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Revering the Truth Mat 5:29-30 (KJV) “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell. (30) And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Jesus’ preaching was to the point and directed straight at sin. The alarming statistics concerning the increasing sin in the church at large today must be a result of soft-soaped preaching, and watered down witnessing. Otherwise, how could someone read either of these first two passages, and then continue to walk to the contrary? Judgmental and condemning messages are not the answer either, but rather a serious look at revering the truths Jesus speaks in the gospels, by every one who reads them. Mat 23:25-28 (KJV) “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. (26) [Thou] blind Pharisee, cleanse first that [which is] within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. (27) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead [men's] bones, and of all uncleanness. (28) Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Outward appearances don’t always reflect the inward conditions, but all things are brought into truth when the word of God is applied. As it is written in, Heb 4:12 (KJV) “For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” As we follow the progression of written warnings that were given to us by our Lord, we can see that these warnings are as great a part of the gospel’s salvation message as is the message of the cross. In essence, what good would it do to die for someone’s sins if your message would be that they should live in the same sinful condition they were in before you died for them? It is time to awake, to come out of any spiritual stupor we may be in, and to apply our lives to the truth. 2 Pet 2:4-9 (KJV) “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; (5) And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth [person], a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (6) And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned [them] with an overthrow, making [them] an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; (7) And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (8) (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed [his] righteous soul from day to day with [their] unlawful deeds;) (9) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:” Excuses will not diminish the consequences for deliberate disobedience. Those words, as with the words the Lord spoke, are not to condemn but rather to lead the reader out of the deceptions of darkness and into the liberating freedom that comes from revering the truth.
-Kurt Thurston April Newsletter 2005 | Revival We Need | Revering the Truth | Pastor's Journal April 2004 Growing Up Is Hard to Do part 2 of 3 | The Suddenlies of God part 1 of 3
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