Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine
Guest Speaker: Pastor Joe Sugrue
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Religion is such a power deceiver that the people of Israel desired and were motivated to kill their given Messiah.
Religion is so powerful a deceiver because the devil is its author, John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil and you want to do the desires of your father.
‘my word’ is Bible doctrine, the canon of scripture. ‘has no place’ is choreo with the negative = to make no room for. A religious soul has no room for doctrine.
‘seen’ is the perfect tense of hopao, which means seeing in eternity past, with para = along side… My Father.
Christ emphasizes teaching while they emphasize doing. Christ emphasizes doctrine while they emphasize a system of works.
Religion says do; Christianity says listen, learn, apply. The greatest virtue in the Christian life is knowledge of doctrine.
From doctrine we have our full orientation to the plan of God, and then our production becomes meaningful because it is compatible with the grace of God.
1 Tim 4:1
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,
Satan is the author of his plan and God is the Author of His plan. The two have been in opposition since the Angelic Conflict began.
The works of Abraham have to do with salvation – Galatians 3:6,7; Romans 4:1-16, 22-25. Justification by faith is the principle.
“How can you say the devil is our father when God is our Father, that would make us bastards?” – But God is not their Father.
There is no such thing as the universal fatherhood of God. He is the Father of believer’s only, GAL 3:26.
GAL 3:26
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
You would agape love me. But the religious unbeliever couldn’t be farther away from the virtue of agape love. They have no capacity to love.
If they were believers then God the Father would be their Father, and they would have the capacity to love, and then rather than trying to kill Him they would have desired to serve Him.
Humble submission to the plan of God is the key to rapid spiritual growth. Anything else will lead to self absorption, self deception, self justification, and self righteousness, which is the key to scar tissue in the soul.
“understand” – ginosko = to concentrate under self-discipline. This points to enforced and genuine humility as a student which the religious crowd does not possess.
In God’s plan God is glorified, the humanity of Christ is glorified and the word is glorified, and never the creature.
Luke 11:27
And it came about while He said these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice, and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which You nursed.”
Luke 11:28 But He said, “On the contrary [emphatic NO!], blessed are those who hear the word of God, and observe it.”