Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship Call 1172 Divine discipline/ Sin unto death - 2024/11/01
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome to Worship Call with Bible teacher Buzz Lawback. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed at strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. From WorthyNews.com, George Whitten, salvation is of the Lord, Jonah 2-2. And he says, "I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol, I cried, and you heard my voice. For you cast me into the deep into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All your billows and all your waves passed over me. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer went up to you, until your holy temple. But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. And I will pray what I have vowed salvation is of the Lord." Jonah now acknowledges that God put him where he is, and he accepts his discipline. Sheol is the grave, the pit, the abode of the dead, but Jonah, they don't, Jonah die. Or was he only nearly dead from three days of fish, stomach, acid, and little or no air? The text doesn't say only that if he didn't actually leave his body, he came as close as man can get to it. Three days worth, and his nimulous and misery placed Jonah to, placed Jonah and cried out probably from the deepest depths of his agonized soul. He cried out to the Lord. First, he gave thanks, quite amazing, but very plausible for a true man of God who has come to his senses. Anyone who truly loves the Lord is grateful for his discipline. Painful as it may be. And finally, Jonah repented and consented to pay what he had vowed. What this vow was, we can only speculate. It may have been something to do with the promise of devoted service or connection with the calling as the prophet of the Most High. Or, it may have been a promise he decided to make right there in the Fish's belly. In any case, he was coming into agreement with the will of God once again. It must have been a great relief. Jonah then prophesied once again, salvation is the Lord. Hallelujah. Jonah knew this now in a way that depth unprecedented until the moment of resurrection. His near-death experience gave him depth of revelation of God's power to save that view of us will ever experience. It will prove to be tremendously effective for the prophet's future ministry. Friends, salvation is of the Lord. It starts and ends with God. How well do we know this? How often do we relearn it? Jonah's experience in the belly of the great fish cleared to focus his mind toward the matters in this world. In the terrifying darkness, he realized the folly of resisting God's reality and will. What might we need to sacrifice or endure to reach the level of conviction? Can we honestly pray that the Lord would have his way with us in the midst of the little ways we run away? Jonah's quiet place was forced upon him, but up to now, for most of us, drawing near to the Lord for deeper revelation is still a choice we can make. Shabbat Shalom, and have a great weekend in the Lord. Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Bhagravka, Obadiah, and Elena. This is the sixth day of the week in God's created order, the first day of the 11th month, 24th year of our Lord, and this is another fine day in the Lord. Father, in heaven, thank you for this opportunity. It's more than the fellowshiping in your work. We pray Heavenly Father, that God the Holy Spirit will continue to enlighten us to the things that we continue to study. We pray these things in Christ's name, Amen. And we are continuing this morning, and thank you, Brother Mark, and we continue to pray for our sister, Terry, who's still got some challenges, and we lift her up in prayer. And thank you for our conversation. I enjoyed it. Yes, they might be brought a few things that directed the lesson today, and I'm glad you're out there. Ananias and Sophia, they died on spot, and it leaves the question of their salvation. There are those that will say that they never were believers at all, that they were agents of Satan coming in and what have you. I do believe that they were believers. Now, I don't have nothing really back this up to except that they died under the discipline hand of God. So if they died as believers, they died under discipline. If they died as unbelievers, then they died under judgment. But let's lean to the fact that these may be believers in the Lord, because to follow on with this, because the people feared, it's another reason. The people were scared of what happened. Could this happen to us? And maybe we'll get this today. Sophia had one opportunity after her husband, Ananias had died, and I think I kept it, I think it pronounced her name wrong. Sophia is actually the pronunciation. But let's just say the wife had one opportunity to come clean. Did you sell the house for the, or did you sell your property for this much? Looking at, maybe, as we said yesterday, maybe $500, and say, well, here's $500, it's on the ledger. Did you sell your house for that much? That's our property. That's how much we sold it for. And again, we said that their sin wasn't holding back any money. The sin was lying. And she said yes, and she dropped dead right there, and they carried her out. And, you know, so once again, this does not mean that they died and went to hell. They might have, in fact, they had rejected the salvation message of Christ that they refused to repent and believe in Christ that died for them for their sins. And so, again, for the strength of argument, we're going to say that they were believers. Romans 8, 1 through 2. Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, for the law and the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. There's nothing that sin and death can do. Once you have become a child of God, I do not believe, I do not teach, I do not sin on the fact that as a child of God, you can lose your salvation. However, I also stand on the fact that you can certainly cut your life short as with Ananiya Sibaya, when in fact you sin that your sin can lead to death. And that's going to be God's prerogative. In such a case, the believer's life, when we are safe at the moment of our faith in Christ, we are secure in Christ. We are now positionally right with the Lord. At the moment that we have believed and trusted in Lord Jesus Christ, our sins have been wiped away. Our salvation is solely on the merits of trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Yes, we've heard so much about the gospel and people like to weave sin into the gospel. The gospel means good news. It doesn't bring up the bad news. It doesn't take into account all the wrong we've ever done as unbelievers. Sin, listen, and you may disagree, many will disagree, but sin is not the issue at the point of salvation. Prior to salvation, we are, as we see in Ephesians chapter 2, that we are sons of disobedience. We are sinners. We are identified by sinners. As I often say, apple tree produces apple, orange tree produces apples. That's just the way it is. A sinning tree produces sin. Yes, we've all sinned and comfortable glory from the glory of God. We are sinners by birth. So to be sorry for this is your volition and everything as unbelief does not play into the salvation story. The salvation story is that Christ died for you. It's all about trusting in Him to do something for you that you cannot do for yourself. Sinning is an indication that we are, because a believer can sin as well, but we're going to look at that. So each have come to faith not through our tears of repentance. You know, that these things, the way we feel about our sin is inconsequential. It's like standing in courtroom. And standing in courtroom, it's not how you feel. You may feel all the remorse in the world. You may have committed murder and you may feel all the remorse in the world. But would it be right for the judge to say, "Well, since you feel this way, I'm going to let you off the hook." It has no credence whatsoever. So each of us came through faith, not through tears and repentance, but through the faith in Christ. Well, you might ask, well, what about 1 John 1, 9? And what does 1 John 1, 9 say? 1 John 1, 9 says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And some people will play this into the gospel message. First of all, this is not about the unbeliever. This is not about the unbeliever. This is not about the unbeliever. How do we know that? Because John is writing this. The apostle John, can we say that John is a believer in Yahweh and the Lord Jesus Christ? Absolutely. And he says, if we, if we, not if you, but if we, all of us, He includes Himself in this. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is post, post salvation sinning. This is John, John the apostle is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, the world is dead in their trespasses and sins. The world, we come out from the world and Ephesians 2, 1 through 2 says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sin. There's nothing you can do. It doesn't matter how you feel about your trespasses and sins. Your trespasses and sins was an indication that something was dreadfully wrong. And it was, you were dead, you were separated from a relationship with the Lord, in which you formerly walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too, all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were the nature, children of wrath. Even as the rest. Very important here, it's to understand that we were what we were because we were not children of God, but under rest. So again, it's not according to how you feel. It was to positionally, we were feeling we were positionally outside of the common wealth of God. We were unbelievers. We sinned because that was our nature. We walked according to our own lust. It does not matter how the defendant feels about the crime. And what does Paul say that we were prior to salvation, in which you formerly walked? So we were not in the family God. We were in the family of Satan. And here Paul describes us as we were by nature, according to the sons of disobedience. So the moment that we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the moment that we place our trust in Him, again, it's not because of our repentance, it's about our faith, it's about our belief. That Jesus Christ provides eternal life for anyone and trust in Him for 2 Corinthians 5-17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creature. The old things pass away. Behold, the new things have come. Romans 6-4. Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we might, we too, might walk in the newness of life. And then Galatians 6-15. For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy, be upon them and upon Israel, the Israel of God. So it is a spirit that takes the, there we go, a spirit that takes the faith of one who trusts in the Lord in Jesus Christ and enters Him into the ranks of God and enters Him into that family. Now where I said that sin had no play prior to coming into faith, how you feel back to sin, we all were sinners. We all, we all sinned because we were sinners. That was our nature. And you can't blame, we read the story the other day about the snake. We read the story back and never heard about the snake that President Trump would talk about in his rallies, but a snake's nature is to bite you. That's his nature. A nature of a line is to devour the prey. That's its nature. We were sinners. And so sin is off the table. I want to make that point clear when it comes to our salvation. It is all about trusting in Lord Jesus