblical hindrances such as keeping up appearances. Security comes from focusing on eternal values. Insecurity comes from— comes when we depend on things that will pass away rather than things that will last forever. Peace— and finally, peace comes from quieting the inner storm. The peace of God is internal, not external. As you can see, well, I didn't speak of them, but in the text on the blog, there are Bible verses that are referenced text to use to support these guidelines on how to experience success, significance, fulfillment, satisfaction, happiness, fun, security, and peace. It, it's the truth of God's word, um, we must stand on to experience the abundant life Christ has for us. We have to live by and in the truth of God's word. I wanted to point that out before transitioning to our new and possibly unending current series of the— on the lies of the enemy. I point a shaking finger towards today's big lie because the enemy will undoubtedly use offense, the bait of Satan, to accuse and berate me for exposing one of the most popular falsehoods of our age. And, um, the lie, lie number 2, uh, so far is Christianity is all about love. And sometimes, you know, we expect the world extends that as life is all about love. Now I hit myself with the truth of God's word by offering the words of Jesus to testify that love is a fundamental aspect of our faith, as Jesus himself said in Matthew 22:37-39, where he said, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: love your neighbor as yourself.' So yes, it is clear that we are to love God and to love people. But that's not all Jesus said, uh, to establish these commandments of love. He also said in Matthew 22:40, the entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. Here Jesus doesn't dismiss the law or the prophets, but lets us know that all the demands that come from them are based on, on these commands to love God and love people. Today's big lie is that all— that Christianity is all about love, and this is the trap of the enemy. Whenever you hear extreme language that would lift one aspect of our faith or experience above all the other variables, we have to be careful that we aren't presenting a false image of God or what he demands for us. Uh, while we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, we are to love God first and love them according to what he says is true. Loving, loving Jesus, when speaking of those who would not accept the gospel, told his apostles to, um, told his apostles in Matthew 10:14-16, if any household or town refuses to welcome you or to listen to your message, shake its dust from, from your feet as you leave. I tell you the truth, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off than such a town on, on the Judgment Day. Look, I am sending you out among— as sheep among wolves. So be shrewd as snakes and harmless as doves. He calls the non-believing wicked wolves who would face judgment and destruction. And what are, are And what are we supposed to do in their presence? Shake the dust off our feet and leave. We are to unlovingly separate ourselves from their company. Christianity isn't all about love to the point that we would excuse sin and give the non-believing or the unrepentant sinner the false security of our fellowship or, or affirm their sinful lifestyles. It's not all about love. It's all about God's standards of— it's also about God's standards of morality. As Christ said, that even though he shifted— as Christ said, you know, that even though he shifted some paradigms about the Pharisees' understanding of the law, he wasn't getting rid of the law. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said, don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. So the point behind today's big lie is that although we are to love our neighbors, we are to do so in the context of God's holiness. Christ told us to repent in Matthew 4:17, so we have to change from our worldly ways of wisdom that would teach us that as long as no one is harming anyone, any behavior is okay. And turn towards God's ways, that would tell us that some things are just wrong, and that those who do them with no repentance will find themselves separated from God's kingdom, no matter how amusing, charming, or loving they may seem to be. So let's lovingly encourage people to believe in the gospel and to repent, instead of saying— instead of telling people their wrong actions and beliefs are okay. We should follow the word of God, God's advice in Ephesians 4:15, which says, instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. I know how difficult facing today's big lie is because we want to be well-liked by the world, and I know that speaking of God's holiness is an offense to the world that is perishing. However, if we truly love people, we would seek to warn them of the danger they're in and encourage them to find peace with God by putting their faith in Jesus and seek to become more like him by abandoning their ways that are contrary to his. And we move along to today's verse, um, after dropping that, um, uh, today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verses are— or, well, verse is Philippians 4:6, and it says, uh, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Today's verse tells us to be anxious for nothing in the NKJV and to pray, uh, to continually pray, give thanks to God, and to let him know what you need. It all points to a robust, robust moment-to-moment relationship with the Lord and advises us that we need not live in fear because we know God. Don't worry, God is with us. Don't forget what he has done for you and will do for you. Thank him. Ask him for help. Ask him for wisdom. Ask him for strength. Pray about everything. How do we overcome fear? Through knowing and relating to God continuously in the practices of prayer and thanksgiving. These practices keep us grounded in the truth of who God is, who we are in Christ, and remind us that we are