It's Work

John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

Christians are made Holy only through the word of God. When reading books and other material, we should be analyzing it and matching it up with Gods’ word. A book outside the bible should be bringing more questions to the Christian and push us to the bible. Even when the book is teaching what the bible teaches we should be taking the concepts and looking for them in the scriptures, not simply taking them for granted because we feel like its right!

Books are a great resource for study and I recommend reading lots, but as Christians the bible should be our main resource. It is our source of life and the only thing that sanctifies us, making us more like Him. But if we are wrong in our knowledge about God, how can we expect to be like Him? We can’t! And because we can’t, God will hold us accountable for what we believe. If we take in wrong doctrine and lies we will be judged.

2 Tim 2:16-17 talks about scripture being everything we need for “life and godliness.” But we also need to take into account the verse before that 2 Tim 2:15. This verse says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” If we are diligent and test what we read and hear judging it based on what the bible teaches, we can become “workmen unashamed” of what we believe before God.

This is a heavy responsibility, but it is also magnificent that we get to know the King of kings. So, don’t just take things in because you hear it or read it. Remember that the heart is deceitful and full of wickedness (Jeremiah 17:9) and the devil is out to distort. Our only trust is on what scripture has to say. It is the only defense against error we have. We serve an amazing God and He wants us to know Him.

Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek Me and find {Me} when you search for Me with all your heart.”

The Fight for Truth!

Today many people, even so called "Christians" are promoting truth in a way that allows truth to vary. People are claiming truth to all kinds of things, but have no evidence for what they believe other than their own personal feelings about the matter at hand. Their feelings determine what is true. Even when they read scripture they read into the text based on what they previously believed, instead of letting the scripture speak for itself. What is the problem here? The problem is these people are not thinking rightly about God and His Word. They are letting their feelings determine truth. If they were thinking rightly then they would judge by the objective standards set in the Bible, not their own feelings. How then can we be sure not to judge by our feelings, but by Gods standard? If we will desire to think about God in the way He has revealed Himself then we would begin to look at what He communicates and then understand what truth is.

We definitely see this in our world, but sadly even within our congregations today. Many people have their own personal interpretation of the scriptures. They say that God is speaking to them in a personal way. These people do not understand that God had one intended purpose for writing scripture (2 Peter 1:20-21) and that means scripture only has one meaning, Not many!

The problem that has arisen has arisen because people put up with ungodly things in their life. They allow sin in their life based upon their wants and this begins to skew their view of God the Father & Jesus. Because people want to do there own thing and not fully give up everything, they become worldly. They become worldly because they allow a little bit of error or tolerance for evil for a long period of time and it blurs their vision of the truth. It makes these people centered on themselves and not God. Iain Murray says about worldliness, "Worldliness is departing from God. It is a man-centered way of thinking; it judges the importance of things by present and material results." This is correct. Thinking in a way that is all about me or you will blind us from the truth. Instead of thinking about ourselves and what we want, we need to think about God and find out what He wants. We do that by reading His Word and looking for what He wants. If we look to God we will always be pointed to Christ and His work for He accomplished on the cross for us, but if we don't look to Him, we will be worldly people not following God at all. Tim Challies says it this way,

“Where thinking rightly about God will always lead us to Jesus Christ, and to the cross, worldliness, a lack of discernment, will lead us to ourselves. It will judge the validity of teaching not by objective and unchanging standards of what scripture says to be true but by what is seen and understood here and now."

So how do we respond to this attitude in today’s culture? Paul addresses this issue and gives us direct instructions on how to deal with this type of attitude. He says in 2 timothy 4:1-3

"I solemnly charge {you} in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season {and} out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but {wanting} to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. "

So let us as Christians, followers of Jesus Christ take heed to this command by Paul to, "preach the word.” This task we must do as followers of Jesus. It may be hard but as Romans 8:18 says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." "Suffer hardship" and do the work that God has called us to. He is watching and will judge us according to what we do!

Watch this Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6TzAhPDmNw