There is no one who is saved who has not been forgiven.
Colossians 2:13-14
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
And what do we learn here about what forgiveness is?
The forgiveness we enjoy is one in which we had been guilty of a "trespass".
Not just an accusation. Guilty of a trespass.
But now we are forgiven. What does that mean? Colossians 2:14 says the requirement to pay back was "wiped out" and taken out of the way "...having nailed it to the cross".
According to God’s word this what forgiveness is. This is what we have when we were “made alive” from being dead in sin.
And so I bring up the subject of what we, in turn, are saved to do…
Matthew 6:12
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
As we grow in our eternal lives into the image of Christ (Rom 8:29) we must be sure to notice that forgiveness is one of the characteristics we are to imitate.
Matthew 6:14-15
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
We forgive because we’ve been forgiven.
If you’re not forgiving, perhaps you’re not a person that’s been forgiven.
God considers this a serious matter.
We’re not just told that it’s a good idea to forgive or that we’ll “feel better” if we forgive. We’re ordered to forgive and it is a sin when we do not.
Jesus put it like this…
Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. 23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
28 “But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 30 And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. 32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ 34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
35 “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Why should we forgive?
Because we have been forgiven.
Matthew 18:32-33
32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
This is good to know for any lesson. We must get it into our heads the reality that we are sinners and we are not innocent ourselves.
Even if you can think of no human being what-so-ever that you need to call to ask for forgiveness, you cannot get out of the supreme truth that we have all trespassed against God.
Psalm 51:3-4
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak and blameless when You judge.
We have not just transgressed against a co-worker, family member or fellow church member. We have sinned against God (Rom 3:23). And yet we are forgiven (Col 2:13). That being the case the Lord expects His followers to do likewise….
Matthew 18:33
Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
Now, I have personally heard people say, “Yeah, but you don’t know what they did to me.”
Did they kill your child?
You killed God’s child.
Isaiah 53:6
All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Your sins did. Mine too.
Perhaps you think you didn’t have anything to do with Jesus’ death for sins.
You better. Or you’re not saved. Unless Jesus died for YOUR sins, you’re not His.
So let’s get this nonsense out of our heads that we’re not obligated to forgive everyone.
We are.
What if we don’t? Jesus’ story goes on…
Matthew 18:31
So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done.
You run the risk of having the Church pray to God about your un-confessed sin.
And, listen, if you’re not forgiving others then you are living in un-repentant sin.
If you were to have your heart convict you of a sin; anger, lust, harm to another, etc. Would you come to God in prayer without immediately confessing and dealing with it? Would you even say grace for your food before confessing it?
Mark 11:25
And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.
Our prayers can be hindered by not forgiving.
Even worse, God might deal with us for our stubbornness…
Matthew 18:32-33
32 Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
And this forgiveness must be sincere. I have seen plenty of people say they have forgiven but they have not really.
No one is fooling God when they make lip service in this.
Matthew 18:35
So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
The commandment is clear and disobeying it is sin.
If this is a hard pill to swallow perhaps we have do not consider our own sin as such a great offense and God’s forgiveness of us as profound as we should.
I suggest we all re-consider who is forgiving whom.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
What Is Church For?
"Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. They come to church to share God, not find God."
- Alice Walker,
"The Color Purple."
I recently was talking, (by email), with someone who is not a Christian yet thinks they are. They were railing against churches and wanted me to know that they got more “god” in nature and going out camping then in any church. This person was disgusted, “I’ve never ‘felt’ God in any church.” That being the case for them, they saw reason to go to one.
My answer was a bit kinder and softer but the gist of it was, “Who told anyone they were supposed to ‘feel’ anything in church?”
Perhaps many think it’s always supposed to go like Acts 2 where cloven tongues of fire are supposed to make everyone explode every Sunday. That would be a bit much for this person I was writing with but still it remains that there is a predominant theory that the act of entering a church building and a church service is supposed to inspire an emotion or sensation of divine passion. If it’s not there then there’s something wrong and the blame is usually thrown at the church not the customer.
First let me ask, what is church? Well, right off let me point out that no where in the New Testament is the word “church” used to refer to a building. “The Church” is always used to refer to the body of believers as a collective. So let’s get that straight. Nobody entering a building is entering “The Church”. Churches can meet in buildings. Churches can meet in homes. Churches can meet by the river (Acts 16:13). Churches can meet under circus tents and churches can meet in secret catacombs under Rome.
