“Replacement Theology”
Scripture: Romans 1:23-26?
Premise: We live in a world of less and less absolutes, where Christ is rejected
and hated more openly than ever before. We are surrounded by idolatry and every
temptation known to men – accessible and viewable 24x7x365 and increasingly
socially acceptable. Godlessness is flaunted and encouraged, and more and more the
name of Jesus is supressed along with the truth. We see replacement of heavenly
treasure with earthly treasures, Christ with X for Christmas, God’s making of man
and woman in His image with our own image of identity, and on and on. We would
be foolish to think it doesn’t touch “us” as followers of Jesus. Have we replaced His
ways with our ways?
Practical Examples: Let’s discuss 3 ways that we may be challenged in
replacing God with something else as we gather in fellowship. (There are many
more I’m sure)
1. Trust: God or men. We are to trust in the Lord only and so we should teach,
instruct, encourage others to trust in the Lord! We should be trustworthy
yes, but being careful not to put our trust in men or things made by men. Prv
3:5
2. Teacher: God or men. We are all called to teach (teach our children, teach as
elders, gift of teaching), but the Teacher is Jesus/Holy Spirit. Let us not
replace the superior with the inferior. 1 Cor 12:28, John 14:26, 1 John 2:2627
3. Accountability: to God or to man. Submitting one to another, preferring one
another, reminding, rebuking, encouraging each other in their accountability
to God is what we are to do. 2 Tim 3:16, 2 Samuel 12:13, Eph 5:21
Powerful Admonishment: Romans 1:18-32. As we replace God with
something earthly, we open ourselves to the same things: lust of our hearts,
impurity, dishonoring our bodies, and eventually homosexuality.
Please some Encouragement: We can renew our minds, set them on Christ,
we are not bound to sin. If we desire to be changed, we need to deny our way, take
up our cross daily and follow Jesus. Luke 9:23-35
Post Meeting Evaluation:

In what way can we correct our thinking, replace our faulty
thinking/theology so that we function in the surpassing glory of Kingdom
ways rather than be hindered in the flesh in these 3 areas above?
“Replacement Theology”
Scripture: Romans 1:23-26?
Premise: We live in a world of less and less absolutes, where Christ is rejected
and hated more openly than ever before. We are surrounded by idolatry and every
temptation known to men – accessible and viewable 24x7x365 and sometimes
socially acceptable. Godlessness is flaunted and encouraged, and more and more the
name of Jesus is supressed along with the truth. We see replacement of heavenly
treasure with earthly treasures, Christ with X for Christmas, God’s making of man
and woman in His image with our own image of identity, and on and on. We would
be foolish to think it doesn’t touch “us” as followers of Jesus. Have we replaced His
ways with our ways?
As we talked about fellowship last month, there are some things that we desire to
keep in mind as we get together as a body of men in the church, as we teach, and as
we minister to each other. Let’s be aware as a group of men to be aware of how the
enemy would like to divide us from the truth. He would like to replace God’s ways,
His laws, His love with something far less. He has been doing this from the very
beginning, starting in the garden of Eden where he convinced Adam and Eve to
replace what God said about the tree in the garden with something that sounded
more appealing. His wants to do the same things with us today.
I was at a funeral last week for my grandmother. She died a few weeks shy of 100
and was catholic through and through, so the funeral was conducted as a catholic
mass. I think there are some obvious examples in the catholic traditions of replacing
the truth of scripture with traditions of men. Infant baptism, praying to Mary,
exalting Mary in worship, sprinkling with Holy water, etc. These are done with full
biblical backing by believing Catholics, so we need to be aware of merely using
scripture to back our beliefs as often we have different interpretations of scripture
that lead to different denominations and denies the desire of Jesus that his followers
be as one like He and the Father are one.
Practical Examples: Let’s discuss 3 ways that we may be challenged
in replacing God with something else as we gather in fellowship. (There
are many more I’m sure). My intent here is to challenge our thinking a
bit. It’s a little nit picky and somewhat a discussion of semantics, but I
believe there is a core issue that we need to be aware of as followers of
Jesus Christ.
