Why Can’t We Teach The Lost Truth?

1 Timothy 6:3 “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;”

False teaching has always been around and we are not about to change it. As Christians and churches, we must focus on the Truth of the bible and not what other men are teaching. If we are going to fulfill our responsibility to God then we have more to do than counter false teachers or doctrine. We always need to remember that our Great Commission is to get the true unmolested gospel message out to every living soul. Our responsibility is to be the pillar and ground of Truth and not to allow ourselves from getting detoured by false teaching. God has warned those that teach false doctrine, “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ…He is proud, knowing nothing.” That is, he knows nothing of God’s word, because God’s word is Truth and anything less is not God’s word, it is not God’s teachings, and it is not God’s doctrine. We need to heed the same warning that the Apostle Paul issued to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:3 - 4 “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, (4) Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.” People that teach the bible can only teach it one of two ways, in Truth or as a lie, there are no in between. The Trueth glorifies God and the lie glorifies man and Satan. People that teach lies do so because they are not blessed by the Holy Spirit to have been taught the Truth. These people are bounded to the lies they teach because to them it is truth, it is just as much truth to them as the real Truth is to us. Jesus said to these people, “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.” John 8:43 They have no ability to hear Biblical Truth and any attempt to teach them just falls on deaf ears. Jesus went on to say “And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.” John 8:45 Why would they not believe Jesus, because what they heard was a lie to them, because they are spiritually discerned, or they cannot connect the dots of the bible to see the truth. The Truth of the bible goes against everything humanistic. Jesus told them, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” There is no truth in Satan and therefore there is no truth in any lost soul. Jesus said in verse 46b “… And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?” If they will not believe Jesus then why would they ever believe us? If Satan has these people blinded then only God can cause them to see, and we are certainly not God. God must “command” the light to shine from darkness to light or else they will never believe God. 2 Cor. 4:4. The word command means God must order by causing the light of His word to shine on them. We do not have that power, no power to save the lost, nor the power to change the mind of a lost soul to Truth. So, some may ask, why didn’t Jesus cause them to see the Truth, He answered that in John 8:47 “He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” They will never believe the Truth over their lie because Satan has them blinded, and only Jesus can make the glorious light or Truth shine in their hearts. Listen to Jesus in John 10:26 - 27 “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” But do not be discouraged, Jesus is not done with His earthly work until He returns for the rapture. But for us, much prayer if needed for those who do not hear.           

 

Should we be surprised at this world?

John 15:18 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”

What do Christian expect from this world, what do we want God to do when He told us, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” 2 Corinthians 4:4  The world has always hated God and because of that it will hate Christians and Jews alike. People will not hear God; they will not repent and come to Christ unless God draws them. “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…” John 6:44 One day they will all stand before Jesus for judgment, and He will say, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:23 The they will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity, “they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.” Rev. 20:13, 14. The world is doomed, Satan blinds them, and they hate godliness and God. This is what we are to expect, it is not getting better it is getting worse and worse. Wrath is on its way; Jesus is coming with flaming fire and vengeance. Let us focus on the Lord and not the world, we still have a work to do. We are to be faithful to God and continually walk in the scriptures, and this world should not change that. There was a time in the history of this world where they crucified Jesus because they hated Him, they crucified most of His Apostles because they were His. They martyred millions of Christians because they were His. This world is at enmity with God, they hate God and because they do, they also hate us. John 15:18 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” We should never be surprised that they hate us because God told us they would. 1 John3:13 “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.” It should not even surprise us if our own families hate us because Cain hated and killed his own brother because God loved Abel and not him. The power of Adams sin was more powerful than the world could have believed, it caused a great divide between God and man. God called it the world’s enmity toward Him. Christians throughout history have been hated and even murdered by the world because they are God’s. Just as Jesus was crucified because He was God’s Son. So, here we are in the 21^st Century the most advanced time of the world, and the world still hates God and every child of God. It will never change because for it to change God would have to save the entire world. Hate is in their soul, very deep in their souls and they cannot overcome it. But let us always remember what Jesus told us in Luke 6:22 “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.” God loves you and He chose to save you and He gave His own Son as our sacrificial Lamb to save us. We could be just like them and once was until God saved our souls. So, yes, we are blessed and their hate toward us should remind us how blessed we truly are. As God’s children we cannot hate them back, as hard as it is, God told us not to hate them back but to love them and pray for them. Matt. 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” Jesus prayed as He was about to give up the ghost on the cross, “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 Hate is in their souls; their human nature and heart tell them to hate God and every one connected to them. We need to pray for them and continually remember why they hate us so much, it is because God has saved us. It seems that as time moves closer to the coming of Jesus that the hate grows stronger and stronger. But God told us this time would come, we can see the hate oozing out of them as time moves toward Jesus’s return. But let it not surprise you because God said it would get worse and worse. Read at how much they hate God’s two witnesses in the Tribulation period because today they almost hate us just as much.  Revelation 11:7 - 10 “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.” Folks, this world is bad and it is only getting worse by the day, because their hearts are controlled by Satan and he hates us all with such a great hate. Come Lord Jesus, Come and take us home is our prayer.      

