Teaching our listeners to rightly divide the word of truth, making the Bible easier to understand.
This is Truth Time Radio.
Be aware.
Stay alert.
Watch out for those that are masters at peddling propaganda.
Propaganda peddling is very popular today.
There are so many people that have a strong desire to be accepted in a group to make them feel like they belong somewhere.
Children want to fit in at school by wearing certain clothing.
Adults want to fit in on social media by saying or liking certain comments.
And the propaganda masters aren't fools.
They know this.
I'm reminded of a study I read about that they did back in the 1950s across American
college campuses.
A psychology study was conducted called the Solomon Asch Conformity Experiment.
How it worked was eight students were chosen and they would be taken into a room.
Seven of the eight were actually paid actors.
They were in on it, in on the experiment.
However, the one was oblivious to what was going on, an unknowing participant.
Well, during the exercise, the teacher would take two cards and place them on her desk.
One card had a line on it called the target line.
It was to be used as a reference point.
On the other card there were three lines.
One that matched the model line, the target line, but the other two did not.
They were different.
The experiment would start out by having the seven paid actors.
They would look at both cards.
And one by one, all seven, with a straight face, said that the two shorter lines were
equal with the other line.
Even though it was apparent that they were not.
And by the time that it got around to the one unaware participant in the group, the
non-paid actor, he or she would totally ignore reality and side with the rest of the group.
This experiment was conducted over and over and by the end of the study, it was something like 40% of all participants denied their own eyes and they conformed to what the majority of the group said in order to fit in.
Think about that.
They would give an incorrect answer just to be accepted.
Our Apostle Paul tells us to be not conformed to this world, Romans 12:2, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, so that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
But these who conform, the ones that conform to fit in, they've fallen into a trap.
It's a trap of groupthink.
It's the herd mentality.
Peer to peer.
Peer pressure.
Everybody's doing it, so it must be right.
I'll give you an example.
I'm talking to a gentleman one day.
We're having some dialogue and I ask him, are you saved?
He said, oh yeah, I'm a Baptist.
Most people who join a denomination, they do so because of their need to identify with a group.
Oddly enough, they'd rather identify with a group than the God of the group.
You see, instead of saying, yes, I'm saved, or even identifying himself as a Christian, a Christian believer, he chose to narrow in on his denominational group.
His groupthink mentality took over.
He put it first.
Nowhere in scripture can you find salvation linked to a church denomination, yet this
man said, oh yeah, I'm a Baptist.
This sort of thinking is wrong and can be damaging.
This is why Truth Time challenges our listeners to step away from the herd mentality and start thinking for yourself.
Working to be like everyone else is just another way to get lost in the crowd.
I mean, you think if Jesus or Paul were on social media, they'd worry about being cyberbullied for what they say?
For the stance they took?
Would their top concern be fitting in with others?
Being accepted in a group?
Hmm.
Hey, if you tell the truth, you're going to get accused of hate speech.
Truth is a crime in a world full of lies.
Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth.
Anyway, I continued to talk to the guy, and I'm quite certain I lost around 5 IQ points that day.
But as ambassadors, as ministers of reconciliation, it's our job to expose the hypocrisy.
This guy had let his denomination take precedence over God's word and convince him that it was his goodness, his moral behavior, that would ultimately save him.
The truth is, you can never be good enough.
So place your faith in Christ, who was good enough, good enough on your behalf.
But the lie is, you CAN be good enough.
That's what worldwide religion markets.
Just keep on trying, and you'll get there eventually.
They've fallen for Satan's plan of salvation.
And then we have those that give it a little twist.
They'll say, well, you CAN be good enough, but if you never reach that goal, don't worry, God will save you for at least trying.
Just give an effort.
There are a growing number of people who think like that.
They think ideology is more important than truth.
Well, you may be a cheerful do-gooder who ALWAYS has a kind word for everyone, and still die and go to hell.
Being a cheerful do-gooder won't save you.
You may have said the so-called sinner's prayer when you were 12, and still die and go to hell, because the sinner's prayer doesn't save you.
You may have given your life to Christ, and still die and go to hell, because giving your life to Christ is not salvation.
That's not only not the gospel, it's nowhere in the Bible.
Salvation is about believing what HE gave to YOU, not what you can give to HIM.
Be careful not to confuse truth with consensus, or with the opinion of the majority.
What we give would be a response to, not a means to salvation.
It's just a natural response to having received such a beautiful, unearned, undeserved gift.
It makes you want to, in turn, give to others.
And first and foremost, at the top of the giving list, should be you giving them the
truth, the gospel, making sure they're saved.
We've got to keep on exposing the hypocrisy, and make clear the gospel.
You see, the reason more people don't know the gospel, the gospel of their salvation,
is because bad news has always traveled faster than the good.
We need more today who are willing to take a stand, those that have courage and conviction to teach the unadulterated gospel, who know how to stay on point, and have the mental agility and conversational fortitude to dispute the perverted gospel.
The gospel that saves today, hey, it's clear.
Christ died for all your sins, and there's nothing you can add to that.
He finished the work for you.
And after three days, He arose to give you eternal life.
Ephesians chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 tell us that after hearing the gospel, we put our trust in Christ by believing the gospel.
And as far as salvation goes, that's it.
There's nothing to add to that.
For you to pretend otherwise is your right, but to say otherwise is a lie.
Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, assumptions, and beliefs, but what they're
not entitled to is a misrepresentation of the facts, their version of the truth.
That's what that gentleman I was speaking with in our conversation, that's what he did.
He had his version, his Baptist version of the Bible truth.
Think about that.
His Baptist version of the Bible truth.
But by the end of the conversation, he was doing a lot of head scratching.
I had him comparing one verse with another, then another, and this went on for about a good 15 minutes, and by that time, he was extremely cornfused about what he had been taught by his religious system.
By this time, it was all beginning to crumble.
And this is what happens when you start to make sense over their nonsense.
Hey, I was religious and lost for many years.
I was deceived by religion, but after hearing the truth and putting my trust in Christ alone, I told myself that I would spend the rest of my life, as long as I had breath, exposing the very thing that had deceived me.
Now, I don't mind rattling the cage, rocking the boat, speaking to the powers that be until they feel uncomfortable, speaking truth to power, speaking directly to the powers until the power is shaken at its core, until its foundation begins to shake and eventually collapse.
I have no problem with that at all.
I'm not here to change your thinking.
I'm here to challenge it.
We must challenge the status quo.
And if it's correct, if the status quo is correct, it'll withstand the scrutiny.
If you can learn it, you can unlearn it.
The key is not to let your ego get bigger than you.
As saved members of His body, we must learn to live in the positive instead of the negative.
The positive is grace.
The negative is works-based religion.
But we got to keep our mind set on that which is good.
The truth that at the moment of salvation, I got Christ's righteousness imputed into
my account.
I'm complete in Him.
I am redeemed.
Not being redeemed, I am redeemed.
I'm saved, not being saved.
I'm righteous, not becoming righteous.
Complete in Him, not being completed.
I have justification, not waiting on it.
I'm learning to live out how God sees me, and not how I see myself or others see me.
Living according to my position, my position in Christ, not in the world.
Renewing my mind daily as I walk out this life in Christ.
Operating from have, not have not.
Shedding off my religion and putting on Christ.
Learning to live in the positive instead of the negative.
Like something I once heard, your mind is like a garden, so you must ask yourself, what seed am I going to plant today?
You only get two educations.
The one you're given, and the one you give yourself.
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