Unfortunately, not all disciples are true disciples. This devotional reading looks at ways we are false disciples.
Nuggets
- We aren’t a true disciple if we think discipleship gives us license to sin.
- We aren’t a true disciple if we are formalists or nominalists.
- We aren’t a true disciple if we only have an appearance of godliness and allow sin to reign in our hearts.
- We aren’t a true disciple if we don’t walk in righteousness before God.
We’ve gotten to the last point in Boston’s sermon. His last point provides verses as evidence of the following statement: “NOT THE FORMER, BUT THE LATTER, SORT OF RELIGION MARKS A TRUE CHRISTIAN.”
That points back to what we discussed in the last devotion. Boston wrote, “The spirit or spirituality of religion is the eternal grace joined to the external performance (John 4:24; 1 Timothy 1:5).”
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Putting the two together gets this: not the eternal grace, but the external performance of religion marks a true Christian.
But doesn’t that contradict what we’ve been saying? Let’s go through the verses Boston gave us and see what he is talking about.
Let's Put It into Context
To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.
Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.
Devotions in the Outward and Inward Religion study
Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.
We are using Boston’s sermon as the foundation for this series.
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Being Unregenerate
“And why not do evil that good may come? — as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.” (Rom. 3: 8 ESV)
We aren’t a true disciple if we think discipleship gives us license to sin.
Our being sinful does not make God more righteous. It definitely does not grow us closer to Him.
That being said, God can and does use sin to make things good. God uses trials and sins to help us want to listen to Him.
I had to read what Boston said a couple of times. He wrote, “That there is nothing in the outside or letter of religion but what man may reach in an unregenerate state, in which no man can ever please God.”
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- We have to follow the letter of religion.
- If we try to follow outward religion, we remain in an unregenerated state.
- We don’t please God when we sin.
The psalmist put it this way. “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man” (Ps. 5: 4-6 ESV)
God punishes us for our sins, but He also uses them to show us our need for Him.
When we think we have license to sin, we are really unregenerated. Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
ABCD
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
If there are two options available on Judgment Day, disciples who have license to sin is not one of them. It is either regenerated or not regenerated.
Not Truly Loving God
“And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain” (Ezek. 33: 31 ESV)
We aren’t a true disciple if we are formalists or nominalists.
There are true disciples, and then there are those who pretend to be disciples. We call them formalists and nominalists.
- A formalist is a person who gives the appearance of being a disciple but, in reality, isn’t.
- Nominal disciples are those boasting they love God without even trying to imitate Him — those who dig on religion and its rituals without having a change in heart.
These false disciples loved religion but not the One we are created to worship. Lyth explained why. He wrote, “The heart is the seat of the defect. It has never been the subject of Divine and regenerating grace; and, where this is the case, there may be every semblance of true religion, but reality there is none.”
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We have to see how God opposes the character of those who do not have His character. We are to be new creations, shedding the old.
Parker made an interesting observation. He wrote, “The people come to hear the letter only, and there is no letter so disappointing as the letter of the Bible. If you stop at a certain point you miss everything; you are surrounded by mountains, but they are so high that you cannot see any sky beyond them, and therefore they become by their very hugeness prison walls.”
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Oh, that puts a whole new twist on what we talked about in a previous devotion in this series. We talked about the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.
Don’t many of us want to have the letter of the law? We want to have the checklist of do’s and don’ts.
But God doesn’t want that. He wants us to have His character, not just going through actions.
God isn’t interesting in the letter of the law. Nor is He interested in us following the spirit of the law. He doesn’t want us ignoring one law because we think another of God’s laws supersedes it.
God wants us to follow the Spirit of the Law – the Holy Spirit.
Reign of Sin in the Heart
“having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (II Tim. 3: 5 ESV)
We aren’t a true disciple if we only have an appearance of godliness and allow sin to reign in our hearts.
Kollock told us what godliness is. He wrote, “We are unequivocally commanded to assume the form of godliness; to testify by external acts our allegiance to the Lord; and to attend on those ordinances and sacraments which He surely did not appoint that we might with impunity neglect them.”
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Some believe they can worship God in secret. They may know in their hearts that God is Who He says He is, but they don’t reflect this belief in their lives.
They are not being godly. They are allowing sin to reign in their lives.
We cannot worship God in secret. “For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved” (Rom. 10: 5-10 ESV).
We have to confess God. We can’t keep Him in secret.
What We Are Before God, not Man
“When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless’” (Gen. 17: 1 ESV)
We aren’t a true disciple if we don’t walk in righteousness before God.
God is a spirit, so we cannot see Him. That doesn’t mean we can’t feel His presence.
Goulburn explained a couple of ways that we can do just that. He wrote, “The conception of God’s presence will take different shapes in different minds. We may regard Him as locally present everywhere, the veil of matter screening Him from our view; or we may regard Him as having a certain intimate connection with our minds, as upholding momentarily in us the powers of life and thought.”
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However we acknowledge God’s presence, we must do it with a pure heart. We must constantly – habitually – recognize God’s authority in our lives.
Abraham believed what Moses later put to writing. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6: 4 ESV).
Knowledge alone of this isn’t enough. This has to guide us to walk in righteousness with God.
Making the Connections
Inward religion shows itself in outward religion. The two cannot be separated.
Benson told us how to do this. He wrote, “Think, act, speak, under a sense of God’s omnipresence.”
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It isn’t the actions that we do. It is the motivation behind it.
When we read that we are to do this perfectly, Meyer said that we are to read that as whole-heartedly.
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We have to be habitual so that our attitude of surrender to God can be nurtured.
How Do We Apply This?
- Concentrate more on walking the right path than reaching the end.
- Search our hearts to know God.
- Be earnest in following the Spirit of the Lord.
- Grow our attitude of surrender to God.
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Father God. We know there are many false disciples. We do not want to be among their number. Help us to grow our attitude of surrender to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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