Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

DELUDED AND DECEIVED

This entry was posted on 06-24-2008 and is filed under uncategorized.

"Let no one delude and deceive you with empty excuses and groundless arguments [for these sins], for through these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of rebellion and disobedience" (Eph. 5:6 Amplified Version).

Those who try to justify sin in their own life will often try to convince others that what is wrong is actually O.K. Let's back up a verse and look at this verse in context. "For of this much you can be quite certain: that neither the immoral not the dirty-minded nor the covetous man (which latter is, in effect, worshiping a false god) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Don't let anyone fool you on this point, however plausible in his argument. It is these very things which bring down the wrath of God upon the disobedient" (The N.T. in Modern English, J. B. Phillips).

Such is happening in the church today. A minister I know was carrying on with a woman who was not his wife. The community knew it and the church suspected it. When he was finally confronted he tried, unsuccessfully, to "delude and deceive" the confronter with "groundless arguments" for his own sin. Don't let someone (even a so-called minister of the gospel) tell you that God told him it was all right (for him and for you) to engage in immoral or greedy behavior. The wrath of God will fall on both of you. God has called us to a higher and nobler life.

Hymn/Prayer of Resolve: "I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight; things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured by sight" (Palmer Hartsough).