“I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me”
John 14: 6
12 “Look, I AM coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I AM the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22: 12-13
Pastors Noreen & Henry Kevern
Living Among the Pagans
11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”
1 Peter 2:11-12
There are so many lies being told in the world today that go against God’s will.
Those that the evil one uses to spread his lies and live their lives in sin against
God, are trying to take control. As Christians, God calls us to walk in His truth
and not to follow the way of the world. We are called by God to live our lives in
the way that He led His life when Jesus was on the earth. The pagans of this world
who dare to distort the Word of the LORD for their deceitful lies are working with
the devil to steal your reward. We must not listen to the lies. We must seek God’s
Word, making His Word our daily bread, to nourish us with His truth, so that when
the devil uses the Word of God, that by knowing the Word, we will be able to see
his lies. Just this week, the devil used a man to distort God’s Word in order to
say that God approves of homosexuality. The Scripture that he used was from the book
of Micah. “And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and
to walk humbly[a] with your God.” Because he used that verse out of context he distorted
the Word. Let us look at the full verse and then at what preceded it and what followed
it. 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of
you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly[a] with your God. As you
can plainly see, God shows us what is good. God is just, and as our just God, He
cannot allow sin to happen. We are called to know God and to walk in the way of the
LORD. He requires us to walk in what He says is good, not what the devil says. We
are to call sin just what it is, sin. God does not change and His Word stands firm.
Jesus called people away from sin and to leave their lives of sin or something worse
will happen to them. That something else is hell. Those who deny God, who live a
life contrary to what God has called us to, will forever live in misery with the
devil in his hell. Those who walk in the way of the LORD will live forever with God.
So let us look at the Scripture that begins this Weekly Way: 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.”(1 Peter 2) Peter is telling us that we are to abstain from sinful desires because the devil is waging his war against us. Peter tells us that we should live good lives among the pagans that when they accuse us of not following God’s way, we can refute them and call them out, standing firm in the Word of God and not allow them to distort the Word. Jesus tells us to stand firm, standing up to the devil and his minions. We are not of this world, so we must live our lives in the way of the LORD. There is no area in our lives that should be out different from what GOD requires of us. In everything, we are to follow the way of the LORD and that means that we call what GOD calls what a sin is, sin. Understand this; if you are not walking in the way of the LORD in every area of your life, you are not going to enter heaven. Why are you allowing the devil to steal your reward? We will each stand before God and be judged according to how we live our lives and the words that we say. We cannot walk according to the world and enter the kingdom of heaven. Let me say that again, what the world says is not what God says. And if you do not follow everything that God says, you will go to hell. That is why we are to know His Word, so that we know what is required of us. We are to be overcomers, to learn from God’s Word and to learn to walk in the way of the LORD. When we are born again and God’s Holy Spirit comes and lives in us, the Holy Spirit will convict us of our sins and will teach us to seek God in every area of our lives. Far too many people think they are good enough but that is according to their standards. We are to live according to God’s standards. The devil has convinced so many people to believe in his lies. We must resist the devil’s lies and to actively follow the LORD. We are to overcome sin, to live such good lives according to God’s Word, to stand firm in God’s Word. That when the world tells us that this is what God means in His Word, we can overcome the lies of the devil and live our lives in God. We live in the world but we are not part of the world. We have been saved by the blood of Jesus. We know that so many ministers preach what itchy ears what to hear. They are afraid that by speaking boldly the Word, by calling out what is sin and teaching that there are consequences of sin. As ministers we are to teach all the Word, not just what makes people happy so that they do not know the Word. We have to take the Word into our very hearts in order to know it. It is not just up to the ministers to teach the Word because we are to be taught by God. Ministers are here to teach the whole Word and to help others to know what the LORD requires of each of us. We cannot pled ignorance by saying, “That is what I was taught by my priest or minister” and think that when you are judged that you can say, “I did not know” and enter into the kingdom of heaven.
In 1 Peter 2:1-3 Peter tells us: 1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. So how are we to rid ourselves of sin? By craving the Word and learning from the Word. 3 And He said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18) Jesus tells us to become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven. Just as Jesus was born and grew in knowledge and wisdom, so we are to. As parents we are to teach and guide our children in the way of the LORD, and since God is our FATHER we are to come to Him and learn from Him as His children. We have to put ourselves in the position of a child in order to learn the righteous requirements of the LORD. Unless we do so, we cannot learn the way of the LORD. We are to do everything in our lives for God and to follow all of His ways. Jesus summited to the Father in His life and we are to summit to the Father as well. We have to overcome our flesh nature and to do so, we must learn from God. We have to summit ourselves to His discipline when we sin and learn from that discipline. As we grow as children into adults that is how we are to learn our faith and the way of the LORD.
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2) We are chosen by God to be His people, to proclaim His Word and His truth. We are called out of the darkness of the evil one and into the Light of the world, Jesus. Because Jesus died for our sins, He purchased us for God. His death shows us that God chose us and therefore when we surrender our lives to GOD, we must learn from Him and walk in His way, His truth and live as His life taught us. Since we were chosen and accept Jesus as our LORD and Savior, we must choose to learn and follow all the ways of the LORD.
So when we look closely at the verse in Micah 6 we see that God calls us to learn what 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly[a] with your God. To walk in what is good according to what God says is good. And the only way is by studying and learning the whole truth and not how the devil has been using people to distort God’s Word.
Another thing that the pagans do not understand (and when I refer to people as pagans I am meaning those who do not believe in God or do not walk in His ways) is that we are to summit to those who have authority over our lives. God puts people as leaders and in knowing the Word we can discern who knows God and follows His way, and so we are to listen to their leadership and summit our lives. And that means even those who we may not agree with. There is such slander and hate towards our president and that is not the way we are to give him the respect due to him as our president. We have elections and that is the way we are to elect our leaders, not through trying to overthrow the president. And when we vote for a person, we are to look at that person’s life and see if they follow the way of the LORD. If someone is pro-abortion, they are for committing murder and that is NOT the way of the LORD. If someone commits sexual immorality, no matter what the form is, (adultery, living without marriage, having sex with multiple partners, homosexuality, or lusting after someone, or changing their bodies to reflect what they want to be, thus denying what God created them to be) or lying, or cheating, not honoring God with our lives and have no idols among us, such as actors or musicians, it is not the way of the LORD. But understand this: if someone has left their life of sin and has accepted Jesus as their LORD and Savior, his or her sins are forgiven. This is the stumbling block for many, they do not know how to forgive or think they can deny God’s forgiveness of a person. When we leave our lives of sin to walk in the way of the LORD, our slate is wiped clean and God’s Spirit teaches us. A person who continues to walk in any sin, is not walking in ALL the ways of the LORD. They are not saved. But when someone becomes saved, they are to learn as a child how to walk in the way of the LORD. As believers in God we should not vote for such people who do not follow God’s way--If we do, than we deny God and lose our salvation if we continue to walk in sin. But thanks be to God, He has given us His Word so that we may know the righteous requirements of the LORD. To we can 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your Salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.( 1 Peter 2) We have to crave the Word of GOD. We have to become little children and learn.
But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps. (1 Peter 2) Jesus is our example on how to live the life that God calls us to. He summited to the Father and preached the Father. He used His life to teach us how to walk in God’s way. WE are to overcome the devil and live such good lives and even when they call God’s way evil, we stand firm in His Word and in our faith. Jesus is our Rock, our Cornerstone of our faith. He is the One we are to look to and to follow in His steps. We are called to be who God created us to be. We are called to be disciples of Him and to follow everything that He has said. So my brothers and sisters, live good lives in what God says is good. Stop listening to the lies of the devil. Summit to God in all your ways and you will receive your reward in heaven.
Father, we ask You to open our hearts to Your truth in our lives. Help us to discern Your whole Word and to take it upon ourselves to learn from You. Guide us in Your way and help us to overcome the world and the lies of the evil one. Thank You for Your cross and Your resurrection, thank You for redeeming us of our sins. Teach us to summit to You in all of our ways and to allow You to lead us in Your way, Your truth and Your life. In Jesus’ Name we ask You Father. Amen.
