The Flight of The Wicked

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Biblical Authority, Confession, Death, Disobedience, Doctrine, eternity, false repentance, Fearful expectancy of judgment, God's Word, Haughty, Hell, Jesus Christ, Overcoming, Pride is from the Devil, Salvation, Secret sins, Sin, Solid Scripture, Trapped in Pride for Eternity, Truth, Word of God

Proverbs 28:1…:The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”

 

Like a metastatic cancer, sin that goes unchecked, unconfessed, and unrepented of will spread to affect the entire person. First and foremost, sin destroys the relationship between God and unregenerate people, and for the regenerate (those who for the majority of their salvation live in obedience to the word of God, loving the Lord in the obeying, and who quickly and humbly confess their sins to those they sin against as well as to God and repent, hearts broken for committing the in in the first place), sin disrupts the fellowship between the Lord and His children, for our transgressions grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30). Beyond that, however, sin also has pervasive effects on the entire “psyche”. Paranoia and fear consume the man or woman who gives into sin impenitently.

That is the point of today’s passage, which tells us that “the wicked flee when no one pursues” (even more so when actually pursued!) (Proverbs 28:1a). Anyone who has battled secret sin understands the truth of this statement. Try as we might to believe that what we do in secret does not matter and that living our lives apart from God means we can cast off the fear of the Lord that gripped “less enlightened” generations, we all know that impenitent sin fosters terror in the heart. We know that our Creator keeps His eyes on all, watching for the evil and the good (15:3). Though we try to ignore this truth, we cannot escape it, for it is written on our consciences (Romans 2:12-16). Because we know God can really see everything, repeated, impenitent sin, particularly repeated secret sin, sustains in us the kind of fear that stalks us and threatens to overtake us. We worry that God will expose us, and then we transfer His all-seeing nature to those around us. We grow paranoid that others can see what we have tried so hard to hide (and eventually it does show), and we withdraw from our relationships (which always confirms what has been seen). We begin to believe that everyone is watching us, and we do not like it. Matthew Henry comments, “Those that have made God their enemy, and know it, cannot but see the whole creation at war with them, and therefore can have no true enjoyment of themselves, no confidence, no courage, but a fearful looking for of judgment. Sin makes men cowards.”

Ironically, we sin because we believe we do not have to fear God, and then end up fearing other people. On the other hand, the righteous, because they fear the Lord appropriately with filial honor and not cowering terror, end up being afraid of no man. “The righteous are as bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1b). They need not worry about being found out by other people because there is nothing to be found out. Whatever sin they have, they have confessed to God and to who their sin affects. There are no secret sins to ruin righteous people, so righteous men and women can face others with boldness and scrutiny, not worrying about what their “enemies” will reveal about them. Numbers 32:23 says that our sin will find us out. We live in fear if we are in impenitent sin because we know the truth of this verse, namely, that we cannot hide our wickedness forever. The only solution to such fear is confession and repentance. Confessing our sins to one another puts fear and paranoia to flight because it brings our transgression out into the open, encouraging us to fight our sin and to take an honest stand for Christ as sinners saved by grace alone.

For further study: Isaiah 59:12-13 Romans 2:12-16

The word is clear that anyone who lives in continual disobedience (as in ongoing sin, or secret sins which are unconfessed and unrepented of and forsaken) is not a believer, as when Peter states in I Peter 3:1 that “even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won…”. And for that there is only one solution…Repent and be saved. May God grant those repentance leading to rebirth through the biblical Christ, and may they then be able to live as the righteous who are bold as a lion and flee no scrutiny.

