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  • The Rightness of Being Wrong

    Pastor John,

    I ran across this BLOG last night.  Very true and very sobering.

    Amy B.

    =========

    Wow. That “being right” thing has been on my mind lately. That trap is awful. I love the blog- and especially the sentence, Everything you think you are right about is working against you, for it is keeping you from being willing to be wrong.

    I love these sober and good thoughts. Thank you.

    Donna N.

    =========

    The Rightness of Being Wrong

    How wrong are you willing to be?  Jesus was so willing to be the most wrong person in the world that he made himself “a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13).  However, Jesus learned to do that only by following his Father’s example.  He was the perfect reflection of the Father in all things (Heb. 1:3), and he was willing to be wrong because he saw that depth of meekness in his heavenly Father.

    We are like God only to the extent that we are willing to be wrong and that we are willing to step aside so that others may have their way.  Repeatedly in the Bible, we see God making the choice of preferring for people to have their way than to force them to obey His will.  He will not make us puppets to His will; He will not force us to do what is right.  And yet, knowing that His ways lead to peace and joy for us, and knowing that our own ways lead to misery and regret, and in the end, death, He sends His messengers to us to plead with us not to go our own way but to follow Him.  He calls for us to forsake our ways only because He loves us.

    Everything you think you are right about is working against you, for it is keeping you from being willing to be wrong.  Paul said that knowledge makes people proud (1Cor. 8:1).  He saw that knowledge makes people unwilling to be wrong; that is, it makes them unwilling to let go of their “rightness”, and it causes them to look down on others who do not have the same knowledge.  Jesus showed us that God is not like that.  No one had as much knowledge of God as Jesus had, and yet he suffered for others as if they were more important than he was.  But more than that, he did not impose his way of living on others, even though he knew that his way of living would save them.  He begged others to repent and believe on him, and warned them of what would happen to them if they did not, but if they chose not to follow him, he backed off and let them go their own way because that is what his heavenly Father did.

    Jesus humbled himself to let evil men have their way, even with him.  He was willing to let them be “right”, to let them win over him and even kill him, if that is what they wanted to do, but their doing so cost them their souls.  That kind of winning in this life costs people everything. 

  • The god of this World

    Pastor John,

    When does the Bible state that Satan became the god of this world?

    Margarite

    =========

    Hi Margarite!

    The Bible never tells us when Satan became the god of this world.  It may have been when Adam, who was at the time the god of this world (cf. Gen. 1:27–28; Ps. 8:5–8), submitted himself to the serpent’s guidance instead of to God’s.

    Thank you for that good question!

    Pastor John

  • Sacrificing Children

    John,

    It has always been hard to even read the parts of the Old Testament which speak of babies being sacrificed to Baal.  In reading about that this morning, I wondered if a correlation could be drawn between sacrificing children to Baal and spiritually new-born “babes in Christ” being killed in the spirit with the false doctrines in Christianity?

    Wendell

    ==========

    Absolutely!  In fact, there have been many more new-borns in Christ sacrificed on the altars of Christian sects than there were children offered to Baal and Molech in the Old Testament.  How it must hurt the heart of God!  The feelings He expressed when Israel sacrificed their children are no doubt magnified now:  

    “They have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command, and did not speak, nor did it come into my mind!” (Jer. 19:5).

    “You took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to [heathen gods], to be eaten!  Was your fornication a small thing, that you slaughtered my children and gave them up, making them to pass over the fire for them?” (Ezek. 16:2021).

    Yes, Wendell, there is a correlation between the Old Testament sacrifice of children and the New Testament form of it.  Peter touches on it in 2Peter 2:18–19, when he describes ministers who are successful in the eyes of men, but who are not sent by God: “Making pretentious, vain speeches [eloquent sermons], they entice . . . those who once had truly escaped from those who live in error, promising them liberty, themselves being servants of corruption in.”

    Thanks for the question.

