“So faith comes by hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.”
“At issue is our Spiritual maturity. Our natural orientation is temporal and carnal but our new creation in Christ Jesus is Spiritual. Growth of our new Spiritual identity is not only our calling but nurturing Spiritual desires is the only wise choice for mortals to make!
This should be our highest priority as long as we are walking in sandals on this earth. The outcome of our salvation is at stake. No, we won’t lose our salvation, but by neglect we will suffer much loss! Maturity in Jesus Christ requires sharp focus and due diligence.
Carnality is not only well and alive in us, we have a new Spiritual enemy actively waring against our personal soul. Our maturity in Christ Jesus requires growing our faith! Our Spiritual health in Jesus is at stake!”
You may recognize the above quote from our last GraceNotes. It serves well here because our focus is on an apostacy.
Apostacy is the natural result or consequence from not growing in faith. This happens when we neglect our faith which is born into our soul when we are created new in Jesus. Apostacy is a typical pattern for created man but it is also a constant practice in Israel’s history as well as our contemporary church history. It is depicted in Revelation 2 and 3. Apostacy is a falling away from God’s absolute truth.
We desire God’s loving grace and mercy while neglecting the bigger picture revealed to us in all of scripture. Jesus is totally gracious and merciful but He is also righteousness and justice! God’s agape Love package, in Christ Jesus, contains both grace and righteous judgment!
Faith needs to be seen in our limited and lacking (L&L) capacity. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Human effort is the subject of Ecclesiastics, written by the wise man himself, Solomon. What better person to speak to this issue than Solomon!
Who had more than Solomon? Not only did he have wisdom and knowledge, people came from around the world to meet him. He had more gold and silver than anyone has ever had. His comment? Vanity, all is vanity!
If you have everything in this world, according to Solomon, you still have nothing at all. We are empty inside because nothing can fill the “God shaped vacuum” within us except God Himself. Everything else is chasing vapor. There is nothing new under the sun and it all is vanity!
If there is one message coming out of the Old Testament, if there is one principle taught by the relationship between God and the Jewish nation, it is that God desires His people to be righteous and pure just as He is! Apostacy is the direct result of going away from God’s Person and His absolute truth; it is the opposite of faith. According to Solomon: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”
Apostacy is the very act of not being who we really are in Christ Jesus; it is falling away from God’s truth trying to do it ourselves. Solomon’s message to us is: It doesn’t work! Solomon didn’t know anything about Galatians 2:20. Yet, he did know God is alive and through faith God will do what man cannot. We are designed and created to be in union with God Himself! Our calling is to be filled with His Spirit!
God saved Israel out from Egyptian slavery but Israel can’t even make it across the street-desert without complaint, argument and idolatry. They walked across the red sea on dry ground and watch the following Egyptian forces drown trying to do the same thing. Man believes only in the now, only what is being seen with physical eyes. Moses went up into the mountain to receive the 10 Commandments on a couple stone tablets and the people immediately are building a golden idol for worship. They had seen God’s hand of deliverance but as soon as they left Egypt and the Red Sea they forgot their God to do their own thing.
We seldom talk about this sensitive issue. Christians fall away too. They become new in Christ Jesus but worldly pressures seduce all people into forgetting their first love; they are listening, rather, to the seduction of the world. This is the pattern of Israeli history and it is the pattern of the Christian church. Scripture makes this so clear, even making it a sign of the “last days.” In other words, we are talking about what happens when we do not grow our faith!
Faith is pivotal. Gal. 2:20, which we used last GN stipulates this vital truth; I have been crucified with Christ but Jesus is providing new and living Life in me, this Life I now am living is by FAITH … in the Son of God! There are many who know these words but do not actually possess the substance of their truth. They live among us but are not of us!
Remember our Lord’s parable of the wheat and the tares? Many people sitting in church hear only with human ears being merely social believers. Like the 10 virgins, some do not have oil in their lamps. Tares do live among the wheat!
But the apostasy speaks not only of tares among the wheat, it speaks of those having oil in their lamp becoming distracted with earthly ideas and interests. The intensity of these distractions impact believers and unbelievers alike. Born again believers who are not grounded, who are not rooted in faith are vulnerable to the guiles and deceptions of Satan. He is the one appearing as an angel of light.
Most of us are familiar with Family Life Radio. I occasionally listened and enjoyed their ministry in the past but one of their founders had this self-deception issue that became a real problem for many. Satan was able to takes this man’s heart and use it for his evil apostate purposes: https://www.vice.com/en/article/yvqkwb/life-after-doomsday-456
This is not a comment on Family Life Radio, not at all! It is merely an example of how vulnerable believers are vulnerable to their own selves and how important it is to have a continuous organic, dynamic, personal fellowship with Jesus Himself. God’s agape love is able to save to the uttermost but it requires our active Faith! We are not vulnerable when we are walking in the Spirit.
“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” -Hebrews 7:25.
This is a marvelous verse and passage. Read its context from verses 22 thru 28 and then jump forward to Hebrews 10:19-25. God is sitting on the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, His Spiritual body of believers.
Most of us are familiar with Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” This is Jesus talking to John.
This is a great verse! Many pastors use this verse to introduce people into a personal relationship through a new birth. God is obviously pleased to use it in this way but notice, this verse is written to the church of Laodicea. This is written to believers who have strayed away from God becoming lukewarm. Solomon puts it this way: “Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.” These believers are on a path to having their light snuffed out unless they enter once again into the fellowship of their loving Lord.
But our God of mercy and grace is now knocking on our heart’s door. He is living within us after we have been created new in Him. He seeks our fellowship, personally! If we don’t hear him knocking, we likely are not listening! We are the ones who must open our own heart’s door. He respects our desires while at the same time He woos our desire and love. He desires us; He is wanting us to love Him, wanting us to desire Him! It is our desire that reveals the things we really want. By experiencing Him, we find our desires will turn to Him.
He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He is always living to make intercession for us.
During this period of grace, in which we now live, Jesus is at the right hand of our Father God making intercession for us. He is praying for us to use our spiritual eyes to see the reality of what He is doing. He created us as the Holy Temple of God, so that, He is available for us to exploit His grace. Consuming His grace keeps our light burning bright.
Jesus is our light. The Holy Spirit is our oil keeping out light burning bright. But it won’t burn bright unless we keep the oil fueling/flowing into our lamp. Jesus is our High priest and He is trimming our wick, keeping our light on but it is up to us to allow the oil to flow to the wick. It is up to us to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus in whom we are now dwelling. He is in us, knocking on our heart’s door. Is our heart door open to His fellowship? His grace is available for our consumption! His resurrection power is available for our use! It is up to us. Talk to Him!