A Twisted Concept of Faith vs Knowing the Truth – Self-Deception Series 35 - Purity 1124
Purity 1124 08/18/2023 Purity 1124 Podcast
Purity 1124 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of the sun setting into the depths of
Lake Ontario to the left of the Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse and a group of
people huddling under a tent or gazebo structure comes to us from Celestial
Blue Photography, as Rocco Saya shared this scene on social media in August 14th.
Well, It’s Friday and I thought that Rocco’s photo
was a great one to share as the sun sets on another work week. While Lake Ontario and the Oswego Lighthouse are
a familiar offering from Celestial Blue Photography, I never tire of it and
thought it was also a good visual representation of the fact that the sun is beginning
to set on the Summer of ’23. It’s Labor
Day weekend in 2 weeks and although Summer doesn’t officially end until September
23rd, 36 days away, you know that things change dramatically after
Labor Day and the kids go back to school.
As much as we may want to hold onto the belief in an endless Summer, it
doesn’t make it true.
And that brings us to our current series on Self-Deception,
where we have decided to investigate some of the ways we deceive ourselves by
walking through Step 2, Deception Vs. Truth, of the Steps to Freedom in Christ
to see what ways we may have been deceived by “the world” and ourselves and in
what ways we have wrongly defended ourselves.
While we reached the end of this series on
Self-Deception by going through all 32 points of the ways we can be deceived by
the world, ourselves, and the ways we have wrongly defended ourselves, two days
ago. I have decided to conclude the
series by sharing the closing instructions that immediately follow those three
sections on the ways we can be deceived.
In today’s section of those closing instructions, Neil
Anderson writes about the dangers of the New Age movement’s twisting of the concept
of faith and truth. He writes:
“The New Age movement has twisted the concept of
faith by teaching that we make something true by believing it. That is false.
We cannot create reality with our minds; only God
can do that.
Our responsibility is to face reality and choose to
believe what God says is true.
True biblical faith, therefore, is choosing to
believe and act upon what is true, because God has said it is true, and He is
the truth.
Faith is something you decide to do, not something
you feel like doing.
Believing something doesn't make it true; It's
already true, therefore we choose to believe it!
Truth is not conditioned by whether we choose to
believe it or not.
Everybody lives by faith the only difference between
Christian faith and non-Christian faith is the object of our faith.
If the object of our faith is not trustworthy or
real, then no amount of believing will change that.
That's why our faith must be grounded on the solid
rock of God's perfect unchanging character and the truth of His word.”
I cut to the chase today with Anderson’s statements
because I am a little distracted and could use the wisdom of the basic concepts
of our faith.
While faith is something we decide to do, because we
could always doubt, we stand on the truth of God’s word, which we also have to
take on faith.
But don’t get that twisted either. While we could doubt whether or not the Bible
is true, there are at least three good reasons to believe it is true.
1. History and archaeology have confirmed the claims of
the Bible to true be time and time again.
I refer anyone who is interested in knowing Why We Believe the Bible to
go to our first Freedom in Christ Teaching on YouTube (https://youtu.be/Riqg9u61TkY) where the
lesson gives specific examples of how historians doubted certain Bible facts
only to have the truth of scripture to be confirmed by archaeologists literally
digging up evidence to support God’s word . Or I would suggest checking out D.
James Kennedy’s book “Why I Believe” that I read in back Bible college, that gave
a natural born skeptic, me, relief that he wasn’t following a “blind faith”
when he put his faith in Jesus.
2. The second piece of evidence, also highlighted in
the sources I mentioned, is fulfilled prophecy.
What the Bible has predicted to come to pass, has come to pass again and
again. The most significant fulfilled prophecy
of course is the coming of the Messiah and the details of the life of Jesus. “Conservatively,
Jesus fulfilled at least 300 prophecies in His earthly ministry.” (https://www.gotquestions.org/prophecies-of-Jesus.html)
and I am sharing a link to the article from GotQuestions.org that gives a whole
table of prophecies and the Bible verses that they are drawn from.
3. People who put their faith in Jesus are
changed. Now I know this doesn’t apply
more for some than others in the “church” – because of the reality of “tares
amongst the wheat” in the “church building”. But the true church – the body of
Christ is comprised of people who are not ashamed of the gospel and have been
transformed by it. Included in this
evidence is the fact that the “church” has never stopped growing. Despite this post-modern – post Christian society
of Western civilization, worldwide the number of Christians has continued to
increase. This evidence is also highlighted
in the first lesson of the Freedom in Christ course we mentioned above.
