"Living Out The Truth" -3

"The said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free." (John 8:31 & 32) This little famous verse just took on a whole new meaning; because now there is a little word called 'if' that has come into play. What this really comes down to, is a matter of trying to serve two masters; but this time, we have added a little 'twist': Those that we are talking about, for the most part, may not know yet that they are doing wrong; at least not fully aware. Go ahead and say it, "Rich, are you on drugs?" Once upon a time, but right now, No! But I am definitely one who has been known for my tunnel vision, and once I get focused in on something, it is hard to get me off that point. Anyhow; if we look at the passages of Scripture here in John 8, we will see that Jesus has been sharing to the crowd, that He speaks the Truth, and that He is the Truth; which brings us to verse 33: and for the most part, many present that believed upon Him, did not realize that they wanted to kill Him; but Jesus knew their hearts. Then as they continued to question Jesus, and the more clearly He revealed to them just who they really were, the more they reviled against Him; until finally, in verse 59, we see that they took up stones to cast at Him. So, as we can see, there is a progress where they that believed, had come to cast stones; there was a real change of heart, and it is this change of heart which is the 'twist' that I am talking about. If we look at verses 34-38, we see Jesus explain about being 'a servant of sin', and how 'the servant abideth not in the house for ever'. This is the reason that we must crucify the flesh; because if we do not reckon our old man dead, then there will come a time when we will have to choose between the two masters. Okay, maybe I threw that out there a little to fast? Let me slow it down a little. If we have not reckoned our old man as dead on the cross, then the things which the old man lusts after will still be an issue in our lives; which really means that we are still servants of sin, we just do not know it. However; when our sin that we are a servant of is revealed, then we must choose at that point what to do; and if the old man has not been crucified, guess what, he still has a say in this choice which must be made. Which really means that we are still a servant to the old man, and the lusts thereof; and we will be until we finally decide to choose to reckon the old man as dead. So then, here it is: When confronted with our sin, there are several different things which we can do: We can immediately surrender to God, and get right; or we can guard our sin, by using several different techniques to suppress our convictions; or we can say that we will deal with that later, thinking that our heart will change down the road. There is only really one right choice to be made, and if we don't make the right choice, then we will remain a servant to that sin; and then, after compounding excuses and refusing to change, we could find ourselves standing with stones in our hands...and counted among 'The Fallen'. "And account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given him hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But 'grow in grace', and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be Glory both now and for ever. Amen." (2 Peter 3:15-18)