Text: “For unto US was the Gospel preached, as well as unto
THEM; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it.”
Hebrews 4:2.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that (faith) not of yourselves;
it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man/woman should boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9.
Good morning, Christian theologian! You were
enlightened by God’s grace; you were quickened from Spiritual death to
Spiritual life, by God’s grace; you were born again, Spiritually regenerated,
by God’s grace; and by God’s Sovereign grace you were redeemed by the precious
Blood of Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God. Hallelujah!
Means of Grace: The means of God’s great and freely given grace to you
and I - the method He used to enable us to partake of His Sovereign grace - was
His gift of believing FAITH, as our secondary Bible text for this study
proclaims: ‘…faith…the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.’
Praise God for such a gift!
Without God’s gift of saving faith, you
and I could never have believed and continued to believe; trusted and continue
to trust, Christ Jesus and His once-for-all-time Sacrifice for our sins at the
Cross of Calvary. No God-given faith? No Salvation. Fact.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that
(faith) not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any
man/woman should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Definition of Theology: Many Christians, even Christian Pastors, seem to be
very frightened of the concept of ’theology’ - some have even spoken of
’theology’ in a most disparaging manner; almost publicly despising the need to
engage in it! How sad.
“Theology - Greek theos ’God’,
and logos, Word; the systematic study of the Being, attributes,
purposes, and works of God, and of the world, man, and history in relation to
Him. It is usually referred to as a science, because it should be
conducted by the investigation of the objective data of Divine revelation,
which has its full expression in the written and incarnate Word - I.e. in the
Bible and its Christ-centred message. Indeed, theology used to be called
the queen of the sciences…” (Dictionary of Theological Terms, by Alan
Cairns, page 405)
A simple, working definition of Theology which I use
is this: Theology - Theos = God, and ology = knowledge. Therefore,
theology is basically ‘Divinely revealed knowledge of God’. Without a
Divinely revealed knowledge of God, that is, Spiritual knowledge revealed to
sinful man by our Holy Lord God, we can never ever be saved; we will in fact
never ever even know that we are sinners in need of Salvation! Theology,
therefore, is totally essential, for who shall ever seek to be saved, without
first being enlightened that they are lost? The Bible (KJV) is God’s
written revelation of His Eternal Salvation to man; found only in His dear Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. With all this clearly in mind, therefore,
let us look again at our two-verse Bible reading from Psalm 28:5-6; in these
two verses we see clearly that there is a ’THEM’ and an ’US’ theology being
taught.
“Because THEY regard not the works of the Lord (they
take no interest in God’s Word), nor the operation of His hands (they even
detest Creationism!), He shall utterly destroy THEM, and not build THEM
up.” Those designated ’THEM’ are Eternally lost. They have not been
given God’s free gift of saving faith, and cannot be saved.
“For unto US was the Gospel preached, as well as unto
THEM; but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it.” (Hebrews 4:2)
Both groups, the ‘Them’ and the ‘Us’ heard the Gospel
preached, but only those with God-given faith profited Eternally from the
hearing - ‘Salvation is of the Lord’! He chooses whom He will grant His
gift of faith, and those of us who are given faith, repent from our sins,
receive Christ as our Saviour and our Lord, and are Eternally secure in
Him. Wow! How humbling to think our Holy Lord God did all this for
Hell-deserving sinners such as we! Lord God, we praise and thank
you! Hallelujah!
Verse 6. “Blessed be the
lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications. Our Psalm was prayer up to this point, and now it
turns to praise. They who pray well will soon praise well; prayer and
praise are the two lips of the soul; two altars; two of Solomon’s
lilies.” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 140)
Verse 6. “Blessed be the
Lord, because He hath heard the voice of MY supplications. This is a cry to God that only the ‘US’ section, the
elect of God, spoken of here in my lesson can make - the Lord will not hear the
cry that is not offered in sincere, God-given, faith; and it must be faith
placed in God the Son, Christ Jesus.
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear me.” (Psalm 66:18)
Are YOU praying to the Lord and being heard at His
throne constantly? Then, praise God, for you are included in His election
as a ‘sheep’ and not a ‘goat‘; one of the saved ’us’ and not the lost
’them’. This is an example of ’them and us theology’ as taught by Christ
Himself in Matthew 25:31-46 - please take time to check this out! Bless
you.
Thought: Without ‘theology’ -
knowledge of God - no man/woman can be saved!
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