Victory Blog

“The contention was so sharp between them that they departed one from the other.”¹

In a classroom it is easier to judge by the face of a student whether an answer has helped or not.  Replying to an email from a distance, there is no sure way to know whether my reply met a need or not.  My cogitating mind has considered further about a group debating whether one indwelt by the Holy Spirit can apostatize so as to lose his salvation.  So far, I have tried to stress that only God can tell whether a person is a true believer or just faking it.  Then I endeavored to point out that many who have appeared to be commendable believers were not actually born again.  In denying the Savior, they were but revealing the true condition of their souls.

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1. Acts 15:39 [↩]

Audio Sermon: Make the choices to obey God , Matt 7:13-14

Pastor Lloy Stevens, Victory Baptist Church

Sunday, 02/07/10, AM Service

 

 Enhanced Podcast: Play Now | Download (6)

In this column we are talking about children who grew up in a Christian home, but have not followed the Lord. Last time we began to focus on how parents handle their God given authority over their children. As noted previously, how we handle the authority God has given us as parents is critical to the process of training. We have briefly considered the warnings of Ephesians 6:4. Paul writes, “And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” If we provoke our children to wrath we may be the very reason they reject our Christian training. May no child ever be able to point at his own father or mother to seek justification for his own rebellion against the Lord. But, let there be no doubt that such rebellion will never be condoned by God nor will stumbling over an unjust parent ever excuse a young person’s sin. Still, the Lord gives parent’s severe warnings of the necessity to perform their parenting obligations well.

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“There shall be false teachers who shall bring damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.”¹

After writing a reply to a reader, my mind continued cogitating on a part of my answer which may deserve further explanation to be fully appreciated by the present generation.  The assertion read:  In the last century as theological liberalism gained precedence in most of the denominations, only God could have distinguished between those who were believers taken in by false teachings and those who never had come to know the Lord.  Those who continued to teach the fundamentals of the faith displayed loyalty to the Lord.  Those who doubted or denied any of the foundational teachings of Scripture may have or may not have been true believers.  That is not for us to judge.

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1. 2 Peter 2:1 [↩]

“By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.  The body is not one member, but many.”¹

The invisible, inscrutable body of the Lord Jesus Christ is as all pervasive and as dependable throughout this present dispensation as is gravity.  The body of believers is real.  It has expanded and continues to grow with additional believers year after year.  It is a spiritual body, experiencing spiritual fellowship with other believers, carrying on spiritual endeavors resulting in eternal spiritual benefit.  We can perceive of its unitary nature, but we see only results of its activity.

Different parts of this great body function in different ways and in different places.  The Bible illustrations are seeing, hearing, smelling, activity of a hand or a foot (1 Cor 12:14-21).  Jesus said, “I will build My church” (Matt 16:18).  That universal mystical church is the mightiest endeavor in progress through the centuries since.  It is one massive endeavor of which we are but a small part.  Jesus Himself is the head of the universal church, directing its every activity.  He is the one to get credit for anything we do as members of that body.

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1. 1 Cor 12:13-14 [↩]

Last time we concluded our article by challenging parents, whose children grew up in their Christian home but have not followed the Lord, to consider how they handled the authority God gave them over their children. We ask again, was there anger, temper, inconsistency, or harshness? Maybe we should add, was there favoritism? Were children caught in the middle of parental conflicts?

How we handle the authority God has given us as parents is critical to the process of training. Most of us are familiar with the cautions expressed in Ephesians 6:4. Paul writes, “And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Why he says that is quite obvious. The parent can undermine the very task of training he is assigned to do. Read the rest of this post »