Sunday, April 13, 2008
Matthew 13:38-40
38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.
1 Peter 5:8
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
One of the greatest lies in the world today is that there is no devil. It has become almost popular in modern religion to believe in the good and merciful God but to believe that the devil is a metaphor for man's indiscretions and short comings. Man wants to believe that there will be life after death yet he wants to forget that there are two possible destinations.
I can't blame those that wish to live in disbelief. I hate the idea that some people I know and likely some that I love will spend eternity in Hell. There is nothing pleasant about this reality. However, it is a written truth in the Bible that humans will make a decision that will impact the destination of their soul for all of eternity. Either we choose to accept Christ as our Savior or we choose to reject him and in so doing we reject the gift of heaven.
The purpose of this devotion is not to bring in scare tactics, it is to expose a fundamental tool that the enemy is trying to use. You see, the devil would like nothing better than for the world not to believe in him. If we don't believe in him, then we don't believe that he can attack us. If the devil doesn't exist, then there must not be a Hell because Hell was made as a place to send the devil. If there is no Hell, then everyone goes to Heaven or everyone just dies. You see if we begin to pick and choose what portions of the Bible we want to believe and which ones are just fluff where do we stop?
So why do people not believe in the devil? It all goes back to how they view the Bible. If you believe that the Bible is the Infallible word of God you must believe everything that is in it. If you believe that the Bible is a good book of moral tales that you can pick and choose from, then you are missing out on what it means to be a Christian.
In order to understand what it means to be a Christian, you cannot rely on just what you hear in the pew on Sunday. You cannot rely on just what you read from some online gu-ru who has a really cool web page with music, videos and devotionals. You must put your trust in Jesus Christ and the only way to do that is to put your trust in the word of God.
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness
Without an understanding and belief in the document, what are you really trusting in? You see the Bible is an incredible work that was over 1500 years in the making. It has over 40 authors that wrote it's 66 books. Archaeologists continually find remnants and information that verify information found in the Bible. No one, though many have tried, have ever been able to disprove the truths of the Bible. Out of 5300 early manuscripts of the bible or portions of the bible that we have (from 50-200 years from when the original books were penned) with
184, 580 words in the new testament alone, there are only 400 words that are what are referred to as disputed. Many of these words are attributed to misspellings and incorrect grammar when the books were copied by hand. This is an amazing consistency for such a great number of copies and words.
The Bible proves true! Not just in part, not just the sections we want to believe but all of it. If we are to be God's people, we must study and believe God's Word. How can we be equipped to meet the enemy head on when thousands of so-called believers don't even recognize the enemy? We must begin putting our faith back in the Bible and stop listening to the world that says wouldn't you rather believe ________. What we would rather believe is insignificant if we believe one basic principle. Jesus was Emanuel, God with us. Jesus came to Earth to save us from our sins, he died on the cross, defeated death and rose again and is waiting at the right hand of the Father. Where did we learn this? From the Bible. How can we put faith in this statement if we cannot put faith in all the other statements that are also enclosed in it's pages?
**Much of the preceding message was adapted from information provided by Reverend Bill McKenzie and the entire Pinedale Staff from the messages given on 4/14/08 during the morning and evening services. For more information of Pinedale visit http://www.pinedale.org
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