Art Azurdia

We all seem to in our age, or many of us, to learn more doctrine and theology, than we are able to practice; and what is the use of that? Christianity should be practical, but it is not the case often times. I have known folks in the past, who were so rigid in matter of the law, and so careless towards others in their afflictions, and the favourite battle cry or mentality among the group was “God is all you need,” that when one of them fell into pretty common type of affliction, God wasn’t enough, nor the manifold blessings they also had, but they also needed anti-depressants too! They had all the right doctrine and spiel, but very weak faith when it came to practicing it themself. We are very good at dishing out, what we are utterly unable to practice ourselves, and the most rigid or unloving often comes from those who seem to exalt the law above the gospel and have extra Biblical rules that many others who would group themselves loosely with what they claim to be, yet they go further than Scripture, and what does the Bible say about that, that the law without love, is nothing but a clashing cymbal. As I have said for a long time, doctrine maketh no man, though it may feed our pride, and give us some sense of superiority or exclusivity, and at times, when you meet Christians who you would expect many what would be technically termed children who would be more learned on matters of Scripture yet you get these Christians who just don’t grow and to not do so, is an unbiblical view of true Christianity. WE may grow at different rates, and there will always be weak Christians, but a Christian who remains unlearned in the ways of God, there is something very amiss, IMO. So you get the two extremes. And it seems to me in either extreme, the legalistic pharisees, or the antinomians the cross or the Gospel is what is being neglected.
Doctrine is important of course, as if we hold to some things we will hold to damnable heresy. But we must not build our knoweldge without it entering into our hearts and changing us and pervading the whole man, and not just stay as some lofty, theoretical idea, that when we meet adversity, God will not be enough, no matter how much we have preached that, but we need worldly, unbiblical props also.
We need to get our eyes back on the cross.

When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
– Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

I have recently come across a Gospel centred Reformed preacher online, and the Gospel is where we all need to be, and by t that I am not dismissing or negating the value of the law, only that each much have its place and one not be exalted at the cost of the other. If we do not have Christ, we have nothing.

Spirit Empowered Preaching by Art Azurdia who in his sermon called Fix your eyes on the Cross says:

“Fix your eyes on the Cross, and never get beyond it”

It seems that should be something, many of us ought to practice more.