Righteous or Sinner?

You know the one verse that those who hate God know?

Matthew 7:1 NKJV

"Judge  not, that you be not judged."

Want to hear the irony in that?! The judging that Jesus is speaking about here is assessing another's worth or righteousness in comparison to your own.

Guess what every unregenerate person believes? They ALL believe they are a "good person", "not as bad as Hitler", or "not as bad as so-and-so". THAT IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF JUDGING THAT JESUS SAYS NOT TO DO.

Guess what every Spirit filled person (true believers, not just people who go to church) believes? We ALL believe that we are wretched sinners saved by grace, and we are just as bad in our hearts as Hitler was. There is no comparison. We are ALL equally guilty.

People hear the following verse and they think it applies only to those religious people who judge from their imaginary pious high horse, but it doesn't. It applies to them, but it also applies to the woman who looks at the woman across the store and thinks in her heart "that woman is such a slut".
It also applies to the person who thinks in their heart "that person is such a bigot". These people are self-righteous, comparing others to themselves or their expectations, and then casting judgment based on their own measuring stick. These are the self-righteous Jesus did not come to call

.

Matthew 9:13 NKJV

"But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Who then are the sinners Jesus came to call to repentance? It is those who know we are ALL sinners, and none is better than another. We let the Law of God bring conviction, making ALL guilty before God.

Luke 18:13-14 NKJV

"And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Man is Still Responsible Before God

Although God is perfectly sovereign, man still has a direct responsibility to Him to whom we owe account.

"Side by side with the immutability and invincibility of God's decrees, Scripture plainly teaches that man is a responsible creature and answerable for his actions. And if our thoughts are formed from God's Word the maintenance of the one will not lead to the denial of the other. That there is a real difficulty in defining where the one ends and the other begins is freely granted. This is ever the case where there is a conjunction of the Divine and the human. Real prayer is indited by the Holy Spirit, yet is also the cry of the human heart. The Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, yet were they written by men who were something more than machines in the hand of the Spirit. Christ is both God and man. He is Omniscient, yet 'increased in wisdom' (Luke 2:52). He was Almighty, yet was 'crucified through weakness' (2 Corinthians 13:4). He was the Prince of life, yet He died. High mysteries are these, yet faith receives them unquestioningly." - A.W. Pink

Decrees of God

One of the books that God put in my hands towards the end of my stay in prison was "The Attributes of God" by A.W. Pink. In his book he put into words all of the things that God has just spent over a year showing me. These are some great things to meditate on that your faith may grow.

"God's decrees are called His 'counsel' to signify they are consummately wise. They are called God's 'will' to show He was under no control, but acted according to His own pleasure. When a man's will is the rule of his conduct, it is usually capricious and unreasonable; but wisdom is always associated with 'will' in the Divine proceedings, and accordingly, God's decrees are said to be 'the counsel of His own will' (Ephesians 1:11)."
- A.W. Pink

Think about it...

"Our days are numbered, and so are the hairs of our heads. We may learn what is the extent of the Divine decrees from the dispensations of providence, in which they are executed. The care of Providence reaches to the most insignificant creatures, and the most minute events - the death of a sparrow, and the fall of a hair."
- A.W. Pink

"(The decrees of God) are absolute and unconditional. The execution of them is not suspended upon any condition which may, or may not be, performed. In every instance where God has decreed an end, He has also decreed every means to that end. The One who decreed salvation of His elect also decreed to work faith in them (Thessalonians 2:13). 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure' (Isaiah 46:10): but that could not be, if His counsel depended upon a condition which might not be performed. But God 'worketh all things after the counsel of His own will' (Ephesians 1:11)."
- A.W. Pink

"O my reader, how thankful should we be that everything is determined by infinite wisdom and goodness! What praise and gratitude are due unto God for His Divine decrees. It is because of them that 'we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose' (Romans 8:28). Well may we excaim, 'For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.' (Romans 11:36)." - A.W. Pink

Challenge Your Faith

Here is a question to challenge those who profess Christ. We sing of and talk about God's love for us, and many even profess that love to be unconditional. Time to challenge your faith, if you dare care to test what you think you know.

1. IF you must "choose" God in order for Him to save you, would that not make His love conditional?!

-You must either conclude that God's love is conditional, or that He loves you BEFORE you decided to glorify God as God.

