Truth Test

Transcript

Alright. Thank you very much, and hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? You doing alright? Bless your heart, I hope everything’s alright at your house. I’m happy in the Lord, feeling great, praise God from whom all blessings flow. [chuckle] No problem except the problems that I myself bring to the business of living, and He’s able for them as well, isn’t He? Yes, He is.

I had a letter from someone a while back that said, “I particularly liked one of your programs on patience. Would you do one on patience with your parents? I am at the other end of life. My elderly parents, 88 and 93, live with me. I brought them in so I could take care of them, but like so many of your other listeners, I am totally untrained in dealing with their fears and frailties and so on.” Bless your heart. You know you’re not alone, more and more of us are getting older and older.

People used to die sooner and now they’re living longer, aren’t they? And you, my dear, writer of this letter, you’re gonna be there one day yourself, aren’t you? How do you face all of this daily responsibility for dear aged parents? You love them, of course you do, but sometimes they just drive you to distraction.

Well, now number one, realize that you’re human as well, and that you’re gonna be in that place if you live that long, just as they are. And the golden rule starts where I am. “Whatsoever therefore you would that men should do unto you, do you likewise onto them.” The Golden Rule starts where I am, and it might be helpful if you just remember that you’re on your way to the same kind of conditions that they have. And sight will fail and hearing will start to fail, and mobility will be limited and fears and the futile rages of the aged, someone has said, all of these things. And suspicions and misunderstandings and misapprehensions because they don’t quite grasp what’s going on. It’s all there, isn’t it?

Well, you’re on your way, so you better… You better just remember that you’re gonna be there too and you’d like to have somebody be very kind and very patient with you, wouldn’t you? So maybe you better start now. Good idea? Another thing is this, we don’t change the way people are. That’s how they are. If they’re stubborn, they’re stubborn, if they’re gloomy, they’re gloomy if they’re irresponsible, they’re irresponsible. You don’t change them very much at age 88 or 93, you know that already. What does happen, however, because you know the Lord Jesus Christ, He can give you extra grace. James 4:6, “He giveth more grace.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Paul said, “most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

The very point at which I am just about to go up the wall, or off the wall as the case may be, the very point in which I have reached the end of my ability to cope, is the point at which Jesus, my blessed Lord, wants to take control and see me victoriously through. “Thanks be unto God,” Paul, in 2 Corinthians 2:14, “Thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ.” When you get to the end of yourself and there isn’t any more patience and any more grace or any more ability to cope and you just don’t know what to do except to explode, don’t light the fuse. Don’t explode, instead call on your blessed Lord Jesus Christ, and He will see you through and He’ll make you victorious. Not somehow, but victoriously you’ll go through the situation.

I’ve noticed that elderly people as well as younger folk who may have some affliction or other, while they are not always appreciative or responsive, can always tell the difference between love and just coping and getting along. They can always tell the difference between a loving response. See, a loving response doesn’t have to be, it doesn’t have to be sentimental or flabby. A loving response can be strong, but they know the difference between love and just somebody that’s trying to cope with them. Let God fill your heart with love for these dear ones. Always and always, so that even though you are saying, “You know that you need to take a bath” or whatever it may be, even though you’re saying something that involves, “You have to do this,” you can say it with love, and the overtones of love are going to penetrate into that aged brain and heart and they’ll know.

And remember, too, that other people are watching you, beloved, as you deal with this extra responsibility. People are watching to see how you go through it and what you do and what you say and how you react to situations, and how you bear up, sometimes miraculously, under the pressures, is going to constitute a testimony to somebody else’s heart and life. And someone else is gonna say “Well, if Jesus can help her do it, He can help me too.” Remember that what you’re doing now is a testimony, as well as a task. It’s not just something to get through with, it’s something that is going to be used to bring honor and glory to your blessed Lord.

“Whatsoever you do,” Paul said, “do it heartily as for the Lord and not just for people, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Every day, getting the meals, making the beds, taking care of those aged and frail. And sometimes fractious people who can irritate you beyond belief with their special type of irritation, you know. Every day, as you go through the routines of every day, remember it’s not just for them. Yes, it’s for them, alright. But mostly it’s for Jesus. And people who watch you, are going to give Him the glory as they see what He does in your life. Well, that’s the best answer I can give, beloved, to the letter that you sent in some time ago. And I’m sure there are many others who, were they to write, would say something of the same thing. And I’m sure too, that as we take all of us, our own advice to live every moment as unto the Lord Jesus, to trust His almighty power to see us through when otherwise we would break up, to trust Him to give us the miracle of love and grace and patience, whereas otherwise we would be irritated beyond belief. When we trust the Lord Jesus, He’ll see us through. Not just somehow, but triumphantly. God bless you.

Well, that was an extra, that I threw in. Now we go back to Colossians chapter two, he says, “I’m praying that your hearts might be comforted being knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and the Father and Christ. In Him, Christ, are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” He said, “What I’m praying for is that you’ll be united in your love for each other and for Christ with the understanding that everything you need and everything you need to know about God is in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now, he said, “I’m saying this.” Now, we go on to verse four. “I say this lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.” Enticing words. You study what the Bible has to say about words and it’s a very stimulating and challenging study. There are vain words, Job talked about them and irritating words. “A grievous word stir up anger,” said Solomon. Hasty words and irreverent words and enticing words, as the one we got here, and flattering words and insincere words and proud words and malicious words.

That’s the bad side of it. And then there’s the other side. Job said, “How forcible are right words.” And Solomon said, “Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.” He also said that a word fitly spoken is beautiful, like apples of gold and pitchers of silver and he said that the words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious. Gracious words. And, “The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies.” Inspiring words. And then there’s comforting words in Isaiah, “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.” Words, kind words, spiritual words, God’s Word in your heart and mind and mouth.

So he says, “Lest anyone should beguile you with enticing words.” Always test any religious approach by the Word of God. Thus saith the Lord. Isaiah 8:20 “To the law and to the testimony, for if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” God will always lead you according to His Word. Pastor Ward Potts of Christ the King Lutheran Church has just written a book, it’s called Hearing the Voice of Jesus: How to Hear God Speak to your Heart. Excellent little book, and he just sent me the first copy and I just devoured it. “You can depend on it,” says he, “that God will speak to your heart if you’ll listen and” he adds, “He will always speak in line with, and in agreement with His written infallible Word, the Bible.”

God will never speak to you except it agrees with what is in the Word of God. You will find guidance if you’ll search the scriptures. Jesus said, “Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me.” John 5:39. You always can get some guidance from the Word of God, and then there is this over and above experience of intimate deep communion with our blessed Lord through the indwelling Holy Spirit, where God speaks to your own heart and you know that you’ve heard from Him. But every religious impression from without needs to be tested by the Word of God, the infallible, inerrant, inspired Word of God, the Bible.

I use those words, not just as a formula. They mean something. We are in a day when people are doubting the Word of God and we need to remember that your spiritual wobble begins when you begin to doubt the authority of the Word of God. So I use those words deliberately. The inerrant, infallible Word of God. Always test every religious impression, every religious proposition, every new idea that someone brings religiously. Paul uses the word “beguile” you with enticing words. It may sound very plausible, but always test it by the Bible and you will be in good shape, I promise you.

Dear Father, today, may we be found testing every religious approach in our lives by the inerrant Word, the Bible. Speak to us through Thy Word, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!