Sin is a fundamental component in the framework of each of us, for even the child of God must contend with the fleshly nature that yet remains in him. Sin is able to deceive and defraud the heart of men with false assurances of faith and belief. The simple reason this component is able to hold captive with such a firm unrelenting grip on Christendom, is that Christians portray faith not unlike Israel’s repeated claims and actions of holiness. There are so many making declarations of righteousness through a wide variety of self-directed paths. They believe with sincerity that they are moving towards reflecting the holiness of Christ; all the while they are blinded to the true, single path of a legitimate follower of Christ. The ability of men and women to discern the difference between what God has given as the design and practice for His church, and what is in fact called ‘His church’ by men, elude its members as a whole—to the participants, the differences have been accepted as one and the same. (Part Three of "Come, Follow Me!" will give many of the practices Christians use to claim genuine saving faith; and the scriptural evidence that these practices do not prove genuine saving faith one way or the other. Some of this evidence may be a surprise to even the most ardent of Christians.)

The first in this two-fold purpose is that we are to know within our very being the genuineness of the faith we claim to possess. There is a necessity in knowing that we are a true child of God, living now in His kingdom. Examination is to reveal if it is in the Lord we trust . . . or do we remain judged (John 3:18) to bear His wrath (Zechariah 7:12; Romans 5:9; Revelation 19:15), having placed our trust in false assurances freely given by the religious structure created by man (Jeremiah 17:5, 7).

Self-examination by the standards given in Scripture, not by comparison to the religiosity of others, is a specific and necessary practice for any that makes a claim of salvation according to the Word of God. In fact, for any man or woman to mature in faith, such examination is and will increasingly be a habitual practice of unconditional obedience. It becomes an unclouded and active barometer of what is presented of Christ through you to others. It is a means to gauge the form of the river bed of our faith as it is carved and etched by the flow of Living Water. Self-examination will be a distinct need of any heart that loves and seeks the Lord. Such a heart must know that the work accomplished glorifies Christ. And only through examination can anyone justifiably assert salvation with assurance. Otherwise, it is not assurance that is possessed, but a vacuous assumption based upon wishful thinking and empty hopes built upon the shifting foundation of emotion, sentiment, and feelings packaged by the minds of men.

We must search out the support of our faith. Faith must not be bolstered by a convincing but worthless spiritual crutch (Luke 6:46) that keeps us limping along. It must not become like those that God does not know; following after their own thoughts; standing upon self-applied holiness. Saving faith proudly and accurately proclaims Christ and Christ alone as its foundation.

As shared in Part One of this series, many had convictions of assurance and believed yet were condemned. Thousands of years of history recorded in Scripture testify to this truth! The power of salvation offered through Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit is not what is in question in self-examination. What is to be called into question and examined is the response of our heart, our spirit, to Christ’s calling to follow Him. Did you turn a deaf ear, ignoring Him when He called (Isaiah 65:12); or was your heart pierced to its very core when you recognized your rebellion against the Lord? Do you love the Lord as He commands this love you direct towards Him to be? (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30). You must know the source used to develop your answers to these questions, and the reasons for using them. To love God is to be obedient to Him . . . to be obedient to Him is to love God (1 John 2:3-6). Outside of obedience to God, there is no love of God, and there is no salvation.

The path towards assurance begins with the proper preparation of the soil of your heart (spirit), to receive the seeds of truth which is the word of God. As the seeds of truth are sown, tended, and nourished in and through His truth, faith will germinate. Diligently nurture this faith through abiding in Him and Him in you, and it will bear fruit . . . good fruit (John 15:1-11). The quality, not quantity, of this fruit will determine the legitimacy of your faith . . . and the quality, according to the Lord’s standard of quality, is what authenticates His abiding in you.

Assurance is legitimate only when it accompanies progressive faith—a faith restricted in movement towards a vertical alignment under Christ alone; which is the conformity of our spirit through and in obedience to Him as given to man in His written Word. Never is a faith that stagnates (failing to begin a process of maturation after first believing, or ceases to mature), able to provide assurance. Stagnation, being unrelated and not to be confused with a quiet faith that labors largely unnoticed, exists in many forms. ‘Inactivity’ of the ‘ministered to’, the man-created laity, proliferates and is most commonly associated with a faith that is vegetative or stale. However, stagnant faith may also be very dynamic and vibrant in appearance, as is witnessed in many of the greatly esteemed religious men, women and ‘churches’ that flourish in Christendom. For many, faith has and is being replaced with activity "for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie . . ." (Romans 1:25), the vibrant work of the Holy Spirit is given over for "a name that [they] are alive, but [they] are dead" (Revelation 3:1). Activity is never synonymous with faith, nor faith with activity.