“Church” is the assembling of the Saints.
Hebrews 10:25
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
It’s a meeting. It’s a meeting of the redeemed of Christ as His body.
To do what? Several things.
To study the scriptures…
Colossians 4:16
Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
1 Thessalonians 5:27
I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
The writings of Paul were “scripture” (2 Peter 3:15-16) but even then it was compared to the Old Testament scriptures by the body of believers.
Acts 17:10-11
10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
The Church gathers to hear teachers exposit and explain the word of God…
1 Corinthians 14:29-30
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. 30 But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent.
Acts 5:42
And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
Acts 15:35
Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.
This is what the body of believers assemble to do.
And we sing…
Ephesians 5:18-20
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord
Jesus sang…
Matthew 26:30
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
These are all the components of the meeting of the believers in Jesus Christ when we assemble to speak together of our common faith.
We pray…
Romans 15:30
Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
Acts 12:5
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
We collect money…
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
Why?
To support the charities…
Acts 4:32
32 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
Acts 4:34-36
34 Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 35 and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.
(See also Acts 6:1-6)
We support the people who work full time in the ministry…
1 Corinthians 9:13-14
13 Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? 14 Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
We support missionaries…
Philippians 4:15-16
15 Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. 16 For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities.
It is an assembling of the Saints. A meeting.
And when do we meet? The Sabbath?
Acts 20:7
Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.
The Church met on “the first day of the week”.
1 Corinthians 16:2
On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
Is “the first day of the week” the Sabbath? No. The last day of the week is the Sabbath (Gen 2:3). That day is Saturday not Sunday.
I don’t mean to go into keeping the Sabbath. It’s irrelevant to what I’m saying.
People want to keep the Sabbath? Go for it but Sunday ain’t the Sabbath and there’s no reason why anybody should make a big deal out of Sunday being closed for business or guilty if you mow your lawn.
Sunday was the first day of the week and the day the Church assembled to meet. Who knows, they might not have met on the Sabbath because they were resting that day and put off the business of meeting until Sunday.
The Church assembly is a meeting.
Yet so many are still frustrated that “I don’t feel God here.”
So I ask, “Where do you ‘feel God’?”
And my friend has said, “In the countryside and at the river.” (Beautiful places mind you.)
So I say, by all means, go to the countryside and to the river. Climb the mountains and lay down and stare at the stars.
Can God be seen in His creation? You bet!
Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Of course it has to be acknowledged that a big problem is when too many people think the creation is the god (Rom 1:25) but if you have that issue straightened out properly absolutely it’s possible to “feel” God in His creation.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying there should be nothing felt in church. I think God wants everybody to feel welcome.
That IS the job of the church at hand to be hospitable. We are often exhorted to greet each other with affection as a family, (Rom 16:16, 1 Cor 16:20, 2 Cor 13:12, 1 Thess 5:26), and anyone visiting should feel the love there. There is something terrible wrong with a church that has no love for everybody in the body.
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
1 John 3:14
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
1 John 4:21
And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
It’s a sin for a church to be unwelcoming to anyone. Brothers and sisters especially.
But no, I’m talking more about the craving for an epiphany every Sunday.
I end on this note. What are you looking for? God or a feeling?
“Well, I want to feel God.”
Fair enough but I warn anybody that what you want is to feel the TRUE God. You are playing a dangerous game by looking for the “feeling” first and then treating that as the evidence that you have found Him.
Many, many, many people are lost right now and headed for hell with great feelings going up their spines and lumping up their throats. The Mormons talk about knowing truth when they get a “burning in their bosom”.
That is no objective standard to base your eternal destiny on.
First, before the feelings, you need to find the true living God in truth.
John 4:23
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
And His Truth is only found in His WORD.
John 17:17
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
Any emotions before, during or after are useless if you have the wrong god.
And the true, living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has great emotions for us…
Romans 8:15-17
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
And such crying out can come anywhere. Hiking in the mountains, walking on the beach, driving in the car, in prayer alone, it can be anywhere. You know what? It can even be in church.
