There are three basic reasons why the true church has
lost its identity and they are as follows:
1. Disobedience
The first reason for the church's loss of identity is due to disobedience. For thus it is written: “Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer. The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); He has covered your head (the seers). For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, “Read this, please,” he will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.’
Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and
say, “Read this please,” he will answer, “I don’t know how to read” (Isaiah
29:9-12).
The crux of the matter is, when one habitually disobeys
the laws of God a veil of darkness covers his/her eyes, because,
although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but
became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man --- and birds and
four-footed animals and creeping things.
Therefore,
God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor
their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and
worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed
forever. Amen" (Romans
1:21-25).
When
one exchange the truth of God for the lie and do not like to retain God in
their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which
are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality,
wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit,
evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
un-discerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
Disobedience
to the laws of God results in the degeneration of the human mind; it
degenerates from being wise to becoming fools, from being knowledgeable to
having a debased mind and from having a pertinent heart to an unrepentant
heart.
Therefore,
the Lord´s instruction to His people is; “Take heed to yourselves, lest your
heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest
the LORD's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that
there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from
the good land which the LORD is giving you.
"Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as front-lets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 11:16-19).
The premise on which we should all be building our thesis on is that, all the law and the prophets hang on the two great commandments, the first being; “to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind,” which is fulfilled by the observance of the first four of the Ten Commandments, whilst the second, which is to love our neighbor as ourselves is fulfilled by the observance the last six of the Ten Commandments.
To be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment