The principles of all genuine fellowship with God
1 John 2:29 If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
Getting back to what we were discussing yesterday, let’s look again at the verse above. With this verse, John introduces the idea of a new birth when he says that those who do what is right have been born of God. What he is saying here is that when we see someone who is exhibiting true godly righteousness in their life, that we can be sure that they are indeed born again. He is not saying however that those who are born again always and constantly exhibit this kind of righteousness in their life, because he knows that we all sin and that at time we all fall down. Here he is simply saying that this is one way to tell when someone has been born again because only those who have been born again can exhibit this type of godly righteousness.
1 John 3:1-3 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
John continues here reminding us that we are called to be the children of God. He says “and that is what we are” to remind us that as the Lord is holy, so should His children be holy. He then explains that the world doesn’t recognize us as as God’s children, set apart from them, because it never recognized Jesus and doesn’t know Him like we do. The kind of discernment necessary to tell a child of God from a child of Satan is strictly one which a born again child of God can have. Even for us though, this is a spiritual perception and not a physical one because there is no physical mark on us to show the difference. It is spiritually discerned. We see this spoken about also here:
1 Corinthians 2:10-16 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”But we have the mind of Christ.
This spiritual discernment is given to all who are born again but it is something that comes as a Christian becomes mature in Christ.
Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Although there is no physical mark on us now, he says that when Jesus comes for us at the rapture, we will be like Him. He doesn’t mean that we will physically look like Him, but rather that spiritually we will look like Him because the Lord is changing us every day to become more and more like Him. Also at that time, we will be given our immortal bodies which will be like His.
Then John says that everyone who is born again and has this hope, purifies themselves just like Jesus was pure. What he is saying here is really important to us all. Once we are born again, we cannot, must not, continue to live as we did before our salvation. Now we must always remember that our lives are not our own, they have been bought with a price and belong to our Lord now. We must separate ourselves from the world and learn the ways of God.
Colossians 3:3-10 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
John confirms this when he next says:
1 John 3:4-6 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
John again points out the seriousness of sin for those who have been born again in the above verses. He isn’t saying that those who are born again never sin, we know we do, even John said that we all sin. What he is saying is that when we sin, we are not abiding in God, we are abiding either in the world or in our flesh when we sin. Remember how Jesus tells us that in order to bear fruit we must abide in Him? This is the same thing. When we are truly abiding in Him we do not sin, it’s only when we slip and have fallen out of that perfect union with Him, that’s when we sin. Now we know that our “real” nature is a spiritual new nature that the Lord has given us. That nature does not sin, it cannot. It’s only when we fall back into our old natures that we sin, and those natures are no longer really who we are. That’s why Paul says:
Romans 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
For us, now that we have been given this new nature at salvation, sin for us is unnatural and abnormal. Because we have these two natures we all experience this daily struggle against sin, just as Paul and the other disciples did. I think it’s well explained here too:
Galatians 5:16-26 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
You see, as long as we are abiding in Him, or “living by the Spirit” we do not sin, but when we slip, that is when we once more allow ourselves to be led by the flesh, the world or Satan, because we are not abiding in Him. So to me the Christian life is a constant struggle if you will, to maintain that close personal contact with the Lord at all times, all day long. The better we get at that, the closer we get to Him and the less we sin. It’s when God is not the center and focus of our thoughts that we slip. This goes back to what John was speaking of in the beginning of having that close fellowship (relationship) with Him.
Bible Studies, Friends and Fellowship
Saturday, November 28, 2009
The principles of all genuine fellowship with God
Friday, November 27, 2009
The principles of all genuine fellowship with God
The principles of all genuine fellowship with God
Today we find out more about why John wrote this letter to us, and discover again how important it is for us today. Although I’m tempted to post the whole passage, I think it would be best to break it up so we can look at it closer.
1 John 2:18-19 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
We know that here “the last hour” is referring to the end times in which we are living. The end times started when Jesus ascended to Our Father. We can see from this passage as well as many others that Satan lost no time in attacking the Gospel and trying to prevent the Truth from spreading.
John says of these antichrists, which we usually refer to as false teachers and false prophets now, that they “went out from us, but they didn’t really belong to us”. What he is saying is that the ones he is specifically talking about most likely studied directly under him or one of the other apostles, but they were never really saved. They therefore didn’t really belong to the inner circle of teachers as they apparently were claiming to be. Instead they denied the Truth, apparently denying the divinity of Christ and the security of believers salvation, and attempted to sway the rest who had also been taught by the apostles.
John says that if they had belonged to that inner circle, they would have never left, but because they did not share the spirit of fellowship with the Lord, and with the other believers, it showed that they were not ever in a real close personal relationship with the Lord as they claimed to be. Their lives were worldly and didn’t have the fruit of the spirit as they should have. We know all of this because of all that John wrote prior to this passage in this letter. The whole purpose of his letter was to show true believers that they were indeed really saved and show them how to tell the difference between someone who was and someone who wasn’t, so they could discern for themselves that these people were antichrists/false teachers. His intent was to reassure them of their salvation and of the deity of Christ and all they had learned, and let them know that their discernment that these false teachers were antichrists was correct and they had no reason to fear. He was reminding them that those who are in a close personal relationship with the Lord would sense this disharmony of the spirit from these false teachers. He was most likely writing to other church leaders though and not “baby Christians” since baby Christians don’t have that kind of discernment all the time yet, but mature Christians do.
1 John 2:20-27 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
All Christians, even baby ones are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and do not “have” to have a teacher, but here we know John is speaking to those who are mature because he says they already know the truth of everything he has said. Immature Christians are the most vulnerable because they’re relationship with the Lord is still so new that they often need other people to teach them the basics of living in Christ until they have become secure in their relationship with Him and comfortable with having Him as their teacher.
