Saving Faith, Our Confidence in Jesus
“And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34, NKJV).
The Spirit in Jesus was God, who looked past all our delusions, pretenses of religion, arrogance and multiple veneers of artificial appearances to manipulate opinions. Jesus saw us for what we actually are, when the Father called and gathered His elect children around Him. So Jesus did not say, “You are such good people, better than the rest, because you came to me.” Jesus Himself, God in the flesh, did not swell in pride, now that He had become so famous and had convinced such a great multitude to follow Him. No! The very first thought of our God, Jesus, was a compassionate desire to rescue His wretched, confused, lost, deluded, self-destructive people, knowing they were foolish sheep. He saw how they were scattered by loveless wolves who ruthlessly devoured them. They required a brave, rational and caring Shepherd, a selfless Guide with endless knowledge and wisdom, a strong Saviour carrying a sling and a sturdy club in His powerful and skilled hands. They needed their God and Messiah to lead them upon guarded paths to wholesome pastures which He prepared by clearing
away all its noxious weeds. They needed a Shepherd who made the wolves tremble and flee, whose confident power calmed them, since they panicked and scattered at the sound of snapping twig. They needed a caring Owner who would travel great distances in the storms to find and gather strays back into the flock; a diligent Master who would carry hay for miles to feed their hungry souls in winter months; a firm Manager who would not let them overgraze and destroy their favourite pastures, but lead them to neglected and forgotten pastures that could sustain their health; a watchful Guard to stop the bigger sheep from bullying the smaller sheep; a Doctor to treat their wounds and turn them aright if they tipped over onto their backs and began to suffocate; a Counsellor to lead them to clean, clear, quiet, living waters that would quicken their souls; and a Father to ensure all the lambs born to them, and all the ewes who gave birth, would remain safe and properly attended. They needed Jesus.
All human beings are weak and foolish, prone to destroy themselves and others, whether they admit it or not. Some worldly goats mock Christians, by calling them “sheep.” But goats are also very selfdestructive, wretched creatures, who tend to be more troublesome than sheep. Goats may seem more “independent,” but care less for other members of the flock. They are more adept in worldly matters, in getting what their flesh desires. But, in the final analysis, goats are worth much less than sheep, in the eyes of farmers, and are not considered to be genuinely wise at all, and harder to care for than the sheep. Then God's own sheep are His “friends,” His beloved, not born to be slaughtered, but born to transform desolated lands into green, luscious beauty, and to provide the warmth of wool for the cold winter days. To His sheep, Jesus makes known all things that He hears from His Father, so we may grow wise and bear good fruit for God (John 15:14-16). We are to learn and begin to see ever more of His created reality, truth and wisdom, that which the goats of this world will never want to know. We are being transformed into our wise God's image, so we may become His children. But human goats always remain goats, in ignorance, the property of Satan’s world order. Nevertheless, although sheep are so useful to all, they are helpless and foolish. Without the good Shepherd, the sheep would destroy themselves, as everyone knew in those days. This was not a flattering image of God’s elect.
However, Jesus was not condescending when He called God’s people sheep. He was not acting like the psychopathic mob bosses who ruled Rome and Greece, nor like the ruthless, sleazy corporate leaders who glorified themselves as “good shepherds,” even while they devoured and exploited the hapless sheep, whom they all saw as easy prey. Jesus did not see himself as a great lord who looked down upon the “little people,” like many “great men” have done throughout history. Rather, Jesus focused on those sheep, on their welfare, considering all they would need. And, with great, loving compassion, He was thinking about what He could and would do for them, as their Good Shepherd, who laid down His life for the Father’s sheep through His love for them, who put the needs of His flock far above His own needs. His Spirit was, in every good sense of the phrase, truly “moved with compassion for them”—not because any deserved any compassion, but because they surely needed His compassion and His works for their welfare, and the only way they could obtain what they so desperately needed was through unmerited grace alone. Without His works through grace alone, they could not survive. And what was the Messiah’s principal work of compassion? It was to “teach them many things” about God and His Word. The Lord is our Good Shepherd who causes us to say, “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake” (Ps. 23:3, NKJV).