(Ligonier)

http://www.whatifimpretending.com/

http://www.whatstandard.com/

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A sin-sick mind: King Saul’s journey into darkness

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apologetics, apostasy, Biblical Authority, christianity, christians, Death, Depravity, Disobedience, Eternity in Hell, False regeneration, false repentance, false-prophets, God's Word, Last Days, Lies, Overcoming, Salvation, Sin, Truth, Word of God

“We are aware that we have an antagonist, an adversary, who often persuades people that they have the Spirit of adoption when that is not true of them.” -Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Romans – The Sons Of God)

Reblogged from The End Time. Interesting as I was just speaking of this to a person who is degenerating as Saul did (just as insidiously, as it is done passively, dishonestly and with a smile and smarmy “Christian sincerity”). I’m pretty sure we all know people like this. Pray that God will break them as hard as He has to in order to draw them into genuine repentance and full surrender to the biblical Jesus Christ as Lord, not just “Savior Accessory” to a growingly dark continuing in their own way as they continue to demonstrate the fruit of iniquity instead of the fruit of redemption. The blind CANNOT see, spiritually, what they truly demonstrate according to the word of God. And their master the devil seeks to keep them in as much darkness as he can (and so they appraise themselves by themselves and come up with the answer Satan gives them), until they drown in that utter darkness for eternity. We live in such sad days….AGM†

We read many times in the bible that sin corrupts the mind. A mind without Christ will not work right, it will be blind, deluded, corrupt, twisted.

The perversion of a sin-sick mind varies from person to person. Not all people are as totally evil as they could be. But sin piling upon sin will corrupt the mind in increasingly evil ways. Here is one example: King Saul.

I wrote recently about Saul and David. Saul was king, the people’s choice and God allowed it. Yet when David had earned victories and the people sang of them, Saul became jealous. In jealousy, Saul cast a wary eye against David. What happened then? The next day an evil spirit came to Saul. (1 Samuel 18:7-10).

The point of that essay was to show how quickly sin will rise and seize the opportunity to magnify itself in a man’s heart and mind. Sin does not wait for a second invitation. Sin does not lollygag. Sin pounces at any opportunity, with all haste.

The point of this essay, in still viewing King Saul through the biblical lens, is to see how sin that’s unaddressed degrades a man’s mind.

David plays the harp for Saul, Rembrandt

Some time has gone by, and Saul is by now deeply tormented by David. He has no cause to be. David is Saul’s servant, gaining the king victories. David never gave reason or cause to Saul for any lack in his duties as servant and subject. David played the lyre to soothe Saul. David has made no move against Saul and has only supported Him. Yet Saul is jealous. Saul threw a javelin against David while David played music for Saul. David escaped the piercing. It must have been the hand of God, for Saul was large and tall, skilled in battle, and one would surmise Saul’s javelin did not miss his target in close quarters. Yet it did.

David ran. His wife, Michal, told Saul’s messengers who appeared as his house that David was in bed, sick.

And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” Then Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” (1 Samuel 19:14-15).

Saul’s fear, envy, jealousy, insecurity … all negative values that show us Saul was not standing in the hand of the LORD. His negativity had grown to monstrous proportions. Monstrous, because Saul purposed to kill his servant. His servant was said to be sick, in bed, and Saul decided to kill him in bed. Saul said he will kill his servant David while David was at his most vulnerable and could not even fight back.

This is a perverted mind and a blackened heart. Of course, David was not actually sick, his wife was trying to gain her husband time for David to flee. However, Saul’s act here was a watershed.

You’ve heard the phrase, “he drifted in and out of consciousness”? Saul had been drifting in and out of God. He was in God’s hand at his anointing. Samuel the prophet tells this to Saul:

Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. (1 Samuel 10:6-7)

Saul threatening David, by José Leonardo.

Here Saul learned the Spirit would be:

• with him
• equipping him
• giving success to him

Initially all was well. But then Saul disobeyed and gave an unlawful sacrifice, and he lied to Samuel the Prophet about it. Events in Saul’s life and kingship lost their luster and eventually “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.” (1 Samuel 16:14)

Verse 23 of that same chapter shows us that the harmful/evil spirit came to Saul and at times departed from Saul, usually when David was playing the lyre. Saul drifted in and out.

In 1 Samuel 18:10 when the harmful spirit tormented Saul, this time Saul began raving. Here is the key:

Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. … And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him. (1 Samuel 18:12, 15)

Saul was looking at man, and not at God.

Saul knew the reason for his troubles and the reason for David’s success. Does not Saul believe God is a mighty God and a loving God and a listening God? If Saul had humbled himself before the LORD and asked for forgiveness of his jealousies and violence against a man of GOD, does Saul believe the LORD would not have forgiven? Saul knew he was out of the LORD’S will and pleasure but Saul remained in awe of David, not in awe of God. Saul refused the antidote that was poisoning his mind and polluting his heart.

