The Cause, the Delusion and the Damnation
When
one accepts and embraces the delusion, which is a result of “this cause,” –
rejecting the gospel and the Message of the Cross, the end result is damnation.
There is an awful reality about this Verse. It is straightforward and no room
for side issues. In other words, one is either lost or saved, believing the
truth or rejecting the truth! There is NO middle ground. The ultimate
consequences for them who obey not God will be condemnation. Failing to
appropriate the Truth of the Gospel, they willingly choose wickedness instead.
Consequently, they cannot blame circumstances, education, lack of money, or any
other thing millions put the blame on today for the way they live. In reality,
most of the church world has chosen another way, which of course is a delusion,
i.e. THE LIE. During the coming Great Tribulation the deception, that will
envelop the entirety of the Earth, will not really be any different than now,
except it will just get more powerful and be more widespread. THE TRUTH has
always been the same, which is the Cross of Christ as it regards the Salvation
of humanity, and “the LIE” has always been the same, which is a rejection of the
Truth, rather opting for something else.
By Chris McDonald
TEXT: 2 Thes. 2:10-12 - And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. [11] And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: [12] That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
As I write this journal this week we want to take up part two actually of our journal last week about the love of the truth. Let me make a few statements to begin with to lay a foundation once again about this all important subject and one that is taking place before our very eyes. One, let the reader be sure that we are living the last of the last days. I’m reminded of a church I attended briefly in Lexington, Kentucky almost a decade ago now where the preacher got up Sunday after Sunday and debunked that statement telling everyone he didn’t believe we were living in that type of time on Planet Earth. In his view, as is with all Dominionism teachers (we will deal with what that means and how it ties into this journal later) the Church, not Christ, will set the time for the Lord’s return by our “subduing” the Earth through political, social and other spiritual means. I was actually backslid at the time to be frank but even in my backslidden condition I knew what this man was preaching was error. Neighbor be sure that that we ARE living in the last days as spoken of by the Apostles.
Let me say something that may help you understand what the Bible says about the times we live in. The prophets of old foresaw Israel’s fall and restoration but for the most part they did not see the church age. Their prophecies can be applied to our spiritual life and in some ways a great deal of the prophetic angst the Lord had against Israel can be applied to the condition of the church. However, when we take passages that are meant to define what will happen to Israel in the Kingdom Age when she is restored to Her Messiah and once more will be the head of all nations and apply those passages to the church and teach that we are destined to take over the world in a similar manner we’re headed for error. The prophets saw great judgment i.e. the Great Tribulation coming upon Israel as Jeremiah alluded to when he called it the time of “Jacob’s trouble.” Daniel saw it as his “70th Week.”
Jeremiah 30:7
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
Daniel 9:24-27
Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. [25] Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. [26] And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. [27] And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Isaiah saw the travail of Israel and even her prayer of intercession that will touch the heart of God during the onslaught of Armageddon when His fury will rise up against her enemies and the Eastern Skies will burst forth with Christ and the Saints and the Antichrist will be defeated as the Lord delivers Israel from the jaws of certain death. All of these things are yet future and have not taken place as of yet. The ground stage is being prepared for it- be sure of that – but the actual fulfillment of the prophetic passages of the Old Covenant are tied to the Great Tribulation period and the literal Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah saw this time as well foretelling that two-thirds of the entire Jewish population will perish along with the countless millions of others during this terrible time that Jesus Himself declared would be a time so bad that there has not been time in the past like it or any time in the future quite like the Great Tribulation:
Matthew 24:21
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
It humors me when so-called ministers and even prophets proclaim “peace, peace,” and “prosperity, prosperity,” is coming to the Earth and use these same passages in the Old Covenant to prophesy such and then totally ignore the passages pertaining to judgment and the coming travail of the Earth prior to the Lord’s return. That’s called delusion and error friend and it has seeped deep into the church’s blood stream in these last days. Jeremiah proclaims that despite the peace claims of the prophet and priest, the health of the people is not recovered nor are the hurts of the people healed!
Jeremiah 8:10-11, 21 - Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely. [11] For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. [12] Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. 21 - For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. [22] Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
The apostles i.e. Paul, Peter, John, Jude and James, saw conditions that would take place in the CHURCH at the end of the last days.