Assurance of salvation through Christ, then, is validated and sustained only with the ensuing whittling away of selfness; allowing room for maturation through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Without validation through examination, our beliefs and assurances may be no more than mental assents supported by wishful thinking and hope without foundation. God gives no credit to mental acquiescence. God finds what is in the heart; no matter the depth it may be hidden. "He knows the secrets of the heart" (Psalm 44:21), your heart as well as mine. "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." (Hebrews 4:13). Strive continually in faith so you will know that He abides in you and you in Him, being an heir of eternal life.

A man can only be a witness of Christ in one way. It will be the labor of life for all of those that are true to Him. To be His witness is to prove who our God is through the placement and manner of our devotion, faith, conduct and practice. A witness of Christ reflects Christ; it is never about self. It is always about Him, and it is to be always directed towards Him. It is an emptying of self, providing a window for His light to burn ever brighter. With pure and unhindered light, He reveals Himself through each member of His body to the world, "open[ing] blind eyes" (Isaiah 42:7) and then "nations will see your righteousness" (Isaiah 62:2). As Christ is revealed to the world through our witness, His church will also be strengthened (Romans 14:19; Romans 15:2; 1 Corinthians 14:26). When this is true, when this is the light and life in you and His body (the true church), never can the condescending question legitimately be asked regarding His people, Christ’s people . . . "Where, now, is their God?" (Psalm 115:2).

My personal observation and fear is that we, as Christians, have moved so far from being a follower of Christ, that the contemptuous question "Where, now, is their God?" is largely absent from the mind of the wicked today. The church eliminated the prompts to this question from the heart and mind of others, as it is persistently being answered by and through our witness; a witness not of Christ, but of a ‘man view’ inculcation. We have been accepted as and contently resemble men that reject God. We embrace peace with the worldly in our adulterous love relationship with it. What an affront to Him! . . . the very warning of acceptance God had continuously placed before Israel and now His church is realized in our midst and we say " ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace" (Jeremiah 6:14). The church lays claim to Christ, yet He does not claim it, (Matthew 7:22; Matthew 25:11-12; Luke 13:25).

Can this be doubted that His people are being misled? (Ezekiel 13:10) Virtually all of the New Testament writers give testimony that the wicked have found free access through the "open heart, open mind, open door" mentality of a church where Christ’s name is emblazoned as its banner, but where He as God is unwelcome (2 Peter 2:1-3, Acts 20:29-30). Countless numbers within ‘the church’ asserting scriptural faith do not bear the resemblance as one in Christ. You must not likewise be reckless with your faith, but know whether a godly, righteous faith is true in your life.

Come to Christ . . . follow Him! "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (1 John 4:1). To test in truth requires maturity in faith, "who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil." (Hebrews 5:14). Maturity enables you to defend your faith according to God’s truth, in boldness yet with gentleness and reverence (1 Peter 3:15). Such are some of the evidences of being a new creature reconciled unto God (John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15) walking in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Here in part two of "Come, Follow Me!" the lens of scriptural truth is used as the guide in examining the faith that resides within, and then directing us to the works (fruits) of saving faith (James 2:18, 20; 1 John 2:3-5), that enable us to walk as Christ walked (1 John 2:6; John 8:29). This is first to give an "assurance of things hoped for," (Hebrews 11:1), and to realize this hope based upon His truth, "so that you may know that you have eternal life," (1 John 5:13). Secondly, Scripture is unfolded so you may know if the flame that burns within your heart casts the light of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 5:8-10; Matthew 5:14-16). Does it burn bright for His glory? Or, is the life within you a mere flicker; barely discernable and scarcely penetrating the surrounding darkness? Is your spirit a vessel filled with the stagnant pools of man’s religiosity? Or, are you an enabled conduit of Living Water purposed, as a believer, to quench the thirst of the thirsty?

