Summary: We may define wrong as right, but the Father sets our standards... Ponder about the cold within? We face a re-defining of what truth is? Beware of the spirit of gradualness.

FACING THE STRONG MAN OF ERROR... WRONG AS RIGHT?

This is part one...

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com

2 Thessalonians 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had

pleasure in unrighteousness.

2 Corinthians 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

I. SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT SPIRITUAL STRONG MEN:

A. Strong men started in the seed form. They start small and grow.

B. Strong men will almost always have a SPIRIT OF GRADUALNESS, where they

slowly progress to grow from minor to major.

C. MANY STRONG MEN FEED AND SUPPORT OTHER NEGATIVE, BAD ATTITUDES.

D. Bad attitudes RE-INFORCE and open doors to other issues.

E. As we look at the ATTITUDE OF ERROR, we acknowledge the attitude takes

the appearance of: IF THIS IS WRONG I DO NOT WANT TO BE RIGHT...

F. Team mates of the STRONG MAN OF ERROR may take these forms:

Control, Stubborness, Anger, Bitterness, Depression, and a feeling of REJECTION.

G. Often times the STRONG MAN OF ERROR feeds on not listening, ignorance,

ZEAL WITHOUT WISDOM, WISDOM WITHOUT ZEAL...

All this issues are SELF-FEEDING and SELF-JUSTIFYING and a strong spirit of

DENIAL... I do not have a problem...

II. THE STRONG MAN OF ERROR WILL NOT LISTEN TO THE TRUTH, IS NOT TEACHABLE,

AND REFUSES TO BE CORRECTED... IF THIS IS WRONG, I DO NOT

NOR ACCEPT THERE IS A STANDARD OF TRUTH...

A. We live in a day that we do not want to offend anyone...

B. We do not want to elevate our values on others...

C. LET US TOLERATE AND ACCEPT EVERYTHING AS RIGHT...

Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or

else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

D. IS THERE TRUTH?

John Cash had a song: WHAT IS TRUTH?

A boy goes to Sunday School and learns: THOU SHALT NOT KILL.

He graduates high school, drafted in the ARMY, given a gun and taught to go kill the VIET CON?

John 18:38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again

unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

E. THE HAS TO BE A STANDARD OF TRUTH!

87* Octane? Horsepower? Measurement? Truth!

III. WANT TO DISCUSS GROSS?

THE STRONG MAN OF ERROR WILL NOT LISTEN TO THE TRUTH, IS NOT TEACHABLE,

AND REFUSES TO BE CORRECTED...

A. HOW ABOUT YOU HEART?

B. You define? I define? Society defines?

Matthew 13:15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their

eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,

and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

C. BLIND EYES? POOR HEARING? SENSE...

Acts 28:27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their

eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and

understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

IV. OK, IS THE CONSCIENCE OF THE FLESH A GOOD INDICATOR I AM RIGHT?

IS IT A GODLY CONSCIENCE THAT ALIGNS WITH THE WORD OF GOD?

IS IT A SEARED CONSCIENCE...

A. I LET MY CONSEINCE BE MY GUIDE?

1 Timothy 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

B. YOU CAN BURN AND NUMB YOUR CONSCEINCE TO ACCEPT ANYTHING AS

ACCEPTABLE.

V. PROMISES, PROMISES... THE STORY OF THE ATTITUDE OR SPIRIT OF ERROR...

A. I WILL NOT DO IT...

B. SURE, I WILL...

Matthew 21:28 But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first,

and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.

29 He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.

30 And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and

went not.

31 Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus

saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom

of God before you.

C. THERE ARE MANY ATTITUDES OR SPIRITS THAT A PERSON CAN DEVELOP OR

GRADUALLY DRIFT AND BECOME.

James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural

face in a glass:

24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man

he was.

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a

forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

D. JAMES ADDRESSES SEVERAL:

1. People that will never listen... THEY WILL NEVER DO... (lazy)

2. People that will never listen... then they will do it any way... (ignorant)

3. People that WILL LISTEN.. THEN DO... (wise)

VII. THE SPIRIT OF ERROR IS OF THE FLESH / LUST...

DESIRE LEAD... NOT SPIRIT FED...

WHERE DOES THIS SPIRIT OF ERROR FEED?

James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished,

bringeth forth death.

A. THE SPIRIT OF ERROR WILL GROW IN THE LAST DAYS...

THE MORE PEOPLE KNOW THE MORE THEY SEEM TO FALL FOR ANYTHING.

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after

their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

B. I hear the cry: I WANT TO BE HAPPY...

HAPPINESS IS A VERY POOR GOAL...

C. Where do family problems originate?

Where does fighting and strife come... MY WAY? I WILL HAVE IT MY WAY.

James 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even

of your lusts that war in your members?

2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war,

yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with

God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

D. THE BATTLE IS BETWEEN THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT... !!!

The good dog and the bad dog... WHICH DOG WILL BE THE STRONGEST?

WHICH EVER DOG YOU FEED THE MOST...!!!

Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall

he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that

soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

VIII. THE STRONG MAN OF ERROR DEVELOPS A SPIRIT OF DIVISON, FUSSING,

NAGGING, ARGUING, DEBATING, AND CONTENTIONS...

A. DID YOU KNOW THERE ARE FOOLISH --- UNPROFITABLE WORDS OF DISCUSSION

AND DEBATES...

Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about

the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.

B. I recently heard where a GREAT ATHEIST was have a televised DEBATE with a

FAMOUS PREACHER... When the debate was over, the ATHEIST was still an atheist,

the Preacher was still a Preacher, and there was name calling, and both was reduced to

the lower levels of hatred.

C. ARGUE ALL YOU WANT WHETHER THE STICK IS STRAIGHT OR CROOKED...

Use any definition you desire...

THE BEST WAY TO LEARN IS LAY A CROOKED STICK DOWN BY A STRAIGHT

STICK... MAJORITY RULES?

IX. WHEN EVERY DEBATE, ARGUMENT, CONFLICT, CONTENTOUS SPIRIT IS FINISHED

THE SPIRIT OF ERROR WILL ALWAYS COME TO THE LOWEST LEVEL...

DIVISION, DISUNITY...

WRONG WILL NEVER AGREE WITH RIGHT...

NOR WRONG CAN NOT AGREE WITH WRONG... IT IS WRONG...

A. A beautiful young mother wrote on FACEBOOK, "I HAVE JUST FOUND OUT,

I THOUGHT I HAD SOLID FOUNDATION?"

Many wrote: What has happened to your foundation?

She wrote: AS I WAS PUTTING ON MY MAKEUP THIS MORNING, I FOUND OUT

I WAS OUT OF FOUNDATION, and I had to put my makeup on as best as I could.

B. GOOD LIFE IS BUILD ON THE FIRM FOUNDATION OF THAT WE NEED TO AGREE...

Amos 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

C. One of the GREAT POWERS of the SPIRIT OF ERROR IS THE FACT THAT

DISAGREEMENT WILL DESTROY THE INDIVIDUAL, HOME, AND THE CHURCH.

Mark 3:25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.

D. THE FOUNDATION OF ERROR IS PURE SAND...

The foundation of agreement is the POWER OF THE ROCK...

Matthew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any

thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

E. Part of the strong man of error is YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH GOD, GOD'S SON,

NOR HIS WORD.

Matthew 18:19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any

thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

F. WE MUST DEVELOP CREATIVE USE OF CONFLICT...

WE HAVE TO AGREE TO DISAGREE...

THE COLD WITHIN

By James Patrick Kinney

1920

SIX HUMANS TRAPPED BY HAPPENSTANCE

IN THE DARK AND BITTER COLD.

EACH POSSESSED A STICK OF WOOD.

(OR SO THE STORY WAS TOLD.)

THEIR DYING FIRE IN NEED OF LOGS.

THE FIRST WOMAN HELD HER LOG BACK,

FOR SHE NOTICE THAT ONE OF THE FACES

AROUND HER WAS OF A BLACK.

THE SECOND, LOOKED ACROSS THE WAY

SAW A PERSON NOT OF HIS CHURCH,

AND COULD NOT GIVE

THE FIRE HIS STICK OF BIRCH.

A POOR MAN SAT IN RAGS AND TADDERED CLOTHES,

HE TIGHTEN UP HIS COAT'S HITCH.

WHY SHOULD MY LOG BE PUT ON THE FIRE

TO WARM THE IDLE RICH?

A RICH MAN JUST SAT BACK AND THOUGHT

OF ALL HIS WEALTH HE HAD IN STORE,

AND HOW HE HAD TO KEEP WHAT HE HAD EARNED

FROM THE LAZY, WORTHLESS POOR.

THE BLACK MAN REMEMBERED

A HISTORY A WOE AND WANT

AS THE FIRE PASSED FROM THE GROUP'S SIGHT,

ALL HE SAW IN HIS LOG OF WOOD

WAS A CHANCE TO SPITE THE WHITE.

AND THE LAST OF THIS COLD, FORLORN GROUP

DID NOT ACCEPT FOR GAIN:

GIVING ONLY TO THOSE WHO GAVE

WAS HOW HE PLAYED THE GAME.

THE LOGS ALL HELD TIGHT

IN DEATHS' STILL HANDS

WAS PROOF OF THE HUMAN SIN.

THEY DIED NOT FROM THE

COLD WITHOUT!

THEY DIED FROM

THE COLD WITHIN.

THERE THRIVES TODAY THE COLD...

THE COLD WITHOUT... THE COLD WITHIN...

We can not accept TOTAL BLINDNESS or TUNNEL VISION as God's plan for us.

THERE IS A STANDARD OF TRUTH...

The homo-sexuals do not define truth.

Those that claim a "WOMAN'S RIGHTS" DO NOT DEFINE THE TRUTH.

Those that teach LIVING TOGETHER, sexual freedom and sinful behavior do not

teach God's truth.

This is part one of THE STRONG MAN OF ERROR...

His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com