[Biblemat] S) "WOULD YOU ALSO GO AWAY?"

[J5827Sasser at wmconnect.com]

Brethren and Friends, Jim Sasser here.  Here is a study from my
recent files.  Use to the glory of God.

"WOULD YOU ALSO GO AWAY?"

     Jesus had been giving some "hard teaching" to His discip-
les.  That is, teaching which was hard for them to understand
and some of which called for difficulty in obeying.  We can 
read: "Upon this many of His disciples went back, and walked
no more with Him.  Jesus said therefore unto the twelve, Would you also go 
away?  Simon Peter answered Him, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the Words of eternal life"
(Jno. 6:66-68).  The Lord usually had hundreds of disciples
following Him during His ministry, and "many of His disciples
went back, and walked no more with Him."  So far as we know, only the twelve 
remained at this time.  And it is to them
that Jesus directs this question: "Would ye also go away?"
Can you just imagine the heartbreak in His voice as He asked
them this question?

     The apostle Paul wrote later that some would fall away,
"But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall
fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing  spirits and 
doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in 
their own conscience as with a hot iron" (1 Tim. 4:1,2).  And John wrote of 
some who had turned
away, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if
they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but
they went out, that they might be made manifest that they all
are not of us" (1 Jno. 2:19).  And we are even given the exam-
ples, with names, of some that turned away: "Holding faith
and a good conscience; which some having thrust from them
made shipwreck concerning the faith: of whom is Hymenaeus
and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might
be taught not to blaspheme" (1 Tim. 1:19,20).

     The scene when Jesus asked, "Would ye also go away?"
is indeed a sad picture.  Why would disciples -- many of whom had been with 
Jesus for months, maybe even years --
turn back and forsake Him?  But that scene is still being re-
peated today!  Disciples of Christ are still turning away from
Him and His Will.  But why?  When we consider what He has
done for us, why would anyone turn back?  Remember that 
He said, "No one cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (Jno. 14:6).  If we turn 
away from Him, "There remaineth no more 
sacrifice for sins" (Heb. 10:26).  Yet some do turn away.  But
where do they go?  Let us see:

     Some Go Back Into A Life Of Sin: -- Jesus Christ came to
set us free from sin, but some leave Christ and go back into
sin.  "Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an 
evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the
Living God" (Heb. 3:12).  The Bible says that we are "saved
by grace" (Eph. 2:5), but it also says to some, "Ye are fallen
away from grace" (Gal. 5:4).  That is the reason for the warn-
ing, "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall"
(1 Cor. 10:12).

     To follow Christ, we have to make a commitment -- we will
follow, no matter what the cost!  There can be no waffling,
for Jesus said, "He that is not with Me is against Me" (Matt.
12:30).  And look at the words of 2 Cor. 5:14,15, "For the love
of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one
died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they
that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him
who for their sakes died and rose again."  The apostle Peter
paints a dismal picture of one who turns away from Christ:
"For it were better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the
holy commandment delivered unto them.  It has happened
unto them according to the true proverb, The dog turning to
his own vomit again, and the sow that had washed to wallow-
ing in the mire" (2 Pet. 2:21,22).  To be cleansed from sin, and
then leave Christ and return to a life of sin is to be just like
that "sow that was washed to wallowing in the mire."

     Some Go Into Materialism: -- On another occasion, the Lord asked the 
question, "What shall a man be profited, if he
gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26).
Yet some, not satisfied with the promise of eternal riches,
turn from Christ to seek the things of this world.  Like Judas,
for thirty pieces of silver, he betrays the Lord.  The Lord
said, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth,
where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break 
through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasure in heav-
en, where neither moth nor rust doth consume; and where
thieves do not break through nor steal: for where thy treas-
ure is, there will thy heart be also" (Matt. 6:19-21).

     Disciples of Jesus should learn what is really important.
It is true that "every good gift" comes from God (Jas. 1:17),
but we need to know what is the best gift.  "Blessed be the 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in
Christ...In Whom we have our redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of
His grace" (Eph 1:3,7).  But some go away from Christ in order to seek the 
things of this world -- riches, power, presti-
ge, pleasures, etc.

     The apostle Paul shows the perspective of the true follow-
er of Jesus: "We look not at the things which are seen, but at
the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen
are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal...
For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be
dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made
with hands, eternal, in the heavens" (2 Cor. 4:18-5:1).  If we
live for this life, and this world, we will lose eternity in heaven
with Christ.  "Would ye also go away?"

