How to Establish Religious Authority #22
(A) There is a doctrine taught by a popular denomination that
teaches, Once saved always saved. In
short it teaches that you cannot fall from grace. Once you are
saved there is nothing you can do to loose your salvation and
be lost. That doctrine is NOT found in the Bible and it is false
to the core. One of the great tragedies is that this false doctrine
encourages sin and can lead people to be lost. Rev. 3:1-3, That
says, It is possible for congregations and individuals to conduct
themselves in such a way that the Lord disowns them----Thats
falling from grace. In Rev. 2:1-5, Jesus speaks these words of
warning to the thriving congregation at Ephesus. That is a stern
warning and it warns about the possibility of falling from grace.
1. Acts 8:21?23, The apostle Peter speaks to a saved, baptized
believer named Simon. Does he remain saved if unrepentant? What
about the Judaizing teachers who were teaching Gentile Christians
that in addition to being baptized into Christ they had to be
circumcised and keep the law of Moses? Pauls reply is clear
and final. Gal. 5:4, You who are trying to be justified
by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from
grace. You add false doctrines to the gospel of Christ,
or change the gospel of Christ and you fall from grace. Thus saith
the Lord.
1. Leaving the Lord and losing your salvation is not usually a
thing one does overnight. It is such a gradual process that we
sometimes do not even notice what is going on until we are far
away from the Lord. Thats why Heb. 2:1, reminds us, We
must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard,
so that we do not drift away. Ever walk into a dark restaurant
and try to get seated and read the menu? You cant see until
your eyes gradually get used to the dark. Falling away from Christ
is like that. It does not happen over night. It is a gradual process
of taking one small, seemingly, innocent step at a time away from
God until you are so far away you dont even know that you
have strayed.
(A) There are two distinct things that take place along the road
of unfaithfulness to the Lord and to be forewarned is to
be forearmed. The first step is a change in attitude toward Divine
authority. We are the followers of Jesus, who is both Christ and
Lord ? That is the absolute statement of Acts. 2:36. Jesus is
anointed Ruler over the Messianic Kingdom. Thats why Matt.
28:18. He has the authority to command and expect our obedience.
That means that when you become a Christian, you submit yourself
to Jesus as the Lord of your life. The noun Lord means He is your
Master, Ruler----You are subservient to Him. He has all rights
and you have none. Maybe you never knew that. Maybe thats
the reason youve always given Him nothing more than lip
service, been a Christian in name only. Never made Him the Lord,
Master, Ruler of all you are and all you have.
(1) Rom. 6:15?16, Don't you know that when you offer yourselves
to someone to obey him as servant, you become His slave, and you
are to be obedient to the one to whom you are a slave. We
are to treat with utmost reverence every aspect of His will
that means we put away any thought, word, any deed that does not
meet with His approval. Eph. 5:17. Col. 3:17. Jno. 14:15?24.
(2) Secondly. Jesus placed great emphasis on the importance of
the kind of attitude that wants to do His will. If
you ever cease to have that attitude, your faith has
become little better than that of the devils. Thats the
statement of Jas. 2:19-20. A heart that is unsubmissive before
the will of God is an unfaithful heart before the face of God
Himself!
(B) Many people today disrespect God by changing or ignoring what
God has commanded in the Bible. Do you remember King Solomon?
Who would have thought that Solomons attitude toward God
would change so drastically that he would actually build places
for the worship of idols? Read with me, 1 Kgs. 11:1?11. Just because
a Christian or congregation is doing what God commands in His
Word, is no guarantee that will always be the case. Solomon, the
wisest man in the world, didnt. He was rejected by God.
(1) The apostle Paul warned the Church leadership at Ephesus about
this in no uncertain terms, Acts 20:28?31. That states the reality
and possibility of both individuals and congregations going into
apostasy and falling from grace. In fact Paul prophecies how people
will do it and identifies them two of the false doctrines they
will teach, 1 Tim. 4:1-5. And then he repeats the warning and
states why they go into apostacy, 2 Tim. 4:1-4. How did they go
off into apostasy and fall from grace? They left the Word of God
and began to teach doctrines, false humn ideas and made-up religious
mythology instead of teaching, believing and obeying Gods
written Word. Somewhere along the way they changed their practices
taught in the Bible and replace the Bible with denominational
doctrines.
(2) Some people today are wanting an alternate way
of worshiping God. We need a spiritual and cultural
change in the church. What does that mean? We want to make
some radical changes in our doctrine and practice but we still
want to use some of the terminology that reflects Bible teaching.
But we DO NOT want to believe that one has to be bound by divine
authority and scriptural teaching.
(3) You can spot them by their arguments: We do not have
to have authority for what we do. People, today, are not bound
by the New Testament. The voice of the church is equal in authority
to the voice of the Scriptures. We need a new hermeneutic.
That means we need a new way of interpreting the Bible so we can
pick and choose what we want and interpret it the way we want.
This is usually the last thing to change when a person or congregation
has left the Lord. Its like walking into that dark room
and waiting until your eyes get so used to the dark that you begin
to mistake the dark for light. It is a long, slow, methodical
process that often takes many years, or even several generations,
for people to sear their conscious to the point they can ignore
Gods word with a shrug and a smile.
(4) What you believe and practice must not reflect and outward
appearance of Biblical truth. It must be in harmony with Biblical
Truth as it is taught in the Bible. God expects us to worship
Him in the spirit and the truth of His Word as it really is and
Not as we suppose it to be or as it might appear to be.
Rev. 2:4?5.
Acts 20:32.
Spur - 07/13/03 am
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