I’m Damned if I do and I’m
Damned if I don’t – It’s Hopeless – Lies of the Enemy #17– Purity 1029
Purity 1029 04/28/2023 Purity 1029 Podcast
Purity 1029 on YouTube:
Coming Soon!
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the moon over Lake Ontario just
before midnight comes to us from Celestial Blue Photography (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069048257152)
, as Rocco Saya must have been out walking before Midnight, as he shared this
photo he entitled “Night Dreams” from his April 24th, 11:30 pm,
excursion to Breitbeck Park in Oswego NY on social media a couple of days
ago. I may sound old but 11:30pm on a
Monday, or any day these days, is way past my bed time and I am thankful that Rocco
was up and out there to capture this dream of a night time scene.
As a former
night owl, I know that the evening hours hold a peace and a magic all its own
and that many prefer the evenings peace to the light of day. But I
also know that the dark evening hours also provides a sense of cover in which
the dark desires of the heart can come out to play. It doesn’t have to be that way of course but
I fully understand the adage that “nothing good” happens after certain
designated hours of the night. Is it
midnight, is it 2 am, is it 3am? I’m not sure but if you are up that late, I
would invite you to ask yourself why? What are you looking for? What are you
hiding from? Are you looking for love in
all the wrong places, like I used to? Or are you on a search for excitement or
meaning, that I know is best found in the presence of the Lord.
Well, It’s Friday -Thank God! And I am rejoicing this
morning and almost have that old excitement of the anticipation of Friday NIGHT!
That usually meant that I was looking forward to mischief but now is the pure
excitement of knowing, if the Lord wills it, I will be in the presence of my
beloved wife. Reunited and it feels so good.
That’s right there is nothing like the excitement of true love without
shame or guilt. So instead of running
down the cheap thrills of a night on the town seek God’s plan to get thee a
wife or husband with whom you can be “naked and unashamed”. Whoa!
Anyway, The night
time hours are also sometimes referred to as the “desperate hours” and
remembering my youthful life of sin, I know how desperately lonely someone
running through the night can be. In that desperation we can make some
regrettable decisions. Somes give themselves away to the lust of the flesh and others
lash out at the world with violence at the smallest offense. Not many people
out at the clubs or bars at night have a deep relationship with the Lord, so
the later things get the more unpredictable the outcomes of the evening’s final
destination can become. Home alone, a stranger’s bed, the hospital, jail, or
the morgue are all possibilities in a lifestyle where “anything goes”. Those hours out in the dark without God can
be desperate because without Him nothing will bring satisfaction or peace. So those desperate hours can be hopeless too
and may cause some to lament:
“I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t! It’s
hopeless!”
Which just happens to be the 17th lie of
the enemy that we will examine as a part of our current series, The Lies of the
Enemy, which is an examination of some of the common lies, sometimes sneakily
whispered into our minds as “first person” statements, that the enemy tells us
to cause us to doubt our faith, lose our peace, cause division, or influence us
to not follow the Lord with the way we live our lives. So in case you didn’t catch it, today’s big
lie is:
Lie #17: “I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t!
It’s hopeless!”
This particular lie of the enemy is whispered
into people’s ears to bring them to their destruction or to keep them locked in
bondages and mired in depression. As a Community
Freedom Ministry Associate for Freedom in Christ Ministries, I have heard variations
of this lie several times as people I have led through the steps to Freedom in
Christ have confessed about their past or current troubles when they can’t see
an easy solution to their problems.
This lie can lead people to want to
commit suicide because they can’t see a way out. This lie makes people see their
options as limited and their lives as hopeless. But it is a lie born of tunnel vision and
possibly sown by the spiritual forces of darkness who are hell bent on the
destruction of those who believe it.
But that’s a lie, there is hope and our
actions matter.
But I won’t sugar coat this. While we can affect change in our lives and can
generally endure through troubling times, people don’t always get a happy
ending in the natural. And that’s why we
simply must put our hope in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
While there is hope, where there is
life. That hope evaporates when you die,
if you haven’t peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Oh by the way, I researched “where there
is hope there is life” to see who said that and one of the people who said that
unknowingly spoke that hopeful statement as a lie. Among the many people who have been attributed
to have said those words through the ages, Google offered up devote atheist,
Stephen Hawking as saying those hopeful words even though, he believed there
was no God. So I guess if we are to
follow this departed genius’ logic, we have to believe that now that he is dead
there is no hope for Stephen Hawking, or at least no hope for heaven. If you don’t believe in God, you can’t believe
He had a Son who died for you in which to put your hope in.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life
– Those who believe in and put their faith in Him – although they die, they shall
live. So there is an eternal hope that
we have in Christ.
God will help us through many trials in
our lives, but even if we should perish, we will live. Christ conquered death
and the grave, and so the Christian has the hope of heaven and life everlasting
in God’s kingdom. We shouldn’t blow that
off when times get tough, it is the hope that can give us the wisdom to go to
God to receive the strength and guidance that He can provide that will cause us
to know peace and joy even in the most dire of circumstances.
On the earth, if you have a problem and
it seems that you are “damned if you do and damned if you don’t”, remember it’s
not hopeless. Go to the Lord for wisdom,
He knows everything and I know that He will make a way when is there is no way,
even if it takes a long time or it involves suffering. God will show His way – the third option of
hope, meaning, and purpose that has victory, freedom and triumph at the end of
its path.
So don’t believe the lie that “It’s hopeless!”
because if you have Christ, you have everything. You have eternal life and the
hope of God working all things together for your good.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity
than my simple apologetic will provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s
website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
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Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible Promise Book for Men”.
This
morning’s meditation verse :
John 16:33 (NKJV)
33 These
things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you
will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Today’s verse reminds us
of how good God is as it aligns perfectly with our hopeful encouragement!
Christ has overcome the world and we can be overcomers because of Him. We can
have peace because of Him. While we will have tribulations in this world – how’s
that for a promise – we can be of good cheer -that’s joy – because of what
Christ did for us. He paid for our sins
and gives us forgiveness and peace with God and brings us into the royal family
of God’s kingdom through faith in Him!
So trust in the Lord, and
never forget the hope we have because of the One who overcame the world and
gave us eternal life!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist
my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from A.W. Pink’s “The
Sovereignty of God.”
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available on
many websites for less than $20.00.
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
By
ARTHUR W. PINK
APPENDIX IV
1 John 2:2
In the fourth place,
when John added, “And not for ours only, but also for the whole world,” he signified that Christ was the propitiation for
the sins of Gentile believers too, for, as previously shown, “the
world” is a term contrasted from
Israel. This interpretation is unequivocally established by a careful
comparison of 1 John 2:2 with John 11:51, 52, which is a strictly parallel
passage: “And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he
prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; And not for that nation only,
but that also He should gather together in one the children of God that were
scattered abroad.” Here Caiaphas, under inspiration, made known for whom Jesus should “die.” Notice now
the correspondency of his prophecy with this declaration of John’s:
“He is the propitiation for our (believing
Israelites) sins.”
“He prophesied that
Jesus should die for that nation.”
“And not for ours only.”
“And not for that
nation only.”
“But also for the whole world”—
That is, Gentile
believers scattered throughout the earth.
“He should gather
together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.”
In the fifth place, the above interpretation
is confirmed by the fact that no other is consistent or intelligible. If the
“whole world” signifies the whole human race then the first clause and the
“also” in the second clause are absolutely meaningless. If Christ is the
propitiation for everybody, it would
be idle tautology to say, first, “He is the propitiation for our sins and also for everybody.” There could be no “also” if He is the
propitiation for the entire human family. Had the apostle meant to affirm that
Christ is a universal propitiation he
had omitted the first clause of v. 2, and simply said, “He is the propitiation
for the sins of the whole world.” Confirmatory of “not for ours (Jewish
believers) only, but also for the whole world”—Gentile believers, too; compare
John 10:16; 17:20.
In the sixth place,
our definition of “the whole world” is in perfect accord with other passages in
the New Testament. For example: “Whereof ye heard before in the word of the
truth of the Gospel; which is come unto you, as it is in all the world” (Col. 1:5, 6). Does “all the world” here mean,
absolutely and unquilifiedly, all mankind? Had all the human family heard the
Gospel? No; the apostle’s obvious meaning is that, the Gospel, instead of being
confined to the land of Judea, had gone abroad, without restraint, into Gentile lands. So in Rom. 1:8:
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is
spoken of throughout the whole world.”
The apostle is here referring to the faith of these Roman saints being spoken
of in a way of commendation. But
certainly all mankind did not so speak of their faith! It was the whole world of believers that he was referring to!
In Revelation 12:9 we read of Satan “which deceiveth the whole world.” But again this expression cannot be understood as
a universal one, for Matt. 24:24 tells us that Satan does not and cannot
“deceive” God’s elect. Here it is “the whole world” of unbelievers.
In the seventh place,
to insist that “the whole world” in 1 John 2:2 signifies the entire human race
is to undermine the very foundations of our faith. If Christ is the
propitiation for those that are lost equally as much as for those that are
saved then what assurance have we that believers too may not be lost? If Christ
is the propitiation for those now in hell what guarantee have I that I may not
end in hell? The blood-shedding of the incarnate Son of God is the only thing which can keep any one out of
hell, and if many for whom that
precious blood made propiation are now in the awful place of the damned, then
may not that blood prove inefficacious for me! Away with such a God-dishonoring
thought.
However men may
quibble and wrest the Scriptures, one thing is certain: The Atonement is no
failure. God will not allow that precious and costly sacrifice to fail in
accomplishing, completely, that which it was designed to effect. Not a drop of
that holy blood was shed in vain. In the last great Day there shall stand forth
no disappointed and defeated Saviour, but One who “shall see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied” (Isa. 53:11). These are not our words, but the
infallible assertion of Him who declares, “My counsel shall stand, and I will
do all My pleasure” (Isa. 64:10).
Upon this impregnable rock we take our stand. Let others rest on the sands of
human speculation and twentieth-century theorizing if they wish. That is their
business. But to God they will yet have to render an account. For our part we
had rather be railed at as a narrow-minded, out of-date, hyper-Calvinist, than
be found repudiating God’s truth by reducing the Divinely-efficacious atonement
to a mere fiction.
PRINCIPAL TEXTS EXAMINED
Genesis 6:3 218
Genesis 6:6 208
Genesis 20:6 125, 156
Exodus 4:21 131
Exodus 34:24 125
Numbers 23:12–20 157
1 Samuel 3:18 194
1 Samuel 6: 46
2 Chronicles 20:5, 6 241
Psalm 110:3 56, 71
Psalm 147:15–18 44
Proverbs 16:1 49
Proverbs 16:9 49
Proverbs 19:21 49
Proverbs 21:1 49
Isaiah 10:5–7 129
Isaiah 46:9, 10 118
Amos 4:7–10 45
Jonah 2:9 55
Matthew 23:37 208
Matthew 25:41 110
Luke 14:16–23 85
John 3:8 77
John 3:16 212
John 6:38 67
John 6:44 160
John 8:36 158
John 11:49–52 72
John 16:8–11 82
John 19:10 245
Acts 7:51, 52 218
Acts 13:48 58
Acts 17:28 48
Acts 17:30 110
Romans 9:17–23 92
Romans 11:5 59
1 Corinthians 1:26–29 60
1 Corinthians 4:7 56
2 Corinthians 5:14 73
Ephesians 1:3–5 61
2 Thessalonians 2:13 79, 81
1 Timothy 2:5, 6 75
1 Timothy 5:21 38
2 Timothy 1:9 63
Hebrews 2:9 76
1 Peter 1:2 63, 82
2 Peter 2:12 106
2 Peter 3:9 216
Jude 8 17
Revelation 4:11 119
Revelation 17:17 243[1]
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