    Pastor John

  • John 18:26 

    Good Morning, Pastor John,

    John 18:28 says, “Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium, and it was early morning.  But they did not enter the praetorium so that they would not be defiled but might eat the Passover.”

    Why would entering the praetorium have defiled the Jews?

    Those foolish, evil men!  How God must have felt seeing them worried about defiling themselves for Passover when they were leading the Lamb of God to slaughter!

    Beth D.

    P.S.  I have heard you pray when we are all together and ask God to let us honor His Son.  I feel that prayer this morning.  It left me asking God to please let me have a heart to honor His Son.

    ============

    Hi Beth.

    Entering the praetorium would not have defile those men any more than they were already defiled in God’s sight, but their tradition held that entering a Gentile’s residence would defile them, and the praetorium was the official residence of the Roman governor.

    Yes, to be given heart to honor God’s Son is a great blessing, earnestly to be desired.  May God always do that for us!

    Pastor John

  • Tartarus

    Hi, Pastor John;

    I enjoyed the Hell book* reading, and it brought to me the fear of God and soberness, talking about Tartaus and eternal damnation.  I have had this question on my mind for a day or so.  In the section, Can Someone In Tartarus Repent? you wrote, “In Tartarus, no soul is ever granted the Godly sorrow that produces repentance.”  My question is, can a fallen believer or person that is “tartarized” on this earth still speak in tongues in the Spirit as unto God, or are tongues also tartarized forever, too?  Will God allow a tartarized soul to continue to speak in tongues, allowing that person to think all is well? 

    Thank you,

    Billy

    ==========

    Hi Billy.

    First, there is a difference between a believer being backslidden and a believer whom God has tartarized, as Peter described in 2Peter 2.  If backslidden believers do not repent, they will be damned, of course, but a tartarized believer is already damned, “twice dead” as Jude said.  And the author of Hebrews tells us that for such men, there is no sacrifice possible for their sin.  Peter limits the curse of tartarization to men who once received the Spirit, but who are now ministering false doctrines to God’s children.

    As for your question, Jesus said that on the Day of Judgment, when he casts some believers out of the kingdom of God and into Torment, they will say, “Lord! Lord!  Haven’t we prophesied in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and performed many miracles in your name?” (Mt. 7:22).  From that, it is clear that God will not withdraw His Spirit and the gifts it gave to some people until the end, and that includes other manifestations of the Spirit, such as speaking in tongues.  The continuation of manifestation of the Spirit in the life of a tartarized person always makes them feel that their personal lives are acceptable to God, but in the end, they will learn that He had only been using them to try the hearts of others.

    It is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

    Pastor John

    *  Going to Jesus.com – What the Bible really says about HELL

  • The Lord’s Prayer 

    Hi Pastor John,

    I have spent the last two days talking to Jesus, just having a real heart-to-heart with him about relationships and fellowship.  I have been asking him about fellowship for a while now.

    Today, I noticed a video titled, “The Lord’s Prayer”, and I skipped past it because most of the time such videos just feel disappointing.  After I skipped it, I was thinking about the title of that video, and I felt the Spirit surge through me, and I heard the thought, “What was the Lord’s prayer?  It was to make us one, like he and his Father are one.”

    That thought and the Spirit felt so good that I searched “make them one”, and I found John 17!  Have I ever even read John 17?  It’s so good!  Surely, I have read John 17!  But I know I have never felt John 17 like this!  Just read what prayer our Lord prayed! 

    Jesus prayed to be glorified by his Father; he prayed for us to know him and our Father.  Jesus prayed for God to keep us!  Jesus prayed for God to sanctify us with His truth; he prayed for us to have his joy!  He prayed for us to be one so the world might believe that God sent him.

    I feel like Jesus reached down into my heart and taught me more about how he feels about fellowship.  Fellowship is about Jesus!  It is for us, but it is about Jesus. 

    When you read his heart in that prayer, it makes you know that having anything other than fellowship is against our Jesus. 

    And verses 22 through 26 just makes me cry. 