Christ. But once you become a child of God, now you are subject to His law. Now you are subject to following Him. Now sin becomes an issue. And Hebrews chapter 12 verse 5. And you were forgotten and you have forgotten exhortation which was addressed to you as sons. My son did not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor faint when you are approved by Him, reproved by Him. For those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines and He scourges every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you with sons. He doesn't deal with unbelievers as sons. Eventually they'll go under with judgment, but not with discipline. As a father, I could discipline my children, my children. But I can't discipline my neighbor's children. They're not mine. But if you are without discipline of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? So the believer, there are three categories of sin that we can involve ourselves in and a combination of those and all of our sins grow out of these categories. Mental attitude sins, these are sins that you think don't require us to do anything except sit there and think we can sit with bitterness, anger, hatred, jealousy, these things of mental attitude. And you may look all pre and proper in church, but if these things are going on in your soul, you're sending your socks off. The overt sins, these are things that we do, these are sexual sins, these are chemical sins, these are sins of violence and what have you from that point. These are things that we actually are complicit in. And then there's the sins of the tongue, which the mental attitude sins and the sins of the tongue are tied so much together because what's going on in your heart and the mental attitude sins will come out with your mouth, which so you have the combination of sins there. And usually it is a combination of sins that we're dealing with. Romans 3 22, even the righteousness of God through faith and Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there's no distinction for all have sin and come short of the glory of God. This is right here for all that have sin and the sin. This short coming falling short of the glory of God is a present passive indicative. And the present passive indicative is an ongoing thing that we have sinned and that there is the habitualness of it. Now, I want to make this clear. I don't wake up with a full conclusion that I'm going to send that day when I walk out the door. But I also recognize that sin is my enemy and it is present within my members. And if I do not keep it in check, I'm apt to drift away. And if I don't catch it myself, then very much the God who loves me, the Lord that loves me may remind me with divine discipline. The Lord often grants as a believer, as a new believer, he'll grant. Let me put it this way. The Lord is his prerogative how he deals with his children. That's a very important thing for you because the Lord will deal with different people in different ways, different believers with different ways. So one size don't fit all. The Lord will, I found that the Lord might deal with a baby believer in a certain way, giving that believer time, a greater grace than even, a grace that God doesn't just drop a lightning bolt down the first time the new believer sends. I found that there's a greater grace there, allowing the opportunity for that believer to grow up. That believer comes into this life with all kinds of scars, with all kinds of bumps and bruises and a lot of things to have to grow out. You can't expect a four-year-old to act like an adult, so it would seem that God gives greater grace to those that are new believers. But then, as you grow up, as 2 Peter says, our job is to start growing up. Peter says in 2 Peter 3, 18, "But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord in Savior Jesus Christ, to Him be the glory, both down and forever, to that day of eternity, amen." So ours is to not stay at four years old, but to grow up. And we find ourselves, and we find ourselves either walking spiritually in lockstep with the Word of God, or we're outside. We are either spiritual. At any given time, we are either spiritual, or we're carnal. We are spiritual in the fact that we are walking in obedience to God's plan, will, and purpose for our lives. Or when we follow the course of our lives, as we did before, by the lust of the flesh, and we're walking in darkness, we're in carnality. And it takes one sin to put us out there. And ours is to, as believers, we need to continually look at ourselves and where we are. Where are you in your spiritual life and in your walk with the Lord? It should be important to you. It certainly is important to God. And that's the reason why the Lord will not allow you to drift so far into the darkness where you'll never come back. And He will see to it, to guide you back. And the divine discipline that comes from God could be light discipline, a tap on the shoulder, you might say, pressure. You see, discipline is designed to bring you back into the light. It's not that God is mad at you. It's to bring you back into the light. Now, this may be, again, discipline may be minor. It may be intensive. But there's also a sin that leads to death that God says, "Okay, I'm going to take you out." If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death and praying for our brother. Now, there is a sin leading to death. I do not say that he should make a request for this. And so, God can do anything from giving them time or taking them out. And this is all discipline. Now, this is important and this is the point with the ananias, "survia." Just because they died sin unto death on this earth, it's like the coach calling somebody off the field. They're messing up on the field so bad that the coach brings them out. And this is the