How to Establish Religious Authority #9

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 resides in the soul of man the natural inborn desire and need to seek and reach out beyond the mortal realm and find his creator. It is a natural longing that is explained in Eccl. 3:11?14.
Vs. 14. What does that mean? God has set in man’s heart a desire to seek Him. And God has made a way for man to seek and find Him. That way of seeking and finding God has been established and made known and it cannot be changed. “It endures forever, nothing can be added to it and nothing can be taken from it.” That is precisely where man has missed the boat from the day he was cast out of the Garden of Eden for failing to follow God’s directives.
God has always given man specific instructions how to serve and worship Him. But unfortunately, the vast majority of humanity has chosen to worship God in their own prescribes way, rather than yielding to the explicit instruction which God has given, in terms of how that is to be done. In this series of studies, we know that God wants us to serve Him in the way He has told us, in the Bible. The Bible was written and given to man to tell us how to find God and how to worship Him once He is found. God has always established how He will be served. 1 Cor. 14:33, says, “For God is not a God of disorder or confusion.” God does not leave us in confusion and disorder and without instruction when it comes to finding and worshiping Him in a way that is right and acceptable.
(2) Even in heaven, among the angelic beings, there is a system of order that has been established and is followed without exception. 2 Pet. 2:4?5; Jude 6. 1 Jno. 3:4, Transgress means to violate, break. When Angels sinned, we understand that they were under a law to God and they violated, they broke that law of God. In the Old Testament God gave the Jewish Nation a written law to which they were accountable. Heavy penalties resulted when they violated that law.
(1) And today, the world is under law to God in the Christian system. That reality is stated in both the Old and the New Testaments. Isa. 2:3, is a prophecy of the Church Jesus said He would build. Jer. 31:31-34. It will be a new kind of covenant and in that covenant God said, “I will write my law on their minds and in their hearts.” New Testament Christianity is a system of law.
1 Cor. 9:21, “We are not free from God’s law, we are under Christ’s law.” You and I are under law to Christ. You need to remember that and understand that the Theocratic Kingdom of Christ has laws that govern that kingdom and it’s citizens. Gal. 6:2, says that when we follow Christ’s commands and live the Christian life, and help each other to do that, “we fulfill the law of Christ.”
God has given His law that enables us to be restored to Him through Jesus. What’s so hard to understand about that? We sing a song that explains it. “Give me the Bible law and love combining.” (Pg. 501 in our song book). God in His love, and by His grace, has given us spiritual laws to live by so we can find our way back to Him and receive salvation from our sin and inherit eternal life. That law of Christ was established on the first Pentecost Feast after His death, burial, resurrection and ascention back into heaven. Acts 2:1-28:31, Is God’s inspired, historical record of when and how that church was established.
(2) The fact that we admit that we sin is an admission that we are under law to God. In that law God tells us how to find Him and how to worship and serve Him in Spirit and in truth. If that is true then why is there so much confusion in the religious world about how we are to obey God? You cannot deny that there is confusion. The fact that there are denominations and division among those who claim to be Christians is proof that most do not follow the law of God and do not worship God in spirit and in truth.

In this series we will look at this and understand why and how men have made such a mess in their self determined attempts at worshiping God. First understand that there are commands in the Bible that are Moral and there are commands that are Religious in nature. What we need to do is learn how to tell the difference between the two. #1 Moral commands are commands given to you by God that have to do with your conduct toward your fellow man. Laws that regulate activity between human beings.
By way of contrast Religious laws have to do with your relationship with God. Moral laws are horizontal-----outward toward each other. And Religious laws are vertical. They govern our responsibility to God.
(3) Example: Old Testament law, “Do not steal.” regulates social activity. I do not have the right to take from you what is yours. I do not have the right to take your life. Therefore the law, “Do not murder,” is given to protect the lives of your fellow human beings. The law, “Honor your father and mother,” regulates domestic relationships. Teach us to respect other humans.
(1) There were also religious laws. Commands to offer up certain sacrifices to God. They were told What to Sacrifice, When to Sacrifice, How to Sacrifice and Where that Sacrifice was to be made. That did not relate to conduct between humans. It related to their worship and personal relationship to God. It was an act to test their faith and to teach them and condition them how to Honor, Respect and be Obedient to God.
(1) That is also true of those taught Requirements in Christianity. Rom. 12:1?2. We become living sacrifices to God. And this is our reasonable service of worship to God. Reasonable service of worship is called worshiping God in “Spirit and in Truth.”
(2) We are to offer sacrifice and worship to God that is acceptable to God. How do we know what is acceptable? We don’t know, therefore God has to tell us Himself. We can know what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God? In only one way. By studying, believing and obeying God’s Word.
(2) Jno. 8:31?32. What is the truth about which Jesus is speaking? God’s Written Word. In His prayer for His disciples Jesus prayed, “Father, sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” Jno. 17:17.
(a) I have only one question for you this hour. Have you believed in God’s truth? Have you obeyed God’s truth that brings you into His salvation? If so, do you continue to walk in the truth of His Word?
(1) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 04/06/03 am