4. The Holy Spirit vs the Holy Bible? What? Teaching is to be primarily and
will be best from the Holy Spirit. We are all called to teach (teach our
children, teach as elders, gift of teaching), but the Teacher is Jesus/Holy
Spirit. Let us not replace the superior with the inferior. The enemy would
love for us to not experience the fullness of the scriptures as it speaks of
Jesus and the words of Jesus are living and active. For me, it is easier to rely
largely on the intellectual understanding of scripture. For my study, I find
that is is all too easy to use context, hermeneutics, concordances,
commentaries, biblical dictionaries, books written on the Bible, teachings of
others as my primary research resources. We desire as part of men’s
ministry at Crossroads to focus on opening the scriptures, teaching each
other among many other things, but we want you to realize that we are
obeying what we have felt led to do. The Teacher is really the Holy Spirit –
as we each listen to teaching, anything that is true is from the Holy Spirit
and we don’t want to replace the job of the Holy Spirit to be your/our
teacher. Personally, I find it very challenging to quiet myself, open the
Scriptures and be taught by the Holy Spirit directly, but as I have found
great blessing and my eyes opened to things when I have been able to do so.
My flesh naturally tends towards “human” teaching as it is more tangible.
Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with doing good exhausting study
and checking out all the tools mentioned previously, but I suggest that we
have more to gain if we look to the author rather than our own
understandings as we look to chew on the meat of scripture. Jason, this
sounds like arguments over semantics. Can’t the Holy Spirit use each of
these other things to teach us. For sure, but if we aren’t actively laying aside
our flesh, we can get caught up in intellectualism rather than intimacy with
author of the Living Word. 2 Tim 3:16. All scripture is breathed out by God
and is useful to teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
So we are to teach and be useful that way, but if I was to ask if you wanted
me to teach the scriptures or the Holy Spirit, you would of course answer the
Holy Spirit. You don’t really want me to be your teacher! I don’t know
much! The key is - do we practice letting the Holy Spirit teach us – what
does that look like?
5. Trust others or Trust God? We are to trust in the Lord only and so we should
teach, instruct, encourage others to trust in the Lord! We should be
trustworthy yes, but not ask to be trusted. I don’t think this is the most
important one, but I see it a lot at work in the business world, I see it get
talked about a lot if relationship discussions. We like to build trust with each
other. We want our spouses to trust us. Those are good things – but when it
comes time to place our trust, we should not place it in each other – only the
Lord. David decided to put a little too much trust in his army and the
number of the people and he was corrected for it. Psalm 20:7 says that some
put their trust in horses and chariots, but we trust the name of the Lord.
Jeremiah 17:7 says “blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is
the Lord”. Why? I believe misplaced trust will inevitably lead to a breach in
trust, disappointment, and lack of meeting expectations. The idea is that our
trust is so much more well placed in the Lord because then He gets to be in
the position He deserves – meeting all our needs, worthy of our worship,
protecting us perfectly. Let’s not take God off the throne and put our trust
anywhere else.
