God expects His people to live holy lives, now, in this sinful world.  To remind us of this, Peter writes, “Just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy; for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

God’s expectation is a just expectation, because He has given His people everything required to live holy lives. Again Peter writes, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3, NIV).

God has given His people everything they need to walk as Jesus walked. John tells us, “This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:5-6, NIV).

Many churches are filled with sinful behavior. Surveys have shown that there is virtually no difference between the church and the world when it comes to sinful living. One of the most grievous sins being tolerated in the church today is the teaching of false doctrine departing from the faith, even denying the Master who bought us. There are many in the church today teaching destructive heresies, undermining the faith of many.

Jude writes warning the believers, “Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about the salvation we share, I found it necessary to write and exhort you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. For some men, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord . . . These people are discontented grumblers, walking according to their desires; their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering people for their own advantage” (Jude 3-4, 16)

Peter also warns us describing the false teachers that will come among us, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and the way of truth will be blasphemed because of them. They will exploit you in their greed with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep” (2 Peter 2:1-3).

Paul challenges believers to consider the situation within the church, “Do you really think—anyone of you who judges those who do such things yet do the same—that you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?” 

Ignoring passages such as this, these false teachers preach, “Peace, peace.” when there is no peace. They claim that Christians will not be judged for sin, because all our sins, past present, and future, were all forgiven at the time we were saved. They assure them that when God looks at us, He doesn’t see our sinful living, He sees Jesus!

This concept reminds me of a song popular in Christian circles. “I am covered over with the robe of righteousness that Jesus gives to me . . When He looks at me, He sees not what I used to be, but He sees Jesus.”

Those that falsely teach that God doesn’t see our sinful living forget that the song is speaking of one that has repented, confessed his sins, and has had the blood of Christ applied to not just cover up his sins, but to take them away. It speaks of one that has turned away from his sinful past, what he used to be, and has turned to God, continually trusting Christ to empower him to live a holy life, pleasing to God.

If God looks at us and sees Jesus, it is only because we are actually living just as Jesus lived, in total obedience to the Father. The Apostle John reminds us of God’s expectation for every believer, “But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:5-6, NIV).

The righteousness that we receive by faith in Jesus does not blind God to how we are living. It does not blind God to our real character. He sees us as we really are. In fact, the scriptures say that we stand before Him naked. Hebrews 4:13 reminds us, “There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.”

Some teach that you don’t need to know Jesus as Lord. They despise the idea of being a slave and Jesus being their Master. Jude warns believers, “For certain people have crept in unnoticed . . . ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into indecent behavior and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).

They claim you can simply receive Jesus as your savior, and your sins will all be forgiven, and when you die, you will go to heaven to be with the Lord forever. There is, they say, no obligation to obey Him. His commands are only suggestions. Therefore, there is no Lordship, no judgment, no accountability.

Peter warns the believers, “There will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves” (2 Peter 2:1). Paul also warns us, “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared” (1 Timothy 4:1-2).

As Peter, Paul, and Jude prophesied, these false teachers are brazenly operating in the church today. Some teach that the believer needs to be under the law, needs to obey all of the statutes, commandments, and ordinances set forth in the Jewish religion.

The result is that those that believe this false teaching end up enslaved again to the law. If they fail in just one point, they are guilty of breaking the whole law. James writes to us setting forth this truth, “For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all” (James 2:10).

Others teach that we are justified by grace through faith, and not of works. They claim that if we do any works to please God, we have fallen from grace. They claim that all our sins, past, present, and future are forgiven when we first believe. Therefore, they are not concerned in the least about sin. Some claim that they never even have to repent of any sin after they first believe.

They do not realize that whoever sins becomes a slave of sin. They do not realize that every sin is serious in God’s eyes and must be repented of and turned from immediately. This is Paul’s warning to the believers from Romans 6:16. “Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (HCSB).

Remember how Paul had earlier warned the believers in the second chapter of Romans, “But because of your hardness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed. He will repay each one according to his works: eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality; but wrath and indignation to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth but are obeying unrighteousness, affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. There is no favoritism with God” (Romans 2:5-11).

Again, Paul warns the believers in the churches of Galatia, “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, we must work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith” Galatians 6:7-10).

There are several reasons why these false teachings have gone virtually unchallenged in most churches. One of the main reasons is that so many within the churches do not know the truth, they do not know Jesus. Many have never even received the Holy Spirit. They have not been born again. Consequently, many professing Christians are virtually ignorant of the scriptures.

Jesus told the religious leaders of His day, “You are deceived, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29, HCSB). Because they do not know the truth, they are unable to detect false teachings when they hear them. Devoid of the Spirit, they also lack the boldness to challenge false doctrine when they hear it.

The secret to being delivered from the deception of these false teachings is to know the scriptures and the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within the born-again believer. The secret is to know the truth, to know Christ.

We must meet Jesus. We must have a genuine, living relationship with Him wherein we come to know Him as both Lord and Christ. It is not enough to know about Jesus. We must know Him personally. We must live in a close intimate relationship with Him as our Lord and Master.

We must have the same revelation that Peter had in Matthew 16:16 when Jesus asked him who he thought Jesus was. Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In the next verse, Jesus responded to Peter saying, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Have you ever had a revelation of who this Jesus is?

This Jesus is the Christ that died on the cross in our place that our sins might be forgiven. But, much more than this, He died on the cross that we would be delivered, set free, that we would no longer be slaves of sin. By His death and resurrection, Christ set us free from the penalty of sin, but much more, He set us free, liberated us, from the power of sin in our flesh. Now the sin in our flesh cannot force us to sin. Now the believer must choose to sin, being drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires.

James explains, “Let no man say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God,’ for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when it is full grown, produces death” (James 1:13-15).

Paul reminds us in Romans 6:3-4, “Are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life.” Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we died with Christ. This was necessary so that we also, like Christ, could walk in newness of life.

Through the power of Christ’s death and resurrection, genuine believers have been liberated, freed from being slaves of sin and of the law. “For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims. . . So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:5-6,11).

We have been made alive to God in Christ Jesus to glorify Him. We glorify Him by obeying Him.

Jesus warns us, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

It does not matter what great thing we may do for God. If it is not out of obedience it is lawlessness. Obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). Paul reminds us, “If I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).

Again, Jesus warns us, “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on the rock. . . But everyone who hears these words of Mine and doesn’t act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell—and its fall was great.” (Matthew 7:24,26-27).

This is why it is so important that we also know Jesus as Lord. We must know Him as the supreme authority in our lives. It is not enough to know that He is Lord, we need to know Him as our Lord. We must listen to His speaking to us, but we also must submit to Him as Lord in all obedience, acting according to all that He instructs us to do.

In order to understand what it means for Jesus to be our Lord, we must understand the process of redemption. To redeem something means to purchase it back. If you owned something, and somehow lost ownership of it, it is necessary for you to pay a price to purchase it again. This is what Jesus did for us.

Through Adam’s sin, mankind fell under Satan’s power. Jesus paid the price, offering up His life to purchase us back to God. We, through sin, had become enslaved to sin and thereby enslaved to Satan. We were slaves of the one we obeyed.

Jesus, however, voluntarily gave His life for us to purchase us back to Himself. We now belong to Him. He owns us! We are His slaves, and He is our Lord. The ironic thing is that when we were slaves of sin, we had no freedom. Now, as slaves of God and of Christ, we are free. We are free to walk in obedience to our Lord! We are free to enjoy life in abundance.

Paul exhorts us, “Don’t you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Paul’s exhortation continues, “For he who is called by the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called as a free man is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:22-23).

Our very simple responsibility, as slaves, is to listen to our Lord and Master, Jesus, and follow Him, obeying Him. Hearing His voice requires a closeness to Him, an intimacy with Him. Jesus declares, “My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).

Remember, “God is righteous and will repay each one according to his works” (Romans 2:6). There is no favoritism with God. He is not a respecter of people. He will judge the unrighteous, whether they profess to believe in Christ or not. The judgment of those that knew Jesus as their Lord and Savior will be much worse, much more severe, because they had been given so much.

Again, Jesus instructs us saying, “The one who did not know and did things deserving of blows will be beaten lightly. Much will be required of everyone who has been given much. And even more will be expected of the one who has been entrusted with more” (Luke 12:48).

Speaking of these false teachers, Peter warns, “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them” (2 Peter 2:19-21).

In 2 Timothy chapter two, Paul is describing false teachers whose words spread like gangrene. He says they have deviated from the truth, teaching lies and overturning the faith of some. Nevertheless, God is merciful and compassionate to those who humble themselves and repent, turning away from unrighteousness and turning back to the Lord.

Paul writes, “The Lord knows those who are His, and Everyone who names the name of the Lord must turn away from unrighteousness. Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver bowls, but also those of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. So if anyone purifies himself from these things, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:19-21).

If anyone purifies himself from these things, the false teachings, he will be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master and prepared for every good work. When we read the scriptures, whenever we go before the Lord in prayer, we must humble ourselves. We must prepare our hearts to receive correction and instruction from the Lord. We must allow the Lord to search us and reveal anything within us that is not pleasing to Him.

In this way we will be able to purge ourselves, through the leading and empowering of His indwelling Holy Spirit, of any false teachings that we have embraced and possibly even taught to others. As He exposes each one of these false teachings or incorrect understandings of scripture, in all humility, we must repent, letting go of them, and laying hold of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. We will then be encouraged by the Lord’s Spirit to speak truth to one another in love. In this way, God will be glorified and the church, the body of Christ, the bride, will be prepared for the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ!

We are in a spiritual battle. We are in a spiritual warfare over the souls of men. Our enemy is using every tactic at his disposal. God has been aware, from the beginning, of this spiritual war and Satan’s plan to dethrone God and destroy God’s people. Therefore, God has provided us with everything we need to withstand the enemies attack, and yes, to be victorious over him through the victory of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, God has given to every genuine Christian everything required for life and godliness. In the Spirit of Truth that He has given to indwell us, He has given us everything needed to withstand these false teachings and other attacks of the Devil.

God placed the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, within each true believer to enable us to discern false teaching when we hear it. This indwelling Spirit not only teaches us the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, He also strengthens us by the vast strength of His indestructible life to confront the false teachers. He empowers us to put on the whole armor of God so that we might stand against the tactics of the Devil.

Paul exhorts us, “Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. Therefore don’t be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is well pleasing to the Lord. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them” (Ephesians 5:6-11).

Again, Paul  writes exhorting us, “Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 

“Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace, above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:10-18).

Writings By Jon von Ernst

The Lord of All Things Series - A Trilogy of Truth 
Books in this series:
Book 1 - The Gospel of the Kingdom
Book 2- The Victorious Christian
Book 3 - Walking in the Light  -  Following in His Steps

*- Audio of these books are available free of charge at thepureword.net.