THE TEACHINGS OF THE APOSTLES - PART 2

Rom 10:9 That IF thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

This very verse of scripture is what has led to a lip-service Christianity, exactly in the same way Christ condemned the service of the Jews under the Judaic system…

Mark 7:6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 

Receiving or coming under the Lordship of Christ was not meant to be a simple confession of the lips and an assent of the mind, there is more to confessing the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The faith of the heart produces the confession of the mouth truly; but when the heart is far from Christ, it is in vain that people will worship God…their confession of faith becomes null and void.

The Laodicean Church were IN Christ by virtue of having confessed the Lordship of Christ and believing into righteousness with their heart, yet Christ was ready to throw them out of his mouth because they were neither hot nor cold…

RE 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

RE 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Notice how Christ links their WORKS to their PERSON…I know thy works, that YOU (not the works) are neither cold nor hot.

There is a DOING or OBEYING of the Word that determines whether a man is cold or hot.

The mere profession or confession of the Lordship of Jesus without the attendant OBEYING of the Lord, will make the heart to be FAR from Christ…not in geographical distance, but in its FERVENCY or lack of it towards Christ in DOING the works Christ wants us to do.

Weren’t the Laodicean Church members’ believers as well as we? Did they not fast, pray and worship as well as we? Yet Christ was not pleased with them…they confessed Christ as Lord but  their hearts were far from him…they had merely assented unto righteousness and not BELIEVED unto righteousness.

In Matt 7:21 we read of Christ casting away those who confessed his Lordship and yet did not do his will…

MT 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

This then is the work that Christ would have us do: to DO or OBEY his Will...there are many references to the Will of God particularly in the New Testament.

Our Lord Jesus aligned himself with those who practised the Will of God…

Mark 3:35 For whosoever shall DO the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.

Paul explains it thus:

EPH 6:5-6 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;

Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, DOING THE WILL OF GOD FROM THE HEART

The doing of the Will of God is therefore the works that the Laodicean Church failed to do. It is what gives our confession of the Lordship of Christ authenticity, otherwise we shall fall into the category of those who confessed him as Lord, Lord, yet Christ condemned them forever because they did not do the will of God.

Peter also instructs on how to do the will of God:

1Peter 4:1-2 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; 

That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

Peter explains what he means by ‘suffering in the flesh’…it means one who has ceased from sin; in other words, one who no longer lives the rest of his time in this world pleasing himself through the fulfilment of the lusts or pleasures or desires or ambitions of men but rather, dedicating the rest of his life to DOING the will of God.

Paul agrees with him when he says that we should live UNTO God…

2Cor 5:15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

The doing of God’s will originates in fact from the teaching of Christ:

Matt 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him DENY HIMSELF, and take up his cross, and follow me.

The act of denying one’s self is what has further been expounded by both apostles above as no longer living the rest of our time in this world unto the lusts of men but unto doing the will of God; and no longer living unto OURSELVES, but living unto him which died for us and rose again.

Again Paul reveals that it is not possible to prove or discover the Will of God if we are conforming to the pattern of this world:

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

For only those who have chosen NOT to befriend the world by bowing to its pressures and compromises, and engaging their lives utterly with its cares and pleasures, can both know and do the will of God.

Somehow the doing  will of God appears to be directly ranged against the doing of the will of the world as we saw in the above verse and also this:

1John 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

The above verse reveals that Man has two options: to do the will of the world and its lusts or to do the will of God.

There is even a much stronger verse that clearly shows these two things as being diametrically opposed to one another:

James4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

You cannot indulge yourself in the things and ways of the world and yet claim to be a friend of God; rather he marks you out as an enemy!

For Scripture clearly shows that the love of this world is diametrically opposed to the love of God and we can’t have both!

1John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Paul and all the other apostles taught the same things…they merely elaborated on the teachings of Christ.

In all the Scriptures we have read, we find the world opposed to the love of God; we find those who love the world as becoming enemies of God and now we shall see also that there is indeed a spirit of the world as opposed to the Spirit of God…

1Cor 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.