Pig In The Road
Writer Author Jerry Lee Kay Sr.
Christian Article
:
Christian Living
- Fiction No
I live in a clump of trees on top of a hill, about a half mile from a winding country road, There is a lot of pasture all the way around the house it was designed that way to prevent hostile Comanche from ambushing me. There is a creek between my house and the road, most of the time I can see the road from my porch unless there is fog or a dust storm, the porch Is built all the way around the house and is screened, Jenny Lee (my little cat) and I spend much of our time sitting there.
One day as I sat enjoying the peace and quite I heard A loud commotion from the direction of the roadway so I got on my golf cart and went to investigate. In this area we have Javelina wild hogs that roam free and along with the deer population it sometimes makes driving hazardous so you need to stay alert all of the time while motoring.
A man who was driving his pickup on the narrow, road came to a curve and accidentally crossed the center line. A woman driving the opposite way had to swerve to avoid hitting him. As they passed, she yelled out her window, "Pig!" The first thing the guy thought was..that so-and-so and he shouted back, "Sow! Then he rounded the curve and hit a big hog in the middle of the road. his life was spared but he sustained personal injuries he will carry for the rest of his life, it totaled out his forty thousand dollar pickup, he lost months of productive time and tore down a bunch of my fence, ruined a catch pen and loading chute on my property, but the worse thing was he offended someone that was trying to help him, she was trying to warn him of trouble ahead. Not only did he offend a precious woman that was trying to warn him of trouble ahead, he affected people around him that had nothing to do with the situation. (his family) All because he would not heed warning from one that cared. You see, she had already been there done that, she knew something he didn't know. You say, Poppa you cut the guy some slack right? The answer is no sir!...I don't hold it against a man for making mistakes, but he will have to be the one that pays for it!
Several thousand years ago.There was another warning given,"Touch Not Mine Anointed, and do my prophets no Harm" (1Chr.16) That scripture states, as does Psalms 105, that God brought down entire kingdoms because they dared to touch the Child of God.If you want to get Fathers attention, just start jacking with His church, You will bring down the wrath of God on you in a heartbeat!
In Galatians 1:6-9 Paul issues another very strong caution to those that dare to touch the church!
I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you Than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we Said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel Unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
The preacher of a false gospel..may believe what he is preaching himself..and persuade Men to accept his message...Nevertheless...in the final analysis, There is no salvation in his gospel. Paul tells us that such a person Will be apprehended by the courts of heaven and judgment pronounced: Let him be "accursed!"
The Portia spider is a master predator whose chief weapon is 'deception'. In National Geographic Robert Jackson said, the spider Looks like a piece of dried leaf or foliage blown into the web. When It attacks other species of spiders, it uses a variety of methods to Lure the host spider into striking range. Sometimes it crawls onto the Web and taps the silken threads in a manner that mimics the vibrations Of a mosquito caught in the web. The host spider marches up for dinner And instead becomes a meal itself. The Portia spider can actually Tailor its deception for its prey. With a type of spider that Maintains its home inside a rolled-up leaf, the Portia dances on the outside of the leaf, imitating a mating ritual. Jackson writes,"Portia can find a signal for just about any spider by trial and Error. It makes different signals until the victim spider finally Responds appropriately then keeps making the signal that works."..... Like the Portia spider, Satan's weapon of choice is deception.
Sometimes a counterfeit can be deadly, though the real thing it imitates is harmless or even beneficial. In a Hospital a few decades ago, several babies in the maternity ward died suddenly of unknown causes. It was later determined that, in mixing the babies' formula, salt had been substituted for sugar. Though the resulting mixture looked the same, it caused the death of several infants. The gospel, too, can be counterfeited today, just as it apparently was in Paul's day. Though it may sound similar and be undetected as a fake, it lacks the life-giving power of the real thing and is destructive.
