“Teaching Truth in Faith”

I Timothy 2:5-8

5) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

6) Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

7) Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

8) I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

Introduction

W

hen we operate in the flesh, we give place to the enemy. To be convinced of anything by him, one must be interested in what he has to say. As he is the “master” of the flesh, he will master anyone who operates in his flesh. Therefore, we have no recourse but to allow God to be our “Master.”

When flesh comes back to us to whisper “sweet nothings” in our ears, it is to get our attention on it and away from God.

Main Thought

Being the naturally suspicious creatures that we are, when we hear the message of salvation, we try to determine if all that the Lord promises is possible to do. This is because the “yardstick” by which we measure is our ability to “perform.” In that we do not have the capacity to understand what is spiritual, we could never “understand” either the Lord, or what He does.

We deal with the teachings of God as if we have a choice as to whether or not we need the truth. All too often, without the benefit of the truth of God, Man feels that he does, indeed, have the truth. The explanation of this? The fact that man judges the truth by what he has been taught.

When we find ourselves unconcerned with the truth, we need to recognize the thinking for what it is—human thinking. Only one who knows the truth can “teach” it, and only the one to whom it is taught can “accept” it. All of the teaching in the World will not benefit us if we refuse to follow it. As our subject suggests, truth must be accompanied by faith. Without it, we cannot receive the blessings that He has for us.

A mistake is made by many who wait to do what the Lord has instructed for lack of “knowing how” to do what he need to do. He presents us a task and expects us to do it by faith.

The principal that Jesus modeled for us; that upon which salvation is grounded is obedience to the Word of God. He will neither grant, nor deny one anything based upon his status. He blesses those who follow His world, period!

The obedience required for receiving the blessing of God is contingent upon our willingness to “plant” what He asks. Often, we do not understand why we must plant, because our view is that we ill not be around to receive the increase. This is more than we need to be concerned about, for He will not allow us to depart this life before our time. He loves us enough that the blessings He sends to us, He wants us to enjoy.

The “truth” that the people of God must accept in these last days often contradicts what has been taught as truth. This is because those doing the teaching have not accepted God’s word as final. You see, human beings look to make things acceptable to their “psyche” (their particular manner of thinking and understanding), and because of this, things get “changed” (expanded upon and watered down). This is why one cannot live in his human mentality and serve God at the same time. We learned a long time ago that “a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

Because we, as a people, have failed to accept truth in faith, too many of us have never been changed from being human beings. In order for the Lord to recover His investment from us, someone must be able to testify that Jesus saves from sin. People must know that salvation is more than just someone speaking in tongues.

As an excuse, we will often not accept a “challenge” from God because of not knowing what to “expect,” and because we will not trust Him. we expect the worst. What we should be expecting is that God’s word will be fulfilled. We are not serving a God Who does not know about our problems, but rather, One Who is well aware of our problems and knows what is necessary to get our attention. God’s plan for each and every man ever created is that he would commit to Him and serve Him for himself.

As long as one’s mind and flesh are not in agreement as to what to do, flesh will not be followed. This is the “truth” that we need to accept in faith and execute.