Purity of Doctrine & Devotion

The Sufficiency of the Work of God

Let's turn to Luke chapter 18. We're gonna read a section from Luke 18 in a moment but this is I think what part 3 of lesson number 1. So we're moving a little slower than I had thought. I want to speed things up.

I always say that and then it doesn't happen. But yeah this is third part of lesson number 1 and we ended in section a talking about the supremacy of the Word of God. So I believe now we're at number or letter B.

Be the sufficiency of the work of God. Is that correct. Okay. So the sufficiency of the work of God says when we speak of the work of God in this lesson we are focusing specifically on the work of salvation.

False teachers and errant movements are marked by a wrong understanding of the gospel. They attempt to add some form of human effort to that which is scripture or to that which scripture teaches is entirely a work of God.

So that's the focus the work of God in salvation and salvation. This is the first thing you had to fill in. The biblical gospel asserts that sinners are justified before God on the basis of what grace.

Okay grace alone. So let's look at Luke 18. It gives the scripture reference Luke 18. We'll just start reading in verse 9. Luke 18 starting in verse 9. And he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

Sorry sir already you're seeing a problem that there's some people they don't believe that they're saved or justified by God's grace. No they're trusting in their own goodness. Right. They're trusting in their own work.

So this is the parable Jesus gave two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. And the Pharisees stood and prayed thus within himself God. I thank you that I am not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers.

Or even as this tax collector I fast twice a week I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but he beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner.

And I tell you this man that is the tax collector went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So the prayer of the Pharisee he's I guess he's praying to God but he's praying to God.

Lord look at how amazing that I am. You know I am amazing. I am wonderful. Sounds like some preachers today. I am incredible you know. But his trust was in himself and he was not justified before God because he's trusting in his own goodness instead of God's goodness.

So the tax collector as wretched as he was and the Pharisee didn't measure up either. So the tax collector he appeals to God and his grace and he was justified. So salvation is by grace alone. In the book it says salvation is the gift of God received through faith apart from works based solely on the finished work of Christ.

So in response to those who tried to add self-righteousness or works to the gospel of grace the Apostle Paul issued this stern rebuke. Do you have this listed Galatians 1 6 through 8. All right. What did Paul say.

He said. I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel which is really not another only. There are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you he is to be what occurs. So you already see that there are different gospels out there now really there's only one gospel in the sense that there's one true gospel the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But there's all sorts of other gospels false gospels that people preach. So the issue with the Galatians was the Judaizers were the false teachers he's referring to and they were teaching that. Yes you need to believe in Jesus.

I mean all these groups will say that. But you need more. You need to follow the law of Moses in particular. You need to be circumcised in order to be saved. Well what is that. You're adding works. You're adding circumcision to the gospel.

Can anyone think of a modern-day example. There's nobody teaching that today. Well somewhere in the world there is I'm sure. But that's not a very common thing. What's a common modern example of somebody adding something to the gospel.

Can anyone think of something. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's where I was going so I'll.

Come back to that in a moment. Meg right. Yeah. And I do feel like that's kind of.

The main message coming from some ministries that Christianity is all about being nice. I like this quote from Vodie Bockham. He said churches are following the 11th commandment thou shalt be nice. So so they're following the 11th commandment but they don't believe the other 10.

So I thought that was a great quote. Obviously we should all be kind and we should be nice to people generally speaking. Well there is a couple times where Jesus you could say wasn't nice to the Pharisees or Paul wasn't nice to the false prophet bar Jesus when he called him the son of the devil but you know these are sort of rare examples.

Generally speaking that's true but that you don't add that to the gospel back in 2020. I think I mentioned this last week during that like the height of the social justice movement people are saying that in order to have the full gospel you need to have social justice.

So yes you need to preach Christ but you also need to be marching in the streets calling for you know all these whatever laws to be passed. And so it's it's faith plus social justice. And Mark mentioned a good example I've been I put out this video about the four major cults eight months ago whenever it was so Mormon Seventh-day Adventist Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian science.

