But nobody likes strangers coming out of the dark uninvited.  Usually folks travel at night have a reason for it, and generally it ain’t a good one.”
              –Lou Bradshaw  (Big Man’s Keeper)

    “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”
              –Colossians 1:13(NKJV)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”  –1 John 5:19 (NKJV)

         “The results are in: America’s stage four cancer has metastasized to the family and the church as well as to the government and the schools. We are more depraved than ever before.  Animals are guarded but innocent children are slaughtered. Porn is protected and sex-trafficking is on the rise. Cardi B’s lyrics get a pass but Scriptures are banned on social media.
Words cannot express this outright lunacy. Like the bungee jumper who plunged to her death because she thought she heard “now jump,” when, in reality, her instructor said, “No jump!” America thinks that she is hearing from God, but she is not. We are drowning in a cesspool of moral filth: “The wicked freely parade and prance about while evil is praised throughout the land” (Psalm 12:8). Recently, a father was arrested for referring to his biological 14-year-old daughter as “she” after she transitioned to a male gender. “But that’s in Canada,” you say. Trust me, we are not far behind.  Most on the liberal left would have no problem imprisoning anyone who disagreed with them, and that’s exactly where the Equality Act is going — unless you accept, rejoice in, and validate sin they are coming after you. Revival is our only hope.”  (taken from article in Prophecy News Watch, author unknown)

    Such a place we find ourselves in, how do we survive?  First, we are to recognize the truth of God’s Word.  We are no longer living in darkness such as we see in the article above.  

         “But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”  –1 John 1:7 (NASB)

Are you walking in darkness or walking in the Light?  We discussed earlier that God is Light (1 John 1:5).  Therefore, we are to walk in that Light.  People walk in darkness because they are part of the world.  Now, here is something to understand–it is vital to understand kingdoms, not sin.  By repenting and accepting Jesus Christ, we now are part of the kingdom of Light.  The proof of repentance is the life we live.  There is the turning from the life of sin to a life of holiness.

         “Men and women who walk in the light are people who are seeking God.  They desire to know God better; they are concerned about the glory and honor of God; they are anxious to please God.  They realize that for very many years they have been living in a realm which is antagonistic to God, and their whole idea is to be as different as they can.  That is walking in the light, living to the glory and honor of God.  God is their Master; they seek righteousness and are concerned about being holy.”
                   –D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

    Darkness stands for the very opposite of God.  William Barclay writes about darkness:

         1)  Darkness stands for the Christless life.  (1 John 2:8; Colossians 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5; John 8:12; 1 Peter 2:9)
         2)  The dark is hostile to the light.  Darkness may try to overcome light but it cannot.  The dark and the light are natural enemies.
         3)  The darkness stands for the ignorance of life apart from Christ.  If you walk in darkness you do not know where you are going.  The dark stands for the essential lostness of life without Christ.
         4)  The darkness stands for the chaos of life without God.  Without God the world is in chaos, there is neither real life, order, or sense.
         5)  The darkness stands for the immorality of the Christless life.  This is one reason why there is such an attack against Jesus and His Word–the light shines upon the evil of man.
         6)  The darkness is characteristically unfruitful.  The Spirit will not grow in the heart of darkness.
         7)  The darkness is connected with lovelessness and hate.  Hatred lives and is from the dark.
         8)  The dark is the abode of the enemies of Christ and the final goal of those who will not accept him.  There is a constant struggle against those in the darkness and in the end those not in the light will find themselves in eternal darkness (2 Peter 2:9; Jude 13).

    The job of the Holy Spirit is to bring sins to light, convict, and lead to forsake them.  Man must face his sin–he must not dislike the light.  I’ll close with one of the most often quoted Scriptures, and perhaps one of the least understood Scriptures.  The Holy Spirit had John write this and REALIZE that this is for Christians, those who walk in the light.

