• The Covenant - I
• The Covenant - II
• The Covenant - III
• The Covenant - IV
• True Gospel Obedience
• Justified By Faith
• He is Coming
• WE MUST OVERCOME

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Paul spoke of the day, “when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).  If we are to avoid His vengeance, we must be sure that we know God and obey the gospel.  How can we do that?

First, let’s look at how we obey the gospel of Jesus?  We need to know what the gospel is if we are to obey it.  Paul told the church at Corinth, “Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,  by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”  (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) 

The gospel (Good news) of Jesus is the good news of God’s great love that was shown for us when He offered His Son on the cross to make atonement for our sins.  It is the news of His death, burial and resurrection.  Jesus died for our sins and He was buried but the good news includes the proof shown by His resurrected from the dead.  Paul includes a list of those who were witnesses to His resurrection as proof that it really happened.  

Paul will then speak of some who had refused to believe in the resurrection of the dead and how the resurrection of Christ speaks otherwise.  He writes, “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”  He tells them that if there is no resurrection then Christ was not raised and if He was not raised, then their preaching is vain and their faith is vain.  He then tells them, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” (Verse 20)  

He says that Christ is the First Fruits of those who are asleep, meaning that others will follow Him.  The ones who will follow are, “those who are Christ's at His coming” (Verse 23). 

Peter spoke of the resurrection of Christ and how it relates to our being born again, saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you”.  (1 Peter 1:3-4) 

If we obey the gospel of His death, burial and resurrection, we will become born again as sons of God through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, because He was resurrected as the Firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18).  He is the Firstborn, meaning we will follow Him as resurrected sons of God in the image of Christ.  Paul said that we are predestined, “- - to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29). 

If the gospel news is the news of His death, burial and resurrection, how do we obey that gospel?  We could say that we obey that gospel with our death, burial and resurrection but Jesus says it another way.  

Jesus sums it up when He said, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  We obey the gospel of His death, burial and resurrection by belief in Jesus.  Those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life.  

If obedience to the gospel is belief in Jesus, then why should we be required to attend church or do any good works?  Many church people are worldly people, so what advantage is it to be a part of that?  Will I not be acceptable by just being a good person and profess to believe in Jesus?

Let’s be sure that we understand what belief in Jesus really means.  Remember, He was the Word of God and the creator from the beginning.  John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” (John 1:1-3). 

If we are saved by belief in Him and He is the Word, then we must believe what the Word says.  That is what Jesus was saying when He told the Jews, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” (John 5:24)  

We must listen to, and believe His word in order to have eternal life.  When Jesus said that, “whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”, He was speaking of that kind of faith.  

Jesus is the word, therefore, we must believe the word of all scripture.  We must believe the words of the inspired writers when they tell us how we obey the gospel of His death, burial and resurrection. 

Paul tells us more about that when he says, that it happens when we are baptized into His death (Romans 6:3) and then he says,“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:5-6). 

We can’t be crucified with Him and buried with Him in the likeness of His death if we have not repented and made the decision to put to death our worldly body of sin.  Bodies that are still alive to sin should not be buried.  We must die to self so that we can live for Jesus.  If we have not truly repented and made the decision to turn and follow Jesus, we have not obeyed the gospel of His love.  

Obedience to the gospel means that we must take up our cross and follow Him and John tells us about that. 

John tells us how to respond to the gospel message of love:  

1 John 3

16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?  Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” 

We know what love is when we see Jesus on the cross.  He died to provide a way for all men to be saved but only those who accept His sacrifice will become sons of God and the brethren of Christ.  He showed His love for the brethren when He died for them.  That is the gospel good news.  Our response to God’s love is that we "ought” to follow in His footsteps and lay down our lives for those same brethren. 

John is telling us how we carry a cross and follow Jesus.  True love can be seen in deeds of love.  We must lay down our lives for the church.  We do it when we give of our time and means to take care of those brothers who are in need.  If we see a brother who is in need of food or clothing or anything else and refuse to help (If we have the means), then we are not following Jesus and laying down our life for the brethren.  The love of God does not dwell in one who refuses to help his brothers with works of love.  He will not have obeyed the gospel of love.   

What Jesus will tell those before Him in judgment is now beginning to make sense.  Unless we take up our cross and follow Jesus and love the brethren in deed and in truth, we have not obeyed the gospel of God’s love.  We “ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”. 

In the above scripture, the word “ought” comes from the Greek word “opheilo”.  Strongs Definitions tells us it means to “be in debt for”.  We owe a debt of love to the brotherhood.  Jesus loved me and laid down His life to pay my debt for sin.  My debt of love is to lay down my life in serving the brotherhood that He died for.  Gospel obedience requires that I pay my debt. 

As Paul once said, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).  The great commandment of the Law is to love God.  The second greatest is to love our neighbor as we love our self (Matthew, chapter 22).  We can’t meet the first commandment if we have not met the second commandment.  We “ought” to offer our sacrifices of love at the house where Jesus offered His sacrifice of love, at God’s holy temple.   

Remember, under the old covenant, God placed His name in His earthly dwelling place, in His tabernacle and temple.  That included the one that Moses had built in the wilderness but it also included the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem.  God’s Spirit and His name dwelled in that holy place.  God’s people were to offer their sacrifices at that place.  That was just an earthly copy of what was to come.  It foretold God’s true house that was to come in the body of Christ. 

When the Hebrew writer spoke of that tabernacle holy place and How Christ has become our true High Priest, he tells us that Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, "a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;" (Hebrews 9:24)  The holy place of that old tabernacle was a "mere copy of the true one".  Christ did not enter into the copy.  He entered into the true holy place in heaven.  

God's holy temple on earth is now found in Christ's body, the church.  The church is made up of the saints.  God's Spirit dwells in the bodies of the saints.  Paul told the Corinthians, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”  (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)  

He also told them “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)   

Our bodies no longer belong to us.  He bought us with His blood.  We have crucified our old body of sin and buried it so that a new body that belongs to Christ could be raised up.  Our new body has been raised up as a part of the body of Christ. 

His body is God’s holy temple, His holy dwelling place.  God’s Spirit and His name dwell in that holy place.  We have become building blocks in that temple.  We should honor and treat as holy God’s holy dwelling place.  

Why did God institute that old worship if its sacrifices could never remove sins?  He did it as an earthly copy (The shadow) for our instruction.  We can see it in their worship.  That old tabernacle had a Holy of Holies inner room and a holy place outer room.  A veil separated those two rooms.  God was enthroned in the inner room.  That old priesthood served daily in the outer room.  Both of those rooms were holy places.  The inner room was the Most Holy place.  Everything they did was a copy and shadow of what applies to us.   

Jesus has offered His perfect sacrifice and He entered through the spiritual veil (His flesh is the true veil – Hebrews 10:20) into the true inner room.  He has taken His seat by the Father in the Holy of Holies of the true tabernacle built by the Lord.  Remember, that old holy place was “a mere copy of the true one”.  

If Christ is in the inner room of the true tabernacle, where is the outer room?  Christ’s body on earth is the true outer room.  He went through the outer room (He lived and served in His earthly body) and through the veil into the inner room. 

Just as that old priesthood served daily in that old outer room, we serve daily in the true outer room.  We must also offer our sacrifices of love before that holy place.  We must lay down our life as a spiritual sacrifice where Christ has placed His name.  We are required to love and do good deeds for all people but we are to love the brotherhood above all others. 

True gospel obedience requires that we love Christians and do deeds of love for them because they make up the outer room holy place in His temple.  God's Spirit and His name dwell in that holy place.  

The Hebrew writer spoke of our service at that holy place.  He said, “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints” (Hebrews 6:10).  When I minister to the saints, I am offering my sacrifices of love at the place where His name dwells.  I am to stoop down and wash my brother’s feet (Spiritually speaking). 

My brother is anyone (Either male or female) who has been baptized into Christ to become clothed with Him (“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” – Galatians 3:26-27).  All who have become clothed with the Firstborn Son have also become sons of God. 