And in the comment section I you know I've been getting hammered by the Seventh-day Adventist now naturally if if somebody says hey this group is a like the people in that group are gonna object like I get it.

But some of them told me that because I go to church on Sunday I'm not saved. I am lost because I don't go to church on Saturday. To me I mean how is that not adding law keeping to the gospel that you're saved by faith in Jesus.

Plus you need to keep the Sabbath and that's a whole other issue. But yeah all sorts of different groups add things to the gospel and Paul says let them be a curse let them be anathema. Now he said that to those who are teaching it the Saints in Galatia who got mixed up he was he was really concerned.

But he's not saying that to them. He's talking to the the false teachers or saying that about the false teachers. All right. Any other comments before we move on. And it can be a subtle thing sometimes.

But we have to be on guard in Acts 16 30 through 31 when the Philippian jailer this isn't some of the things in my book or not in your book. So I don't think this part is in there. Acts 16 30 through 31 when the Philippian jailer asked what must I do to be saved.

Paul's response was very simple. What did he say. Let me give you a list of 10 different things you need to do. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. This is the simplicity of the gospel.

So once a person believes in Christ they are saved. Now that's not the end of the story. Because we are to grow in grace and there's all sorts of thing. Christians are things Christians are called to do.

But for salvation it's only faith in Christ. Okay. In his letter to the Romans another example Paul reiterated the idea that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Romans 328. In chapter 4 he presented Abraham as an example of being justified by faith.

And then in chapter 5 he reiterated that because we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's Romans 5 1. Ok. In the book it says consider some of Paul's other statements about God's grace in salvation.

Romans 11 6 who wants to get a few volunteers to read these. Romans 11 6 wants to read that. Stacey. Ok. Good it has to be. If it's by grace works cannot be involved in it at all. Because if you're working for something then you're earning it.

Right. Your paycheck is not an example of your employers grace. You earned it. Right. So if work is involved at all it cannot be grace. Ephesians 2 8 and 9. Who wants to read that. Andrew. Okay. And because of that nobody can brag.

Why I'm better than this person. You know you don't want to be like the Pharisee. Oh God I thank you that I'm so much better than all these other people. And you're like wow you know that this is a guy who doesn't get it.

Philippians. Philippians 3 8 and 9. Do we have a.

Volunteer for that. Okay Linda. Okay that's pretty clear. And then the last.

Verse Titus 3 4 through 7. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to his mercy.

He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by his grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

And then it says his ministry. Paul emphasized the truth of the gospel because he recognized the vital importance of what was at stake. So what's at stake. What's at stake. People souls are at stake. If you're believing a false gospel people's souls are at stake.

I realized the majority of people might not see that or agree with that or recognize the importance of that. I think people in Bible-believing churches do. But getting the gospel wrong. If you get that wrong I mean what else.

Nothing else really matters at that point you need that. Right. Okay so the discussion question given the importance of the gospel how would you explain it to someone. What verses would you include in presenting the good news that sinners can be saved through faith in Christ.

How would you explain it to somebody. Well here's how it's explained. Sometimes you know God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That's how a gospel presentation is often started out. Is that true.

Can you say to people in general God loves you. Right. God so loved the world. Does God have a wonderful plan for your life. He has a plan. You know we're not getting into predestination or anything. But yeah I don't think we can.

I don't think we can quibble with that too much. If God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. My fear though is what people hear. What the sinner hears when they hear that and say well if God loves me and he has this great plan then I'm good to go no matter what I think that's what people hear.

So instead of starting out with the good news you know this by now instead of starting out with the good news you start out with what the bad news people need to recognize. Well they need to recognize their need.

So start with the bad news. And this is where I think the Romans road is a generally effective way you start out. Romans 323 for all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. Romans 623 for the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life and Christ Jesus our Lord. So you kind of start out with the problem and then you go into the solution. Any other comments on that. How how do you approach the situation.

