Psalms 130:3, “If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”
I humbly learned a very long time ago that I am not a good Christian, nor will I ever be. If you think you are a good Christian, you need to humble yourself in the sight of our holy God and Creator.
I was sitting in a pew at the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, while attending Hyles Anderson College (HAC, 1985-1993). I graduated HAC in 1993. I have never forgotten what Pastor Jack Hyles said to everyone that Sunday evening. Brother Hyles said: “The best Christian in this auditorium tonight probably feels like the worst Christian, and the worst Christian here probably feels like the best Christian.” I love that truth.
Search the Scriptures and you will find that all of God's great men of God viewed themselves as horrible Christians. That is because the closer we draw to our heavenly Father as His born-again children (if you have been saved), the more sinful we will see ourselves in comparison to God's holiness. No one is saved who denies being a guilty sinner in God's sight. 1st John 1:10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
The Jewish patriarch Jacob said:
Genesis 32:10, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.”
King David said:
Psalms 106:6, “We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.”
The Prophet Isaiah said:
Isaiah 6:5, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
The Apostle Paul said:
1st Timothy 1:15, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.”
The Apostle Peter said:
Luke 5:8, “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
I often tell people that if you are looking for a big sinner, you found THE BIGGEST SINNER right here! Humbly, I am the worst sinner that I know, and so are you if you walk closely with the dear Lord. As God's adopted child (John 1:12-13; Romans 8:15), I always feel convicted about the sins in my life.
The Methodist denomination centuries ago adopted the unbiblical heresy called, “Sinless Perfection.” No, they are liars! No one has ever achieved sinless perfection in the flesh. Not even Jesus, because He was already sinless and perfect before He was even conceived. John 1:1-3 tells us that Jesus existed from the very beginning, because He is almighty God. John 1:14 teaches that Jesus is the Word of God, who became incarnate (became flesh) as the only begotten Son of God. John 1:14, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Please understand that I am not saying it is okay for anyone to live in sin, God forbid. I love what Pastor Jack Hyles said:
“If you want to never do anything that is terribly wicked, then you never do anything that is slightly wicked.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, "Unjust In The Least".”
Amen and amen! I am always praying for God to help me think right, live right and do right. Thankfully, Christ died for our sins so that we could be right, by faith alone in His death on the cross, burial and bodily resurrection (1st Corinthians 15:1-4).
Dear reader, my purpose in writing this blog is to teach you the proper mindset that you should maintain as a Christian. Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” When you think you are doing pretty good, beware! WATCH OUT!!! That is why my favorite Bible verse for many years now has been Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
The Holy Bible has much to say about the wretched human heart. Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” I think that people in general are good, as far as sinners go. The average person doesn't want to deliberately hurt and defraud pother people. That is, I don't think most people want to do evil. But the Bible teaches plainly that we are all sinner by nature and by choice.
What is evil? Evil is simply planned sin. Blowing up in the heat of the moment in road rage is a sin. You didn't plan to do it. In a court of law you would likely be tried for Second Degree Murder, because you didn't plan to do it. But this crime is more than mere manslaughter, like what happened with actor Alec Baldwin. Lucky for him, if convicted of manslaughter the state of New Mexico only imposes an 18 month prison sentence. In Florida he'd get 15 years in prison for manslaughter. Personally, I'd be surprised of Alec Baldwin gets convicted at all. But if Alec had intentionally murdered the woman actor, he would have been charged and convicted with First Degree Murder. And by the way, abortion is First Degree Murder!!!
The Bible teaches that evil comes from within the human heart. That is why the Bible says in Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” We are what we choose to dwell upon in our mind. That is why I refuse to allow any sinful thoughts to go unchallenged in my mind. If you choose to allow thoughts of hatred, lust, bitterness, theft and other sinful things to remain uncontested in your soul, you will become corrupted. What saith the Scripture? ...
2nd Corinthians 10:5-6, “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; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”
This is not brain washing or mind control, it is walking in the Holy Spirit. An unsaved person cannot walk in the Spirit, because they don't have the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). That is what it means to be “born again,” that is, you are born for the second time in life, but this time into God's family by His Holy Spirit which He indwells you with (i.e., God literally comes to reside in your body, soul and spirit. When your flesh dies, the Holy Spirit departs along with the believer's soul and spirit from their fleshly body.
Death is a separation of spirit and soul from the body. The second death (Revelation 21:8) in Hell (only for Christ-rejecters) is separation from the body, soul and spirit from God for all eternity. That is frightening! Matthew 10:28. “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Obviously, God provides the unsaved with some type of body in the Lake of Hell, which can withstand the torture and pain of the fire without disintegrating from the intense heat and molten brimstone. Please don't go to Hell dear friend, the choice is yours alone to make.
If you feel like a horrible Christian, that is a good thing. Hey, the only way from the bottom of life is up! Dr. Hyles used to rightly say that you cannot go upstream until you've first been downstream. You cannot ascend the mountain until you've been down in the valley (or at the base of the mountain). Great joy only comes out of great sorrow! Psalms 30:5, “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
I suffer in constant neck pain. I suffer from burning in my nerves throughout my upper body and arms. The right side of my body always feels half asleep. I suffer from constant chronic neck pain where the bony area is at in back. I take prescription pain medications, which helps take the edge off, but does little to remove the misery from my disability. But it is my suffering that enables me to enjoy life more. When I do simple things—like shop at the grocery store, or feed walnuts and pecans to a family of squirrels, or work on my ministry websites and blogs—I find much contentment in those things.
I love contending for the Christian faith, although it saddens my soul that so many pastors loathe me and despise my preaching, falsely accusing me of finding weakness in preachers, when in reality I am faithfully obeying God to “earnestly contend for the faith” (Jude 1:3b) and “rebuke them sharply, that they might be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:13b). It was shameful senior pastor, Jeff Redlin at Pensacola Christian College's apostate neo-evangelical Campus Church who make that ungodly comment to me in 2021. SHAME on the PCC camp.
I mailed a letter (two in fact) to PCC leadership in 2022, humbly asking for their cooperation to resolve the matter with their haughty pastors, but they didn't even have the common decency and courtesy to reply. That shows me how arrogant PCC leadership is, and confirms all of the complaints I have read from former and present students (and church members too) that PCC doesn't care about individual people. They sure don't!
That just proves how far away from God the PCC camp is, and how ungodly their overpaid 6-digit salaried pastors are. It is SHAMEFUL. PCC has sadly become a neo-evangelicals cult, wickedly bidding Godspeed to the Devil's false prophets like Ken Ham, Harvest Baptist Church on Guam, and the accursed Calvinist cult at Bob Jones University (BJU). It is tragic that less than 1% of my web visitors, Facebook friends, and blog readers agree with my passion to expose these heretics! When I post an image about loving God, 40 or more Facebook friends will give me a like mark. But when I contend for the faith and “rebuke them sharply”(Titus 1:13b) in the PCC cult, who shamefully refuse to contend for the faith, and even worse, wickedly support the Devil's Lordship Salvation cult at BJU, 1 or 2 people give me a like.
It just goes to prove that nearly all professed Christians today are NOT walking closely with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why today's believer's have no boldness! What saith the Scripture? Acts 4:13, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
Acts 17:10-11, “And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”
Please don't misunderstand my blog. We should all desire to become better Christians. But I think a much better attitude to have is to focus on pleasing our dear Lord and Savior, and in so doing we will become more like Jesus. That is what it means to become a better Christian, to be further conformed into the wonderful and holy character of our Savior, Lord and God. Whether you obey Jesus as Lord doesn't change the fact that He is your Lord (Romans 14:9).
JESUS IS LORD!!! There is not a single Christian throughout history, or in the world today, who 100% follows Jesus as his or her Lord. None of us are great Christians. We're not even good Christians! We're all wretched sinners in the hands of a merciful God. Micah 7:18, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.” Our God is a very good God!!! There is only one true and living God, and He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, into the world to die on a cross to pay our debt of sin (Romans 5:6-9). What a wonderful Savior!!!
None of us are good Christians! You never know what somebody is thinking, unless they open their mouth. Matthew 12:34, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” I am as guilty as anyone of failing to keep my mouth shut when I ought to. The Epistle of James in the Bible warns us about how deadly and poisonous the human tongue is. Yet we sure do talk a lot don't we? Just keeping guard of my mouth is a full-time job! Here's a prayer for all of us to remember...
“Lord put your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.”
