I've entitled this message, Faith
is Not a Choice. Whenever was I believed, I didn't
make a decision, well, I'm going to believe. I didn't choose to
believe. I found myself believing, but
I didn't make a choice. I am going to believe. Now, unbelief
is a choice. If you do not believe, it's because
you choose not to believe. But faith is not a choice. You
believe something because it is true. That's simple enough, isn't it?
You believe something. because it is true. Now, after
hearing that which is true, you may choose not to believe that. As a matter of fact, if you do
not believe, it's because you choose not to believe, but you believe because it's
the truth. A choice involves two or more
things to choose from. You know, that's not involved
in the preaching of the gospel. That's not involved in saving
faith. The Lord said, I am the way,
the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father, but
by me. Now there's not two ways and
you make a choice. There's not two truths and you
choose which direction you want to go. They're not two lives
and you pick out which one you want. They're certainly not two
ways to God. He said, no man comes to the
father, but by me. You don't choose to believe in
reality. You don't believe until you have
no choice. That's when you believe when
there is no other option, when there is no other choice. Now, like I said, the word. Heresy
means a choosing. That which is chosen. And whatever you believe that
you chose to believe, it is heresy. You are an heretic. I am a heretic if I'm simply
believing what I choose to believe. Now let's pick up in verse 17. This is a very sobering passage
of scripture. Now in this, that I declare unto
you, I praise you not that you come together, not for
the better, but for the worse. Now I want you to think about
that is quite a sobering statement. He said, when you meet together,
It's not for the better. It's positively harmful. What
you're doing when you meet together is not good. When you assemble
yourselves together, there's more harm done than good. Now, I bet if Paul was here and
he said that to us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
I hope it would shake us up. And it should have shaken them
up. He said, you're meeting together not for good, but for harm and
here's what they were doing. He says in verse 18, for first
of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there
be divisions, schisms, rents among you and I partly believe
it. Now this was addressed at the
first of this epistle, turn to chapter one. Verse 10. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. For it has been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe,
that there are contentions, divisions, rents among you. Now, this I
say that every one of you say, well, I'm of Paul, I'm one of
his followers. Somebody else says, I'm of Apollos.
Somebody else says, not me, Peter's my man. And some real pious person
says, I don't follow any man, I just follow Christ. I'm of
Christ. And then Paul asked the question,
is Christ divided? No. Are there divisions within
the body of Christ? No. Now, if I believe, and this
is not just Talking about what I believe, because this is a
matter of life and death with me. This is not just, well, here's
what I believe, but this is a matter of life and death. If I believe
Christ is all, and you believe Christ is all, we will be speaking
the same thing, won't we? We'll be perfectly joined together. in the same mind and in the same
judgment. There will be no divisions. Now, I believe Jesus Christ is
all. I really believe that. I want
to say this reverently. I know there's God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, one God in three distinct
persons. I realize that. Paul said, in him dwelleth the
Lord Jesus Christ. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead. Now, I wish I knew what all to
say about that, but there's fullness of sovereignty. There's fullness
of independence. There's fullness of omnipotence. There's fullness of immutability. There's fullness of omnipresence. Well, how can he be omnipresent?
Well, the same way he said, uh, uh, I came down from heaven and
I'm speaking to you as the one who's in heaven. He said that
in John chapter three, with regard to himself, I came down from
heaven and I'm in heaven right now. So there's fullness of omnipresence
in them, in him. And I, you know, I don't, I can't
bow. Um, I believe Jesus Christ is
all I believe he's. All in the scriptures. I believe
every scripture. If it doesn't, if I don't see
him in it, I haven't understood the meaning of it. You believe
that? I believe he is all in the Bible. The Bible has one
message. I believe he is all to God. He's all God requires. You know,
if I'm a believer, that doesn't mean I have the minimum requirement.
It means I have the maximum requirement. He's all God requires. If I have
him, I have all. He's certainly all in salvation. Um, every aspect of salvation,
he's all in it. Uh, what's election without Christ?
I was chosen in him. That's why I was chosen. It was
in him. It was never, I was never independent of Jesus Christ.
