Good morning and welcome in today. Today we’re going to took a look at the following passage of scripture.
Romans 2:7-8 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
When you continue to do something, it means to persist in an activity or process. Some synonyms are to persevere, to keep it up, to press on and to keep at it. When the apostle teaches us by patient continuance in well doing, he means to keep on doing good and kind things!
The bible teaches us that Jesus was filled up with so many good works, that all the books that were ever written could not contain all the wonderful things that He did. Whatever you may go through in this life, whatever trials that you may have to face, you want to patiently continue to do good things. When you continue, it means you don’t stop. A synonym is the word persist.
When you persist, it means to continue firmly in an opinion or a course of action, in spite of difficulty, opposition, or even failure. So the Apostle wants us to keep doing good no matter what kind of struggles that we have to go through in this life.
Many years ago, I can remember paddling a canoe in the Boundary Waters. We came to a river that we needed to paddle upstream. Sometimes the stream got really fast, and it was hard to go against the flow but eventually, with great persistence we managed to get up that stream. We didn’t give up and we didn’t quit.
The word persevere actually, is very similar to persistence because it means to continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty, or with little or no prospect of success: or to persist in an undertaking in spite of counter influences, opposition or discouragement. God wants us to continue doing good, kind things to everybody that you meet, no matter what others may put you through. There is no end to doing good things.
Romans 2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
God wants to reward his obedient children with eternal life, but it requires that we do what’s good instead of what’s evil. We want to do what’s right in His sight, instead of what’s immoral. This is done through our deeds and our actions. When we believe in Jesus Christ and get forgiven for our sins, we turn away from the old sinful person that we were in the past, and then we get filled up with good works and deeds.
In each of our pasts, we did things that were immoral and bad, but through His grace, He gives us an opportunity to be in heaven, and to change and amend our ways.
In the church, we are justified not just by faith, but by works. The good things that you do are evidence to others that you truly believe in Jesus Christ and what he taught. It’s your deeds that show what you believe. I’ve said it many, many times before, the proof that you can build a beautiful deck on a person’s home is the finished product. It is your deeds that show what you are and what you can do. A person may profess that they’re a mechanic and that they can fix your car, but the proof that they are a mechanic is the repaired vehicle that’s running well.
We are justified by works and not just by faith alone. A lot of people might not like hearing that but it is the truth. Just claiming that you believe in something isn’t enough by itself to get to heaven. True faith will result in action.
………To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
Eternal life will be their reward. Thank God that He gives us grace to go through that change. We ourselves were at one time disobedient and rebellious, but God who is rich in mercy, even while we were yet sinners, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Each of us can come boldly to Him, get forgiven, and begin living an obedient life of love towards Him.
Christianity is about becoming something different than what you were before. The Scriptures teach us to become obedient children and not fashioning ourselves according to our former lusts, the way that we used to live in our past.
People who stole in the past, now become a giver in the church. Somebody who committed adultery in the past, now becomes faithful to their spouse. Look at all the changes that people went through in the scriptures.
Moses was a leader in Egypt, but he left it all for Christ’s sake and completely turned his back on all of that. Imagine the riches he could have inherited. His greatest treasure was Jesus, and look what happened.. God used him greatly for the furtherance and leadership of the Israelites.
The apostle Paul was once trying to destroy churches, but when he became a Christian, he started planting churches. Christianity is turning from doing what’s wrong to doing what’s right. Christianity is about turning away from the immoral ways that we used to live and doing what’s good. It’s it’s turning away from disobedience to obedience. Anybody who professes to be a Christian should understand this, because if they don’t, they’re lying to themselves. God does not want us to live the way we used to live, but to undergo that change, and the reward someday is going to be eternal life.
Eternal Life is reserved for people who are filled with faith in Christ, who get forgiven for their sins and then they become obedient. It shows in their deeds and their actions.
…..To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:……
Glory means honor that is won by notable achievements.
But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Being contentious is very similar to rebellion, which is the sin of witchcraft. A contentious person is inclined to dispute and disagree, some synonyms are belligerent and disagreeable.
A contentious and a belligerent person does not want to obey the truth. What they do is fight against God in their own heart and mind. God’s Word is the truth. When you want to understand and know the right path, you will find it in the scriptures. It’s a map to heaven, it’s a road of righteousness and goodness. God wants us to become obedient children, filled with faith and love and grace, but there are certain people who reject His will, some of which today refer to themselves as Christians.
Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
2 Tim 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
Resisting simply means to withstand the action or the effect of something. It means to exert force in opposition, to withstand and to strive against, to oppose and to fight against. The people spoken of in our passage today are resisting the truth of God’s Word. Instead of becoming obedient to it, they disobey and fight against it.
The Apostle says these people are contentious and do not obey the truth.
A reprobate is somebody who refuses to accept biblical truth. It means that they are without morals and without any shame. It’s a person of completely bad and evil character. This happens because people resist biblical truth and won’t become obedient to it. They’re not sorry, and abide in a state of impenitence.
God’s word is the truth and filled with power.
Romans 13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
We can come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need, but we are talking about people who turn their ears from the truth, and turn to fables. Instead of accepting the truth that they are in error and repenting and apologizing for it, they completely go against it. If they die in this state, they are going to receive damnation.
I’ve taught for years at my home that you might make a mistake along the way. You might have done something that you regretted doing, but God gives us Grace in order to get back on the obedient path again. There is one thing that we can never do, its to turn away from the truth of what the Bible teaches. It’s by the acceptance of Truth that we realize the error of our way. When people reject the truth they start to believe a lie. Many times they want to keep their Christian faith and live a disobedient life, so in order to do that, they’ll start to twist scripture around so it says the things that they want to hear. They want to keep their Christian faith, but they really don’t want to abide by what it says.
…….But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Unless they repent and believe what the Scriptures teach, unless they repent of their rebellious and stiff neck lives, they most certainly will inherit damnation someday. That’s a choice that everybody has to make on their own. It’s the choice of whether you are going to follow the teachings of Christ, or whether a person is going to resist them and turn away.
God cares for us so very much. He doesn’t want anybody to perish, but in order to inherit eternal life we have to love Christ and the truth that he preached.
We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Let’s get forgiven so that we can become obedient children. Just like you would try to please an earthly dad, let’s show God how much that we love him by obeying Him in everything we do!
I think that’s where I’m going to stop for right now, but Lord willing, I’ll talk to you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye Bye, everybody.♥️
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