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Jesus said that if we love Him we will keep His word and that love for
Him centers in believing and doing what He said. Faith includes obedience to the everlasting words of Jesus Christ.
A faithful steward needs to take time to learn at the feet of Jesus, that He not only be our Redeemer and King, but also our
Teacher and Brother. The commandments of God remain. Deuteronomy 10:12 and Micah 6:8 tell us pretty much
the same thing. "He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of
you, but to fear the LORD, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with
all your soul. and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good."
'The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in
all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly
destroyed from among the people.' (Acts 3:22,23; Deuteronomy 18) John 8: 31,32; "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." What do you think Jesus meant by 'if you abide in My word'? And how can we abide in His word unless we have both Jesus and His words at the center of our faith? In my dictionary the meanings of abide are: to wait for; to endure without yeilding; to bear patiently; to accept without objection; to remain stable or fixed in a state; to continue in a state; to conform to; to acquiesce in. The words in the dictionary seem simple enough to understand. The words of Jesus are not unknowable. How many generations have gone by that have had full access and ability to read His teachings? How many teachings did Jesus give? How many commandments did He give? How many prophecies? How many words of justice, mercy, truth, encouragement, healing and wholeness did He speak? The simple answer would be 'all of them', but how many of the hundreds of His teachings are you abiding in? Faith is far more than a profession out of you mouth, or the system of religiousity that you practice. We need to be prepared to answer this question: If you call Jesus 'Lord', are you doing what He said to do and believing He is who He said and believing who He said to believe?
"That prophet" spoken of by both Moses and Peter is not the Pope, or a prophet who came along in the 19th century. The apostles were, according to the words of Jesus, to be enabled by the Holy Spirit to remember all that He had taught them and that they in turn were to preach and teach whatsoever He had taught them and be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. There can be nothing new added to those teachings without going beyond the very words of God that Jesus was directed to give to mankind. The command to not add to or take away from the commandments of God is equally, if not more applicable, than the command given to Moses. In fact, it is a more fearful thing to trifle with the words of the Son of God than the words that God gave Moses. The Testimony Of Jesus Christ John 7:16,17;
"My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know
concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority." In this teaching Jesus equates the personal testimony of His truth from
God (the gospel of the kingdom) is to be found in our willingness to do what He said. The mercy of God is evident in
that it is found in our will to obey, not in our actual ability to do it all. We need to be honest with both ourselves
and God, so that, as John said, if we confess our sin, God is faithful to forgive us our sin. Yet by our growing in
doing what Jesus said we find the personal testimony of the gospel of the kingdom of God, and the process of maturing in Christ,
that we might "have the mind of Chirst" in us. John 14:23,24;
"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him
and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine
but the Father's who sent Me." If
you love Jesus you keep His word. How can you grow in your love of Chirst except by doing this? And how can you
grow to the stature of the fullness He desires except by willingly seeking out His words to do them? It marvels me that
I haven't found a Church whose doctrine is simply to teach and observe all of the teachings and commandments of Jesus Christ. Matthew 4:4; 'It is written, "Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." John 6:63,64; "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits
nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are
some of you who do not believe." Revelation 22:12-16; "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me,
to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the
Last." Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to
the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually
immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify
to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and
Morning Star."
"This is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!" (Matt. 17:5) Jeremiah 7: "Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall
be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed
the counsels and dictates of their evil hearts, and went backwards and not forward." God has given to each the freedom to come to His Son. We can also
use our freedom to do just as Jeremiah recorded, but should use the examples given to see that 'falling backwards' has no
good reward of God. Jesus commissioned
His disciples to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo,
I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matt. 28:19-20) As He said to Nicodemus, "And
this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed.
But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen; that they have been done in God." Matt. 11: 27-29; "All things have been
delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for
I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
As John said in one of his letters:
"This is the commandment, that
as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess
Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an anti-Christ. Look to yourselves, that you do not lose those
things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses
and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine
of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive
him into your house nor greet him, for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds." So what did Jesus say is His
doctrine? Truth in Christ trumps
love and we need to know the teachings of Jesus Christ to know the doctrine of Christ, which He said is the doctrine of God.
In Matthew 12, Jesus said; "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?" And He stretched out His hand towards His disciples
and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven
is My brother and sister and mother." We
need to come to terms with the doctrine of Jesus Christ - what Jesus said His doctrine is. Most have taken the
'doctrine of Christ' to mean the Trinity doctrine, that so long as you believe this doctrine all is well. The
doctrine of Christ is not merely the identity of Jesus Christ, but also that the words He gave are Spirit and life and
light, and the very doctrine of God. Jesus clearly directed teaching disciples whatever He had taught the apostles
as elemental to His Church. Jesus plainly and profoundly asked; "Why do you call
me Lord and not do as I say?" The teachings and example of Jesus Christ gives light, life and hope to each
of us who continue to sit at His feet to learn of Him. The truth of Jesus was not to abolish the law, for God established
His law for eternity. The grace and truth of Jesus give reason to obey from faith because we believe Him and because
of His love and sacrifice for us that we might have abundant life and hope - in this world and the one to come.
"Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." I John 3:24; "Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And
by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit He has given us." I John 4:6; "We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God
does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." 1. Who did Jesus claim
to be? 2. What did Jesus say about
His words? 3. What is the truth He
taught? 4. What does He expect from
His disciples? 5. What does Jesus say
about those who don’t believe in Him? 6.
What are His commandments, precepts and judgements? 7.
Who did His disciples say He was? Jesus came that we might have abundant life, healing, purpose and wholeness in Him- all to the glory of
God. If we call Him our Lord we should be doing what He said.
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