Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Saved to Serve

…there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.
(Philippians 3:18 – NLT)

Paul had earlier spoken of the legalists (3:2-3), now he speaks about the libertines. You are to forget the legalist path, the “make your own way” types of the past, but you are not to swing the pendulum too far. Your obedience is not the root of your justification, as the legalists would say, but it is the fruit of your justification, as the libertines wouldn’t say. Good works does not save you, but you are saved unto good works. Grace is a teacher – Titus 1:15-16, 2:11-14. Some are not walking the walk (Galatians 5:25), and they talk a different talk. It is all about what they are allowed to do, they use liberty as license, and they are deceived.

Be aware of this fact: it is not those who don’t even claim the name of Christ that Paul is talking about in this passage, it is those who remain self-indulgent, who don’t press on to maturity, but who keep feeding their old man, and then try and justify it by saying that they are allowed, or even that it is somehow right. They are ripe for deception, and are already deceived. It is not those who are trapped in sin, even, that Paul is discussing and warning about, it is those who defiantly state that they are of Christ but who won’t take their self-indulgent old man to the Cross. This is why Paul says to be following him and those who walk right because there are many who don’t, and they are dangerous.

When you are saved, you are saved to serve, and that means others, not serving yourself, like the people Paul warns about here. When you won’t go to church, what are you doing? Think about it. In order to get your food, you must always do what? Serve yourself, and you never serve others, do you? And you prevent others from serving you.

Paul says beware because these types tend to try and gain converts to appease their conscience. Other biblical writers warn us also. Jude 1:3-5 – obedience is believing, acting in accordance with what you believe (that sin is bad and that Christ has delivered us from its bondage). Look at 2 Peter 2:2, 10, 14, 18-20. 2 (sensual), 10 (despise authority, i.e. they won’t learn in community they won’t follow patterns they must make their own), 14 (they try and recruit others who don’t know better), 18 (they appeal to the flesh of those who are still struggling with it), 19 (they talk of freedom but they are slaves to sin and self), 20 (they are unfruitful in their knowledge – Hosea 4:6-10 / 2 Peter 1:8).

Their end is destruction, whose god is their belly, or their own appetites; they live for the pleasures of the body, mind, and soul. Romans 16:18 – and they try and win others to this view, which is why they are doubly dangerous, it spreads because it is an easy way. Their feelings, emotions, and passions rule them, meaning they do what they want to do; their god is their own self-ish desires, with its self-indulgent agenda. They are proud of their liberty, thinking they are more enlightened than those whom they see as more narrow-minded, and they are constantly trying to defend their “right” to import this or that practice from the world. They are worldly, they thought they could be whatever they wanted to be, worship however they wanted to, and approach a holy God anyway they saw fit, and still keep Jesus too.

They wouldn’t let anyone correct them, they wouldn’t accept rebuke or be admonished, and they thought that they knew better. They are not broken by their sin and instead of falling on Christ, He will fall on them to their peril (Matthew 21:44). They wouldn’t suffer the death of the flesh; they are enemies of the Cross of Christ.

In this way are they enemies of the Cross: they may have thought they believed in it for Jesus, and indeed that is all it takes to be saved, believing Jesus died on the Cross for your sins is a saving knowledge of Christ. However, the bible clearly teaches that this knowledge if held in truth will cause a believer to also follow Jesus to the Cross. Godliness teaches us to become more and more repentant, our lives will progressively become more and more unlike the world, not like the world.

The degree of effectiveness in an individuals life is not the question, the resolve to do it at all or to deny the need to is the matter at hand (1 Corinthians 5), the desire to become sanctified in practice, rather than defiantly avoiding the possibility of going to the Cross for the gradual death of the self life, that is the question. In essence, they deny this saving knowledge in practice, if not in doctrine, by not believing in and following Jesus to the Cross in their own life. They became progressively more and more deceived, their faith was proven not to be real, and they are damned.

Those that won’t go to church wind up serving themselves and that isn’t why we are saved.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©

20 comments:

Even So... said...

I know it is a longer post, but it is an important one in our series...I believe we will have 9 more to come, for a total of 35 posts on this vital topic...thanks for staying with us, and God bless you...

donsands said...

License and Legalism are both enemies of the Cross.

Paul said the Cross was the only thing he would boast in, and that's a boasting with incredible humility.

He said he was crucified to the world, and the world was crucified to him.
What a man of God! It's all grace, but I long to have that kind of grace on my life, and on the life of the Church as a whole.

Great study. Appreciate the way your explain the Scriptures. Keep up the good work my brother.
There's nothing more needed today then the Word preached, and of course prayer. These two are the heartbeat of God's people.
Out of these come worship, and service (ministry).

Garry Weaver said...

Man! This is powerful stuff. I want to say more, but to be honest, I'm speechless.

Daniel said...

JD - I love posts like this, I absolutely love them - I call them "dross burners" - because they attack the dross in our lives.

I hope I get to Florida one day, it would be a treat to hear you preach it.

Even So... said...

Thanks guys...

Daniel, I am trying to learn how to put the sermons and all the posts online with voice...I have had a few people tell me some things, but I am really challenged technically in that area...I see Carla has some box thingy, and I hope that might do the trick...it needs to be simple, and no, I don't do iTunes yet or even know what an mp3 player is.... if someone wants to be gracious and walk me through, please don't assume anything, except that I do have a high speed internet connection, I will buy equipment and/or software if needed, and I absolutely want to have a voice for the posts everyday, and the sermons...we do record every sermon each week and so I do have a cd copy, so then what, do I need to go buy some software or something, I really am a completee ignoramous in this...but I know it can be done...

God bless you all for reading these posts...hopefully soon we will be able to hear them as well...

Craver Vii said...

(After reading Daniel's comment...)

Me too. I'd love to visit your church some day!

Maybe the next time I visit my parents in Groveland/Claremont (near Orlando). Are you far from Groveland?

Even So... said...

No we are close, within an hour, my sister in law lives in Clearmont...just take 27 north, or turnpike north to 44...it is easy but call or email me when you go there...even if it isn't a church day, I would love to meet you face to face, as I would all people of like precious faith...but especially my blogging friends in the faith...

Anonymous said...

How do YOU (meaning anyone and everyone) know if you are on the right track? or if YOU (meaning anyone and everyone), indeed, are being deceived? Is there a type of check that you can ask yourself or ask God? Isn't there a fine line between legalism and being free in Jesus Christ?

Even So... said...

Within the context of these posts about having to go to church, being deceived is thinking that freedom in Christ means you don't have to fellowship with the other believers, surely this isn't what saves you, but if you are saved you will want to fellowship, as this post and the others are trying to say...and so, one check is to see if you aren't in church and don't want to be in church, that is the point we are trying to address...

As far as in a general sense, being on the right track is being on the ONLY track, that being trusting in Jesus Christ and Him alone for your righteosuness before God...

Anonymous said...

Just thought I would say hello. I am a young Christian and just doing some reading. I like your blog. Grace and Peace to you.

In Christ,
Alex

Anonymous said...

Oh and check out my site if you get a chance. www.soladeogloria.faithweb.com

To Him be the glory,
Alex

Daniel said...

JD - There are a few things you will need to do if you want to post your audio online.

First, you need to save it in a digitally compressed format - CD's are typically "uncompressed" so that you might be able to fit 80 minutes or so on a single CD. They are also typically hi-fidelity, meaning that 80 minutes of audio typically rings in at about 700 Megabytes of information (which translates into taking hours to download even on a high speed connection).

So if your sermons are on a regular CD, you will need to convert them into either an MP3 format, or if you want better sound quality, you can use WMA format - those are the most common formats.

Next, you have to decide if you are going to go "full bore" or just dabble. Dabbling is a good way to start, but if you are committed you can go full bore too.

By that I mean, there are services on the internet such as sermonaudio.com etc. that allow you to put your content up (audio and visual), link to it, and what have you - but you have to pay $30/month for the privilege - and that can be pricey. I haven't shopped around because I am not really that interested in doing so for the moment. There are some cheaper services out there (I expect), but I haven't looked around, so I don't know where the best deals are.

The other avenue is to find a free host - If you have a google account, you can have a free webspace that gives you up to 100 MB of storage - where you can store a number of audio files at any given time (up to a total of 100 MB) - that is what my church started doing - they put up as many as they can until the limit is reached, then they take down the older ones.

It isn't too difficult to get stuff up there - I think Frank Turk would be a good resource in this - he has a nose for finding free quality services.

Dan

Even So... said...

Thank you friend, we will be working on this, and hopefully soon you will be able to hear as well as read the posts each day...

Christopher Cohen said...

I really enjoyed this post. It is another extention of 'Why you have to goto church' which I have always enjoyed. I was convicted, and I think I have been in church ever since.

Sidenote - Talk to me about posting your sermons for you. I don't know why we haven't had this conversation before......

Even So... said...

Thank you Chris, I also linked your site, "We Lay Our Crowns", in my blogroll...now if we can just get the daily post online in voice, that would be really cool, keen, boss, or whatever the kids are saying these days (well maybe not whatever, but you know what I mean...)

:-)

Halfmom, AKA, Susan said...

It may have been long, but it was worth reading!

It goes right along with a very small but powerful volumn I am reading, Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray.

jazzycat said...

J.D.
Thank you for this good teaching. I am also looking forward to hearing your sermons here.
wayne

Even So... said...

ASAP with the audio for daily posts...

Even So... said...

You might pray for us in that regard...

MrsEvenSo... said...

11/27/08

Praise God for sermon audio, daily blog posts and radio. His Word will NOT return void and your work in Christ is not in vain.