I know Marcus always uses tracks and it just happens that he'll run into someone and talk to them for a short time and give them a track.

Yeah if you can explain it yourself I think that's that's good. That might be better but you can memorize the Romans road and then you get in that situation and people freeze. I realize it doesn't flow unless you do it a lot.

So give someone a track. Also another thing you can just take your phone and hey here's a sermon on the gospel. Click. You know send it to somebody. I mean there's a million different ways you can do it I suppose.

But we do want to communicate the gospel and it has to be more than God loves you. Here's one of the gospels I hear out there God loves you. So you're already saved. You just need to recognize it. You just need to embrace what God has done and it's already finished.

And God loves everyone's a child of God. And I'm hearing that more and more these days. And sometimes it can come out wrong but sometimes I really think people are saying that yeah everybody's saved everybody's a child of God.

So you just need to recognize that which is a what universalism which we've talked about a lot. Okay so if there's no other points of discussion about that then we'll move on all. Right. Moving on to numbers or letter C.

I keep saying number but the letter a the supremacy of the Word of God be the sufficiency of the work of God. And then see let's see here I just lose it. Where is it. Yeah see the sanctity of the worship of God.

The Sanctity of the Worship of God

Okay so the true church worships the triune God Father Son and Holy Spirit in both purity of devotion and purity of doctrine. Okay so devotion and doctrine conversely it says false teachers either the truth about God or introduce competitors to the pure worship that he alone deserves.

As Jesus told the woman at the well you have this right. John 4 23. An hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers.

So in this verse we see that the worship of God requires is pure. The worship he requires is pure both in spirit that is devotion and truth doctrine. So let's consider these two facets of acceptable worship in more detail.

So number one purity of devotion undefiled worship is reserved for God alone. And it removes what. Okay removes distractions and it rejects competitors. So now we need to start thinking about what are some of the distractions that can maybe you're in a church and the truth they understand who God is.

They preach the true gospel. But there can be distractions that would draw you away. And then there's others. This is maybe a more serious concern. But there are some who bring in competitors or there are competitors for the worship of God.

So the Old Testament is replete with mandates regarding the exclusive and undistracted worship that God is rightly do. So this is not in your book. But you can make a note according to Isaiah 42 8 the Lord God is a what God jealous.

God who does not share his glory with any other God is a jealous God. Now the word jealous today usually is seen as a kind of a negative thing. You don't want to be jealous. But God is described as being jealous.

Well there's no problem here because God alone who is worthy of worship for the same worship or any worship that God is worthy of. Like who is on that level of God. Nobody. The second of the Ten Commandments condemns those who worship idols including those who would create a graven image for the purpose of worship.

Exodus 20 verse 4. So everyone most everyone is familiar with the second commandment. Thou shall not make unto thee any graven images. And he says you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Okay do we have any graven images in this.

We have any statues in this church. You know there's a whole other debate about two-dimensional images. But we'll just stick to graven images right now. No there's there's no graven images in this church.

And has there ever been. Hopefully not. Will there ever be. Hopefully not. But you understand there are churches that you walk in and yeah there's graven images everywhere. And people are bowing to them and.

Serving them. Yes. I was just going to ask when I mean obviously we have the cross there. We're not bowing to that image but when we have things like that in the household I guess I can just think of when we were visiting dad at the at st. Vincent's there was a cross with Christ on the cross above the clock and I thought well what's wrong with that number one.

Christ is on that image. Yeah. But I wonder like how far does this Exodus 20 for no raven images. We're not necessarily bowing to that but it's there like how far does that right go.

Yeah I mean that's a good question that not everyone agrees on. Clearly. If there's a graven image a statue of Mary and you're bowing down to it that's clearly wrong. Now they'll say well we don't worship it we're venerating the image.

I mean come on that's clearly wrong. Let's say somebody has the statue in their house or in the back. I don't know what's an example of. Well just take the cross for an example. If you had a cross and you're kissing it and you think this is a good luck charm and and you're bowing to the I mean that I think is a problem.

Most Christians probably don't do that although that would be a danger. So I'm certain about graven images bowing down to them. People that have you know a 3d image of Jesus in their house. I don't like it.

But if they're not bowing down to it I would not accuse them of idolatry. I would I would discourage that. I would strongly discourage that. Then you get to like the TV show or any movie that depicts Jesus.

You know some people say hey that's a second commandment violation because that actor is not Jesus and you're depicting Jesus or any picture on the wall. That's supposedly Jesus. Right. I don't like it but I guess I'm not.

I'm not willing to accuse someone of idolatry unless they actually have a graven image and they're bowing down to it. We just need to because everyone here's the problem with saying okay here's the line.

That's the line. Well then people can get as close to the line as possible and that's just the way people are. So I anything that has a whiff of that I try to avoid and I would discourage. So that's that's my answer.

One interesting Old Testament account the book says involves the reforms made by King Hezekiah. 2nd Kings 18 verse 4 says he removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah or the Asherah poles.

He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it and it was called Nashua tan. Okay so here's an example where Moses actually was told by God to make this this image of the brazen serpent.

And we know from the Gospel of John chapter 3 the serpent represents Christ on the cross. So the serpent is lifted up just as the Son of Man will be lifted up. But what happened with the Israelites. You know over time over the centuries they started worshiping that like it was.

I mean they wouldn't have said it's God. They did do that with the golden calf. Right. They bowed to the golden calf. This is these are your gods or this is your God that delivered you from Egypt. Oh they might not have said that the brazen serpent was was God himself.

But they were showing what veneration towards it. Right. And Hezekiah's thought this was the big problem. So any object that you're serving and the cross could be that if someone was bowing to the cross kissing the cross viewing it as a good luck charm.

No get rid of the thing because then it's a stumbling block. So they actually destroyed the brazen serpent that Moses made because it had become like an idol to them. In the New Testament all forms of idolatry are condemned.

Paul told the Corinthians to quote flee from idolatry 1st Corinthians 1014 while commanding the Thessalonians because they turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God. 1st Thessalonians 1 9.

So it says the Apostle John warned his readers turn from idols. Okay are there any idols today. Because I'm you know always try to make application. Because if they okay yes they did this a few thousand years ago that was bad.

Well that's great that we read that and recognize that. But what really matters for us today is are people doing that now. Right. And again the churches that have graven images. But what about maybe evangelical churches Bible-believing churches.

I don't think idolatry is a big problem as far as graven images. But like we always point out anything you put above the Lord in your life is is like an idol. So all these passages all these passages the worship of God requires a worship that is pure true worship love sin with all of our heart mind soul and strength us it is not distracted or diminished by any hint of idolatry.

Okay here's something else you have that you needed to fill in purity of doctrine says undefiled worship requires an accurate view of what who God is. Okay. Because if you know who God is then you'll know who God isn't or what God isn't.

To reject or distort the truth about who God is is as he has revealed himself in his word is to worship the wrong God. Or to reject or distort the truth about who God is as he has revealed himself in his word is to worship the wrong God all right now it says various heretical groups denied the deity of Christ.

Thus they're rejecting the Trinity. Okay so this is this is one major issue when you deny the Trinity it's always connected to denying the divinity of Christ. And this is something that who does this.

Who denies the divinity of Christ. Yeah this is typically the cults. So the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons some seventh-day Adventists. Not all but some of them deny the Trinity. And Christian science has a totally wrong view.

Or would deny really they deny the Trinity. So the issue is always Jesus. It's not usually the Holy Spirit that they're denying his divinity. It's always about Jesus. So if you're not worshiping Jesus as the true God you have a different God.

Because for the Christian we can say our God is who. Yeah. And he is he. God has revealed himself in Christ. Jesus was God. The father calls him God. And Hebrews 1 8 and 9 John 1 1 in the beginning was the word Jesus Christ and he was both with God and he was what he was God.

Verse 14. He took on flesh he came and dwelt among us. So this is one of those things where we say Jesus is the only of salvation. Oh I don't believe that. I think there's other paths. Well what's this other path.

If Jesus is the only true God this other path is a competitor. How. Right. So that's the thing there's some people who openly blatantly deny the gospel. But if you deny that Jesus is the only way of salvation you are denying the only true God.

Because you think there's some other some other path. 1 John 2 verse 22. You have this. Who is the liar or a liar. But the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is what. Yeah this is the Antichrist.

The one who denies the Father and the Son. So if you deny anything about Jesus whether it's humanity which hardly anyone does today but certainly the main way people do it. If you deny the divinity of Christ the false teachers who did that they were anti Christ.

Now were they preaching Christ. Did they say hey I'm anti crime against Christ. Did they say that. No. Of course not. But they're giving in an imitation like they're they're preaching the gospel. But it's a false gospel.

Right. Like I always tell you nobody ever comes in and says hey how you doing. I'm a false prophet. Thanks for letting me into your church and let me lie to you and lead you away from the truth. Nobody's ever done that in the history of the world there is a situation locally where there's a guy he's going around teaching another Christ a different gospel.

He really does teach that. You're already saved. You just need to recognize that. And I talked to a local pastor. I'm like this guy people need to beware of him and we need to not allow him into churches.

They said no we need to we need to embrace him and welcome him into the churches. Because he's not anti Christ. Because I quoted this verse from John he said well he's not anti Christ. He's not he. He says he loves Jesus.

I'm like how can you not. How can you not see this. But yeah the false teachers never come out and say I hate Jesus. We're against Jesus. Let's lead people away from Jesus. They they use cunning words to try to trick people with their false gospel.

Okay first John 4 2 3 by this you know that the Spirit of God. Or this. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

This is the Spirit of Antichrist of which you have heard that is coming and is now already in the world. Now I can see where people you know maybe the uninformed person might get tricked on this because hey they're confessing Jesus.

Right. Yeah. But implied in this is you're confessing the true Jesus his true nature. You know his person his work. Because even the false teachers John was dealing with again they use the name Jesus.

John adds that the true church is one that embraces the Lord Jesus as the Son of God. Which what does Son of God mean. See if you've been paying attention as we go through Matthew what does Son of God mean.

What are we saying by that. What does the scripture mean when it says he's the Son of God. It means he is what he is. He is God. That he's of the same nature as the Father. These same themes are repeated in other places throughout John's writings.

The truth that Jesus is the Messiah the truth that he became fully human in his incarnation and the truth that he is God's Son. And then it lists verses John 1 1 which talked about Christ deity which we referenced.

And then John 1 17 Christ Messiah ship says for the law was given through Moses but grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ the Messiah. So to deny the deity humanity or Messiah ship of the Lord Jesus constitutes a serious error.

Which is why John so strongly condemned the false teachers who distorted the truth about Christ. Okay so for discussion review. John 4 23 so that's the verse about worshiping and spirit and truth. Correct.

What can you do to make sure that your worship is characterized by both purity of devotion spirit and purity of doctrine truth. What are some potential obstacles to that kind of God honoring worship. So what are some obstacles.

What are some potential competitors. Any ideas. Fear of man. All. Right. The fear of man causes you to just cave in if somebody comes to you and hey this is true. You believe that. Right. Or they just they want you to go along with whatever they're saying or doing.

Fear of man will cause you to collapse. And just yes you disagree with whatever and you just go along with whatever. I think one of the ways that well it's an obstacle. Purity of devotion. I think we need to eliminate distractions.

I think that was mentioned in here a page or two earlier. Eliminate distractions. There's a lot of well-meaning Christians and I know how this is. I've told you this you know when I'm up front if I'm preaching right now I have to be paying attention otherwise bad things will happen.

Right. But you know when you're sitting in the pew and when we're singing it's easy to allow your mind to wander and I suspect that when I'm preaching your mind wanders. Sometimes I'd like to think that that doesn't happen.