He's all in justification. I'm justified by His righteousness,
plain and simple. He's all in my redemption. He
paid for my sins with His own precious blood. Now, if me and
you believe He's all, we have the same mind, don't we? We have
the same judgment. There aren't divisions. You know,
I've heard people say, well, not everybody, no one believes
everything alike. Yeah, I believe they do. If you
believe He's all and I believe He's all, there's no difference
in what we believe. He's in all things. We believe He's most
particularly all. I've already said this, but let
me say it again. He's all in my salvation. My standing before
God has absolutely nothing to do with anything in me. It's
in Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? You see,
believers are united there. They all speak the same thing. They have the same judgment. Back to our text in 1 Corinthians
11. Verse 18, for first of all, when
you come together in the church, I hear that there'll be divisions
among you. And I partly believe it. Now, you just said that every
believer believes the same, and yet here he says there's divisions
and differences. and rents among you." Now, what's
he saying? Well, he tells us in the next
verse, verse 19, for there must be also heresies among you. There must be. There must be. It's absolutely necessary that
there be heresies among you, that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you. In every church, there are heretics
and there are believers. If what I believe is a result
of me choosing to believe it, I am a heretic. I am guilty of
heresy. And Paul says, there must be
heresies among you, that they which are approved, that they
that are real, that they are genuine. That word approved comes,
from the Greek word dokimos, I don't know if I'm pronouncing
it right, but that's the way it looks at any rate, but it
was given in the Greek days, there were nothing but coins
for currency. And you can see where unscrupulous
people would try to shave a little bit off the edge, and they'd
do that with every coin so they would amass wealth, and the coin
would not be genuine. But the coin that's genuine is
the one that's approved. And there were men who would
approve, this is exact way this coin is approved. And that's
what Paul is saying. Those who are approved don't
have heresies. They believe what they believe
because it's the truth. That is why they believe. Now
let's go on, we're going to come back to that in a minute. Verse
20. When you come together, therefore,
into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. They said,
we're going to meet together to eat the Lord's supper. He
said, well, you say that, that's what you entitle it that, but
that's not what it is. For in eating everyone, verse
21, everyone takes before his own supper. It became a time
to eat. It wasn't to observe the Lord's
table. It was time to eat. And it wasn't a potluck where
everybody gets the same thing. You brought your food, that's
what you ate. If somebody didn't have the money to bring something,
they went without. And that was going on in this church. There
were actual economic divisions. Not only all the different divisions
of I'm a Paul and I'm a Paul, it's also the haves and the have-nots.
You had the ones who would bring their food to church and they
would eat it and have a good time and have other people sitting
out in another place watching him eat, having nothing to eat.
He says, for in eating, every one of you taketh before after
his own supper, and one is hungry. He's hungry, and you're eating,
and he's just watching you, and you're not giving him anything
to eat. And another is drunk, and they were actually becoming
intoxicated at the Lord's table. You say, could that be a church?
Yeah, but how shameful, how evil. This practice was that was going
on in the church of Corinth and this was a true church. He called
them faithful brethren in Christ Jesus. Don't miss that. But this
is another example of some of the horrible things that can
happen even in a true gospel church. This was what was going
on. One was getting full and not sharing his food and somebody
else was actually becoming intoxicated and that is the word. And yet
they were calling it, we're observing the Lord's table. Paul says,
no, you're not. What, verse 22, have you not
houses to eat and to drink in? If you're just coming for a meal,
eat in your own home. Don't come into the church to
do this. This is not a social gathering. It's much more than
that. This is the church meeting together to hear the gospel,
to observe the Lord's table. It's not a social gathering where
you're getting together and they actually call it a love feast
in one place. He says, do you despise the church of God and
shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall
I praise you in this? I praise you not. He was very
disgusted by all this. And when you hear this, you can
see, yeah, that is disgusting. And it also could happen to us
apart from the grace of God. This is a warning. Now, back
to verse 19. Paul says, for there must be
also heresies among you." Sex, choosings, choosings, making
a choice. Now, whenever you have the truth
preached, I guarantee you, you're gonna have Satan trying to pass
counterfeits all the time, wherever the gospel is preached. Close
your eyes to this. Wherever the truth is, a counterfeit
will not be far behind. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
10. I mean chapter 11, I'm sorry.
Chapter 11. Verse 13, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
and this was going on in the church of Corinth, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for
Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light, not darkness. Yes, he's the prince of darkness,
but he doesn't come saying, I'm the prince of darkness. He comes
as an angel of light. Verse 15, therefore it's no great
thing if his ministers, these false prophets I'm speaking of,
also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, human righteousness. They're wrong on the righteousness
of God. They're wrong on the righteousness
that God requires. They use the word righteousness.