Repentance.

What a joy we have in our Savior, Jesus Christ. He shed the last blood the Father will ever need. He stands with the Father, interceding for us in our sins.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:18)

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

The truly gracious gift to us from the Father is Jesus, who atoned for our sins. When we do sin after conversion, He listens and accepts and forgives. We need not fear the departure of the Spirit as the Spirit departed Saul, and we have the bible as our holy writ to guide us into all truth. It is on this foundation we stand, and looking to Him, our Savior and our Friend, when we repent.

We live in a truly gracious age! We should celebrate our opportunity to repent, be forgiven, and grow in renewing our minds with pure truth of holy scripture. Once converted and justified by grace, our minds are no longer degraded and polluted, but it is still our responsibility to read the bible so as to renew it in truth. It is our responsibility to wash ourself daily with it. It is our responsibility to pray mightily to God for forgiveness of our daily sins, and appeal to our High Priest who stands at the ready to bring our cares and sins and woes to the Father. David washed himself often in prayer to God in repentance and in heartfelt plea for forgiveness.

Saul and the witch of Endor, Gustave Dore

More than that, what a joy it is to do so! Saul did not, and ended up in 1 Samuel 28 where all people with unaddressed sin end up: at the devil’s door. In this case, the Witch of Endor’s house. In his sin-sick mind, when Saul finally sought to address his problem, it was too late. His mind was too far gone to think right.

And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets. (1 Samuel 28:6).

And so Saul went to the devil ‘to inquire’ of the devil instead of to God. Worse, Saul swore to her ‘by the LORD.’ Oh, Saul wretch of a man, swearing to the devil by the precious LORD! What has Light to do with darkness?

David did pray and repent often and seek to live in God’s will, and ended even his most tearful prayer in hope and joy and peace at pouring out his woes to God. David was called a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), not because he never sinned. Why did David’s mind not become sin-sick as Saul’s did? Because when David sinned (unlike Saul) he repented and in so doing saw God ever more clearly as the savior, protector, gracious and revered Eternal Hope.

http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-sin-sick-mind-king-sauls-journey-into.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FJYkPA+%28The+End+Time%29

 

Note: As much as you may think this does not pertain to you (And if you are in darkness, you most certainly will. And if you have a narcissistic religious pride, ditto),you do not have to continue to condemn yourself. You can be set free from your ongoing sins (And all the sins you attempt to hide to cling to that you find solace in), sins you have committed that still don’t seem so bad to you (Hey, other people have done much worse, right?), and a heart that continually refuses correction and embraces lies (Bet you have been approached at least once with concern for you and scriptural truth, haven’t you?), but there is a cost. It will cost you everything you hold dear and the sin that keeps you in Satan’s chains. (No, I’m not saying that Christians do not sin. I am saying that, scripturally,  Christians are sensitive to their own sin,  hate their sin, confess it readily, genuinely repent of it and seek forgiveness of God and of any others their sin may have impacted, and they do not continue to live in it. Biblical Christians hate to grieve the Holy Spirit) and do not continue to keep living in it…

Romans 6:1,2…What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

I John 5:18…We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them

I John 3:7-10……Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

Jesus says to count the cost (If the world thinks you’re a good egg, you’re in trouble. The world loves it’s own. Christ is the stench of death to the world, not a pleasant fragrance. But to genuine Christians, the world reeks of death, and so do those who are held in sway by the god of it, Satan. We do not keep seeking out pagans for companionship, we love them as we give them the gospel they detest and pray for them, and LIVE out Christ’s example to the lost. And they will either be saved or they will avoid you like the plague.)…how much will you actually pay for your eternity? How much are you truly paying now? Christ’s cost is not very much when you consider the reality of “never ending”. Either way, you will never be able to honestly claim you have not been warned. Whether you “believe” that you need this or not, please check out the links provided below. God’s will be done! †

