October 23
Jer 42:1-44:23 | PS 92:1-93 | Prov 26:3-5 | 2 Tim 2:1-21
Many ask me why, with my busy schedule, do I travel so far to go to church? Though there are a multitude of reasons that I call Calvary Chapel Old Bridge home, the fellowship and friends that I have made through the years, etc., probably the main reason is that I have a pastor who adheres to God's Word and loves it with the same enthusiasm I envision he had when he first came to faith. He preaches from the Word without compromise. I have seen people in the audience look uncomfortable; I have seen people get up and leave seemingly angry with something he has said; but the Word is the Word and God wrote it. If people don't like what it says they do so to their own peril. People have also asked me why, with my busy schedule, why I devote so much time every day to carefully reading His Word and putting together these posts. The answer is always easy: "How can I not?" The Word directs me to my Rock, my Savior, my Fortress, my Strength, my marching orders. Without it I am disarmed. Without it I fall prey to what the rest of the world does, argue from the position of opinion. The reason no one agrees is because opinion argues against opinion, and without truth it comes down to who argues more effectively. In our morally relativistic society, though unpopular, there really is such a thing as absolute truth. But those who choose to ignore the Word of God don't know it and due to this ignorance don't see it as the source of truth that it is.
Skepticism is nothing new. We read in John 18:37, when Pilate is interrogating Jesus, Pilate asks Jesus, "...What is truth?...". We read of truth in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, "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." In similar fashion we read in 2 Peter 1:20-21, "know this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." So, acceptance that God's Word is just that, and not the words of men is the first step. Next Paul's advice in 2 Timothy 2:15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The Golden Rule of Biblical interpretation is, "When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense, lest it result in nonsense." Armed with the truth, Paul concludes in 2 Timothy 4:1-4, "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."
Whether it be in the classroom, in the universities, or through preachers who have compromised the truth as conveyed in God's Word for whatever reason: filling their churches by becoming more "relevant", etc. many have attempted to compromise the authority and the truth behind the entirety of Scripture. At face value this might seem harmless enough, but once you compromise the truth of His Word in the eyes of this relativistic philosophy, everything crumbles like a house of cards. Once you discredit Creation in favor of the faith of evolution (for it is a faith) you have taken an eraser to Genesis 1-11, parts of Job and many other areas of Scripture. Once you have made a decision to discredit the supernatural, instead trying to give a natural interpretation to Scripture, one must take out the eraser again. The overwhelming majority of churches stay away from prophecy (though it comprises close to 25% of Scripture) and any discussion of end times since it makes people uncomfortable. By doing so you have eliminated even more of the Bible. The Bible is not and never will be another "self-help" book. It is God's Word. When people have made the decision as to what is relevant and what is not, in the Bible, they have elevated their own opinions over those of God. In so doing they have made themselves, whether they want to admit it or not demi-gods. The danger in this cannot be minimized. The purpose of The One Year Bible Challenge is ,by any means possible, to encourage God's children and those who have not yet made that most important decision to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, to get to know Him through the entirety of His Word. His story is the only history that really matters. Unless we relegate all of Scripture to the prominent truth that it deserves it is impossible to really know Him.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: