The Word of Truth Ministries
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Prove All Things; Hold Fast to
That Which
is Good
(1Thes. 5:21) ______________ |
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[3,300
words] |
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Many years ago, I was saved in a very fundamentalist church that declared that they had the whole truth of God's word, but as I grew in understanding of God's word, I saw ideas and philosophies that were unclear, poorly reasoned, and just wrong; so I questioned and even challenged some by those ideas and teachings with the word and with common sense. That action brought about hostility toward me, and there was heat but no light from those whom I challenged. It was as if I was not to ask questions or challenge notions I thought were unclear and/or wrong, in spite of God's word to the contrary. [1Thes. 5:21] My questions and challenges were prompted by a desire to get a clear understanding about certain truths when I thought there was a failure to prove statements given. I saw that that church’s declaration that “We have the whole truth.” was not a declaration that conformed to truth, but sometimes to it conformed to hypocrisy. The great Apostle Paul wrote that there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, whose mouths must be stopped; for they subvert whole houses, teaching things they should not teach, and are paid for their lies. [Titus 1:10] Yet Peter says that the minister of God should not teach for filthy lucre, but willingly and of a ready mind, and not lord over God’s heritage. [1 Pet. 5:2] If the scripture says that we should give the more earnest heed to the things that we have heard, lest we let something slip, [Heb. 2:1] the very idea that we hear and sincerely pay attention to the word of God must then suggest that we get an understanding of the word. This is the way of the serious student who is desirous of learning all that is taught. Letting a notion slip here and there, we will find that we have missed important teachings and truths of God; then we can never really prove all things. To prove all things we must be willing to carefully pay attention to every word that comes from God's mouth. But many Christians study God's word and give heed to what God says much like many insincere high school students--half-heartedly and assume that such half-hearted study is college-level quality. Such students must be brought to a rude awakening! Before a Christian can prove all things, he must hear God’s word correctly and unabridged; after that he can go to the higher task of proving it. Far too many ministers and Christians are still babes in the word after many years of being saved or being a Christian. That is not normal saintly behavior. These types of Christians cannot prove God's word; they must first be awakened to the fact that they are still babes and that they are far behind and not comprehending with God's household of faith. [Eph. 3:18; Heb.5] For them to measure them by themselves and compare themselves among themselves, that is a behavior that is not wise because their pool of saints is tainted and not wide enough. They must comprehend with all of God's true saints! They must compare themselves by the word of God. [2 Cor. 10:12] A Christian who uses the milk of the word* is still a babe and is unskillful in the word of righteousness—he does not know how to understand or teach God’s word. He needs someone to teach him. If he is unskillful in the word, he is a babe in his Christian life and walk. There is a serious problem with being a babe after many years of supposedly walking with Christ: that person is spiritually retarded (slowed in his spiritual development) and therefore defective, not normal and not comprehending with all the saints. [Eph. 3:18] That person cannot be used of God as God wants to use him/her. The more perfect we are the more perfectly God can use us to do his will. We are admonished to stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the "good way," and walk in it, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Yet the people said, we will not walk therein. [Jer. 6:16] To distinguish between the various ways in order to find the good way requires and suggests effort and precision of understanding God’s word. One cannot and should not allow himself to accept just anything that is taught. Jesus said that we should "seek" in order to find—this is to put forth godly effort. [Mat. 7:7] The way of Christ may not be easily found; that is why Jude tells us to not merely contend for the faith, but to exert more intensity and effort: earnestly contend, struggle, wrestle, strive for that faith that was once delivered to the saints. The things of Christ are precious treasures to be valued. Already wicked men, inspired by Satan, have sought to take them away from the saints through various means of deception, trickery, and sleight of hand misinterpretations. A careful study of God’s word means that you are to earnestly/sincerely contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints, but has since been lost while many men slept on their jobs of being truth preachers—but while men slept, the enemy has sown tares. [Matt. 13:25] And since men have slept, the "good way" of God has almost been obscured and lost. Yet God knew and sent his prophets prophesying about this loss and the method of its recovery. Without diligently contending for the faith, there will never be the recovery of this "good way" that has been brushed aside for the Christian fades of modernity. That is what Jeremiah saw when he said to stand in the ways and see. There are many ways, but there is only one "good way," that was once delivered to the saints. In order to get it so you can walk in it, you must contend for it. Satan is not going to readily allow you to find God's true way; he knows it is a dangerous way to find and walk in--that way has power and the hand of