—Who's Your Daddy...?
In light of the modern corrupt “Christian” church and corrupt society full of “Christians” whom Christ will not recognize as His own, it is no wonder that Christ queried,
“When the Son of man returneth shall He find faith [yet] upon the earth?”
Faith is not a “free floating” phenomenon. Faith is the dynamic Presence of the Holy Spirit that exists within God’s elect (no more elect, no more faith upon the earth): The Holy Spirit leads the elect of God’s people into Truth and empowers them to obey God and thus be pleasing to Him. Without faith it is impossible to please God, because faith without works (fruit—the fruit that God commanded) is not faith. It is a humanistic pseudo-spiritualism, a godless, fallen, corrupt “nice idea”, a superstition. Faith cometh by knowledge (hearing) of the Word of God. Faith does not originate in any man. It is a Gift of God to the elect. “Faithful is He Who calleth you Who also will do it.” (I Thessalonians 5:25) Thus, God, Who is True, provides the means by which we are able to believe and obey. “Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16) “It is God Who worketh in you both to will and to do of His Good Pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) Faith is the working knowledge of the facts of God’s Word—faith in action—obedience to true Doctrine and the Commands of God. Those devoid of that true faith are devoid of God. This is what James meant (which cousin Luther misunderstood):
“18Yea, a man may say, ‘Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. 19Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils [demons] also believe, and tremble. 20But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” 24Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2)
However, clarification is in order. It is NOT “faith + works”. It is: TRUE FAITH PRODUCES THE WORKS THAT GOD COMMANDED and “faith” without those works (evidence) is not true faith.
“Every tree is known by its fruit.”
“Be ye doers of the Word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
Works do not contribute to faith; that is the wrong perspective, confusing “cause and effect”. True faith produces the works, unto which we were called that God before ordained that we should walk therein. Faith that does not produce that which God sent it forth to produce,* was not sent by God and is “counterfeit faith”—a humanistic delusion; a “feel-good” carnal pesudo-spiritual substitute for true faith. Counterfeit faith is Anti-Christ and that is why Christ will reject it; even as God rejected Cain and his sacrifice. It was not within Cain to offer that which God commanded. Cain offered instead a bloodless sacrifice, something that Cain imagined was better, or all that he was willing to offer—and is also evidence that Cain did not think that he needed to have his sins atoned for (and they shan’t be).
[* —which is the reason that He sent forth His Word, which will not return unto Him void.]
Christ also revealed that many “Christians” who thought that they were doing “wonderful works” in “His Name” shall hear, “depart from Me, yet that work iniquity (lawlessness); I never knew you”. That’s quite a shocker. This is not spoken to people who do not even consider themselves Christians, but to Christians who even thought that they were serving God and doing wonderful things (falsely assuming that what is “wonderful works” in the eyes of the world is considered the same in Christ’s Eyes—but it is not). They will hear that they are immoral... iniquitous, lawless—violators of the morality that God commanded. Even as Christ said, those who are not with Me are against Me and those who gather not with Me (presumably, the lost sheep and wheat) SCATTER abroad (and instead gather dogs, swine, and tares). If we do not have the EXACT same agenda, plan, and mission that Christ commanded, “as the Father sent Me so send I you... go only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel... then go into all the world (to Israel whither God had scattered them)...” they we are not with Christ (regardless of the nice pseudospiritual fantasy with which most Christians delude themselves) and we are working against Him; and that is the definition of an enemy (which is what God says that you are if you are a friend of the world: which is what you are if you share the world’s philosophy, ideology, moral system, agenda—multiculturalism, gender confusion, interfaith, “if it feels good do it”, anything but obey what God commanded).
Modern espousants of anti-doctrinal pseudo-Christianity reject doctrine and reject God’s Law (anti-intellectually thinking that God abolished it although Christ said that He did not). They cast down all the moral boundaries that God established and wallow in filth thinking that it is “righteousness” and that God will be “so happy” with them. They are actually so deluded that they think that the Master will be please to return and find the dogs on top of the table breeding with the His children! FOOLS! God doesn’t change. Morality does not change. Those who think so are under the profoundest of delusion and do not know God. “I am Yahweh and I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” We are not “not consumed” because God is whimiscal and unpredictable and mutating and inconsistent. God is Immutable. However, part of that Immutability is His Love and Mercy for the elect of His people—and His Promise to forgive them if they repent (I John 1:9).
In another parable those locked out, knock, and ask to be admitted—and the householder declares, “I know you not whence ye are” (Luke 13:25-30). That is even more damning than “I know not who you are”. It used to be, in moral Christendom, that parents raised their children to be moral and godly and follow in the father’s footsteps. It was common for someone to ask, upon meeting you (if your last name was a common name), “Who’s your father?” If one knew the father and the father was a righteous, fair, honest man, then it was most likely so were the children.
Sadly, those times have come and gone.
[Modernly, a different saying, “Who’s your daddy?” has entirely replaced the meaning of “Who’s your father?” It has nothing to do with the more-traditional version. The modern version refers to whoredom and being loyal to the person who gives you the most money and drugs and buys you the most trinkets. However, ages ago, “Who’s your daddy” and “Who’s your father” meant the same thing; the only difference being that some people were accustomed to using the word “father” and others the word “daddy”.]
Unless God’s people return to what God commanded, as in Isaiah 58, and unless we obey out of sincerity and purity of heart, not merely going through the motions—God is not our Father and we are deluded. God commanded “Come out from among them [alien peoples] and be ye separate and touch [join] not the unclean thing [people]”—and only if those requirements (among others*) are met, will we be His sons and daughters INDEED (in deed). Those who are not honorable are those who have been ordained unto Judgment, and thus, they were given a nature that rebels and earns all that it has coming.
