Love and the Law
\nActs 15: 5: But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which
\nbelieved, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command
\nthem to keep the law of Moses\u20267: Peter rose up, and said unto them,\u202610:
\nNow therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the
\ndisciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
\nThis certain sect of the Pharisees not only wanted Christ preached but
\nalso the Law of Moses. Today, the vast majority of messages are centered
\non how man should live, how he ought to treat his fellow man, what he
\nshould be abstaining from and what he should commit himself to. When
\nPeter opposed this error he called it \u201ctempting God.\u201d Why?
\nSuch messages tempt God because they deny that Christ and him crucified
\nis sufficient to create obedience in God\u2019s people. Preaching the law to
\nmake believers obedient tempts God because it denies that the continual
\npreaching of the person of Christ the Lord in whom sinners were chosen,
\nredeemed, regenerated, preserved and shall be conformed unto is enough
\nto make them obedient. It tempts God because it denies that true worship
\nis in the heart and not in the flesh, in the spirit and not in the dead
\nletter.
\nCommanding men to reform their lives tempts God because it is a denial
\nthat Christ\u2019s circumcision of the heart is not sufficient to create a
\nnew inner man who loves God his Savior and the brethren. It is a denial
\nthat Christ\u2019s blood alone purges the conscience from dead works to serve
\nthe living God. Carnal worship tempts God by calling God a liar who says
\nthat the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed the
\nbeliever from Moses\u2019 law of sin and death. Preaching series-after-series
\non abstaining from sexual immorality, or giving, or any other form of
\nmorality, is directly tempting God because it puts confidence in the
\nflesh, points sinners to the flesh, worships the flesh and exalts not
\nGod, but self.
\nTrue believers are obedient to the only ruler of their life, the LORD
\nJesus Christ. Therefore believers desire to hear Christ speaks and to
\nfollow his commands. God\u2019s commandment is fulfilled when love for Christ
\nis implanted in the newly created pure heart, resulting in faith
\nunfeigned. Unfeigned faith needs not disguise itself with a show of
\nmoral reform for it is true faith which worships God in Spirit, rejoices
\nin Christ Jesus and puts no confidence in the flesh. I Ti. 1: 5: Now the
\nend of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good
\nconscience, and of faith unfeigned: 6: From which some having swerved
\nhave turned aside unto vain jangling; 7: Desiring to be teachers of the
\nlaw; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
\nClay Curtis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Love and the Law Acts 15: 5: But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses\u20267: Peter rose up, and said unto them,\u202610: Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,71,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-clay-curtis","category-believers-rule-of-life","category-the-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4856"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4857,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4856\/revisions\/4857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}