God moving actively and definitely in undeniable ways; one need not doubt whether God exists or answers prayer; one need not imagine God is speaking to him or whether what he hears is his own mind. The way of God is the real way where the written word of God becomes the living word of God. Brothers, sisters, and friends, do not allow Satan or any of his ministers to dismiss the reality of God from blooming in your life. Jesus Christ is indeed the same yesterday, today, and forever more; as he was actively with and working through the apostles and saints in the early church he will be with and work through us today. Surely, today we need him more actively in our lives than at any other time of this church age. Know that Satan's war is against the saints, and we are to fight against him and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. We wrestle against principles, principalities, and powers; against the rulers of the darkness of this world. [Eph. 6:12] And since it is Satan we fight against, he will raise every bogus argument and lie to trap and trick us away from the way of God. He knows that the true word of God, rightly interpreted, is powerful, it is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing, even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, joint and marrow; it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The true and alive word of God will make all creatures, including him, open and naked to us by God’s word. And he certainly does not want that to happen, so he has various ways of deception and ministers of deception to blind and spiritually neuter God's people with some false sense of sophistication. That is why saints are admonished to prove all things.. [Heb. 4:12] Satan’s ministers are crafty, but the truth is still all-powerful, and you can find the truth because God has his ministers of truth crying in this wilderness of sin, saying this is the way of holiness—walk ye in it; this is the way of God and you should prove all that I am saying or anyone else is saying by the unadorned and unfettered word of God. I have no trickery, just the raw, naked word of God rightly and carefully interpreted. You may not like what I am saying, but that is because that is the way of enlightenment.** Do not allow friendships and family ties to cloud the issue of the raw, naked truth of God. Is the truth being told; is the minister rightly interpreting and teaching God’s word? These are the questions that should be asked. I have had many contend with me and become angered at the truth because God’s word differs from that of a relative minister or their beloved pastor. You cannot allow those types of entanglements to stop you from being saved and going on unto perfection. You must save yourself! On this one thing, God allows for selfishness--save yourself from this untoward/wicked generation! [Acts 2:40] To do that you must prove all things that a minister is saying today because evil men and seducers have gotten worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. [2 Tim. 3:13] And with that knowledge, we are to be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves. Christ is coming back for a church without spot, blemish, wrinkle or any such thing, but one that is holy. [Eph. 5:27] He is not coming back for defective children or a sick church. He has given us the wherewithal to be as he wants us to be—perfect. If we do not measure up to his standard, it is our fault; we have allowed men to deceive us, and we have deceived ourselves into believing lies about the most important thing in this life and the after life, when we could have gotten the truth of God! There is an old song that reads something like this: “Time, old time, time is winding up; destruction is in the land, and God is showing his hand; time is winding up.” We don’t seem to care for the old songs of Zion anymore, even as we do not seem to care for the old things of God. But time is winding up, and as we see Hurricanes in this land, we know that God is showing his hand. And He will show it even more in the coming years. But He has given us time down here to make ourselves ready to meet him up there. And we have been given the wherewithal down here to properly prepare ourselves for inclusion in his church. Christ is our sufficiency to move away from infancy to adulthood in him—that we may grow into him, Paul says. We need to prove what a minister, this minister as well, is saying and that he is rightly dividing the word of truth so we will no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive. [Eph. 4:14-15] We are told to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but many will not leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ and grow in grace through knowledge of Jesus Christ. That will be upon their own heads. Sadly, however, many are living for today and this present world as if that eternal tomorrow will never come. But the way we live today will determine if we will live tomorrow. My dear brothers and sisters, I reckon like Paul that the life down here is not worthy to be compared with that life to come. Only a fool would squander that life to come for the few and futile years of vanity down here! Only a fool; a wise person would strive to know and do all of God's truth while he/she has a chance. But when one dies, the scripture says this: "He that is holy, let him be holy still; he that is filthy, let him be filthy still..." Once one dies, his fate is cast and cannot be changed. I am sorry but there is no purgatory!