Why I Hate Evil…And You Should too!

Why I Hate Evil…And You Should too!          Kelly Durant

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

2. How many of you have watched ‘youtube’ videos of someone being run over by a car and no one stops to help them? It makes you feel sick to see the evil and indifference of the people, doesn’t it? How disturbing to know we live in a world where few have a heart for those suffering! Indifference and hate produce the same effect, a lack of love for another that could save a life or a soul. And sick people leave mocking comments forgetting that that could be them one day!

I know my daughter, myself, and anyone with a conscience at all has felt sick to see a video of a person being cruel to an animal or to another human being. And do you recall only a few years ago there were horrific videos of people being beheaded, burned alive, and executed? And the murder of Christians continues in dozens of countries and how appalling that today few people even recall this fact! 

These things make you feel sick enough to vomit, and make you feel angry at the wicked people who murder, torture, and destroy God’s innocent people. And have you seen pictures of cities where evil people have carried out war. Think of Africa, Syria, Iraq, or of dozens of cities in the Middle East which have been recently demolished by invaders, making millions of families homeless to move with nothing in their hands. Imagine being sent out in a desert with nothing at all!

3. Jesus came to teach all of humankind to love one another, but what do people who do not know Him, or do not accept Him do? They hate! They hate anyone different from their sinful self selves over differences of ever-changing politics, religious convictions, or certain lifestyle choices. Hate is like an infectious disease and people without the cure, which is living in obedience to God’s word, are condemned to carry out evil on those they dislike. This evil in the hearts and minds of the devoid harms others by their evil words and acts. Their evil also destroys their own soul as stated in Romans 6:23 ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’.  

‘Hate’ today is a hot topic. Usually you see people holding signs saying ‘Stop the Hate’ while they are the ones red faced ranting and raving, accusing, and defaming, even bearing false witness over how things are not how they want them to be. The question is, Is there any system anywhere in the world that is flaw free and making everyone perfectly happy?’ The answer is, no! 

The answer to broken systems has always been to change the system, but problems will always continue as the new system brings within itself a whole new set of problems. Venezuela and dozens of countries prove that in the name of fairness and equality much damage can and will happen, so everyone must wise up and be extremely careful as to what changes are being demanded. The righteous must not back down nor cave to the relentless attacks of the erroneous ones who demand change excluding God, love, and freedom to worship Jesus. 

4. David was ‘a man after God’s own heart’, so let’s see what he has to say about ‘hate’. Hate is a passionate rejection (which usually involves inciting anger), an abhorrence, to loathe, and to despise. 

Psalm 5:5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity. (It is expressed that God hates evil and those who practice it)

Psalm 11:5 The Lord tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. (God hates those who bring on violence) 

Psalm 21:8 Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You. (God knows who are the ones who hate Him)

 Psalm 34:21 Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned.(God will allow evil people to be defeated and God is on the side of the persecuted to defend the righteous, which are the true Christians)

We can conclude from hundreds of verses in the Bible that…Psalm 7:11 ‘God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day’. God’s purpose for all of us is to live as in ‘The Kingdom of God’ blessed, happy, healthy, and with peace loving Him and one another as we obey Jesus commands to love. But rebellious God hating people are not having any of that in their life as they want to raise hell, sow dissention, and divide and conquer hating (while accusing others of hate) those who defend God’s statutes, Jesus, and love. 

There are people so perverted with evil, including many world leaders from de-generate family blood lines, that they will never submit to loving God and his humble servants. If they do it would come only by a miracle from Jesus. Submission to Jesus is opposite to the oppressive pyramid paradigms they rule by. 

5. Listen to their words, evil people will overtly or covertly declare that they ‘hate’ (Yahweh) God, and they insult Him by denying that He exists or by breaking every law in His book; the law to love above all. The extreme ignorant ones claim the Bible is a lie and contains worthless fables. How ignorant is this claim as any historian knows much of the Bible’s record of past cities and tribes are provable. The Bible is the most important book in the world!

Most haters as well reveal that they hate Jesus and His people, the Christians. But as a mirror God reflects back to people what they send up to Him. 

Psalm 18:26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward (defiant and aggressive) thou wilt shew thyself froward.

All people will reap what they sow; if one sows love, one reaps love. The same, if one sows hate, then hate you reap but much more than what you expected. Hosea 8:7(a) ‘For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind’. It is gross ignorance to believe one can mock God’s laws or people and not suffer the consequences. In the end, God’s laws are universal and it is common sense to respect others and God so as not to invite anger and wrath on yourself!

6. So as Christians how are we to respond to this generation of ‘haters’? Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. 

We must avoid getting involved with troublemakers who have offensive mouths, who spew hate and promote violence. To join them in their ‘group think’ is to make one self an instrument of them and a fool. You cannot fight them on their level as they entice you to do. Proverbs 26:4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.

The Holy Spirit must give you and me wisdom and we must not get involved with people who shout out slogans that most usually are misleading with ulterior objectives. Proverbs 14:15 ‘The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looks well to his going.’

7. As Christians, as lovers of God and of others, even being lovers of our enemies, we must learn tactics to control our anger, or we will insult back and sin in the same manner these haters do.

One acceptable way of diffusing attacks is with diversion. Proverbs 26:5 ‘Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.’ You cannot have a serious conversation with an evil aggressive person who is attacking you so you must skew their words and vile mouth.

Here is an example of how to skew an attack. You might get mocked in a group (or by text) with a slogan, ‘You must be drinking the kool-aid of Fox News or of the conservative religion freaks”. These commonly repeated phrases implies you will die from the poison that comes from hearing those whom they identify as the wrong side. And to counter on the defensive and say, “You are wrong, they speak truth”, only brings on more mockery and insults by these evil people.

You might have to divert with a reply like, ”Well, medieval kings made their selves strong by consuming small amounts of poison”. (Within yourself you know this is off subject but it is replying folly for folly; it is just playing with their silly accusation of poison). So do you see how preparation is needed to not fall into the argument trap of the haters who already have pre-schemed dialogues?

8. Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

We cannot avoid getting attacked for our beliefs, faith, and Biblical worldview in this life! So if you stand for Jesus, you might as well do it with boldness and let you light shine and remain strong through the attacks, deceptions, lies, humiliations, and hate coming from the evil opposition.

Proverbs 24:16 For a just man falls seven times, and rises up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. We will be free from reaping the consequences of evil by remaining faithful to our Lord and Savior, but we have to keep getting up back into the battle. 

9. Evil comes in many forms, by words and by deeds, and the counter is by the same, by words (God’s Word!) and by good deeds done for others in need. What is curious is even evil people will often leave you alone when you help and serve others. To fight evil we must do good in place of it! And pray God protects as well! 

For example, the Salvation Army in several countries have the circumstance of working in neighborhoods that are full of crime and gangs and it is dangerous work. But I know of several cases (Brazil, Jamaica, etc) of how even the violent gangs do not bother us because they know that if they were to attack us who are doing good and helping others that it would bring on the ire and anger of the neighborhood people to the point they would turn them all in to the authorities. 

James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. Never lose sight as to who is going to win this battle against evil doers and haters, against those with terrible pride and arrogance: it is Jesus and His conquering army! And who is in that army? You and me, His soldiers who are already doing battle for Him saving as many souls as we can! A soft answer turns away wrath and the wisdom in of the Psalms and Proverbs guides us concerning evil and hate. Study to make yourself strong in God’s word and put yourself in the front lines so Jesus will use you to do good! Fear God and labor to save souls and by this you will be countering the evil, hate, and absence of love in the world!   

Mercy or Law, Which Priority Is for the Christian?

Mercy or Law, Which Priority Is for the Christian?   By Kelly Durant 8-12-18

Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

2. There is a story about a man who was ready to be executed by Napoleon, I think for treason, and from the crowd the mother of the young man started yelling, “No, no please do not kill him!” “Have mercy, please don’t kill him!” 

He called the woman up and Napoleon told her that her son had broken the law and had been tried and sentenced and that his death would bring justice. But then the woman replied, “Well, I am not pleading for your justice, I am pleading for your mercy!”

Can mercy and justice ever meet or are they opposites? The law is justice, a person gets what’s coming to them. But Jesus Christ sacrifice on the cross represents a forgiveness for a lack of obeying the law, so Jesus is mercy. Is it clear how it all works? Only those with Jesus can obtain God’s mercy.

