The Bible teaches several principles to enable us to live an upright life
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 4:11 says that all things were created
to please God. Thus, our purpose in life is to live to please God.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 confirms this truth, “Let us hear the conclusion
of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the
whole duty of man.”
Hebrews 11:6 teaches that faith please God. Faith is obedience to the Bible, doing what God tells us to do. Proverbs 3:6 tells us to acknowledge God in all our ways, and then we have the PROMISE of God that He will direct our ways. What a wonderful promise from God. We acknowledge the Lord in our ways by searching for Biblical principles to live by. In John 5:39 Jesus commanded... SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES!!!
I want to share with you three important Biblical truths teaching us how to
live right. The Lord doesn't want to help us live the Christian life; but
rather, to live the Christian life through us. This is what it means to walk
in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and
ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” The Holy Spirit is God in
us. God the Father and the Son make their abode (home) in our body in the
form of the Holy Spirit.
Choose To Obey Jesus Christ In Every Thought
The
first principle is found in 2nd Corinthians 10:5, which teaches to BRING
EVERY THOUGHT INTO CAPTIVITY UNTO OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST. The Bible tells us
how to overcome evil thoughts and live upright for God, that is, to bring
EVERY THOUGHT INTO CAPTIVITY unto obedience to Jesus Christ. When an evil
thought enters your mind, you immediately arrest that thought and say to
yourself, “No, I want to please God, I will not allow that thought.” 2nd
Corinthians 10:5, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
Please note that this is not character; but rather, deciding in each and every unique situation to DO RIGHT! The longer that we do the right thing (or the wrong thing), our character is changed for good or evil. You may not have good character based upon your past behavior, but you can decide right now to be pure, live right and please God. Our life is lived one decision at a time. We don't live a day at a time; but rather, one decision at a time. If you want to lose weight, the battle is won or lost one bite at a time. If you want to overcome a wicked habit, then you purpose in your heart that you're going to immediately arrest any thought that exalts itself against the Word of God. Sin exalts itself against God, for sin is idolatry, placing our own will above the will of God.
This principle in 2nd Corinthians 10:5 is critically important. If you think a hateful thought against another person, then immediately arrest that thought and say to yourself, “No, I will not live with a burden of hate. Life is too short to live with hated against anyone. If God was willing to forgive all my horrible sins, then I can certainly forgive others. I CHOOSE to love my enemies. I choose to do right. I choose to please God with my life today, and in this decision right now.”
When an evil thought enters your mind, you immediately arrest that thought and say to yourself, “No, I want to please God, I will not allow that thought.” 2nd Corinthians 10:5, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
I was standing in line at the Queen Kapiolani Hotel in Honolulu and an attractive woman in her 20's was in front of me. She was completely naked except for skimpy white bikini shorts and a flimsy top. I couldn't help but notice before I looked away that you could 100% see the crevice in her buttocks. The shorts were completely transparent because they were white. You could see everything. I immediately turned my body to the side and said to myself, “I won't think that way. I want a clean mind. Lord, help me to think and live right.” I thanked God for the blessings in my life. I thought about how wicked the world is becoming. I preoccupied my mind with other thoughts. I didn't look at her again.
Rock music has destroyed America, promoting a
religion of immoral sex. Whereas women in the early 1900's all wore dresses,
the chances of finding a woman clothes in a full-length dress in today's
feminist society is almost unheard of.
Only Use the Inspired King James Bible
Satan
is a clever liar and deceiver! If I were the Devil, I'd relentlessly try to
infiltrate and corrupt the churches, so I could deceive the masses and lead
them away from the true and living God. I'd lead them into a counterfeit
form of Christianity that emphasizes spirituality without Bible theology,
that emphasizes entertainment rather than holy living and repentance. I'd
publish corrupt religious literature that subtly changes the Gospel, obscure
the clarity of the Gospel. I'd infiltrate and corrupt the Bible colleges,
since they produce thousands of preachers. So if I can corrupt the Bible
colleges, I can easily corrupt that churches that hire their graduates.
Should it be surprising that every pastor today who denies the inspiration
of the King James Bible, graduated from a corrupt Bible college that also
denies the inspiration of the King James Bible? What a misnomer... “Bible
college!” In actuality, they are corrupt religious institutions! Any church
that denies the inspiration of God's Word is not a New Testament church!
I fully agree with the following truthful statement from Pastor Steven Anderson, of the beloved Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona...
“And there's an agenda today, and it's a Satanic agenda to change the Bible! A lot of people just think, 'Well, the King James Bible is a great translation, it's very poetic, and these others versions are inferior, maybe they're not as well translated; but I'm here to tell you it goes much deeper than that—These new versions are actually Satan's attempt at corrupting the Word of God. I'm gonna show you that these changes are not just accidental, they're not just minor inconsequential changes. I mean, these changes are strategic changes, they're calculated to attack specific doctrines that the Bible teaches!” —Pastor Steven L. Anderson, a quote from the Christ-honoring movie, “New World Order Bible Versions.”
Amen Brother! You are so right! The Devil has successfully published literally HUNDREDS of English Bible perversions, and your average knucklehead pastor today fully goes along with this, without obligation. I am talking about shameful professed “fundamentalist” Baptist preachers from Bob Jones University, Pensacola Christian College and Faith Baptist Bible College And Theological Seminary. You mean preachers cemetery!!! These are fake fundamentalists! God deliver us from these private businesses that exploit the name of Jesus for money, which are dried up deeper-life religious institutions that bear no fruit, take no stand, and accomplish little for the Kingdom of God. I'll take an ignorant country preacher any day, who is a soulwinner and stands for something; than all the damned dead Bible colleges in America!!!
You have to understand that the enemy is constantly trying to take your weapon away, not to defend you, but so that you cannot defend yourself! Tyrant communist leaders like Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin and Mao, have always disarmed the pope prior to taking over a their society. Likewise, the Devil has been disarming American churches of their double-edged sword of the Spirit for the past century! That Sword of the Holy Spirit is the blessed inspired King James Bible for all English-speaking people! By disarming the churches, Satan has rendered churchgoers today completely defenseless against all manner of doctrinal corruption, false Gospels and tampering with the Word of God. For example: Evangelist Ray Comfort completely obliterates the important theological doctrine of “IMPUTATION” in his despicable “The Evidence Bible.” The reason why is not difficult to see, because The Evidence Bible is based upon the “Amplified Bible” (AMP), which completely removes the words “impute” and “imputation.” By eliminating the theological concept of imputation, it was easy for Satan to pervert the Gospel and lead people away from the truth. The entire idea behind imputation emphasizes Christ's righteousness counted to the believer; whereas, the newer corrupt Bible versions, which remove imputation, merely emphasize God's grace. God's grace is meaningless without Christ's sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. Satan is very subtle!
So I warn you dear reader, you CANNOT walk with God and live right by abiding in corruptible seed. 1st Peter 1:23 says that every believer has been born again by the “INCORRUPTIBLE SEED” of the Word of God. No one has ever been born anew from LIES! No one has ever been born-again from the Alexandrian text, unless they were influenced at some point by the Textus Receptus (from which our trustworthy King James Bible was translated). How do I know that? Take a look at how the modern perversions hinder people from being saved. Proponents of Satan's corruptible seed have to cherry-pick bits and pieces of their corrupt versions to find the Gospel, while navigating around a minefield of heresy. If you lived and died on an island, and the only book I ever handed you was a new International Version, you couldn't get saved.
I cannot stress enough the importance of abiding
in God's incorruptible Word, which is the King James Bible. But you say, “It
is harder to understand.” Well then stop being lazy and study it! If God had
intended for His Word to be easier to understand, then He wouldn't have
given us so many difficult passages to interpret (2nd Peter 3:16-17).
Furthermore, it is not possible for the unsaved person to understand
spiritual things (1st Corinthians 2:14). Truth is for God's children!
John 16:13, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth,
is come, he will guide you into all truth: for
he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak: and he will shew you things to come.” John 17:17, “Sanctify them
through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
Sexual Lust Is A War That You Win The Same Way As On A Battlefield
I
don't care who you are, YOU CAN LIVE RIGHT IF YOU CHOOSE TO. Ungodly men
who've been with other women intimately (sexually) don't have as much
temptation as a Christian man who's never been with another woman besides
his wife. The curiosity of what another woman is like intimately can drive a
faithful married man insane (and it often does in America's sexually
promiscuous society). Such sexual frustrations often lead to marital
problems and even divorce.
How in the world can a Christian man live pure in these evil days with all the sexual promiscuity, immodestly clothed women and lewd behavior in society? 1st Peter 2:11, “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.”
Sexual lust wars against a man's soul according to 1st Peter 2:11. Anytime there is a war, there will be defeats and causalities of war. The best way to win a war is to have a good strategy and game plan. You win a spiritual war against lust the same way that you'd win a physical war fighting on a real battlefield. In war you're continually on-guard against the enemy. In war, you always have your gun (weapon) with you. The Word of God is our weapon (Sword). In a war you obey the commanding officer. Our Commander-in-Chief is Jesus Christ! 2nd Timothy 2:3-4, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” On the battlefield you're more serious, not joking and having a good time. Too many believers live to enjoy life instead of living to please God. We would be wise to become more serious about life.
I've heard people say that you can't take life too seriously. I disagree. Life is very serious. There's a Hell that burns with fire, where all Christ-rejecters go to be tormented day-and-night forever (Revelation 14:11; 2nd Thessalonians 1:8-9). That's a very serious matter, don't you think?
Every Christian man is in a spiritual war, fighting for his life. The enemy is all around us (and that's a healthy way spiritually to look at things). You show me a professed Christian man who lives like he's not at war spiritually, and I'll show you a man who's losing battle after battle for the Lord. You're either fighting the good fight of faith or else you're partying in sin. The Apostle Paul struggle daily with sin (Romans 7:14-25). Any man who isn't struggling with sin is living in sin. The best Christian probably thinks he or she is the worst Christian.
You see, the closer that we get to God's holiness, the more that we see our inferiority, sin and humanity. The closer that you draw to the Lord, the worse you will feel about yourself spiritually (and that's normal). Just know that you are loved by God, and all your sins are forgiven in Christ by His precious blood (1st Peter 1:18-19). Hebrews 10:19 says to sprinkle your guilt of sin (conscience) with the blood of Jesus. Satan always makes us feel guilty over PAST sins; but the Holy Spirit only convicts us over PRESENT sins. Yesterday is gone forever. Tomorrow may not be ours. Today is all that we ought to be concerned with. It's very easy to allow bitterness over the past and worry over the future to steal one's joy in the Lord.
Jesus said in John 16:33 to BE OF GOOD CHEER because He has overcome the world. Literally, the Lord is telling us to be happy because He has a bright future planned for us. Romans 8:32 promises that ALL THINGS will be ours. God knows our favorite hobby and will give us everything we could ever want to fulfill our desires. Isn't that awesome? Romans 8:32 says that if God was willing to sacrifice His own Son for us, how much more will He give to us ALL THINGS. Amen and thank you Lord, very much!
All of God's men felt horrible about themselves. Isaiah said, “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). Paul called himself the chief of sinners (1st Timothy 1:15). Peter asked the Lord to depart from him because he was so sinful (Luke 5:8). Jacob said that he was not worthy of God's tender mercies and revealed truths (Genesis 32:10). That's why I often say that I am the biggest sinner I know (and so are you if you're right with God). When I hear another professed believer condemning someone who has sinned, then I know that they are far away from God (or else they'd would realize their own sinfulness and wouldn't be condemning others).
I am the biggest sinner I know; therefore, I do not condemn anyone for their sins, no matter what they have done. James 2:10 says that committing even ONE SIN makes us guilty of all in God's eyes. We are all a lot more sinful than we think we are. If you walk with God, then you must acknowledge your sinfulness. People condemn others because they fail to grasp their own hypocrisy, sins and evil heart (Jeremiah 17:9). It will help you to live right for God if you be honest with yourself and openly admit that you are a horrible sinner. 1st John 1:8-10 teaches that a person is NOT saved who denies their sinfulness. We are all dirty, rotten, sinners deserving of the Lake of Fire (Romans 3:19-23; Revelation 20:11-15).
We are at war brethren. Don't leave your weapon unattended or you may not be ready when the enemy comes in the night. Keep your gun clean and ready for use. Search the Scriptures and memorize Bible passages that pertain to your areas of weakness. Realize that often our greatest spiritual defeats follow our greatest spiritual victories. Adversity is a blessing, compelling us to get into the Bible and fall upon our knees. On the battlefield you behave very differently than you do anywhere else. On the battlefield you watch your back continually, staying low and dodging bullets.
Likewise, Christians ought to continually be on
guard against the Devil who roameth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he
may devour (1st Peter 5:8). It is no coincidence that so many Hollywood
movies have a roaring lion at the beginning of the film. That's Satan,
devouring families through the filthy Hollywood movies. Adulterous Hollywood
producers make adulterous movies that inspired adulterous people. Hollywood
is synonymous with sexual immorality!!!
Study And Memorize The Word Of God
Psalms
119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
thee.”
David said that he hid (memorized) the Word of God that he might not sin against the Lord. In Psalms 51:4 David admitted that he had sinned against God AND ONLY AGAINST GOD. David realized that people would never forgive him because of his sins of adultery and murder. Some wicked people would condemn David until his grave; but only God can condemn a body and soul to Hell forever (Matthew 10:28).
David repented of his sins and wanted to do
better. David was determined not to make the same mistakes again. Listen to
what king David said in Psalms 119:67 and 71, “Before I was afflicted I
went astray: but now have I kept thy word. ... It is good for me that I have
been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.” Isn't that beautiful?
David said that he went astray before he was afflicted, but now he has
learned his lesson. David said that his afflictions taught him the Word of
God.
Pray That Ye Enter Not Into Temptation
Luke
22:40, “And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter
not into temptation.”
Jesus told His disciples to pray that they enter not into temptation.
Notice in the Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray for deliverance from EVIL...
Luke 11:4, “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.”
Jesus didn't say SIN. He said EVIL. The reason is because no one can escape sin, but we can all escape evil with God's help. Everyone sins. Although we can choose not to sin at any given time, we will sin at times because we are sinners. However, we can be delivered from evil every time. No one has to commit evil. Evil is premeditated sin. No one can avoid committing sin, but we can all avoid committing evil.
We may not be able to prevent getting upset, but we can avoid planning to murder someone. Snapping is a sin, but planning one's murder is evil. Abortion is evil, because it is premeditated murder. Drinking alcohol with intention to get drunk is evil. The Bible tells us to pray daily and ask God to deliver us from evil. I tell God in prayer that I want to think right, do right and live right. Amen! Thankfully because the Lord died for my sins I can be right, and am right by faith in the blood that He shed for my sins (1st Peter 1:18-19).
