–Cliff Hudgins  (Viejo and the Outlaw)

       “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
                    –Colossians 3:2 (NASB)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”  –1 John 5:19 (NASB)

The three disciples who were the closest to Jesus saw a marvelous, unexplainable to the natural, sight on the Mount.  Jesus began to glow, they heard the voice of the Father–they were given a glimpse of glory.  They had come up from the plains, from the valley into the mountain.  While there, they forgot all the misery and unhappiness down below, in fact, Peter wanted to pitch a tent there, but the Lord reminded them that they were to live on the plain.  The work to be done was in the valley.  In other words, plainly put, we are meant to live in this world.

               “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
                              –1 John 3:3 (NASB)

               “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”
                              –James 1:22(NASB)

Notice the words:  “purifies himself,” and “prove yourselves.”  We must purify ourselves; we must prove ourselves.  First notice, it is not ought to, but does.  Then notice who does it.

               “You and I, having a vision of glory, have to come down and translate it into practice and put it into daily operation, and if it does not lead to that, then we are abusing the Scripture.”
                              –D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

God sometimes gives us a tremendous blessing.  It may be in a church service; it may come from reading the Bible; it may come as we are walking through His wonderful creation.  We have those special times, those special moments, but we must use them to become a better person and to put it to work in our normal, daily, routine lives.
       Peter proclaims that we are to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).  We try so hard (at times) but we fail.  Why is that?  It is that we do not recognize that we are a child of God.  It is not a gift; it is not a fruit, yet it is some for which we are to strive.
       I am going to go back to some of our earlier studies.  We fail because our belief is defective!  We are not in the Word; we do not know or adhere to the doctrines.  In fact, we do not like to study the doctrines, and ministers do not like to proclaim and teach the doctrines, yet it is one of the very reasons that we fail in our attempt of holiness.  The great need is to understand who we are so that the practice of holiness is inevitable.  Lloyd-Jones says, “Holiness is something that follows and is an inevitable deduction from doctrine, from an understanding of our position as Christian people.”
       It is something we practice.  Something we do and it takes time and effort.  Every day,  every hour we should be practicing holy living.  I have often said that a warrior is someone who lives his training all the time.  The same is true of a Christian in regard to holiness.

               “I must therefore never talk about this idea of living the holy life because it is a good life in and of itself.  Rather, my only reason for being holy is that I am a child of God and that I am destined for glory, and if I do not practice holiness in those terms I will sooner or later inevitably go astray.”
                              –D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

       We often look at holiness in the wrong way.  Holiness is not something we are called upon to do in order that we may become something; it is something we are to do because of what we already are.  We live a holy life because we are children of God.  We live a holy life because we are Christians (Christ-like).  Since we are to meet God we need to prepare to meet Him.
       Beware–never conceive of holiness as a kind of higher or happier or holier life; it must be regarded as a life to which all Christians are called.  It should be routine; it should the norm of the Christian life.  Never get to the place where you say to someone, “I am holier that you,” for if you do, that destroys your work.  The person who truly practices holiness does not draw attention to it because it is part of his life.  I like what Lloyd-Jones says, “It [holiness] is not something in a separate category and department; it is something that flows out of the life that is in them; it is an inevitable expression of what they have received.”
       Holiness is not a gift–it is something which we work out.  Paul writes in Philippians, “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13, NASB).   I have wondered many times what this means, for salvation comes by grace through faith, but in the development of holiness, practicing the life of Christ in ourselves, it is us reacting and practicing what God is doing inside us.

               –Louis L’Amour  (Kilrone)

        “I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that  you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.”

               –Galatians 5:10(NKJV)
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David is surrounded; he is crying out to God to care of his enemies.  He knows that his enemies are God’s enemies as well.  In the midst of this calamity and seemingly hopeless situation David says that he will sing.  It almost seems he is saying that he will be singing as he goes into battle, and not just any song, or a song of triumph, but a song of praise to the Lord.  Let’s look at the rest of Psalm 59, again from the New Living Translation.