2. IF God loves everybody the same, how do you tell someone being damned to Hell that God loves them?

- You must become a Universalist and blatantly make Jesus a liar by claiming that Hell is temporary and that suffering the undiluted wrath of God is somehow loving, or you conclude that God has a peculiar love for His bride (Imagine that).

Please feel free to comment on either point. Can your faith withstand testing? If it is built on Truth, it should.

My Reflection

Over the past few weeks I have been blasted by many for speaking God's Word and telling the truth. Today I was cleaning my old apartment, and I was just listening to worship music and praying. I don't want to estrange people, so I was just praying "Lord I will follow you anywhere, and I will speak whatever you want me to speak, just let me know that it is you."

I was examining the things I say, and the things I have been saying. Have I been judgmental? Am I inappropriately dividing the Word? What am I doing, and why? I asked that God would just show me. Show me what He wants me to be saying.

Towards the end of the cleaning I had peace in these things. The Word of God, and His Law, is to make EVERYONE guilty before Him. The Word should bring conviction. The Truth should offend. There is no difference between me and another as far as our "deeds" are conerned. We ALL stand guilty. A person has no hope in and of himself, and we must all have our conviction.

We are to use the Word to shine the light into the darkness, exposing the truth in hopes that people will realize that they are sinners under condemnation. Only then, in that place of humility, can one accept that they need a Savior. ONLY FAITH IN JESUS saves. PERIOD. Trust God. Is that not the Gospel?! Is that not how we are made righteous?

Maybe it is that I am failing to offer the solution after revealing the darkness, which would be a greivious error on my part. God forgive me. There is NO HOPE outside of Jesus.

Why Shouldn't We Have Our Best Life Now?

Christianity is about Jesus. When we wonder what our life should look like as a Christian, it should look like His.

1 John 2:6 NKJV

He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

John 14:4-7 NKJV

"And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

The persecution, the rejection, the humiliation... all the way to the cross.

John 13:16 NKJV

"Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him."

Revelation 12:11 NKJV

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

What I Teach is...

It appears to me that I haven't taken the time to properly convey things to some, so I am going to attempt a concise and pointed narrative.

For some reason some of you think I judge others by comparing them to me. Well... If I did that, that wouldn't be a bad thing because comparing anyone to me would ALWAYS make the other person look good. I know who I am, and I am a wretched sinner.

Here is what I teach in a nutshell (if I can be so precise).

We are ALL born into sin, and deserving of God’s holy wrath. We are born SLAVES to sin. That means sin owns us. We cannot do ANY good and our hearts are deceitful and wicked.

Psalms 51:5 NKJV

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

Jesus came as God in the flesh around 2000 years ago and was born of a virgin mother. He lived a sinless life and was crucified for the sins of those whose names were written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, and was raised from the dead all according to Scripture. In this act Jesus became the sin of the believing ones and suffered the wrath of God in our place, and HIS righteousness is imputed to those that He died for.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV

For He made Him who knew no sin to  be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

When a person turns to God with ALL of their heart through the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit, such a person is born again (filled with the Holy Spirit) and made new. We are given remission of sins through faith in Jesus Christ, and sanctified through the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ezekiel 36:25-27 NKJV

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

The spiritual state of a person produces FRUIT, which is the by product of what is going on in our heart. If a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, they produce like fruit in their lives. If a person is not filled with the Holy Spirit, still a slave to sin, they produce like fruit in their lives.

Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who  are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

These things are manifest as a RESULT of the God/god in a person's life. If Jesus is our God, then we are in right standing before. If Jesus is not God to a person, they are guilty of idolatry and abide under the wrath of God.

The RESULT of Jesus being God to a person is that the person is free from sin, and is being sanctified (made like Christ) to the glory of the Father. The  RESULT of Jesus not being God to a person is that the person is a slave to sin, and GOD GIVES THEM OVER to the destructive behaviors of the flesh.

This is a HEART issue, NOT a "do it yourself" project. ONLY Jesus can save you and make you free. I NEVER speak about me, but ALWAYS about God, for a person must fully turn to Him with ALL of their heart. If the fruit of the flesh is evident in a person's life, they must be made aware of their idolatry that they might return to God and be healed.