Obedience
Luke 18:21 And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.
Duet 5:1 And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.
Duet 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he [is] God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Romans 7:21 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
(emphasis mine)
There have always been 2 main ways the the church or an individual strays from the scriptures. One is legalism and the other is liberalism. Today I will discuss LIBERALISM or antinomianism. Theologically, antinomianism is the belief that there are no moral laws God expects Christians to obey.
www.gotquestions.org/antinomianism.html.
www.bethmessiah.com/topic-lawandgrace.asp
If you see a bumper sticker that says ” I’m not perfect, just forgiven” you get a picture of the idea. The pagan sees this and says to himself- these Christians sin as much as I do they just confess their sins and fugure they are home free. While we do have liberty in Christ and are not under the law, we are called to be different or like salt.
If our lives are NOT different than the world then where is our witness ? God says “be ye Holy for I am Holy.” Becuase we are saved by grace and we are forgiven does NOT give us license to sin.
The letters to the Corinthians addresses these issues. There they had a man who was having sexual relations with his father’s wife and the congregation had not disciplined the man. Also in the book of Revalations there are letters addressed to 7 churches. These churches can represent historical churches at the time, typical churches in various times of history and individual churches today or even individual believers today. In each letter Jesus commends each church for some things and rebukes them for others ( the Philadelphia church does not recieve a rebuke, perhaps also the Smyrna church).-taken from here…www.biblebb.com/files/mac/gc1290.htm
The third letter is written to the church in the town of Pergamum, or Pergamos. And this is in chapter 2 verse 12 through 17 and this is the church married to the world. This is the worldly church. And he describes their worldliness down through verse 15 and then in verse 16 he says, “Repent, or else I’ll come unto thee quickly and fight against them with the sword of My mouth.” This is the church Christ fights against, the church that is married to the world. And in all periods of the church’s history there are worldly churches where the people don’t come out from the world, where they cater to the world, where they accommodate the world, where they go along with everything that’s happening in society.
So, liberalism spiritually means taking grace and forgiveness to an extreme, thinking that it gives you license to sin. It is cheap grace where you live just like those in the world but confess your sins.
The apostle John said…If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
Comments ?
Funny, I was just ranting to my wife(poor soul) about this same thing. We and the modern church are afraid to take a stand about anything, even as we see our values go down the drain.
Too many teachers and Sunday School teachers had rather teach a history lesson, and not apply it in any way to today’s world.
We WILL be held accountable.
Sorry, meant to say preachers and S.S. teachers in above post.
How about the wise words of Luke? “To whom much is given, much is expected.” True Christians find many ways to help their fellow man, those less fortunate, and with hold judgment…
3- jody that will be covered in next sunday’s thread on legalism
AS for Me….I desire to be a member of the Church
of Philadelphia. My desire is to live righteously before the Lord as the Holy Spirit leads me, for I can do nothing of myself. Believers, dedicate your Spirit, Soul, and Body to the Lord. Most believers have never given their bodies to the Lord for sanctification. Our bodies are not our own…He bought us with the price of His shed Blood. He will perfect that which concerns us. All we have to do is summit ourselves to the Holy Spirit.
The Blood of Jesus shed for us, is PRECIOUS, NECESSARY, CONQUERING, RECONCILITORY, REDEMPTIVE, JUSTIFYING, SANCTIFYING, ETERNAL, ALIVE. (and much much more)
Duet 7:9
Great passage Tim.
G-d bless you and your family.
and may the LORD bless you are yours Eph
This is terrific teaching. There is a concept rampant in the church that since we are “saved by grace that no man may boast ‘everything is cool if we do what we want during our life. This is about as far away from the actual teachings of the gospels as one can get.
James two says
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Jesus is very harsh for those who do not bear fruit. Matthew 7.
16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21″Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
In other words he was saying if you do believe in me it will be evident in the fruit you bear.
thank you. also the parable of the sower and the seed…those that bear no fruit are those who because of the cares of this world, the word had no root in them…