Living in Truth in a Time of Great Deception (part 5)

Know the truth!

7.19.2020

Introduction

It is time to prepare for what will come.

1 Chronicles 12:32 (NLT)

From the tribe of Issachar, there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives. All these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take.

Matthew 24:37-51 (NLT)

When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. (38) In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. (39) People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. (40) “Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left. (41) Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left. (42) “So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. (43) Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. (44) You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected. (45) “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. (46) If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. (47) I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. (48) But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ (49) and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? 50 The master will return unannounced and unexpected, (51) and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Today – I want to continue with 7 things to know about the Word of God.

Matthew 7:24-27 (Passion Translation)

24 “Everyone who hears my teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his house on an unshakable foundation. 25 When the rains fell and the flood came, with fierce winds beating upon his house, it stood firm because of its strong foundation. 26 “But everyone who hears my teaching and does not apply it to his life can be compared to a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 When it rained and rained and the flood came, with wind and waves beating upon his house, it collapsed and was swept away.”

We need to keep ourselves full of the Word!

Turn off the news, turn on the Word!!!

Last week, I talked about meditating in the word and watching what you keep in your mind..

3 weeks ago I covered the first 2 points…

1. God’s Word brings stability.

Isaiah 33:6

2. Ask God for a hunger for the Word.

Remember that our attitude towards the word determines the place that God holds in our daily life.

We will start today with point 3.

3. Know that the Bible is the Inspired Word of God.

Once you are settled that the Bible is inspired by God and given for you to live by, life will be different for you.

Until then, you will be swayed by other people’s opinions and by the current culture.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV)

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (AMPL)

Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose, and action), (17) So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

*2 Timothy 3:16-17 (MSG)

Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another — showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way.

(17) Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.

Theopneustos;

divinely breathed in: — given by inspiration of God; God breathed.

God fills you with Himself when His Word gets into you.

Example: When you blow up a balloon, some of who you are enters that balloon. It is filled with your breath, which has your DNA.

God’s DNA enters you when you get into the Word!

2 Peter 1:20-21 (NKJV)

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,

(21) for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 1:20-21 (NLT)

Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, (21) or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.

*2 Peter 1:20-21 (NIV)

Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. (21) For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

If the Bible is The Word of God, then it becomes the infallible rule of faith and practice. It will then affect what I believe, what I think, and how I live.

Back in my teens, I made a decision that I would allow the Bible to be my infallible rule of faith and practice.

I made a decision that it would govern me and guide me, that my decisions would be based on God’s will for me as revealed in the Word of God.

That means that now, I choose to judge my thoughts, words, actions, and choices by the foundation of the Bible. That alone has changed who I am and how I live.

For ME, The Bible is the inspired Word of God! I have chosen in my life to believe in the verbal, plenary (complete) inspiration of the Bible.

Do you believe that the Bible is inspired?

Have you made a personal choice to live by its teachings?

Are you going to choose to live by the Word even when it becomes culturally unpopular?

The cultural winds are blowing now, my friends. Now, for the sake of our children, we must stand up for what is right.

The Bible is not just for church services. We are to live by it every single day!

It’s no longer enough just to say I believe. Now, if you believe, you must ACT like you do.

Now, when you act like you believe the Bible, there are people who will criticize you. Are you ready?

When fear comes, you must act in faith and resist it. Are you actively resisting fear right now?

When calamity comes, you must act like God is giving you wisdom and taking care of you.

We are right on the edge of some tough things happening. Are you going to be upset and swayed by what happens, or are you going to choose to rest in the peace of God and the joy of the Lord?

James 1:2-4 (NLT)

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. (3) For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. (4) So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

(PHILLIPS) When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence.

It takes the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word to us in a balanced way…

1 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NKJV)

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (15) But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. (16) For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (TPT)

Someone living on an entirely human level rejects the revelations of God’s Spirit, for they make no sense to him. He can’t understand the revelations of the Spirit because they are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit.

4. The Word is designed to take Jesus’ and the Father’s place in their physical absence.

Begin NOW to disconnect from your dependence on feelings and circumstances. Now is the time to prepare for times when nothing is going right.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT)

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. (17) For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! (18) So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

God revealed Himself to Adam’s spirit as Adam lived in the Garden of Eden before the fall.

