“The poor man uses entreaties, but the rich answers roughly.” Proverbs 18:23 To the poor man, all he can do is make entreaties. He has nothing else. But the heart of a rich man is full of pride. He doesn’t need to make entreaties, everything is under his control and he is proud of that. When someone lesser in his eyes speaks to him, believing he is better he looks down on the poor and speaks roughly to him. It is very difficult to find a rich man who is not haughty. Generally speaking, riches destroy a man, lifting him up in the pride of his heart. It’s a long way down when he falls, but fall he will. His pride will bring him down to destruction. Vs 12: “Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty…” No man can stand before the Lord and boast and if he tries to, he will have a rude awakening! The rich man is used to being in control. That’s what he’s used to, so he does not realize his poverty because he’s unaware of it. Jesus illustrated this in a parable: “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men -extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’” Luke 18:1-12 The Pharisee was convinced that he had God’s approval, and was even boasting before God about his good works because he really thought he was righteous - thanking God even, that he was better than everyone else. And true to the story, he DID fast twice a week, and he DID tithe on all he possessed. So what’s wrong here? A fallen human being cannot come into the presence of the Lord boasting of his goodness, because he has refused to see in himself his fallen human nature. “But we are ALL like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;” Isaiah 64:6 We are not born with a clean slate, as some say. Every human being is born in a fallen human nature. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" Jeremiah 17:9 This is the evaluation of every single one of us according to the Word of God. Isn’t boasting foolishness then? Going back to the parable, see how the Lord finished the contrast: “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” Luke 18:13 This man realized his poverty in the light of a holy God. He understood what was in his heart, and that he could only use entreaty. It is this one who was received! vs 14: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Take a close look at your heart. Are you one who tries to do everything right? Are you a people-pleaser? Does your heart boast that you’re a “good” person? If so, you stand in the shoes of a Pharisee who fasts twice a week and gives tithes on all that he has, thinking he’s thus a “good” person. It’s not good works that make us approved by God, and some who do the most good works are the farthest from God because their pride in their goodness has deceived them. Does the Lord reject a man's good works? No, it’s not the good works that the Lord rejects, it’s the proud heart. If you honestly feel that you are a “good” person, ask God to show you your heart. And brace yourself. No, the one acceptable in the Lord’s sight is the one who is truthful to himself about himself. A proud person does not SEE the evil in his heart. He is used to making excuses to himself for any way in which he falls short. Making excuses is the most dangerous thing you can do in life, because your excuses will blind you and let you believe that you have a reason to be thus and so, therefore you’re excused. But God does not accept this kind of reasoning. You cannot cover over your faults with excuses. You cannot blame someone else or something else or some unfair event that took place in your life. If you are hiding behind any of these things, you’re deceiving yourself. Honesty is the heart God is looking for, and before you can admit your fallenness, you are not “good” no matter how good your works are. “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my Word.” Isaiah 66:2
“And when he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then he touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith let it be to you.’” Matthew 9:28-29 What IS faith? There are “Word of Faith” teachers who teach that you can have anything you desire if you’ll only have faith. They present Scriptures to back up their false teachings, and many believe them because they don’t know the Word of God in its fullness. Then when the expected results don’t come to pass, when what the person is trying to accomplish by faith doesn’t work, they’re worse off than they were in the beginning and many fall away because of it. I saw such a thing happen before my eyes. There was a young woman in my church who had cancer and she was being told that she would surely be healed. She had children, and they were assured that their mother was going to be healed. This went on for months and many prayed over this woman with determination that she would be healed. They “confessed it,” and “proclaimed it” over and over and over again. They rebuked the cancer and declared she is healed. Finally ...she died. What do you suppose was the effect that had upon her children? This teaching is deadly. It can actually destroy faith. Isn't that the goal of the enemy? No, faith isn’t something you “proclaim” or “confess.” Faith is something that has to come from God himself. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17 There are two Greek words translated “word.” One is logos which means the written word, and the other is rhema which is a word spoken. Faith comes when THE LORD speaks a word TO you, not the other way around. When God has spoken to you, your faith will rest on that word until you see it come to pass. My sister, brother and myself were called home because our mother was going to have surgery and we were told she probably wouldn’t survive it. The night before the surgery, my sister and I were praying together for the strength to get through this and for the strength to support our father through it. Very suddenly and totally unexpectedly the presence of the Lord was in the room and he said, “Everything is going to be alright.” Stunned, I ran to the living-room where my father was and told him what the Lord had said. He didn’t believe it, of course. The next day, my mother had the surgery …and everything was alright. She lived many more years after that. Now let’s take a look at that “faith.” First of all, it came totally by surprise. According to the “Word of faith” teachers she should have died because up until the time the Lord spoke, we all were expecting her to die. That expectation was not “faith,” we were just proceeding with what we were told by the doctors and expecting it to turn out that way. According to the “Word of faith” teachers, she should have died because we were “expecting” her to. They would have called that expectance “faith” - faith that she was going to die. But was that expectance “faith?” We were expecting it, believing it, so it should have gone that way, and would have …except that the Lord SPOKE. When he said everything was going to be alright, we KNEW it was going to be alright because HE had said so. THAT ...is faith. We didn’t have to work it up, we didn’t have to grit our teeth and “claim” it, we didn’t have to “speak it,” no, the Lord had spoken therefore we knew it was going to be. And it was. Faith is never something worked up. You can “confess” a thing a hundred times because you believe you SHOULD and that you’d feel guilty if you didn’t. Those false teachers put all the burden on you as to how a thing is going to work out. That, my friends, is NOT faith. Faith is KNOWING. You don’t work up "knowing." You don’t “proclaim” it, it’s not a struggle. It’s just there when the Lord puts it there. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 It’s the substance, it’s the knowing. When you know, when God himself has put that knowing into your heart, that is the substance of it. But the bottom line is that God has to put it into your heart. It’s not you, it’s HIM. And if he has not put a thing into your heart, then there is no way you can forcefully do so. It won’t work. Faith comes from God, not from you. " "For by grace you have been saved through faith, AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9 Brothers and sisters, come out of the guilt that has been imposed on you. When something has not gone the way you insisted it would, don’t let false teachers say that it was your fault, because it wasn’t. In every situation, take your cares to the Lord, and surrender them to him that he might work them out according to his own will. Sometimes you will just know that a thing is going to go this way or that, but unless that knowing is put into your heart by the Lord himself, you cannot conjure it up because you think you should. It doesn’t work that way.
"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, 'I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.'” John 8:12 Many claim to be Christians but betray their deception by the very attitudes they bear. Jesus Christ said that we MUST be born again. Some don't believe that. HE said: "Jesus answered, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You MUST be born again.’" John 3:5-7 What effect does being born again have on the soul? When one is born again, the Spirit of God brings new life to the new believer. He will bring the believer's thoughts and perspectives into line with the Word of God. Many times the newly born-again will marvel at how their minds have been changed all of a sudden. When one rejects what the Word of God says, or when he justifies his unbelief in that Word, he shows that he has NOT been born again. Someone born of the Spirit of God will not justify the very things God hates. If a person approves what God hates, that person has not been born again. For example, how can a person who denies the first chapter of Romans - claim to be born of the Spirit of God? What is so difficult for them to understand on this subject? "For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their LUST for one another, men with men committing what is SHAMEFUL..." Romans 1:26 "You shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." Leviticus 18:22 There just isn't any way to deny what the Word of God is saying, yet they refuse it and they castigate anyone who quotes it. I've known some who will come back against someone who quotes this - with accusations of other sins a Christian may be guilty of. In other words, because you have sin, therefore mine is justified. But in the eyes of God that simply doesn't work. Sinfulness is not comparative. Those who are born again will hate their own sin, and fight it. They will never justify it. How does a person who is born of the Spirit of God approve the murder of babies? What is so difficult to understand in "Thou shalt not murder?" Yet they claim that the child is not a child until birth - a claim which is necessary so that they can justify their crime. Yet it is a lie. But HE says: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you..." Jeremiah 1:5 "For you formed my inward parts; you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;" Psalm 139:13 If you believe that you are a born-again son or daughter of almighty God, yet you hold "liberal" views, I suggest you bow before the God you claim to belong to and ask him to show you WHETHER OR NOT you are born-again. What does the word "liberal" connote? In our culture it is the position of those who refuse to let the Word of God dictate what is right and what is wrong. "Liberalism" demands tolerance for all, for everything. They do not consider that Jesus Christ was the most non-liberal man who ever lived. He spoke more about hell than he did about heaven. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Matthew 10:28 Liberals find all the soft and kind Scripture passages about God, but reject the hard things, the realities he taught about repentance, hell and judgment. They create a false Christ who just "loves" all, no matter what. The truth is that he does love all, but that he has established principles that are unchangeable, and among those are the conditions under which a person may be born again, namely, adherence to his Word and repentant surrender to him as Lord. When a person is born of the Spirit of God, the darkness turns into light. His entire perspective changes. He comes to understand that which he has never understood before. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is A NEW CREATION; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2nd Corinthians 5:17 If this transformation has not happened to you, then question whether you are in fact born of the Spirit of God and remember that Jesus Christ said you MUST be born again. It's not a suggestion. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You MUST be born again.’" John 3:6-7 Check yourself now while you have time to reconsider. When you step into eternity, it will be too late. MORE: What does 'born again' mean?