    John 17:

          1. Jesus spoke these things, and then he lifted his eyes toward heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son,   so that your Son might also glorify you,

    1. since you gave him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all those that you have given to him.
    1. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
    1. I glorified you on earth; I’ve finished the work that you gave me to do.
    1. And now, Father, glorify me to beat your side with the glory I used to have with you before the universe existed.
    2. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
    1. They know now that everything you’ve given me is from you
    1. because I have given them the words that you’ve given me, and they received them, and they truly do know that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
    1. I pray for them. I’m not praying for the world, but for those you’ve given me, for they are yours,
    1. and all things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
    1. And I’m no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I’m coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given to me, that they may be one, just as we are.
    1. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those you gave me, I watched over, and not one of them has been lost except the son of damnation, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
    2. But now, I’m coming to you, and these things I’m saying in the world so that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
    1. I’ve given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I’m not of the world.
    1. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One.
    1. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
    1. Sanctify them with your truth; your word is truth.
    1. Just as you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world.
    1. And for their sake, I sanctify myself so that they may also be sanctified with truth.
    1. And I’m not asking for these alone, but also for those who believe in me through their word,
    2. that they all might be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may also be one in us, so that the world might believe that you sent me. 
    1. And the glory that you’ve given me, I’ve given to them, that they might be one, just as we are one: 
    1. I in them, and you in me, so that they might be perfected in unity, and so that the world might know that you sent me, and that you have loved them just as you loved me. 
    1. Father, I desire that where I am, these whom you’ve given me might also be with me, that they may behold my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 
    1. Righteous Father, even though the world doesn’t know you, I know you, and these know that you sent me, 
    1. and I have made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

    Beth D

     

  • Who Will Be Able to Stand?

    I love this.  God keeps his children protected – we need only obey the Spirit and stay pure.  The rest is God takes care of.

    John, I do have a question about this part of what you said: 

    “If any group of saints will keep themselves pure, God will not allow an ungodly person to stand for long among them.”

    In Jesus parable of the wheat and the tares, he says to leave the tares till the end, and then, they will be separated… so are there also cases where the ungodly ARE allowed to stand among the righteous (until the end, in that time of separation)?

    Gary

    =========

    Excellent question, Gary!  As with so many other spiritual matters, such as free-will vs. predestination, and in this case, there is a time to emphasize one way and a time to emphasize the other.

    Once a backslidden soul is committed to his sin and will no longer receive correction, God may keep him among His saints, but only to try the hearts of those who still have hope.  That spiritual condition, that of continuing among the saints in a permanently backslidden state, is called being “tartarized” (2Pet. 2:4), and it is the very worst spiritual condition of all.

    So, you are correct to point out that sometimes, God does keep a stubborn, backslidden believer among His saints.  But whenever He does so, it is never for that person’s good.  It would be better for that poor soul never to have known the way of righteousness (2Pet. 2:20-21).  Even being dead and in Hell would be a better place for him.  At least, in Hell he would not be continuing to sin.

    Thank you for bringing up that side of the issue.

    Pastor John

                                             Who Will Be Able to Stand?

    The wicked shall not stand in the Judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

    Psalm 1:5

    Moved by the Spirit of God, David declared that in the Final Judgment, not one ungodly person will escape the wrath of God; not one ungodly soul will be able to stand before God.  It will not be possible.  David said again, “You alone are to be feared, for who can stand before you, once you are angered?” (Ps. 76:7).  Other prophets asked the same rhetorical question.  Nahum: “Who can stand before His indignation?  Who can withstand the fury of His anger?” (Nah. 1:6).  And Malachi: “Who can endure the day of his coming, and who will stand when he appears?” (Mal. 3:2).  The obvious answer is, only the righteous.  To be judged worthy to stand in God’s presence will be a very great blessing, and Jesus exhorted his disciples to pray for it: “Stay alert and always pray, so that you might be counted worthy to escape all the things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man” (Lk. 21:36).  