accepted, significant, and secure because of the peace we have with God through our faith in, in Jesus Christ. So if fear arises, pray for help and thank God for what he has done, knowing that even if, if the help we ask for doesn't arrive like we think it should, we will still be secure in him. And, um, that, that takes care of everything today. Uh, as always, we do invite you to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Um, today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink's The Sovereignty of God in chapter 12, as we will I'm going to very soon conclude this study. In fact, today we are sharing the conclusion of— well, the beginning of the conclusion of the book. So we're beyond chapter 12, actually. I apologize for that as I take a look at this. So if you want to see how A.W. Pink starts to conclude his book on the sovereignty of God, go to M.t. Clark.org and you'll find that resource at the end of today's blog post. As always, we encourage a life of discipleship which is based on the word of God, and, and a life of repentance where we, we examine the word of God, examine our lives, and try to have our lives match up with what the word would have us do. Um, just yesterday, Today's Big Lie was brought to you by the good folks at, uh, Deeper Walk International School of Prayer Ministry. As one of my fellow students decided to chastise me in a discussion thread where I merely said that we have to know the Word of God and, you know, examine our experience and try to apply it to our lives and be discerning. That was all I said in a general term. In these discussion boards, we generally just want to meet the requirement of responding to someone's thing. Someone's post, and in this post the person, you know, said something, and I said, "Yeah, well, you know, it's difficult to discern the role of our experience and what Scripture says and to, you know, not be too far one way or the other." And I was more or less agreeing with that and saying we have to know the Word of God and try to apply it the best we can and be discerning. That's it. Basically saying, I agree with you. Well, one of my, uh, fellow students decided to take offense that I was, I was suggesting that we try too hard and that, oh, it's so tough to— I don't know, I don't know what. It went all over the place. It was a meandering post, uh, and it just basically said that we shouldn't be so worried about being right or wrong as much as we are to love people. And so thus today's big lie, you know, the emphasis on love over, over what's right and wrong, um, right in a Christian context. So, you know, I'm rather sensitive to the idea today, and it's tough. I, I hear you, but I'm going to stand on the word of God and point people to it, uh, and yes, we'll have to be loving, but we should also be, um you know, standing in the truth of God's word as Christians. So that's what I was doing. I was merely doing that. But apparently my suggestion to know the word of God was just, uh, trying too hard, apparently. And, um, you know, they, they, they, they oscillated between, you know, not for nothing, but they oscillated between humility and pride, saying, oh, I mess up a lot. And me as an older person know so much because of my long life of experience, and that I am now doing this anointed prayer ministry and have been doing it for years, that my wisdom comes to bear, and that we don't need to know the word of God so much. You know, really? Um, no. You know, I get that, and some people are hurting and don't know. And yeah, so what do we do? Well, as an authentic Biblical counseling would direct us. We confront people when they don't know and show them that the suffering that they, that they're suffering from comes from a lack of knowledge of, of the word of God, or a lack of repentance to turn to the word of God. And so we lovingly direct people to repent, seek forgiveness, cancel any ground the enemy has in their lives, and to walk forward in victory by living a Christian life. So I won't hesitate to continue to say that. I had to revise my response to that one more than once, let me tell you. But I did end up saying false teachers, so we're in trouble. So I'm ready to hear it from everyone in my class for calling someone out. You know, after being called out unnecessarily. I'm like, yeah, I'm not sure where you're going, but I stand by what I say. And the fact that you would lead people away from, you know, the study of God's word, you know, that's— this sounds like a false teacher to me. Hath God said? Yeah, he did, and we should follow what he says. Anyway, there. If anybody in my class is listening, I'm sure I'll hear about this response, but Sometimes you can say more with your voice than you can in a text format. As we know, we can easily be misunderstood, and I may have misunderstood their comments because of the text that it was written in. You know, within it, you know, there was a controversy. I guess the Dalai Lama decided to kiss some boy on the mouth and asked him to stick his tongue in his mouth. And they dismissed this as an indiscretion and, you know, tried to console someone that he wasn't a Christian. I don't care if you're a Christian or not, we have to stand on what's right and wrong, and we should probably keep someone like that away from children. And if that's happening in public, we have to be, you know, we might want to look into someone's private behavior as well. Um, the, the— as someone, as a, as an ex-follower of the teachings of Buddha, uh, the false religion of Buddhism, um, I can tell you that they have something in Buddhism called crazy wisdom, where the anointed sage or guru, um, was beyond, uh, the moral, uh, precepts of their, of their philosophy of life. And was allowed to be drunk and allowed to have concubines. And so that's the faith tradition that Buddhism has. Um, you know, granted that was a, uh, you know, an extreme version, but look up Crazy Wisdom