Those who throughout the centuries who feared God, those whom He called, and purposed within their hearts to serve Him, who willingly devoted the entirety of their short lives to Him had one thing that many of us today do not have, a sincere faith. Not all of course, but as a whole, few truly fear God today, and in one sense there is absolutely no reason for this lack of trust and obedience, we have one thing that none of them for centuries had, complete and total access to the Word of God.
I do not mean the literally thousands of forged copies out there, those re-written by man to make God into the image of what they want Him to be, not this continuing, ridiculous debate over the oldest parchments, not which book is written either by man or Satan, or certain religious organizations who will not allow their congregations to study any other books but the ones they prescribe, let the blind lead the blind, the King James Bible is inerrant. Pray for wisdom from God to understand all the “thee’s and thou’s,” the “froward’s” if you have difficulty deciphering the text, or purchase a thesaurus, but stop believing the excuses you keep giving yourself for why you do not first study His Word and second why you will not apply it.
I brought up this statement this morning with my lovely wife after our morning devotional reading, the fact of how easily accessible the Word of God is today, and how few people read it, study it, and contemplate it during the day, much less apply these words in their walk. If you were a born-again believer in the year 695 A.D. and were told that you could have the complete Word of God, the same one that you have access to today at any time you desire, what would you give for it? Would you trade your house for it, would everything you own be exchanged for that one book, would you sell everything you own to purchase that one field with the great pearl in it? (Matt. 13:46) Probably not, many Christians do not see any real value in the Scriptures today, oh, they may say they do, and they may feel like they should, but in reality many of them have nothing more than good intentions and warm, fuzzy feelings in their hearts, when pressed few of them can expound upon the truths of grace and mercy.
They have, at least in a general context, the standard Sunday School parts of the Scriptures available to their memory, David and Goliath, Noah, Moses and the Red Sea, but ask the average Christian today to expound on justification, sanctification, and glorification, and you will get a lot of blank stares. Most reside in the milk of the Word and they have no desire to learn to chew, (Heb. 5:12) so the book sits there on the shelf, for the world is calling, the words they have read are left to fall into the furthest recesses of their minds, for the world is calling, and the few verses that some have memorized are used only rarely, and then as only little catch phrases to try to prove to themselves and others that they have some deep, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Most couldn’t hold a one-minute conversation with Jesus, much less speak about Him to others, and so they do not.
You have at your disposal the complete Word of God today, what have you traded for it, what have you given up to have a closer, personal relationship with the Savior, anything? The drugs, the drink, the porn, what, your friends and family, your life and all of its desires and wants, what have you thrown away and counted as dung (Phil. 3:8) for Jesus Christ. “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” (Matt. 25:29)
There is no reason to continue to try to fool yourself here, you are the only one who is being fooled, you know what is important in your heart, and I am not speaking about this ridiculous “Heart of Hearts” notion, that infers nothing but a person being deceived as to the validity of their salvation, I mean the Christian you claim to be. Does he have no more than good intentions to show for the grace that he was saved by, (Eph. 2:8) can you show the works that have been wrought through you, (James 2:22) are you able to show the proofs of your salvation to all that ask it of you, (1 Peter 3:15) or do you still have nothing more than good feelings about Jesus and a decent church attendance record.
When the majority of human beings are asked if they believe in God, they respond in the affirmative, and well they should, for even the demons confess Him, but at least they tremble when they do so, (James 2:19) but ask them who they say Jesus Christ is and you will find out that even just His name creates a stumbling block, as it still does with far too many who are calling themselves Christians today, we just don’t call it a stumbling block anymore, it is called “being too forward,” but the truth of the matter is they are ashamed to speak His name, they fear the loss of something or someone more than they do the gaining Christ’ favor. Just keep going to church, keep portraying an outward image of what you have deceived yourself to believe you are on the inside, let the Word of God lay where it is during the week and try to remember it on Sunday. Welcome to the life of the average “Christian” today.
Your feelings may tell you that you are saved, but “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9) If you have no works to show outside of yourself for the faith that you claim to have, then your salvation is in question today.
