The King of False Advertising
Barbara Henderson
What a friend we have in Jesus. Christians through the ages could give
wonderful testimonies to why Jesus is the best friend available. They would be right! Jesus is the best friend anyone could ever
have. Do you know the hymn ‘What a
Friend We Have in Jesus’? The lyrics are
wonderful. ‘What a friend we have in
Jesus – all our sins and griefs to bear’.
If you are in need of an instant pick-me-up I suggest you listen to this
song and then apply the words to your current situation. Jesus is the Friend that sticks closer than a
brother. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt-BowzYzLw
As time goes by there are so many
things for which believers can thank Jesus.
But, the best thing is that Jesus tells the truth. He never lies. You can trust Him. His word is good. In the words of Jesus we can find the peace
that passes understanding. We can rest
in the storm, even when it seems like we are facing a full scale hurricane with
only a 99 cent rain poncho to keep us dry.
In addition to Jesus being the actual truth and telling the truth
Christians also come to appreciate fellow Christians and others who tell the
truth. Just tell the truth. Don’t sugar coat it. Don’t make it better than it is. Don’t make it worse than it is. I want the unvarnished truth. Now, I do admit that I prefer the truth
stated in a way that is pleasant as possible, but I still want the truth. Does anything hurt worse than finding out you
have been deceived by someone that you trusted?
There are laws requiring truth in
advertising. Advertisers are supposed to
only tell the truth about their product.
They aren’t required to tell the whole truth. They aren’t required to show average
results. Alcohol commercials just show
young people acting like they are having a good time. They don’t show people who have been drunk
for years. People can be pulled into the
grab all the gusto you can by drinking beer.
They can also lose everything they have or wanted to have when they become
alcoholics. There are diet pills that may make someone thin. There are money making schemes that promise
wealth without much work or just a little seed money. There are web sites that promise to find your
‘soul mate’ – whatever that is supposed to be.
Regardless of how any of that stuff is advertised I can guarantee that
the truth of the matter is that those who believe the advertising will wind up
disappointed. Trust in Jesus and you
will not be disappointed in Him. Yes,
you will face disappointments in your life, but Jesus Himself will not
disappoint you. He will be with you to
the very end of your life. He will take
you to heaven when you die. He will take
you through the front gate of heaven.
You will be adopted by God Himself.
You will be a joint heir with Jesus.
You will rule and reign with Christ.
That is the truth.
On the other hand…..
There is the king of false
advertising. His name is the devil, that
old dragon, Lucifer, Satan, the deceiver, the destroyer, and any other bad name
you can think of. What an enemy we have
in Satan. Without the Lord Jesus Christ
we would have no way of even recognizing him, much less defeating him!
The dragon really is the king of false
advertising. His focus is to distort the
truth that there are two very clear cut choices regarding eternal destiny. There is the narrow way through Jesus
Christ. There is the broad-way that
leads to destruction. That’s it. There are two choices. All choices besides the narrow way equal
choosing the broad-way.
Never underestimate the devil’s
abilities. He is only one being. He is limited in what he can actually
do. However, he is still extremely
powerful. Furthermore he has a massive
army of followers at his disposal. It is
entirely true that his fate is sealed.
He will be utterly and totally eternally defeated. However, he is not going quietly to his
doom. He is deceiving and hurting as many
people as possible on his way down. Obviously,
given his end, the devil is not going to be honest about where he is going or
where his followers are going. He uses
all sorts of smoke and mirrors to disguise the entrance to hell. He offers more ways to hell than we can
actually count. It is sort of like the
tentacles of a giant squid. Once a
tentacle gets its suckers attached to its prey it winds up in the belly of the
beast.
I am sure you can list a number of
false ways.
: New Age, good works, Wiccan, Hindu,
Tao, Any eastern mystical religion, humanism, reincarnation, and blah blah
blah. They are all the same old tired
stuff. They all lead to the same old
place of eternal torment. You know, at
least Islam has a sort of uniqueness about it in that it admits people who go
to the kingdom of Allah are going to a place where murderers are exalted. That seems like a dead give away that it
isn’t a place anyone would actually want to go, but that doesn’t seem to bother
its followers does it? We are definitely
at a point in time where people can do what is right in their own eyes and
expect the rest of the world to accept their way as perfectly fine
Perhaps
even more chilling than people rejecting Jesus are people redefining Jesus.
If you want Jesus then the devil will give you Jesus. He simply won’t be the actual Jesus. He will be an imposter without power or
authority. Even Jesus said there would
be many who claimed to do works in His name that were workers of sin. Even God’s children can be deceived
temporarily sometimes. The way to avoid
falling into Satan’s trap is to really know who Jesus is, and then refuse to
compromise. So, who is Jesus? And who is Lucifer?
Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus Christ is omnipotent, omnipresent, and
omniscient. He is fully God and fully
man. He is the ONLY begotten Son of
God. He has adopted siblings.
Lucifer/Satan is a mighty being
created by God. He is not omnipotent,
omnipresent, or omniscient.
Do
you believe half a truth is a lie? In some cases the answer is yes. In the case of Jesus Christ we often hear
half the truth. Jesus loves you. That in itself is very wonderful and
comforting. It is also only half the
story. Because of His great love for us
– while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
Now if ‘love’ was all there was to it there would have been no reason
for Christ to die. The king of false advertising
wants the truth to stop right there because it is the rest of the truth that
actually brings people to repentance. The
rest of the story is that God in His righteousness requires that we become
righteous as well. Knowing that we are
incapable of doing that on our own Jesus died to make a way for His
righteousness to be given to us. Accepting
the righteousness of Jesus requires that the individual does more than simply
acknowledge ‘Jesus loves me’. It
requires repentance of our sins. It
requires turning from our sins. It
requires surrendering our will to the will of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us clearly that our works
will not save us. Salvation is through
Christ alone. However, evidence of our
salvation is provided through our obedience to the instructions for living
written down for us in the Bible. A
truly saved person takes obedience to the rules of Jesus Christ very seriously. It is entirely true that if Jesus allowed
unrighteous unrepentant people into his perfect home His home would no longer
be perfect. A poor comparison would be
someone who lives in an extreme mansion with two dozen domestic employees
finding a disease infested stray dog and taking it home without stopping at the
vet first to get it cleaned up. Pretty
soon there would be fleas and other disgusting stuff all over the once spotless
home.
Another false advertising claim made
about Jesus is ‘Jesus wants me to be happy’.
Boy is that one wrong! Jesus
wants you to be obedient. There is joy
in obedience. There can be
happiness. But, the goal is not
happiness. The goal is pleasing God,
which of course does bring joy.
‘We can become gods’ is one of Satan’s
best lies. It appeals to very worst in
us. Truthfully, through Jesus Christ we
can become better than we are in this life, but we are not destined to become a
god. If we change the definition of
‘god’ from omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent to something like ‘at least
slightly improved’ then some people might make it. Seriously, Jesus is God because that is who
He is. His nature is utterly continually
perfect. Any honest fool can see that
they just don’t have what it takes to become a god, unless the term ‘god’ is
reduced to something meaningless. I see
people today who think they are gods.
Yet, with every passing day they become older, uglier, and frailer. They try to make up for the obvious by
thinking that their minds are more enlightened than others which somehow
‘proves’ they are really gods.
Since Jesus says He is the only way
into heaven then it is smart to believe that Jesus is the only way into
heaven. It is either not smart OR
intentionally deceptive to preach many ways to heaven. It is a very simple truth that the one way to
heaven made by Jesus Christ is not only adequate but also perfectly
wonderful. If Jesus had made 100 ways to
heaven everyone would still take the way through Jesus Christ. As I have mentioned many times in the past
through Jesus Christ sinners are given a first class invitation to heaven. They are invited in through the front gate of
heaven. They have an audience with the God of creation. They are adopted by God. They are made joint heirs with Jesus. They rule and reign with Christ. There is no better way into heaven
possible. Why would God go to the time
and expense of making a second way to heaven for which there is obviously no
need.
Jesus Christ is the head of the
Christian church. He has representatives
who shepherd his flock, but Christ alone is head of the church. Don’t fall into rituals and traditions that
elevate a man to the so-called position of head of the church.
There is no Christianity without the
real Jesus Christ. The real Jesus is
not a spirt brother to Lucifer. The real
Jesus does not need Mary as a co-redeemer.
The real Jesus does not need our good works to complete His work on the
cross.
The king of false advertising wants
nothing more than to deceive people into following one of his ways to his
eternal home. As much as the devil works
at getting people to reject Jesus, many people will ultimately reject Jesus
without help from the devil. This will
be apparent during the thousand year reign of Christ on earth. The devil and his followers will be chained
up during this time and not allowed to tempt people. Still, some people will fall away from the
truth. So, while we do have to watch out
for the devil, we also have to watch out for our own sin nature. Even without the devil we are prone to
sin. That is why it is so important that
we follow Jesus closely. The details do
matter. Take His love seriously. But also take His righteousness seriously. There is no way into heaven except through
Jesus.
Jesus Paid it All
I hear the
Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”
Refrain
Jesus paid
it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
For nothing
good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.
Whereby Thy grace to claim,
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.
Refrain
And now
complete in Him
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.
My robe His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.
Refrain
Lord, now
indeed I find
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.
Thy power and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.
Refrain
When from
my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies.
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies.
Refrain
And when
before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down
All down at Jesus’ feet.
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down
All down at Jesus’ feet.
Refrain
More wonderful hymns!
Rejoice in the Lord
When We All Get to Heaven
Standing on the Promises of Christ My King
To God be the Glory – Great Things He Hath Done
There is Power in the Blood – the wonder working
blood of the Lamb