After examining the archetypal Ten Commandments, surely we must now realize how weak and utterly foolish we actually are, how much we need and rely on the love, wisdom and power of Jesus for our salvation from our destructive errors and sins? Surely no one can still think of oneself as being actually good enough to please God, not with all one’s sinful ways and false knowledge. Even the apostles did not consider themselves to be perfect, not nearly good enough to deserve God’s love for them. Rather, all the apostles knew they did not deserve the works Jesus did inside their hearts for their salvation, nor the right to participate in His works done through them. All knew they were completely insufficient and unqualified to be called servants of the living God, but sought only the wisdom and power of Jesus to make their feeble, unwise works effective for Christ’s glory. We, all the elect on earth, need to continuously grow in the strength and wisdom from Jesus, with a growth worked by our God Himself, by the living Jesus, who has risen from the dead to be our Head and Lord and Good Shepherd. Our spirits must pray, listen and hope—not quench the gentle whispers of Jesus’ Spirit to our spirits. We must take the time to let the thoughts He gives to our hearts filter into our brains of flesh, so we may consciously say and do all that our God tells our spirits to say and do.
If our spirits strive to hear the words of Christ’s Holy Spirit, we soon learn to distinguish between the words of our Good Shepherd and the words of pretenders. For we, while in these unruly bodies of foolish sheep, are very prone to believe the beguiling words of the devil and his cunning servants. In every way, we utterly depend on Jesus to be our Shepherd, to keep us safe, to do the godly desires of our hearts, to be made into His people. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Now let us understand why God calls us foolish sheep. Sheep need a shepherd or they will die. And Jesus, appointed by our Father, is the only Good Shepherd who is able to wisely and effectively save our spirits, souls and flesh. Now we need to turn away from wolves in sheep’s clothing, and look to Jesus alone, with the faith of our spirits, heeding His words spoken to our hearts, gathering to Him as He calls us by name.
Sheep are animals with very little common sense. These creatures of habit destroy their own pastures and themselves through their bad habits. Yet they seldom learn to develop good habits, or learn how to tell a noxious weed from an edible one. They will eat a noxious weed, get very sick and, if they recover, will most often eat that same noxious weed again. So a shepherd has to constantly remove all the noxious weeds from their pasture, because they seldom learn to avoid them. Also, these weak and defenceless creatures foolishly wander into every kind of danger, then panic and flee in every direction when that danger threatens them, abandoning the safety of the shepherd and the rest of the flock. So sheep must rely entirely on their shepherd to lead them to safe pastures and to defend them from every enemy, with careful planning and foresight, because they must be defended even before their enemy has a chance to draw near. Yet the worst enemies of the sheep are actually themselves. Not only do they destroy themselves through their own myopic impulses and bad habits, but they will bully and injure one another whenever the shepherd is not watching them. And, even when the shepherd is watching over them, they tend to do very foolish things that risk their own lives. For instance, sheep like to rest in low, cool spots on the pasture. But the slopes of those lower spots often cause them to roll over onto their backs. And once a sheep rolls onto its back, it cannot right itself again. So it is stuck on its back and builds up fluids in its lungs until it suffocates and dies, in a few hours, if a shepherd does not turn it upright again. Likewise, human sheep often gravitate to the low spots, to the places of fleshy comfort. So their lives are turned upside down by lies and sins, but they cannot right themselves. So they remain in an upside-down state of delusions and sins until they will suffocate to death. Now who will put us on our feet again? Other sheep cannot. Only Jesus saves us!
As mentioned, sheep frequently butt each other and fight among themselves, often injuring each other. The bigger sheep try to bully the smaller sheep, to prove that one is a better stupid sheep than the other stupid sheep. Yet all their foolish and meaningless fighting and bullying stops immediately when the shepherd comes to them, with his rod in his hand, and looks straight into the bully’s eyes. In the same way, to stop all our foolish bickering about futile, meaningless things of pride from the devil’s world order, we must allow our spirits to pray to Jesus, turn our focus to His glaring eyes, hear His words of rebuke, and learn to serve His wise and beneficial purposes, to do His far greater works which build heaven on earth. All who are His sheep, all the elect of the world, will know His voice when they hear it, and will fear His discipline. All the elect who see Him will stop bickering in carnal pride. We must learn to see and hear Him, to respect His final authority regarding God's Word. We let Him, and Him alone, settle all our arguments. And our Good Shepherd never allows bullying.
