Forward to Zion: Ohio Hometown Camp Meeting 2014: Accountability

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Forward to Zion

Eugene Prewitt

Accountable to the Church Too

Our Father in Heaven, to finish the work on this planet is Your work.

And I ask that You would use Your holy Bible during this period to make things easy to understand.

Yesterday we were talking about the issue of being accountable to God only, and we talked about being accountable to God, we saw that in Romans 14, right where Paul says that we're each going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each 1 of us will give account of himself to God.

Right where Paul says that, he brings out 2 conclusions.

1, let us be very careful then not to put a stumbling block in our brother's way.

Let's be careful, since we can't manipulate him to heaven or force him to heaven or since he—being our child is not going to get him there in any natural way, let's be sure of this, that we don't put a stumbling block in the way of someone.

And we talked quite a bit about that stumbling block issue.

We observed that when Jesus comes back, He's going to send His angels, and what does it say there in Mark 13?

They're going to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, those that—those who have caused others to stumble.

That's 1 of those ideas there in Romans 14.

The other 1 is that we are not to judge each other any longer, and that judging is not just the idea of saying that you're going to hell.

Paul clarifies, we shouldn't even set each other at naught.

That's in the King James English, that since I am not your judge and you are not my judge.

Since we're accountable to God alone, we ought to let God handle this issue of who He's going to lift up and who He's going to put down.

I can wish the best for you, you should wish the best for me." That was yesterday.

We did talk about 2 ways that we cause a brother to stumble, and 1 of them I just want you to think about again.

When we do review, we're trying to move these ideas from short-term memory to long-term memory, that's the idea that when we are angry, when we have a lack of self-control, when we are bitter in the discipline of our children, that kind of behavior causes our children to stumble.

And when we cause our children to stumble, we are in character very similar to the way Revelation characterizes Babylon.

Why does—why is God so wrathful against Babylon?

It's because Babylon has caused little ones to stumble.

We don't want to cause people to stumble.

We read in 1 John 2 10 that those that love God, in them there is no cause of stumbling.

But we talked about how it's not the invisible love inside of me that makes me a safe, a safe, or makes my atmosphere a safe 1, It's the kind of love that is apparent, the kind that you notice, that is when you have a hard time, when I take an interest in you or when I show concern for your difficulty, that kind of love is the kind that is perceived.

And When we don't show that kind of love, we can cause someone to stumble by doing nothing at all.

I can cause little ones to stumble without even looking at them or touching them or talking about them.

I don't have to do something to cause anyone to stumble.

If I do not show a kind of love that can be seen and felt, the kind of concern that's noticed, that lack of love, you just ask the people who've left your local church.

It is that kind of lack that causes many people to fall.

That's yesterday's thought, and we want to look at some other things today, and to begin our Bible study today, turn to Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 13 has become 1 of my favorite passages in the Bible.

I think it has incredible material for explaining why many people have fallen away from the Lord, but we don't want to go too far afield from our topic.

It says, remember them which have the rule over you and submit yourselves.

Is it talking about policemen and governors?

Because it says, for they watch for your souls as they that must give, what's that keyword?

That matches our camp meeting here pretty well, doesn't it?

Those that have authority in the church, it says that I should remember those that have the rule over me.

I shouldn't just remember who they are, but I should do what?

I should submit to them, but it qualifies that submission to a certain extent.

It says I should submit to them as to someone who has to give account to God.

If you understand that idea, it'll just put so many ideas in order in your mind.

Why does God give humans authority over humans?

God gives authority directly in proportion to responsibility.

That is, if I give you responsibility, I must give you sufficient authority to carry out the responsibility, otherwise I really can't hold you accountable.

If I make you responsible for keeping the grounds clean, I have to give you enough authority to keep the grounds clean.

If I give you responsibility to raise—if I was God and I gave you responsibility to raise your children, I have to give you enough authority to raise your children." If God gives the police the responsibility to stop evil, He has to give them enough authority to stop evil.

So you can find in Revelation 13 when God talks about the ministers of wrath, that He says that they don't bear the what?

He says they don't bear the sword in vain.

Why would God give a sword or in this, in our day, why would He give an assault rifle to the snipers among the police force.

It's because he's given them a responsibility to repress serious and dangerous evil, And God never gives responsibility without giving enough authority to carry out the responsibility.

The idea is that I should submit to the human authority over me in view of the fact that the human that's over me is not only over me but he also has responsibility.

Do you see that in verse 7, that the man over me has responsibility?

And that it's because of his responsibility that he has authority?

Or the reason I should submit to him is because of his responsibility.

I'm just trying to show you in verse 7 that this connection is in the Scripture, the idea that authority comes with responsibility.

Someone's thinking, you've said that 10 times, move on.

Go back to verse 7 so we at least can finish it.

It says, whose faith—oh, excuse me, those that have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God, whose faith follow.

Now I'm worried that I might have told you to read verse 7 and then read you verse 17.

Then you wondered where I got all these words from?

Go to verse 17 so you can just see I didn't make up this Scripture.

Verse 17 says, "'Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you." We've already talked about verse 17, we ought to at least go back to verse 7.

Verse 7 also says, remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their lifestyle.

I think you know when you see the word conversation in the King James Bible, that's what you're looking at, the end of the way they live.

In the end of this chapter too, look at verse 24, salute all them that have, what does it say?

If someone is going to say to me that there is no human authority in the Christian church, I'm going to say, read Hebrews 13.

It says it in verse 7 and 17, which is what would confuse me, they sound so similar.

7 and 17 and even verse 22 talk about those that have the rule over us, but they don't teach that there is some unbounded or unlimited rule over us.

They teach that we should follow their faith, and on the other hand, they have a responsibility to speak to us the Word of God.

They teach us the Word, we follow their faith, we submit to them in verse 17, but what are we really submitting to?

We're submitting because they are teaching us the Word.

And the reason we're submitting to them is because they are responsible and they have to give an account.

I don't know if you've ever thought about this, that in the judgment, you give account not only for yourself but for your beautiful flock.

Have you read this in Isaiah when it talks about your beautiful flock?

Where is your flock, your beautiful flock?

That is, there is a small collection of people, they might be your children, they might be your neighbors, they might be those who rent a room in your house, but there is a—I don't know the proper verb, form of be for the sentence, so I'm going to skip a form of B, the people that God has given to me as my responsibility, He's going to ask me in the judgment, where are they?

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Accountable to the Church Too

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