*** That is one of the many concoctions that go contrary to God's word and reality; this life on this earth is the only purgatory you will ever see. [2Pet. 3:18] Common sense tells us that no one can keep going around the same mountain and progress toward another destination. And that is what many Christian people are trying to do, as they stay only at the principles of the doctrine of Christ--repentance, baptism, the spirit, and going to church when called upon by schedules of regularity. Do understand, I am not saying there is anything wrong with much of this behavior, unless this is all that you are doing! And, for many, that’s all they are doing; they are babes and after many years in that static position they are retarded in their development! Too many so-called Christians are more concerned about pleasing a pastor and comporting themselves with his desires and his church’s traditions than they are about comporting themselves to the word of God. These are non-thinking Christians in darkness who would have a pastor or a minister think for them. God will not allow that; you are to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and prove all things and hold fast to that which is good! [Phil. 2:12; 1Thes. 5:21] Each person must give earnest heed to what he hears of the word or else he will find himself missing some/much of the good word of God. And when you don't have all of God's word, you cannot analyze it (prove it) and therefore you can be easily deceived and misled. God demands that we prove all things and hold fast to that which is good; without proving all things we cannot do as Jeremiah says, "Ask for the good way." And if you cannot see/discover the good way, you can never walk in it. But to see it, you must contend with the world, the flesh, and the devil that obscure the truth of God. A failure to contend for the faith is the condition of many Christians—those who used to say “We have the whole truth” and the many who never claimed such height. Yet the truth, the whole truth, is the goal of each disciple of Christ. For Jesus said that such a goal can be reached if we continue in his word and become his disciple indeed; then you will know the truth and that truth will MAKE you free! [John 8:30-32] A fact of this spiritual life with Christ is this, not everyone who says he or she is saved is saved, and not everyone who is saved has an understanding of God's word that can lead him to glory through correct and mature teaching that one must grow from a babe into him/Christ. Second, not everyone can teach how to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And not everyone who says he/she is saved and a minister of God will teach, or even know to teach, that you must grow in grace and knowledge so that you grow INTO him, which is perfection that is demanded of each Christian while on this earth. Dear saints of God, just because a person declares himself to be saved does not make him saved; because one declares he has the truth does not mean he/she, in fact, has that truth; because a person calls himself a minister of God, it does not mean that he is; and just because a person was God's minister some time ago, it does not mean that he is a true minister of God today. The Bible says prove all things and hold fast to that which is good. That was good advice and admonition when Paul gave it and it is good today. Demand an understanding of God's word that makes sense. John the Beloved, as he is called, wrote that there are many antichrists already in the world. As a result, many who profess Christ actually hate the truth of God and restrict their minds from learning greater truths than they presently have. These are diseased children that Jesus is not returning to find. These are they to whom he shall say, “I never knew you.” These merely profess truth and holiness for any number of reasons--to take away their reproach, [Isa. 4:1] because they are deceived and do deceive others, [2 Tim. 3:13] because they are given over to the lie as a modus operandi for their behavior now that God has sent them a strong delusion, [2 Thes. 2:11] because they are vain and unruly talkers, [Titus 1:10] or any number of other reasons. These professing but not possessing Christians are usually not governed by God's word, but are eager to put forth their ideas on God's word or put forth their words as things holy. Yet they are contrary to sound reasoning and correct interpretations of God's word. Many would have you think that God's word is so unclear that there is no one, solid truth of God that can be established by it. They are wrong. And these types of thinkers should be challenged so that clarity may be brought into being. For God has said we are to prove all things and hold on to the good. When we do so, God will accord us the same accolades of nobility the Church of Berea received, as they received the word of God with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was so. [Acts 17:11] Let no one therefore discourage you from asking questions and demanding real answers. Your eternal salvation is too important to leave to a minister who may or may not be correctly interpreting God's word--Prove all things with meaningful questions. You will improve your minister because he will have to study to be able to deal with your meaningful questions, and as he has to be more thorough in his study, he will learn more, as God deals with him more. So prove all things and help your minister grow or see the truth and secure your soul. __________ **Plato's "Allegory of The Cave" is an example of how one feels when coming to truth. The cave dweller thought the shadows he and other cave dwellers saw were in fact real images, but when one was freed from his chains of ignorance and released to go up into the light, that light hurt his eyes until he adjusted and was able to bear it. That is the experience of many who read the truth I write in this ministry week after week. ***A special place where those who are not good enough to go to heaven but not bad enough to go to hell go instead to purgatory to be purified and then sent on to heaven. This is a Roman Catholic doctrine employed to raise money to build St. Peter's Basilica in Rome many years ago. It is one on many such concoctions that were introduced into the church contrary to God word.
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by The Truth of God