(Ver 2.1)  This is “Part 7” in a Bible study series about examples of modern cases of deception found in the church for Christians to avoid at all costs.  If you would like to read the series from the beginning you may go to “Part 1” first.  However, this lesson is intended to be a beneficial blessing for learning and applying in our lives by itself.  I identify with Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ frequently.  I hear myself saying what Paul taught very often.  Thankfully I have never been thrown into prison or beaten for what I teach, although I’m sure there are people who read some of these things and would like to do that to me based upon their comments that they leave me.  I hadn’t written in this series for awhile.  But last night on the news more people who call themselves Christians were given headline making notoriety for their clear acts of planned non-Christian attitudes and behavior.  As a result Christians were made to look like haters of humans and I’m sure this is exactly what Satan was hoping for.  By the foolish acts of a few people who label themselves followers of Christ every true Christian gets a discredited reputation simply by association of the name.  I have learned that not everyone who calls themselves Christians, are Christians.  Anybody can call themselves a car, but that does not make us a car.  Jesus said you will know them (Christians) by their fruit (Mat 7:20) and clearly these people in today’s lesson are fruitless.

So let’s discuss what these fruitless deceived people are planning to do tomorrow.  They are planning to go to the funeral of a famous and renowned individual to picket and protest.  In doing this they feel like they are making a statement that will further their message, whatever that is I do not know.  They claim that this individual who died blasphemed God and that is why they are making this public statement.  So tell me this, if this person did or did not blaspheme God what good will your picket signs make to the body of the person lying in the casket?  I can’t see where it will make any difference to them now no matter what you do or say.

Of course there are those who are attending the funeral, I guess that is why you are picketing since they are the only ones that will be close enough to read your signs.  What message are you sending to these people?  Believe it or not, you are sending an Old Message that has been around for a long time that was done away with by Jesus Christ on the cross.

What I have observed is the fact that there are many people in the world who are living in an Old Testament Law reality and ignoring the New Testament Grace reality.  This is nothing new and this spirit has been around since before Jesus came into the world.  In the Old Testament, if someone was found guilty of breaking the law, many times they were taken out and stoned to death.

Lev 20:2  Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

This is the attitude of all these people who are picketing in the name of God tomorrow, they would love to stone all of the guilty parties.  Yet when Jesus was confronted by the lawyers of His day with a woman who was caught in the act of adultery, what was His attitude and reaction?  Did Jesus rush to judgment to pick up the first stone?  Did Jesus pick up a sign to protest the sin?  Did Jesus even ever speak a negative word against this sinner woman?   You should go and read this story before you ever try to pick up a picket sign against someone else’s sins.   Jesus told the accusers that “He who is without sin cast the first stone”.  Jesus basically ignored the words of the religious lawyers and began to stoop down to write in the sand.  I personally believe that Jesus wrote the names, dates and the sins on the ground of those who were standing around ready to cast stones.   I believe that some of these men who were standing there were also guilty of having sex with this woman.  So when Jesus wrote their names on the ground with the dates and times of their sinful acts, the Bible says they walked away one by one.

John 8 was a New Testament Jesus and God being clearly demonstrated to us.  This was God’s reaction to a sinner while He was here on the earth in the flesh.  This is a Godly example of how to treat those who are caught in sin.  Whenever all of the accusers had left the scene without Jesus speaking any words to them, Jesus looked at the woman and said “Woman where are your accusers?”  Then Jesus said “neither do I accuse you, go and sin no more”.  This was an act of forgiveness, mercy, love and compassion on the behalf of God.  These New Testament acts of God are ignored by those who desire to still stone the guilty.  So by anyone holding up condemning words on a sign, are they not casting the first stone?  Who died and made us greater than Jesus?  In this story of the woman caught in adultery, the only sinless man in the crowd was Jesus and He was the only one that could have legitimately thrown the first stone, but He did not.  Wow, that is a very important lesson to learn today.

When one protester woman was interviewed by the news, she was asked “Did God tell you to picket this funeral?”  Her answer was not surprising; she said “Every fiber of her being said she was doing the right thing”.  Wow, what an ignorant reply to a direct question.  She obviously did not feel comfortable with telling a lie and saying God had told her to do it, so she gave an indirect unrelated answer to the question.  If this woman was a spiritual lady, the fiber of her being would be different than if she was a carnal natural woman.  People can do things based upon many different factors and feelings and emotions are just two reasons why people do things that they do in the world.   What we need to realize is that our feelings and our emotions can both be enemies against God and doing the right things to and for people.

There are people who like to drink alcohol and get drunk and they are clearly led by their desires and feelings to do this.  Then there are people who take drugs and are controlled by these substances based upon a feeling in their bodies.  I will bet that every fiber of their being tells them they need more drugs, but is this the right thing for them to do?  Many times doing the right things goes against how we feel.  In John 3:16 it says “God so loved the WORLD that he picketed and protested until they changed into doing the right things”.   Uh oh, it doesn’t say that does it?  The Bible actually says that “God so loved the world that He gave”.  Did God feel like giving Himself on a cross?  I will guess from all of the pain that was experienced while hanging for hours on the cross this was not a feeling that would be good.  The Bible says Jesus sweated drops of blood because of the impending pressure that he was under about going to die on a cross for our sins (Luk 22:44).  Jesus prayed and asked His Father three times, “Father if it be possible, may this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but your will be done” (Mat 26:39).    Doing the right thing should never be based upon a human feeling.

I want to wrap this lesson up with another revelation from God’s word that will cause us to think today.  Did you know that most of the New Testament was written by a blasphemer of God by his own admission?  How could God possibly make a minister out of a blasphemer?  I’ll bet you can’t answer that question today.    Do you know who I am talking about?  I am talking about Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ sent unto the Gentiles.  Here are the words of Paul:

1Ti 1:12  And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

1Ti 1:13  Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

Paul previously Saul, says that what he did in his past by killing and imprisoning Christians was done in ignorance.  He even claims that he was a blasphemer. Saul was a self-righteous religious zealot that felt like he was doing God’s work by committing evil acts against people that had done nothing to him.  Wasn’t Saul judging these people?  Didn’t Saul take it way beyond protesting to the next level of injurious persecution?  Wasn’t all of these wrongs done because of what these Christians were doing and saying?  Wow, isn’t this what religious protestors do today?  Doesn’t this apply to how people are judging others like they never had committed any sin themselves?

Do you think that you would have picketed Paul to write 2/3 of the New Testament?  Would you ask recently converted Saul to come to your town to preach?  I would bet that you would not.  This was the kind of opposition that Saul got trying to change to become a Christian.  I mean he was a blasphemer!   He killed Christians.  He put them into jails. Yet some Christians want to celebrate and thank God that He killed this lady at the funeral that they are picketing.   People are truly deceived that act with such outward hatred towards people that God loved so much to die for them.  Here is what Paul the blasphemer told Timothy to do and it was not to go and protest against sinners:

1Ti 4:12  Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.

As you can see God said that we should be doing something with our speech and conduct must be associated with what God’s definitions of Love, Faith and Purity.  This is the example we as Christians should be portraying to others that are unsaved in the world.  If you do not understand this, you should look up the definitions of these New Testament words and learn about them fast.

Because some people desire to make a difference in the world they are often motivated to do overzealous acts out of ignorance like Saul did.  Rarely does it do any good, but nevertheless they must feel better because they think they did something religious for God.  What we all need to do is to learn the differences presented in the New Testament from those given to us in the Old Testament.  Because people only focus on the Old Testament verses they embrace a God of judgment with abundant laws and punishments like Saul did.  However, the Old Testament is the New Testament hidden and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.  So whenever a person focuses only on the Old Testament they are only seeing hidden truths about the real God that are revealed clearly in the New Testament.  This is one of the greatest mistakes that modern churches can make.  Learn the lesson of Jesus with the woman caught in the act of adultery and see what was His reaction and actions towards her.  Then ask yourself would Jesus pick up a picket sign with mean judgmental words written upon it and take it to a funeral to protest against sinners?  I cannot find that in the Bible, at least not in the New Testament.

So we have to make a choice to do the right thing based upon the New Covenant today and ignore every fiber of our being that screams to us to do something that Jesus would not do.  Since Paul was able to change I will pray that we all will also change to know the real will of God to reach the lost.  May God enlighten us to see the difference!  To those real Christians out there who can see the truth, I would suggest that you also pray for those attending the funeral of this woman that died of breast cancer and then pray for the eyes of the protesters to be opened so that they will come to know the real God who is LOVE!

A PERSONAL APPLICATION

LORD, I pray that you will help me not be deceived.  Lead me far away from anyone that is not proclaiming or acting according to what you said in your Word.  Help me to turn from being influenced or pressured by anyone that is not being led by your Spirit and acting in real Love.  Open my spiritual eyes to be able to understand your Word and discern between right and wrong, truth and lies, and good and evil.  Live large in my heart and help me to be a loving light of kindness to the world so that they will desire to be like you in me.  Thank LORD for your faithfulness to me in Jesus Name to help me produce your desired fruit, I pray.  Amen.