          11 — Don’t kill them, for my people soon forget such lessons; stagger them with your power, and bring them to their knees, O Lord our shield.
          12 — Because of the sinful things they say, because of the evil that is on their lips, let them be captured by their pride, their curses, and their lies.
          13 — Destroy them in your anger!  Wipe them out completely!  Then the whole world will know that God reigns in Israel.
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Interlude [Selah]
          14 — My enemies come out at night, snarling like vicious dogs as they prowl the streets.
          15 — They scavenge for food but go to sleep unsatisfied.
          16 — But as for me, I will sing about your power.  I will shout with joy each morning because of your unfailing love.  For you have been my refuge, a place of safety in the day of distress.
          17 — O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love.

     One of the problems that we most often have is that we tend to look at things with the natural eye.  We focus on the danger rather than God’s deliverance.  Now, I’m not saying we should not be aware of our surroundings and our enemies, but we should even be more aware of the presence of God.  At night David hears the snarling, growling, and howls of the wilds dogs–his enemies, but he does not let them dominate his thoughts.  He will sing praises, and shout in the morning because of God’s unfailing love or as some translations render, His mercy.
     As we look with spiritual eyes (O, Lord, give us the eyes of Elisha) we will see the fate of evil.  The more evil we see the greater our praise should be.  Charles H. Spurgeon said, “The greater our present trials, the louder our future songs be, and the more intense our joyful gratitude.”  Paul says that we are to be thankful in whatever situation we find ourselves.  No matter the circumstance, God is there with us.  I used to say, that God loves to see us in situations where there is no way out, but then He provides a way.  When the solution seems to be impossible, on the scene will arrive the God of the impossible.

          “The long, long night is past, the morning breaks at last,
          And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast,
          As o’er the golden hills the day advances fast!
          The Comforter has come!”
               –Frank Bottome

Because it ya’ have t’ ask about bein’ a man, then you already said the answer.”

                    –Clair Huffaker  (The Cowboy and the Cossack)

  

      “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”

                    –James 1:23-24 (NKJV)

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I was doing my morning reading and came across some thoughts from one of the early Church fathers (I’ll share it later) and it caused me to stop and ponder a few things.  My mercy, I thought, we have sure tricked ourselves into foolishness.

       James wrote, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” (James 1:16, NKJV)  I recall that the definition of a “hypocrite” is someone who pretends.  It came from the early Greek theater when a person pretended to be someone else.  They were to deceive the audience into thinking that they were that person.  It was all part of an act, entertainment, but now when we are deceived by the “hypocrites” who are the bureaucrats, possibly church leaders, phoniness, it becomes dangerous.

       First, it was the “mask will save us,” now it has become the “vaccine will save us,” but in reality neither will.  Have we deceived ourselves?  Have we allowed those in high positions to deceive us?   Deception–hypocrites. . . hmmm.  Let’s look at another passage from James.

 

              “But be doers of the Word [obey the message], and not merely listeners to it, betraying yourselves [into deception by reasoning contrary to the Truth].”

                         –James 1:22(Amplfied)

 

There is that term, “deception” or deceivers.  James speaks of those who are self-hypocrites; people who deceive themselves.  They hear what they want to hear.  Their opinion is more valid than the Scripture, or at least their interpretation of it.  Not only do some allow others to deceive them, they deceive themselves.

       This “pandemic” has led many into self-deception.  Whether or not there was an agenda to close the churches (and in many cases it was tried) many have used it to stay away from church.  An excuse–a self-deception.  A case in point follows”

 

               “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.”

                         –Hebrews 10:25(NLT)

 

Stay at home, don’t go to church; you can get as much from the service by going on-line.  Hmmm, but can you partake of the Lord’s Supper at home?  Can you allow someone to lay hands on you at home?  Can you give a word of encouragement to someone if you stay at home?  Are you shirking your obligation, responsibility, and duty by staying at home?

       Excommunication is a “tool” for the church to use.  I won’t go into details about that now, but all too often the church misused it and today it has a negative context.  However, what I am seeing is that people are self-excommunicating themselves (self-deceiving) from church.  Here is the quotation from one of the early church Fathers.

 

               “Let no one be under any illusion; a man who excludes himself from the sanctuary is depriving himself of the bread of God…  Anyone who absents himself from the congregation convicts himself and becomes self-excommunicate.”

                         –Ignatius of Antioch

 

He also mentions that if the prayer of one or two people have great effect, then think of the power of the pastor (bishop) together with the church.

       It is time for us to remember who the great deceiver is–Satan, the devil, the enemy of our souls.  He is the wicked one, and he has used deception since the very beginning with Adam and Eve.  What is so shameful is that there are those in the church who are allowing themselves to be deceived.  I do understand that sometimes a person must be at home and miss services.  I understand that a person must do their own Bible study and pray at home (really anywhere), but there is a real place for assembling together.

The thing that shows the man is his willingness to accept responsibility for himself and his actions.  Only a tinhorn blames what he is on his folks or the times or something else besides himself.”

                    –Louis L’Amour  (Tucker)

 

       “What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it?  Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?”

                    –Isaiah 5:4 (NKJV)

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The first part of Isaiah 5 gives a dire warning.  It is directed to Israel, but it is important to remember that prophecy is of a local nature, but can also be for other nations in the future, and at times even directed at individuals.  Before looking at the first part of Isaiah 5, I want to give some important principles of interpreting prophecy.  There is so much junk floating around out there that we need some guidance, and I hope these three principles will help.

 

            1)  The historical contemporalnuity–prophecy was for the people of the time.  They knew what the prophets were speaking about.

            2)  The covenant background–we must always keep in mind the covenants of God when looking at prophecy.

            3)  Eschatological arguments–many prophecies were meant for the day in which they were given or in years of the writing of the Bible, but many are also for the last days.

 

It is imperative that you read Isaiah 5:1-7.  It is directed toward Israel, but it is also a summary of what God is saying to all men.  Israel is a type through which God can speak to all of mankind.  As you read the verses, keep the United States in mind; keep yourself in mind and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

       Opinions are rampant out there, some of which are complete foolishness and nonsense.  Progressive culture, woke, cancel culture, critical race, revisionism, and so many others we need to go back and look at the Word of God.  Men and women are in trouble because they do not want to believe the truth.  Man’s truth is relative, therefore, there is no satisfaction, but only frustration and the development of a new “truth.”

       Man is responsible to God.  He may not like this idea, but the truth is there.  Perhaps that is why some choose to say “there is no God,” but there can be no denial.  Man was made to live according to a certain standard but have become unreasonable in their beliefs and actions.  The have mocked Him; they have scorned Him; they have turned their backs on him and gone in the opposite direction.  Because of this rebellion man is no longer reasonable–they are fools!  Instead of good grapes they are wild grapes that set the teeth on edge.  Lloyd-Jones states, “The world is producing nothing that is of ultimate value.  It is producing a sham, an appearance of living that is not living; it is existence, and an evil and finally useless existence.”

       What will happen when God withholds His blessings?  What will life on this planet be like?  God says, “There is no peace…to the wicked (Isaiah 57:21) so what is the outcome?  Desolation…despair…despondency…depression.  God planted, God cultivated, He worked, He removed the stones from the field.  What He planted was the choicest.  Now He is going to break down the hedge (no protection); He is going to let it go to waste (the weeds of anarchy will rise); He will allow briers and thorns to grow (false teachings and ideologies).  Then there will be drought…the drought of God’s Word.

       America has been blessed like no other nation.  But what is now happening to us?  Natural calamities, fools in leadership positions, insolence, arrogance, mockery against the standards of God’s Word, the election of those with “antichrist” beliefs and actions, the acceptance of foolish notions–are we ready, for it could be that God has removed His hand of blessings and is letting the thorns and briars grow.