Usually we humans fight tooth and nail against having God teach us. We want another human to do the job. I was the same way to my great shame and embarrassment. I told the Lord so. I begged Him to give me someone “with skin on” to teach me, as I wanted to make sure I wasn’t misunderstanding Him. I can almost imagine Him pulling His hair out over my requests like that now. But He honored my request and sent someone to disciple me. Like any good teacher, they always answered my questions by pointing me right back to God’s Word and asking me what God said about it there and/or what He’d told me about it. The reason I say “like any good teacher would” is because a good teacher isn’t there to just “teach you what God’s Word says. They are there to constantly teach you how to find the answers for yourself, confirming you when you’re right, showing you the errors when you’re wrong and how they knew it was an error—right back to God and God’s Word every time. They’re there to constantly ask you “Did you ask the Lord?”, “what did the Lord say”? and other inspired things like, “hmmm what do you think He could have meant by that?” The point being that immature believers are still very accustomed to the world and the worlds ways. They aren’t used to “talking to the Lord” and especially not used to hearing back from Him. They often don’t understand how to read His Word or even that they need to and why. This is why it’s so important that new believers be discipled. While the Holy Spirit will guide them, they aren’t accustomed to that guidance and often ignore His leading to their own peril, not really realizing they’re doing so. This is one reason we know that John was writing to mature believers when he wrote this letter. These people had discernment and simply needed to be encouraged since these antichrist’s (false teachers) were apparently saying they they had gotten their “truth” when learning under John or another apostle. John simply lets them, and us, know in no uncertain terms that anyone who denies the divinity of Christ, or denies that they are secure in their salvation is not saved and is not teaching the true Gospel. They are not one of us.
John constantly since the beginning of this letter has told them to “remain” in what they already know is the Truth. This is something that’s important for us to remember too. It seems like every day there’s some kind of “new truth” being offered to us from someone. Someone is always finding something that changes the gospel and wants to sell it to us. John says, don’t buy it. Remain in what we already know and have. This is the truth, and we don’t need any other. We are saved, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who will guide us into all Truth, and we will and do have eternal life guaranteed to us.
1 John 2:28-29 And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
John ends this portion of his letter with these final words, telling us that as long as we continue in our close fellowship (relationship) with the Lord that we will be able to be confident and unashamed when He comes for us at the rapture. Of course this means then that those who do not maintain that close personal relationship with the Lord and wind up wandering off into false teachings etc, will not be confident, and will instead be ashamed of themselves when they are finally face to face with their Lord. This does NOT say they will lose their salvation, it simply says that when they face our Lord, and finally see the “real truth”, that they will be ashamed of themselves.
The last line, about knowing that He is righteous means that we can know that those who do what is right are the ones that are really born again, John uses as a lead in to continue his discussion of how we can tell someone who is really saved from who isn’t. How we can tell an antichrist (false teacher) from someone that isn’t. We’ll pick up with this verse tomorrow as this is more then long enough already.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
The principles of genuine fellowship with God
The principles of genuine fellowship with God
Some people reading these studies that we’ve been doing lately might get the impression that I’m very focused on “works” but that honestly couldn’t be further from the truth. What I am focused on though is the complete Gospel and not just the part that sounds good and is easy to do. That being said, let’s start out from where we left off yesterday.
Yesterday we discussed that when we are saved our walk needs to match our talk in order for us to stay in fellowship with the Lord. When our walk doesn’t match our beliefs, then we are “out of fellowship” with the Lord and each other. Sin has come between us again. However, this is easily fixed by repenting and confessing our sins knowing that the Lord will forgive us and we will once again be in close communion with Him.
I do want to point out here however that when we see someone who is obviously out of fellowship with the Lord , and obviously has been for a long time, ore even from the beginning of the time they were supposedly saved, then they were never saved to begin with. When a person is saved, there is always some fruit to show that salvation has taken place, that a change has occurred.
1 John 2:3-6 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
In this next verse John sums this up pretty much the same way. Keep in mind however that John is not talking about someone who commits a sin and repents. We all do that daily! No, John is saying that someone who constantly and consistently does not obey God’s commands about something is a liar and the Truth isn’t in him. Again another way to say that would be if someone is living in unrepentant sin, then they are a liar and the Truth isn’t in them. John sums the entire thing up quite nicely by saying that whoever claims to live in Jesus must walk as Jesus did. Another way to look at this is the saying, “by their fruit you shall know them”.
Someone who is in a genuine relationship with the Lord, or as John calls it, genuine fellowship with the Lord, will produce fruit that shows they are saved. Jesus said it this way:
John 15:5-8 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Next John reminds us that there is nothing “new” about this command, and that it has been taught as part of the Gospel from the beginning by Jesus that they should walk as He did and obey His commands.
1 John 2:7-8 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
John then talks about the “new command” that Jesus gave that they should love their enemies, and says that by walking in Christ and obeying His commands that love is seen and causes the darkness to pass away. He then expands this thought and says:
1 John 2:9-11 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
Here again John is telling us that there is no middle ground. Where God’s love lives in us when we are walking closely with Him, no hate for another person who is saved can abide. However when there is hate in someone’s heart, that means that there is something they are holding back from the Lord, some part of them still in the darkness and walking in the dark, they have lost all real sense of direction and therefore cannot be in a genuine close relationship (fellowship) with the Lord. When we are in a close relationship with the Lord, that automatically brings us into a close relationship with others who are also saved and walking closely with Him. We know that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all, therefore our relationships with others will reveal the genuineness of our relationship with Him. This is just another example of how the fruit of our lives shows what our relationship with Him is. A person who’s life is characterized by love is a genuine believer. Let me share with you what one of the commentaries says about this:
In verse 11, John goes back to negative application of the light-and-love premise in order to emphasize that hatred (perhaps he has in mind some aspect of the problem with the false teachers) creeps over one’s life like the darkness, affecting his walk, and even his knowledge (knoweth not whither he goeth), making him in fact spiritually “blind.” KJV Bible commentary. 1997, c1994 (2633). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
1 John 2:13-14 I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.
I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
John isn’t really writing this to little children, instead he’s using these terms to denote different stages of spiritual growth in the community that he was writing to, just as we are each at different stages of our spiritual growth here and now. He is mainly wanting to encourage us with this words and remind us of the truth of who we are in Christ. John then goes from reminding us of that to reminding us that we are not to love the world or anything in it any longer.
1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
This is yet another way to tell the difference between someone who is really in a close personal relationship with the Lord and someone who isn’t. John says that those who still love the world do not have the love of the Father in them. That’s pretty straight forward. If the love of the Father is not in them, then they are not saved. John constantly points us away from the world and all it’s desires that entrap us and toward the Lord and His commands.
We also need to realize that each of these things we’ve discussed about how to tell when someone is really walking with God and when they aren’t can also be used to discover is someone is a complete phony and not saved at all. The reason John was writing this letter in the first place was because false teachers had come around and tried to teach them things that weren’t true. They offered a false gospel and John is trying to help them discern the difference between a false gospel and the real one. To do that he also needed to show them how to tell the difference as to whether the person who was teaching these things was saved or not. Once we are able to determine if someone is truly walking with the Lord or not, it becomes much easier to determine if what they are teaching is the Truth or not. This is badly needed by us in our times too as there is so much heresy being taught.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The principles of all genuine fellowship with God
The principles of all genuine fellowship with God
Today I’d like to look at the letter John wrote to Christians who were being confronted with many false teachers and heresy just as we are now.
1 John 1:1-4 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.We write this to make our joy complete.
John wanted to both warn them about these false teachers and to assure them that they had indeed been taught the Truth, as had their pastor who had been charged to continue to teach and lead them. This is why he reminds the readers that he himself personally knew Jesus, saw Him with his physical eyes, touched Him, both before and after His resurrection. He was an eye witness to all the events and could therefore easily show that these heresies they were hearing about were false teachings. His intent was to both warn them that these false teaching would put them out of fellowship with the Lord and show them how to remain in fellowship with the Lord. Anyone that is in fellowship with the Lord is also in fellowship with other believers including the apostles.
Since this letter shows us how to remain in fellowship with the Lord, it’s a very important one for all of us.
I’d like to first look at the definition of fellowship to make sure that we’re all on the same page when this word is used:
In the Gospel of John Christian fellowship is characterized by a perfect oneness grounded in the closest of relationships with the Father and the Son ( John 17:11, John 21-23; see also 1 John 1:3, 6, 7). Jesus is the true vine in which believers must ‘remain’ if they would bear fruit—which is, above all, love for one another (John 15).This fellowship of believers is dependent on—and an expression of—their fellowship with Christ.[1] Harper's Bible dictionary
Now let’s look at how John begins his letter after the introduction:
1 John 1:5-7 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
John starts again by reminding us that he personally heard this from our Lord, and is now telling us about it. He tells us that if we claim to have fellowship with God and still walk in the darkness, then we have to be lying as there is no darkness in God. This doesn’t mean that when we are saved we don’t sin, it means that we don’t live in unrepentant sin. It means that when we sin, we confess and repent of that sin, admitting that it’s a sin, and intending not to commit it again. That is walking in the light. Walking in the light also involves who we fellowship with here, and once again we are told to fellowship with others who are saved, not the unsaved. We are to witness to the unsaved, not fellowship with them, for they are walking in the darkness. When we are walking in the light in this way, confessing and repenting of sin, fellowshipping with God and one another, then we know that the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. We cannot have fellowship with God if we are not living in the light and continually having our sins cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
The terms, “living in the light” or “walking in the light” are simply metaphors for “living” or “conducting our lives”. So he is saying how we live our lives matters. We are not to continue to live the way we did before we were saved.
In the above verse John is showing us the difference between saying and doing. He is showing us that our actions must back up our words—we must live what we believe. He tells us that when we are not doing that, then our lives will contradict what we say we believe making us hypocrites.
1 John 1:8-2:2 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Here John is saying that he knows that we all sin every day, as he does himself. (notice that in the above verses he uses the word “we” when talking to us which includes himself) He is saying that if anyone tries to tell you that when you are saved you will not ever sin again that they’re full of bologna! It’s a lie! We ALL sin every day! Those who believe that lie and try and pretend that they don’t sin will lose their fellowship with the Lord and with each other until the repent and confess their sins. At that time they will once again be in close communion or fellowship with the Lord and with other believers.
Basically what this is showing us is that when we sin and don’t confess our sins, we are out of fellowship with the Lord. Things start going wrong for us, and we can tell that something just isn’t right. Once we confess though, we are once more cleansed and can once again be in fellowship with the Lord and each other.
What are the important things for us to remember from this?
First that we need to always walk in the light and not have anything to do with darkness. Now that sounds good and biblical but what exactly does it mean? To walk in the light is to live the way God commands us to. Who walks in darkness then? Anyone who is unsaved walks in darkness, for they do not have the Light within them because the Light is God. So when the bible talks about walking in darkness, it’s talking about doing things the way we did before we were saved. Walking in darkness would be living in sin rather then living in Christ.
Secondly that as long as we confess our sins we will be cleansed of all unrighteousness and will be able to continue to be in fellowship with the Lord. The opposite is also true; if we do not confess our sins, or if we say we don’t sin or try to hide them from the Lord, then we will no longer be in fellowship with Him. Keep in mind that losing our fellowship with God is not the same thing as losing our salvation. We cannot lose our salvation. We can fall out of fellowship with Him though, meaning that we can lose that close personal connection with Him. The good news about that is that it can easily be gained back through simple confession of our sins.
