Yesterday we saw the Church as a fortress. How do people depart from that truth? Look at 1 Timothy 4.1-5 and notice that people frequently depart from the faith by coming up with rules and regulations which they think will guard them from error. Paul specifically mentions abstaining from marriage and from certain foods. Yet how many times have we seen within Christianity that it is exactly the people who abstain from marriage, avoid certain foods and drinks, and otherwise add laws to God's Word who are considered the strong and dedicated Christians? Paul would take issue with that. These are the people who have departed from the faith. They have plunged themselves into bondage to the law, and it's a law of their own making, not God's Law.
When we fall from grace we fall into legalism. When we fall from grace we fall into moralism. When we fall from grace we fall into self-sufficiency. Let us determine never to do that. And by God's grace we will hold to our Lord by faith, knowing that we can do no more.
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