6. Accountability to God or accountability to men? Accountability to each
other is not something that we see in scripture. Submitting one to another,
preferring one another, reminding, rebuking, encouraging each other in their
accountability to God is. 2 Samuel 12:13. This is one that I wanted to spend
the entire teaching talking about originally. As I prepared for this, I believe
this wraps into a larger issue. Idolatry. We might have an easy time spotting
idolatry in today’s culture by looking at materialism, the emphasis we put on
our bodies and how fit they are, and all of our status symbols, but I suggest
to you the 3 areas we are discussing tonight as well as many others that we
don’t have time for, are really just idol worship. Anytime we exchange the
glory of the immortal God for anything else, it is idolatry. I thought Romans
1:23 was talking about images of man, birds, and animals, and creeping
things – so physical statues of false gods. Yes, that is included, but in our
hearts we do the same things. God says trust me and we write/read books
about how we can better build trust with each other. Or, we might encourage
others to just trust us when they might have issue with something we are
doing because we are in control, or whatever the thing might be. God alone
deserves and commands our trust. He is fully trustworthy! So, what is this
accountability thing then. If we are accountable to each other as we often
talk about in relation to purity, or pride, or being good husbands and fathers
and all that, then I am likely not going to work all that hard, because I know
that you likely struggle in the same way and will not hold me to a higher
standard because you are not perfect! We might correct each other, and we
might even get worked up about a failed accountability interaction, but at
the end of the day, we are not a good replacement for a perfectly Holy God
who hates sin and wants us to be holy as He is holy! So, what are we to do
instead. We are to teach, correct, train, and rebuke as we already talked
about. We are to point others to be accountable to God. We are to encourage
and help others uphold, revere, respect, and fear God’s ways. As we do this
Powerful Admonishment: Romans 1:18-32. As we replace God with
something earthly, we open ourselves to the same things: lust of our hearts,
impurity, dishonoring our bodies, and eventually homosexuality.
Please some Encouragement: We can renew our minds, set them on Christ,
we are not bound to sin. Our flesh may desire, but our spirit and soul can agree to
stand against the flesh.
The God-man who set aside (replaced) his position, power, and authority to become
a servant and die for me on the cross, paying the penalty for all of my sins,
exchanging payment with his life instead of mine - He has been exalted and as I
pray, as I get together with my brothers, as I have fellowship with Him, He is able
to replace my incorrect thinking, my poor theology, my misleading with His
perfection.
Jesus' appearance was altered (temporarily replaced) and Peter, James, and John got
to witness that right after the teaching of Luke 9:23-27 (deny themselves and take
up their cross daily and then follow Jesus) and then going with Jesus up to the
mountain to pray
Post Meeting Evaluation:

In what way can we correct our thinking, replace our faulty
thinking/theology so that we function in the surpassing glory of Kingdom
ways rather than be hindered in the flesh in these 3 areas above?
“Replacement Theology”
(Teaching notes)
Romans 1:18-32. Replacing God with ...
What ways might we do the same thing?
1) Trust. God or Man. Prov 3:5
2) Teaching. Holy Bible vs Holy Spirit
a) 1 Cor 12:28 (teaching is one of the appointed positions in the church)
b) John 14:26 “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, He will teach you all things ...”
c) 1 John 2:26-27 “But the annointing that you received from him abides in you, and
you have no need that anyone teach you”
3) Accountability. 2 Tim 3:16 (All scripture is ...)
a) Romans 3:19. The law was given to hold the whole world accountable to God
b) 2 Samuel 12:13 (David and Nathan)
c) Eph 5:21 (submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ)
o Society tries to enlist the government to hold criminals accountable. Societies rules
are prone to change. We don’t see people being held accountable to God with a
proper fear of God
o Did you hear about the three pastors who met in an accountability group? One day
they told one another their greatest hidden sins. The first said, “Don’t tell my
congregation, but I’m an alcoholic.” The next confessed, “If my people knew I’m a
compulsive gambler, they would fire me.” The third said, “I hate to admit it, but I’m
addicted to gossip, and I can’t wait to get out of here!”
There are lots of ways that we exchange God’s best for things and thinking made in our image.
Why is this important?
Romans 1:24-32. Does any of that stick to us?
How do we replace our ways with His ways?
 Luke 9:23-32.
o Jesus taught about denying self and taking up cross daily and following him
o Shortly after that – Peter, James, and John followed Jesus to go pray – then Jesus was
trasfigured.
o Jesus was willing to have his will replaced with His Father’s by dying
o When the disciples followed Jesus up to the mountain to pray – Jesus’s appearance
was replaced – altered
o If we want to be altered and have our ideas and thinking replaced with the Father’s
ways, then we need to pray, and visit the altar daily, and follow Jesus
o Jesus exchanged the penalty of sin laid on me for life in Him because of His death
 Psalm 119:9 How shall a young man keep his way pure – guard it according to the word