Which brings me to the end. Don’t blame a church if you don’t feel a tingle every Sunday morning. No where does the Bible, (where you find the truth), guarantee anything of the sort.
You are in the wrong for using that as an excuse to condemn this or that church as being “dead”.
God decides when a lamp stand is removed, (Rev 2:5), not you or any lack of a quiver in your lower lip.
Problem is plenty of churches try to get you hyped up.
Oh, sure. They’ll have great praise bands and professional singers.
Slick power point shows and funny skits.
Dancing bears and smoke and mirrors and a disco ball.
There’s a stand up comedian for a pastor who comes out in blue jeans and wire mic stuck on the side of his head.
It ain’t new but it’s swung from one extreme to the other.
For two thousand years people have misunderstood what the point of church is.
There have always been the crowd that think it’s whole point is to get you feeling… I don’t know… “high”.
Cathedrals were invented to make us feel “Wow”.
Candles and incense and robes and stained glass.
Icons and colossal pipe organs and gold dripping off the rafters.
Why? To make you “feel God”.
The problem is it will always take more and more to get you off. It was awesome at first and you want the same high every Sunday.
It starts becoming forced. It starts taking more and more to get you to your “first love”.
So many people talk about coming to church to get their “Holy Ghost fix” because He just isn’t with them the rest of the week.
The Church is a body (Romans 12:4-5) not a building.
Sunday morning is a meeting of the believers to agree together on doctrine, prayer, praise, and the support of the furtherance of God’s Kingdom.
“What is church?” is a question that perhaps you have gotten wrong all your life.
That’s not some churches fault and it’s certainly not God’s fault.
- Alice Walker,
"The Color Purple."
I recently was talking, (by email), with someone who is not a Christian yet thinks they are. They were railing against churches and wanted me to know that they got more “god” in nature and going out camping then in any church. This person was disgusted, “I’ve never ‘felt’ God in any church.” That being the case for them, they saw reason to go to one.
My answer was a bit kinder and softer but the gist of it was, “Who told anyone they were supposed to ‘feel’ anything in church?”
Perhaps many think it’s always supposed to go like Acts 2 where cloven tongues of fire are supposed to make everyone explode every Sunday. That would be a bit much for this person I was writing with but still it remains that there is a predominant theory that the act of entering a church building and a church service is supposed to inspire an emotion or sensation of divine passion. If it’s not there then there’s something wrong and the blame is usually thrown at the church not the customer.
First let me ask, what is church? Well, right off let me point out that no where in the New Testament is the word “church” used to refer to a building. “The Church” is always used to refer to the body of believers as a collective. So let’s get that straight. Nobody entering a building is entering “The Church”. Churches can meet in buildings. Churches can meet in homes. Churches can meet by the river (Acts 16:13). Churches can meet under circus tents and churches can meet in secret catacombs under Rome.
“Church” is the assembling of the Saints.
Hebrews 10:25
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
It’s a meeting. It’s a meeting of the redeemed of Christ as His body.
To do what? Several things.
To study the scriptures…
Colossians 4:16
Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea.
1 Thessalonians 5:27
I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.
The writings of Paul were “scripture” (2 Peter 3:15-16) but even then it was compared to the Old Testament scriptures by the body of believers.
Acts 17:10-11
10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
The Church gathers to hear teachers exposit and explain the word of God…
1 Corinthians 14:29-30
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. 30 But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent.
Acts 5:42
And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
Acts 15:35
Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.
This is what the body of believers assemble to do.
And we sing…
Ephesians 5:18-20
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord
Jesus sang…
Matthew 26:30
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
These are all the components of the meeting of the believers in Jesus Christ when we assemble to speak together of our common faith.
We pray…
Romans 15:30
Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
Acts 12:5
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.
We collect money…
2 Corinthians 9:6-7
6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
Why?
To support the charities…
Acts 4:32
32 Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
Acts 4:34-36
34 Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 35 and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.
(See also Acts 6:1-6)
We support the people who work full time in the ministry…
1 Corinthians 9:13-14
13 Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? 14 Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
We support missionaries…
Philippians 4:15-16
15 Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving but you only. 16 For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities.
It is an assembling of the Saints. A meeting.
And when do we meet? The Sabbath?
Acts 20:7
Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.
The Church met on “the first day of the week”.