As Anderson indicates, the Bible is already true,
therefore we choose to believe it and choose to apply it to our lives. We are not making this stuff up! As much as others like to debate everything,
the reality of Jesus Christ, who lived, did miracles, taught wisdom, lived a
sinless life, died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven, if honestly
examined would lead one to the conclusion that He was who He said He was and
that the only One we should put our faith in is Him.
Jesus is the object of our faith, and He is trustworthy to be believed, loved, and followed. So keep walking and talking with God and tell the true story of the gospel Jesus and how it has changed and is changing your life to others so they can know the truth and be set free.
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For
those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide,
I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/ .
Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.
(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick
google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late
author’s work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )
This
morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Affliction, Discipline,
Chastisement, & Trials.
1 Peter 1:7-8 (NLT2)
7 These trials will show that
your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies
gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith
remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and
honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
8 You love him even though
you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you
rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.
Today’s
verse fall under the tweny first point of our counseling reference guide
resource’s section on Affliction, Discipline, Chastisement, & Trials
21. At times God gives us trials so that our faith may be purified as gold is refined by fire, that Christ may be honored and glorified.
Today’s verse shows us that the trials we go through are another evidence of our faith being genuine. We suffer for our faith now but when Jesus Christ is revealed to be the truth, the way, and the life to the whole world, we will rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy as every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Atheists and Non-believers mock Christians for the things they believe and for the moral lifestyle they try to live when they follow Jesus and sometimes the pressure to just go along with the world is great as we face persecution but a true disciple of Jesus knows the truth of reality itself and has no choice but to endure the world’s abuse and to continue to proclaim the truth of God’s kingdom and the gospel of Jesus Christ come what may.
Christians have gone into eternity by the violence of evil men who tempted them to renounce their faith. But because the martyred saints knew their Savior lives, they freely surrendered their lives rather than denounce the One who gave them life, forgave their sins, and promised them a place in His eternal kingdom.
Our faith in Jesus is genuine - He’s the TRUTH – and so we will be genuine followers of His no matter where the Lord leads us because we know that we will be with Him, and we will rejoice!
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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 The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3)
A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit
20 - The Spirit Cleansing
True
Mortification
Though the real Christian has been delivered
from condemnation and freed from the reigning power of sin, yet there is a
continual need for him to “mortify” or put to death the principle and actings
of indwelling corruption. His main fight is against allowing sin to bring him
into captivity to the lusts of the flesh. “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness”—enter into no
truce, form no alliance with—“but rather reprove them” (Eph. 5:11). Say with
Ephraim of old, “What have Ito do any more with idols?” (Hosea 14:8). No real
communion with God is possible while sinful lusts remain unmortified. Allowed
sin draws the heart from God, entangles the affections, discomposes the soul,
and provokes God to close His ears against our prayers: see Ezekiel 14:3.
Now it is most
important that we should distinguish between mock mortification and true,
between the counterfeit resemblances of this duty and the duty itself. There is
a pagan “mortification,” which is
merely suppressing such sins as nature itself discovers and from such reasons
and motives as nature suggests (Rom. 2:14). This tends to hide sin rather than mortify it. It is not a recovering of the soul
from the world unto God, but only acquiring a fitness to live with less scandal
among men. There is a Popish and
superstitious “mortification,” which consists in the neglect of the body,
abstaining from marriage, certain kinds of meat, and apparel. Such things have
“a show of wisdom” and are highly regarded by the carnal world, but not being
commanded by God they have no
spiritual value whatsoever. They macerate the natural man instead of mortifying
the old man. There is also a Protestant
“mortification” which differs nothing in principle from the Popish: certain
fanatics eschew some of God’s creatures; others demand abstinence when God
requires temperance.
True mortification
consists, first, in weakening sin’s
root and principle. It is of little avail to chop off the heads of weeds while
their roots remain in the ground—nor is much accomplished by seeking to correct
outward habits while the heart be left neglected. One in a high fever cannot
expect to lower his temperature while he continues to eat heartily, nor can the
lusts of the flesh be weakened so long as we feed or “make provision for” them.
Second, in suppressing the risings of
inward corruptions: by turning a deaf ear to their voice, by crying to God for
grace so to do, by pleading the blood of Christ for deliverance. Make
conscience of evil thoughts and imaginations: do not regard them as inevitable,
still less cherish them; turn the mind to holy objects. Third, in restraining its outward actings:
“denying ungodliness,” etc. (Titus 2:12).[1]
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tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
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These teachings are also available on the
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Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.
My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ), her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge
“The views, opinions, and commentary of this
publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to
reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries,
or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication,
and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the
author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Arthur Walkington Pink, The Holy Spirit
(Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, n.d.).