Tomorrow will pick up where we left off today. I hope this is as helpful to others as it has been for me!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
God's Warning To Us
God's Warning To Us
Let me post the verse we’re looking at one more time so we can read it yet again to keep it fresh in our minds:
Hebrews 12:14-17 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
In the very next sentence he tells us to see to it that no one is sexually immoral. Again not something you’ll hear much about in our churches today. Half the couples sitting in the congregation are probably living together instead of married yet nothing is ever said. They aren’t warned that they are bringing God’s chastisement down on themselves and by not warning them, it brings God’s displeasure down on the church itself. By not warning them and by not warning the congregation, the pastor gives the impression that it’s not important, that it’s even “normal” and the disease spreads, just as we spoke about yesterday. As that happens, instead of becoming holy, the church becomes more like the world. Paul even goes so far as to tell us:
1 Corinthians 5:1-6 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?
1 Corinthians 5:11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
This doesn’t mean that if someone commits one of these sins that they are to be immediately thrown out of the church. It means they are to be taken aside and warned that what they are doing is wrong and asked to repent. Then if they do not repent they are to be set out of the church. Those who are saved are not to even have them over for supper! However, the church today is strangely quiet about this and allows all sorts or evil in their congregation, even though God’s Word quite clearly tells them not to. Yet this isn’t just the fault of the pastors today. We are all at fault. This applies to every single one of us. If we are sinning, then we need to repent! If we are in fellowship with someone who professes to be saved and yet is living in sin, then we need to stop immediately, repent and confess that sin. Certainly we can talk to to those people and tell the the Truth, share the real Gospel with them, but if they will not hear it, then we are to shake the dust off our feet and sadly leave them in Satan’s hands. No, this doesn’t make for a popular sermon topic today at all I’m afraid. I’m sure it probably wasn’t all that popular back in Paul’s time either.
Hebrews 12:16-17 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
Finally we are warned to watch for those who are godless like Esau. I’m sure you all remember the story of Esau and how he sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. The NIV translates the word “godless” but it is probably better understood as “profane” as the KJV translates it.
pro•faned; pro•fan•ing
1 : to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt : desecrate
2 : to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use — pro•fan•er
1 : not concerned with religion or religious purposes : secular
2 : not holy because unconsecrated, impure, or defiled : unsanctified
3 a : serving to debase or defile what is holy : irreverent
Esau was profane because of his intention, not just the act itself. He intentionally determined that having that food was more important and having priority over what God considered sacred—his inheritance. Are you beginning to see the picture that he is drawing for us here? In this picture the author is showing us that one group is throwing away the opportunity of salvation for the pleasures of the flesh (sexual immorality) and other is throwing it away for the pleasures of the world, that of food. They are perhaps putting off salvation so that they can have the temporary pleasure of their sins, thinking that they can be saved later. By doing that, just like Esau, they are being profane by considering the salvation of their souls as something “common” rather then as something “sacred.” They do not consider God’s offer of salvation as anything special or extraordinary—rather it simply another option to them that they may or may not someday consider.
Hebrews 12:17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
Therefore the Lord says that there is no possible salvation available to them later. Their hearts have now been hardened beyond the point of them ever being able to be saved. This is why this author and elsewhere in God’s Word, they encourage us to respond immediately to the Gospel:
Hebrews 3:7-8 So, as the Holy Spirit says:“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert,
Hebrews 3:12-19 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said:“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of
For the unsaved person, their hearts become hardened to the Gospel every time they hear it and do not act on it. For us, we become hardened to the effects of sin each time we sin and do not repent and confess it. We become hardened to it when we see others living in unrepentant sin and say nothing to them if the Lord has placed us in a position to do so.
The longer someone walks with Christ, the softer their heart is and the more they will view things like He does. I see this in my own life just as I’m sure you do in yours. For example, I watched many programs on TV before I was saved that now simply turn my stomach. First after I got saved, I began to simply feel “uncomfortable” about those programs. Then I began to recognize the sins represented in the programs and was embarrassed by them; and could no longer watch them. Occasionally I would see a commercial about one and by then my feeling had changed from embarrassment to a great sadness and finally from a great sadness to the sadness mixed with disgust and righteous anger. Another thing I noticed too was that as I grew, I began to realize more things were sinful then just the “obvious” sins shown. So while initially I may have stopped watching the program due to the promiscuity, or foul language or both, later I realized they were promoting many other ungodly behaviors in a more subtle way.
The point being that one of two things is going to happen to us. We are either going to become more like Christ every day as He softens our hearts, or we’re going to become more like the world every day as we allow the world to harden our hearts toward sin.
Considering that, it makes me very afraid for all the people in this world because often even in our churches, God’s ways have been profaned. They are no longer taught much less enforced and are treated pretty much as though they are irrelevant today. Sin is ignored and often God is treated like the great Genie who is only there to grant your wishes and keep you out of Hell. Perhaps some might even go so far as to say that it doesn’t matter anymore because we are no longer under the old covenant but under the new….somehow I think that sounds exactly like the type of thing the author was telling us to watch out for.
Hebrews 10:28-29 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing (profaned) the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Saturday, November 21, 2009
God's Warning To Us
God's Warning To Us
Today I’d like to cover a different part of a passage we’ve already looked at as we didn’t get to look at all it has to say to us. The subtitle for this passage in my bible is: Warning Against Refusing God. Now for the passage itself which I’m sure you’ll recognize right away:
Hebrews 12:14-17 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
We’ve already discussed the very first sentence of this passage and now I’d like to try and cover some of the rest of it (there’s just too much packed into it though to cover it all today) starting with the verse,See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. In the KJV, it is translated,
Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Although both are saying the same thing, I think the KJV gives us a better picture of what he’s saying in this case. To put it bluntly he is telling us that we are to keep our eyes open, watching to make sure that no one in our fellowship is just pretending to be saved, because if they are then they have missed the grace of God and will eventually become bitter which could then infect many of us. The author was probably thinking of this passage in the Old Testament when he said this:
Deuteronomy 29:18-21 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.” This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.The Lord will never be willing to forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.The Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
I’m afraid that what the author is saying to us in these passages is something that today’s church seems to be scared to death to preach because it certainly goes against the worlds teaching of “tolerance”, and “I’m OK, You’re OK”. Why is the author concerned about this enough to tell us to always keep careful watch to make sure there is no one like this in our fellowship? I believe he does so for a couple of reasons.
First, true love always warns the one they love if they are in danger. I realize that again this is counter to the worlds teaching, but it is the truth. When we see a person who is just pretending to be saved and born again, they are still very much in danger of going to hell. They desperately need to be warned and told the Truth so they can really become saved. Unfortunately most of us have been brainwashed by both the world and even our churches to turn our heads the other way, and even to believe that we cannot, or should not “judge” someone that way. If that was true, then why would we be told to watch out for them??? We wouldn’t be of course. We’ve covered the false teaching that we are not to judge in other studies so I’m not going to get sidetracked on that here, regardless of how tempting it is. So the first reason we are to watch out for this is quite simply to hopefully get them really saved so that they won’t die and go to hell. Many people today that have finally come to the realization that they can judge if a person is saved or not, will still do nothing, figuring either that the unsaved person is at least going to church every Sunday so hopefully they’ll come to the truth on their own, or they’ll tell themselves it’s not their job to speak to this person—that the elders or pastor should be the one to do it. When we do that though all we’re really doing is passing the buck, and when it comes to a persons soul being lost for all eternity, that’s a very sad state of affairs. When the Lord points something like that out to us, He doesn’t do it so we can pass the buck, He shows us because He wants us to do something about it. Again though the world and even our churches have taught us all over the years to sit back, relax, do nothing, and let the pastor do it all. That however is not the way the Lord says for us to do things.
The second reason for telling us to watch out for such a person is that when someone is simply pretending to saved, they are not really understanding God’s Word, no matter how many years’s they go to church. Only those who have the Holy Spirit indwelling them can really understand God’s Word. When this happens, it causes some pretty big problems. Those who are saved can rely on the Lord’s strength to get through hard times, but this unsaved person cannot rely on the Lord because they’re not saved. So they are constantly struggling to do it all themselves in order to keep up this charade. That is a huge load for them to carry and sooner or later it will break them, and they will become bitter.
When they become bitter, they then can do a number of different things. They can begin to twist scriptures themselves to make it seem that those who really are saved are wrong and they are right, they could get caught up in another false teachers doctrine and accept that, or they could simply become bitter at God and seek to make others feel the same way. They won’t have much luck with others who are already mature in Christ, but they could injure many baby Christians with their bitterness.
Notice what it says they think in the Old Testament passage: When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.”
The disciples write quite a bit to counter this thinking throughout the New Testament, just as they do to counter it’s opposite which is that those who are saved must follow all the laws and commandments, feasts etc of the old covenant. Interestingly to me, we still have both of these “sects” of false teaching today. There are the legalists, or hebrew roots folks that think you have to practically become a mini Jew to be really saved and please God, and those who think you can do anything at all you want to once you are saved and it won’t matter. Then there are those that are in the kind of in the middle. They have been told they are saved, maybe because they said a “sinners prayer” or perhaps because they were baptized as infants or children, or for any number of reasons. They don’t read their bibles much because they’re really not that interested. They usually lead a fairly worldly life except that they might go to church on Sundays. Then when they hear about the rapture or they begin to think about death, or someone confronts them with these things, they think they are safe; they think they’re going to heaven, but they’re not, because they’re really not saved. All these kinds of people are the ones we’re supposed to watch out for and see to it that they DO hear the true Gospel. Then if they do not repent, they are to be put outside the fellowship so that they don’t infect any others with their false way of living or teaching.
One of the first things that comes to my mind when I read “that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” is this verse
1 Corinthians 5:6 … Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?
This is why the Lord is always telling us to separate ourselves from those who are not true believers. Yet we rarely take it to heart. Look at what Paul says about this here:
Ephesians 4:17-19 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
The more we are around “sin” the more we lose our sensitivity to it. The more “normal” it becomes. The more normal it becomes, the more acceptable it becomes. That’s exactly what’s happened in the world today, and it is unfortunately happening just as quickly in the church itself! No wonder the Lord warns us not to associate with those who are living in unrepentant sin! Notice something else Paul says in the very first line: he “insists on it in the Lord”. In other words he is saying this to us with the authority of God behind him! It’s as though God Himself were saying it to us, that’s the kind of importance that phrase holds! How much clearer can he make it before we will listen?
We will look at the rest of this tomorrow.
Monday, November 16, 2009
God's Warning To Us
God's Warning To Us
Hebrews 12:14-29 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
1 Peter 1:15-16 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1 Peter 2:9-12 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
Since I had to end the last one early let’s pick up from where we left off. We were talking about the fact that we are commanded to be holy. This is yet another way the Lord commands us to be set apart from the unsaved people in this world. I know that we have discussed being set apart for the Lord several times in the past so I won’t go into it in detail here, although if you have questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. Let’s just remember the basics of being set apart before we go further.
God has a number of reasons for telling us that He wants us to be separate from the unsaved people in the world just as He did for telling the Jew’s that He wanted them to be separate from the rest of the world. One reason is so that we won’t be contaminated by their sins, attitudes and beliefs. Unsaved people have a secular worldview, not a biblical one. For example they may believe in evolution rather then that God created the world. That may not sound like a big deal but if you did a study on the difference and how it affects us, you would be amazed at just how much it does! Regardless of that though, a secular worldview is devoid of absolute Truth. To the world truth is whatever you make it to be.
We know better than that though. We know there really is absolute Truth, and absolute right and wrong. We know there really is such a thing as evil, and Satan and demons. We know that we have a sin nature as does everyone else and we know that we are not worthy of being called by God or being saved by Him. We know too though that He saves us anyway because of His love and grace. For the unbelievers though, they don’t think they are sinful. They don’t understand when we talk about how badly we feel when we sin. At the very best they might think of a sin as a simple “mistake” but it’s certainly no big deal to them. They consider themselves “good” and cannot understand that no matter how “good” they are that compared to the pure goodness and holiness of our God, they would be filthy! The Lord doesn’t want us to be contaminated by these views. He wants us to be separate so that we can learn and apply His Truth and live by it without being contaminated by the world. He knows that when you give Satan an inch, he will take a mile and when we are not separated from the unsaved we are giving Satan that inch.
To be holy then, the Lord tells us we must be separate from the world, separate from the unsaved people of the world. He even tells us that we are to avoid those who have been born again but are not living their faith as well as those who are false teachers. He tells us this for the same reason, He doesn’t want us contaminated by them. He wants us to be like Him.
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
More then that, He commands us to be like Him.
Matthew 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
It’s easy to see from all of this that the Lord’s warning to us throughout scripture is to fear Him, accept His gift of salvation, set ourselves apart from the rest of the world, walk in faith and be holy as He is. The world walks by sight, but we must walk by faith. The next portion of Hebrews discusses this.
Hebrews 11:1-3 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.This is what the ancients were commended for.By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
First the author explains to us what faith is. I’m sure we’re all very familiar with that verse, but let’s look at it closely anyway. Faith is being sure of what we hope for. What exactly is it that we hope for anyway? Do we “hope” for salvation? NO! We are already saved so we don’t need to hope for that. What we hope for, what we are waiting for is the redemption of our bodies; for our salvation to be complete. That will happen at the rapture and that is what the following verses as well as many others explain. We are told then that we are to be certain of what we don’t see. He wants us to be sure of what we hope for, to be sure of the rapture and more then “just the rapture” but to be certain that we understand that when the rapture takes place, we will receive our new bodies (this is sometimes referred to as the redemption of our bodies) and our salvation will be complete. We cannot see these things with out eyes now, so He tells us to be certain of what we can’t see, just as the world erroneously is often certain of what they can see. We are to have faith that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us to save us and give us new bodies free from the stain of sin, to match what He has already given us, our new spirits or natures, which we received the moment we became saved.
Romans 8:23-25 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
1 Thessalonians 5:8-11 But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Remember that verse that says that the Lord has given us the Holy Spirit as a deposit to guarantee what is coming? This is what the Holy Spirit is guaranteeing. He is our guarantee that our salvation will be completed by our receiving our new bodies (called the redemption of our bodies) at the rapture.
Ephesians 1:13-14 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Now there is only one way we can have that faith, that we can be sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see—the only way is through constant study of His Word and prayer! There are no short cuts. I know you’re probably sick and tired of hearing me say this, but it is probably one of the most important things that the Lord asks of us. If we do not do this, we cannot become mature; we cannot be sure or certain of anything and we cannot please Him. The more I study this, the more convinced I become that the doctrine of the rapture, in particularly the pre-trib rapture is a vital part of the main Gospel message and that understanding it is vital for understanding our salvation and all of God's Word. I am becoming convinced that the rapture doctrine is part of what Paul was speaking of when he said that if anyone taught a different gospel or different Jesus that they were cursed. Once again I’ve managed to make this much longer then I intended so we’ll have to work on the rest of this tomorrow.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
God's Warning To Us
Another member wrote about yesterdays study:
Notice the scripture doesn't say: ...."no sacrifice for sins is left, but only the judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."
No, it says "no sacrifice for sins is left, but only the fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."
Exactly!!! Thank you so very much for pointing that out! That's exactly what I was trying to get across to and totally missed that! Thank you!
it says "no sacrifice for sins is left, but only the fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God."
This is another way that we can tell that the author was speaking hypothetically and that he wasn't saying that we can lose our salvation.
God's Warning To Us
Let's go on today to another sticky warning in Hebrews. This section is titled: Warning Against Refusing God. I'm going to break it into three parts to make it easier to discuss and so you don't have to keep going back and forth to read it again to see what we're talking about.
Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
1 Peter 1:15-16 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1 Peter 2:9-12 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
As we can see from the above verses, the only way in which we can be holy is to rely totally on the Lord, recognizing that we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ now that we are saved and that all our words and actions should show the world that we are so clothed. We know that the more we study His Word and the more time we spend in prayer, that the Lord uses this to bring us closer to Him and to make us more and more like Him every day. We cannot become more like Him without also becoming holy as He is holy.
Obviously, being human there will be times when we slip and sin. When that happens though all we need to do is run to Him asking his forgiveness as we repent and we will be cleansed from that sin. This is yet another difference between us and the world. The people of the world couldn't care less if they sin. They don't see sin as something bad, or rather they don't see the things they do as bad or as sin. Deep down they know better but they suppress the Truth by their wickedness. (Romans 1:19)
The warning in this first part is that we are to be holy or we are not going to wind up in heaven.
So although there are many different degrees, all of them have one thing in common. They do not look exactly like the world. They love the Lord and at least to some degree attempt to please Him and would never purposely go out and do something to shame Him.
The author here is attempting to spur us on to be more holy.
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Make every effort to live in peace with all men
Make every effort to be holy;
without holiness no one will see the Lord.
So you see here, he is telling us that we should be making every effort to be holy every day of our lives. This life here is a golden opportunity for us and much that we do here cannot be done once we die and get to heaven. We will not have another chance to grow to maturity and earn those rewards He has for us.