1 Corinthians 16:2
On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
Is “the first day of the week” the Sabbath? No. The last day of the week is the Sabbath (Gen 2:3). That day is Saturday not Sunday.
I don’t mean to go into keeping the Sabbath. It’s irrelevant to what I’m saying.
People want to keep the Sabbath? Go for it but Sunday ain’t the Sabbath and there’s no reason why anybody should make a big deal out of Sunday being closed for business or guilty if you mow your lawn.
Sunday was the first day of the week and the day the Church assembled to meet. Who knows, they might not have met on the Sabbath because they were resting that day and put off the business of meeting until Sunday.
The Church assembly is a meeting.
Yet so many are still frustrated that “I don’t feel God here.”
So I ask, “Where do you ‘feel God’?”
And my friend has said, “In the countryside and at the river.” (Beautiful places mind you.)
So I say, by all means, go to the countryside and to the river. Climb the mountains and lay down and stare at the stars.
Can God be seen in His creation? You bet!
Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Of course it has to be acknowledged that a big problem is when too many people think the creation is the god (Rom 1:25) but if you have that issue straightened out properly absolutely it’s possible to “feel” God in His creation.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying there should be nothing felt in church. I think God wants everybody to feel welcome.
That IS the job of the church at hand to be hospitable. We are often exhorted to greet each other with affection as a family, (Rom 16:16, 1 Cor 16:20, 2 Cor 13:12, 1 Thess 5:26), and anyone visiting should feel the love there. There is something terrible wrong with a church that has no love for everybody in the body.
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
1 John 3:14
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
1 John 4:21
And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
It’s a sin for a church to be unwelcoming to anyone. Brothers and sisters especially.
But no, I’m talking more about the craving for an epiphany every Sunday.
I end on this note. What are you looking for? God or a feeling?
“Well, I want to feel God.”
Fair enough but I warn anybody that what you want is to feel the TRUE God. You are playing a dangerous game by looking for the “feeling” first and then treating that as the evidence that you have found Him.
Many, many, many people are lost right now and headed for hell with great feelings going up their spines and lumping up their throats. The Mormons talk about knowing truth when they get a “burning in their bosom”.
That is no objective standard to base your eternal destiny on.
First, before the feelings, you need to find the true living God in truth.
John 4:23
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
And His Truth is only found in His WORD.
John 17:17
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
Any emotions before, during or after are useless if you have the wrong god.
And the true, living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has great emotions for us…
Romans 8:15-17
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
And such crying out can come anywhere. Hiking in the mountains, walking on the beach, driving in the car, in prayer alone, it can be anywhere. You know what? It can even be in church.
Which brings me to the end. Don’t blame a church if you don’t feel a tingle every Sunday morning. No where does the Bible, (where you find the truth), guarantee anything of the sort.
You are in the wrong for using that as an excuse to condemn this or that church as being “dead”.
God decides when a lamp stand is removed, (Rev 2:5), not you or any lack of a quiver in your lower lip.
Problem is plenty of churches try to get you hyped up.
Oh, sure. They’ll have great praise bands and professional singers.
Slick power point shows and funny skits.
Dancing bears and smoke and mirrors and a disco ball.
There’s a stand up comedian for a pastor who comes out in blue jeans and wire mic stuck on the side of his head.
It ain’t new but it’s swung from one extreme to the other.
For two thousand years people have misunderstood what the point of church is.
There have always been the crowd that think it’s whole point is to get you feeling… I don’t know… “high”.
Cathedrals were invented to make us feel “Wow”.
Candles and incense and robes and stained glass.
Icons and colossal pipe organs and gold dripping off the rafters.
Why? To make you “feel God”.
The problem is it will always take more and more to get you off. It was awesome at first and you want the same high every Sunday.
It starts becoming forced. It starts taking more and more to get you to your “first love”.
So many people talk about coming to church to get their “Holy Ghost fix” because He just isn’t with them the rest of the week.
The Church is a body (Romans 12:4-5) not a building.
Sunday morning is a meeting of the believers to agree together on doctrine, prayer, praise, and the support of the furtherance of God’s Kingdom.
“What is church?” is a question that perhaps you have gotten wrong all your life.
That’s not some churches fault and it’s certainly not God’s fault.