The Judaizers wanted to spoil all of that by adding to God's grace the trumpery of their own beggarly ideas of how salvation ought to work. Like so many others in all ages, they thought that God's grace was not enough. They must add to it some effort of their own. No wonder Paul was indignant at what had happened to his beloved Galatians!
When writing to the Romans, Paul warned, "Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ..." (Rom. 16:17-18).
They have a Christ in the cults, but He is not "our Lord Jesus Christ." Our Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal, uncreated, self-existing Son of the living God. Our Lord Jesus Christ created heaven and earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born when He stepped out of eternity into time to become a Man among men. Our Lord Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. He raised the dead, cleansed the leper, and healed the sick. He fed the hungry multitudes. He changed water into wine, walked upon the waves, and stilled the storm. Our Lord Jesus Christ died an atoning death as a sacrifice for sin! the Just for us, the unjust! that He might bring us to God. Our Lord Jesus Christ was buried and remained in the tomb for three days and three nights. Our Lord Jesus was raised bodily from the dead and proved Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs. Our Lord Jesus Christ ascended bodily into heaven and now sits enthroned at God's right hand, exercising His ministry as our Great High Priest and as our Advocate with the Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ has sent His Holy Spirit into the world to call out a people for His name, a blood-bought bride, a church mystically one with Himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ is coming again, to receive His bride, to rule the world and, at last to establish the kingdom of God. That is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Coeternal and coequal with God the Father is "our Lord Jesus Christ." God the Father! What a wonderful name for God! Judaizers knew Him as Jehovah, the God of covenant; as Elohim, the God of creation; and as Adonai, the Sovereign Lord, the God of command. They knew Him as "the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." But the Galatians had been taught a "Higher" truth than that. He was "God the Father."
He joins with the Father in bestowing the twin blessings of grace and peace upon His own. They have a Christ in the cults, but he is not our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jehovah's Witnesses have a Christ, but he is not God the Son,nor did he rise from the dead because, according to them, his body was dissolved into gas in the tomb. Their Christ came back in 1914. He is not our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Judaizers who invaded the churches of Galatia had a Christ too. But he was a Christ who was unable to "save to the uttermost" all of those who come unto God through him; his grace and power was not sufficient for that! He required that, in addition to his own work, the Law of Moses be hung like a dead weight around the necks of all of those who would aspire to any hope of heaven.
The Mormons have a Christ. Their Christ was a polygamist, secretly married to Martha and Mary at the wedding of Cana of Galilee. He is not our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Seventh-day Adventists have a Christ, but he did not bear our sins in his own body on the tree. According to them, Satan was the scapegoat, and our sins were put on him. Their Christ is not our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Catholics have a Christ. The priest makes him by pronouncing five Latin words over a wafer of bread in the mass. That is not our Lord Jesus Christ.
The liberals have a Christ, but he was not virgin born, his miracles were sleights of hand, his life was only a good example, his death was an unfortunate martyrdom, and his resurrection was only a myth.Their Christ is not our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Gal.1:6 The word for "removed" is metatith mi, which means "to desert," or to be moved from one position to another. The use of the present tense suggests that the abandonment of the truth by the Galatians was still in process and that it was not yet complete. Time still existed for the departure to be arrested. Hence, Paul's haste to get this letter on its way.
Moreover, the use of the middle voice shows that Paul is putting the blame on his converts rather than on the false teachers. They should know better. We can be sure that Paul had well instructed them in the truth of God's grace.
The Galatians had embraced "another gospel","which," he now adds, "is not another [gospel]; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ." The word another occurs twice here. The first another is heteros, meaning another of a different kind. The second another is allos, meaning another of the same kind. The classic distinction between the two words is seen in another Pauline passage, 1 Corinthians 15:39-41, where heteros is used to distinguish between the glory of the heavenly and the glory of the earthly. The glory of the heavenly is a glory of a different kind than the glory of the earthly. The word allos is used to distinguish carefully among the flesh of men, birds, and fish. The difference is not one of genus but of species. Allos is also used to distinguish among the differing glories of the stars, which are differences of degree, not of kind. Here in Galatians, Paul speaks of "a different gospel" (heteros) "which is not another" (allos), another like the one he preached. "I am astonished," he said, "that you have so soon switched to another 'gospel'! not, of course, that it is or ever could be another gospel." The "gospel" of the Judaizers differed so radically from that preached by Paul that it was not another gospel; it was no gospel at all.
Paul preached salvation by grace through faith. The Judaizers preached salvation by law through works. The two were mutually exclusive. No common ground existed between the two beliefs! even though both Paul and the Judaizers appealed to the Bible to support their teaching. At the outset of his letter, Paul slams the door on any compromise.
"But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ," Paul adds. The word for "trouble" is tarass!. Later, when the question of law keeping, as essential to salvation, was fully aired before the leaders of the Jerusalem church, a letter was written condemning the false doctrine. The same word was used: "We have heard,that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls..." (Acts 15:24).
The word for "pervert" is metastreph!, meaning to transform something into something of the opposite character. The Judaizers were preaching a travesty of the gospel. Paul had preached good news! salvation is full and free! It is by grace! All of the doing has been done! The Judaizers were preaching bad news! you have to keep the Law, you have to be circumcised, and you have to keep the Sabbath; you have to earn your salvation. Paul labels all such teaching as perversion.
Throughout the Scripture, the strongest language is reserved not for the murderer, or the adulterer, or the extortioner but for those who propagate religious error.John the Baptist called the Pharisees and the Sadducees a "generation of vipers" (Matt. 3:7). Jesus called the scribes and the Pharisees hypocrites, whited sepulchers, serpents, and a generation of vipers (Matt. 23:25, 27, 33)....Now Paul pours out his own divinely inspired barrage of condemnation against the Judaizers...or anyone else...for that matter, who propagates false doctrine.
The branded heretic can be an apostle, an angel, or anyone: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (1:8-9).
Some years ago, I received a phone call from a woman, a professing Christian and a member of a fundamental church in town. She asked, "Do you know where I can get a Greek Bible?" I was astonished; the lady was no scholar. I asked, "Why do you want a Greek Bible?" She said, "You can understand the Bible better in Greek."
I was suspicious. "Tell me," I said, calling the lady by name, "have you by any chance been talking to some Jehovah's Witnesses?" It turned out that such was the case. I called on her husband at his place of business. He was a member in good standing in his church, one of the good churches in town. Yes, he agreed, they had been talking to some Jehovah's Witnesses. They had been having home Bible studies with some of the teachers from the local Kingdom Hall. I asked him if he would allow me to come and talk to him and his wife about the errors he was being taught. "Yes," he agreed, "you can come, but I'll have two of their teachers there as well."....."In that case," I replied, "I'll bring a friend." I called a colleague of mine, a man whom I knew to be a skilled controversialist. The day came for the confrontation. It was a royal battle and went on for hours, but point by point the Jehovah's Witnesses were forced to reveal their true colors. Yes! They did have their own Bible.Yes! They did deny the deity of Christ! Yes! They had altered the text of John 1:1 to make the text read that Jesus was not God but only a god. No! They did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ. No! They did not believe in hell. Yes! They did believe that only 144,000 people could be born again! the rest are to be "Jonadabs," second-class citizens in the kingdom. Yes! True Jehovah's Witnesses must put in time pounding the pavement, selling Watchtower magazines and being obedient workers for the cause.
In the end, the Jehovah's Witnesses left, and we remained for some further counseling with our friends. It seemed that the victory was complete. However, the woman refused to give up an array of Jehovah's Witnesses books that she had bought. They seemed to exert some kind of hold upon her mind. Also, she was afraid of Armageddon. As the days passed, the fear became an obsession. I urged her to get rid of the books. She refused to do so. Prayer with her seemed to be unavailing. Efforts to put Bible prophecy into perspective, to get her back to the evangelical faith that she had once professed, met with stubborn resistance. Her husband refused to be more than a passive observer.
