Are you ready to do His will?

When I was a boy we sang a Hymn called, “Work for the night is coming.” in the church service.  In Sunday School we would sing:

Two will be together grinding at the mill

Two will be together sleeping sound and still

One will be taken and the other left behind

Will you be ready when Jesus come

In the midst of all the deception, [Editor’s note:  Specifics are left out, but this is message is a spiritual advisor’s note of encouragement to church members embroiled in a church division who are holding steadfast to God’s Word], God wants to give us direction.  But our hearts have to be ready to do His will.

A heart that is ready to do God will is a heart first of all that:

1.  Loves God:

Jesus said in John  14:21-23 If you love me you will keep my commandments.  It’s not hard for me to serve Lyn because I love her.  I want to be with her.  Jesus said too that if we keep His commandments that He and His Father would disclose themselves to us. We want to serve God when we love Him.

2.  Knows God:

When you love God and act accordingly God discloses Himself to you.  You see Him and His work and you get to know His as who He is.  God is a God of grace and mercy.  Those are just a couple of His attributes.  In Jeremiah 9:23-24 God says glory in this that you know and love me, that I am a God of loving kindness.

3.  Trusts God:

Rom 10:17 says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word o God.  When we are ready God has given us faith.  And faith knows.  Heb 11:1 says faith is the substance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen.

4.  Obeys God: 

In I John 5:3 we are told that God’s commandments are His love.  He has given a the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, and it takes a Great Commitment.  We will be willing to make that commitment if we love, know and trust God.

Are you ready to do His will?

This readiness is not just taught, it’s caught!  You see it in someone else and you want it too.  It’s the power of example in a life that love, knows, trusts and obeys God.  Readiness in when Jesus belongs to you, and you live everyday knowing you belong to Him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TInqJ5NJrXc

Who is the Christian’s final authority, the senior pastor? The elders? The Word of God?

Who is the Christian’s ultimate authority, the senior pastor? The Elders? The Word of God?

The ultimate authority that all Christians are to follow is the Word of God! Carl F. H. Henry states: “Without an authoritative Scripture, the church is powerless to overcome not only human unregeneracy but also satanic deception. Where the church no longer lives by the Word of God it is left to its own devices and soon is overtaken by the temptations of Satan and the misery of sin and death (Carl F. H. Henry, “The Authority and Inspiration of the Bible, “ in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol 1). So if Christians merely acquiesces to a pastor or even a group of elders without going to God’s Word as did the Bereans in Acts 17.11: “Now  these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” he then opens himself up to either human unregeneracy or demonic deception.

Let’s review some pertinent passages:

John 17.17 ”Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

2 Tim 3.16-17 ”All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Hebrews 4.12 ”For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

God’s Word comes out of God Himself and therefore has the authority of the one and only living God. From Him it is derived, from Him it is protected, and from Him through the Holy Spirit the Word will guide all Christians into all truth.

John 16.13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

Now as to accepting without question what one is told by a pastor or by elders, the Bible clearly warns against this. Paul, before his arrest in Jerusalem, gathers the Elders from Ephesus to him at Miletus reminds them of the example that he set before them states: “And when they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials which came upon me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly and from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20.18-21).

He then warns them of the great dangers that the church of Christ will face:

“For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears” (Acts 20.27-31).

Notice he says from “ among your own selves men will arise” since he is speaking to the Elders it is probable that he means from among the Elders themselves!

Peter himself warns of this very problem. In 2 Peter 2, Peter lays out that this problem that faces the church is not new but in a lengthy argument arrives at the bottom line that God will “knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Pet 2.9).

So God know how to both rescue the godly and keep the unrighteous for punishment. But it is in verse 1 that we see the very problem which Peter is addressing: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves”  (2 Pet 2.1)

In 1 Tim 5.17-21: “The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING,” and “The laborer is worthy of his wages.” Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.”

Paul gives us two principles, which must be followed “without bias.” First, we are to give double honor to “those who work hard at preaching and teaching.” But second, “those who continue to sin rebuke in the presence of all

In summary then because of Satan’s attacks and man’s sin, All Christians are to obey God rather than man (Acts 5.29); they are to search the Scriptures to see if these things are true. (Acts 17.11). In other words, the ultimate authority for the Christian is the Word of God.

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