We live in critical times that require us to do things to protect the truths of the Word of God. Above everything else, all ministerial offices, there is something all Christians are called to do, in my humble opinion, and that is to be protectors of the truth. I believe this calling is higher than any ministerial office. Jesus said to His disciples that you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. I believe above all, that we are to be protectors of the truth. We are the ones to make sure that the word of God is not compromised, watered down, or changed. That’s becoming a lost art today. We are not protecting the message that was once delivered to the saints. We are not protecting the Holy Ghost.
I’m not talking about just you or me. I’m talking about the church as a whole. So what we should be number one, is protectors of the revelation of God’s Word, revelation of the Holy Ghost. Because that is what’s going to put us over. It’s not man’s plans that’s going to put us over. It’s not going to be psychology and secularism. It’s not going to be humanism or man’s ideas. It’s going to be the Holy written doctrines of God’s Word. It’s going to be the Holy Ghost that changes peoples’ lives. Yes, we’re called to those other things, to those ministerial offices, but first we must be protectors of the truth. We are to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints and we should not violate it, turn away from it, or say that this chapter is not written to us today.
There are some chapters that some today are saying are not written to the church. I’m not coming against any person, but I am coming against the spirit that is trying to infiltrate the church and get the whole Body of Christ off. There are some saying 1 John 1 is not written to the church today. They go as far as saying you do not repent for any sin whatsoever.
There may be some truth in there somewhere. But there’s always some truth mixed in with error. The devil doesn’t just come up and give you a dump truck load of unbelief and false doctrine. What he does is give you 90% truth and 10% poison. A friend of mine told me that rat poison is made up of only 10% of poison. Ninety percent of it will not hurt you. And that’s what the devil does. He tries to inject a little bit of false doctrines within the truth.
There’s a lot of preaching and talking and rumbles going on around the nation, and around the world, and around the church about how the Bible doesn’t mean what it says. The new thing going around says that the book of James chapter 4 was not written to the Christian. Of course James chapter 4 talks about being remorseful for sin if you’re a Christian. They’re trying to take all remorse for sin out and away from the Christian.
Here is where people are missing it, I believe. They are confusing remorse and conviction of the Holy Spirit with condemnation. The Holy Spirit will convict you and will reprove you because it’s in the Bible. Many people think the conviction and reproving of the Holy Spirit is actually condemnation. However, it is the Holy Spirit communicating with their spirit trying to get them to see the error of their ways and correct them so they can be a success and fulfill what God has called them to do. No, the Holy Spirit does not condemn us. The Holy Spirit convicts us whenever we sin and tries to correct us when we get into error. So many people are confusing the conviction of the Holy Spirit was condemnation, which comes from the devil. The difference between the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the condemnation of the devil is hope. When the conviction of the Holy Spirit comes it brings hope. There’s hope in Jesus Christ. There’s hope in the conviction. There’s change. The conviction of the Holy Spirit says that things can get better, that changing will make things better. But condemnation that comes from the devil says that there is no hope, that there is no way out, that there is nothing that you can do. Condemnation says that you might as well end it all, that nothing’s ever going to change. And that’s not from God – that’s from the devil.
So we must be protectors of truth. We must contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. So I urge you today to be protectors of the truth and contend for that faith. God is with us.
(Taken from It’s Not A Time To Be Disobedient, available in the RGM Store.)
