Geoff describes the progression of apostasy that happened in someone’s life. They started reading an anti-Christian, atheistic site, which led them to doubt the authority of Scripture. From there they stopped being in fellowship with the church and neglected being exhorted with the truth (Hebrews 3:13-14, Hebrews 10:24-25). Then they left the faith…and then the man left his wife. What holds us all together? It is the true doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, apart from which our entire life will slide into misery.
So I was talking to a member of my family this week and other things in the church and you said, Oh, we had a couple that came to us from Australia and you know, they were unhappy with the church there. When they came to us they seemed to be very happy and they were with us and in all the meetings and suddenly they stopped, they disappeared and when I finally saw him, he’d been reading the web, he’d been reading the anti-Christian, atheistic websites, many of them on articles, many of them deploring the Christian faith. And they got him. And you know the consequences. You can guess the consequence. A man who leaves the faith. It’s not long before he leaves his wife. Before there’s moral collapse and divorce. The faith holds us. It grips us what value there is. We are living lives informed by them, leaning upon them (the doctrines). And so the apostle at the end, he is saying to us, you know, I’ve not lost my faith in this personal risen savior. I’ve not lost my commitment to him, Lord it is my chief complaint that my love for him is we can fake. Yeah, I do love him and I’m looking forward to loving him more and more. That faith begins into the intellect, brother and all my friends. That faith goes through every nook and cranny of our lives, teaches a reaches out affections. It’s in the mind, then it’s in the emotions, and it determines our choices of identities. How important are our marriage vows? How option’s the whole tone of our lives? Whenever Paul rejoiced, it was his faith that made him rejoice. Whenever he wept, it was his faith that made him weak. And when he made decisions, he made them because he was a believer and disciple of Jesus Christ. And he said before him, sit in option, sit in priority, certain preferences that would always be in first place. In his life, they determined what he was forbidden for him to live was Jesus Christ. And you go further. He at rest didn’t he? He had peace. He came to Christ and he was given rest. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ (Romans 8:1). Jesus. He knew it. He knew that just could live and go on day by day, by faith. In his heart. It was peace with God and His doctrine made him work. It never allowed him to stop working in the work of faith. I’ve kept the faith. I have the peace of my faith. I have the work of my faith. In other words, his theology wasn’t something that he analyzed that he liked debating about with other men. It wasn’t something simply that he meditated upon and sang in hymns. But it was something to proclaim. It was something to share. It was something he owed to everyone he met. And if the conversation by the providence of God and His own wisdom began to move in a certain way, he went with it that he could say to that person, Yeah, yeah, I’ve had such a good time in my life since I became a Christian. Oh, oh, what? And so he kept on his faith, kept him working. So I’ve kept the doctrine and I kept my commitment and my trust and I’ve kept my pledge. I’ve kept faith with God. I’ve been faithful to my God. In other words, when He saw and were struck blind on the Damascus road and heard Jesus speak to him, it was a commitment in that intellectual revolution that took place. Then it resulted in a pledge that he made. What will have me do O, Lord? I the disciple, you the master.
This excerpt was taken from the full sermon: Keep The Faith And Finish The Race – Geoff Thomas.
