God has spoken

(2Timothy 3:7) “Always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” – There are other voices that oppose what has been written and we must avoid them at all costs, because those who follow that train of thought will never come to the knowledge of the truth.

“In one sense we must all be ever learning, that is, growing in knowledge, following on to know the Lord, pressing forward; but these were sceptics, giddy and unstable, who were forward to imbibe every new notion, under pretence of advancement in knowledge, but never came to a right understanding of the truth as it is in Jesus. He foretels the certain stop that should be put to their progress.” (Matthew Henry)

Always learning and never coming to the understanding of what is being taught is a possibility if we are dull of hearing. And yet the flip side of that is the opposite, which is learning our lessons well. Those who oppose the Word of God, or look to modify it are guilty and those who by the grace of God resolve to make the Word of God their own will eventually produce the good fruit spoken of by our Lord. However we must be cautious of the opposing voices even within our circles; “scripture and verse” needs to be quoted on a regular basis and those who fail to do so are the ones that need to be watched ever the more closely. It was Jannes and Jambres who opposed Moses; Moses received His instructions directly from God. We have the voice of God penned for us throughout scripture and that is what must take pre-eminence in our lives. If and when we learn this lesson well our lives will begin to bud in accordance with the goodness of God bringing about change to them as we begin to bear fruit worthy of repentance. The opposite is true for the gainsayer and the apostate who will and must also be amongst the churches of today; men and women who oppose the truth, with their corrupt minds leading those of a similar mind-set to follow suite.

“You shall know a tree by its fruit”.  

It will be plain to see if they qualify as preachers of the truth. In order to feed our HOPE with the correct information we must hang onto sound doctrine as the key of our HOPE IN CHRIST. It’s when we veer away from the sound teachings of the Bible that the information fed could mislead someone into false hope. An obvious error would be; the Hindu’s teach re-incarnation but that type of message could never be gleaned from the bible. That error would be far too obvious. However a twist on scripture taken out of context for personal gain is the case in point; a refusal of dying to self at the expense of whatever that engulfs is a great indicator that something is amiss. Looking to elevate oneself with costly clothing and the like is the lure from the devil himself. Can you recall the first trap that Satan looked to tempt the man Jesus with after he had been fasting for 40 days and nights? He uses his hunger with a crafty twist on using the same temptation to get him to prove his authenticity as the Son of God as he tried to bait him into his deceitful web of sin; “And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."” (Matthew 4:3) – The man Jesus answered; “But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"” (Matthew 4:4) – I trust we all understand how essential our “hope” needs to be based upon the Word of God, even if we do not fully understand what is being taught. When the Word teaches us its truth and the Holy Spirit reveals a certain sin to us we must heed His counsel and repentance must and will follow. The longer we procrastinate the harder the fall. We need the Word of God to help us feed that which is eternal in spite of the lures which pull us in the opposite direction with the “shouts” of the here and now taking priority. If and when it does, there is a good chance the Word of God has taken a back seat. We must examine our hearts, if we pursue something of material value and we are motivated by its reward to the exclusion of sound doctrine, we have erred and been lead astray. We have been enticed into the deceitful web of Satan’s cunning plots; sex outside of marriage another obvious ruse. There are many other poisonous fruits that we must learn to avoid at all costs and the Word of God will steer us away from them, whereas our flesh if left to run riot will be drawn to them, which are easily identified; “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

I am not sure how many Christians haven’t been mislead by some of these things somewhere along their journeys; I know I have fallen privy to some of those traps. But there must come a time in all of our lives where we understand the error of our ways and seek out God’s forgiveness as we turn from them in and through repentance towards our God and Father's counsel, leaving behind the sin that so easily besets. This is the fruit we need to depend upon for our survival; we must cling to the finished work of the cross. Our lifestyles must bear fruits worthy of repentance, if we are to finish well. There will always be the voice in our heads that cries, “but”. However we must strive by the grace of God to silence that nagging impostor.

It is God who speaks and we must listen if we are to be favoured by His instruction. God speaks and the whole of creation abides by His commands. The seas stay where they are instructed to end without walls; they are bound by the words of God, “so far and no further”. It is only the rebellious heart of man that believes he knows better. Fools who look to supersede the voice of God are laughed at by Jehovah; the day of reckoning will soon be upon us all.

The reason I highlight this observation is that the Apostle Paul understood the need to pen what he did back then, all of his writing’s, as hard as some of them may be to receive, they always came with this intention attached; “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (2Timothy 3:16-17)

Good works will always be founded upon the Word of God with all sorts of bad fruit resulting from neglect to heed its counsel. When we find a resistance to it, it is a tell sign that we are being led down the road of carnality; we walk in the flesh and not the Spirit and of this I am persuaded.

We must all resolve to apply what is taught by our great God and King as the most import facets to our lives. I do reiterate that some things taught may be hard to receive but when we depend upon it as gospel it will change us from the inside out, praise, honour and glory be to the King of kings now and forever more, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone