Psalms 119:105 -- Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Are there other words that are a lamp to show me the way, and a light to reveal the truth to me? NO! There is only One, and His name is The Word Of God, also known as, the Lord Jesus Christ! There is only one way to God -- through the Lord Jesus Christ... and there remains only one way to walk if you seek the Light -- again, that is by His Word.
Many, including some Christians, believe that walking by the Spirit is following after the Lord Jesus Christ. This is true, yet few seem to realize that there is no real walking after the Spirit unless one is first crucified with Christ and thus dedicated to obeying the word of God. The importance is that we follow Jesus according to the Living Spirit of the law inside of us, and not walking in the Dead Letter of it outside of us!
The Spirit has nothing of His own to offer except that which Christ has Him to show us and say only what He hears The Lord saying (John 16:13-15). The person who came to Christ to find the truth knows they have been crucified with Christ and are to reckon themselves dead (because they are). In other words, there is no longer any law involved, because the person has died by and to the law once and for all. There is no forceful keeping of some law that one deems necessary to follow Christ, instead there is only Spirit... and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty (2 Cor.3:17). The interest of the Spirit is in getting us to be "sanctified to the truth (the word of God)", all having one mind, heart and soul.
In the parable of the 10 virgins (Matthew 25) we see that 5 of them were wise while the other 5 were foolish. The reason 5 of them were foolish is because they took no oil with them along the way to light their lamps with. They didn't have any. They lost what little they might have had (Matthew 13:12; 25:29). When the call came to prepare and go meet the Lord they saw their error and immediately sought to buy some oil from the 5 wise virgins, but the 5 wise virgins wouldn't give them any of their oil because they needed every drop of it to see them through to the end. So, the wise were deemed wise simply because they remained in His words, and the foolish were deemed to be foolish because they didn't (Galatians 3:1).
Let us consider for a moment how the 5 foolish virgins may have lost the light. As one knows, believing what false prophets and teachers say long enough without bothering to compare what they say against the full counsel (or Light) of God's word, slowly but surely draws them away from the light and into the darkness. The very idea of believing in or even preaching a pre trib rapture long enough is a sure way to lose it all, because it opposes what God says, regardless of what kind of regalia it is dressed up in (i.e. "disguised as"). A lie is a lie, and always will be, just as Satan is the father of all lies.
Today; just as in the days of old, most people know when they have sinned or wrongfully hurt their brother, but rather than coming to the Lord and confessing those sins, making amends to those whom they've hurt, and then going and sinning no more, they instead flee from the Light of Truth and like to think (contrary to what God said) that their sin wasn't all that bad in the first place or cover it up by something that they may do through their own flesh... this is usually done by countering the Truth with something religious, and is done as a means to try and appease a holy God or offer up some form of suffering to Him for what they had done.
God and His words are indeed holy, thus He can only be appeased by what Christ has already done through the cross. The cross is the great stumbling block of people who use religion to try and appease their sins, by doing something (i.e. by doing penances, tithing, helping the poor, punishing themselves, etc.) to make-up to God for their sin.
John 3:19-20 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Outside of God's Holy Word is darkness, complete and pitch black. In this darkness men go astray -- they stray by following their own lusts and/or of laying hold of the interpretation of others (who are dressed as sheep in wolves clothing). Because such people (who choose to remain in darkness) have no discernment they choose to believe what these so-called "men of God" say and value their words as high or higher than God's own Word. Why? Because it's what they want to hear! They don't want to hear the truth! Such teaching preserves their flesh and costs them nothing to abide in them. But in place of such wicked faith there will be much weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 25:30).
Those who come to the cross must come before The Light of Truth as well. They must come to realize and understand fully who they are (with and apart from Christ), what their Old Man is and does, why their Old Man must die and why they must die to it as well. In one swoop the hearing of the Cross explains this in a very real way, and the person realizes that they are the ones that Christ has died for in forgiving their sins, and in being raised as their righteousness... and they fly to Him for Life and For life.
Psalms 119:139-140 -- My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
John 17:17 -- Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
The criteria is this: If we say that we love Jesus then we will keep His words. Wherever there's a will to honor the Son, there's a way to be sanctified to the Truth. (Matthew 6:10)
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
May God bless you in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!
Biff & Suzanne
