What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 08:28 AM
When you get the sovereignty of God straight, everything gets straighter. Going wrong here will lead to error in all kinds of unexpected places. Oh, how I pray that God will give us clarity and conviction and joy in our vision of God�s absolute sovereignty over our frail and fickle lives!
Take the issue of assurance and eternal security and the possibility of falling away from Christ. One Sunday, I tackled the sobering text of Hebrews 6:4-8. There it says that you can be �enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come� and then fall away from it all and be lost.
Instead of saying that you can lose your salvation, I said that the meaning of Hebrews 6:4-8 is something almost as shocking, namely, that you can experience all those things (enlightenment, Holy Spirit, Word of God, and miracles) and never have been saved. This is shocking because it means that people may be mistaken in thinking they are Christians when they are not.
So the text and the message raise the question of assurance. How can we be sure we will persevere to the end and not fall away and become like Esau who tried to return but could not repent (Hebrews 12:16-17)? Here is where the sovereignty of God becomes so crucial.
The book of Hebrews exults in the new and better covenant, which God has made through the blood of Christ with all who are his people. The old covenant made at Mount Sinai was vulnerable to the people�s weakness (Romans 8:3). Hebrews 8:9 says, �They did not continue in My covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord.� But the new covenant is radically different in that it is not vulnerable to our weakness. Rather, it assures us that God�s sovereignty will overcome our weakness and prevent us from breaking the covenant.
Thus Hebrews 8:10 says, �This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.� In other words, God will not only tell us what we must do, he will see to it that we do it by working in us. This is what Hebrews 13:21 says about the new covenant: �[May God] equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.� This is the sanctifying, keeping, saving sovereignty of God. And it is sweeter than honey to the wavering soul.
In the new covenant our assurance rests firmly on the sovereignty of God over our own proneness to wander. We know we will not fall away because this is a promise of the new covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus. For example, in Jeremiah 32:40, God promises, �I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.� If you ask me how I know that tomorrow I will still believe in Christ, my answer is not that I am a disciplined person, or that I finish what I start, or that my will is reliable, or that the benefits outweigh the costs, or even that my church prays for me. My answer is: Christ shed his blood as the price of the new covenant (Luke 22:20), and in this covenant God promises, �They will not turn away from me.� God�s sovereign right and grace over my fickle will is my only hope for persevering to the end.
This is the sweet reality of the sovereignty of God. I pray that you will understand it and believe it and revel in the security and joy of it. What can be sweeter than to be �kept by the power of God�? (1 Peter 1:5).
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 10:15 AM
2 Corinthians 11:2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure:angel: virgin to him.
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 10:19 AM
Donna, we are all the sons of God if we are born of Him.
God gave us this title because we became God's inheritance, heirs, sons, the adopted children of God and not slaves anymore. When? Only of Jesus is our God.
We need to repent, confess our sins to our Lord Jesus and believe in Him i.e. obeying/implementing what He commands us to do- love people. :hearts:
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 10:23 AM
According to some on here, one cannot truly expect to be "kept by the power of God," as Peter said..
Such are the naysayers of God electing choice.
What is interesting, is that the Word makes clear that election is not based upon any discrimination:
"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;" [Romans 9:11]
Election is based not on any "good or evil" that a man or woman will be involved in during their lives, but on God's Sovereign Purpose, which by that scripture has nothing to do with whether or not you ever had sinned.
So, how is it then that this "choice crowd" thinks that salvation is determined by sin?
Grace and peace be unto you, who are of the elect!
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 10:36 AM
Who are the elect?
Our God Jesus said:
"For many are invited, but few are chosen:angel:." Matthew 22:14
Revelation 17:14 They will make war against the Lamb/Jesus, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called chosen :angel:and faithful :bow:followers."
2 Peter 1:10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election:angel: sure. For if you do these things:bow:, you will never fall,
But you are a chosen people :angel:, a royal priesthood, a holy nation , a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light . 1 Peter 2:9
6 And He said to me, �It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
7 He who overcomes :angel:shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. 8 But the cowardly, unbelieving abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.�Revelation 21
14 Blessed are those who do His commandments:bow:, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.Revelation 22
So, who are the elect?
They are those who will not be crushed by their sins and safely land in the Kingdom of God. They are those, who are faithful, do God's commandments and holy!
God knows the end from the beginning. He is Omniscient. That's why He called them the elect and the chosen. He says the end/the result of their race of life.
All are invited to their Wedding but not all will go there. Not all are dressed appropriately in the clothes of righteousness:angel:.
They have many reasons not to obey God!!!
It means all Christians/unbelievers/people are invited to the Kingdom of God but now all will be able to enter there. Only a few (a small remnant -Isaiah 53-) will win:angel: the race.
Matthew 22
The Parable of the Wedding Feast
1 And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: 2 �The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. 4 Again, he sent out other servants, saying, �Tell those who are invited, �See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.�� 5 But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6 And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. 7 But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, �The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.� 10 So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 �But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, �Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?� And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, �Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and[a] cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.�
14 �For many are called, but few :angel:are chosen.�
2 Corinthians 11:2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure :angel:virgin to him.
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 12:42 PM
@AWM so is it your opinion that you dont have the ability to reject God?
@ everyone else why is it ok for bahira to continualy call PJ and I barking Dogs? and for James to pretty much call PJ stupid?
You all call your self Christians I want no part of that kind of Christianily I would never call someone stupid or a barking dog, and it is not up to us to decide who TRULY LOVES GOD if someone says they love God and are a christian who are you to say they are not, God knows the heart and you dont knmow whats in any mans heart, I see these posts and yall are always claiming how pj insults you only I never seem him call you names all though yall call him a heritic and a hater of God, just because he doesnt agree with you doesnt mean he doesnt Love God, I am ashamed to be grouped in with people that would say such things, especialy how badly James down raded him saying he couldnt comprehend on an adult reading level.. But James thinks he is the true Christian.. its malarky
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 01:37 PM
@ everyone else why is it ok for bahira to continualy call PJ and I barking Dogs? and for James to pretty much call PJ stupid?
*** Its not OK..:rolleyes:....Lashing out at what they Dislike about a person instead of Edifying each other and Glorifing God...it is their own Self Justification as to the Why they do it...it is their Need...Not God's...xo
What Can Be Sweeter Than to Be �Kept by the Power of God�?
Posted : 8 Nov, 2011 02:30 PM
Just answering the question:
NOTHING is sweeter for a Christian than knowing that no matter what happens to them, no matter what suffering and sorrow they have in this life, that they BELONG to God, and that He knows their pain, and that one day they will live REAL LIFE in paradise, the way God designed life to be.
Christians who don't know the Scriptures that state that God WILL accomplish saving ALL of His chosen people, are in dire need of learning those verses.
Christians who attend a church that teaches that a true Christian can lose their salvation, need to LEAVE that church, and find another church to be a member of.
