the basic message # E109
Acts 17:11
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see of what Paul said was true.
What a marvelous universe our LORD has created. Planets and stars are countless. Imagine the vast size of the earth: 862,400 miles in diameter! Isn’t that mind-boggling? And consider the sun- 7,900 miles in diameter. What amazing statistics! There’s only one problem- they aren’t true. Well actually, there is some truth present, since the earth is 7,900 miles in diameter and the sun is 862,400 miles in diameter. Here’s the question: How many of you would have believed my first statement of the planet sizes? And here’s an even scarier question: How many of you would have walked around with this piece of paper and told others these amazing facts? You see, it’s very easy to mislead people when data is presented like this, because most people are too lazy or too gullible to check out the facts for themselves. In the passage above the Bereans didn’t take anyone’s word on important subjects, and you shouldn’t either. I listen to plenty of radio and TV preachers each day. I’m amazed at how many have the word “truth” in the name of their program or their church. “True Word Baptist Church” “Truth and Light Ministries” “God’s True Gospel Tabernacle” You get the picture. I’m just about at a point in life that when someone comes up and tells me they have the truth, I want to run the other way. What most of them have is what they perceive to be the truth, not necessarily the actual truth.
Romans 3:4
Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”
How many times have I heard a pastor say, “What God means is this”? Oh really? Did God tell him that? Please understand that I’m not in the preacher-bashing business, but someone needs to step-up and call a spade a spade. There are thousands of great pastors in this world. There are some mighty men-of-God out there, and I’ve been blessed to know a few of them. But understand this- there are some snakes out there too, and they know how to talk and what to say. They could tell you the earth is a million miles in diameter and many of you would say, “do tell!” Don’t make the mistake of thinking God only holds the liar responsible in the church. If God knows you’re capable of questioning the information you’re provided and if he knows you can check it out, he’ll expect you to do so. Satan is the great deceiver. Satan is very slick in his style of operation. He starts off telling the absolute truth. Most people will think, “It must be from God since I know it’s true”. Then Satan tells 99% truth and only 1% lies. Since that’s hard to discern, most people will still accept it for full truth. Do you know how to boil a live frog to death? If you take a frog and throw him into a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out like a rocket. But put that same frog into a pot of nice cool water and he’ll just sit there and enjoy his new home. Then start raising the temperature one degree at a time. He won’t notice the gradually rising temperature until he becomes cooked to death. Satan allows us to become very comfortable with his telling of the truth. As he gains our trust, he’ll boil us just like that frog. Be on your guard, or become an easy target.