Sunday, March 13, 2016

Feed with Truth, II of II

Feed with Truth, II of II
March 14, 2016
Matthew 4:4  "Jesus answered, 'It is written: man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

It is true you need the Lord's Word to survive.  The Bible clearly says you cannot live by bread alone, but by the Word of the Living God, His Truth.  These truths are not self-evident and must be taught from Scripture.  No man has the proper logic to reason out what is true and right and pure.  Only the Lord can establish Truth and with that Truth comes boundaries.  These boundaries are a line we are instructed not to cross; if we do cross the line it is sin.  Truth then becomes an absolute.  It is either the Truth or it isn't the Truth.  There is no middle ground on the Lord's Truth.  He is either for something or against something, polarizing to the point of being offensive to the world.  If this offends you, then you obviously subscribe to the idea that the Lord's Truth's have varying degrees, as in a continuum.  The Lord doesn't have a scale of sin; He does not have a scale where truths eventually blend into lies.

The Lord is determined to teach us His Truths.  To this end we have Scripture and the Holy Spirit to lead us on the path of finding and discovering His truths should we desire to know.  Unfortunately, few of us have a passion to discover His truths and consequently rely on the church pastor to communicate to us what is the Truth.  This creates difficulty because your local church pastor cannot possibly teach you all you need to know about the Lord.  The church pastor has many church members all with different degrees of understanding.  It is physically impossible to feed each member with the full amount of Truth needed in their respective lives.  This also puts too much pressure on the church pastor as He is often pulled in many directions with how boldly he should preach the Lord's Truths.  He knows they are polarizing to the point of offending and many a church pastor tiptoe around the deep truths, lest he offend someone who then decides not to come back to his church.  We have to grow the church; it cannot be filled with the same people year after year, therefore we must do with it takes to keep each new person who comes right away.  But this has a backward effect, leaving our churches filled with saints who are ill-equipped for daily living, daily thriving.

If you had cancer and I had the cure, would you want me to dilute that cure down with water or would you want the full potency to rid you of your ailment?  Likewise, we must not be ashamed to speak boldly of the Truths found in Scripture, Truths about lust and greed and anger and jealousy.   Your pastor might be great but he is a man subject to the pulling of his own daily struggles, especially the struggle to find balance on how to take the appropriate stand.  Sometimes pastors don't even take a stand, avoiding certain topics altogether, like homosexuality and divorce.  After all, we don't want to step on too many toes.  When I read through Scripture though, Jesus wasn't afraid of offending anyone.  In fact, more people hated Him than loved Him.  It was a small percentage of disciples that clung to His full teachings, His Truths.

Today we can find a church and a pastor who stands for just the right amount of Truth to which we want to subscribe.  Too much Truth, no problem, there is a church down the road who will tell you want you want to hear.  Our problem today isn't the amount of Churches, it is the quality of preaching the full Truth from the pulpit.  We reason it is the Holy Spirit's job to convict a person's heart.  This is completely true, but the Holy Spirit cannot do His job if we aren't doing ours; speaking the Truth in love.  But this would require us to speak the FULL Truth of God's Word, not just the comfortable and easy parts.  Jesus said we are to live by EVERY word that comes from the Lord.  He didn't say we should live by four out of five words that come from the Lord.  If a person's soul requires the Truth, then he needs ALL the Truth.  It's time pastors stand up for the full Truth to which we are called, to take a stand, bodily speaking the Truths found written with the Blood of Jesus.

Don't take my word for it; look it up: Deut 8: Is 28:16, Is 53:3, Matt 10:22, Matt 21:42, Matt 25:5-7, Mark 13:13, Lk 11:32, Lk 21:19, Acts 17:11, 1 Cor 15:1, 1 Cor 15:58, 1 Cor 16:13, Eph 6:13, 2 Thess 2:15

2 comments:

Mommafromtherock said...

Thank you for speaking the truth. Once again, the reading of your sermons have reaffirmed God's speaking to my heart today. As I read both Parts I and II of "Feed with Truth", I am convicted to seek His word - His truth everyday. When I let other things take precedence over this in my daily life, I lose my way so quickly. And when hardship comes our way, we don't want to be lost. We want to be - NEED to be - in the presence of our good and caring Saviour. May we never stray. Thank you for your encouragement today. God bless you.

Adam J. Speck said...

WEll SAID! and Thank you. May the Lord's peace rest on your heart and mind in Christ Jesus