way it is. Ananias, Sophia, as believers, if they were believers, they were taken out of this life, but they did not lose their salvation. And being taken out of this life, you might say, "Well, that's a good thing. You get to go to heaven." And all that, yes, it is. But the point is, you're taken off. See, as Paul says, I desire to be in heaven. I desire to be there. But being on this earth is where my work is accomplished. For me to live is Christ dying His prophet, yes. But not for those who die sin unto death because those who die sin unto death, they wind up in heaven with nothing to show for a life that should have been lived for Christ. They've been taken out. So yes, if the believer confesses his sin, God is faithful and just forgive us our sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness. But the question is, will God grant repentance? Will He allow for repentance? Such as 2 Timothy tells us, 2 Timothy, 225 says, with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, also in Hebrew 6. And then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them to repentance, since they again crucify themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. Is it possible that the Lord goes shut the door to repentance? And that should be worrisome to us. So did Ananias and Sophia receive grace? Oh yes, they did. Ananias and Sophia, if believers in the Lord Jesus Christ receive grace because they are now absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. And that is grace. That is grace. And it's God's Prorogative whenever He wants to pull any of us out of this world. And this is the people's fear and tremble. This is where the fear of it. As what these people saw in Acts 5, 11, a great fear came over the whole church. And over all who have heard these things. The early church did not go flippant. You see, this was a warning. And this should be a warning to us. It's a warning of those that are so flippant in their rebound and keep moving. There is, we've brought, we've taken the doctrine of rebound and keep moving. And for some reason or others seems to have dropped the keep moving part. God has provided us with the opportunity to recover our spiritual life through confession of our sins. If He grants the repentance. And so, you know, but it's not a flippant course of action. That is, see, these people took seriously. And this was a shot across the bow from God as far as I'm concerned. Because our sin, as I've said, the levels, okay, we can take God's grace. There are demands of response. I have been reprieved, I have been redeemed, I have been forgiven. I can move on and I can get with my spiritual life and I can respond to God's grace and move on. Or as in our time, many in the church will say, well, if I screw up, all I have to do is confess my sins and I'm good to go. And they'll continue on. That's not moving on. When we talk about moving on, we're talking about getting back with the program, coming back into God's program and moving on. That's what God's plan for you is, is to bring you back into the place where you're executing your spiritual life and moving forward. And for me, at the stage of the game, I have a few motivating factors to help me keep moving in my spiritual life and not get bogged down with sin any longer in my life. As the rest of us, I'm not telling on myself, but like the rest of us, we've had times of sin in our lives. Like Paul says in Romans 7, I keep doing what I don't want to do. First of all, one of the distractors from sin for me as I'm growing into Lord is that my personal love for the Lord. And my personal love for the Lord, that is knowing that sin offends the one that I love, 1 John 4 8, 4 8 17. There is no fear in the Lord, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. Number two is that every ugly sin was committed to my Lord whom I love on the cross. And so sin is no small issue, the smallest and the largest sin, so that's another refrain from sin. And so I don't mess with or flirt with sin as much as I used to. And the main reason is because of my love for the Lord. But there's also another reason, and that is fear. And I think this is what they recognize in the early church that the Lord's prerogative is that he could take you out on the ends and an instant. God's grace is not mandatory, it's prerogative. God chooses to extend grace and mercy. So this is where fear comes in, working out your salvation with fear and trembling. God has the prerogative, he is sovereign. And so he doesn't have to forgive me. I would not want to be locked out from the door of turning back. And is there a place where there's a point of no return? I do believe there is. And I do not want to get involved in that. And being taken out before my time, and I do look forward to being absent on the body and face to face with the Lord. But on positive terms, and not on negative terms like an anise of fire. Father in Heaven, thanks for this opportunity of fellowship in the Lord this morning. We pray Heavenly Father that you bring this all important doctrine home. That forgiveness of sins is a divine prerogative. That God is faithful and just forgives us our sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness. But he's also the one who gives us the opportunity to do so. I pray Heavenly Father that our fear of this doctrine, of this, will turn into our love as a motivational virtue. That it is our love for the Lord that keeps us walking in the light as he is enlightened fellowship with him. Pray these things in Christ's name, amen. All right. You can hear this message again, as well as previous lessons, and get note by visiting us online at www.gchappel.org. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]
Were Ananias and Sapphira really believers. if so, did they lose their salvation?