http://www.whatstandard.com/

http://www.whatifimpretending.com/

The Fruits of Repentance

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apologetics, Bible, Biblical Authority, Blessed, Christ, Christian, christianity, christians, church, Death, Disobedience, Doctrine, eternity, false converts, False Gospel, false repentance, Genuine repentance, God, God's Word, Haughty, Heart is deceitful, Hell, Jesus Christ, Knowledge, Lies, Only Son of God, Salvation, Scripture, Self appraisal, Sin, Solid Scripture, Test yourself, Truth, Word of God

by John MacArthur

What kind of evidence substantiates authentic repentance? When the crowds asked that question of John the Baptist in Luke 3:10, he told them to share with their needy neighbors (v. 11). To tax collectors he said, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to” (v. 13). To soldiers he said, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages” (v. 14).

In each case, he was calling for a selfless attitude and kindness to one’s neighbors. That short list doesn’t exhaust all the possible fruits of repentance, of course, but it demonstrates that genuine repentance ought to produce the kind of character change that results in a qualitative difference in the way we live. James wrote, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). In a similar way, repentance that doesn’t produce works is barren and useless. A person who has genuinely repented is never left unchanged.

The apostle Paul likewise looked for proof of repentance. “I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,” he said, “but kept declar­ing… to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance” (Acts 26:19-20, emphasis added).

The emphasis on self-examination is consistent throughout Scripture. Because true repentance is one of the first indications of salvation, believers can and should look to the fruit of repentance for assurance. As Paul said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Scripture presents self-examination as an essential prerequisite for authentic assurance (2 Corinthians 13:5). The evidences of true salvation cited in Scripture include the fruits of one’s behavior (1 John 3:18-19), pattern of life (1 John 3:24), and way of thinking (1 John 5:1-2).

Don’t be misled: salvation is in no way merited by our works, and therefore true assurance is not ultimately grounded in our performance. Self-examination can destroy false assurance, but you’ll never find settled assurance merely by looking at yourself. In the end, we have to look away from ourselves and rest in the objective promises of God’s Word. True, lasting assurance is anchored in the promise of salvation to all who believe. That promise is as true as God Himself and needs no empirical verification.

Still, self-examination is a necessary and biblical aspect of gaining assurance. It is the process by which we evaluate the quality of our own faith. And the fruits of repentance are the evidence we must seek.

This is especially crucial in the contemporary evangelical environment. Multitudes believe they are saved merely because someone told them so after a cursory conversation, the simple reciting of a canned prayer, the raising of a hand in a public meeting, or sometimes even less. People have not been challenged to examine themselves. Rarely do they test their assurance by God’s Word. As a matter of fact, many have been taught that doubts about their salvation can only be detrimental to spiritual health and growth.

But Scripture demands self-examination. In fact, we’re supposed to examine ourselves regularly, every time we partake of the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:28). Paul’s famous challenge to the believers at Corinth clearly has the doctrine of assurance in view: “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5 emphasis added). And Hebrews 10:22 indicates that “full assurance of faith” comes from “having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience.”

So we need to examine ourselves in the process of coming to grips with assurance. Nowhere is this made more plain in Scripture than 1 John, one of the key passages of Scripture on the subject of assurance. In fact, the epistle was written with the express purpose of building the assurance of true believers. John wrote, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). His aim is to deepen the assurance of genuine Christians—those “who believe in the name of the Son of God.” He’s not trying to provoke doubts in the presence of authentic faith; he is giving us a basis to “assure our heart before Him” (3:19).

Notice again, however, that our faith in Christ is the ultimate ground and foundation of true assurance. Self-examination is simply the process by which we examine whether our faith is genuine and our repentance real.

True believers should not be unnerved by the biblical call to self-examination. Unbelievers and mere hearers of the Word, on the other hand, need to have their self-confidence shaken. So the apostle John names several practical tests that may be used to determine the authenticity of faith—including such things as obedience (2:3-6; 3:1-10), sound doctrine (2:21-28; 4:1-6), and love for the brethren (3:14-19; 4:7-11). Those are fruits of true repentance.

 

If you judge yourself by your own estimation, you will always see what you are loooking for, you will always be what you want to be….But not what you truly are according to the word of God.~AGM†