They Call It Heresy

"But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets" -Acts 24:14 [KJV] 

Just because one is called a heretic doesn’t mean they are one.  Men thought Paul’s doctrine was heresy and they said that made him a heretic. As a matter of fact, God’s people have been called heretics many, many times over the centuries by religionists of every kind. On one occasion, for their own gain, some men cried out in the midst of a crowd, “Naboth blasphemed God!”  It is easy to say such an awful thing and many are likely to believe it as they did concerning Naboth.  But Naboth was not a blasphemer. He was a believer and worshiper of the living God. He was faithful to the birthright given him as all believers are to the birthright of God’s free grace to them in the Lord Jesus Christ. He would not abandon his inheritance.


God’s elect have an inheritance revealed in the gospel and will not forsake what they have freely received in Christ for anything the world offers. Naboth was stoned by the mob and died, considered by them a heretic and blasphemer. He was neither but rather was one loved of God and the object of His grace and mercy. We do not know God’s purpose in allowing such wickedness to be cast upon him but it was. The Lord’s people may be called heretics or those who have “turned the world upside down” or those who create division but that does not mean that they are those things. They can rejoice that God looks at the heart and He knows them that are His. Failing Peter could rejoice that the Lord knew he loved Him. Thank God we are not what men say we are but we are what God has made us in His dear Son!

-preacher Gary Shepard

https://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=allsovgrace


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