3. I have observed that recently people are curious about how much grace, or how much law we should have to live by? In part I am refereeing to the extremes of theology where you have the ‘Jesus only’ movements deeming the Old Testament law as totally irrelevant: And on the other side of the spectrum you have those who demand the total adherence to the law such as is done by the Jewish faith, and these people are known as Messianic Christians. Why the confusion? Why do people not read the Bible instead of following leaders?

The current climate of politics, education in the schools, and the lifestyles of famous people plant the seeds of confusion in the general populous of what is right and wrong. And even some churches with their theology being one thing, and their practice being another brings on great confusion. It is apostacy!

People want clarity and standards, and both mercy and justice are necessary! Deep inside we all want mercy for ourselves! And it is a lack of justice that is creating so much of a double standard today provoking oppression and suffering, the very things Jesus Christ came to abolish! There is a time for each application.

4. Why does the law of the land apply to some and not to others? Considering the politics of today permeating every institution we get mixed messages as what is legit and what is not. A political group may spy on another group without legal permission stealing, deleting, or using files to blackmail, a felony offense in the past decades, but at the whim of people controlling the law, it gets conveniently overlooked. Under certain governing bodies the breaking of the law was deemed unforgivable but today we have hypocritical double-standards everywhere. Jail time is not even considered for certain habitual law breakers yet others pay big for petty things! This is an example of the ‘lawlessness’ Jesus mentioned would come to exist in the end-times in Matt. 24; this is not ‘mercy’ as some think, it is an injustice, a double standard, and an unfair advantage tactic by power abusers.

So the effect of this “on again, off again” application of the laws of the land brings confusion into people’s minds. It even affects the reasoning ability of people concerning their faith! It usually brings on frustration and anger, and then big discords with fellow Christians! Some churches tolerate all kinds of sins and are popular, but we know from the 7 seals from the Book of Revelation God is not pleased and will allow judgments upon these offenders. Because God is patient that all should repent, some abuse their freedom, but the standards of God are clear to those who have studied His Word in the Old and New Testaments. 

The application of the law, in varying degrees in all countries, is often circumvented. Also, many of man’s laws are not God’s laws, but we submit to not cause trouble. We must study Romans to understand more about the laws of the Jews and the laws of the land. Romans 13:1 ‘Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.’ The people of the world must submit to laws but many of these laws originate from the past pyramid system of rulers with slaves which Satanic men impose. Our God given conscious  and the Holy Spirit must tell us which laws are from God and which are not! We must ‘obey God rather than men’ when the law demands worship of one of Satan’s dictators or prohibits us from talking about Jesus then we desist. (See Acts 4)

5. Another confusing and damaging conjecture is a false education concerning laws. The application of morality, or truth, or standards is erroneously taught in many schools to be relative to one’s personal preference or culture and are not absolute?! Einstein himself exposed this fallacy and quoted that ”relativity” was to be applied to the mechanics of the physics of space time, but never was it intended to be applied to morality and the law!  

Imagine if all people had their own standards or laws as they please?! If all fabricated goods, replacement parts, or any chemical formula for medicine or machinery were all done at the whim of the designer, then we would have absolute chaos and no modern advancements at all! There must exist measurements and standards! People do want morality standards as well! Do you know of any culture that allows stealing, raping, and murdering as acceptable? (Actually some do allow horrific crimes, in the name of their false religions!)

Absoluteness, standards, and laws, and the consistent application of them, has brought us to a higher level in society, so why do we question moral and Biblical  laws presuming each person or deviant group can chose the standards they please? I don’t want to be killed, so I will not kill you! The ‘eye for an eye’ works!

6. The law serves as a standard for order but it cannot complete the perfection that God wants from us.Matt. 19:18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”19 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ 

”21 And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

What is obvious here is this rich young man understands that you must be correct in all of what you do in observing the laws of God. Jesus confirms he did well by obeying the law, but what did he lack? He lacked mercy on the poor! The observance of the law without love for God and others brings on condemnation! The law is good, but too many people want to just do a minimum and be done with it. The answer of Jesus is to preach the gospel sharing and helping others! No tradition, sacrificial rite, or no Mosaic laws can be enough to please God. Read Galatians to learn more on this. God is merciful, and if the law will not make us perfect then we must practice mercy as we want to receive mercy pleasing Him.  

7. Romans 7: 6 ‘But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.’ Paul who was one who observed the law to perfection in his pre-Christian life is correct in his analysis that the law itself is not a saving force, but rather the Spirit (which comes from Jesus’ teachings and the Holy Spirit) is the saving force. 

Romans 7:4 “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.” Here we see confirmed that if we obey the old law only we will not bear fruit for God! After Jesus came, we got new commandments from Him (laws on love which were already in the old law), however, Jesus reaffirmed the highest law standard, which is…

Matt 22: 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (This is in the old law of Deut. 6:5) To love is a law! To love fulfils the law!

8. So if you love God and you neighbor with all your heart you will not disrespect him and do things contrary to laws harming Him, but rather you will respect him. You will not cheat on your neighbor’s husband or wife, steal from them, or murder them either! Do you see how the law goes hand in hand with God’s commands all of which fulfill the command to love? To show love to another is to show them mercy! We have freely received, so we must freely give!

To love, even to love enemies, is hard! This is why some comfortable Christians prefer to belong to some aberrant sect of Christianity to just obey a set of laws the church says is Kosher rather than to live in obedience loving others. Because the law is black and white and clear to lay out what should be done and what is not permitted it tends to get corrupted with legalism and hypocrisy. Being legalistic implies you are accepted (by other foolish men only) doing no personal sacrifice for those you don’t care for. In the end to just do your duty with the law transforms into a habitual ritual which renders null and ineffective your spiritual growth and connection to God. A few thousands of years of Bible history with true merciful God lovers verses fruitless law obeying hypocrites prove this!

The rich young ruler loved his own riches more than the suffering poor that Jesus wanted him to have mercy on! So many people miss this verse in the Bible as well, Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” And Jesus idea of sinners was not just the publicans, harlots, and tax collectors, the sinners, the ones He often was addressing were the religious hypocrites who obeyed every jot and title of the law but had absolutely no love for God or man! In conclusion, if you show no mercy (which comes only by obeying the highest law: love), then no mercy will be shown to you! The law only will not justify you.

9.  So what are we to emphasize as Christians? God’s love and to be full of mercy! But should mercy extend to the point that we allow others to repeatedly abuse the commands of God and damage relations with Him and others? Obviously not! We are to be fair and balanced, lawful yet merciful. We must be people who apply common sense and discernment by the Word of God to everything we do. God grants mercy on sinners but if they keep sinning and abuse His mercy then the law will take over to condemn them. We must, “Go and sin no more!”

Repeat offenders are unrepented souls and are condemning their own selves to lose it all, even losing salvation. In this life many get away with horrible offenses not obeying God’s or man’s laws, but that rebellion will end in death when having to give an account for all things done before God’s judgment throne.

A full perspective of what is right and wrong according to God’s love is the wisdom we must long for! It is a balance of discerning what laws apply within the new commands (that you love one another) that Jesus practiced and taught. Law breakers have always been punished, in all cultures throughout time and with God, unloving, non-compassionate, unmerciful people will be punished as well by not gaining heaven and rewards in heaven.  

After Jesus sacrifice on the cross the law becomes overshadowed by mercy as the law does not justify or save, but we do need to learn all about it so we do not offend God or others. Also we pay a price for not obeying man’s laws, so discerning by the Spirit is key. People who observe the law only, cannot learn compassion and mercy as Jesus pointed out with the rich young ruler. Jesus is the One who teaches us mercy and the giving of our lives for God’s use. Jesus fulfilled the law and God’s effective plan of bringing about His Kingdom of love, mercy, and salvation to ‘whosoever’ will receive it! Jesus truth has been marching on ever since! Spread Jesus good news to all!  

Jude. Pt. 2 (Bible study) a message for today...

12. ¹² These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

We don’t discriminate when we invite others to eat with us here in the church/Corps, all are welcome, so what is the teaching here? The word spot, which is the same word for sin in the Bible, is referring here to sinful people amongst us, being those who are unrepentant not having the loving nature of Jesus, these are deceivers claiming to be one of us but they are not. A feast of charity, or love, should not have to be spoiled by loud, obnoxious, contentious and boastful people who are unloving. 

The shameless ugly and filthy people of the world who do not understand nor respect us as God honoring people have no fear to show how smart and confident they are amongst us. These are people who go along with the cultural winds of change to promote the most recent perversions, illogical stances, and dividing trends. Many youth and young in the Lord get deceived by these kinds of pretentious bold speakers.

So how do we discern who these false pretenders (spots) are? By their fruits we will know them! These false kinds have no fruit for the Lord, all they have to show in their private lives is the worship of self, with no sacrifice of time, treasure, or talent for God, just empty clouds. They can never win a soul to Jesus because they don’t really love Him or believe in Him! They are as the walking dead bringing nothing but death. Twice dead implies they will die in the flesh, and then die in the spirit because their roots are not connected to the life giver, Jesus Himself, the true vine.  

13. ¹³ Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

Where do we read here about the waves? James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. These are those who change from year to year to defend the trends of the world, of politicians, of sinful hypocritical leaders, or of famous people. Revelation 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. The waves of riots and attacks today are violent by the mega-millions of deceived people who display their selves as shameful vulgar hypocrites as they are stubbornly defending ungodly statutes. 

Wandering stars? The earliest civilization, the Sumerians, created the astrological calendars attributing deities to the stars, as if the stars are connected to angelic beings and stories of old. Many cultures talk about how from ‘heaven to earth’ these beings came (the fallen angels), and they lost their place in the order of God’s cosmos. To wander is to be misplaced; these are the rebellious spirit beings incapable of fitting anywhere due to their sins and crimes against God and humanity so God has sent them deep into black space. There they cannot contact any human, angel, or demon by isolation. These are comparable to black hole suns, a destroyed compressed mass not producing light for life but rather existing as invisible beings, stuck in an eternal inescapable death cycle, recycling their own useless waste when at one time gave light. 

14.  ¹⁴ And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,

Here again we have reference to the Book of Enoch, and notice he was 7^thfrom Adam. There were two Enochs, this one was holy and walked with God. Genesis 5:24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. However, there was another Enoch, the son of Cain, grandson of Adam, this one was very evil and perverted all the wisdom of God into systems of false sciences and deceptions, which still are actively worshipped and taught today as in secret societies and Gnosticism.   

The Book of Enoch, found alongside the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Qumran Caves in Israel in 1947, is considered to be one of the oldest books ever recorded. From the beginning God has warned of His return and judgments on unrepentant evil humanity. Enoch revealed to us the revelation of Jesus return even before the flood of Noah! 

Ten thousands is a number implying ten thousand multiplied times ten thousands, or in other words more realistically like millions who will be the resurrected saints! Jesus will have an army, and we will fight with him and we will defeat the Anti-Christ, Satan in the flesh, and all his followers. It will be a literal war, the final battle before the judgement.

15. ¹⁵ To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

One stumbling block many people have is the acceptance that God will judge and punish people in hell as they deserve. People who are deceived want God to be just a positive energy, just a light, just a Father of benevolence with love and forgiveness for all no matter how horrific and ungodly their deeds are. But God is just, and He has to allow evil people to reap what they have sewn when their spirit returns to come before Him. 

For centuries mega millions of people have been maligned and murdered just because they were more meek and righteous, (the case of Cain and Abel repeating itself), were Christian, or were less prepared than the demonic armed invaders. And it all begins with hate speech, hard speeches, a demonizing of the people they want to destroy. Nero, Marx, Lenin, Mao, Gangis Khan, Hitler, and many evil ones have attacked God and his people verbally and the final product progresses on to massive murders. 

A side note, those that wear Che Guevara (or any dictator) shirts and sympathize with those who did ‘hard speeches’, in my opinion, will be judged as murderers even though each of them may personally have not killed physically: the problem is this person is not worshipping our saving God of love offering forgiveness by Jesus and is idolizing a murderer instead! This is an unforgiveable idolatry promoting evil ideologies which incite evil deeds.  On earth there is never justice so God has to sort it out in the final judgement. Even if the law condemns and executes a person for murder, if this person killed ten people, how can you kill them ten times? Those who mock and speak against God will not escape, they will pay for aliening their selves with the losing evil dark side committing unspeakable acts.

