Don't Walk Away From God

You cannot lose your salvation,

but can you walk away from it?

Beloved,

when it come to the words:

“DO NOT”

many of us have a problem with those words.

Do not touch

do not go

do not pass

do not take

do not give

do not gossip.

Many have no respect or fear and I mean

are not afraid of the words

DO Not!!!

And then there are those

who just REFUSED TO BELIEVE

the impact these

two words have.

Beloved,

let me tell you

there are

consequences for refusing

to believe or ignore

these two words.

Application:

Let me tell you,

fear is a powerful motivator.

It’s often mentioned in Scripture.

We are instructed

"fear God"

or praise God at least 47 times.

Now,

someone out there might be saying,

Bishop Houston,

“that’s just in the Old Testament.”

Well,

no it’s not.

We find that in

1 Peter 2:17

Peter writes that Christians should:

"Show proper respect to everyone:

Love the brotherhood of believers,

FEAR GOD, honor the king."

Now,

I’m sure some of you out there

might be saying:

“when the Bible uses the word ‘fear’

that means ‘respect.’”

Well, not in all aspects,

and not here.

You see,

the word in I Peter for example

is “phobeo”

a word from which we get

our term "phobia."

It means to be "terrified."

Phobeo

is found again in Romans 11:20

“…Do not be arrogant, but be afraid.”

Now there may be someone asking:

Bishop Houston:

Afraid?… Afraid of what?

WELL I’M GLAD YOU ASKED!!!

Allow me to give you a little

backdrop here:

I.

At the church at Rome

there was a small problem.

The congregation there

was made up of

Jewish & Gentile believers

and there was tension

between the two groups.

The Jewish believers at Rome

looked down on the Gentiles,

because the Gentiles were

poor cousins.

In other words they were the

Johnny come latelys.

They were the newcomers

or late starters in the faith.

The new believers or

they found their Christian

position later than others.

These non-Jews had not been

part of God’s 1st covenant with Israel,

and hadn’t taken part

in the blessing and promises

of the Old Testament.

Besides,

for generations,

there had been dislike

and hatred of these outsiders.

Gentiles were called "dogs"

and contact with these undesirables

was avoided whenever possible.

If a Jew were to buy goods

from a Gentile,

the purchased item was often

taken home and washed

to clean away the pagan filth

before being used.

Jews grew up hating Gentiles,

and it was a hard habit to break.

In the book of Romans,

Paul spends the first 4 or 5 chapters

addressing the Jews prejudice.

Now as for the Gentiles,

they were not

trying to here or (listen)

to all of this sit down and be quiet mess coming from the Jews.

They simply responded

to prejudice Jewish

by saying “Oh yeah???

You want us

to sit down and be quiet …

But wasn’t it you so called smart Jews

the ones who rejected Jesus to begin with?

How could you possibly

maintain that God loves you

more than us

if you crucified His only Son?"

In the book of Romans Chapters 9, 10, and 11, you will find that

Paul focused on counteracting

this attitude on the Jews part.

Paul said (in essence)

God hadn’t rejected Israel.

In fact He loved them.

Now,

it’s hard to tell how bad

this finger pointing had gotten

at Rome

but it did bring some value

to Paul’s writing:

in Romans 15:7-9 it says:

"Accept one another, then,

just as Christ accepted you,

in order to bring praise to God.

For I tell you

that Christ has become a servant

of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth,

to confirm the promises

made to the patriarchs

so that the Gentiles may

glorify God for his mercy,

as it is written:

‘Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name.’"

II.

Beloved,

it’s here, in Chapter 11,

that Paul sums up his rebuke

of the Gentile believers in Rome.

Here,

he sets the record straight:

Yes,

the Jews were cut off,

because of unbelief.

AND yes,

you Gentiles have been grafted

or in other words

(embedded, inserted, implanted, attached)

in their place.

BUT then he warns the Gentiles,

He tells them:

don’t get big headed to arrogant or

walk around with swag because,

you can be cut off too.

Paul writes in

Romans 11:19-21:

“You will say then,

‘Branches were broken off

so that I could be grafted in.’

Granted.

But they were broken off

because of unbelief,

and you stand by faith.

Do not be arrogant,

but be afraid.

For if God did not spare

the natural branches,

he will not spare you either."