Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
"God is not going to anoint everyone among His people the way He anoints the leaders of His people." So said Preacher Clark in his sermon that day. God anoints all His children to listen, but only a few to speak and to guide them. It is the responsibility of every member of God's family on earth to know who is sent from God and who is not. If you are ever deceived, it will be your own fault for not being close enough to God to know the difference between the truth and a lie. A pure heart cannot believe a lie, and a guilt-ridden heart cannot believe the truth.
What can you do to make certain that when you hear the truth you will recognize it? The answer is simple, and Jesus gave it to us. He said in John 7:17, "If any man will do [God's] will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself."
Here are some other translations of those words:
"Whoever chooses to do
[God's] will shall know whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my
own." - NAB
"Anyone who resolves to do the will of God will know
whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own." - NRSV
"If
anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching
is from God or whether I am one who speaks on my own authority." - ESV
If your heart really longs to do the will of God, you will recognize truth when you hear it. But if you are more interested in appearing to be good than in pleasing God, you will not. There is no man who can, a priori, tell whose heart desires to please God; however, every man who knows the truth can tell whose heart truly desires to please God by watching the reaction of others to truth when it is preached. Those who truly love God also dearly love the truth of the gospel. Those who do not love God with all their hearts also do not dearly love the truth. Don't be fooled by appearances, my friends. There are many highly esteemed men who are devoted to the religion of Christianity but who hate the true gospel of Christ.
There are many excuses offered, but there is but one reason that anyone refuses to come to the light of Christ. John tells us what that one reason is: "Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."
"Keep your heart with all diligence," Solomon counseled his children, "for out of it are the issues of life." Your heart's desire to please God, or it's lack of desire, will alone determine whether or not you rejoice when you hear the truth. Nothing else. Therefore, guard your heart and do good. And pray, as David did, that God will incline your heart toward His commandments and away from evil practices (Ps. 119:36; 141:4).
If you really want to do God's will, He is going to remove from your heart and mind the wrong ideas about Him that you have. And until we come to the true knowledge of God, we all have those wrong ideas within us. But if we want to do what is right in His sight, He will reveal His heart to us. He will send someone our way who has been taught His truth, and we will believe that man when he speaks because our heart yearns for the knowledge of God.
We must prepare for the coming of truth just as we must prepare for the coming of the Lord for his Bride. When the Lord Jesus appears in the sky for his Bride, it will be eternally too late to prepare for his return. Likewise, when truth is preached, it is too late to prepare the heart to receive it. Now is the time. This is our only opportunity to prepare for what is ahead. Are you prepared to receive the truth that you are about to hear from God? If you truly desire to do God's will, then your preparation is complete.