Paul is writing to his congregation about the Gnostics who were infiltrating the churches and spreading heresies, 1 John 4:1-3. One of those heresies is what you, yourself, teach as I already showed you in Jude 1:4. Jesus wrote a prophetic letter to Sardis which we all know was the era of the Reformation. The first teachings that came out of that era were the popular teachings of Martin Luther and John Calvin, neither one were scholars. Jesus said to them, “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead." That means their doctrines do not produce eternal life in their followers, but eternal death and damnation.
WOW! Look what you couldn't write! "that you may not SIN!!! Can you say the name above all names, "JESUS"?
Karl, you need to repent and come out of those heretical teachings of death. It is like you are spreading the plague!
The Lord is not impressed with pride, and especially when it concerns us thinking we are smarter than Him!!!!!
He knows what He made in us, and so He knows perfectly well that we are not Him. He is not expecting us to be Him but He does expect that we will listen to Him! So what He does not like is our attitude that we have achieve perfection by leaning on our own understanding. Even anyone who has briefly read through the Bible should understand this, but certainly anyone who in fact spends time listening would know that He does not appreciate that "religious attitude" that people tend to get into!!!!
It is a spirit of pride, that the devil like to push on people!! Where as actually seeking Him and actually listening to Him comes from humility, at least enough humility to think that God is actually there and smarter than we are. So Religion denies that God is actually there with us and also that He is smarter then us. And this thread and the responses in it are another great example of that "religious" attitude that our Lord Jesus Christ hates!
Note He does not hate the people who thought their religious understanding would save them, but He hates that "attitude"!!! Which is what He talked to me about this morning in the shower, and is what He asked me to go over on the forum, even before reading the post attached above.
First, in the OP we find someone apparently wanting to find out something about what's holy and what is righteous. Of course it was not surprising to find a person who thought they were holy and righteous, even without sin. That is one of the things those prideful religious people like to bring up because they feel they are superior to other people. The fact is that they are just pretending and white washing themselves to appear holy and righteous. If they were actually holy and righteous, they would be actually seeking Jesus Christ the Lord our God, and they would have a much better understanding of what being holy and righteous actually means, so they wouldn't have to ask.
Being holy just means that the Lord intents to use us. He does not have to have a perfect tool to use it. He can use a piece of ground that is just made of dirt, and His use of that ground that is just dirt is now holy ground!!
But am I talking about the ground Moses was standing on when the Lord told Him, "Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”???
No, not as you think! The dirt Moses was standing on was just dirt, but God speaks in parables, so that those who do not believe in Him, 'with their eyes they will not see and with their ears they will barely hear.
Is 6: 9 -11 He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’
“Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”
Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant,
Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate,
So it was written in parables and dark sayings, so only those who truly believed in Him (His real disciples) would turn to Him for understanding, and listen to Him personally! And so what is actually going on here?
Was the dirt, the ground Moses was standing on the dirty under his sandals, or Moses himself? Do you still have no understanding?
Gen 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
We are dirt that He blew into, and the dirt was neither good nor bad but just dirt that He might blow into. Yet some want to think that they are "HOLY AND RIGHTEOUS"!!!!!!!
It is that prideful attitude that He hates. Did that come from Him blowing into them, or from them leaning on their own understanding?
God can give you life eternal, but it is not because you are some incredible being. We are dirt that He either speaks into or not!! Still to some He gave the command, " ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand." , and that so they would not turn back to Him!! And yet even that command, had the foremost command in it, which is 'Hear, O Israel'.
Is 1:2 Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; For the LORD speaks,
“Sons I have reared and brought up, But they have revolted against Me.
Isaiah started with that command, then in chapter six explains how it had come about that he started with that command from the Lord. And in the same way have I not brought up the same command, over and over and over even on this thread, that you need to listen to the Lord?
So how is it that I can boldly and being straight forward, say to listen to Him, but it is not heard and responded to?
Is 1:5 Where will you be stricken again, As you continue in your rebellion?
The whole head is sick And the whole heart is faint.
Even before Isaiah wrote, had they not been told over and over to listen to the Lord? But their whole head is sick!!
They were a religious and rebellious people, thinking themselves to be the holy and righteous people even though they would not listen to the Lord!1
They had the wrong attitude!! Paul did not have that attitude, and wrote plainly:
Phil 3:13-15 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;
And so it was that Paul and Isaiah was told to write to those people, because as Paul mentioned, "God will reveal that also to you"! So even if you don't listen to Him, He has someone write about the problem with your "attitude."
They tell people they are the holy and righteous ones. but those who know Him know He is the real Holy and Righteous One! it is nice of Him to speak into us, and if we listen we will get that understanding and then the ground (ourselves) that we are standing on will be holy! They don't understand, because understanding comes from His voice and not their understanding.
They tell people they need to repent of their sins, because they read something about that. But real repentance actually means turning from you ways and your understanding to listening to Him for His ways and instructions to you and thus His understanding! so again their failure to listen resulted in their failure to understand. And their rebellion against Him will continue, will it not?
Is 30:9 For this is a rebellious people, false sons, Sons who refuse to listen To the instruction of the LORD;
It is the attitude that is the problem: that attitude that cause some to refuse to listen to the instruction of the Lord!
Still they will not listen to Him and claim they are the holy and righteous ones, because they have whitewashed themselves. They are those Jesus spoke of and still does.
Mat 16:12 Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
We are holy only because He decide to blow/speak into us. Which is to say we are holy only because He decided to use us. We are still the dirt, the dust, that He decided to us. We are the ground He decided to make His dwelling place. Sin still works in our flesh and that is a principle, a fact, that Paul the Christian man came to understand.
And John also so He wrote:" If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us."
And so because of pride that they let in, they are deceiving themselves and the truth is not in them. So again, should we not again point them back to our Lord Jesus Christ, and tell them to listen to Him? Should we not be willing to do the work of God when He asks us to while in the shower?
