DOCTRINE MATTERS. What you think about Jesus, His nature and His character, what He did and taught, what you think you know about the blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, the teachings of the NT on repentance, sin, and obedience, baptism, the gifts of the Spirit and the ancient instruction of the OT is essential to saving faith. “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.” II John 1:9
You cannot have faith in a God you do not know or understand, otherwise you make up your own Frankenstein Jesus and call it “good”. Doctrine is “instruction that has been taught”. It is the ancient teachings of Scripture to lead in the narrow way of truth and righteousness. When Paul told Timothy, In the last days, some (Greek translation meaning a very large and extensive number) will depart from the faith. “The faith” is “credence of religious truth, the truthfulness of God, religious teachings” i.e. doctrine. By calling the Christian Church “the pillar and support of the truth”, the apostle taught, that one of the important purposes for which that great spiritual building was reared, was to preserve the knowledge and practice of true Christianity, true doctrine in the world.
Nevertheless, knowing that in the last days great corruptions, both in doctrine and practice, would at length take place in the church itself, and that the general reception of these corruptions by many (or Greek “most”) professed Christians would be urged as a proof of their being the truths and precepts of God. This apostasy is taking place at a greater speed. Doctrine not only matters, it is essential. I’m going to write the next few week on certain doctrines that have infiltrated the church- the pillar and support of truth. We are to safeguard the truth as taught in Scripture! Over the next few days, I will discuss sin.
This is a short and crude teaching:From the fall of Adam, sin entered the human race. We are all born with a sin nature. This sin nature rules our lives, we are slaves to sin. (Romans 6) This means there is nothing we can do to overcome our sin, it is our nature to sin. Humans are not morally good, we may do good things; but we are morally bankrupt and are completely separated from God. He is holy, man is not. An unholy man cannot enter into the presence of a holy God. We would die immediately.
The OT sacrificial system provided a way for God’s people to be forgiven. It was through the shedding of animal blood once a year, and had to be repeated every year. Yahweh decreed that He would only forgive people through the shedding of blood. (Levi 17:11, Hebrews 9:22). Finding fault with men in this sacrificial system, God robed Himself in flesh. Jesus came as fully man and fully God to redeem (purchase back) humanity through His shed blood. So that through Jesus, we can enter a holy God’s presence. (I will discuss the deity of Jesus at a later date.)Because of the great cost of the precious blood of Jesus, not only can we be forgiven of our sin through repentance and faith in His work on the cross, we are freed from the affects of sin and the power that sin had over us.
Therefore, through the blood of Christ, sin no longer controls me. Any teaching/doctrine that claims that you have to continue to live in your sin is a doctrine of demons. In fact, Scripture states that if anyone continues to live in their sin, they do not know the Lord. “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin.
Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” I John 3:4-9 This doctrine of sin is VERY clear.
You cannot be a “murdering Christian”, nor a “liar Christian” nor an “adulterer Christian” nor a “homosexual Christian” nor a “drunkard Christian”. Such WERE some of you- we have such sinful pasts, but now are washed and made a new creation in Christ. The power of the blood of the Lamb is power to overcome sin, not just cover it for a year. It is power to make us a new creation. It is power to make you a son or daughter of God. It is power to actually break free from sin’s bondage and control. The old man, that is the old man of flesh with his evil thoughts, is conquered by His blood. Sinful thought patterns can be overcome.
The heart can be renewed and transformed to receive His instructions.Therefore, any doctrine of the grace of God that allows for a continuance of sin is a doctrine of demons. Any doctrine of the love of God that allows for a continuance of sin is a doctrine of demons. “But Crystal, even Paul said that he did what he didn’t want to do!” Romans 7 is as equally twisted as Matthew 7:1.
Paul was explaining the inability of an unregenerated man to be able to not overcome sin. Try as he might to follow and obey Scripture, Paul before Christ as a Hebrew man of faith, knowing and been trained in the Scriptures; could not overcome his sin. Why? Because that sin nature still abided in him and he was powerless to control sin. Romans 8 is a “but now!” Scripture declaring a man born again by the Spirit and because of Christ’s shed blood, the new man in Christ has the victory over sin. “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,”Romans 8:3 NKJVSin can be overcome completely in the believer’s life.
Sin was conquered on the cross and that power is appropriate in our lives through His blood. We are to take sin and it’s affects seriously, as the blood of Christ is precious. Sin is what God says it is, not what we say it is/is not. Sin includes our thought life as well as our actions. Sin destroys lives and willfully sinning will shut you out of heaven. I will discuss willful sin and occasional, “I got in the flesh” sin in the dailies to come. #runyourrace
To Learn More About Pastor Crystal please visit the Leadership Page