In the end, the woman, her husband, and their young child made their decision; they threw in their lot openly with the local Kingdom Hall, severed their connection with the local church, went to New York, and accepted baptism into the cult, manifesting a zeal for error that they had never shown for the truth.
Paul would say that the people who subverted this family are accursed. These people, now themselves active propagandists for a Christ-denying heresy, are accursed. Paul says so. The Holy Spirit says so. It is a crime in the court of heaven to subvert the true faith of Christ.
"Let him be accursed!" He might be an apostle. It might even be an angel. It could be anyone. But it makes no difference who brings the false message; it is the message, not the messenger, that matters. Just the same, the curse of God rests on the man, woman, or evil spirit who brings the message. "May the divine curse rest upon him!" Paul says.
We are so used to compromise, to tolerance of other people's beliefs, that Paul's words come almost as a shock. The problem with us, too, is that we look at the problem more or less as an academic problem, as a battle of wits between truth on this side and error on that side. It is satisfying if, in that verbal skirmish, we happen to win. It's another feather in our cap. And if we lose, well, it's too bad. We can't win them all. But God does not look upon it as an academic problem at all. The issues of all eternity hang in the balance for a human soul.
Think of the incredible, inestimable value of a soul! It was created by a direct act of God to be in His own image and in His own likeness. It is deathless. It is carved out of the very stuff of eternity. "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Jesus asked. "Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37). Its value is so great that the Lord Jesus Himself, the second person of the Godhead, came from the mansions of glory to this sad world of woe to pay the price of our redemption. And what a price! First, He had to make that awesome stoop and be incarnated in human flesh, be born as a babe in that Bethlehem barn.
He had to live a life of such stainless perfection as would win the unqualified approbation and approval of God. He had to endure the contradiction of sinners, fierce and fiery temptation, and mounting opposition and abuse. He had to go to Gethsemane, to Gabbatha, to Golgotha, and on to the grave itself. He had to give His life as a ransom for sin. And what a cruel death He died on Calvary's cross, amid the jeers and sneers of the mocking multitude! He who knew no sin was made sin for us. In the darkness that draped the horror of that final, awful torment, He cried out in agony, abandoned by God Himself.
Then He had to die, descend into hades, and leave His body a lifeless corpse in a borrowed tomb for three whole days and three whole nights. Not until then did the turn in the road come, and His resurrection crowned it all in triumph. All to save us from our sins! Now we can be saved fully, freely, and forever in return for our simple faith.
As far as God is concerned, to tamper with "so great salvation" is to tamper with the eternal destiny of a soul, and that is a damnable offense. "Let him be accursed." "Anathema!" "May he be accursed!" "Let him be damned"! as one translator boldly renders it. The Holy Spirit says that He alone knows the real worth of a soul, fully comprehends the cost of our redemption, and properly appreciates the eternal
horrors of hell and the endless bliss of heaven. This is no vindictive exclamation of an outraged apostle; this is God's own evaluation of
the seriousness of leading another soul astray.
Paul reiterates it: "As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (v. 9). In verse 6, Paul contrasts what he calls "another gospel" with "the grace of Christ." In other words, any kind of teaching that minimizes salvation through grace alone is another gospel. Teaching that adds anything to salvation by faith through grace earns the anathema of God. "You have heard me say it before," Paul says. "Now I put it down in black-and-white! if any man preach any other gospel... let him be accursed."
"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men?" The word for "persuade" is peith!, "to prevail upon," "to win over." It seems that Paul's consistency had been called into question. Paul was willing to "made all things to all men" to win some (1 Cor. 9:22), but he never compromised a conviction or watered down a truth. His enemies would doubtless accuse him of trying to curry favor in Jerusalem by having Timothy circumcised and of trying to keep in with the Gentiles by leaving Titus uncircumcised. Paul, however, had a good reason for circumcising Timothy, who was already half a Jew by birth, and an equally good reason for leaving Titus, who was a full Gentile,
uncircumcised. Paul was accused of setting his sail to match the wind and of adapting his preaching and practice to suit the occasion. This accusation Paul vigorously denies.
Persuading men? Yes, indeed! That was exactly what he did. That was his business. That was what he had been called to do. Pleasing men? Nonsense! Did it sound as though he were trying to please men? damning those who preached something contrary to the grace of Christ that he preached! "I should never have become a minister of the gospel," he says, "not if I were trying to please men." Paul knew from personal experience that popularity and preaching do not usually go hand in hand. His Galatian converts knew about the persecutions he had faced among them, especially at the hands of the Jews, for preaching boldly and without compromise the gospel of God's grace.
The faithful preacher often has to take a stand against the world's morality. He has to take an unpopular stand against drugs, abortion, sodomy, evolution, and pornography....He has to confront established error in religion and often comes into sharp conflict with entrenched religious systems that are opposed to the gospel.....He has to denounce corruption and wickedness in high places. He sometimes has to deal with his own family and friends along the line of unwelcome and unwanted truth....He is called to persuade men, using every legitimate means at his disposal....But he is not called to please men.
Nor did Paul trim his sails to the changing wind. He loved man. He gave himself wholeheartedly and unreservedly to try to win men. But compromise his message? Never!
There was a nature show on television about a black bear that gave birth to two cubs. One cub died right away. Three weeks later the mother died and the remaining cub was left to fend for itself. An orphaned cub in that condition is like a walking buffet for predators. And of course the camera immediately showed a hungry-looking mountain lion.
One day the orphan cub encountered a giant male black bear. The little cub cowered at the bear's sheer mass. The larger bear peered around and seemed to realize that the mother bear wasn't anywhere to be found. He gave the little cub a friendly nudge. The camera then showed the little bear happily trailing along after the larger one. The adoption papers were signed, sealed and registered at the county seat in that nudge. Papa bear proceeded to show the cub how to grub for insects and how to catch fish and how to scratch his back against a tree.
One day the two bears became separated. The cub began to cry and looked frantically for his new father, but couldn't find him anywhere. The cub approached a stream where he'd learned to fish and something caught his attention. He looked up to see a mountain lion ready to pounce. That same mountain lion had stalked the cub for the entire show. There was no way that mountain lion would've gone for that cub with Papa bear around, but now.... The camera zoomed in on the cub. He automatically mimicked the posture of his adopted father when threatened. He stood on his hind legs and bared his teeth. Then, in exactly the same way his new father would have done, this cub let loose a mighty growl that should have reverberated throughout the forest. But, only a tiny bear cub squeak came out.
Well, you know what was coming. But, to everybody's astonishment the mountain lion lowered his head and ran off in the opposite direction. The camera panned back to the proud little cub still standing tall on his hind legs. And then all the viewers saw what that little cub Could Not: a few yards behind him, at full, ferocious height, his sharp, white teeth bared in a snarl, stood Daddy bear. He may not have made a sound, but he was there.
And even though the cub couldn't see his father, his father stood guard, protecting his young. The little cub had power available greater than anything he could produce on his own. There was a greater power watching over him.
Jesus said, "They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."
(Rev 22:16)..I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these
things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and
the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I
testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this
book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him
the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take
away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away
his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from
the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these
things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Be careful beloved what you say and do and teach in the name of the FATHER.....remember He said, "Touch Not Mine Anointed",
that includes the individual and the church. If you are preaching revival to the church that is a good thing. If you are trying to tear it
down, Paul said you are a pervert! Proceed with caution, There may be "A Pig in the Road"
God Bless You
Poppa
Editor's Comment:
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