16.¹⁶ These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

As Christians we define how we live as walking in the spirit. This means that we, as Paul, are “content with any state we are in, prospered or abased.” Those in the world walk in the flesh, being carnal and they are never happy with anything always wanting more! In other words everything is always all about them and what they can get in life to feed their pocketbook or pride. These kinds have big mouths too. 

In the workplace, and even in some churches, or everywhere you go there will always be vocal complainers, and no matter what you do for them, they will never be happy and always complain. Do you know people like this? Their lusts may not just be sexual perversions, it is more frequently power, money, and pride. To affirm their positions over others, they always degrade others verbally and do illegal tricks to gain a power advantage. These types create their own personality cult, and people admire them as they have a cool and smoothness. But the outer skin hiding the putridness inside!

By their outrageous and bold words, they deceive others to think that they are leaders and popular charismatic voices. These types of ungodly people in power positions get admirers by accusing others of what they are guilty of. They may say, “Hate…(fill in the blank who or what)…because these are evil one(s) wanting power” but when doing a reality check, these are the ones passionately lusting for power and money! They will say anything and do any crime to get what they want. It is pure hypocrisy and Jesus had no mercy on hypocrites!

Please, as Christians, wise up! Ask God for discernment and the Holy Spirit to free you from any and all of these evil influences from the spirit world or from the current world. The truth will set you free, but if you are not fully attached to the rock of Jesus, you will suffer as these evil powers are out to deceive and destroy and hook you into supporting them. Only Jesus can save us from the deception of these complainers. 

17.¹⁷ But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;¹⁸ How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.

Here we are reminded of many previous New Testament verses such those shared by Paul, John, and Peter. Jesus shared powerful messages concerning the condition of people when the end is near and those that have Jesus have the spirit of prophecy to keep reminding others of how it will be.  Revelation 19:10 (b), and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 

A person who mocks another is one that is prideful and malicious, one who seeks to discredit and tear down everything you or another may stand for, believe, or proclaim. There is nothing more annoying than a vulgar mocker! These are voices from Satan himself seeking always to attack and destroy what is good, fair, righteous, Godly, and Christlike. These people are the example of the epidemy of hypocrisy! 

Mockers, comedians, activists, politicians and any loud bitter vocal source always have dark souls and hide many secrets concerning their own personal corruption which frequently is, amongst greed, pride and other things, a sexual perversion of some type. How many hundreds of times have we read about this in the news, how some abusive boastful mocker falls from stardom due to his or her ungodly perversions and lusts?

18. ^19 ‘These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit’. What does it mean to separate yourself? It means you withdrawn from the main society, which usually functions with normal productive law abiding people just trying to survive, and create a separate class designed for the promotion of something sinful or prideful.

Since the 1960s in the U.S.A. we have seen lots of these types of movements of people who gather a few thousand people together who want to inordinately demand respect, acceptance, and promotion of something un-natural, something which contradicts the word of God. Demanding a unified acceptance making their selves separate from the average majority is preposterous! But splinter groups that seek to divide to conquer have always played an evil role since the beginning of time.  

‘Sensual’ means of the flesh, when speaking of sensuality it includes excessive consumption of something or an obsession with something carnal, such as sex or any lust. People obsessed with anything block out their spiritual perceptions and are clueless on accepting, receiving, or understanding wisdom from God. They do not have God’s Spirit and they are blind. They are like a television with no antenna, capable of displaying nothing but worthless distortion. Separated groups, being elites, mafias, perverts, or whatever are in the end serving Satan’s purposes, so beware. 

19. ^20 ‘But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,’ The assumption here is that you are aware of all of the evil mentioned in the verses above, that you are on a reverse path into making yourselves faithful and holy.

The only hope for the world, or any of us, is to repent and undo all that is drowning out the voice of God in our lives. We must build day after day a new vessel concentrating on Jesus and the faith as our foundation to make spiritual progress towards become truly good so we are not overcome by our own lusts and sins as those of the world are.