Not only this, but if sheep are left to themselves, they will habitually follow the same path to the same pasture, to the pasture preferred by the largest sheep bullying the rest. Then they will graze it down to its roots, then dig at the roots until they kill the grass and destroy the very pasture which provides their souls with food. So they will ruin their own land and starve to death. And they will walk on the very same path until they wear a gully in the land, which is then made worse by the rainwater which flows down that path, causing those paths to become dangerous. They never think to try a different path or go to a different pasture, as their paths become too dangerous, or their familiar pasture begins to die. Now, do we not see pastors, the big sheep of the flock, leading their churches down the same few Scriptures they like best, who feed the flock on the same over-grazed rhetoric every Sunday, never letting multiple elders teach the flock according to the ways Jesus has taught each of them. So those shepherds lead their flocks on an ever-more-dangerous path and starve them to death, just because they believe the Greco-Roman lie that there must be a human head of a church.
Only the skilful management of a good shepherd, forcing the sheep onto new paths to new pastures daily, will save the sheep from making their paths dangerous and from destroying the land, as well as themselves. By doing this, a good shepherd actually causes his sheep to make all the parts of the land much better than they were before the sheep began to graze upon it. By a good shepherd’s guidance, the sheep will transform poor and unproductive pastures into rich, green, fertile lands. By the good shepherd's constant pulling and burning of noxious weeds, by pasture management to stop the sheep from overgrazing, by allowing the hungry sheep to keep the grass short—which makes the grass thicker, until it chokes out many weeds, and also prevents the grass from growing so long that, after it dies in the fall, it will hinder the growth of new grass in the spring—and by the sheep scattering their droppings which fertilize the grass, the land grows better and more lush through the shepherd’s good management. Now some churches focus on one aspect of life so much that they become blind to all the other needs of their lives. And most feed the flock on a few misinterpreted Scriptures in ways that kill God’s true meaning and purpose for His words. Now we must be let Jesus, our truly wise Shepherd, lead us into all the various doctrines of truth and wisdom, allow all the truths of all His Word to work in every aspect of our lives, through His Holy Spirit’s counsel, teaching, training, rebuke, discipline and love. And we must let Him raise up the teaching elders He chooses, where each will have a different role and perspective for different aspects of our lives, with multiple elders in each and every flock. Even all the people in the flock will be used by Jesus, each one to minister a unique and different aspect of Christ’s works among us. Then we shall round out our knowledge and wisdom, even making it whole and productive for effective works, to produce a good land of beauty.
All these facts about sheep, even about all God's creations, are parables for the people in Christ’s church. If we follow men, if we do not trust and follow the Good Shepherd, if our flesh relies on the words of men, but our spirits do not rely on the words of our only true Shepherd, we will all surely perish in our own folly and weaknesses. If we merely follow other foolish sheep, and not our Good Shepherd, we will indeed destroy ourselves. We need Jesus, not mere men who think they are wise because they teach their own foolish, destructive doctrines as the bullies of the other sheep. In the true body of Jesus Christ, our own selfish ambitions, lusts and pride will be crucified on the cross together with Christ’s flesh. So we will no longer live for our flesh, nor by our minds of the flesh. Rather, we will begin to walk according to our spirits, as our spirits are led by our loving and wise Shepherd. Through the working of His Holy Spirit in us, we now enter a new life, a life to be lived for Him alone. Our old life died with Jesus. The beating He took, we should have received, to correct our wayward ways and to heal us of our sins. His death paid the due penalty of all the sins we have done and will do. What mercy! What grace! Yet what have we done with all His mercy and grace?