They come as ministers of righteousness, but an erroneous, deceitful view
of God's righteousness. And then I love the way Paul
says, whose end shall be according to their works. You remember
when Paul said, if any man preached any other gospel than that, which
we preached into you, let him be accursed. Let him be anathema
upon the return of the Lord. Turn to Acts chapter 20 for a
moment. Now Paul is speaking to the Ephesian
elders, and he says in verse 28, take heed therefore, Acts
chapter 20 verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made
you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased
with his own blood. For I know this, that after my
departing, shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing
the flock also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse
things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore, watch
and remember that by the space of three years, I cease not to
warn everyone night and day with tears." What a warning. I don't wanna close my eyes to
this. Among your own selves, he said, shall men rise up, speaking
perverse things, seeking to draw away disciples after them. And
this is going to happen in every church. Now, what is a heresy?
He says, there must also be heresies among you. A heresy is a choice. Now, I hope this is clear. A
heresy is a choice. It's that which is chosen. Whatever you choose to believe
is a heresy. Grace or works? Well, let me
think. Let me look at the pros and cons.
I see pros here, cons, I think I'll choose grace. Heresy. You don't believe grace. It doesn't
work that way. You believe grace when it's the
only way you can be saved. You don't have any other options.
There's no choice involved. Grace is true. It's what the
scripture teaches. It's the only hope you have. You don't say,
well, I'm going to decide to believe grace. No, you believe
grace. If you choose to believe, to
not believe this, it is a choice. Kind of like one and one's two. I don't choose to believe one
and one's two. I believe it because it is, but I would have to choose
to believe that it's three, wouldn't I? Unbelief, there's always a
choice involved. Now, with regard to saving faith,
you didn't choose to believe. You believe the gospel, you believe
Christ because he's the truth, and you really have no other
choice. You have no other options. I mean, if you have options,
you've never believed. I don't choose to believe that
God is sovereign. He just is. And I'd have to choose to believe
that he's not sovereign, wouldn't I? That would be a choice. But I believe who he is. I don't choose to believe in
God. Well, what am I going to do? Am I going to believe in
God or am I going to be an atheist? Well, let me see. What choice am I
going to make? It doesn't work that way. You believe God is
because he is. And you would have to choose
to not believe that. I don't choose to believe the
Bible's the word of God. I believe the Bible's the word
of God because it is the word of God. I'd have to choose to believe
it's not though, wouldn't I? There we're entering the realm of heresy. This pulpit's made of oak. Somebody
says, I don't believe that. Well, that's a choice because
it is made of oak, isn't it? You can see that. It is made of oak.
Now to not believe that, you would have to choose not to believe
that. I believe what the Bible says
about God's character. It's who he is. I believe he's
holy. I don't choose to believe he's
holy. He is holy. I say that with fear,
I hope, and with trembling, and with reverence, He is holy. I
believe who He is. I don't choose to believe He's
omnipotent. He is omnipotent. He couldn't
be anything but that. But I believe because this is
who He is. I'd have to choose to not believe
who He is. That's what heresy is. I don't
choose to believe that the work of Christ on Calvary's tree is
successful. It is! I know it is. He didn't leave anything unfinished.
I don't choose to believe that. I believe it's because it's so.
He said it is finished. He said, I give unto my sheep
eternal life. Wherefore, by one offering, he
hath perfected for them forever them that are sanctified. It's
just the truth. And I would have to choose to
not believe that. I don't choose to believe that
sanctification is not progressive. Now that's what most religious
people believe. You gradually, through self-denial and through
your efforts and works and prayer and Bible reading, you become
more and more holy and less and less sinful. I don't believe
that for a second, not for a second. Now, do you not believe in growing
in grace? Of course, I believe in growing
in grace. I hope maybe if you could listen to that message,
Gabe Stonker preached on that in our conference. It was so
good. But. Progressive sanctification, Bible
just doesn't teach it. And if you believe that it's
because you choose to believe it, you don't get it from the
Bible. He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. I don't choose to believe God's
people will persevere all the way to the end. They will. The
Bible teaches that. It's not a choice I'm making.
Anything I choose to believe that is not what the Bible teaches
is heresy. That's what a heretic is. It's
someone who chooses to believe something that the Bible does
not teach. Now, I've already touched on
this. I believe that Jesus Christ is
all in salvation. I believe that all God requires
of me, he looks to his son for. I believe all my salvation is
who he is. I'd have to choose not to believe
that because the Bible says he's all. And I'm believing. The foundation of my faith is
just what God says in His Word. And I believe it. I don't choose
to believe it. I just believe it because it's
so. And this thing of, this is the whole notion of choosing.
