COMMIT OUR HEARTS TO REALLY KNOWING AND LOVING GOD
Our goal is to know God, not just know about him. We need to know Jehovah our God – His laws, and how He thinks, in order to really understand Him. We need to use Bible study to help develop a deep relationship with God.
Isaiah 66:2, “For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist," Says the LORD. "But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.” (NKJV)
Jeremiah 9:24, “‘But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the LORD.”
God loves those whose hope is in really knowing the Bible and who tremble at misapplying it. God rewards those who are sincerely pursuing Him and truth.
1 Corinthians 2:13-14, “These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
James 1:22-24, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;…he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”
Ask God for spiritual discernment.True believers have a heart that is open and obedient to God. Constantly continue to seek God, to obey God, from the heart. Ask for Godly insight and for every day guidance. Study the Bible every day. Attend church services every Sabbath, if possible. Learn all you can. Attend all Holy Days especially the New Testament Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles. God rewards our persistence with deeper and deeper understanding of His word, like the peeling of an onion.
CONSISTENCY IS FOUND IN GOD'S WORD BECAUSE HE NEVER CHANGES
God Is the Same Yesterday and Today and Tomorrow. God is never wrong. All the decisions He made in the past are correct. The Old Testament must be honored. It was the foundation for the New Testament writers. It may not be easy to understand in a modern world which is so different than the ancient society of the Old Testament, but all the Bible is still the gold standard when understood correctly. The world is MISLED by Satan to dismiss this foundation of truth and are thereby easily thrown astray when they study the Bible. God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Hebrews 13:8-9, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 9 Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines…"
Nothing God has ever done is wrong. The Old and New Testament work together. Never accept anything that does not square with the Bible truth you already know. If a doctrine does not fit the foundation of the Bible, including the Old Testament, then it is in error.
2 Peter 3:15-16, “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you; 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the IGNORANT and unstedfast wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” (ASV)
Paul means those that are ignorant or unlearned about the Old Testament. If you do not understand parts of the Bible or foolishly reject the foundational material and choose to be ignorant of it, you will never fully understand it. See also Deut. 13:1-3.
CONTEXT IS VITAL BECAUSE THE BIBLE NEVER CONTRADICTS ITSELF
God would not contradict himself because it would not be logical. If, for instance someone reads a verse where Paul is complaining about the circumcision party and it may appear that he is against God’s Law, you know that is an incomplete understanding OF HIM. He is complaining about their interpretation of how God’s Law should be applied to gentiles. Circumcision is of the heart which is consistent with the Old Testament. GOD'S CIRCUMCISION LAWS must be seen in context. See Deut 10:16.
Romans 2:25-29, “25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”
Jesus taught that the real spiritual meanings of God's Laws must be kept. Christ made the Law more binding NOT LESS.
Matthew 5:17-18, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Jesus demands we keep the meaning of the law deep down in our mind and hearts. This context must be understood before one can understand the Bible. The false teachers undermining Paul did not actually keep the Law themselves. See Gal. 6:12-13. Paul, in many places, confirms the Laws of God which include the fourth commandment. That is the reason many wish to do away with the God’s Law by dismissing the Old Testament. Some wish to justify Sunday and worship tools of statues. See Romans 3:31, 6:1-2, 15.
We are saved by grace but then God demands we repent and start trying to obey the Commandments of God not Judaism’s many rules. Jesus alone justifies us. We cannot justify ourselves by our works. Many times the Bible is misunderstood because too many use tunnel vision. They find a verse and build doctrines upon it without studying the obvious contextual verses, the common sense meaning of the passage, and the era in which it was written and thus build false doctrines. (Example, the snake handlers, Acts 28:3-4) Also see the thematic scripture for the Podcast where Isaiah tells us we must build correct understanding by using all parts of the Bible in context, "here a little there a little." Note Isaiah 28:9-13.
Note I Cor. 3:12-17. We find deeper layers of meaning year upon year. The longer we obey, the greater understanding God gives us. See Gal. 6:7-9 which shows that the opposite is also true. See Prov. 16:2, 25, Ps. 119:18-34, Isa. 59:2.
REMEMBER
COMMITMENT TO GOD IS NEEDED
CONSISTENCY OF GOD AND HIS WORD MUST BE SEEN
CONTEXT OF GOD'S MESSAGES MUST BE USED
