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At some point in time, the sincere servant of
Christ is going to look around at all the many denominations with their
different beliefs and ways of worship and wonder if they are doing things in a
way that God finds acceptable. These days with all the denominations out
there, one can pretty well window shop and find one who's worship and beliefs
suit their tastes and go with it. But is this really ok with God?
Is God pleased with all these different beliefs and practices, and what are the consequences if God is not pleased?
How do we know if we are serving and worshipping God
in a way that pleases Him?
The only way we can know what God wants is by
what He has told us he wants. We don't want to take the chance of
offending God by offering something he doesn't like. If we know what
God says, then we can know what God wants us to do. Jesus said in Matthew
7:21 that only those who do the will of the Father are going to enter into the
kingdom of heaven, so it stands to reason we must learn what God's will is
and obey it if we want to live a faithful life in service to Him. The
Bible is the written record of what God said He wants for us today, so by using
it and it only, we can determine for ourselves what God wants of us.
In Matthew 15:9 and Mark 7:7 Jesus is recorded as
saying "in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men." Anyone who believes in Jesus must believe the things he taught and
said. So we learn here that the doctrines of men void our worship to God.
Paul wrote that the Jews had "a zeal for God, but not according to Knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness , have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God" (Romans 10:2-3). It is possible to be ignorant of God's
righteousness and serve Him incorrectly. Paul wrote to the Christians in
Corinth to "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own
selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye
be reprobates?" (2 Corinthians 13:5). These Christians were commanded
to make sure they were correctly serving God lest they be reprobate, meaning
rebellious and unsubmissive to God's authority.
When talking with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's
well, Jesus told her that all people must "worship Him [God] in spirit and in truth"
(John 4:24). Jesus contrasted spirit worship with the kind of worship
being offered at the time which consisted of all the things associated with
temple worship under the old law. God's word is truth (John 17:17), so
worship in truth means worshipping according to God's word. Jesus said we
"must" worship in spirit and in truth. This makes true worship a command
which must be followed if we care about pleasing God.
It is plain from the New Testament teachings that
there is a right way and a wrong way to serve God. The teachings and
commandments of men are worthless, therefore it is not left to man to decide how
God is to be served. Down through the centuries, various men have
established their beliefs based on their interpretation of what God's word
teaches. Is the Christian who wishes to serve God faithfully simply to
accept these teachings never determining for themselves whether these men were
accurate or not? What if they weren't? God's word says those who
follow the teachings of men Worship Him in vain. Jesus said, "Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy
name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will
I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
(Matthew 7:22-23). Jesus says there will be many who served him who would
be told to depart from Him. These people were religious, they served God,
they worshipped Him and did many mighty works but they were sent away.
Why? "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 who is in heaven"
(Matthew 7:21). Because the things they did were not according to the will
of God.
Jesus said if we love Him, we will keep His
commandments, (John 14:15), he said those who do not love Him do not keep His
commandments (John 14:24). Those who do not love Jesus are said to be "anathema
maranatha" (1 Corinthians 16:22), which means "cursed when the Lord comes".
Men say, "We believe in Jesus", and the Bible
says "whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life"
(John 3:16). Believing in Jesus means we believe in what He said, in what
He taught and in what He commanded of us. Those who disobey Jesus,
obviously did not believe in Him enough to obey Him. "He that believeth
on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). Jesus said "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death"
(John 8:51).
Men say, "we are saved by grace", and the Bible says "for by
grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, (it is) the
gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace is the undeserved favor
of God. Our works can never be good enough to pay God back for the death
of His Son. We can never boast that we deserve salvation because of our
works. However this fact does not relinquish us from our obligation to
serve Christ obediently. Jesus taught in the parable of the unprofitable
servant, "Even so ye also, when ye shall have done all the things that are
commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was
our duty to do" (Luke 17:10). Jesus had to die as a sacrifice for our
sins. He died in our place for sins we committed and paid the penalty we
deserved. We can never repay that debt no matter how hard we try.
Regardless of our works, Jesus still had to die so we could have a chance to
live. Salvation is by grace, which is something we can never deserve. The
same inspired apostle, Paul, who wrote Ephesians also wrote, "I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, (which is) your spiritual service"
(Romans 12:1).
Men say, "Salvation is a gift", and the Bible
says "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"
(Romans 6:23). But it is a gift Jesus said we must strive for, "Strive
to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter
in, and shall not be able" (Luke 13:24). In John 6:27 Jesus taught
that we must "Work not for the food which perisheth, but for the food which
abideth unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give unto you."
Jesus said we had to work for something He would give us. To disregard
what Jesus taught is the same thing as disbelieving Him.
Jesus Christ said only those who do the will of
the Father will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. God is not going to make
His Son out to be a liar so that He can give us His grace. God's grace is
conditional upon obedience to His will. "And having been made perfect,
he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation"
(Hebrews 5:9).
How do we assure ourselves of serving God in a
way pleasing to Him? How can we be sure we are not serving men's teachings
instead of God's. How do we know we are submitting to God's righteousness
and not some man's idea of righteousness? How can we in the midst of the
religious separation we see all around us today, know beyond any doubt that we
are faithfully serving and worshipping God in truth?
Within the pages of the New Testament we read of
the first Christians and how they lived. We can read the eyewitness
accounts of those who lived, walked with and were taught by Jesus. The Christians
living in the first century were taught and guided by inspired men empowered
with the Holy Spirit who promised to guide them into all truth (John 16:13).
These men traveled all over the world, teaching the Gospel and helping establish
congregations of Christians everywhere they went. They wrote letters to
these congregations revealing the Gospel, teaching people how to become
Christians, instructing them how to remain faithful and revealing God's will for
them. These letters were assembled and became what we know as the Bible
today. The Bible makes some claims about itself internally. Peter
wrote "Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of
Jesus our Lord seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that
pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by
his own glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:2-3). If all things had been
given to the first century Christians that pertained to life and Godliness, then
nothing whatsoever was left out. The very first Christians had everything
they needed to live acceptably before God. But what about us today?
Paul wrote: "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, throughly
furnished unto all good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Not only did the
first century Christians have all things pertaining to life and Godliness, God's
will was also recorded for all time. The written word of God thoroughly
furnishes us completely for our life of service to God. We do not need the
teachings of men who lived hundreds or perhaps thousands of years after the
first century. All we need to be assured of living a faithful life to God
is the written record of His word. The word of God all by itself is
sufficient to teach and instruct and throughly equip the Christian today, "for
it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Romans
1:16).
If we today, will forsake all the teachings of
men in favor of what the scriptures teach, and model our life of service after
the approved examples of the original Christians we can be assured of living
today just as acceptably as they did then. Paul urged the first Christians
to be imitators of him, (1 Corinthians 4:16; 11:1, Philippians 3:17). He
urged Christians to use all of them as an example to live by, (1 Thessalonians
1:6).
Today, we can do the exact same thing with
the exact same results. If we will follow Paul's command and live like the
faithful first century Christians lived, believing what they believed, teaching
what they taught and worshipping how they worshipped, we can be today just what
they were then. Accepting no manmade doctrines (Matthew 15:9),
wearing no manmade names (1 Corinthians 1:12-13), living our lives after the
approved examples we have of the first Christians (2 Thessalonians 3:9), living
by the truth of God's word (2 Corinthians 6:7), adding nothing to, taking
nothing away (Revelation 22:18-19), nor going beyond what is written (1
Corinthians 4:6), we can then know we are living as faithful Christians.
Matthew 7:24-25
24 Every one therefore that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall
be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock:
25 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and if fell not: for it was founded upon the rock.
David Hersey
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