(new article tomorrow)
“To engender confidence in Him and a healthy distrust of yourself is God’s ultimate reason for every experience He allows into your life," says my preacher, Richard Jordan, over and over in many different ways.
“That’s II Corinthians 1: 8-10: [8] For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: [9] But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: [10] Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
"You say, ‘Why does God let these things happen?’ Steve Jobs said that as a teenager he gave up on God when he saw sick and hungry children. Richard Dawkins, the egghead atheist of the 21st Century, says he gave up on God as a teenager because ‘a God who could let suffering exist the way it exists couldn’t be worthy of respect.’ And you say, ‘What’s the answer to that?’
“Well, you see, underlying that is a false assumption that everyone knows isn’t true. And that is it’s assumed there could never be any purpose in suffering. But you know if you go to the gym there’s a sign that says, ‘No pain, no gain.’
“You know that any growth that ever takes place costs something and what it costs is called suffering. The very fact of the existence of suffering is a part of the necessity of growing.
“Well, you see, underlying that is a false assumption that everyone knows isn’t true. And that is it’s assumed there could never be any purpose in suffering. But you know if you go to the gym there’s a sign that says, ‘No pain, no gain.’
“You know that any growth that ever takes place costs something and what it costs is called suffering. The very fact of the existence of suffering is a part of the necessity of growing.
"For sure there can be purposes in suffering. There can be a redemptive purpose. But the God of all comfort comforts us in our suffering and He does that for two reasons. One is so that you’ll learn the only person you can really trust is Him.
“I learned a long time ago I couldn’t trust somebody like you. Why would I want to trust somebody who would lie to me? That’s me. Why would I want to trust somebody who would let me down? That’s me. And it’s you because you’re just like me. What I could trust is somebody who would never let me down and always tell me the truth, and that’s Jesus Christ. Didn’t take me a genius stroke of ‘Aha!’ to get that one right!
“The whole issue behind it all is so you learn to trust Him because, when you learn that He’s all you got, then He’s all you can trust. And when He’s all you’ve got to trust, you’ll find out He’s all you really need. And when you realize He’s all you really need, you learn a healthy distrust of yourself: ‘It’s not I but Christ.’ And in it is the excellency of the power of God’s Word that works in you and teaches you—and the truth of it.
“Otherwise you’re like a blind bat flying backward in a dark cave. You don’t know what the purpose of it is.
*****
II Timothy 3:15: [15] And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
“I learned a long time ago I couldn’t trust somebody like you. Why would I want to trust somebody who would lie to me? That’s me. Why would I want to trust somebody who would let me down? That’s me. And it’s you because you’re just like me. What I could trust is somebody who would never let me down and always tell me the truth, and that’s Jesus Christ. Didn’t take me a genius stroke of ‘Aha!’ to get that one right!
“The whole issue behind it all is so you learn to trust Him because, when you learn that He’s all you got, then He’s all you can trust. And when He’s all you’ve got to trust, you’ll find out He’s all you really need. And when you realize He’s all you really need, you learn a healthy distrust of yourself: ‘It’s not I but Christ.’ And in it is the excellency of the power of God’s Word that works in you and teaches you—and the truth of it.
“Otherwise you’re like a blind bat flying backward in a dark cave. You don’t know what the purpose of it is.
*****
II Timothy 3:15: [15] And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
“Boy, now there’d be a reason to preach the Word! Wouldn’t you like to be wise?! The salvation there is not salvation from hell. Timothy’s already saved from hell. It’s salvation from the deception and the difficulties we been reading about in the first 14 verses. Where do you find salvation from the perilous times? Where do you find salvation from the persecution and in the afflictions? You find it in God’s Word. That’s what deliverance from those things are.
“ ‘All scripture is given by God and is profitable.’ By the way, notice verse 16 when he says ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.’ Verse 15 says that ‘from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures.’
“Did Timothy have the original manuscripts? No! He had copies and translations. You see God’s Word is not simply located in the original manuscripts.
"A hundred years ago, when fundamentalism got into a big argument with the rationalists of the 1800s and didn’t want to look like a bunch of ‘Funnymentalists,’ they abandoned the historic faith the Christians had had up to that time and they began to come up with this goofball idea that the ‘Scripture quoted in their original writings were inspired of God and are without error.’
"And every doctrinal statement you’ve ever seen of any Christian organization you’ve ever been a member of, I bet you has that in its doctrinal statement!
“And before the late 1800s, NO doctrinal statement had any statement about the original writings! Did you know that?! Everybody loves the Westminster Confession. They didn’t say anything about the original writings being the only place God’s Word is!
“ ‘All scripture is given by God and is profitable.’ By the way, notice verse 16 when he says ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.’ Verse 15 says that ‘from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures.’
“Did Timothy have the original manuscripts? No! He had copies and translations. You see God’s Word is not simply located in the original manuscripts.
"A hundred years ago, when fundamentalism got into a big argument with the rationalists of the 1800s and didn’t want to look like a bunch of ‘Funnymentalists,’ they abandoned the historic faith the Christians had had up to that time and they began to come up with this goofball idea that the ‘Scripture quoted in their original writings were inspired of God and are without error.’
"And every doctrinal statement you’ve ever seen of any Christian organization you’ve ever been a member of, I bet you has that in its doctrinal statement!
“And before the late 1800s, NO doctrinal statement had any statement about the original writings! Did you know that?! Everybody loves the Westminster Confession. They didn’t say anything about the original writings being the only place God’s Word is!
“God’s plan has been when He wrote His word down He wrote it down so it could be preserved for every generation to come. And He preserved it through copies the saints would have and distribute out that they can take and translate into other languages so the Word of God is so ubiquitously available that it couldn’t be lost!”
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