Characteristics of Biblical Christianity
Theme: Five characteristics produced by Biblical Christianity
| Text: Hebrews
13:1-6 ,(NLT) "Live good and obedient lives. Continue to love each other with true Christian love. Don't forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it. Don't forget about those in prison. Suffer with them as though you were there yourself. Share the sorrow of those being mistreated, as though you feel their pain in your own body. Give honor to marriage. God will surely judge people who are immoral and those who commit adultery. Stay away from the love of money, be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." That is why we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?" |
Introductory Remarks:
God has sent us forth as believers with an objective in view. That objective is to extend the Kingdom of God whenever and wherever we can. I have been given the responsibility to establish God's Kingdom in my sphere of life and you are responsible for yours. We are to take the gospel of the Bible into our world and person by person we are to recover them for the Kingdom of God. I'm firmly convinced that to what extent the world will receive our message will be determined by what the world sees demonstrated in us. They will want to know that what we as followers of Jesus Christ offer to them is really workable and that it is working in us. When we say to them that Jesus gives us inner peace, inner joy and inner power, they fully expect it to show forth in our lives. They expect the Christian to exemplify every thing that we give witness to with our words and they have every right to expect this. Paul, writing to Timothy, said these words in relation to the believer and the unsaved II Timothy 4:12, (TLB) "Be their ideal, let them follow the way you teach and live. Be a pattern for them in your love, your faith and your clean thoughts." From our text I want to share for your consideration five characteristics of true biblical Christianity. These are five things that will identify God's people wherever Christians gather on the face of the earth. Let me say, at this point, that I am not talking about denominational Christianity, because God is not interested in denominational Christianity. Nor am I talking about American, European, Russian, African nor Asian Christianity. But I am talking about biblical Christianity for that is the kind God is interested in. Biblical Christianity will work in any culture of the world and it will be recognized by every culture of the world. It will be the same worldwide. No matter what country they are from, God's people will be recognized--not by:
They will be recognized by the following five marks of identification given to us in Hebrews 13:1-6.
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