I don't know about you, but I want God to help me do better. The biggest mistake you can make as a child of God, is to foolishly think that you can make it alone. Dear reader, you cannot make it without God. NO YOU CAN'T! Without the Lord people can become monsters! Just listen to the local, regional, national or world news. It's all the same, gloom and doom! I've been following the news this week out of Moscow, Idaho, about the four young college students brutally murdered (stabbed to death) by (as all evidence is pointing to so far), of all people, another college student who has already earned a master's degree in criminology. Talk about twisted! Go figure.
In another true bizarre news story years ago, a series of deadly arsonist fires in California were found out later to have been intentionally set by, of all people, a fire investigator! Truth is stranger than fiction. And it certainly wouldn't be the first time that the most wicked man in town turned out to be the local church pastor!!! Romans 3:10-11, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” By nature and choice we are all dirty, filthy, rotten, undeserving of God's grace, SINNERS!!! THANK GOD for His precious saving GRACE!!!
I absolutely LOVE this next Bible verse. Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” This precious Scripture by itself refutes all of these heretics in the pulpit today (e.g., Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron, John Hagee, Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Pensacola Christian College, Steve Pettit, Bob Jones University, Marty Herron, Chuck Phelps, Ken Ham, Answers-In-Genesis, John MacArthur, Harvest Baptist Church on Guam, Pacific Garden Mission's radio 'Unshackled,' Joel Osteen, First Baptist Church of Pensacola, et cetera) who all teach the Devil's lie that you cannot go to Heaven until you “turn away from past sinful ways.” That is WORKS!
What saith the Scripture? Jonah 3:10, “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” The Bible says that eternal life is the gift of God. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” It cannot be a gift if there are any obligations or stipulations to be saved, or to know for sure that you are saved. Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do.
1st John 3:24, “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.” The only way that you can KNOW you are saved, is by the indwelling Holy Spirit who confirms THE TRUTH of the Gospel that you believe. That is what true repentance is, a change of mind to acknowledge THE TRUTH that you are a guilty sinner and to believe the Gospel. 2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;”
To be saved you must admit THE TRUTH that you are a guilty sinner in the sight of a holy God (Romans 3:19-20), and place your childlike trust in His only begotten Son, the Christ, whose name is Jesus (John 20:31). You must BELIEVE that Jesus died on a cross to pay for your debt of sin, and that after being buried He resurrected three days later. That is THE GOOD NEWS, the GOSPEL, by which all who BELIEVE are immediately, irrevocably and forever saved (1st Corinthians 1`5:1-4). You have God's solemn word on it (Romans 1:16; 1st Corinthians 1:21).
I receive so many emails from people who are afraid they are not saved because of the sins in their life. Dear reader, your sinning has NOTHING to do with going to Heaven. Please understand that no matter how much you may attempt to forsake your sinning, YOU CANNOT! Even that seemingly sweet old Christian lady singing in the choir, who people say would never hurt an ant, is a rotten dirty sinner!!! She may not get drunk, gamble, chew tobacco or curse like a sailor; but she still has pride, bitterness, anger, envy and can be manipulative when she wants to! The only difference between Jeffrey Dahmer and that sweet old lady in the choir is that they sin differently. Don't judge others because they sin differently than you! What saith the Scripture? James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” All it requires to go to Hell forever is just ONE SIN!!!
In a 60-minutes interview in 1984, the famous Tv actor Jackie Gleason (1916-1987) told the interviewer that he didn't think God would send him to Hell for committing just one sin! WRONG! As I just showed you from James 2:10, God WILL send anyone to Hell for committing just one sin! So then how can anyone go to Heaven? That is why we all need a Savior. His precious name is Jesus Christ. He has already paid for your sins, but that gift will never be yours unless you accept it by faith alone. God will not accept partial faith in Christ plus cleaning up your life of sin (reformation). That would be WORKS, not faith! All God requires to get to Heaven is for you to BELIEVE that Jesus did it all for you! God loves you dear friend and was willing to die on a cross to pay for your sins, because He didn't want to live without you in eternity.
In closing, even if I were a good Christian, I don't want to know it, because I want to always feel like I can do much better for my Savior. But I know that I CANNOT live the Christian life in my own strength as God's adopted child. Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” How do you walk in the Holy Spirit? You simply obey the Holy Spirit's leading from the inspired Word of God (i.e., the King James Bible, which is the ONLY English Bible you can trust today). The Holy Spirit will NEVER lead anyone contrary to the Holy Bible.
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