Some tell me that the sins of the churches are merely a matter of perspective. One can choose to look at the “positive” aspects of “doctrinal diversity” in the church, or focus on the “negative” aspects of its many deadly and destructive heresies which are killing so many souls. Foolishly, they want us to see the tiny drops of water at the bottoms of the vessels in their churches as a sign that they are “half full,” and being filled by Jesus. But the reality is that they are far less than “half empty,” and the last drops in those vessels are being drained and drying up very quickly. The hearts of men are not static, and are always either filling or emptying. So the real question is not how full or how empty they are, but whether we see them being filled or being emptied. Yet, every time we see even an ounce of truth poured into the vessels of their lives, pastors begin to drain that ounce from those vessels, until those vessels are thoroughly dry, so the spirits of the people collapse from thirst, so they will walk only according to their flesh and give tithes to support the flesh of those pastors. Let them admit that their churches are “half empty,” and being emptied more each day, that many hearts are not even wet at the bottom. But can those positive thinkers admit that their churches are being emptied? Will they lose their incomes and admit they now need to be filled by the only One who can fill them? Will they admit that their churches are not being filled with increasing righteousness and truth from their only Head Teacher, but are being emptied of more righteousness and truth each day, by the negligence of fake teaching elders, who love to be esteemed with the titles like “pastor” (which means “shepherd”) because they have actually usurped that title from Jesus? If churches are “half full,” they surely are not being filled with the living waters of Christ’s Spirit. So we cannot view them in a positive way. We will only view them positively, and call them “half full,” when we see the real Jesus pouring the real truth of His Word into their lives. Let honest souls admit they are now less than “half empty,” and being emptied daily. Does any church have even a hundredth of its potential capacity filled, and is any being filled more each day? Clearly, it is impossible to view the state of the church positively.
If we see the righteousness of God being poured into a vessel, even if only a little has now reached the inside at the present time, we see this as a good and positive work of Jesus, one which we know He will complete on the last day. Being filled, even just a drop at a time, is hopeful. For we see that, if God continues to pour His loving, wise righteousness into that heart, it will eventually be filled to overflowing, no matter how slowly God does this pouring. Thus, having even a tenth of a cup which Jesus is continuously filling is better than having nine tenths of a cup already full, if that one’s life is continuously being drained of Christ’s living waters. Some elect start out in Christ with a very dry and empty cup, since they had no truth in their lives before Jesus called them to Himself. Others were raised in Christian homes, heard God’s Word all their lives, and begin their adult lives with a great head start, with their cup almost full as they begin to serve God’s creation. Even so, if Jesus did not call and take the life of that one who had a Christian upbringing, even if that one’s cup was 99% full when that one came of age, that one's cup will continue to spill out the truths it possessed, until it is empty, and even the last drops clinging to the walls of one’s heart will evaporate, leaving the soul completely dry and empty. In the end, all that matters is whether or not Jesus has chosen to fill the heart, whether or not Jesus has decided to teach and train one’s spirit, not how full nor how empty the heart might be at the present time. Even if a church seems full of righteousness, working God’s love (which few, if any, are), but is being drained of truth and righteousness daily, while no more truth and love is being poured into it by Christ, that church is far worse off than a church of novices who are being filled daily by Christ, no matter how slowly Jesus may be filling them. If we are fools who are growing wise, it is far better than being wise and growing more foolish every day. We need to become a more far-sighted people, to see the direction in which each individual and each church is headed, not merely look at where one seems to be right now. And we must judge by the works Jesus is doing for the spirit in the heart, not by outward appearances. Who cannot see the trend of churches heading towards greater unfaithfulness, how all are already nearly drained of all truth and just love?
May God forgive at least some churches for treating His bodily sacrifice so negligently, for trusting men of the world order more than the Creator of all, and for seeking only the superficial pleasures of Satan’s kingdom rather than the deep and gratifying inner pleasures of heaven’s kingdom. Now we see churches lying, cheating and bullying the weak, striving to get their own carnal way, which their lying human gods deem to be “God’s way.” They even support the most evil souls on earth as their “anointed” heads and gods, hoping those vile despots will save them, even while those leaches drain their lifeblood. They believe every wolf who tells them that they need to be devoured, for their own good. The state of the churches today is absurdly wicked, with totally blind guides leading the blind. But, by our Father’s grace, perhaps Jesus will turn a few around. For, if He lets them continue in the direction they are now headed, absolutely nothing will be left to save. The fake churches have made an artificial famine of God’s truth in this whole land, by burning the nourishing food of His Word, or by hiding it from the people. If they are not replaced by true churches, the land itself will die. What is life? Should God’s elect children—whose spirits were created with the ability to justly love, who were created to become the valuable salt wages for the world, and to reflect His saving light into the world—now wallow in the muck and mire of this divisive, hate-filled, selfish, wicked and adulterous generation, lusting after the very same things that Satan’s children do? Or should the elect rise up to soar high upon God-granted wings of eagles? Have Christians died to the Law so they can now live for themselves? Is the work of Jesus’ pain and death to make His people a greater darkness than the darkness of the world, to make them so foolish and filthy that even the world marvels at their sins?
Honestly, what will be Jesus Christ’s judgment of these churches? How will Jesus judge the way they teach His Word, the way they spend the minutes of their days, the way they greedily seek Satan’s invention of money, and the way they abuse His own possessions, which He lent to them so they could be good stewards, commanded to faithfully care for His creations. Look at the way they manage all His resources which He lent them for their short time of life on this earth. Especially look at what they have done with the spiritual resources He provided for His purposes alone, what they have done with His words of truth and wisdom, with the salvation and love He offered on the cross. Who will tell me that those churches are doing a fine job, as faithful servants, using all His gifts of grace for His purposes alone? If anyone tells me this, how can I believe it? I go to God's Word, to the Law and the prophets, to the apostles, to Jesus. My spirit sees what Jesus calls righteousness. My spirit understands what is the just love that pleases my God, and what offends Him. By only these standards, granted directly by the mouth of God, I judge whether churches have done a “good job” as faithful servants of God. And, by these standards, I see that neither they nor I have done a “good job.” In fact, God declares us all to be very wicked and lazy servants, who all should be cast into the outer darkness of hell. Yet my spirit pleads with Jesus, begs Him to make my heart new, to teach and train me for His service, knowing I can never make myself sufficient for any of His works, not while I live in this flesh. I know my vessel is “half full,” but also that it is being filled. And all I see in the churches are vessels “half empty,” being emptied daily, or not even merely dampened by His Spirit.
Now what should we do? How must we live? Should the elect continue to trust in human gods and in themselves, in their own supposed “free wills”? With the right motivational speeches from human gods, will they be able to build up enough self-esteem to save themselves in any way? All history has shown man’s utter failure to please God and save themselves. Men cannot even save their own flesh, much less their own spirits. But churches think that maybe this time they can find a new tricky technique which will save them all! If they keep thinking positively, and keep up their confidence in their own minds and bodies of flesh, surely this time they will accomplish what no created being has ever done before in all history! Now let the elect consider that, just maybe, those who think this way are actually deluding themselves, and are merely applying the same old techniques used by all the other failures and destroyers throughout history. In reality, no amount of confidence in ourselves, nor any amount of confidence in any human gods, invented gods or demons, will ever make one able to become a faithful and profitable servant of the real God, able to please Him in any real, worthy way.
Yes, I have read history. Some accuse me of not having read about the glorious works of the past churches and their human gods, or say I do not understand how great those wise murderers and liars truly were. But I have read many church histories and other Christian books. I have also attended or visited many different kinds of churches, especially in my younger years, even as a publisher, editor and writer of Christian materials for a time. And what I found is that no man is a hero or a god; no man is fit to lead other men; no man is able to be the head of anyone. Not one is righteous and loving in any way that could possibly be acceptable to the real Creator God, to Jesus. Not one understands His spiritual Law, nor any of His truths, unless Jesus intercedes. For no soul can be honest about God’s intended meaning of His words in the Bible. Literally all human beings are incredibly weak and evil sinners, each in one or more deadly ways, just as God's Word says they are. The only One I have ever found to be truly beautiful in heart, wondrous to study in every aspect of His character and life, true in His every word and His every deed, is Jesus Himself. All others greatly disappoint, and I greatly disappoint myself. So there is only one who is fit to be our Shepherd, our Head, our Master, and our King, the God of each and every man on earth. Each individual man’s spirit must worship Jesus alone. If we esteem and serve Jesus alone, He is definitely well-able to cause real truth to be spoken by our mouths, and cause us to effectively do good works in our lives, all through genuine love from our spirits. Only Jesus is able to save us from the bondage and destruction of sins and lies.
