About whole circuit of interplay with life

In II Timothy, the last epistle Paul wrote, he laments, "For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica."

“Imagine, a guy’s got his name positively mentioned at the end of the Book of Philemon and then at the very end of Paul’s ministry he forsook Paul," says Preacher Richard Jordan. "You read down through that list in II Timothy and you don’t expect to find him there. It’s like, ‘What’s he doing there?!’

“You know what, folks, Demas is a warning. You might get all the way up there, but it’s a walk of faith; a daily application of faith to apply God’s Word to your life.

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“Two times in Paul’s epistles he warns against ‘enticing words.’ In I Corinthians 2:4, he says, ‘And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.’

“In Colossians 2:4, he says, ‘And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.’

“That idea of enticing words—it’s w-o-r-d-s that are really enticements, where you’re trying to entice somebody into doing something for some other reason than what the REAL issue is.

“Paul writes in I Corinthians 1:17, ‘For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.’

“That ‘wisdom of words’; that’s talking about making your own way, giving your own explanation. It’s human viewpoint, and what it does is ‘make the gospel of none effect.’

“That doesn’t mean you don’t believe the gospel; it just means it doesn’t have its impact. It doesn’t mean you don’t know the Bible, or read and study it; it just means the Bible doesn’t have the impact on your life God’s designed it to have.

“When Paul talks about ‘fleshly wisdom,’ he’s talking about making a religious show. Galatians 6:12 says, ‘As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.’

“This thing about ‘constraining you to be circumcised’; it’s not really an issue of stopping sin because the people trying to get you to do the religious operation—they don’t keep the law either. They don’t perform to perfection either.

“They’ve got something they’re promoting and it gets to be this big fleshly operation. Paul talks in II Corinthians 11 about the Corinthians ‘being corrupted from the simplicity that’s in Christ.’

“He starts out in the chapter by saying, ‘For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.’

“He’s saying, ‘It’s been with simplicity; that’s how I’ve held my conversation with you. My manner of life has been such that it’s just been who God has made me in Christ that’s the issue; not a bunch of human viewpoint.’

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“Sometimes you hear that word conversation, and oftentimes it’s chaffed at because it’s an Old English word that has more meanings to it than what we generally talk about.

“We usually mean our speech. You know, sit around and have a conversation, discussing things with people. But a conversation is more than just a conversational chat; it’s an entering into an interplay.

“I Peter 3 says, ‘Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.’

“Now, notice that’s the wife’s conversation; it doesn’t say that they may hear  your conversation. If the word conversation was only meant to refer to something you’re saying, they would say ‘when they hear your conversation.’

“But what does it say they’re going to do to your conversation? Behold it. Your conversation is not simply something that you hear with your ear; it’s something you can see with your eye. It’s more than just words. It’s something literally that you can see in someone. It’s the way they converse with life; it’s the way they interplay with life.

“Somebody said conversation means ‘a manner of life.’ It’s more than that, though; it’s literally life itself and it’s something that can be held.

"I say that so you understand the translators of the King James Bible, when they used that word, they did not use it simply to refer to words, because you cannot behold words. It has to do with who you are and the whole circuit; the WHOLE of what your life is about.

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“Paul writes to Timothy in II Timothy 3:10, ‘But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience.’

“He’s saying, ‘You’ve known the things I taught you and you know the way I live--my purpose, my faith, my longsuffering, my charity, my patience, my persecutions and afflictions.’

“Timothy knew all about Paul and it mattered to Paul that Timothy knew more than just the doctrine. He wanted him to know how the doctrine lived in his life and how he ministered that to others.

“Paul says in Philippians 1:29-30, ‘For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; Having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.’

“That’s his conversation: ‘What you see in me, what you hear to be in me’; his manner of life. And Paul says to the Corinthians, ‘When you looked at my life, you know the way I’ve lived with you, and it’s been in simplicity. It’s not been a duplicitous life. I haven’t been one way over here and another way there. And it’s been in godly sincerity.’

“He writes in II Corinthians 4:1-2, ‘But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.’

“I think that’s one of the greatest verses in the Bible to give to a preacher or a Believer—anybody who does the Lord’s work—on HOW to do it.

“We’re just going to teach the truth and if teaching the truth will commend itself to your conscience, then your conscience and my conscience are at one.”

(new article tomorrow)