What is the true meaning by what Paul wrote?

1 Corinthians 15:10 “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Have you ever taken the time to understand what the Apostle Paul was truly saying in this verse? In this single passage of scripture, we can see the work of God in the human heart. What Paul just said about himself is so intense, and it includes all of us. Paul just wrote in verse 9 “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Paul was so hurt in his heart that he considered himself unworthy to serve God and especially as an Apostle, but by grace become the most profitable Apostle. Paul accomplished more in His 40 or so years in serving God than an other Apostle. I, as a sinner against God can understand what Paul is saying, I never persecuted the Lord’s church and I never seek to harm God’s children, but I was a once wild sinner, and have sinned even after God’s gracious act of saving my sinful soul. If there was a sinner that never deserved one ounce of God’s grace it was Saul of Tarsus. But I must look at my self in a mirror and ask, what made me any more deserving of God’s grace than Saul of Tarsus? I was just as much a sinner as Paul, as a lost soul I was at enmity with God as all lost people are, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God…”. Rom. 8:7a I was of a carnal mind before God saved me as were all Christians. This single verse tells us that all lost minds are hostile against God, so I must ask, what makes us better or any different than Saul of Tarsus? When we were lost would we have persecuted the Lord’s church and Christians if we were in Sauls shoes? God said in order to save us, (all of us that are saved) God had to destroy the enmity that was in our hearts, “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity…” Eph 2:15a. God was speaking about all lost souls when He said “…There is none righteous, no, not one:” Rom 3:10.b Paul went as far to write in Rom. 7:18a “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing…” Paul was speaking this as a Christian and Apostle, this is why God said in Rom. 12:3a “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think…” Now that we see ourselves in these scriptures we can see that we were never no better than Paul, not a single Christian can say they were ever worthy of God’s grace. So, now we must see what Paul means when he said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am…? However, Paul said something really strong in the next part, “and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all…” Is it possible for God’s grace to be used in vain? When God gives an unworthy soul His grace it is not to be neglected by the receptions of His grace. When God gives us grace we are to use that grace to glorify and accomplish fruits for God. We are responsible to God for His gift of grace and to Jesus Christ for His works of love and grace that allowed God to “abolish” the enmity in our hearts toward Him. But some Christians rarely use their God given grace to bring glory to God. But the truth is, if God did not continue having more grace on us we would all waste His grace, Paul went on to say, “…but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” God’s grace on me is the reason I never wasted it Paul said. Christian, we must never fail to see the extent of God’s grace in our life and if we do then we will “waste God’s grace”. The Apostle Paul informed in this scripture that anything good he done as a Christian was only accomplished because of God’s grace. The bottom line here is, not one single Christian has ever accomplished anything good for God without God’s grace in it, “…through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think…”. Listen to what God said in 1 Cor. 8:6 “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” If we ever take one single ounce of credit for anything that brings glory to God, then we have wasted God’s grace, because we are taking credit for God’s work of grace in us. The Apostle Paul never did that, “…but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” If we can say that same thing then we are living within God’s grace, God is getting all glory because it is His! Our entire Christian life accomplishments are to God’s glory because we accomplished them only by His grace. Beloved, let’s all look at our life and praise God for His grace!