Spiritual Protection

This is part two of my message based on the text found in Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

As last week, I am focusing our attention on verse one in which God told Abram: “Go forth from your country, and your relatives, and from your father’s house, to a land which I will show you.”

And simply said: “Abram followed Him.” And, as we also saw last week, Abram was not and is not the only person God has called to follow Him out of a comfortable life. Old Testament history is abundant testimony of how often God said to His Chosen people through the prophets, “Follow Me.” And the New Testament gospels also give ample testimony of how often the Lord Jesus said to those of His day, “Follow Me.”

There are likely many reasons God calls us to follow Him. Last week we looked at only one. When so many in the crowds surrounding Jesus decided to no longer follow Him, Jesus asked the Twelve if they also were going to leave. Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)

That Jesus ALONE has the words of eternal life is a critically important point, and we dare not gloss over it. With all the voices in our society calling us in dozens of directions – only Jesus has the words of that bring true freedom, true hope – along with everlasting life.

Listen: Surely the reason so many Christians grapple with sin – even and especially what many Christians consider ‘serious’ sin such as sexual immoralities – including pornography – and they remain trapped in hatreds, bigotries, habitual lying, gossip, and self-righteousness – the reason so many are trapped in sins and cannot seem to extricate themselves is because they read their Bible only sporadically – if at all. They don’t have much of a prayer life. And they think it sufficient for this spiritual warfare to simply attend church.

THAT – oh, please hear this – THAT is a sure recipe for failure in our walk with Jesus.

And so, that first point answering the question why God calls us to follow Him leads quite seamlessly to a second reason the Lord calls us to follow Him – which one might expect it to overlap with the first because the Bible is an integrated Book, whose theme of redemption and salvation and instructions in righteousness flow from one end of the Bible to the other.

He calls us to follow Him for our spiritual protection. I readily admit my own difficulty to recognize the constant, never ending spiritual warfare that rages around us 24 hours a day, 365 days around the calendar year. It never lets us. Not for a moment.

Many of you remember Paul’s warning in his letter to the Christians at Ephesus: (6:11ff) “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

And we remember from the context of his letter that the pieces of our armor – the helmet, the breastplate, the belt, the shield, the shoes, and the sword are ALL rooted in God's revealed word to us through His scriptures.

And many of you remember the Lord’s warning to the religious leaders and laity who’d gathered around Him: (John 10:1-5) “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 

Listen, please. God LOVES you so much He sent His Son to die your death. Yet, no one should be surprised to learn how many in the pews AND pulpits DO NOT know the voice of strangers. Such ignorance was true in the first century, and it remains true in the 21st. It was for good reason Jude warned: (Jude 1:4) “For certain persons have crept in [to the church fellowship] unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

And Paul warned the LEADERS of Ephesus (Acts 20:29-31a): “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be on the alert.” 

Listen, please: Scripture tells us Satan was able to seduce one-third of the angels in heaven, those who worshiped in their Creator’s very presence, who lived in the blissful realm of God's eternal glory.  He seduced one-third of them to rebel against their holy Creator. You’ll find that reference in Revelation 12:3-9 and in other places scattered throughout God's word.

And since Saten was able to do THAT, don’t think for a moment he is not actively trying to seduce YOU into the same rebellion – you who have never seen yet the glories of heaven.  And the ONLY, the ONLY reason he is unsuccessful with you and me is because our God, through His Holy Spirit, protects our minds from Satan’s most cunning deceptions.

And HOW does God protect us? By what means? Certainly, it is true that our God does not permit the devil to test us or tempt us beyond what our Father knows we can endure. Many of you recognize that promise from 1 Corinthians 10:13 – “No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” 

But I believe, and I teach, and I preach that the primary method God uses to provide us His spiritual and supernatural protection from theological errors that lead a person away from salvation – that method is through and by God’s fully inerrant, fully infallible, and fully inspired word, which we call the Bible.

It is no surprise, then, that the Psalmist wrote: (Psalm 119:9, 11) “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word. Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” Later in the same psalm he wrote: (Psalm 119:105) “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Nor are we surprised that Paul, the former rabbi and Pharisee, instructed his protégé, Timothy: (2 Timothy 3:16-17) “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

“Training in righteousness.”  It is for that PROTECTIVE training that God gave us teachers to help us understand things that, at first, are confusing. Listen to Paul again: (Ephesians 4:11-14)  “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”

There were in the first century, and in every century since, various winds of doctrine thought up by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. Such as – and I will cite only a few because the list of ancient and modern false teaching would fill a college semester course:

Gnosticism in its multiple forms is one false teaching. Gnostics believed and modern-day Gnostics still believe that the created world and all things in it are evil. Only God, who is spirit, is good. Jesus was a created Being who was spirit and only appeared to inhabit evil flesh. Gnostics also believed and believe that salvation is possible only through a knowledge of their secret teachings which is known only by a select group of ‘enlightened’ teachers. Many modern-day New Age teachers fall into this category.

The Judaizers of the first century was and remains another false teaching. Judaizers taught that salvation is possible only through following the Law, along with its hundreds of legalistic minutiae. Some of you have come out of churches where strict adherence to their church’s rules is vital to salvation. Other churches that fall into this heresy are those which teach that good works and good efforts CONTRIBUTE to salvation.  But Scripture is superbly clear – while good works are important to the Christian life, it is only and exclusively our faith in Christ alone whereby God imputes to us salvation. Indeed, Scripture tells us that if we seek to be justified by our works, we have fallen from God's grace. You will find that reference in Galatians 5:4.

Arianism is yet another false teaching. Like the Gnostics, Arians taught that Jesus was the highest and greatest of God's creation, but a created Being, nonetheless. Modern-day Jehovah’s Witnesses and the original Mormons fall into this category of heretical teaching.

Finally, for our purposes here, was and is the modern heresy of Chrislam. Chrislam is a syncretism – a blending – of Christianity and Islam. Pope Francis is a proponent of the merging of the two. But I will tell you as clearly and as kindly as I can, Islam and Christianity have absolutely nothing in common as it relates to God, to Jesus, and to eternal life. Islam makes no secret about its view of Jesus. To Muslims, Jesus is NOT Jehovah God in the flesh. To them, the idea of the trinity is blasphemy. In their theology, Jesus did not resurrect from the dead.

And so, we will stop there with the ancient and modern false teaching because I think the point is made. God tells us to follow Him and only Him through His inerrant and infallible word and taught by godly and well-schooled pastors and teachers. I will say it once again for emphasis: Only by following God's word can we find spiritual protection from error.

“Be on your guard.” St Peter wrote, “so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  (2 Peter 3:14-18)

So, I will say it once again for emphasis: The Holy Spirit uses the Scriptures to protect those who follow Christ from the theological errors that will result in eternal damnation.

And while I am on this vitally important subject of knowing and obeying God's word, I want to remind you of my ‘2+2 = 1+3’ method of Bible reading.

If you read only two chapters of the Old Testament every day – takes about 10 minutes or so on average, and you read two chapters of the New Testament every day – takes another 10 minutes or so on average – then you will have read the entire Old Testament once in a year and the New Testament THREE TIMES in a year. Thus the 2+2 = 1+3. There are dozens of annual Bible reading plans on the internet. I have given many of you my own annual plan to try.

For as long as I have been here at Ashwood Meadows as your pastor, I have striven to help everyone grow in their faith and remain on the narrow road that leads to eternal life. I do not want anyone to fall prey to liars and false teachers who want to steal your soul.

God called Abram – and Abram followed because he knew – if nothing else but intuitively that God had the words of eternal life. He followed God because He knew – if nothing else but intuitively that the One who spun worlds and galaxies into place would shield him and his family with divine protection from spiritual error.

Divine protection. Do you want God's divine protection from spiritual error and danger? Then follow the voice of the Shepherd. It is NOT enough to read daily devotional booklets like Daily Bread and The Word Among Us.

Yes, those publications have their place, but they are NOT a substitute for reading the Bible itself. If you have to choose because of time constraints or physical limitations between the Bible and a devotional booklet, you are significantly shortchanging yourself if you choose the devotional over God’s word.

Someone wisely said, “The Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.” God gave us His word and He calls us to follow His word because it is in following His word that we are protected from straying onto the broad road that leads to destruction.

For good reason the Lord warned those who followed Him in that first century: (Matthew 7:24-27) “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

 Next week we’ll look at only one more reason to follow Him – that being the incalculable honor and privilege of working with God in His vineyard.