But I'm realistic right. So you can be well-meaning and I'm here I want to worship God but you know our attention span our mind wanders. So that's that's one potential danger and that's why I encourage taking notes whatever you have to do to pay attention fight that battle and try to pay attention not in court.

This is my personal opinion I guess. But I think I have the spirit of God on this. Do not incorporate worldly music into the worship service mainly secular music or music that is of a secular nature that is a way to corrupt the pure worship of God.

There was a church in the area they they moved in they went from zero as a church plant and within a year they are running like 150 people and I'm thinking how on earth how do you even do that around here when churches are struggling to maintain membership how does a church plant go from zero to 150 in a year.

So I went on their live stream and the first 20 minutes of their worship service they're just playing 60s rock and roll Steppenwolf you know the doors you know and just purely they weren't even changing the words.

And then they had a screen in back of the band but you know that like 60s psychedelic kind of yeah people would smoke marijuana and take LSD and they would watch these these films or whatever you want to call it.

That's what was going on for the first half of the worship worship service totally secular music and yeah and I'm okay now it's starting to make sense because that's what the people of the world want they want to be entertained.

So if you offer a rock and roll show with free food people are going to show up so to me that is just polluting the I'm more offended at that I think than a church that has some graven image. I mean maybe not maybe I'm going too far with that but to me it's it's it's on that level of this is a problem.

Any other ideas. This at the movies trend that's within evangelical churches were instead of hearing a sermon from you know the Word of God opening the scripture teaching from the scripture they're doing a movie review.

This morning we're gonna be talking about the Barbie movie and how this really happened. A lot of churches were doing this and they would justify it by well there's this theme where you know Barbie is being oppressed or something there's a woman in the Bible who is oppressed once.

And there's just like that. It's it's foolishness really. But you're bringing the world into the worship service. I mean at best it's a distraction at worst you're polluting the pure worship of the Lord.

So I could go on and on about that as you can imagine any you have a hand up.

You know the what do you think about those types of materials existing in society if it wants people to like yeah outside of the church. I don't have as.

Big of an issue with it. I think there are stories like there's people that really love Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia. I don't know I think I read one of those books a long time ago. I don't really have a problem with that.

But I wouldn't teach a Sunday school class on the Lord of the Rings. I mean I don't know I think people can even with some of the churches that do the worldly stuff I think people can take a step in the right direction.

If you're going from atheism to that it could be a step in the right direction. Hopefully they'll mature and move beyond that. But yeah I'm mainly talking about the stuff that's happening on Sunday morning.

But I think I think God can use all sorts of different things to lead people to him. So number three applying these principles to church history. We have five minutes left. As we've seen in this lesson the true church is like a building established on the foundation of Jesus Christ and defined by its commitment to several core doctrinal pillars.

So it's. Number one the supremacy of the Word of God. So scripture alone is our authority. Number two the sufficiency of the work of God we're saved by grace alone through faith apart from works. And three the sanctity sanctity of the worship of God.

We are called to worship God in purity of devotion and purity of doctrine. And then it says if we extend the building metaphor to the whole of church history we might picture the centuries after the Apostolic Age as the superstructure of the church which rests on the foundation of Christ and continues to be defined by the pillars of biblical orthodoxy.

So those three pillars the doctrinal pillars discussed in this lesson provide a helpful grid for evaluating church history through a biblical lens and we will reference them again in future lessons. So on the next page do you have this an overview of church history.

It's like a picture of a building. Okay I don't know if we're gonna have time to get into that. I want to spend a few moments. But there's one last discussion question. So it says the chart on the next page which I guess we'll cover next time.

The chart on the next page provides an illustration of this idea. For some people learning church history with a chart like this is easier than an extended timeline. So here's the question for discussion.

How can Christians today practically apply the three doctrinal pillars highlighted in this lesson. What can you do to put the authority of Scripture the accuracy of the gospel and the authenticity of worship into practice in your life.