It's nearly unthinkable that a pastor would come right out and say, “It’s all grace—live however you want, and you certainly don’t have to obey God!” But what if sermons are being preached every week across America that imply exactly that? Today, we’ll talk about the doctrine that has quietly created an atmosphere of lawlessness inside the church.

Resources

• What Does it Mean to Know God? (Sermon) By Nate Danser

In the 31st message of our “Unveiling Yahweh” series, we will be looking at the Knowledge of God.

The apostle Paul knew God in a way that gave a fire to his ministry and his prayers for his spiritual children. And his desire for all the churches he established was that they would know God like he did and walk in the power of God.

Nate Danser takes a look at Paul's letter to the Colossians to unpack this knowledge in today’s message. This same knowledge was not just for the first century Christians, but for all sincere believers today.

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In this Timeless Truths segment, Jeff and Rose Colón explain that broken marriages will only experience true restoration when both the husband and the wife learn to walk in true repentance and humility toward each other.

Host: Jeff and Rose Colón have joined us in the studio today for a discussion focused on couples. Jeff and Rose, good to see you as always. As we look at some of the issues that couples are dealing with, what is one of the enemy’s tools that he uses in bringing disunity to a marriage?

Jeff: Well, what I've seen with a lot of marriages is that pride, selfishness and just an unwillingness to humble themselves and be broken before God is usually at the center.

Host: What are some of the ways that you see that issue being manifested in a relationship?

Jeff: One of the biggest ways is just finger pointing because when someone's not broken, they tend to see the faults of others more glaringly. I remember a couple we worked with a few years ago, they were married for over 40 years and when we got involved with them the husband was seeing everything his wife was doing wrong and she was seeing everything he was doing wrong. It was just a constant bickering and eventually it ended in them divorcing. And it really is sad because that marriage did not have to end. It was really a tragic end to a 40-year Christian marriage simply because neither one would look at their own heart and see where they were missing the mark.

Host: Okay Jeff, well as we look then at the husband and the wife, let’s first look at what needs to happen with the husband in a situation like this?

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Jeff: As husband’s, we have to be willing to look at our own heart. David prayed in Psalm 139, “God search me. Try me. See if there is any wicked way in me.” We have to start dealing with what Jesus called the plank in our own eye and quit focusing on the speck in our spouses’ eye. That's not going to happen unless we humble ourselves and really begin to pray, “God search me.” Because only the Lord knows how to expose those things. So begin to pray, “God expose my heart. Use circumstances. Bring to the surface things that I need to see in my life that I'm not doing right.”
       Secondly, a good thing to do is start measuring your life to the Word of God. Sometimes we have our own standard, and if we look at our life by our own standard, we might be doing pretty good. But a husband needs to start examining his role as it's laid out in the Word of God and ask himself some concrete questions. “Am I laying my life down for my wife? Am I respecting her as the weaker vessel? Am I honoring my wife? Am I putting her needs truly before my own?”
       Lastly, I would just pray for a fresh sight of Calvary because really, if you've lost sight of Calvary and what Jesus did for you there, it's very easy to see the faults of others. But when you really see what Jesus did for you on the Cross, you're not going to be so quick to see the faults of others.

Host: That is the place to be if you're looking for humility in your life. There was something you just said that I picked up on and I just want to confirm that it's true. You said that the husband has a greater responsibility here in humbling himself first when there's disunity in the relationship.

Jeff: Absolutely. And sadly, in most situations it's usually the wife that has to initiate dealing with an issue when really that's the husband's responsibility. And what I have seen is that I've needed to encourage men to take their rightful spiritual place in the home and be the one to initiate. They should be the first ones to be vulnerable, to open their hearts to their spouse and create an atmosphere where they can focus on the problem that needs solving and not the faults of one another.

Host: Amen. Rose, what's the wife dealing with here?

Rose: The wife needs to let the Lord expose her heart as well. A lot of times she feels like her husband is the problem. But she doesn't realize her own heart is just as wicked and dark as her husband's. It's hard for wives to embrace that truth, but when you look at Scripture, you see that we as wives fall short of the glory of God as well. And as a result, there are attitudes of our hearts that we need to repent of to our husbands. We need to be willing to go to him as well and confess where we’ve been wrong and humble ourselves. There have been times when my husband and I have done this. We're together, we've acknowledged what's in our heart or what we've been carrying around and then we just repent together before the Lord. Those times have been so precious because it's where the Lord's been able to break us and really show us our great need for Him.

Host: Now, Jeff said that it is the responsibility of the husband to take that leadership role. How does the wife respond in a situation like this when the husband is not willing to take the lead?

Rose: Well, she needs to go to the Lord and pray. She needs to commit her husband to the Lord in prayer and trust the Lord to move upon his heart and to bring about the changes that need to come or the conviction that needs to come. I've seen that in my own marriage there have been times where I couldn’t say anything or it wasn't the right timing to, so I had to go to the Lord with it and just pray. I had to commit it to Him. And usually something would come up as a result to answer that prayer or in my husband’s prayer time, he would come and share with me what the Lord was showing him about himself, and at that point in a spirit of humility then I was able to share some things that I was concerned about and let him know that we needed to work on them together.

Jeff: I want to add to that, when Rose prays and is an example to me and lives out her role before God, what I have found is that God then is able to deal with me. But if she was nagging me and telling me that I need to do this or I need to do that, I know that as a man it would just push me away further. And really what I have seen over the years is that her example of being a submissive, godly wife has made me want to step up to that role and be what I need to be for her.

Have you ever looked at the Christian culture in America and thought, “something just isn’t right here?”

You aren’t just imagining it. Something actually is wrong.

Within the ranks of the church, a powerful subculture of Christianity has formed —and it is infecting the lives of millions every day.

This episode:
• Three groups coexisting within today’s church
• How the Christian subculture took root
• How to resist its sway in your own life

Jesus prophesied that on Judgment Day many would say to Him, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy, and preach, and cast out devils in Your name?" And to their shock, He will respond, “I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.” In Ep. 07 of our series, "Resisting the Rise of Lawlessness" we'll face the uncomfortable reality that many in the Church are actually in the same spirit of lawlessness as the godless world around them.

Resources

• How Can I Be Saved and Still Be in Sexual Sin? (Article) By Steve Gallagher

There’s an old adage that goes like this: If you think you can’t be deceived, you’re already half-way there. With the antichrist spirit rising in our world, we must vigilantly guard our hearts with the truth of God’s Word and submission to God's authority.

Host: Steve, as we continue our discussions on Intoxicated with Babylon, we want to talk today about a chapter that you entitled “The Great Deception.” In the first part of this chapter you made this statement, “The present-day church is very comparable to the Jewish people who were following Jesus during the height of His popularity.” How is that so?

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Steve: Well, I used the story about when Jesus fed the five thousand and how excited the people were about Him. They were ready to proclaim Him King of Israel. People like the Jesus who gives them what they want, but when Jesus doesn't give them what they want, then it becomes a whole other matter.

Host: You also said that they were not as interested in serving God as they were in God serving them.

Steve: That’s basically it.  In John 6, Jesus said, “You seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” (John 6:26b, NASB 1995) And then He told them, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.” (John 6:27a, NASB 1995) And what Jesus was saying to these people was that they weren't seeking Him because they wanted the life in God that the signs pointed to, they were seeking Him because they wanted Him to use His supernatural skills to enhance their lives on this earth.

Host: Let's fast forward to where we are in in history now. You mentioned that the end-time believers in the scriptures were warned about the same thing we should be wary of—that there is a battle going on between the carnal appetite and spiritual appetites that we experience.

Steve: Well, I think that's basically the point Jesus was making in Matthew 24 when He described the end times as being just like it was in the days of Noah. They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying and they were being given in marriage. Jesus ties that in to this carnal lifestyle where feeding your flesh is the preeminent characteristic of your life. And He says that's the way it's going to be in the end times.

Host: The words that Jesus was using as He was talking to these folks were hard words to hear. What kind of people was He speaking to? What kind of people was Jesus looking for?

Steve: Well, one thing's for certain, Jesus was not trying to wow the crowds and win the multitudes in a sense. He wanted people as followers who really meant business with Him. He wasn't interested in superficial conversions or people who just followed Him during the good times. He wanted people who were going to be wedded to Him for better or worse. He wanted people who had a real lifelong devotion and commitment to Him.

Host: Do you think that most Christians in the church today believe or are aware that we're in the last days?

Steve: I think people understand that in a vague sort of way, but what tends to happen is that there are all the pressures at work and their busy schedules. All of that kind of forces the reality that we are in the last days into the background. So it makes for good reading or Christian movies to watch about people who were raptured and all of that stuff. But the thought of somehow being deceived by the devil into worshipping the Antichrist for most Christians would seem ridiculous because they don't see themselves in the place where they would be prone to that kind of deception.

Host: You believe that the church is already in tremendous trouble, and you listed 4 reasons that you believe that to be true.

Steve: Yeah. First is that corporately we have lost our shame of sin and our sense of the evil nature of sin. Sin just is not that big of a deal to us in the 21st century church. That makes us vulnerable. Secondly, we've become addicted to the carnal lifestyle that this world offers us. If we had to face life without all the luxuries that we have become accustomed to, many people just couldn't handle it. Also, the reality is that a large part of the church has been lulled to sleep spiritually by the soothing voice of the spirit of this world. And lastly, there's a lot of rebellion against God's authority in people's lives. All those things combined makes Christians very susceptible to deception.

Host: A little later, you talk from a slightly different perspective, but you listed several reasons why the church is not prepared for the wave of evil that's coming.

Steve: Well, it's really in the general attitudes found out in the church. One of them I kind of touched on is that people have the attitude that they cannot be deceived. And to be honest, we are all prone to that. We have a ridiculous amount of confidence in our ability to spot deception and because we believe that, it makes us all the more susceptible to it. Someone once said, “if you think you can't be deceived, you're already halfway there.”  That is just so true. Secondly, it's just self-confidence. If you were to ask most Christians, the attitude you would get is I don't care what happens or how bad it gets, I will never ever deny Christ.

Host: Yes, just like Peter.

Steve: Yes. That's a good point. And that of course is exactly what happened. And another reason the church is not prepared is because of the human tendency to prefer a lie to the truth. And I say that in the sense that most Christians think of truth as holding to correct doctrines. That's a part of truth, but truth has a lot more to do with the reality of our relationship with Jesus Christ in our daily life than it does with holding proper doctrines.

Host: You also talk in this chapter about the whore of Babylon, that there is coming a time when there are going to be those in the church that are going to fall away and are going to choose a different lover. Talk about that a little bit.

Steve: I cannot say this strongly enough. Jesus warned over and over that many were going to fall away to deception. Paul warned about it too. And in Revelation 17 we hear about the whore of Babylon, which is the apostate church. There are sections of Scripture that describe the apostate church, and I go into that in my other book Standing firm through the Great Apostasy. There are going to be a massive number of professing Christians who are going to fall completely away from Jesus Christ and whatever attachment they've had with Him. Massive numbers are going to fall away from Him and are going to end up with the mark of the beast.
         Now I know that's a very provoking statement, but Scripture is very clear about it and we might as well just acknowledge it. The reason why deception is so powerful and is going to be so powerful is that Christianity is something that is lived out in the heart. In other words, people are going to be falling away in their heart. Outwardly for some period of time, they're going to continue to go through the motions of Christianity. They're going to be in church, mimicking true Christians, singing songs, hearing sermons and filling their minds with spiritual information. Ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth and deceiving themselves. Being deceived. Being led astray.
         That's exactly what Scripture describes for the end times and that's what I see happening right now. A large portion of evangelical Christianity has already been terribly led astray. We will see the day I believe when that part of the church is going to turn with a vengeance against true believers. And again, that's exactly what Jesus predicted would happen.

Host: Steve, you wrote, “We have already seen how a great apostasy has been predicted. The river of delusion is rising. The whole world is being swept toward the giant waterfall that will spill its inhabitants into the lake of fire. It is the broad way. It is the way of kosmos.” But you also said that Jesus was careful to show His people the way of escape. What is that way of escape? What does the listener need to do to make sure that they're prepared for what is coming?

Steve: Well, what Jesus said over and over was to be ready. To be on the alert. To be awake. What does that mean? To be spiritually awake means you must extricate yourself from the spirit of this world and you must be connected in a very real way to Jesus Christ, or you are going to be in a dangerous position as things grow darker in the days to come.

Host: But there is hope. Those who delight themselves in the Lord, those who are truly seeking after Him, He is going to keep us, if that's the path of our life.

Steve: It's His heart. It's not like God is up there waiting to throttle people into hell. That is not His desire. His desire is for all to come to repentance that they might be saved. He loves, but that doesn’t mean that He just completely throws out what it means to be in a real relationship with Him. And he's going to fight for every sincere person. He will fight for them to get them through.

One God—three persons

Divine nature—human form

God’s sovereignty—our free will

The Bible is full of profound mysteries that baffle the human mind. And for thousands of years, in trying to wrestle with these tensions, many have fallen into error.

At Pure Life Ministries, we meet many men who are living destructive, miserable lives because they’ve believed the lie that God’s free grace means we have no responsibility to live righteously.

In the past, many in the church lived in bondage, striving to earn God’s favor. But today, the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction. Many have been told that grace means they can live however they want and still be right with God. Yet Scripture paints a far different picture.

This episode:

· Imputed vs. Imparted righteousness

· Why faith must be personal

· The blessings that come from a righteous lifestyle

There is a great controversy raging within Christianity in our day. The question is: what relationship does faith have with righteousness? Of course, our concern is not with the technicalities of the debate. Our concern is whether people are being deceived into thinking that saving faith has nothing to do with the way they live their life. This is Ep. 06 of our series, "Resisting the Rise of Lawlessness."

Resources

• At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry (Book) By Steve Gallagher
• The Walk of Repentance (Bible Study) By Steve Gallagher

Adam and Eve couldn’t have realized what devastation they would cause by listening to Satan’s deception. And in the same way for us, whenever we choose to commit sin, we have no idea what the consequences might be.

But God has made a way out of this destructive path. It just requires one thing: our entire being.

In this sermon from our archives, Nate Danser breaks down the biblical pattern of restoration into four points, and exhorts us to take heart as God works in our lives.

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Some voices today call Jesus a revolutionary — someone who rejected the established order and overthrew the Jewish religious system.

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But what if this view misses the point of His ministry entirely? What if His teachings actually required more of His followers than what was demanded by the established order?

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Jesus said, “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

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Jesus revealed that under the new covenant, the law’s demands were even stricter — but He also brought a message of repentance that made it possible to fulfill that law from the heart. The Apostle Paul would later build on this revelation in his writings, offering a deeper understanding of how the law and grace work together in the Christian life.

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This episode:
• What the New Testament really teaches about the law
• A clearer perspective of Paul’s teaching on the law
• The pathway to truly fulfilling the law’s demands
• The law’s purpose in our lives today

Nearly every aspect of a first century Jew's existence was shaped by Torah. And yet, Jesus spoke to the Jews of His day like they were habitual law breakers. Why? Because they did not comprehend that the law was meant to make them desperate for a profound inward transformation. Today in America—we need the same realization. The inauguration of Jesus as King does not do away with the demand for obedience to God's laws. We too must cry out in desperation to be delivered from self and to be made into a loyal citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

Resources

• #438 - |Victory| Emptied of Self, Filled with Power (Podcast Episode) By Pure Life Ministries Podcast
• When His Secret Sin Breaks Your Heart (Book) By Kathy Gallagher

Psalm 119 can seem like an intimidating collection of 176 verses that all feel like they echo the same theme again and again. But what if, within this expansive masterpiece of ancient poetry was a linchpin for learning to follow God’s will?

This episode:

• Explore the richness of this powerful psalm

• Uncover one of our great spiritual needs

• Learn a prayer strategy for real heart-change