How to Establish Religious Authority #8

A. We’re in a series of lessons that enables us to look at the many ways mankind
seeks to find, approach and serve God. There is in man the natural inborn desire to
seek and serve his creator. It is a natural longing that is explained in Eccl. 3:11?14, “God has
set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to
end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.
That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil?this is the gift of God. I
know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.” Spend some time looking at and understanding this scripture.
Vs. 11, says, God has given us the natural, inborn, inclination to seek Him and the eternal existence He offers. But, it also says, man does not know how to understand the mind of God so they can get back that lost gift of eternal life. That’s the same thing Paul told the Athenians in Acts 17:22-27. God wants us to seek and find Him. We are to seek Him not as we think He is but as He tells us He is. Not in the way we want to seek Him but in the way He tells us to seek.
a. The reason for seeking and finding God is so He can tell us Who He is and how we can be
restored to the eternal fellowship Adam lost in the garden. I cannot read or understand
God’s mind. God has to speak to me and tell me what He has on His mind. That’s what the
Bible is. The Bible is God speaking to me through inspired men, whom He has chosen,
telling me how to be restored. The question is, “Why should we seek God?” Vs. 30?31.
Question? If God no longer overlooks my spiritual ignorance and sin and is going to
judge me for my sin, how do I find out what God wants me to do to get rid of that sin so I
can escape His judgment?
(A) Eccl. 3:11, says, “...yet they cannot fathom (understand) what God has done from
beginning to end.” That means I cannot read God’s mind and therefore I do not know
how to get right with God unless He tells me how to do that. Anything I do, on my
own, is pure conjecture. I don’t know the mind of God therefore I do not know how to
worship God correctly unless He tells me how. I do know He wants me to worship
Him in a certain way. In Jno. 4:24, Jesus said God is seeking people to worship
Him, but that He only accepts those who will “... worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
Jer. 10:23, “...a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his own steps.” I
have to depend on God’s Word to direct my steps so I can worship Him correctly and
be restored. God tells me in the word He gave Jeremiah, Jer. 11:1?3. Jeremiah
also, prophesied that God would replace the covenant He gave to Israel with another
covenant that would take away our sins, Jer. 31:31-34. Jesus said that covenant
was the one He established by shedding His blood on the cross, Matt. 26:27-28.
That New Covenant is what Jesus spoke about in Jno. 4:23?24.

(1) 1 Cor. 2:7-10; 16. Vs. 16, asks "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? That’s a Good question. Who can tell or instruct God how He should be worshiped or how we should be be saved? The latter part of that verse gives us the answer to that question. “But we (we Christians) have the mind of Christ.” How do we have the mind of God? We have the mind of God in the New Testament. Jesus came to reveal the mind of God. If you have the teaching of Jesus, you have the mind of God. Jno. 7:16; 14:24-27; 16:13. By the teaching of Jesus and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the mind of God has been revealed for all time by the New Testament apostles and prophets. They wrote down what God told them and gave it to us in this book we call the Bible. God speaks to us in this Book and thus guides us into all the truth that reveals the mind of God.
(2) Solomon was inspired by God to write an entire chapter about how the wisdom and mind of God would be shown and revealed to man by the coming of Jesus. Prov. 8:1-4. That one who is called “Wisdom” is Jesus. Vs. 6?11. Listen to what this One named “Wisdom” has to say. Vs. 15-17; 22?23; 32-36.
(3) That’s exactly what the apostle Paul says, 1 Cor. 1:21?25. Notice how the mind of God teaches us how to be saved. Vs. 23-25.
(1) It is in Jesus and New Testament Christianity that we are told how to be saved and restored to God. Eph. 3:10?12, Paul says, Here is what God had in His mind when He made a plan to save mankind. Where does that say we can approach God in any other way?
(2) Man was created to live with God eternally. He was Not intended to die. Man disobeyed God, and died. God in love and mercy said I will offer a way (thru Eve’s seed) for man to be forgiven and be restored to that state of living eternally with Him.
(2) Where does that happen? Only in His church. Eph. 3:17?21.
(1) Do you want Christ to dwell in your heart by faith? Do you want to be rooted and established in God’s love and to have the power to know the love of God that passes all understanding and have all the fullness of God in your life? Then you had better be in Christ Jesus and you had better get into Christ the way God has ordained.
(2) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 03/30/03 am