Friday, February 4, 2011
The Assurance Of Salvation
This week was a hard one for me. On Wednesday I got all four of my wisdom teeth pulled. It's something I really should have done 20 years ago but they never caused me any trouble until now.
I had all the best intensions to write my weekly blog but the meds just kept me writing the same sentence over and over.
So I’m going to post a piece I wrote for a Christian forum a few years back in response to some asking about “once saved always saved”.
I will be a 100% for my next blog next week. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The way I see this whole issue is that all of us in our Christian walk, sooner or later, see an event happen.
We see somebody come to Christ, pray with us, study with us, attend our church, maybe even minister in some way.
We’ve seen them witness, teach Sunday school, play music, maybe even be a leader in the church or even a pastor.
Then….. They leave.
Say they give up.
Reject Christ.
“Give back their salvation.”
What happened?
All of us agree this event happened. We just disagree about the mechanics of what happened.
I don’t think they “gave back” salvation.
I don’t think that because I don’t don’t think a true Child Of God would want to or could either way.
Why do I think that?
John 6:39
"This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
People that really come to Christ are people that are given to Christ.
John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
If we were not the initiators of our own salvation how can we give back what we did not produce?
Romans 8:29
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
God has a plan for us. He has predestined us to “…become conformed to the image of His Son”.
This is not an option.
He’s gonna do it.
You can come along obediently or make it hard on your self. But you’re going to be like Jesus.
Hebrews 7:25
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
“But this guy left. He rejected Christ and now is a bitter atheist. He won’t even talk to me now.”
I think the Bible is clear what has happened….
1 John 2:18-19
18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
They were fake.
This shouldn’t surprise anybody. They were perhaps very sincere. But they weren’t truly “all there”.
Impostors have always been in our midst.
Jude 12
These are the spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots.
They are stony places where the seed was sown. (Matt 13:20-21)
Then we’ve seen the scenario “I know somebody that said they were saved. They had a Marlboro dangling from their lips and a beer in their hand and every other word they said was a profanity and they were adamant that they were a Christian. Born again and had the assurance of salvation and said that Pastor Joe Bob said that no matter what they did they’d never lose their salvation cause they stepped up at that alter call and signed that dedication card and by golly they’re a child of God.”
It's the old attack on assurance that goes like this, "You mean I can just live any way I want?"
Well... If you have the Holy Spirit within you and you are a child of the Living God;
How do you "want" to live?
1 John 1:4-10
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If anybody is out there living in hedonist sin and says he’s a Christian and a child of God, He’s a liar!
Point blank.
And how can anybody say, “But...but. He said he accepted Christ at that revival.”
I can say “I’m a toaster.”
But am I making toast?
I don’t subscribe to this idea that just because somebody steps up to the alter just because 50 other people are headed up there, says a bunch of words that nobody explained to him what they meant, and gets sent off to a side room where “our trained councilors are ready to give you a paperback New Testament and a Jack Chick tract,” is necessarily saved.
Unless they came to believe it makes no difference what words they said.
Especially when there is no evidence that such a transformation took place.
1 John 2:20
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.
Peter (1 Pet 1:4-5) describes our inheritance as "incorruptible, and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation"
He is able to keep us from falling. Are we to believe we’re more powerful than He is?
And I’m not saying we won’t fall. We fall hard.
Too often. But it grieves us. We wail and howl in sorrow over our sins.
If anyone has grief over their sins it’s a sure sign the Spirit of God is alive in them.
Romans 7:14-25
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
The true believer will live in the guidance of the Holy Spirit every day. And the believer will have “war waging” within.
It is a horrible thing when the Christian back slides. (I know). The war within can make a Christian literally fall face down on the ground. Doubled over in pain. (I know).
It is full of conviction and weeping and is not something the Christian can ignore and act flippantly about.
But I admit there are times when the backsliding has been going on for a while.
Ephesians 4:30
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
And the voice of the Holy Spirit grows dim.
But the Prodigal Son, (the true child of God), in his filth and pig food will say, “I will arise and go to my father...” (Luke 15:18).
We are His sheep. His property. Bought with a high price.
Should we wander the Lord will come get His property. (Matthew 18:12-14)
He came and picked us out of the gutter when we were yet sinners. How much more will He come looking for us if we’re His child gone astray.
