7490	Forums / Main Forum / Mockers And Skeptics	on: May 03, 2007, 04:25:48 PM
Thanks Bill, Yes Spurgeon was dealing with personal insults, and accusations that he was to narrow. Along with the depression , he had a very rough end of his life. He was also a lot of physical pain with gout. I was looking at some old photos of him. He really looked tough. What a warrior.

We are warned about sitting in the seat of scoffers. Because we are not aware sometimes that we have the disposition of a sheep we stray into the company of scoffers and get scared from the insensitive and cold disposition from their love of sin. We are not really convinced that we are weak enough to be effected by that process of exposure. There is a certain downward spiral in the heart of the wicked because they love their sin, that creates a paradigm of betrayal in relationship, and being Christians being assaulted  that  hatred for Christ and HIs rule. Because of the lack of doctrinal clarity on the attributes of Gods love and His special care for His sheep, the shallow views of God makes us susceptible to thinking that God wants us to be assaulted by their hatred and it is suffering by being humble. But our Father does not want us to be sitting among scoffers and mockers. They really effect our doubts by just their attitudes. And if you have ever been married to an unbeliever you know how difficult it is to have the problem in your house. You cant flee to a safe place.

There really is a moment by moment war going on for our well being. And it is a war against Christ. If you love Christ your faith will eventually be assaulted. And do not be deceived , because of our own sin and our own temptations we will need to fight with all we have to over come being in the world, when we are confronted with scoffers. And like it or not we need to set ground rules , because a lack of respect is just as evil as our reaching them. And if we are being assaulted by scoffers we are in a position of being cast into doubt and our faith is going to suffer. We need to be aware of Satans tactics. We need to have assurances as children of an all loving and all controlling God, that our Father does not treat His children with disrespect. We need to understand the kind of love our Father has for us, being through grace, from grace and in grace, that we must understand His full acceptance of us so that we will be able to confront the assault of Satan.

In our being forgiven and accepted, we not only confront the really sinful scoffer, but the self righteous pharisee. The one who wants to micro manage our lives. The scoffers are the ones who live in such delusion that they hate the Lord ship of Christ. They actively go against us in scheming against our faith and trying to get to us by their assaults. So it is with the pharisees. They try to get us to do something to alleviate a problem without trusting in God as our only hope. They offer a different gospel by first appealing to a law or a rule that they develop , making us feel as if the focus on details of our lives is in the realm of wisdom. They deal in all of the little details ,and rules and systems so that there is something sure to lean on , rather than lead us to Christ who has left us Himself with some principles, rather than rules. This is another gospel, it is an assualt on our faith. We must realize just how we can be effected by the religious community.