         “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
                   –1 John 1:9 (NASB)

There are those who would use darkness to hide evil.”
              –Lou Bradshaw  (Hickory Jack)

    “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”  
              –John 1:5 (NKJV)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”  –1 John 5:19 (NKJV)


Before continuing, we need to take a brief look at this doctrine of sin.  To walk in fellowship with Christ there must be some knowledge of what it meant to walk in darkness.  From the time of Adam’s fall in the Garden unto the present man has chosen to walk in darkness, under the power and dominion of sin.  There was no way to walk in real fellowship with God until Jesus provided the way to reconciliation on the cross.
    As Christians, we no longer walk in darkness!  It is important that we understand that.  We cannot walk in darkness and have fellowship with Christ.  There are two kingdoms and the believer cannot/does not walk in the realm of sin.  We live in one or the other.  We are no longer blinded by the God of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4).  Paul wrote in Ephesians,

         “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” (2:2)

Once we walked in darkness, following the whims and commands of the devil, but that has now been put aside.  To walk in darkness is to oppose God–there is no fellowship.  People who dwell in the darkness are oblivious to the light of God (John 1:1-9).
    An old heresy is raising its ugly head again.  It is popping up in churches and in the minds of, I will say pseudo-believers.  It is the heresy of antinomianism:  as long as you are a Christian and claim you know God in Christ, it is immaterial what you do, because you do not sin, it is the flesh or body that sins.  Oh, such a dangerous thought.  Man begins to rationalize sin and categorize it.  If sin is pointed out there comes the cry of “do not judge” or “legalism.”
    Do not try and rationalize it away.  We are sinful and need forgiveness.  Lloyd-Jones states, “If we say I have no sin, I am denying the incarnation, the death and the resurrection–I am making God a liar.”  By doing this, not only are we calling God a liar, we are proving that the Word is not in us and that the world is.  “Not to be right about sin means we are still walking in darkness, that our whole attitude is a lie.” (Lloyd-Jones)
    We are sinners, pure and simple, and even after salvation we still, hopefully not often, sin.  I have been using 1 John for much of this discussion; remember, that the epistles were written to the Church, to believers.  Do not live the lie, do not succumb to the idea that “I am saved, therefore…”  No, that is laughing in the face of eternal love.  “A lie cannot live in the presence of God; it is an utter contradiction of everything God is, and it just means that I am not a Christian at all.” (Lloyd-Jones)
    Paul tells us in the Book of Romans we do not sin that we can have more grace.  No, grace is given because we do sin.  I can understand Paul’s frustration.  What do we do when we sin?  What steps should be taken when the sin nature rises up and we fall prey to it again?  Remember, we are no longer children of darkness.

If you step in a cow paddy you’ll get it all over your boot, Christian or not.”
              –Cliff Hudgins  (Viejo and the Ranger)

    “The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of mankind.”
              –Psalm 12:8 (NASB)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World

Key Verse:  “Have confidence in the fact that we belong to God, but also know that the world around us is in the grips of the evil one.”   –1 John 5:19 (VOICE)

My former pastor, Tom Minter, has developed one of the best series on how to live the Christian life that I have ever heard.  It is called The Journey.  As we journey with Jesus, He becomes our friend, and as we become His friend we learn more on how to live and walk along the journey of life.
    Fellowship is what we desire with the Lord.  Fellowship means deep, committed companionship.  How can we walk in the company of Jesus; how can we have that intimate fellowship and companionship?  Enoch understood, for the Scripture says, that he “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22).  That was true fellowship.  That is what a husband and wife should have as they go through this life together.  That is what we must have as we go through this journey of life with Christ.
    To have companionship/fellowship there are some requirements.  Each of the people as they walk along must come to know the character of each other.  Since God is omniscient He knows ours, therefore, it is up to us to know His.  That comes through the Scripture, through prayer, and through our daily walk.  As we draw close to Him, He will reveal more of Himself to us.  One thing for sure regarding the character of God–it is utter holiness.
    God knows our character and it is sinful. (Romans 3:23)  We cannot understand the Bible and the character of God without understanding the doctrine of sin.  Man is sinful, however, most want to disregard this doctrine, or excuse it saying that God made us human and we are only human.  That is far from the doctrine of sin.  In fact, one of the subtle ploys of Satan is to get man to play down or disregard or dispute the doctrine of sin.

