“If something is for your edification, watch out! It means it's designed to improve you in some way, whether morally, educationally, or spiritually. Originally edification had a strictly religious sense, in the meaning of ‘building up of the soul,’ from the Latin term aedificationem, for ‘construction’ or ‘building.’ From the same word we get ‘edifice,’ meaning a building, especially a large and imposing one. So, you see, edification is all about efforts to build you into a more sound human being. Children can have a particular dislike for TV shows or books that are considered edifying by their parents or teachers.”
*****
Here’s a great outtake from a recent Sunday morning sermon Jordan gave on godly edification and how it is THE most important thing in a Believer’s life:
“The whole issue of edification, of building, tells you
there is a structure, and if there’s a structure, there’s a pattern. If there’s
a cornerstone, there’s a pattern God’s producing.
“II Timothy 1:13 says, ‘Hold fast the form of sound words,
which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.’
“That word ‘sound’ is like the idea of healthy, life-giving.
Someone has great soundness of flesh. Look at the guy who got healed in Acts 3 and
you read about what soundness he had. If you want to have words that will
produce healthy spiritual life, there’s a FORM to them.
“Galatians 4:19 says, ‘My little children, of whom I travail
in birth again until Christ be formed in you.’ Notice there is a form, there’s
a mold, a model, a structure of Jesus Christ that He wants built into their
inner man and Paul wants Christ formed in them. He wants to erect a structure
in their inner man.
“Acts 20:32 says, ‘And now, brethren, I commend you to God,
and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an
inheritance among all them which are sanctified.’
“What is it that’s going to build him up? The word of His
grace. Where do you learn that? You learn that from Paul.
“II Corinthians 10:8 says, ‘For though I should boast
somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification,
and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed.’
“You know who made Paul your apostle? Jesus Christ did. What
did He give it to him for? Edification.
“You’ll never experience the godly edification of your inner
man (edification based on the way God is doing it) if you don’t recognize the
authority of the Apostle Paul God meant for your life and, instead, you’re back
following Moses, the earthly ministry of Christ or the Pentecostal ministry.
“Paul says, ‘As a wise master builder I have laid the
foundation.’ There’s a blueprint Paul lays down in his epistles that produces
godly edification.
*****
“If you look around you and wonder why you have Christians
tossed to and fro by every kind of wind of doctrine, every kind of nitwittery
idea there is out there, looking for ways to answer questions that the Word of
God answers clearly for them, it’s because they don’t recognize that ONE simple
issue of about where to get their information in the Bible.
“Paul stresses in Colossians 2, 6] As ye have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
[7] Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
[8] Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
[7] Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
[8] Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
“It doesn’t come by osmosis, folks! It comes by studying. It
comes by ‘giving attendance to reading.’ That’s why when you come to church
here our purpose is to help you study on your own!
*****
Come back to Romans 1: 11-12 because this is the key. Paul
writes, ‘For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift,
to the end ye may be established;
[12] That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.’
[12] That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.’
“In I Corinthians 14, the spiritual gift that established
people was the gift of prophecy, the gift of teaching God’s Word. His goal is
that they would be established.
“What does it mean to be established? Verse 12. Establishment
or godly edification means that you and I have the mutual faith that Paul had.
Now, when you have something mutual you have it in common. You share it
equally.
“Paul tells Timothy, ‘And the things that thou hast heard of
me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall
be able to teach others also.’
“In other words, when you understand exactly what Paul
understood, you have the mutual faith, and when you have that understanding,
you have establishment. You’ve been stabilized and you are stablished in the
faith. That’s what Paul says he wants you to have.
“As he’s finishing the Book of Romans, he says in Romans
16:25, ‘Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and
the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery,
which was kept secret since the world began.’
“By the way, I love the way he ends Romans. At the end of
verse 20, he says, ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen,’ and
then he keeps writing. He writes the same thing at the end of verse 24 but then
he keeps writing. He can’t quit! He looks at the clock and he says, ‘I gotta
stop, but, oh, I gotta keep going.’
“Verse 25 is saying, ‘God has the power to do what He says
He’s going to do, to stabilize you according to my gospel.’ Paul’s saying, ‘Here’s
the methodology, the form, the pattern that’s going to produce establishment.’
“You don’t go there by going to your closet and praying or
some preacher anointing you. You get there by the intake of sound doctrine
according to the form, the pattern that produces edification.
*****
“Hebrews 5 says, ‘For when
for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which
be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need
of milk, and not of strong meat . . . strong meat belongeth to them that
are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil.’
“A babe is somebody who’s unskilled in the word of righteousness.
If you’re saved, you somewhere in that spectrum between milk and strong meat.
“The key for you is to grow toward that maturity level
whereby you can discern in every detail of your life how to live for God’s
glory; how to walk in that personal privacy of faith where you can take His Word
and, for yourself--not like a naïve baby, but as a mature adult--walk and
resolve and deal with whatever you face in life.
“Faith is a thing that requires personal privacy ‘with a
heart that believes.’ That’s why psychological techniques destroy faith. That’s
one of the great problems of getting people to walk an aisle or to do some
ritual because it clouds the issue of faith, when you learn as an adult simply
to be sufficient in who God’s made you in Christ.
*****
“I just want to leave you with this one passage. II Corinthians
5: 9-10 says, ‘Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be
accepted of him.
[10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.’
[10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.’
“The things that you do IN your body, that’s what
edification is. You understand that? When you get to the judgment seat of
Christ, and be assured you will face Him and give account of your life in time and what
you’ve done with it, the issue is not going to be how much money you put in the
collection plate, how many tracts you passed out, how many times you prayed,
how many bottles of booze you didn’t drink, how many times you didn’t cuss out
your neighbor, how many times you didn’t beat your husband, etc.
“The issue’s going to be what is your level of edification.
You see the main thing that God gets out of your life is the person you become
right there. The main thing you’re going to carry out of this life is the
person you become because that’s the person you take into eternity.”
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