Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter – Our home with Christ in the word “abide” – Satan’s schemes.

Sunday May 27 2018

 

Title: Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter - Our home with Christ in the word “abide” - Satan’s schemes.

 

We abide:

In Him (2:6) - walk as He walked

In light (2:10) - loves his brother

 

The word (2:14) and the foundational doctrines of Christ (2:24) abides in us.

 

The first one is a claim of a consistent lifestyle. The second is a fact of the one who loves his brother. The word must abide in us if we are to have any spiritual power to apply to life, and since there are so many lies propagated by the kingdom of darkness concerning the person and work of Christ, the foundational doctrines of Christology and Soteriology must continue to abide in us.

 

COL 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

 

“elementary principles” - stoicheion = first principles, first elements, first substance. Man builds his speculations off of worldly first principles, i.e. evolution.

 

The Judiazers who poisoned the Galatians and the Gnostics who poisoned the Colossians and many other Christians in provincial Asia, included Jesus Christ and the Bible into their schemes, while never giving them all sufficient power.

 

The cross of Christ is all sufficient to save any man. Nothing needs to be added to it and nothing can be taken away from it. Jesus is God and Man. He is undiminished deity.

 

Satan does not want to invent entirely new religions. He wants to remove the power of the true religion of Christianity.

 

2TI 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

 

2TI 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

 

2TI 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,

 

2TI 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;

 

2TI 3:5 holding to a form [morphosis: outline, press, or outward semblance] of godliness, although they have denied its power [the power of godliness]; and avoid such men as these.

 

Just as there is only one gospel and one Jesus, there is only one godliness since there is only one God.

 

This is why it would not do for Satan to come up with completely different religions. They still wouldn’t damage the true religion. There are a lot of people in the world who are unaffiliated with a church, but only 3% of the American population claim to be atheists. Satan is not trying to get the world to disbelieve in God; if he was he is not the great deceiver he is given credit for. Yet, if America is 3% atheist, are 97% of us Christians who love the Lord and abide in Him? Obviously not.

 

The great deception from Satan is designed to discredit the all-sufficient power of Christ, not to remove Him entirely.

 

Therefore, the Galatians were pushed towards Judaism and the Law of Moses and the Colossians towards Gnosticism and the so-called higher mystery knowledge. In both of these, Jesus and the Bible are included, but they are not claimed as being all-sufficient.

 

2TI 3:5 holding to a form [morphosis: outline, press, or outward semblance] of godliness, although they have denied its power [the power of godliness]; and avoid such men as these.

 

2TI 3:6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,

 

2TI 3:7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 

Always learning is a good description of a Gnostic.

 

We must hold on with all our might [katecho/antecho/epecho: hold fast] to the foundational doctrines of Christ, salvation, and the Christian way of life.

 

TIT 1:7 For the overseer [pastor] must be above reproach as God's steward [given charge of God’s flock], not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain,

 

TIT 1:8 but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled,

 

TIT 1:9 holding fast [antecho: hold against, cleave to] the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.

 

The Greek word for sound is hugiaino (hygiene), which means healthy or sound in health. We can picture falsehood as a virus that sickens souls.

 

Php 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

 

“work out” - katergazomai = to carry to the goal or an ultimate conclusion (Wuest). Carry salvation to its ultimate goal - Christlikeness.

 

This word would be used for figuring out an arithmetic sum. You are to carry the problem to its ultimate conclusion.

 

“fear and trembling” description by Wardlaw: "This fear is self-distrust; it is tenderness of conscience; it is vigilance against temptation; it is the fear which inspiration opposes to high-mindedness in the admonition, 'be not high-minded but fear.' It is taking heed lest we fall; it is a constant apprehension of the deceitfulness of the heart, and of the insidiousness and power of inward corruption. It is the caution and circumspection which timidly shrinks from whatever would offend and dishonor God and the Savior"

 

Php 2:12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

 

Php 2:13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

 

Php 2:14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing;

 

Php 2:15 that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,

 

Php 2:16 holding fast [epecho: hold fully or hold forth] the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may have cause to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

 

Php 2:17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

 

Php 2:18 And you too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

 

The foundational doctrines of Christianity must be always running in the background of our hearts as we go through every day, like the scenery in a landscape painting in which we are the tiny subjects in the foreground. In whatever we do, say, or think, these doctrines must affect us in righteousness.

 

The attacks against Christ and the word of God are still the same.

 

The most effective attacks against Christ and the gospel acknowledge them while claiming they are not sufficient to save.

 

All cults claiming to be Christian as well as all other false religions have this feature. Mormons, JW’s, Christian Scientists, and other cults include Jesus and the Bible in their systems but vehemently claim that Jesus is not God and that the cross was not sufficient to save man. Buddhism claims to be able to make men good without God. Islam includes Jesus as a prophet, but not the prophet, while no atonement is offered and man must work for his salvation. Hinduism has over 300 million deities. It would be a simple matter to include Jesus as one of them. But again, work must be done for a person to get himself out of the cycle of karma.

 

GAL 1:6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;

 

GAL 1:7 which is really not another [because there is no other]; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

 

2CO 11:1 I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me.

 

2CO 11:2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.

 

2CO 11:3 But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

 

2CO 11:4 For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.

 

Nothing has changed. We are not ignorant of Satan’s schemes.

 

The home of the Lord is full of the word of God