What to Do?

I picture in my mind a cartoon character pacing in circles around his room.  In total abstraction he keeps asking himself over and over, “What to do?  What to do?  What to do?”  In a cartoon it is funny, but in life it isn’t always so.  This week we have been looking at the manifold dangers that Christ and the Apostles warned the church were to come.  False teachers, wolves from their own midst, greedy men who would seek to fleece the flock for personal gain, unrighteous leaders who would fall into the pit of open and unrepentant sin, others who would turn the grace of God into law; these were the sad road ahead that would plague Christ’s Church.  As we saw yesterday, these problems are not new, but they do need to be dealt with.  But we ask, “What to do, what to do?” 

God’s word gives us the answer.  God’s word always gives us the answer in every area of faith and the practice of faith.  Therefore, God’s word is the first answer.  Paul says that we are to study the word and learn to rightly use it.  The word is our first defense.  If we don’t know it then we can more easily be led astray by those who would deceive.  Acts 17:11 says that the people of Berea were more noble minded because they searched the Scripture to see if what was being said was true.  Since the entire Scriptures reveal the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, we can be aware of false doctrines that deny the Trinity or the equality of the members of it.  Since from Genesis to Revelation the Scriptures show that the just shall live by faith and that God’s grace, not man’s work saves, then any teaching that requires man’s work for salvation is wrong.  Since the entire Scriptures teach that God is holy and that those who serve him are to be holy as well, then we can identify those who are not his by their works.  And since the entire Scriptures verify that they are true and since Christ Himself verified their truth, then anyone who comes denying the absolute truth of God’s word is known to be a charlatan and a fraud.  The Scriptures will guide us to know and see the truth.

But what then?  From those who deny these truths we are to turn away.  (II Timothy 3:5)  This means we separate our worship from them.  We find a place that teaches the truth of the Scriptures that God is holy, salvation is by grace alone, the absolute truth of the Word and the grandeur of the Trinity.  In such a place we get refreshed and renewed in soul and spirit.  We find a grand work to do for the glory of Christ.  We stand together and sing the praise of His glorious Name and grace. 

Great God, eternal Trinity, Eternal One in three,

We thus adore Your holy Name and holy too would be.

The blood of Jesus Christ alone, sufficient for our sin

Your Word of Truth, fore’er affirmed, by grace we enter in.  

  The Friday Benediction

Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen

 

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