He’ll come for us.
And sometimes.....that’s not a pleasant experience.
I had all the best intensions to write my weekly blog but the meds just kept me writing the same sentence over and over.
So I’m going to post a piece I wrote for a Christian forum a few years back in response to some asking about “once saved always saved”.
I will be a 100% for my next blog next week. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The way I see this whole issue is that all of us in our Christian walk, sooner or later, see an event happen.
We see somebody come to Christ, pray with us, study with us, attend our church, maybe even minister in some way.
We’ve seen them witness, teach Sunday school, play music, maybe even be a leader in the church or even a pastor.
Then….. They leave.
Say they give up.
Reject Christ.
“Give back their salvation.”
What happened?
All of us agree this event happened. We just disagree about the mechanics of what happened.
I don’t think they “gave back” salvation.
I don’t think that because I don’t don’t think a true Child Of God would want to or could either way.
Why do I think that?
John 6:39
"This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
People that really come to Christ are people that are given to Christ.
John 15:16
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
If we were not the initiators of our own salvation how can we give back what we did not produce?
Romans 8:29
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
God has a plan for us. He has predestined us to “…become conformed to the image of His Son”.
This is not an option.
He’s gonna do it.
You can come along obediently or make it hard on your self. But you’re going to be like Jesus.
Hebrews 7:25
Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
“But this guy left. He rejected Christ and now is a bitter atheist. He won’t even talk to me now.”
I think the Bible is clear what has happened….
1 John 2:18-19
18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
They were fake.
This shouldn’t surprise anybody. They were perhaps very sincere. But they weren’t truly “all there”.
Impostors have always been in our midst.
Jude 12
These are the spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots.
They are stony places where the seed was sown. (Matt 13:20-21)
Then we’ve seen the scenario “I know somebody that said they were saved. They had a Marlboro dangling from their lips and a beer in their hand and every other word they said was a profanity and they were adamant that they were a Christian. Born again and had the assurance of salvation and said that Pastor Joe Bob said that no matter what they did they’d never lose their salvation cause they stepped up at that alter call and signed that dedication card and by golly they’re a child of God.”
It's the old attack on assurance that goes like this, "You mean I can just live any way I want?"
Well... If you have the Holy Spirit within you and you are a child of the Living God;
How do you "want" to live?
1 John 1:4-10
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If anybody is out there living in hedonist sin and says he’s a Christian and a child of God, He’s a liar!
Point blank.
And how can anybody say, “But...but. He said he accepted Christ at that revival.”
I can say “I’m a toaster.”
But am I making toast?
I don’t subscribe to this idea that just because somebody steps up to the alter just because 50 other people are headed up there, says a bunch of words that nobody explained to him what they meant, and gets sent off to a side room where “our trained councilors are ready to give you a paperback New Testament and a Jack Chick tract,” is necessarily saved.
Unless they came to believe it makes no difference what words they said.
Especially when there is no evidence that such a transformation took place.
1 John 2:20
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.
Peter (1 Pet 1:4-5) describes our inheritance as "incorruptible, and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation"
He is able to keep us from falling. Are we to believe we’re more powerful than He is?
And I’m not saying we won’t fall. We fall hard.
Too often. But it grieves us. We wail and howl in sorrow over our sins.
If anyone has grief over their sins it’s a sure sign the Spirit of God is alive in them.
Romans 7:14-25
19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
The true believer will live in the guidance of the Holy Spirit every day. And the believer will have “war waging” within.
It is a horrible thing when the Christian back slides. (I know). The war within can make a Christian literally fall face down on the ground. Doubled over in pain. (I know).
It is full of conviction and weeping and is not something the Christian can ignore and act flippantly about.
But I admit there are times when the backsliding has been going on for a while.
Ephesians 4:30
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
And the voice of the Holy Spirit grows dim.
But the Prodigal Son, (the true child of God), in his filth and pig food will say, “I will arise and go to my father...” (Luke 15:18).
We are His sheep. His property. Bought with a high price.
Should we wander the Lord will come get His property. (Matthew 18:12-14)
He came and picked us out of the gutter when we were yet sinners. How much more will He come looking for us if we’re His child gone astray.
He’ll come for us.
And sometimes.....that’s not a pleasant experience.
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