GOD’S WORD FOR JULY 20 ~ ~ 1 John 4:3 ~ ~ “and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.”

More from John Piper’s book, “The Pleasures of God”

God’s pleasures in our obedience:

The fifth reason is disobedience is idolatry. (worship of false gods)

This is what Samuel says in 1 Samuel 15;23, “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and STUBBORNNESS IS AS INIQUITY AND IDOLATRY” When God says one thing and we consult the little wizard of our own wisdom and then stubbornly choose to go our own way, we are, in effect, idolaters. We have not only chosen to consult ourselves as an alternative to God, and thus become guilty of divination, but we go beyond that and actually ESTEEM the direction of our own mind over God’s direction, and become guilty of idolatry. Worst of all, the idol is our own self.

So it stands to reason that God will be displeased with disobedience of any kind because at every point it is an attack on his glory. It puts the fear of man in the place of fear of God. It elevates pleasure in things above pleasure in God. It seeks a name for itself instead of a name for God. It seeks out additional guidance against God’s, instead of resting in the wisdom of God. And it sets more value on the dictates of self than on the dictates of God and thus attempts to dethrone God by giving allegiance to the idol of the human will.

But, obedience, being the exact opposite, in all these things enthrones and honors God. Therefore God has great pleasure in obedience. He beams like any father would when his children are courageous because they know their daddy’s strong arm is behind them. He takes pleasure in us when our obedience shows that we put our treasure in him and not the enticements of sin. He delights in the meekness and humility of our submission that loves to make a name for God and not man. He rejoices over the resting of our souls in the sufficiency of his wisdom. And he exults over us with singing when we enthrone his will as more precious than all the ways of the world.

(In our society today, obedience to God is almost non-existent. It is considered laughable, irrelevant, sorely outdated. This is a sorry state of events, that shows the end times are “progressing”. Paul warned Timothy of this 2,000 years ago. John also said that the anti-christ spirit was in the world already then, but not the anti-christ leader. (Verse of the day above) But things are going faster and faster in the rush toward evil. He may be living today, and probably is. In fact, we may see him in the news even now.

2 Timothy 3

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, …”

Paul tells us in: 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10

“Then that lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will eliminate with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not accept the love of the truth so as to be saved.”

2 John 1:7

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Don’t take this lightly. Don’t think it’s not that important. It is vitally important to follow Jesus more fervently and more obediently now than ever before. Deception is coming that will be very great. It’ll be subtle, too, which makes it even more dangerous. It will sound “good”, but it will be poison….eternal poison. Walking obediently with Jesus, and knowing His Word gives us strength and discernment against the strong delusion (deception) that is here and quickly increasing.

Make sure you’re saved—-that you have accepted Jesus as your Savior.

Then make sure you’re living in obedience to the Lord.)

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