Only Jesus is truly wise, able to teach truly effective and beneficial truths, able to tell us how to apply truth just and rightly, through love, to build up the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Only God's Word, and only interpreted in the way Jesus’ Holy Spirit teaches it directly to our spirits, can answer the most urgent and critical questions of our spirits correctly, with time-tested wisdom, then add His power to His wisdom, so He may heal our wounds from sins and lies. Only through His truth can we escape the slavery and tyranny of human or demonic gods, or nullify the oppressive and murderous works of Satan. Only through His wisdom, power and love can we build heaven on earth, where His just love rules our whole lands according to His will. It is time realized that Jesus rose from the dead, that He now lives to personally teach each of our spirits, and our spirits can hear Him.
Jesus is not dead, nor far away. He is risen and will live in our hearts. But He will not strive with the other gods our hearts often turn to, nor with the other human lords we choose to serve. His soft voice speaks to our spirits calmly, and He will not raise the volume to drown out the shouts of merchants selling their carnal wares in our churches or on our streets, to compete with those who seek only to profit themselves. So now we must quiet our flesh, and let our spirits carefully listen to His words. We need to close the ears of our flesh to the worldly noise, so our spirits can hear Him. Surely He is worth hearing, worth this little time and effort. For Jesus is the only genuine, capable Teacher of all, the only perfectly Good Shepherd. Certainly, He alone is fit to be the King of each individual heart, the Head of every individual man in any church. Only He is able to lead us, and we need no human gods. The most any mortal man can aspire to become is His servant, to do His will. We need no human leaders to save the dying churches. We need Jesus to lead His true servants into salvation.
Who can honestly say, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me“? So let us not delude ourselves into thinking we are “saved” if the process of sanctifying our lives is not being done by Jesus inside us, or that some “pastor” offers a real salvation because he has a letter of endorsement from a church institution. Only if we place faith in Jesus, if we truly trust in His works and words, will Christ’s life manifest through our lives, since He will live in our hearts as our sovereign Lord and King, ruling our lives, frequently causing us to speak His right words of truth, with wisdom for the healing of His people. Jesus will cause us to do His loving works of just and righteous compassion. If Jesus truly lives in us, let us fully trust Him to do great and holy works in and through our hearts, believe His true words in a way that compels us to do His will on earth. If the grace of God works in us, a loving righteousness of Jesus will manifest in every aspect of our lives. Any true teaching elder knows this.
Look at the reality God created, both the spiritual and physical. Then respond to it according to the calling of Jesus. For instance, we know God loves the poor and needy. All His laws made provisions for all those in need: for impoverished souls, the sick, the disabled, the indigent, abandoned women, orphans of all ages, the homeless, the jobless, the disenfranchised, runaway slaves from all kinds of godless tyranny, immigrants, refugees, and others in need. Jesus cared deeply for all who could not defend or even care for themselves. He released all from burdens too heavy to bear, freed all from bonds of superstition and fear, corrected errant ways that destroyed lives, taught us how to live in simplicity and joy, and even physically provided for thousands. Now, have churches loved all in the same way? If the real God lives in us, as the Lord of our lives, He will cause us to love as He loves, for He is busily conforming us into His own image. Yet now we see churches zealously supporting psychopaths who promise to crush the poor and rid their lands of the weak, so they can live opulent and disgustingly vile, self-indulgent lives. Churches actually demand that those psychopaths keep all refugees, souls suffering greatly, especially siblings with a different skin colour or strange superficial customs of the flesh, even those born of the same heavenly Father, from entering their pagan, GrecoRoman, humanistic neighbourhoods, lest those brothers and sisters change their places into loving, vibrant, welcoming communities suitable for God’s elect children. So churches are now anti-Christs.
Many claim that Jesus is their Lord. But, if He is really is their Lord, then they would at least begin to do whatever He calls their spirits to do. And He commanded elders to make “disciples” for Him, to bring the elect to Him, so He can personally teach and train their spirits. His more mature male disciples are to become teaching elders, whom Jesus has commissioned to be those “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” The “shepherds” or “pastors” in churches are the younger siblings of Jesus, not the chief Shepherds. They are not heads of the churches. Jesus alone is the chief Shepherd and the Head Teacher of every soul in every local church