     Some Go Away Into Legalism: -- The Pharisees were stick-
lers for keeping the exact "jot and tittle" of the law.  And they
insisted on their "right" to bind their ideas and traditions of
what God required upon others (Matt. 23:4; Mk. 7:1-13).  As
the Lord told them, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have
left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mer-
cy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to 
have left the other undone" (Matt. 23:23).  They thought that
by "keeping all the rules" they would gain the approval of
God.  But they forgot that service to God must be from the
heart, or He will not accept it.  Just "keeping the rules" is not
enough, our hearts must be right, we must have the right pur-
pose in such obedience.

     Some of those who "go away" from Jesus are trying to be
"good enough" to go to heaven.  But, friend, if any of us
could be good enough, we would not need Christ and His mercy!  Everyone who 
goes to heaven will go there by the
grace of God.  There is no other way.  Jesus explained this 
carefull in an illustration He gave of the slave who did just
what his master said, "Doth he thank the servant because he
did the things that were commanded?  Even so ye also, when
ye shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are 
unprofitable servants; we have done that which
it was our duty to do" (Lk. 17:9,10).  You see, if you perfectly
obey God, in everything, He still owes you nothing, for that
was your purpose when He gave you life!

     Some Go Away Into Denominationalism: -- One of Satan's
most effective sermons is, "One church is just as good as
another."  Christ never said that, and He never taught it.
Jesus said, "I will build My church" (Matt. 16:18).  He purchas-
ed the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28).  On the day of
Pentecost (Acts 2), people were told, "Repent ye, and be bapt-
ized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the
remission of your sins" (vs. 38).  We then read: "They then
that received his word were baptized" (vs. 41).  And then:
"The Lord added to the church daily those that were being
saved" (vs. 47).  That was simple.  It still is.  Satan tries to
complicate it with unscriptural choices -- of ways to be saved
and "join the church of your choice."  But what the Lord re-
quired was simple: people heard the gospel preached, they
believed it and were baptized, the Lord Jesus then saved them and added them 
to His church.  Why would anyone go
away from that?

     Every denomination stands in competition with the church
that Jesus built.  His church is His body (Col. 1:18; Eph. 1:22,
23), and "There is one body" (Eph. 4:4).  That church is the
bride of Christ, married to Him: "For the husband is the head
of the wife, as Christ also is the Head of the church, being
Himself the Savior of the body...Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it...For this 
cause shall a man leave his father and mother, 
and cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
This mystery is great: but I speak in regard to Christ and of
the church" (Eph. 5:23,25,31,32).  How many wives does the Lord have, anyway? 
 He is married to His church, it is His
body, and "there is one body."  How could that be any more
clear?

     Jesus prayed that there would never be any denominat-
ions:  "Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that
believe on Me through their word; that they may all be one;
even as Thou, Father, are in Me, and I in Thee, that they also
my be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast
sent Me" (Jno. 17:20,21).  And when there was found a church with division 
(almost exactly like denominationalism
today), the Lord had Paul to write: "Now I beseech you, breth-
ren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all
speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among
you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and
in the same judgment...Is Christ divided?" (1 Cor. 1:10-13).
Many "go away from Christ" into denominations, because
they are convinced "one church is as good as another" or
"one savior is as good as another."  Denominations divide
believers, and such division is sin (1 Cor. 1:10-13; Eph. 4:1-6).

     All Go Away Into Hopelessness: -- When anyone "goes
away" from Christ, he goes into hopelessness.  For Christ is
our hope, our only hope (Col. 1:27).  In Heb. 10:26-31 is pict-
ured the state of one who turns away from Christ: "There re-
maineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful ex-
pectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire...hath trodden
under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the
covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and
hat done despite to the Spirit of grace...It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God."

     Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh 
unto the Father, but by Me" (Jno. 14:6), and the
apostle later said of Him: "And in none other is there salvat-
ion" (Acts 4:12).  To go away from Christ is to go away from
salvation and to go away from God.  There is no other means
of access to heaven.  Christ is it.

     Only in Christ, and in His blood, is there hope for us: "If
we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth
us from all sin" (1 Jno. 1:7).  The same apostle writes later,
"The witness is this , that God gave us eternal life, and this
life is in His Son...These things have I written unto you, that
you may know that you have eternal life" (1 Jno. 5:11,13).  To
go away from Christ is to go away from eternal life, for that life is "in His 
Son."

     Christ is still asking each one of us, "Would you also go
away?"  Our lives give our answer to that question.  How will
you answer that question?  Eternity awaits.   ---- Clem Thurman in Gospel 
Minutes, Vol. 56, No. 4, Jan. 26, 2007.

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