2 Tim. 3:1-3
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. [2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, [3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Paul was given the message of the New Covenant along with the revelation that Gentiles would be grafted into the Covenant that God had originally planned for Israel and will one day bring it to pass on a national level with His chosen people. However, because of the unbelief of Israel’s religious leaders, God has pushed Israel aside – just for a season – not forever – to CALL out a body of people – both JEW and GENTILE called the CHURCH, the Body of Christ. The apostles’ writings are meant to address issues in that Body along with their plea to national Israel as well as the entire world that man’s only hope of salvation from eternal hell is the Cross of Christ.
Romans 11:25-27
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. [26] And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: [27] For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Romans 10:1-3
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. [2] For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. [3] For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
ALL SOUND DOCTRINE CENTERS ON THE CROSS! I want to scream that again: ALL SOUND DOCTRINE CENTERS AROUND THE CROSS! The Cross is not a spoke of the wheel where something else takes center stage i.e. healing, miracles, money, prosperity, baptism in the Holy Spirit, evangelism, etc. The Cross IS the wheel and these other things are to be the “spokes” from which this great gospel message that we have been entrusted with in these last days springs from. It’s the CROSS and all doctrine that abrogates or denigrates the role of the Cross as it pertains to godliness is a FALSE doctrine and it will lead millions to hell if not exposed and shown to be what it is.
Don’t get this writer wrong; these other things are not bad in themselves, God forbid. We believe in miracles, we believe in tongues, healing, prophecy and the gifts of the Spirit, we believe in the power of God to heal, we believe in the power of God to perform miracles TODAY, not yesterday, but TODAY, we believe in the mighty baptism in the Holy Ghost; we believe in evangelism; that is why we have this website and have maintained it for ten years now in hopes that some poor disposed soul which may be lost in the darkness of sin may wonder upon it and find the answer to their darkened heart, repent, believe the gospel and be saved. If just one person gets saved off this site, all the journals, the efforts and the time spent keeping it up and maintained will be worth eternity for that individual. I remember in 2003 we got an email from a lady who told us up front she was a lesbian but she had read something on our site that had quickened something in her heart from childhood. She has been raised in the church and had backslid but when she read a journal about the blood of Jesus, she said “I began to cry remembering being taught that in Sunday School as a young girl.” I wished I could tell you she told us she got saved; she didn’t. But at the very LEAST a nugget was planted in her heart and I believe before it’s over she is going to come back to God; we’re praying for that!
Our MESSAGE is not a by product or periphery of doctrine, our MESSAGE IS THE CENTER OF ALL DOCTRINE – the center of the WHEEL of God’s plan for man – the Cross of Christ; i.e. Christ and Him Crucified!
That brings me to my second foundational point and that is that the number one motivation of Satan, the Lawless One, who will embody the coming Antichrist and give power to the False prophet, is to DECEIVE and palm what he does off as “righteousness” when in fact it is unrighteousness. In our text, the Holy Spirit calls it the “deceivableness of unrighteousness.”
2 Thes. 2:10-12 - And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved
This is rooted in the church’s refusal to preach the true gospel and instead promote psychology, the modules of new age gurus i.e. the Purpose Driven Church and Life; i.e. forty days of purpose (Neighbor the Holy Ghost don’t take 40 days to change you – He just needs 1 second to change you if you will but believe in the Shed Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and keep your FAITH anchored there and no where else!); the prosperity message that equates righteousness with how much financial goods one has in this life; lying signs and wonders by charlatans to manipulate and deceive people into giving money that winds up in $20,000 toilet seats, jet airplanes to take hunting trips and a myriad of other schemes. Religious pimps pumping the machine promising if someone gives $100 God is obligated to return $1000. That is a LIE neighbor and it’s causing untold harm in the Body of Christ. Yet millions believe lies while others wonder why so many well meaning people can fall into such deception.
The answer to that is simple yet it is complex. Never forget this friend. ALL sin i.e. “unrighteousness,” contains a form of deception, yet deception never comes into the church however looking like “unrighteousness,” but “righteousness!” I want to say that again. NO error that has ever damned men’s souls to hell came parading into the Church on the back of error but on the back of a truth! If the error came in on error people would outright reject it to be frank. But if the error is wrapped up in nuggets of truth we then embrace the error because “it sounds like truth!” I dare say that we ALL have not been led astray at one point or another in our lives, even our Christian lives because of Satan’s lies. I know this writer has and he understands the power of this battle for truth does not come without cost. I know the hurt following the lies of Satan can cause one’s family, one’s ministry and one’s life. That is the purpose of deception – to DESTROY one’s FAITH in CHRIST!