You and I must constantly ask for the Holy Spirit to reveal to us our faults and allow the Spirit to burn away all the ugly binding chains of any evil controlling our lives because sin brings with it consequences including death due to its damage. Daily prayer is a must to connect with God’s Holy Spirit! Prayer and God’s word gives us discernment!

20.²¹ Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 

This goes along with the doctrine of the Salvation Army and many other churches that we must “keep”, or maintain ourselves in the love of God, and only by faithfulness to the end can we keep salvation. How can you and I do that? By staying connected daily which is done by the study of His Word, prayer, fellowship, and by practicing our faith loving God and others as ourselves and getting out there in the community to ‘do something’!  

And, “looking for the mercy of our Lord”, is a must for you and me, all the time! We are just human and it is so easy to make mistakes, to get prideful, carnal, lazy, or fall into something wrong. It is only by Jesus’ mercy that we can have a chance of changing ourselves into being like He is which is loving, holy, and merciful! Sad that many Christians become unloving, unholy, and unmerciful overtime (or they never were!) because they get overconfident and disconnected to Jesus. No Bible study and prayer time results in no acts of kindness to help those suffering, and this is a dead faith. 

And as we daily ask the Lord to guide us and practice showing mercy on others as we want mercy on ourselves, we must continue on the path to eternal life. To have eternal life we must make a strong effort to remain connected to the source of this eternal life, which is Jesus. He is the eternal life giving trunk on the vine and we are the branches. 

21. ²² And of some have compassion, making a difference:²³ And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Here is always the question, how do you and I know who we should have mercy on and who not to? I think it is better to always err on the side of too much compassion than too little. Christians and pastors face it all the time, we meet people who failed in their missions, people who fell back into their past sins, and we really have to pray to understand their motive for wanting to be back in our fellowships. Is it because they want another chance to do good, or is it they are just in need of something we have and they are good only while they get what they need? 

When you give things time, the truth comes out! We can make a difference, and an exception, with some as they will do their best to start living like Jesus wants, and God does wants us all healed and restored. Those that deserve compassion are those that start producing good fruit: there comes to light evidence that they are conforming their lives according to God’s love and Jesus commands.

Fear does change us! I am reminded of a scene from the movie ‘Lean On me’ where the principle takes a student getting caught with drugs all the time up to the roof of the school building and he says to him, “Jump, just finish off your life!”. The kid is scared and confused and the principle goes on to explain that if he keeps up with the drugs he is going to die at any moment, so why not just kill yourself now? He made the point! Sometimes you and I need a near death experience to wake us up to repent so we see how evil our flesh is and get saved forcefully as out of a scorching fire surrounding us!

22. ²⁴ Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

One of my first fears when I started down this path of serving God was that of failing. Everyone gets attacked when they serve God! It comes in the form of discouragement, betrayal, weariness in well doing or being burnt out, a lack of being appreciated, and often a lack of love by those around you. I always thought, well if Jesus kept on being faithful anyway then I can trust in Him to keep me keeping on too!

In the end all the harsh, unfair, and abrasive things that rub upon us serve to polish us, as a stone gets shiny and polished, to be of more use to the Lord. Years of faithful service are not a vacation! They contain moments of extreme ups and downs, and by these we learn to trust in God and be closer to Him more perfected all the time.

The idea is we want to be faultless, perfected, and holy when we get graduated to heaven and we meet God. We don’t want to have to face God with shame, with some explaining to do over our bad behavior (in judgement time!), we want to face God with extreme joy because we made it to heaven with faithfulness and good works. 

23.  ²⁵ To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. 

What a beautiful way to end this chapter! It’s recognizing God as the One who makes us wise, the One who saves us eternally, the One who deserves glory and majesty, rule and power for ever and ever! 

It says, ‘Both now and ever’, which is significant because this implies all of these good things are a part of us as of ‘now’. We don’t have to wait for heaven to be praising and honoring God and Jesus! Already, learning of all of His wise teachings and warnings, just by studying His Word, we are in Him! His word seems harsh in parts, warning of how evil doers will reap back evil on themselves, but this confirms how God is good!

God’s desire is to liberate us from all evil and it will be that way one day after His return! Stay faithful day by day and in the end you will see that you had remained faithful until the end of your whole life! With joy beyond words we will live eternally with our loving Savior and friend who had been with us all the time!