THE PURPOSE OF THE LIVING AND POWERFUL WORD OF GOD
Aug 29, 2018 10:15:05 GMT -5
John and frienduff like this
Post by tlsitd on Aug 29, 2018 10:15:05 GMT -5
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12,13 ESV)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him to whom we have to do. (KJV)
That same word by which the prophets of old spoke, and of which Jesus Christ Himself is the incarnation---the word of truth that proceeds from the mouth of God---all-knowing, all-seeing, all-judging---is also contained in the written word of God. That word is a living word, by the Spirit of its Author. It judges the thoughts and motives of the heart when those who have the Spirit in them read it, and even the thoughts and motives of the hearts of those who know Him not when the same word of truth is preached.
That is its purpose---to reveal the thoughts of hearts and to convict the same; not for God's sake (since He know all things), but for man's, so that he may know where he stands with God, and may see himself as God sees him according to the truth of His word; because man does not know himself, and if we were to live before God according to the judgments of our own naturally deceitful and desperately wicked hearts, we would not please Him. (This is obviously the case with the majority of mankind, who wrongly believe that they are good people in God's sight and are pleasing God by their works and ways, however they have been led to believe it. But it is also true for Christians.)
In order to live before God and for God in a way that pleases Him, we must do so according to the truth of His written word, and the judgments of the Spirit of truth who works with and leads according (never contrary) to the same truth, convicting us of righteousness and of sin and of the will of God for us---not according to our own judgments and standard, or someone else's, but according to God's. (This, of course, requires that the Spirit of Jesus Christ be in the person first. I am not addressing the spiritually dead in this post.)
(Any of you who may be nodding your heads in agreement at this point should carefully and seriously re-read that last paragraph, because it is a rule of truth without exceptions. Do you really believe this, or do your actions prove otherwise? Let's be careful not to say that we believe one thing and live another, deceiving ourselves. Agreement in our heads isn't going to do us much good if our faith practice doesn't agree with the truth we claim to believe---either now, or on the Day of Judgment. Rather, that truth which we knew and said we believed but did not live by now condemns and will condemn us, resulting in the loss of eternal rewards at least. And again, I am addressing the spiritually regenerate, not people who claim to know Jesus and do not.)
No Christian should run from the conviction of the word of God. (I do not say that no Christian will, because many do, even if they don't admit the fact to themselves---but that no Christian should do this.) Conviction, together with instruction, is the purpose of Scripture---conviction of and instruction in what is right in God's sight and pleasing to Him and also what is not. By that word, we are sanctified, IF we choose to submit to the convictions of it, obeying its instructions, and to direct our ways accordingly---our attitudes, our behaviors and practices, our motives. We can choose not to do this; but we are still being judged, and are going to be judged, according to the truth and instructions of that word, and not by our own judgments of ourselves or the judgments or teachings of other people.
Do not try to avoid conviction when you read the Bible. Conviction is necessary. It brings us closer to God as we apply His truth to our ways, helping us to be more like Him in our thinking, our seeing, and our doing. Reading the Bible to make yourself feel good about what you are doing or want to do, or to reinforce how good a Christian you think you are, is a foolish and deceitful use of God's word, and the person who does this won't get the benefit from it that he or she thinks he or she is getting from it.
We must leave the working of God's word to God, and deny any temptation of our naturally deceitful and desperately wicked heart to try to manipulate it according to our own desires. If we truly love God and not ourselves, we should be eager to be convicted by His word about anything that He may desire to convict us of in order to adjust our practices, beliefs, attitudes and behavior according to what is true of Him and desirable to Him.
If we do not truly love God more than ourselves, our actions will bear this out before His eyes, no matter what we do for Him or in Jesus' name. Our hearts are never out of His sight. As we may be deceiving ourselves, thinking and telling ourselves and others that we love the Lord while avoiding the conviction of His written word and of His Spirit, and manipulating His word, what God Himself is saying to us is: "To obey is better than sacrifice".
God is not receiving any substitutions for what He wants---which is all of us, submitted to Him, in all things, at all times, and our faithful keeping of what is written in His word (primarily the New Testament)---even if we think that He is. (Perhaps the church in Sardis thought so.)
We are in a refining process, all of our lives in this body; none of us will ever arrive at a place where we can sit comfortably back and wait for our crown. No Christian gets out of the crucible until they die; and if we ever begin to think of ourselves as though we've finished the process of sanctification, and are no longer in the crucible or the furnace with the rest of the saints, we won't realize the maximum results of our sanctification according to God's desire for us personally. And the more faithfully we keep His written word, without exceptions or excuses, the more He will refine us according to the same truth.
When I read the Scriptures, I do not read them to mold them to my own desires. I read them to better understand, and make sure that I am living according to, God's desires. Whatever God, who is in control of my sanctification, knows I need to hear or to be convicted of by His word, that is what I want to receive when I read it. I'm not trying preserve anything from Him. (God help the Christian who reads the word of God with self-preservation in his or her heart.)
If Jesus wants to encourage me with something, good; I will receive the encouragement. If He wants to correct me with something, good; I will receive the correction. If He wants to convict me of something, good; I will receive the conviction. What God does for me with His word is up to Him, not me. (Or does God serve me? Am I sanctifying myself? Am I my judge? Is it by my own judgments of myself that I am going to be judged on the day that I stand before the throne of Jesus Christ, rather than by His judgments of me?)
If there is even one thing in a Christian's life that is "off limits" to God, for removal or for correction, and that Christian is knowingly protecting it when he or she reads the Bible, God is not responding to him or her in the way that he or she thinks that He is. (Or do you think that God deals favorably with Christians who are insincere? Does anything in His word support that?)
And now I will name specific things, because I believe that this is too important a subject to be general about---lest the word of God be dulled and anyone's naturally deceitful and desperately wicked heart dodge the sword where it needs to be pierced for his or her own good. These are things that should not be protected by a Christian when he or she is reading God's word:
FEELINGS (Trying to preserve a good feeling and avoid a bad feeling when reading the Bible is not reading the Bible honestly. We should feel whatever God wants us to feel when we read His word, whether that be a pleasant feeling or an unpleasant one. Let the truth do what it does and have its intended effect.)
DENOMINATIONAL TEACHINGS AND PRACTICES
POSSESSIONS
RELATIONSHIPS
PERSONAL ASPIRATIONS
EXPERIENCES, MINISTRIES, OR GIFTS BELIEVED TO BE FROM GOD
PERSONAL PRIDE
PERSONAL OPINION
KNOWN SIN
(More items might be listed, but I believe that probably covers the majority of things.)
If we really want God to do what He does and wants to do in us and in our lives, we must allow His word to be what it is and to work in the way it works. No blocking or dodging; no cherry-picking, stretching or twisting of what is written. Expose the naturally deceitful and desperately wicked heart to the word to be pierced wherever it needs to be pierced. If there's pain or unease when we read, it's because God is convicting us of something that isn't as it should be. Trying to avoid that pain or unease makes the word of no effect to us: We are not reading the Bible correctly or sincerely if we're trying to shape it to fit our own desires and opinions and to preserve something that God doesn't necessarily want to be preserved. If that's the way you're reading (refer back to the list above), put the Bible aside until you're ready to read it honestly, with nothing withheld from your Judge, Master, and Sanctifier.
(What do you think God has to say to you if you do otherwise?)
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him to whom we have to do. (KJV)
That same word by which the prophets of old spoke, and of which Jesus Christ Himself is the incarnation---the word of truth that proceeds from the mouth of God---all-knowing, all-seeing, all-judging---is also contained in the written word of God. That word is a living word, by the Spirit of its Author. It judges the thoughts and motives of the heart when those who have the Spirit in them read it, and even the thoughts and motives of the hearts of those who know Him not when the same word of truth is preached.
That is its purpose---to reveal the thoughts of hearts and to convict the same; not for God's sake (since He know all things), but for man's, so that he may know where he stands with God, and may see himself as God sees him according to the truth of His word; because man does not know himself, and if we were to live before God according to the judgments of our own naturally deceitful and desperately wicked hearts, we would not please Him. (This is obviously the case with the majority of mankind, who wrongly believe that they are good people in God's sight and are pleasing God by their works and ways, however they have been led to believe it. But it is also true for Christians.)
In order to live before God and for God in a way that pleases Him, we must do so according to the truth of His written word, and the judgments of the Spirit of truth who works with and leads according (never contrary) to the same truth, convicting us of righteousness and of sin and of the will of God for us---not according to our own judgments and standard, or someone else's, but according to God's. (This, of course, requires that the Spirit of Jesus Christ be in the person first. I am not addressing the spiritually dead in this post.)
(Any of you who may be nodding your heads in agreement at this point should carefully and seriously re-read that last paragraph, because it is a rule of truth without exceptions. Do you really believe this, or do your actions prove otherwise? Let's be careful not to say that we believe one thing and live another, deceiving ourselves. Agreement in our heads isn't going to do us much good if our faith practice doesn't agree with the truth we claim to believe---either now, or on the Day of Judgment. Rather, that truth which we knew and said we believed but did not live by now condemns and will condemn us, resulting in the loss of eternal rewards at least. And again, I am addressing the spiritually regenerate, not people who claim to know Jesus and do not.)
No Christian should run from the conviction of the word of God. (I do not say that no Christian will, because many do, even if they don't admit the fact to themselves---but that no Christian should do this.) Conviction, together with instruction, is the purpose of Scripture---conviction of and instruction in what is right in God's sight and pleasing to Him and also what is not. By that word, we are sanctified, IF we choose to submit to the convictions of it, obeying its instructions, and to direct our ways accordingly---our attitudes, our behaviors and practices, our motives. We can choose not to do this; but we are still being judged, and are going to be judged, according to the truth and instructions of that word, and not by our own judgments of ourselves or the judgments or teachings of other people.
Do not try to avoid conviction when you read the Bible. Conviction is necessary. It brings us closer to God as we apply His truth to our ways, helping us to be more like Him in our thinking, our seeing, and our doing. Reading the Bible to make yourself feel good about what you are doing or want to do, or to reinforce how good a Christian you think you are, is a foolish and deceitful use of God's word, and the person who does this won't get the benefit from it that he or she thinks he or she is getting from it.
We must leave the working of God's word to God, and deny any temptation of our naturally deceitful and desperately wicked heart to try to manipulate it according to our own desires. If we truly love God and not ourselves, we should be eager to be convicted by His word about anything that He may desire to convict us of in order to adjust our practices, beliefs, attitudes and behavior according to what is true of Him and desirable to Him.
If we do not truly love God more than ourselves, our actions will bear this out before His eyes, no matter what we do for Him or in Jesus' name. Our hearts are never out of His sight. As we may be deceiving ourselves, thinking and telling ourselves and others that we love the Lord while avoiding the conviction of His written word and of His Spirit, and manipulating His word, what God Himself is saying to us is: "To obey is better than sacrifice".
God is not receiving any substitutions for what He wants---which is all of us, submitted to Him, in all things, at all times, and our faithful keeping of what is written in His word (primarily the New Testament)---even if we think that He is. (Perhaps the church in Sardis thought so.)
We are in a refining process, all of our lives in this body; none of us will ever arrive at a place where we can sit comfortably back and wait for our crown. No Christian gets out of the crucible until they die; and if we ever begin to think of ourselves as though we've finished the process of sanctification, and are no longer in the crucible or the furnace with the rest of the saints, we won't realize the maximum results of our sanctification according to God's desire for us personally. And the more faithfully we keep His written word, without exceptions or excuses, the more He will refine us according to the same truth.
When I read the Scriptures, I do not read them to mold them to my own desires. I read them to better understand, and make sure that I am living according to, God's desires. Whatever God, who is in control of my sanctification, knows I need to hear or to be convicted of by His word, that is what I want to receive when I read it. I'm not trying preserve anything from Him. (God help the Christian who reads the word of God with self-preservation in his or her heart.)
If Jesus wants to encourage me with something, good; I will receive the encouragement. If He wants to correct me with something, good; I will receive the correction. If He wants to convict me of something, good; I will receive the conviction. What God does for me with His word is up to Him, not me. (Or does God serve me? Am I sanctifying myself? Am I my judge? Is it by my own judgments of myself that I am going to be judged on the day that I stand before the throne of Jesus Christ, rather than by His judgments of me?)
If there is even one thing in a Christian's life that is "off limits" to God, for removal or for correction, and that Christian is knowingly protecting it when he or she reads the Bible, God is not responding to him or her in the way that he or she thinks that He is. (Or do you think that God deals favorably with Christians who are insincere? Does anything in His word support that?)
And now I will name specific things, because I believe that this is too important a subject to be general about---lest the word of God be dulled and anyone's naturally deceitful and desperately wicked heart dodge the sword where it needs to be pierced for his or her own good. These are things that should not be protected by a Christian when he or she is reading God's word:
FEELINGS (Trying to preserve a good feeling and avoid a bad feeling when reading the Bible is not reading the Bible honestly. We should feel whatever God wants us to feel when we read His word, whether that be a pleasant feeling or an unpleasant one. Let the truth do what it does and have its intended effect.)
DENOMINATIONAL TEACHINGS AND PRACTICES
POSSESSIONS
RELATIONSHIPS
PERSONAL ASPIRATIONS
EXPERIENCES, MINISTRIES, OR GIFTS BELIEVED TO BE FROM GOD
PERSONAL PRIDE
PERSONAL OPINION
KNOWN SIN
(More items might be listed, but I believe that probably covers the majority of things.)
If we really want God to do what He does and wants to do in us and in our lives, we must allow His word to be what it is and to work in the way it works. No blocking or dodging; no cherry-picking, stretching or twisting of what is written. Expose the naturally deceitful and desperately wicked heart to the word to be pierced wherever it needs to be pierced. If there's pain or unease when we read, it's because God is convicting us of something that isn't as it should be. Trying to avoid that pain or unease makes the word of no effect to us: We are not reading the Bible correctly or sincerely if we're trying to shape it to fit our own desires and opinions and to preserve something that God doesn't necessarily want to be preserved. If that's the way you're reading (refer back to the list above), put the Bible aside until you're ready to read it honestly, with nothing withheld from your Judge, Master, and Sanctifier.
(What do you think God has to say to you if you do otherwise?)