Reading that almost sounds like what I'm after is the reward, but that's not at all true. What I am after is pleasing my Lord. I know from His Word that He wants me to make every effort to be holy right now. He doesn't want me to wait till I die. I really want to hear Him say, "well done my good and faithful servant" because then I'll know I made Him happy. Yes, I want the rewards too, the crowns and all because I cannot wait to lay them at His feet! Just like every child wants to please their earthly parents, I want to please my Heavenly Father, my Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I want to make them proud of me. There is only one way I can do that--by spending as much time as I possibly can in prayer and in His Word. That is the only way we can grow and become more like Him.
I'm afraid (lucky for you lol) that I allowed myself to get distracted as I had to answer another bible question, so i don't have time to do any more on this today. We'll have to pick it up tomorrow from where we left off here.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
God's Warning To Us
Yesterday we discussed how the Lord has certain expectations of us once we are saved and how He has left warnings for us in His Word that we are not to be lazy or apathetic but are instead to always seek to know Him better, to be closer to Him and to know His Word and His Will. Hebrews to me is one of the harder books to understand because we so often misinterpret it out of fear. We are so afraid that we might lose our salvation that we often think that's what this book in particular is saying. We know at least to a degree how sinful and even lazy we are, so we often think that because of this the Lord must be saying we will lose our salvation. Thankfully though, that's not the case. When studying His Word we must remember that the Bible never contradicts itself and that it will always interpret itself. We therefore don't need to interpret it, we simply need to keep praying for understanding and keep studying His Word while He shows us what He is saying in it. So today, we're going to look at another warning we are given in Hebrews and see what it is saying to us.
Hebrews 10:26-38 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”
The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the very first two words in this passage. Those word are, "if we". Now, keeping in mind that the word "if" means that this is a hypothetical situation being discussed and the word "we" means that the author is including himself in what he is saying, go back and read through the passage one more time.
The author is warning them that IF someone who is saved should willfully and knowingly insult the Holy Spirit and reject Christ, literally despise Him and consciously and willfully prevent the Holy Spirit from working in them after they have been saved, then that person would be counted an enemy of God and be under His judgment. The important word in this is the word "If". The author is not saying this has happened, or that it ever will. He is simply saying what would happen "if it did happen". A truly saved person would never reject the Lord or the Holy Spirit. That's why we feel badly when we sin. We know from God's Word that we cannot lose our salvation, so why is the author bringing up this hypothetical situation when he must know that he would be scaring some people out of their wits? The answer to that question is given at the beginning of this letter and all through it, he is trying to warn us to "pay attention" to get up off our behinds and start doing the things that the Lord has called us to do, instead of just sitting on our hands. He tells us over and over again in this letter that if we are not actively growing in Christ, then we are drifting away. He doesn't want us to continue to drift away and possibly lose even what we have already attained. (not our salvation-our rewards). This is the beginning of the passage we started with yesterday where he tells us why he is saying these things:
Hebrews 2:1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
Then, toward the end of the passage we're looking at today he says:
Hebrews 10:35-36 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
In fact, just before he goes into the passage we're looking at today, he says:
Hebrews 10:22-25 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Are you seeing the theme here yet? He is trying to prod us ever onward toward maturity in Christ. He is also letting us know in no uncertain terms that if we are disobedient there will be repercussions. Again, we will not lose our salvation, he was talking about apostasy in order to put the fear of God in us. Being a mother I often think of things in terms of how I raised my children. To me this is similar to when I would tell them that if they ever did such and such that I would "beat them within an inch of their lives"! They knew very well that I never had and never would "beat" them at all, much less within an inch of their lives. They understood that when I said that, I was stressing just how very wrong something was and that they had better never even consider doing it. This is what the author is saying in the first part of our passage today. He is also trying to get them to understand that they will be disciplined however when they are disobedient. He says that the Lord will judge His people. The words in our Bibles are not "suggestions", nor is the bible a "self help" book. God's Word contains His commands to us about how we are to live once we have been saved. There are consequences when we don't obey, and that is really what the author was trying to get across, hoping that by letting them know about the consequences, it would spur them on to obedience. This is also discussed by Peter:
1 Peter 4:17-19 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
From all of this we can see that the author is doing his best to let us know that if we do not obey the Lord there will be consequences. He even says that our knowledge of God after being saved should cause us to be more aware of God's judgment of us and not less. I am not talking about God's "final" judgment, but instead I'm talking about His discipline. Too often people think that because they are saved, nothing "bad" can happen to them and that is an outright lie. God has and will judge/discipline us for our disobedience and we will reap the consequences of His judgment/discipline in our lives.
Right after he warns them this way, he reminds them of their recent past and how they have given up much already for the Lord's sake. After reminding them of how and why they had endured what they had already, he encourages them by saying:
Hebrews 10:35-36 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
He wants them to remember that they are storing up treasure in heaven with every single thing that they go through. He wants us to know that too; remember, God's Word was written for you and me just as much as it was written for those who were actually alive in those days. We are storing up treasure in heaven with every trial we go through, with every sacrifice we make.
Hebrews 10:37-39 For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
Notice that in the closing statements He calls us His righteous ones. If you look back at the passage from 1 Peter, it too talks about the righteous. Do you recall what we studied yesterday about the righteous?
Hebrews 5:13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
He told us that the teaching about righteousness is something that only comes to those who are becoming mature in Christ. It is not known to those who have been lazy and are still baby Christians and either don't have even the fundamentals down or are still learning them. So here again is a subtle rebuke that they need to be studying God's word harder, and living by faith not by sight. Living by faith is so crucial to our walk that this is repeated several times:
Romans 1:17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Galatians 3:11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”
2 Corinthians 5:7 We live by faith, not by sight.
Our Lord wants us to come to know Him intimately. He wants us to increase our faith so that we can walk confidently and securely in that faith throughout our lives here until He comes for us. The only way we can do that is by staying in His Word daily. Not just "reading it" as though it was some kind of obligation or duty to get through as quickly as possible. Not by trying to determine just how little we can get away with reading each day and still be obedient; but rather by constantly being in prayer as we read, asking for understanding and wisdom and discernment. We need to look at our Bibles as letters to us from our God who loves us so dearly He died for us, and who took the time to make sure ALL that we would ever need to know would be available for us in His Word. So let us read our bibles daily, carefully, reflecting on what we read and studying His Word, so that we can become mature in Christ and learn the teaching about righteousness that is from faith.
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
God's Warning To Us
God's Warning To Us
Hebrews 2:1-3 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
The world "therefore" in the above passage shows that this warning to pay more careful attention to what we've heard, comes because of what had been speaking about just prior to this. Let's take a quick look at what was being discussed in chapter 1 then:
Hebrews 1:1-4 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
As you can plainly see from these first four verses, chapter one is about Jesus and just how powerful He is and how superior to anyone and anything He is. Now we know that the author is telling the Hebrews that because Jesus is so powerful, because He is God, we had better pay attention to what He says and what He asks of us. He then says that if we don't pay careful attention that we may very well drift away.
Who exactly is being spoken to here? Is he talking to others who are mature in Christ, or to baby Christians or someone in between, or perhaps those who aren't saved? To find the answer to that we have to look ahead a bit further:
Hebrews 5:11-6:3 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.
From these passages we can see that he is speaking to people who are born again and apparently have been saved for quite some time. In fact, they've been saved for so long, he says they should already be teachers themselves!
How many times have you read those passages and assumed that they were being spoken to someone other then yourself? I know that for a very long time I did. I for sure was not a teacher and had no desire to be one! I just wanted to learn for myself. Besides, Paul said that teaching was a gift, and I knew I certainly didn't have that gift! Yet here, (and in many other places as well) it is quite obvious that he is speaking to a general audience of believers; the same audience you might find in any church today. In other words, he is speaking to me, and to you, and to every single person who has been saved who is not yet mature in Christ!
Furthermore, he is not happy with those of us who have been saved awhile and still are not mature in Christ; in fact, he is basically saying that they are being lazy and immature!
He even tells us what is considered to be the basics of our faith which would be the things that even a baby Christian should know. He says going beyond those things, is when you begin to push onward toward maturity in Christ. Let me share the part of the passage again that shows just what the basics are:
Hebrews 6:1-2 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
So these are the things that everyone should know quite well:
1. the elementary teachings of Christ; or the basic principals of Christianity, which would include the fact that He is God, he came to earth and lived among us and died for our sins and rose again, and that He is coming back. It would include knowing that we are saved by faith in Christ alone and not by works.
2. repentance from acts that lead to death, or repentance of sin and for this particular audience especially it would include repentance of thinking that following the legalistic rules of Judaism would get them into heaven;
3. faith in God; again stressing that we are saved by faith and not by works
4. instruction about baptism,
So all these various areas are considered the basics. What is beyond those is where the author wants us to go. He actually says:
This then is what he wanted to teach them yet couldn't because they were still all muddled up in their understanding of the basics. This then is the reason for his warning to them. Here they were, born again and yet not bearing fruit! He was angry and upset that they could be so lazy when Jesus had given His life for them! In fact, the second passage I posted, is part of his third warning to them! All in all he gave them 5 warnings in this letter. I should say he gave "us" 5 warnings in this letter. To get us back on track however, let me re-post the original warning we were speaking of:
Basically what is being said to us here is that if God exacted punishment for violations of His law in the first covenant, then he will also exact punishment for violations in his new covenant. Now that's certainly NOT something we hear preached about in most churches today!
Yet this is exactly what we are being told we need most to learn and he calls it a:
"teaching about righteousness" in Heb 5:13. Is he talking about us going to hell? No, absolutely not! We can know that because throughout this letter, he is constantly saying "we" and not "you". Since we know for sure that he was saved, we can then safely assume that he is speaking to other believers that are really saved. In the above passages we can see that he is pretty vague about what the penalties will be, but we are told more about this in other places.
What I'd like to concentrate on for this week is the fact that we HAVE been warned. We have been warned by the Lord to pay attention to His Word and to do what He commands. We have been warned that if we do not do this that there will be consequences and that they won't be pleasant ones. He is telling us here that there is MUCH more to being a Christian then simply being born again and showing up for church on Sunday. He is telling each and every one of us that the Lord requires some things of us.
Does this mean the gift of salvation is not free? Not at all! It IS free! The only way I can think of to explain it is the way I used in another recent study. Suppose I give you a gift of a big box of Lego's. Now the gift is really a gift; you do not have to do anything to get it, nor do you have to pay for it. It's yours and I will never take it back from you. So, you accept the gift, and in this scenario we'll say that the acceptance of the gift is you opening the box of Lego's so you can see them. Now you have a choice.
1. you can sit there and stare at those legos as long as you want to and they are not going to do anything more then lay there. If you get bored looking at them, you can stuff the box in your closet and never open it again if you so choose. Those legos will still always be yours and no one will take them away. Or
2. You can reach inside the box, take some legos out and start building something magnificent with them. If you do that, it will be "work" and there will be parts of that "work" that you will enjoy and parts that may seen boring, and other parts that may seem exciting at times, and even times when it's frustrating because they are not doing what you want. Regardless of that, they will always belong to you and no one will ever take them away.
The people who are being spoken to in this letter are like the person in my first example. They are saved but they have never done anything with it. God wants us to be like the person in my second example. He wants us to bear fruit for Him. That is why we have been saved. The only way we can bear fruit however is if we use our legos!
This has already become longer then I intended so tomorrow we'll look at this some more and also hopefully begin looking at what the Lord would have us do to be the people He called us to be and to avoid the punishment that will surely come if we don't use our legos.