[* John tells us that if a man does not keep God’s Commandments then he does not even know God; and Christ said those who don’t obey Him, He is not their Lord and they do not abide in His Love. Those who don’t abide in His Love shall ever have His Wrath abiding upon them.]
However, if we obey in the letter and in the spirit...
“8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the Glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward. 9Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, ‘Here I am’. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; 10And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: 11And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 12And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Paths to dwell in. 13If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My Holy Day; and call the Sabbath a Delight, the Holy of the LORD, Honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 14Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” (Isaiah 58)
I have, for decades as my ministry’s declared purpose, paraphrased v.12 on my letterhead:
“...build up the ancient ruins... raise up the foundations of generations past... and thou shalt be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of the safe and prosperous paths of life...” (my own emphatic paraphrase) (Isaiah 58:12)
Is your faith real or counterfeit? How can you know? Compare it to the Word of God. Understand, God is Perfect, Holy, Just, and Immutable. He cannot change. His Standard of Holiness cannot change. We cannot “be holy as I am Holy” if our Standard of “Morality” changed but God’s did not—and God’s won’t change. Christ said that He did not come to destroy the Law. Christ said not even a jot (the smallest letter) or tittle (the slightest hook at the top of a letter thus, the smallest flourish of a pen stroke) would not pass from the Law. Christ said “My sheep know My Voice and follow [obey] Me...” and “the voice of a stranger they will not follow”.
The majority of “Christians” are following a false Christ if they think that He abolished God’s Law—in flagrant contradiction of what Christ Himelf said. If they that think any passage of the Bible says that God abolished His Law it is a false reading; the reader is confused. It reminds me of an episode of the old t.v. show “I Love Lucy” (which sadly was used, even long ago, to begin programming Christendom to embrace what God forbade” (aliens). She was cooking in the kitchen and it was hot so she had the fan on; she had the cookbook open on the counter, and would read the first step, turn around to the other counter and carry out the instructions; but while her back was turned the fan would change a few pages; then she would turn around, follow the next step... and so on it went; even when she knew it didn’t sound right, she did it anyway, because, well, there is was, step #4 so it must be right. So also most Christians “understand” the Bible (scatter-brained). Even if it does not make sense—even if it violates what they already know that God said—they just plunge along in “blind faith” (which is not faith when it actually violates what God commanded elsewhere), rather than stopping, going back, analyzing, and truly understanding. How reprehensible that God’s children simply assume that He contradicts Himself..! —which means that He is untrustworthy and untrue...! Truly “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”.
Thus, when one continues in ignorance, he then will think that error is truth—and how can the truth set someone free if he thinks that error is truth...? When someone else who actually understands the truth confronts him, he thinks that the other person is nuts. Such is the modus operandi of a deluded mind; which is the mind of anti-intellectual, non-doctrinal “Christianity” (humananity—sinful man settles upon and believes as truth that which he wants to believe, that which is pleasing to self—in defiance of the facts).
“Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” What are the lusts of the flesh? —the violation of everything that God commanded or forbade. Understand cause and effect. Not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh (obeying the Law of God) does not produce the Holy Spirit. It does not add to the Holy Spirit. Obedience to what God commanded in the letter and in the spirit is the “by-product” or the “natural result” of the Holy Spirit’s Presence and the believer actually walking with the Spirit where the Spirit is going; not where the sinful flesh wants to go instead. Most “Christians” have a seared (cauterized, burnt to a crisp, dead, insensate) conscience, from having spurned the Holy Spirit so long; and thus they think that “right” is wrong and “wrong” is right (in good old wordly fashion)—and God pronounces a curse (woe) on those who call evil “good” and good “evil”.
So, who’s your daddy...? Christ Himself revealed:
“36If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. 37I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill Me, because My Word [Doctrine] hath no place in you. 38I speak that which I have seen with My Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. 39They answered and said unto Him, ‘Abraham is our father’. Jesus saith unto them, ‘If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 40But now ye seek to kill Me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 41Ye do the deeds of your father’. Then said they to Him, ‘We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God’. 42Jesus said unto them, ‘If God were your Father, ye would love Me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me. 43Why do ye not understand My Speech [Discourse]? even because ye cannot hear My Word [Doctrine]. 44Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 45And because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not. 46Which of you convinceth [convicteth] Me of sin? And if I say [speak] the truth, why do ye not believe Me? 47He that is of God heareth God’s Words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” (John 8)
Those who are truly sons of God will reflect His Image, as children of light of the Father of lights. They will be about His Business. They will be obedience and represent Him as honorable sons; not renegades doing their own thing. Christ exposed the Edomite pharisees as being of their father the Devil, and not of Abraham, not of God. Indeed, earlier (vv.33-37) Christ said that He heard them, that they said that they were Abraham’s seed [sperma]. Esau married two Canaanite women and his descendents were Edomites. Esau descended purely from Abraham. The Edomites were descended from Abraham—but illegitimately. They were indeed the seed [sperma: “seed, something sown”], but they were not his sons [hweeos: which denotes legitimacy and a place of honor]; neither were they Abraham’s children [teknon: offspring, progeny, children]—for Abraham would never have violated God’s Law as wicked Esau did; and anyone outside the boundaries that God forever established is illegitimate.
[For great detail concerning this topic, see my in-depth books, Who Was the Serpent in the Garden...? and What Was the Mark that God Placed on Cain?]