Christ is the High Priest of God.  We must be clothed with the High Priest because the old copy tells us that only the high priest will enter through the veil into the Holy of Holies.  If he finds us properly clothed in our priestly robe and faithfully serving in the outer room when He returns, we will have been made one with Him and we will be allowed to enter back through the veil with Him.  If, however, He does not find us offering our sacrifices of love before that holy place, He will not be pleased with us.    

We must treat God's holy dwelling place with honor and respect.  If we have been disrespectful of His holy place, the old copy tells us we will see His vengeance.  Death was the penalty for showing disrespect for God’s house that was just an earthly copy.  

God forbid that we should defile God’s true house, either in our own body or the body of any brother or sister.  If we have not loved and honored God's true holy place, then all of the other things that we do in the name of Christ may count for nothing.   

We must hear Paul tell us, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1)  

He also tells us that we are to “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” (Verse 10)  He tells us to “Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.” (Verse 16) 

Regarding our requirement to love the brotherhood, John wrote, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.” (1 John 3:14)   If we are not offering our sacrifices of love for the brethren we have not passed out of death into life.  We are dead if we have not loved our brothers.  

We heard Paul tell us what will take place on that last day.  Jesus will come and deal out retribution to those who do not know God and have not obeyed the gospel.  We have seen how obedience to the gospel includes our requirement to crucify self and to offer our sacrifices of love for the brotherhood.  What does Paul mean, however, when he tells us that we must also know God? 

John tells us about that when he writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”  (1 John 4:7-8)   We can’t know God if we don’t know love because God is love. 

If God is love, then we have already seen how we can know God.  We can know God by knowing what love is and we heard John say that, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”.  

God is love and the gospel is the gospel of love.  We must know God and God is love and we know love when we see Jesus on the cross.  We must know love like that and lay down out lives for the brethren that He died for.   We must love the brethren like that because that is how we know God and how we obey the gospel of love.  

The gospel is “the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Ephesians 1:13).  We must obey the gospel, the message of truth.  Peter is telling us how when he writes, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart”  (1 Peter 1:22). 

Jesus is the Word and He is speaking through all of the inspired writers.  We need to listen to Jesus and believe Him because it is those who believe in Him that will have eternal life.  We must believe Him when He tells us of those who will be given eternal life because they did those works of love for His brothers (Matthew, chapter 25).  

Paul was encouraging the saints in Corinth to do that when he wrote to encourage them to help their brethren, the poor saints in Jerusalem who were in need.  He said they were to lay by in store on the first day of the week.  It would then be ready when Paul came (1 Corinthians 16:1-3). 

In his second letter to them, he told the Corinthians how the churches of Macedonia gave beyond their ability for that cause and “they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints”                      (2 Corinthians 8:3-4). 

Paul was encouraging the church at Corinth to give so as to prove “the sincerity of your love”.  He told them that it was to be done “that there may be equality”.  In the next chapter (Chapter 9), he spoke of their contribution to those poor saints in Jerusalem and how, "Because of the proof given by this ministry,
they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all,” (Verse 13)  

Paul is writing to us.  He is telling us that when we see brothers who are in need anywhere on earth, we should prove the sincerity of our love and obey the gospel by setting aside money for their support.  Can we see brothers who are in need today?  When we read our Christian newspapers do we see some brethren who are living in poverty? 

We set aside money to support missionaries who carry the gospel to the lost in those poor nations (A very good work) but are we taking care of the poor saints out there? 

Remember, they are the true house of God.  Are we spending more on the true house of God or are we spending much greater sums to build earthly structures like new church buildings for ourselves.  Are we, the rich church in this country (The USA), living in our relative luxury while many of our brothers starve? 

True gospel obedience demands that we lay down our lives for the brethren.  That includes all of the brethren, not just those living in our city and country.  Is not the true house of God more important than earthly buildings? 

We may need some building facilities so that we can be protected from the outside elements as we worship together, but most of what has been spent on our earthly building structures may go far beyond what is necessary.  From what we can tell from the scriptures, the first century church had no separate church buildings.  They met together in their homes or they used facilities that belonged to others (Like the Jewish temple when they were not being persecuted).

We have spent beyond our means for extra earthly structures with the main goal being that we will grow in number.  From the prospective of church growth in our country, new church buildings obviously did not help.  Over the past twenty five years or so, the church in this country has spent billions on building structures but we have lost ground relative to the general population growth in this country.  Is that because we have been spending on the wrong house of God?  

The church in some other countries was doubling (Or more) during the same time period.  Our missionary work may have helped some but much of that growth came in areas where we had no missionaries.  Are the poor saints in those other countries growing because they have done a better job of obeying that command to love the brotherhood with deeds of love?  Are they giving beyond their means to help make up for our shortfall?  

The members who live here may consider themselves to be middle income in our land but to those poor brothers in other lands we are living in splendor.  In many places those poor brethren are starving to death.  With the rapid communications that we have today, we know of their condition.  

Are we ignoring our poor brother at our door?  The poor man has been at our door for many years.  We may be speaking the word to him but what are we doing to meet his physical needs?  I hope we have not just given him the crumbs from our table. 

We have been brought out of death into life by our obedience to the new command to love our brother as Jesus has loved us.  We are to show our love in deed and truth.  We are saved by grace through faith and not by works but we have been created for good works (Ephesians 2:8-10). 

If we are not doing our works of love for the saints then our faith is dead (James 2:15-17) and we have not passed out of death into life.  Remember, He is not the God of the dead, He is the God of the living (Matthew 22:32). 

Those on the left (In judgment) will be dead because they did not do those works of love for Christ’s brothers (Matthew, chapter 25).  It will include some who had some faith but who did not know love.  It may also include some church members who attended church every Sunday but who failed to offer their love sacrifices at God’s holy place.  

We need to be sure that we meet our worship requirements locally but we also need to remember God's holy place in foreign lands.  Paul was writing his letters to us as well as to the church at Corinth.  He is telling us to help the ones who are in need to prove “the sincerity of your love”.  

True gospel obedience includes the requirement for us to be doing our priestly service in the tabernacle holy place of the local church.  We must be a functioning part of that body to fulfill our sacrificial duties to the brethren.  If He comes and finds us neglecting our priestly service in the outer room of His tabernacle, He may not take us with Him when He enters back through the veil into God’s Holy of Holies dwelling place.  

We must obey the gospel of love and do our part of sacrificial service to the brethren.  The early church in Jerusalem did that when some of them sold their lands to help their needy brethren.  They did not do it to build an earthly church building.  They had none.  

Should we reevaluate our church budgets so that our needy brethren in foreign lands are taken care of?  Should we have special building funds for that house of God, rather than for our earthly structures?  Is that work not of greater importance than earthly structures?  Should we also reevaluate our individual giving to include them in?  

The church in Macedonia gave beyond their ability when they heard about the needy saints in Jerusalem.  We likely have no needy saints in Jerusalem but what about those in Africa and India and South America etc?  How much do we set aside for them?  Are we showing the proof of our love for them?  

Remember what Jesus said when He gave the new commandment?  He said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35)  

Everybody will know that we are His disciples if we love one another like that.  We are to love one another as He has loved us.  We know how much He loved us. He loved us enough to lay down His life for us. Remember what John said about that?  He said that “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”.  

We are justified by faith but it must be faith in Jesus, the Word of God who became flesh so that He could become our sacrifice for sins.  Those who truly believe that gospel message will accept the conditions of His sacrifice and make their sacrifices at the house where He lives and serve the brotherhood.

We “ought” to offer our sacrifices of love at the house where Jesus offered His sacrifice of love.  We must be serving in the outer room of the church and offering our sacrifices of love at that holy place when He returns or He will not be pleased with us.  He will likely not take us with Him when He enters back through the veil into His heavenly Most Holy Place.   

We must obey the gospel and believe in Jesus.  Faith means nothing, however, if it is not a faith that believes Jesus when He commands us to take up our cross and offer our sacrifices of love at His holy place.  We must do the works of love that we were created to do because Jesus will come and deal out vengeance to those who do not know God and who have not obeyed the gospel.  He, “WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS” (Matthew 16:27). 

Johnny Rogers 8-6-08

Revised 1-19-10

Image of the cross is from FreeFoto.com

Link For cross - http://www.freefoto.com/preview/05-08-10?ffid=
05-08-10&k=Cross+at+Sunset