After the fall, God in His great love had to devise a way for fallen man to receive information from Him since man now has a fallen, dead spirit nature.

God devised a way to communicate with us from the outside in, instead of from the inside out, and that is through His Word!

John 6:63 (NKJV)

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

Matthew 4:4 (NKJV)

But He answered and said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

John 14:21-24 (NKJV)

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

(22) Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

(23) Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (24) He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.

1 John 2:3-6 (NLT)

And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. (4) If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. (5) But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. (6) Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

5. Our culture has set the Word of God aside. It now has little or no influence on lifestyle, and so God is forced to back away from us as a nation because of our choices.

The Bible has been replaced in our schools by atheism, evolution, relative values, and amorality.

Parents, I challenge you to take your kids out of public schools and either homeschool or send them to a Christian school.

Pluralism is dividing the USA into separate groups, each with different values. People from other cultures bring their religion and beliefs here.

The things that united us are no longer mainstream.

God backs away from any nation or group of people that do not acknowledge Him.

Isaiah 1:20

But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Proverbs 1:24-33

Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, (25) Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, (26) I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, (27) When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. (28) Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. (29) Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, (30) They would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. (31) Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full with their own fancies. (32) For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; (33) But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.

Proverbs 1:24-33 (TPT)

I’ve called to you over and over; still you refuse to come to me. I’ve pleaded with you again and again, yet you’ve turned a deaf ear to my voice. (25) Because you have laughed at my counsel and have insisted on continuing in your stubbornness, (26) I will laugh when your calamity comes and will turn away from you at the time of your disaster. Make a joke of my advice, will you? Then I’ll make a joke out of you! (27) When the storm clouds of terror gather over your head, when dread and distress consume you and your catastrophe comes like a hurricane, (28) you will cry out to me, but I won’t answer. Then it will be too late to expect my help. When desperation drives you to search for me, I will be nowhere to be found. (29) Because you have turned up your nose at me and closed your eyes to the facts and refused to worship me in awe — (30) because you scoffed at my wise counsel and laughed at my correction — (31) now you will eat the bitter fruit of your own ways. You’ve made your own bed; now lie in it! So how do you like that? (32) Like an idiot you’ve turned away from me and chosen destruction instead. Your self-satisfied smugness will kill you. (33) But the one who always listens to me will live undisturbed in a heavenly peace. Free from fear, confident and courageous, you will rest unafraid and sheltered from the storms of life.

Matthew 7:24-27

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.

6. When you choose to do what the Bible says, you put God in charge of your life!

Proverbs 3:1-8 (NKJV)

My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands; (2) For length of days and long life And peace they will add to you. (3) Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart, (4) And so find favor and high esteem In the sight of God and man. (5) Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; (6) In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. (7) Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. (8) It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.

Deuteronomy 8:1-3 (NKJV)

Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. (2) And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. (3) So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

James 1:22-25 (NLT)

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. (23) For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. (24) You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. (25) But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

So, if God’s Word says to be honest and don’t lie, then I choose to be truthful.

If God’s Word says my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then I treat it with respect and don’t do things to abuse it.

If God’s Word tells me to love my wife the same way Jesus loves the church, then I choose to love my wife that way.

If God’s Word tells me to discipline my child, then I discipline my child!

If God’s Word tells me to work responsibly, then I work responsibly.

If God’s Word tells me to give, then I give.

If God’s Word tells me to forgive, then I forgive.

Choose to ask yourself over and over, what does God’s Word say about this in every action you take.

7. The Word is your stability in turbulent times…

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent.

Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Psalm 89:34

My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.

Ps 119:89

Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven.

Isaiah 40:8

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

 

Isaiah 55:11

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Jeremiah 1:12 (AMPL)

Then said the Lord to me, you have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it.

Matthew 5:18 (NIV)

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Matthew 24:35

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

Action Points:

1. Are you easily swayed by the changes in what people around you think and believe?

2. Are you spiritually hungry, or have you lost your appetite for the Bible?

3. Do you act as though the Bible is God’s inspired word to you?

4. Are the opinions of culture and others more important to you than what the Bible says?