         “There is a kind of general objection; the average person today, without thinking about the doctrine and without examining it, just dismisses it as being soft.  ‘Ah,’ they say, ‘that old-fashioned doctrine in which the fathers delighted, with the morbidity and almost perversion.’  They talked of sin and preached about it, and hasn’t that been part of the whole trouble?  It made men live a kind of cramped and narrow life; they did not know what life and living meant.  They so turned in upon themselves, and so overpainted this picture of our imperfections, that they really put fetters upon mankind!”
              –D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

This new “woke” generation of cancel culture would have this doctrine completely done away with.  However, no matter the fine speeches, no matter the policies, no matter how enlightened man thinks that he is there is no denying sin.  They can try to eradicate it from their speech and from written material, but sin is still there.  They say that the doctrine of sin has made life miserable and all the brightness of life has been removed.  That is one reason for the revision of history–to show that the “saints” were not good people.  

         “So there is this common deep-seated objection to the whole New Testament doctrine of sin, and, of course, along with that goes the view of life which maintains that really things are not quite as bad as the Bible and the theologians in past have made it out to be.  ‘So long as we do our best,’ people say, ‘and look to God occasionally for a little help, then everything can be put right.  We must not take these things too seriously…'”
              –D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

    Not take them seriously??!!  It was sin that put Jesus Christ on the cross!  It was because of sin that Jesus left heaven to become the atoning sacrifice!  Sin is disastrous; sin is like vomit; sin is vile and Jesus came to defeat it.  Sin leads to death, and Jesus came to overcome it.  Listen!  Get this!  Without the doctrine of sin there would be no amazing grace!

If he had learned one thing from life it was to keep his guns loaded, his canteen full, to eat when there was food and sleep when there was time.  A man never knew what would happen; it was best to be ready.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (Last Stand at Papago Wells)

    “Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching.”
              –2 Timothy 4:2 (HCSB)
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As I mentioned, I will not be writing every day concerning How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World, but today’s topic is related to what is happening around us.  I guess you could call it a “parenthesis” or more commonly a “side-bar”.  I was reading a couple of articles.
    In one, I read that the most Christian continent is now Africa.  For several years it had been South America, but Africa has taken the lead.  Can we then be surprised at the fight for the souls that is taking place on that continent with Muslims killing Christians?  The article spoke of the fact that there is little different in the theology of Christianity since it is founded upon the person of Jesus Christ.  The second aspect of the article then disputes the false notion that Christianity is a product of white supremacy.
    The second article I read was a little more shocking coming out of Barna.  From the time I was very small I have heard that the purpose of the Church is to fulfill the Great Commission.  In this report Barna states that 51% of people in America have never heard of the Great Commission, 25% said they couldn’t recall the exact meaning of it, and 6% said they were not sure.  That means only 18% know what they should be doing in this age today.

         “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.'”
         –Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV)

    After Jesus informs them that He had “all authority” He tell them what they are to do–the Great Commission.  First, they are to go out and make disciples of all nations.  This is further stated in Acts 1:8 and the premise is to go and do.  Up until now, the Church seems to have understood that message.  Notice that they were to “make disciples” not simply get a confession of faith.  There is much more to making disciples, and it takes time and effort.
    Second, they were told to baptize them and then given the mode.  The Church in America has not placed the emphasis upon baptism as it once did.  Baptism symbolized the death of the old self and the resurrection of the new.  Baptism is an open statement of faith.  In many countries it means death; in many families they actually hold a funeral service.
    Then the third aspect, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”  Wow!  That is where the discipleship comes in.  Jesus said if you love me, keep My commandments (John 14:15; 15:10).  Today many will cry “legalism” at that statement.  People want to be part of the world, not separated from it.  People want their luxuries and their sin without the Word of the Lord rebuking them.  
    If you want to survive in this world that is under the sway of the devil you must be a complete, dedicated, equipped disciple of Jesus.  You must continue in His Word, training, developing yourself as a disciple.  It takes time, it takes effort, it takes stamina (physical, mental, and spiritual), it takes practice, it take desire.