His purpose for all that believe is to "make known His deeds among the peoples" (Psalm 105:1; see also Matthew 28:19-20). All that a child of God does is to focus upon Christ for the glory of the Lord God (1 Corinthians 10:31); to reveal Him to those separated from Him; and to express Christ Jesus as an obedient, united body for the edification, and in the building up and strengthening of His church. This is His witness!

Some that read "What Mean These Stones?" struggle with what is taught within its pages. Not specifically because what is written is believed to be unscriptural (though this may be asserted), but because much of what is stated is in direct conflict with what the majority in Christendom holds as normative within Christian faith and practice. For the majority, it is difficult to acknowledge the conflicts and inconsistencies of our ever mutable religious traditions and practice, even when it is the very light of Scripture that reveals them. We become defensive; suspicious of those things that may threaten what we embrace as sacred. Our very nature drives us to shield our religious heirlooms when they are in jeopardy.

It is not unscriptural to deeply and persistently examine your faith. It is scriptural, being strongly commanded in Scripture, to examine your faith and its practice with a discerning, truth seeking, yet malleable heart (Lamentations 3:40, 1 Corinthians 11:28, Galatians 6:4). It is such a grave danger for each of us if we make only a mere mental assent to the purpose of God, focusing instead upon the external expression of our faith and the religion we intertwine with it . . . believing we are His, yet He may very well not know us (Matthew 7:21-23). We must guard against the external religious attractiveness of Pharisaism used so often to elevate self; and instead strive for spiritual, Christ-centered purity (1 John 3:3). We may fool some, even ourselves when our faith and practice is nothing more than an impudent charade. But we will be unable to hide the truth from everyone, and God is never deceived! Deception, whether self-realized or hidden within our heart, is clearly seen by God and will draw the Lord’s response. This, we can be assured of!

The Lord does not look at the external to assess or judge the heart . . . Christ looks at what is internal as He did when He laid open the hearts of the Pharisees and scribes (Matthew chapter 23); and as He does to find humble, submissive obedience in His "slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:16-19); "not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart." (Ephesians 6:6). Nothing is hidden from His penetrating gaze. As He spoke in His Word, the Lord does with both you and me. It is the heart that reveals what God searches for . . . it is the heart that sin is inscribed on with a diamond pointed stylus (Jeremiah 17:1) . . . and it is the heart that reveals the circumcision that separates flesh from spirit revealing a son of God.

What does your heart reveal? Does it identify you as one with a heart of a Pharisee, scribe or lawyer in faith and practice; being merely a legalist claiming and demanding an external obedience to His law or the commands of Christ? Are you a passive, unquestioning sheep, feeding upon what is being poured into the trough of religiosity? Is the belief you embrace a false belief? If you are in possession of a genuine saving faith, is your diet of milk (elementary teachings about and of Christ) or of solid food (urgently moving towards maturity in faith) (Hebrews 5:13-14)? Is your faith God-pleasing? Do you possess a hot (full stride for the Lord) or cold (dead, without the Lord) faith; or is your faith joined with the popularly practiced Laodicean lukewarm faith (Revelation 3:16-17), which nauseates the Lord, and is as equally dead as a cold faith? Is Christ truly your first love? (Revelation 2:4)

Examining the landscape of Christian religious practices, we find two expansive transgressions that are damaging the credibility and testimony of the witnesses of Christ. These two offenses bookend the vast majority of what God warns the righteous to beware of and avoid. Harmful to true faith, damaging to His message and the work of His truth, these have and are causing irreparable harm to men, and to the church.

Luke 16:15 – "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God."

Often, we limit our perception or understanding of what disobedience to God is by restricting its defining to resolute, knowledgeable proclamations of rejection and denial of God. Limiting disobedience in this manner is scripturally unfounded, and dangerous thinking. We are to know and believe without any doubt that active disobedience is not confined to visual expression alone. If it possessed such defined limits, the full depth of scriptural discernment would never be realized as it would be unnecessary. Active disobedience also includes a form of religion prominently practiced by the church, and it is expressed as and through legalism. Driven to be pleasing and acceptable to man’s expectations, men and women give an outward appearance of being right with God. However, rejection and denial of God are still present and active, but have moved from a visually obvious external display, to the hidden recesses of the inner being (Matthew 23:28). External obedience to the Lord, not proclaimed denunciation and refutation, is portrayed—however, the heart of each is one and the same.

Christendom does not have commonly used, ‘accurately’ descriptive words or titles attached to this form of disobedience in a man or group today. In fact, disobedience in the form of legalism is seldom acknowledged, much less recognized. The church has become very accommodating to external obedience, and blinded to the true condition of the heart. Discernment has vanished like a cup of pure water poured into the vast salty waters of the open sea, as has righteousness acceptable to God been polluted. "For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God." (Romans 10:3).

To follow Christ in faith, you and I must take into account that Scripture is not silent regarding the self-righteousness of such men or groups. They are clearly named and identified so no question could be asked of their identity, or to the nature of their sin. John the Baptist, as did Christ, called them a "brood of vipers" (Matthew 3:7; Matthew 12:34; Matthew 23:33). Their words are strong, candid depictions of the children of Satan; producing progeny after their own kind, with nothing but their poisonous bite of death to offer.

Who were, or what was this group of men that drew some of the Lord’s strongest condemnation? In fact, the Lord’s most scathing words of condemnation recorded in all Scripture were directed towards these men (Matthew 23). In identifying these hypocrites, with purposeful intent we must also ask ourselves if there is any relevance in these two thousand year old condemnations and rebukes for the church today. First, these were the Pharisees—a sect of the Jews (Acts 15:5), being strict upholders of Mosaic Law and its rituals (Acts 26:5; Philippians 3:5) . . . and yes, the relevance is critical for the true church today, as indeed such practices are alive and well, albeit under different names and titles.

Being zealous for tradition these religious men would disregard the commandment of God (Matthew 15:2-9; Mark 7:3, 7:5-13; Galatians 1:14). Despite ignoring God’s commandment, they were careful to express external morality and righteousness (John 7:45-48, 18:10-11; Philippians 3:5-6) to justify themselves in the sight of men (Luke 16:14-15). Many were esteemed and highly educated (John 3:1; Acts 5:34, 22:3).

This assault upon Christ and His followers will increase as the judgment of the enemies of God draws near. The practice of the Pharisees was (and is) a primary tool used by Satan to bring an end to the purpose of Christ. What is this work of Christ, but to bring man to the Father through the saving knowledge of Him. Men such as the Pharisees are also identified (at times by name or sect) as false teachers, false prophets, false witnesses, false apostles; deceivers, wolves in sheep’s clothing, false Christs and antichrists.

To appear as part of His church and to be included by man into the membership of Christ’s body, gives the enemies of Christ opportunity and acceptance where discernment is lacking, and the Holy Spirit has been deactivated or subordinated to the tradition and desires of men. These heretics have been meticulously identified and named as unrelenting, persistent enemies of Christ and His church; and they will continue to be so with increasing intensity (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, 8-10) until the Lord’s second coming. Great care was taken in the writing of Scripture to warn man to their purpose, giving him the means to identify these enemies of righteousness through teaching and instruction. It should be disconcerting for followers of Christ, to find that the degree God has warned of this danger and instructed man to respond to it, the church has devalued to a non-threatening status, giving no more than generalized lip-services to them as a whole. Virtually absent from the teachings within Christendom are the concerns and warnings as expressed by the prophets of the Old Testament, Christ’s exposure and condemnation of hypocrisy and heresy in His Gospel, and the New Testament writers’ repeated admonitions to the church to not be ignorant of the deceit and intent of these adversaries of Christ. I pray such inattentiveness is not motivated by a need of self-preservation (Matthew 12:25-26), but I fear it is.

When the commands of God are neglected, despite how religious, pious or scripturally dutiful the acts and words may appear, they are an abomination to God. In their presentation, it is the traditions of men, not Christ, that are the foundations of faith (Mark 7:8). Being blinded in perception and understanding to the purpose of God (Isaiah 6:9-10; Matthew 13:14-15), they turn away from the "way of righteousness" and "the holy commandment handed on to them" . . . [and as] "a sow after washing, [they return] to wallowing in the mire" (2 Peter 2:20-22). Acts of righteousness performed does not change a dog from being a dog . . . or a swine from being a swine. They remain internally as the old creature they were, unchanged . . . a new creature has not been realized. This is not lost salvation, but the static condition of the unrepentant spirit. It is the false representation of new life in an unchanged heart; it is called hypocrisy.

Legalism/legalist or zealot, are derogatory terms often attached to a maturing believer as he strives for obedience to the word of God. With a degree of success, the reviler’s intent is to disarm or deactivate godly, spiritual discernment. Be assured, maturing in faith and obedience to the whole of God’s word as He instructs, are not legitimate definitions for legalism. A child of God is not under a law of works (legalism) but a law of faith (Romans 3:27), a faith which is often perceived as offensive to those outside of obedient faith. "Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law" (Romans 3:31). It is the rule of life for His holy ones (1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 5:13-14). As for the wicked, God says, "they have not listened to My words, and as for My law, they have rejected it also" (Jeremiah 6:19). This rejection of His law, though claiming to be His through external performance of it, is the legalism that is in the church today.

When supposed godly attributes originate in man (though claiming they are of God), they are mere mimicked imitations of truth. They are counterfeit, pseudo-attributes that testify against the one that exudes them. For many, such impersonation is in fact reflected as pharisaical legalism. The Lord has given man one path, one gate, one truth, and one way of pleasing Him. These originate with Him and are contained in Him. To mirror what God has given us in His attributes is the only means to be righteous before Him—it is to "walk in the same manner as He [Christ] walked" (1 John 2:6), and He always does the things that are pleasing to the Father (John 8:29).

It is imperative that children of God are able to distinguish between the legalism of God, and that of man. The law of Christ is fulfilled in its entirety by love. "For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law," "therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13:8, 10). The whole law of God is satisfied through love; godly, Christ-centered love. With God love is pure, for God is love (1 John 4:8). Love originates in Him (1 John 4:7) where no injustice, partiality, or pride are ever present. There is no wrong, non-truth, or deceit within His being. He is indivisible love and truth.

Galatians 5:13 – ". . . through love serve one another." Christ’s love is recognized in and through serving one another. As His love takes root and grows in you, it will be expressed in good fruit, godly fruit . . . which is your service. Selfness is in a continuing state of being reduced in mind and heart.

Love of God is perfected in you when His word abides in you (1 John 2:5). It becomes your nature . . . it is you. Self is absent in pure, godly service, as they are incompatible. To join self with service produces but one thing, offspring that are self-serving. We should, we must keep before us at all times the understanding that all things outside of His love and truth are sin, and are also outside of God—they are of the devil (1 John 3:8-10).

Beware, that from time to time, men practice a type of law (legalism) that appears to be rooted in the truth and commands of God, all-the-while still being an affront to Him. The primary difference being that the abundance of God’s grace (Romans 5:15-21), His great mercy (1 Peter 1:3; Jude 20-23) and overflowing love (1 Corinthians 13) is just as much a part of His nature (Romans chapter 12), as is the hard division between light (His truth) and dark (that which is outside of His truth)—it is not so in the law, the legalism, of men. Acquiescing to pharisaical legalism is to surrender self to a distorted, degenerate, mutation of what it is to be within man and the Christian church. God is unchangeable; and He is indivisible. The church must not give lip service alone to this truth . . . but act upon it! Rejecting part of God, is denying all of Him! Christ’s nature cannot be separated into palatable morsels with man flavoring them with illusionary condiments to fit the personal taste of self.

Truth rests upon and is God. Truth is His and it is Him. The commands He has given man originate in this same Truth. Any form of His truth you and I are to portray, is to be nothing less than genuine, humble submission, in obedience to the Lord’s revealed truth. Legalism will not, and cannot reside in you. God never gives such authority to men that a man is to be an overlord or compliance warden for any or all of the commands of God. Man is incapable of such a responsibility in the manner it is attempting to be portrayed in the church.

The damage legalism has caused to countless soul’s is unimaginable. Yes, we are to warn the wicked as well as the righteous (Ezekiel chapters 3 and 33; James 5:19-20); use scriptural guidance to discipline and rebuke (2 Timothy 4:16-17) and beware of the influences of false teachers and prophets—but these must be expressed within the confines of scriptural obedience, bound in a servant heart with the abiding love of Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit. These would not force disunity, but encourage and fortify Christ-centered unity. A servant of Christ cannot be a legalist (man’s defining) while being obedient to Him.

"The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil," (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).