This Particular LIFE (Part 4)
Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. (Acts 5:20)
This Altered Life Can BE Validated! (B)
(Guilty until proven innocent)
Theme for all missionaries who live to rescue the perishing:
“All men are guilty of living a life of rebellion toward King Jesus until otherwise proven innocent by His unmistakable marks of grace upon their life.”
For some this is hard to swallow. To think in such a way is inconceivable and quite distasteful. Most people desire to think that man is inherently good. If we look at people from the “human element” or “man’s perspective” we would probably come to the same conclusion. Why would we think so highly of human beings? (1) We are humans and as such, we for the most part, do not consider ourselves as evil people. (2) The people we love and spend most of our time with seem to be good, moral, and caring people. (3) Though there are evil people and bad things that happen, it can not compare to all the “good” that is done and all the helpful people that live on our planet. (4) We often view people and life through a natural filter called a carnal mind that fails to factor God’s view into the equation. (5) Our thoughts, emotions, and the facts that support our lives are so real that we accept them as truth but they can be and most often are lies. Let me explain what I mean by this statement. Just because something is real or even an undeniable fact does not mean that it’s true. Thoughts that we have that are contrary to God’s ways are real but they are lies. Satan is a reality. What the Bible says about him is true but everything he does and says is a lie. The Word of God sheds light on this fundamental truth. Jesus vividly describes Satan as one who is void of any truth.
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44)
There’s a great illustration of this principle found in 2 Samuel 10. King David sent servants to the newly installed king of Ammon to comfort and bless him after the death of the new King’s father. David was showing King Hanun kindness and returning the favor that Hanun’s father, King Nahash, had expressed to him in the past. When David’s servants arrived in the land to fulfill their mission the princes of the children of Ammon told their newly installed king that David had an alternative motive. They told the king that David sent these men to search out the city with the intent to overthrow it. The king took the facts he had, and acted upon them. What was his distinct reality? King David was coming to take over his country. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Hanun acted on the facts he had as thoug they were true. So much as to humiliate and shame David’s men to clearly make his point. The consequence he would have to face was death because what he accepted and acted on, as a fact and reality, was actually a lie. This lie from the princes stirred up real thoughts and real emotions, to the point, that it moved him to act on something that was real to him but nevertheless a big lie.
Today, people are settling for what is real and not truth. We all, at times, have accepted and acted on the facts that were before us as if they were truth. We are admonished by Paul to take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ. Why are we told to do this. Because our thoughts can be real and clear facts but not rooted in and a result of the truth.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: [4] (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) [5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; [6] And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Cor. 10:3-6)
We must look at everything in our lives from God’s view! How then does God describe fallen humanity or what I call “products of the fall”?
A. Products of the Fall (Children of wrath and disobedience and in need of rescuing.)
Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.”
Ephes. 2:2-3 “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: [3] Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
B. Partnership with the Fallen (Together in rebellion with the wicked and their corruption.)
Psalm 58:3-5 “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. [4] Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; [5] Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.”
Genesis 6:5 “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Genesis 8:21 “And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.”
Psalm 14:2-3 “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. [3] They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
C. Pollution of the Fall (By nature unclean, wicked, & deceitful in every way and everything.)
Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”
Jeremiah 13:23 “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God..”
Romans 7:18 “ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing…”
D. Perishing in the Fall (Self-destructing & lost in sin.)
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death…”
Ezekiel 18:4 “Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”
2 Cor. 5:11 “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…”
E. Promises for the Fallen (Trust the relentless mercy and love of God by turning to Jesus and turning from ourselves and sin.)
Titus 1:1-3 “Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; [2] In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; [3] But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour..”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 3:19-25 “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. [20] Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. [21] But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; [22] Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: [23] For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; [24] Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [25] Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God…”
Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
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.”
Luke 24:47-49 “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. [48] And ye are witnesses of these things.”
Acts 3:26 “Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.”
Acts 5:31 “Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.”
Acts 11:18 “When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.”
Ephes. 2:8-10 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: [9] Not of works, lest any man should boast. [10] For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Acts 5:20 “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.”
Trust God’s view in everything but start with His view on man’s fallen and rebellious nature and His answer for this eternal problem found in Jesus Christ. Now you can understand why our missionary theme is:
“All men are guilty of living a life of rebellion toward King Jesus until otherwise proven innocent by His unmistakable marks of grace upon their life.”
Come back tomorrow for part 5 as we introduce the eternal marks of God’s grace.
Until then God bless!
Win the lost at His cost, and it will be According to Grace!
If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready (stumbling) to be slain (slaughtered); [12] If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render to every man according to his works? (Proverbs 24:11-12)
