You Can't Tell Me What To Do! - Part 2

For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you [1 Thessalonians 4:7-8].

The good ol’ USA mentality today is this: “You Can’t Tell Me What To Do!” Christians even adopt this mentality when it comes to the Bible. The Apostle Paul had a thing or two to say about this. We concluded yesterday’s study by noting three points of emphasis in Paul’s words to the Thessalonian Christians:

1. God calls the Christian for His purpose

2. we learn of His call and purpose from the Bible

3. the Bible carries the authority of God Himself

Dear friends, it excites me to learn those three truths! Look around us at the good ol’ USA today. Visit some churches and pay close attention. Few folks know that God calls them, much less that He did so for His own specific purpose. Oh, you may well hear some words spouted which say otherwise. But points #2 and #3 in our list testify otherwise.

If I claim to be a Christian, then the Lord called me into His family. Apart from God’s call I wouldn’t have come. Sinners—and anyone born of Adam the First is a sinner—but sinners just don’t go seeking God on their own. The chief characteristic of sin is that it rebels against God and His Word. It doesn’t embrace God and His Word!

How do I know that? Well, it’s like this. God taught it to me…in the Bible. And that is the problem today. Folks don’t understand Rule #2 for Bible study: “The Bible is our sole and final authority in all matters of faith and practice.” Once we become distant and aloof from the Word of God, we perforce become distant and aloof from God. It cannot be avoided. Just ask those in the Church of Ephesus (cf., Revelation 2:1-7).

Churches today—and churches are comprised of Christians, so this means Christians today—but we’ve substituted programs and activities for the Bible. We’ve substituted doctrinal statements, Sunday School booklets, and other assorted varieties of man’s words about the Bible, for the Bible itself.

To build today’s church requires mega money for high tech toys, and the latest fad book on “effective” church programs and activities. But tell the old old story, proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, train up the saints in the Word of God and promote daily quiet time alone with the Lord with Bible opened and man’s books closed? No one cares about that anymore, so why waste our time?

Waste our time, indeed! If we don’t build the church God’s way, we don’t build the church. It matters not how many pews are in the “sanctuary” or how many good folks fill the pews. What matters is how many sinners die and saints rise out of death. What matters is how much spiritual maturity God’s leaders in the church foster in these newborn lives.

Point #1 of our Bible verses states, “God calls the Christian for His purpose”. Trouble is, folks in the churches today don’t know this truth, much less personally experience God’s call on them or His purpose for them. Sadly, but the church leaders often don’t even know this truth for themselves, so how can they teach it to those they are supposed to lead? They can’t.

Tomorrow we will proceed with our analysis. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your hearts now, as you chew the cud of today’s study.

To further research this issue, I direct you to my books in the Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes Bible study series. To purchase my books please click on the "Shop" tab at the top of this page, where you will find a complete list of my books. Each book is available in both paperback (Createspace) and eBook (Kindle).

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