    But David did not limit his declaration to the Final Judgment; he said also that the ungodly will not stand in a righteous congregation.  God’s children who drift away from righteousness can no more stand in a congregation of godly people now than they will be able to stand in the Final Judgment.  For just as God will be the Judge in the end, so “God presides in the Assembly of God, and He judges among the gods [His people]” (Ps. 82:1).

    If any group of saints will keep themselves pure, God will not allow an ungodly person to stand for long among them.  And if any member of that congregation becomes ungodly, and sets his mind to it, he will not be able to stand among them, either.  God will give him a “good” reason to leave.  That judgment of God has always been, is now, and will always be the same.  That is why “the wicked shall not stand in the Judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.”

    In Psalm 15, David asked God to reveal to him who would be allowed to stand in His presence.  Take good heed to God’s response:

    Psalm 15

    1. O Lord, who shall abide in your tabernacle?  Who shall dwell on your holy mountain?
    2. He who lives blamelessly, and does righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart,
    3. he who does not gossip with his tongue, nor does evil to his fellow, nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
    4. in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord; he who swears tohis ownhurt, yet does not change;
    5. he who does not lend his money at interest; and a bribe against the innocent, he does not take.  He who does these things shall never be moved.

  • So Thankful! 

    Pastor John,

    Tonight, I’m sitting here thinking of the feelings from today. At one point I remember wishing I could look every single person there right in the eyes and sincerely say thank you. Thank you for loving Jesus, for loving me, for loving the truth, for being my family. It is an honor to be in your home, Pastor John, and to be fed and taught by you!  Thank you!  And it is an honor to be a part of this holy family Jesus has made. I cannot even express how grateful and humbled I feel to be here. So, for today, I want to say thank you again.
    Donna N.

    ==========

    Thank you, Donna.  Jesus has created this little body of believers as an oasis in this wicked world, and I am so grateful for every one of us!  Jesus does all things well!

    Pastor John

  • Solomon’s Wisdom Book

    Pastor John,

    This section in Solomon’s Wisdom* is really sobering.  It’s incredible that people would choose death over humility.  But how many times have we seen it unfold exactly as Solomon describes.  Makes me pray for a clean humble heart that can receive correction when it comes.

    Solomon bk

    Richard F.

    ===========

    Thank you, Richard.

    Yes, that message from Proverbs is sobering.

    Something about it reminds me of Proverbs 18:19: “An offended brother is a strong city, with contentions like the bars of a castle.”  Once someone takes offense at something he thinks has been done wrong and backs away, it is extremely difficult to win him again, for in his heart, he thinks he has good reasons for withdrawing from the life Jesus gave him.  Only God can break through the “castle bars” that such a man puts over his heart.

    Pastor John

    *  https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_books_solomon.html?tname=solomon00

  • What a Life! 

    Hi Pastor John,

    I am watching the video from Saturday morning, and I had to stop and write because it feels so good! 

    We are studying the law in the Old Testament* and as we go through it, it keeps ringing through me how wonderfully true it is. It is my testimony. It is our testimony.

    At our last Old Testament class, I told how before Jesus gave me the holy Ghost, I longed to be different. I wanted to be clean and good, but I couldn’t change some things. Back then I wanted to be like those who got up and went to church every Sunday and seemed to have a clean life. I failed so many times at even getting to that point, that when I did cry out to Jesus, it was to just take me out of this world, so I didn’t hurt so much in my failing life. 

    I never dreamed I could be what Jesus has made me. I never knew I could be clean and honest and good. I can say those things because I didn’t do that. Jesus did.

    Jesus really did create a new heart in me and write God’s laws on my new heart. 

    When LeeAnn talked about every time someone gets the holy Ghost, they are getting the law written on their hearts, everything in me said “Amen!”

    That is so wonderfully true, and I love seeing it and knowing that it is true. 

    To experience and live the truth of the shadow of the law is thrilling to me. I don’t have another word for how it feels. 

    What a life Jesus has given us! 

    From the inside out! 

    Beth

    *    https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_otcourse-1010.html

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