Eternal Gospel part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the eternal gospel (Rev 14:7) which contains these three phrases; Fear God, Give Him Glory, and Worship God (the true God our Creator). Living out these principles bring us a successful walk with God and are the ingredients of a successful church. Disobedience to these principals will cause men to lose sight of their faith and what Church is about. Obedience to the gospel is our responsibility concerning salvation. Though trials come, Paul admonished us that, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. (Phil 1:27). Though our salvation is a free gift, our conduct should reflect the great worth of our redemption. Our enemy uses misguided teachers to target the elements of salvation in order to take our eyes off the Champion of our faith, Jesus (see Gal 1:7). Yesterday I reviewed the first element, Fear of God. Today I will write briefly about the second element of the eternal gospel; Give God glory. Though much more could be written, my purpose is to let the Holy Spirit minister Himself to you in hopes that, through your own gifts, you will minister what He has worked in you to others. We are to give God credit for all the good works He enables us to do, and for those works He does independent of us. If we take credit for what God has done and for who we are in Him, we fail to give Him glory. Jesus plainly told people that He could not do anything by His own will or efforts, and He gave all the glory to God (Jn 5:19 & 30). Paul wrote “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you did not?” (1 Cor 4:7). To brag, or glory in what God has given in us and done through us is to rob God of glory. Independence and self-determination are born out of wanting credit for the successes in our lives. James corrected people for this kind of boasting and bragging (Jm 4:13-16). He admonished them to preface their actions with the phrase “If it is the Lord’s will”, and therefore show submission to the One who gives guidance and ability for our good works on this earth. When we act out of self-determination, independently from the Holy Spirit’s leading, we may ignore small acts of grace in order to perform the mightier acts of power and glory. Therefore James concludes his admonition with “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” Our minds can be a source of pride also, and it is not uncommon to glory in our own thoughts. This will lead us to rely on our own understanding to determine the truth. In speaking about false teachers who talk from the wrong spirit, John states that they “speak from the viewpoint of the world and the world listens to them.” (1 Jn 4:5). For some brethren, these men seem to be speaking sensible things. However, they are not presenting the truth but glory in their own thoughts. The trouble with being misled by our trust in our own understanding is that it will cause us to value the wrong things, and disvalue those things precious to God. Jude writes “these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals --these are the very things that destroy them.” (Jd :10) Truth is established by the Spirit of truth and therefore does not come from our own understanding. The ultimate end of taking glory that is due to God is self-exaltation and eventually, belittling or speaking against God. Satan set the example of self-exaltation, and his conversation is written in Isaiah 14:12-14. He thought himself God’s equal, and sought to place himself above God. Many who have become wise in their own eyes have done the same. Yet there is another force at work in the world which seeks to influence men to speak against God Himself. In both Daniel 7:25 and Revelation 13:5-6 we read about the spirit of pride and blasphemy at work. This spirit works through men to speak boastfully; “This horn had eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth that spoke boastfully,” (Dan 7:8b). Paul writes about the “eyes of our understanding” in Ephesians (1:18). The pride of loving our own thoughts and glorying in our own understanding will become a wedge between us and the light Christ gives us, and the result of that pride will become an open door for this spirit of blasphemy and spiritual pride we are warned against.