We wrote last week of the love of the truth and that truth is not anything SAVE the Cross of Christ and Him Crucified! Again, the Cross is not a periphery Doctrine, but the foundation of ALL doctrine and ALL true Christian FAITH! If one does not have a proper understanding of “the Truth,” which understanding will always produce and generate a “love of the TRUTH,” one’s Salvation is literally at stake! The only message that can save the sinner and sanctify the saint is the message of the SHED BLOOD of the Lord Jesus Christ! That is THE message of this website- CHRIST and HIM CRUCIFIED! There is no other message that you will find proclaimed but CHRIST and HIM CRUCIFIED! We preach it; we sing it; we pray it; we testify – CHRIST and HIM CRUCIFIED! EVERYTHING neighbor known to man is found in the CROSS and what Christ did for us there.
Christ did not die on a cross to guarantee you’d drive around town in a Rolls Royce or that you would have 100 suits in the closet or use the bathroom on $20,000 gold plated toilet seats; He suffered and shed His Precious blood that you and I would be set free from the powers of darkness and the shackles and chains of sin! Neighbor, I hope you’re hearing what I’m saying to you through these words! As we move deeper into the last of the last days the Holy Spirit is drawing a deeper line in the sand and that line is the CROSS that is separating the Apostate Church from the True Church. It’s always been like this but as we draw closer to the end, the demarcation lines are getting clearer and more pronounced! So is the battle for truth! The Apostate Church will be against and reject this message while the TRUE Church will embrace it and not accept a substitute. Yet because the True Church does not bow to the substitutes the Apostate Church offers, the Apostate Church wages war against the True! That too has been an earmark of the Christian faith from the dawn of time. Cain killed Abel over this fight of appropriate Sacrifice. Yet because men do not love the truth and embrace this message however, the Holy Spirit warns that “for this cause,” God shall send strong delusion that they should believe a LIE and be damned!
I want to state it again in a different way. If men want the truth they will receive the truth. If they want the LIE they will get the LIE! Sadly, MILLIONS want the LIE and are embracing it at this very moment! As we discussed in our journal last week, the TRUTH is not some abstract argument about theology or the babblings of foolish men that twist scripture to justify their damnable theology of filthy lucre and monetary gain or the just as foolish babblings of unbelieving believers masking themselves up as preachers promoting a social gospel instead of preaching the Cross! THE FAITH speaks of the great Sacrifice of Christ, the great Atonement of Christ, where Jesus purchased man’s Redemption by the spilling of HIS own, Precious Blood, which delivered us from the powers of darkness and gave to us ETERNAL life! That is “THE FAITH!”
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Galatians 1:4
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
Yet the message and the faith that I speak of is being attacked like never before from behind pulpits and television cameras in these modern times from men who have strayed from the preaching of the gospel. In this text, I want to look at the Cause, the Delusion and the Damnation that the Holy Spirit seems to stress in this short passage in Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. Again, because men DELIBERATELY reject the truth and they refuse to love the truth God will send strong delusion that they will believe a lie and be damned! Paul re-emphasizes the fate of rejecters of the Truth and adds more information about them by stating that the power of deception will take on supernatural forms and be so wickedly deceptive and powerful that rebellious mankind and the apostate church as a whole will not be able to resist its pull.
The Cause
2 Thes. 2:11 - And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie
The phrase “for this cause,” refers back to the last phrase of the Tenth Verse, meaning they did not love “the TRUTH!” I ask you again as I did last week, what is the Truth? Simply put, the TRUTH is the CROSS of which the Holy Spirit through the Apostle speaks here. This is where the Church’s FAITH must be centered. If that is rejected, the end result is destruction, for it can only be destruction since God has only one way of Salvation!
Hear what this writer says to you today. One must understand that despite Jesus being God, despite being Virgin born, despite His miracles, as wonderful and powerful and glorious as all these aspects of His Earthly life were, had He not gone to the Cross, man could not have been redeemed, could not have been saved and not delivered from the powers of darkness. It was only the BLOOD which was applied to the doorposts of the homes of the Children of Israel in Egypt, which affected their Salvation! To be sure, the Lord performed miracles after miracle in previous months, demanding that Pharaoh let His people go. Although the miracles were very important, and were definitely from God, they affected NO deliverance!
Please let that sink in. Millions follow after preachers who purport to do miracles, signs and wonders which neighbor I believe in and do not doubt one second that God does not do such things today and do them in grand fashion. God heals people today. God delivers those who trust in Him and He sets men free. God performs financial miracles as our home has experienced this past year. But no matter how many miracles one may experience in their life, unless they are BORN AGAIN they are not going to heaven!
It was ONLY when the Lamb was slain and the blood spilled and applied as
directed by the Lord, that guaranteed deliverance of the Children of Israel. It
was on THIS basis that God performed the greatest miracle of all, taking out the
firstborn in every home in Egypt, even of the beasts, which hit at the very
heart of Pharaoh and Egypt as a whole. As well, such action totally smashed the
religious beliefs of Egypt, as it respected the afterlife! They believed that
all lived on in the continued lives of the firstborn. In other words, if the
firstborn in any family had a long and prosperous life, this guaranteed the
afterlife of the mother and the father, as well as the siblings.
By slaying the Lamb, the Lord would show Egypt and in affect show us today that Salvation was definitely in the firstborn, but not in each family, only in the FIRSTBORN of God. That “Firstborn” is JESUS CHRIST! It not only has to do with Jesus being the Firstborn as it regards the Incarnation and, therefore, the True Man after Whom all are to follow, but as well, that Jesus is also the Creator or Originator of Salvation, by being the means through which Salvation is brought about as it regards the Cross of Calvary and His Resurrection.
Col. 1:18-19
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. [19] For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell;
The application of the Blood in Egypt and FAITH in that process, guaranteed the deliverance of the Children of Israel, which was symbolic or typical of the Shed blood of the Lamb i.e. the Lord Jesus Christ and our Faith in the Atoning Work, which guarantees our salvation! It is at this same place of sacrifice, the CROSS that the BELIEVER must keep their faith ANCHORED to affect VICTORY in their life AFTER they get saved.
A favorite saying of the Word of Faith camp is we must “go beyond the Cross!” We do? Where are we going if we go beyond the Cross? Some want to take the church to healing which is all well and good but healing in itself is but a spoke on the wheel and it will not guarantee spiritual victory and salvation! Some want to take the church to signs and miracles which is all great and good but not one single MIRACLE has ever saved one single soul! Don’t forget that neighbor!
When we reject the Cross, which is the CAUSE of why God sends the delusion, we apostatize and backslide in the worst of ways. I said this last week and I’ll say it again. Satan doesn’t really care WHERE you place your faith, or how much faith you may have, just as long as it is in something else other than the FINISHED work of Christ! That is why the enemy perverts the gospel so as he does today; he knows that our victory, our total healing, our total salvation depends on where our faith is anchored! Go beyond the Cross if you like but you go beyond the Cross to the eternal damnation of your eternal soul when you do!
The Delusion
2 Thes 2:12 - ….God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie
The phrase “God shall send them strong delusion,” refers to what we have just said. If one doesn’t want the truth, God will see to it that one receives a delusion. Now neighbor, that is as strong and powerful as it gets when it comes to what we believe. One might say that this is a terrible combination when God and Satan are agreed to deceive a man! And yet, God uses Satan constantly to achieve God’s own purposes! These words are not a mere assertion of judicial permission, but of actual retribution. It is the ordinance of God that the wicked by their wicked actions fall into greater wickedness, and that sin is thus punished by sin; and what is an ordinance of God is appointed by God Himself, which means, that is inevitable, i.e. “secure from assault or trespass,” (Barnes) Concerning this delusion, F.F. Bruce says that “a power is set in operation within them which makes them prone to embrace error.”
Some may blanch at the idea of God being the One Who is instrumental in this delusion. Does that make Him then the father of Falsehood? Can He intend anyone to believe a lie, and especially a lie with such horrible and terrific consequences, as is here in view? The opening words of this passage “for this cause” answers these questions. The idea of delusion does not begin with God but rather with the individual. It is what they want, meaning they have purposely and with deliberation, turned their back on the Truth, even after the Truth is presented to them. In view of that, which has characterized untold MILLIONS in the church and God simply makes it possible for them to have what they demand to have- a delusion!
I have tasted and witnessed this first hand this past year at a local ministry in the city we live in and it broke my heart to see it. The leader of this ministry seemed hell bent on getting the Purpose Driven Life modules into the hands of those under her care while doing everything in her power to kick us out because we were simply teaching on the Cross and the power of the Holy Ghost as the ONLY answer to man’s ills. She got her wish and we left about a year ago (I should say we were asked to leave) and that is what is being taught there now. The TRUTH rejected always gives way to one embracing error and ultimately delusion and deception. While I have not kept up with what has taken place this past year since we were asked to leave that ministry, I can guarantee this.
I will stand before God with clean hands and a pure conscience that I taught those under my care while serving there as a volunteer the message of the Cross and FAITH in that message as the ONLY hope for man’s deliverance and salvation. When I left it hurt this writer (Yes I’m human and not superman) and it has taken me a while to get over the sting of what happened. But what hurts more is the fact I know in my heart that the Lord was about to break forth in the hearts and lives of some of those we were teaching. Some were catching on and because the ministry leader disagreed with certain aspects of the ministry of the Holy Spirit i.e. tongues/intercession, etc., there was a break in a relationship and even worse an end to the classes on the Cross.
I got to preach a few times there as well and always took those times to preach the CROSS. A certain Sunday that stands out is a fall day when I preached on the message of Cain and Abel and 53 souls came to Christ –the largest one day altar call at the ministry since its inception to our knowledge. Two months later we were asked to leave. And in the place of the message of the Cross has now been placed the message of humanistic psychology, rehab centers and purpose driven life principles that may sound good to the hearers but it will not save one single soul or deliver one single drug addict off drugs! The writer of the Purpose Driven Life did not die on the Cross to afford salvation even though some in the church acts like he did.
NONE of these things will save a single soul! Did all those 53 who came down that day truly get saved? I’m not naďve to believe that all did. I know some come down for a show but friend that is everywhere you go, even in mainline churches. People have emotional experiences many times without being truly born again. But I know several that day truly was born again. I remember one man in particular literally standing at the door till the altar call and came forth weeping profusely without any prompting. The Holy Spirit will not draw men to rehab centers! The Holy Spirit does not draw men to the Purpose Driven Life! The Holy Spirit does not draw men to the SBC’s twelve tenants of faith or the Assemblies of God tenants of faith or any other movement. Jesus said if HE be lifted up HE WOULD DRAW ALL MEN TO HIM! It’s the Cross friend, the Cross, the Cross, the Cross, the Cross is the message; CHRIST is the source and the HOLY SPIRIT the means.
John 12:32
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
The result of this delusion is that men will believe “lies.” The Greek text has the definite article meaning that phrase is “the” lie. This speaks to us that irrespective as to what direction it might take, this lie centers up in a rejection of the Cross of Christ, which is God’s ONLY method of salvation and deliverance. In effect because men believe in lies they will say that they “believe” in the Cross giving lip service, thus not being ignored; it’s mentioned because it will keep Christian in the mainstream simply because they hear the word “cross” and “Christ” and a few other religious terms. In reality, most of the church world has chosen another way, which of course is a delusion, i.e. THE LIE.
During the coming Great Tribulation the deception, that will envelop the entirety of the Earth, will not really be any different than now, except it will just get more powerful and be more widespread. THE TRUTH has always been the same, which is the Cross of Christ as it regards the Salvation of humanity, and “the LIE” has always been the same, which is a rejection of the Truth, rather opting for something else.
The root battle between truth and a lie goes back to Abel and Cain. Abel offered the proper Sacrifice and was accepted by God, as all will be accepted who offer the same Sacrifice, i.e., Faith in the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ. Cain instead offered the fruit of his own hands, the work of his own effort, stubbornly refusing to offer the Sacrifice as commanded by God, which God could not accept. In anger, Cain murdered his brother, and the animosity has continued from them until now. As stated, it has been “the Truth” versus the “lie” from the beginning. The only difference in now and the Great Tribulation, is that the entire spectrum of all these things which we write today will be much more pronounced. In fact, the entirety of the world has either gone to Heaven or hell, according to their acceptance or rejection of “the Truth!” Hear what I say to you today. There is no middle ground when it comes to this. There are not two, three, four, five “truths,” but ONE TRUTH, yet there are a myriad of LIES! Those lies come in whatever form Satan can get anyone to believe!
The Damnation
2 Thes 2:12 - That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
When one accepts and embraces the delusion, which is a result of “this cause,” – rejecting the gospel and the Message of the Cross, the end result is damnation. There is an awful reality about this Verse. It is straightforward and no room for side issues. In other words, one is either lost or saved, believing the truth or rejecting the truth! There is NO middle ground. The ultimate consequences for them who obey not God will be condemnation. Failing to appropriate the Truth of the Gospel, they willingly choose wickedness instead. Consequently, they cannot blame circumstances, education, lack of money, or any other thing millions put the blame on today for the way they live. Retrospect will show their own wrongly directed personal delight to be the cause of God’s adverse judgment against them.
