PAstor Herk explains that this same Apostle Paul warns of deceptive, ungodly beliefs and teachings, and the eternal consequences thereof in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” And also in Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” It is crystal clear. The Creator makes the rules and reigns over all his creation and creatures. Yet, we live in a lost in sin and fallen world.
Extremely irritated, the Apostle declares in Galatians 1:6-9, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!” The Apostle proclaims in 2 Timothy 3:14-17 “you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God [literally, God-breathed], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Today, God’s revelation comes primarily through His holy Word. As we read and study the Bible, meditating upon His Word, the indwelling Holy Spirit helps us better understand and apply what is written. We can be faithfully assured that we will never have any relation from God that is not consistent with what is already written in Holy Scripture. Stay consistent to what God says. In Acts 5:29 the Apostle Peter said, “We must obey God rather than men [with the added notion of weakness, by which man is led into a mistake or prompted to sin with the adjunct notion of contempt or disdainful pity; corrupt verses the truly Christian man, conformed to the nature of God].” The Apostle Paul warns in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” The Lord Jesus explained in John 3:19-20 “this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”
The fourth observation for application is that the mystery is to be living out in community with other Believers in the body of Christ and His church. We should not be living out this journey alone, like a dismembered part of the body. God intends for us to live within a community of faithful Believers in connection, following Christ; a family of citizen of Heaven congregating to worshipping together as the church in praise and glory of Him – Soli Deo Gloria. Life is a mystery. A mystery where God reveals what is going to happen at just the right time. A mystery that is consistent with what God has already revealed, and a mystery that is to being lived out in community with other Believers. From the beginning of our lives to the end, God knows every second of our history – a part of His story. What we know of our lives is that it is a mystery until God reveals it. To God, our life is history, but to us, our life is a mystery. But to the true Christian, because of Christ, they know the eternal end of the story.
In Christ, Brian
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