and, um, you'll see that it was something within Buddhism and it basically allowed for moral, moral, moral dalliances of sin. And, uh, and so if the head of the, the religion is soul-kissing some kid in public, um, we have to wonder about what's going on in private. And we don't dismiss someone's behavior because they're not a Christian. We're all accountable for our behavior and whether it's right or wrong, first, you know, amongst each other, and more importantly, in, in terms of what God's word says. You know, that's where we'll be judged, and we judge rightly. We don't just dismiss someone's actions because they weren't a Christian. So there, I think I've said everything I needed to say, and I feel great because I really, you know, my heart is to stand on the word of God and to not allow, you know, sentiments of love, you know, get in the way of God's truth and, you know, what right— you know, what, what is right according to God's word. So thus today's thing, uh, today's big lie is that Christianity is all about love. And, um, you know, Christian— our, our, you know, some people say our faith is simple. I would say it's filled with paradoxes and it's rather complicated, but it is also simple, which is a paradox in itself. It doesn't have to be complicated. Do what the Word of God said. It's pretty simple. However, we make it very complicated, and we debate these things, you know. I don't think it's really a matter of debate. We're to obey and follow the Word of the Lord and be transformed by the renewing of our mind. By how? The— by the Word of God. So if you're going to tell me to love and dismiss doing the hard work of knowing what God's works word says, I'm going to call you out on it. Um, so there, that's, that's a fun, peaceful message today. Um, so yeah, I stand by everything I say, and I've been chastised in the past, so you don't have to get in line. Why? Because I'm not going to stand— let someone who stands on the authority of their age or their, you know, their current ministry as, as, as saying that you know, put those things above the error that they're, uh, that they're putting forth. Um, so that's that. So we encourage you to seek the truth. By how? By not listening to someone, but to listening to the word of the Lord and reading it for yourself, doing that hard work of knowing what the word of God says and, uh, and applying it to your life. So if it's striving, you know, we strive for righteousness. By trying to become more conformed to the image of Christ. Um, but take it easy, you know, one step at a time, one thing at a time. But when we see error, we really gotta call it out. Um, believe me, I don't do this on a normal basis, but this is my forum, and, uh, you know, I'll respond in kind. Um, you know, anyway, if you have any complaints, you can send them to mtforchrist247@gmail.com. Also, if you wanted to receive the teachings, the notes from the teachings that we've done on Victor Over the Darkness, the Bondage Breaker, or Freedom in Christ, you can email me at the same address. In fact, someone from Poland basically was listening or watching the teachings on YouTube and asked for the materials for Bondage Breaker yesterday. So I'm humbled by the fact that, you know, people are still listening, uh, or, you know, paying attention to these teachings. And I'm so glad I recorded them back in 2021 and decided to share them on the podcast and YouTube, because these teachings are all based on the word of God. They address the hard issues of false beliefs within Christianity and the spiritual forces of darkness. And so I put them out there, and people are listening, listening to them, and asking for more material on it. All I can do is point to the Word of God and this truth that is revealed therein. And so I do that. And we also obviously, obviously encourage Bible study. And so we encourage people to study the Word of God and to talk about it, like me and Arthur Sincadi do basically every weekend with our informal topical Bible study. So if you wanted to sit and listen in, um, you'll find all those studies basically under the heading of Bible Study with the Zinkatis. That's all the plugs I got today. That's all the controversy I got today. Um, well, we'll see what big lie comes up tomorrow. And honestly, we could just, you know, do a whole series on the all lies, you know, any— or the never lies or whatever. But we'll, we'll We'll follow the Holy Spirit and, and, uh, see what the Lord puts on our hearts tomorrow. And as I, as I showed today, this stuff will come up in your experience, and, uh, what do you do with it? Well, you examine it by your intentions, what the word of God says, and, uh, try to be right, you know, try to be on God's side, uh, with things, uh, the best you can, and somehow be loving. Um, stand in truth and love somehow, and, uh, according to the word of God. Anyway, let's pray, because I, I'm not a, I'm not a full-time theologian or pastor. I'm just a working stiff who's, who's trying to, to follow the Lord the best I can and encourage other people to do so because of the abundant life I discovered that came from surrendering to God's will. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for all that you've done uh, for us, for showing us the truth of your word and convicting our hearts to follow you in spirit and in truth. And Lord, we just pray for anyone else who's listening to this long message, uh, that they would be blessed, um, Lord, that you would come alongside them in their prayer requests and that you encourage them in their walk of faith. Uh, Lord, all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom, um, share this truth of the gospel and, uh, to do it in our lives the best we can. And Lord, so we need your help. Open our eyes to the things you want us to do, or the things you want us to see, and lead our paths in the things you would have us do. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.