This speaks of a coming Judgment which unfortunately, most of the world and a growing number in the church denies! In effect, the world has been so psychologized, which teaches that man is not personally responsible, but that the cause of his aberrations lies outside of himself, that the idea of a coming personal judgment is denied. Make no mistake friend, the judgment is coming whether sinful man believes one is coming is not. This damnation is not God’s first choice for mankind but it is the plight of those who reject the gospel. It is also the plight of those who are called to proclaim the gospel and instead proclaim something that is false and causing millions to stumble into hell thinking they are ready for heaven.
The ones damned according to this passage are those “who believed not the Truth.” Here we have the second reason this entire sad scenario takes place. We learned last week that those who refuse to “love” truth either in receiving the truth or proclaiming the truth are prime candidates for great deception. Once that deception takes root and there is no repentance, damnation will follow. To state it again the “TRUTH” spoken of here is that which the Word of God constantly projects which is the Cross of Christ and the Salvation contained therein. Look at the three stages of descent of such people which will take them into final perdition:
It is not that Truth was not or is not presented to them, but that in fact it is presented AND rejected. That is where the world and sadly again, a seriously growing segments of the Church are at the present time. Isaiah the prophet declared “WOE” to those who exchange good for evil, lightness for dark, sweet for bitter and in essence delight and love wickedness. The true child of God never delights in wickedness even though they may because of their own flesh and failure to walk fully in the Spirit of God fail and even succumb to sin at times. That is NOT how it should be nor is it the plight of the truly saved. The one who is born again seeks to do all things for the Kingdom of God and if they do sin, they are the most miserable people in the world. They see their sin as God sees it – UGLY and HURTFUL and what put Jesus Christ on the Cross. They come to the Cross and as Isaiah also declared, they “reason” together with the Lord and confess their sin as such – SIN – not a mistake, not a slip up, not a moment of weakness, but at the Cross we confess we are SINNERS and in need of deliverance from SIN!
Isaiah 42:7 - To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Isaiah 5:20 - Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
As we close this journal, let the writer be clear. The world knows nothing of the terrible consequences of sin, which is the root problem of the human race, even though its evidences are all around us. Being spiritually dead and in complete rejection of light, thus in darkness, they cannot understand its ruin and eternal judgment. Sadly, the church is not too far behind in its lack of discernment and utter lack of true evaluation of this terrible malady that has slaughtered every single human being who has ever lived, with the exception of those of us who are presently alive, but to be sure are dying as well. Sin has filled the Earth with blood, with war, with sorrow, sickness and heartache. Some get angry when that is spoken. Some make mockery of this and fell the Church fully knows those consequences. Does it?
If the Church properly understood the horror of sin, it would not continue to
project its WORTHLESS remedies as it regards this monster. It would understand
fully and totally, that sin is so awful, so horrible, so terrible, that even God
could not speak or decree this monster out of existence, even though He made the
worlds by the simply Word of His mouth. Instead, He had to become man, come down
to this Earth, and die on a Cross in order to REMEDY the horror of this
situation. We only understand the magnitude of the horror of sin when we see in
all its glory the PRICE that was paid to break the grip and power of this
monster on the human race. That PRICE was the Shed Blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, whose death, burial and resurrection ensures we are FREE today – at
least those who have placed their faith AND MAINTAINED THEIR FAITH exclusively,
and totally in the Cross of Christ. How can we say we understand the power of
sin and promote humanistic psychology as the answer to the ills of man? How can
we understand the power of sin and realize the power of the Cross while at the
same time claim that some pitiful, pathetic organization such as the “earthly”
institution of the Church (I’m not talking about the TRUE CHURCH) can absolve
men from sin and make them holy?
If we understand the power and necessity of the Cross, how in the world could we project some symbolic ordinance, such as Water Baptism as having power to wash away men’s sins? Isaiah the prophet proclaimed it best:
Isaiah 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
There IS a remedy friend and it is not with man, from man, or in man. It is not of this Earth at all, but ALTOGETHER from heaven. The result of the willful rejection of this TRUTH or LIGHT is to come to a state where darkness is no longer distinguishable from Light, and thus come to final ruin and damnation. (Romans 1:18-32) For this cause, the rejection of the truth, men will believe a lie, and as a result they reject the truth and “be damned,” because they had pleasure in unrighteousness. I pray friend that is not the state of your heart today. If it is and you’re reading this journal, there is still time to repent. There is STILL a chance that MERCY can be given to you instead of judgment that is sure to come unless there is repentance.
John 8:32
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
This gentleman waited for several minutes at the door during the service in 2006.
The second I finished preaching he fled to the altar and was born again
This is the POWER of what the True Gospel can do under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
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