Men hold on to that. Men say, well, doesn't everybody
got a free will? No. If you believe in free will,
you have to choose to believe it because the Bible doesn't
teach it. Romans 9, 16 says, it's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. There
is no justification for believing something like that. As far as
that goes, the whole notion of it is an absurdity. There's no
such thing as free will. God doesn't have a free will.
God's will is controlled by his nature. He cannot sin. He cannot
lie. He cannot be not be what he is. That's his nature. He couldn't,
well, I think I'm gonna decide to sin. He can't do that. I'm
gonna decide to lie. No, he can't, he's God. God didn't
have a free will in that sense. And every natural man, your will's
controlled by your nature. Your sinful, evil nature is what
controls the will. Now, we do what we wanna do.
Everything we do, we do exactly what we wanna do. Everybody does
what they wanna do. but your nature is what controls
what you wanna do. You see, a believer's got a new
want to. To will is present with me. Now, how to perform that
which is good, Paul said, I find not, but to will is present with
me. Now, anything believed that's not
what the Bible says, a choice is made to not believe it. And
it is heresy. Peter called it in second Peter
two, one damnable heresies. Now I want you to turn to Titus
chapter three. Titus chapter three. Verse 10. A man that is an heretic, after
the first and second admonition, reject. Now, doesn't mean burn
him at the stake. It means stay away from him.
Avoid him. Walk the other way. And that's
after the first and second admonition. He should be given admonitions.
Look, this is what the scripture says. If he rejects it, come
back to him again. This is what the scripture teaches.
He rejects it, avoid him. Mark those that cause divisions
contrary to the doctrine which you've received and avoid them. Paul said in Romans chapter 16,
I think it's verse 27. But look what it says about this
man. Knowing that he that is such
a heretic, Someone who chooses what they're
going to believe rather than bowing to the word of God, knowing
that he that is such is subverted, perverted, and sinneth being
condemned of himself. He's hanging himself with his
own rope in doing this. And Paul says, avoid them. That man who does not, that woman
who does not preach and believe the gospel of God's grace. Now, notice back in our text in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. For there must be also heresies
among you. How come? Why is this necessary?
That they which are approved, may be made manifest among you.
Now, who's approved? Now, I've already given you the
meaning of this word, approved. It's the Greek word dokimos,
or dokimos, I don't know how to pronounce it, but there were
over 80 laws passed in Rome because there were so many men trying
to shave coins and trying to pass coins that were not approved. And this is the word for approved.
Now, who's the one who does the approving? Who is the judge of who is approved?
Am I? Are you? No. Turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 10. Well, I've written down the wrong
scripture reference. It says, I can quote it. I can't,
I can't tell you. It's somewhere in second Corinthians.
I don't know how I've messed this up. That's where I'm getting
old and slipping and Lynn's already, Lynn's already said she'll let
me know when I'm slipping so much I got to quit. So y'all don't
need to worry about it. But it says that they, not he that commendeth
himself is approved. but whom the Lord commendeth.
He's the one who commends as approved. But what is someone
who's approved? Who is someone that's approved?
Someone who believes what God says. It's that simple. He believes the gospel. He believe,
for instance, when God says, God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth. And in every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. I believe that.
I believe it about me. I believe it about you. I might
not be able to completely see it all the time. And I might
fool myself about myself. Well, I'm not that bad, but yeah,
I am. I believe that because it's what
God's word says. To not believe that is to choose
not to believe that. Now, there must be heresies among
you. And I hope there's not anybody
in this room that's a heretic. I sure hope. I pray for you.
I pray that you would pray for me that I might not be that way.
But there must be heresies among
you. That's what scripture says. that
they which are approved might be made manifest. Now, have you ever seen that
you don't choose to believe? You believe because it's the
truth. That's all the reason you need,
and you really have no other choice. First John chapter five,
verse one. Whoso believeth that Jesus is
the Christ, God's prophet, God's priest, God's king, whoso believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. If you believe Jesus
is the Christ, you didn't choose to. You believe he's the Christ
because he is. And if you believe he's the Christ,
you've been born of God. Now to not believe that you would
have to choose not to believe that. Faith is not a choice. Faith is to have no other choice. May God give us this God-given
saving faith and deliver us from heresy. Let's pray. Lord, we're so utterly and completely
dependent upon your grace. to give us faith, saving faith,
and deliver us from choosing out of a smorgasbord of your
word that we think what we're going to believe. Lord, deliver
us from that and enable us to bow and to believe everything
you say. Lord, we thank you that we're
not given a choice. that we're not given an option, that your son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, truly is all in our salvation. And we rest in and believe what
you said, that your son is all. And Lord, that's our only hope.
Bless this message for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen.