Love of the Truth

The love of the truth

This concept you will find is taught throughout various scriptures in the bible, and when you come to read what I have to say about this subject.

You will find the bible has plenty to say about this subject is that PEOPLE WILL BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANT TO BELIEVE.

Turn your bibles to 2 Peter chapters 3.

2 Peter Chapter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

So the bible says here that God is NOT WILLING that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

To those with a warped view of what repentance is this is the proper biblical definition.

Repentance is a change of mind, a turning to something from something, for example turning from unbelief to belief or turning from Idol worship to faith in God.

It does not mean Repent of your sins, period.

The verse says in the last sentence, so that all should come to a change of mind.

Turn your bibles to 1 Timothy 2:

1 Timothy 2:4 “who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

So God wants all people to be saved, and what is it that we have to do to be saved?

Well over and over again, the bible tells us that all you have to do is believe!

The bible says whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. - John 3:15

The question is asked in the bible in Acts 16:30 “…Sirs, what must I do to saved?” and they answer in verse 31, “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

That my dear readers and listeners, is the simplest statement about Salvation that God has spoken to us, ever. Anything deviating from this in regards to Salvation is a damnable heresy!

Salvation is based on faith, not of works and what we see so far is that God is not willing that any should perish, he wants all people to be saved.

So to be saved you have to believe, but the question some will ask is the next topic.

Why do some people believe, and some people do not believe?

Calvinists will tell you that the reason one person believes and the other one doesn’t is because God had already chosen that person to believe, he pre-ordained that person to believe, they’ll tell you that one person has already been chosen and will make them believe at some random point in their life, thereby negating man’s free will to choose. Calvinists believe you were chosen by God to be saved long before you were born and others chosen to be condemned to Hell.

This is another damnable heresy taught by these so called denominational Christians, these are lies straight out of the pits of Hell!

That’s not what the bible says; Jesus Christ by the grace of God should taste death for EVERY MAN. – Hebrews 2:9

Calvinism is a false doctrine that teaches Jesus only died for certain people, that he chose them and died for them. This is NOT Biblical.

So the question still stands, why does one person believe and another doesn't?

The answer lies throughout the bible, and you will find that often times; people will only believe in what they want to believe. Did you get that?

People chose to only believe what want to believe, you see it every day just take a look at our society we are brought up conditioned to what the world wants us to believe, what the God of this world wants us to believe; and ultimately, what we conceive from the lusts of hearts our own desires.

It doesn’t matter to these people whether they are shown facts and evidence of things, these people will refuse to accept the truth and believe only what they want to believe.

They chose what they want to believe and I will show you from the bible why it is important to know this.

Jumping back 2 Peter chapters 3 we are going to look at verse 3.

2 Peter 3:3 “knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,”

So what does it mean that there will be people out there that are walking after their own lusts?

To do those things according to their own desires, what your flesh desires to do, according to your own sinful flesh desires you just do it, not having regards to anything whether it be right or wrong.

You just live a life that says, “If I want to do something, I’m going to do it, I’m going to do what I think is going to make me feel happy, I don’t care whether it right or wrong; I’m just going to walk after my own lusts!”

It’s that desire, that covetousness, desiring something that should be off limits to you, if it feels good, do it, you only live once (YOLO); and unfortunately, this is the way a lot of people are living like today.

Just take a good look around you when you are out and about today, many are walking in their own lusts my friends.

Now if you read verse 4 which says:

2 Peter 3:4-5 “and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. ⁵ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:”

These same people from verse 3 who walk after their own lusts are saying where is the promise of his coming? (Talking about the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ)

Then we read that they are willingly ignorant and did not believe that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, why is that?

And why is it that they don’t believe that the earth was destroyed by a flood of water?

Why is it that they do not believe in the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Look at verse 7:

2 Peter 3:7 “but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the Day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

Why is it that these people don’t believe this verse where it is obviously talking about God’s Wrath and destruction that he will deal out to wicked?

Why don’t they believe in this is clear, it is because they DON’T want to believe in it, they’re not willing to believe in it; it’s their will that is the problem.

Revelation 22:17 “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

And whosoever WILL, let him take the water of life freely, whosoever wants to the bible says. Let me ask you something, does it say take the water of life because you earned it? No, it says come take it FREELY. Amen.

Why are people unsaved today? It is because they DON’T WANT TO BELIEVE IN THE TRUTH.

Turn to John 5 in your bibles:

John 5:38 “And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.”

So this verse is talking about people, who do not believe in Jesus Christ in verse 39 and 40 it says the following:

John 5:39 “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. ⁴⁰ And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”

These are people that believe not, now is it God’s willingness that is the problem? God is willing that all people be saved, but he says that it is YOU that will not come to me. You chose not to believe and come to me that you might have life.

Just going off topic here a bit but I want to explain something with verse 40, mankind should always be trying to go to God, in no way should we see this role reversed, for example Occults and false religions and false doctrines are easy to detect by this one rule I’m about to explain to you.

Faith in the one TRUE almighty God (Our Triune God) is always man realising they cannot save themselves, man should always be going to God, NOT God coming to man.

Some really tricky ones you will hear is “Ask Jesus to come into your heart” although it sounds innocent, but that is NOT how it works. You accept that you can’t save yourself and you go to Jesus, you rely on him and only him. 

All throughout the ages of Earth’s history you will see that false religions teach that man can become God or gods, man has always tried bring God down to our level of humanity, they will teach other heresies that we are little gods because of poor exegesis of a scripture or by downright deception to fuel their own lusts and agenda.

We are not gods nor will we ever be a God, the bible explicitly does not teach such blasphemies.

And…back on topic J

Go to John Chapter 1, now the bible reads:

John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² The same was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. ⁴ In him was life; and the life was the light of men.⁵ and the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

So what we get from this is that the Word of God is a light, in Psalms 119:105 say the following:

Psalms 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

Jesus Christ is also the light; he is God manifest in the flesh – John 1:14

Jesus Christ himself said in John 8:12 the following:

John 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

Jesus Christ said that he is the light, as long as he is in the world he is the light of this world.

The Word of God is the light of the world, if Jesus is the Word, then he is the light.

The bible says in John 1:5 that and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

What does it mean to comprehend something, to understand something right? If we keep reading we read that there was a man named John, this man came for a witness, a witness for what?

He came to bear witness of the light, who is the light? Jesus Christ, what’s he bearing witness of?

He is bearing witness of The Word of God.

Let me ask you this question, what was the purpose for God to sending John the Baptist, what was God’s intention?

That John the Baptist might preach and bear witness of the light and point people to Jesus Christ and the purpose would be that ALL MEN would believe! That all men would be saved!

John 1:8-12 “He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. ⁹ That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. ¹¹ He came unto his own, and his own received him not. ¹² But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”

Turn your bibles over to John Chapter 3 and we will see the “believe what you want to believe” comes in.

From John 3:16-18 we read the following:

John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. ¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Let’s keep on reading so we can figure out why they don’t believe, why his own received him not, why they are ignorant of the fact that God created the heavens and the earth and is going to bring them all into condemnation.

Read onto verse 19-20:

John 13:19-20 “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. ²¹ But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

I’ve had people come to me twisting these verses to turn it into a works based salvation passage, the reason they give is that they’ll say the reason why these people could not get saved is because they did not want to give up their sins…they love their sins too much and are not willing to give it up…

What a bunch of baloney nonsense!

THERE IS NOTHING IN THE BIBLE THAT TEACHES YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP YOUR SIN TO BE SAVED, IF THAT WERE THE CASE; THEN NONE OF US WILL BE SAVED! – Yep, all caps lock there I’m yelling here because this cannot be stressed enough, there a millions of people deceived into thinking they can earn their way to heaven.

Look the bible says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. – 1 John 1:8

None of us can say that “I am Pure” or “I’ve freed myself from sin”, if anyone comes to you saying that this should raise a red flag straightway.

When we get saved, we are still in the flesh, that’s why we still continue to sin, that’s why we walk in the spirit so we don’t give in to the lusts of the flesh.

That is not what this is teaching, what this is teaching is that many people who do not want to believe the truth is the fact that they do not want their sin to be reproved or rebuked.

These people want to believe that anything goes, they want to believe that there no commandments that they have to follow, they don’t want believe that this is right, and this is wrong, they just want to believe in what they feel is right without any regards to anybody else and just as long as it makes them feel good they don’t care, they make excuses as well like, “it’s not hurting anyone else”, they don’t want to have rules because they want to walk after their own lusts!

When people have evil sinful deeds, they hate the light. When people are living in sin, most of them don’t like to exposed, they don’t want the light shining on them, they want to go through life feeling that what they are doing is fine, they are ok and they want to live in darkness.

Now Jesus Christ is light, The Word of God is Light, The Gospel is a light, the bible says:

2 Corinthians 4:4 “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

The Gospel is such good news, it amazing why people would not want to receive it, it’s easy to get saved, it simple to get saved; Jesus Paid it all.

This is such a positive message you want to think why wouldn’t anyone want to receive it?

I’ll tell you why most people don’t want to receive it; it is because people don’t want to acknowledge that they are a sinner, the Gospel shines a light on the sinner, if Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, for your sins that means you have sins don’t it?

And if Jesus Christ had to die on the cross to save you from Hell, that means you are on your way to Hell or else you needn’t believe on somebody to save you from Hell right?

So unless you acknowledge that you are wicked and sinful, you don’t need anybody to save you do you? Look these people don’t want to acknowledge that they are sinful; they do not want to acknowledge that they’re not good enough to go to heaven so they reject the Gospel because their deeds are evil.

You see, those who are saved, will believe in the entire bible from cover to cover, if you say that you believe in Jesus but reject the bible: you’re not saved, if you say there are other books that you believe in and are not part of the bible; YOU’RE NOT SAVED, PERIOD.

To receive Jesus Christ as saviour, you are acknowledging the Word of the bible is true, and in doing so you are also acknowledging the sinfulness and wicked life style you are living.

For the unbeliever, this is some of the things they’re not willing to accept, something they are not willing to come to grips with.

Turn your bibles over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2; here we see the same thing. I am going to give you 3 more reasons why people won’t believe.

2 Thessalonians 2:10 “and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

With all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, this is talking about all those that are not saved, all those that are going to die, and why? Because they receive NOT the love of the truth, that they might be saved and rightly so.

And in verse 11 we read the following:

2 Thessalonians 2:11 “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: ¹² that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Now why is God sending these people strong delusions, that they should believe a lie?

Is it because God just choses whoever he wants to receive this delusion? No, it is because THEY RECEIVED NOT the love of the truth!

They made the first move; they rejected God first that is why God sends them string delusions, that they should believe a lie and be damned for not believing in the truth, so they can have pleasure in unrighteousness.

When you bring these people the Gospel, you shine the light on them, exposing their darkness.

This reminds me of the apartments in Sydney when my wife and I used to live there, anyway every night I would go into the kitchen I would turn the light on, then as soon as you flick the light switch on, all the cockroaches, creepy crawlers and all manner of bugs would scatter in a blink of an eye; but the moths would flock to the light, so as soon as you flick the switch back off, they start to come out again and this would keep on happening if you had to repeat that process.

This is exactly what it is like when you bring the light of God’s Word to an unsaved person, some will scatter in utter unbelief like the cockroaches; and others will flock to the light and remain or follow where the light is like the moths.

So you have in this world, some who love the truth and will be saved; and others who hate the truth and will not believe.

I’m the type of person who always wants to know the truth, especially for things of major significances, like the ultimate destination of my life and what will happen to me should I lose this life…

I have a love for the truth, whether it is good or bad I embrace it, because let’s face it; the truth isn’t always pretty, it can be downright nasty…

We shouldn't be approaching the bible in a way where we might say to ourselves, “man I really want this to be true” or “I really want that to be the truth” we should approach the bible and ask ourselves, “what is the truth?” whether we like it or not, we should love it because it is the truth.

Some people you will find will only believe what they want to believe, whether it is true or not, even some people who say they are Christians trust in their big fancy religious institutions because they think their church is going to save them, they think that keeping the laws and commandments to reach perfection and getting baptised is going to save them. They think their works is going to get them to heaven.

But most self-professing Christians think they’re saved but they’re not trusting in Jesus Christ at all.

A lot of these people will not believe not matter what you do, you can show them facts, you give them evidence you can literally shove it their faces and they will still not believe…

Now onto the 3 reasons why these people will not believe.

1.     They do not want to acknowledge that God’s Laws exist, these people have pleasure in unrighteousness, they enjoy sin and they want to sin without feeling guilty about it; and don’t have to acknowledge that there is anything wrong. 

     They only way they can sin without feeling guilty about it is saying, “This isn't a sin” or “there’s nothing wrong with this”. They tell themselves that what they are doing OK, what they are doing is fine.

2.       The next reason why people will not believe the Gospel is because they have too much PRIDE to believe the Gospel. Look, the Gospel is a really humbling experience in that you are acknowledging that you basically have nothing to do with going to heaven that it’s not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit. – Titus 3:5

It takes a humble person to acknowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ did it all for us, the proud person cannot truly admit that; they trust in their own works, they trust in their own selves they will never completely trust and rely on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

The Proud person will never ever want to acknowledge that, that’s why it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven. – Matthew 19:24

Rich men are filled with pride, because they've accomplished a lot in their lives, they've succeeded in life, and a lot of them have done it on their own some of them not even having anything to; having everything. As they have done it on their own, they are filled with pride from their accomplishments and so a proud prideful person will have difficulty excepting the fact that they cannot get to heaven that they have to rely on someone else to get into heaven.

Now when it comes to my own works of righteousness, I myself am a loser in that respect; there is no way I could live like Jesus to make it into heaven! Yep, my righteousness is filthy rags! - Isaiah 64:6

These prideful people will never acknowledge that, they think they’re good; oh boy, but there is none good but one!

Now a person who has failed in life, a person who has pretty much messed up in everything they have done; this person is more likely to receive the Gospel and get saved.

The harlots and the publicans they flocked to Jesus, they could easily see themselves not making it to heaven on the account of their own righteousness.

If you can see for yourself that you are not good enough, and you can acknowledge that you can’t get to heaven on your own, hey, you’re already halfway there to getting saved!

Now people who think they are righteous; are very far from the kingdom of God.

In Fact, Jesus said in Matthew 5:20 “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

So unless you are better, more righteous than they are, you will in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God. But are the Pharisees close to the kingdom of God?

The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican will expand more on this:

Luke 18:9-14 “And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ¹⁰ Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. ¹² I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. ¹³ And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

Just look at what the Pharisee is saying here, he gives off a list and thanks God that he is none of these: he is not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers or even as this Publican.

He gives a list of his own works and brags about how he fasts twice a week, gives tithes of all that he possesses; do you really think he gives tithes of all his possessions? I don’t, and the Old Testament doesn’t command us to give all we possess as a tithe.

Now look at the publican, this guy isn’t even looking up to into heaven, he is beating on his chest, he acknowledges that he is a sinner, and asking God to be merciful to him, this publican is portraying a perfect example of humbleness before the Lord; unlike that proud boastful Pharisee who thinks he is so righteous.

At the end of the story, Jesus tells us who went home justified; yet even after reading this story, the unsaved, the prideful will still not believe.

Often, the righteous are just as sinful as the person whom acknowledges they are, if not more sinful; they generally have a better way of concealing this from people.

But no man can say that they are sinless, there is none righteous, everyone has sins. So those who believe that they’re righteous have difficulty in accepting and believing that they are going to be condemned to Hell without the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pride is a very destructive attribute that can condemn you for eternity.

So first of all, it is because they don’t want to acknowledge God’s Laws, and secondly is that they are too prideful, and really, it is pride is part of the reason why they don’t want to acknowledge God’s Laws; they don’t want to admit that I’m doing wrong every day of my life, they don’t want stop doing wrong, and they don’t want to admit that it is wrong, and these people will go onto say that God doesn’t exist.

Seriously, I’ve heard Atheists talk about how the God of the bible doesn’t exist and look, I used to be like that in one point in my life, and most of us would have too, I never grew up grounded in the truth.

These people will say that “God doesn’t exist”, “the bible isn’t true” or “I just have a different interpretation of the bible than you do which you know, allows me to believe that drunkenness, fornication, and covetousness are acceptable.

This leads me to point number 3:

3.       The third reason I’m going to give is that people who chose not to believe, is because they can’t accept the negativity of the bible, they can’t accept the negative things that happen in the bible; they want to believe that there is an all loving God out there, they want to believe in just everything is positive. They don’t want to believe that there is Hell, they don’t want to believe in a God that could send anyone to Hell, and they just can’t.

Now look, I can totally understand why they say this, I can understand that they want to believe in a God that is just loving to everyone, a God that takes care of everybody; A God that takes care of everybody whether you’ve been good or bad.

They want to believe in a God, who basically allows everyone into Heaven, now look, I can understand that, I can really sympathise with that can’t you? But look, but you know what overrides that? What overrides that idea is my love; MY LOVE of THE TRUTH!

 Jesus said:

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” those who love the truth no matter if it positive or negative are going to say, “No matter if it is good or bad, positive or negative, and even if it is downright nasty; I just want to know the truth”.

Those who have a love of the truth will love it, and look, the bible is negative as well as it is positive; God is both negative just as he is positive, he is long suffering towards us, he is just, he is a God of fiery indignation, he is a God of love: he is also a God of Wrath.

These people will also say things like, “well I just don’t believe in a God that would send anyone to Hell”, or “I Just can’t believe that any God would send fiery serpents amongst the Israelites because they complained”, and “I don’t believe in a God that would put homosexuals, murderers and rapist to death”, “I just don’t believe in a God who is just so negative toward people”.

Peoples logic here is so willingly ignorant here of the truth, I myself want to believe in the real God of the bible, I’m always like, show me the true God of the bible.

If you ask the Atheists on what their opinion is about if God exists, and you ask if the God of the Bible exists and they’ll flat out tell you no way, they’’ say space aliens may have created this planet and us, but the God of the bible; no chance.

And I’ll ask them why?

And they’ll say, “Well, the God of the bible is homophobic, misogynistic, and a racist, I don’t really think a God like that could exist”.

Here’s when their logic really gets messed up and stupid. Now I would say to them, “Well, I believe in the bible, so that makes me the same as what you described the God of the bible right?” and I’ll say, “So, by your definition I’m a homophobic, I’m misogynistic and everything else you say the God of the bible is, I also; does that mean I don’t exist too”?

This is such a foolish reasoning that because you don’t like God or agree with God that you’re just going to snap your fingers and he is just going to disappear and go away…

Whether you do or don’t like God, it doesn't mean he isn’t there, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist.

I want to be show the TRUE God, show me the TRUE God of the bible! Not the one I formed and fashioned in my mind, the one that fits what I want him to be, NO! Show me the true God of the bible because I love the truth!

If you compare the negative things of this world to the negative things in the bible, they match up perfectly, what is spoken of in the bible is exactly what goes on in this world. My friends, the world is full of negative things, the world is filled with suffering, and just because you live in the nicest areas of your city doesn't mean there are wicked things happening elsewhere.

2 Peter 3:5-7 “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: ⁶ whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: ⁷ but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

He says that they are willingly ignorant that God had once destroyed the earth with water, and in the future he will destroy the earth with fire and that they are willingly ignorant of both things, why? Because it’s too negative…

If you think this, you are living in a dream land, you’re not living in reality, and you don’t have a love for the truth.

Look a lot of Christians fall into similar situations as well where they may not have the love of the truth in other areas of life; Salvation, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is something that we should do, but it doesn’t have to just stop there. We are born again, spiritual babes that need to grow into mature Christians and every Christian will lack in at least one area of life that we need to work on.

Believing on Jesus Christ and getting saved is just the beginning, there are many other things that we need to learn and grow as believers, and we need to always keep the love of the truth in our hearts all the time. Let’s love the truth, take your bibles with you to church and open your bibles, don’t ask yourself, “do I like this sermon?” or “Do I like this talk, Do I like what this person is saying right now, do I like the implications of what this person is telling me right now”? No, you should ask yourself if whatever this person is saying the truth! 

Is it true? Is what am I hearing the truth!!? You say how do I know? Well, open your bibles, read the Word, compare it to scripture! If you are not in the Word, then you are not in Christ, neither the son or the father abideth in you.

You should be saying I love that preaching! I love that talk because it is the truth!

If you don’t love the truth, you won’t love true preaching.

Don’t say to yourself, “Oh I love this preaching or talk because it makes me feel good”, No! You should be saying to yourself that you love this preaching, you love this sermon because it’s the truth!

More often than not, most people reject true biblical preaching because it is something they don’t want to hear.

Now here is a commandment to a preacher:

2 Timothy 4:2 “preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

What does it mean to be instant in season and out of season? Sometimes the truth is in season and sometimes the truth is out of season, meaning the truth can be popular or unpopular.

Take clothing for example, clothing can be trendy for a period of time, it can go in and out of fashion.

The truth can be in and out of style among people.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; ⁴ and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Notice here it says that the time will come, now I believe this time came as soon as Jesus ascended up back to heaven when people will not endure sound doctrine; but after THEIR OWN LUSTS shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears meaning they want to hear only what they want to hear, things that make them feel good about themselves and they shall TURN AWAY their ears from the TRUTH and shall be turned unto fables.

Instead, these people are choosing to go with a fable, they want to go with a fairy tale or a lie instead of going with the truth because they just have itching ears! They only want to have their own lusts fulfilled and that they only want to hear what they want to hear!!!

You see, these people if they decide they only want to hear a positive only message, they’re going to find a preacher that will give them a positive only message and his name is Joel Osteen or her name is Joyce Myer.

If they don’t want to believe that Salvation is by Faith alone, they’ll go find a preacher that’ll tell them that, “You’ll have to earn it yourself!” and that strokes their pride, that fuels their ego; I heard it many a times, they’ll say stuff like, “well I’ve given up all these sins, I’m living a righteous life, and I’m following the ten commandments” blah blah blah, these are the sorts of things they want to hear.

Isaiah 30:9 “that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord:”

They are a rebellious people, they are lying children, the word “will” and what that means is that they don’t want to hear the Law of the Lord.

Isaiah 30:10-11 “which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: ¹¹ get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.”

The bible tells us right here that there are people out there who just willingly just do not want to know the truth, they’ll say to the preacher (A preacher is also a prophet), “do not preach what is right, preach to us what we want hear; preach us lies”.

Now why would anyone want their preacher to preach lies unto them?

According to the above verse, the reason they want lies is because they want the preaching to be smooth, now this passage says the opposite of smooth things; is right things.

Hard preaching is right preaching, if you say you don’t like hard preaching then you don’t like right preaching; it’s rough preaching, the preaching that speaks the truth!

So if you are deceptive, you’re being smooth; the preaching is going to be smooth.

Is this article smooth to you or does this offend you to some degree?

For example, if you are doing the dishes and you got some really bad stuff stuck on your dishes are you going to use a sponge to get that stuff off or are you going to use the steel wool?

Rough and right preaching is like the steel wool, it’s going to clean you up good, but if you use the sponge preaching; it’s going to be smooth, probably feel nice but it will not clean up well is it?

We need the rough preaching to help clean up the filth that comes into our life, for most of us we need to go to a church that will get us cleaned up good with rough preaching.

You will find when you go to these feel good churches full of motivational talks, smooth preaching where the pastor or preacher isn’t hitting on sin at all, you’ll leave the service feeling hungry, you know? Spiritually hungry.

You should be turning up to church hungry and thirsty for the Word of God, the truth.

You should be getting served a full my meal from church, not a salad.

So to wrap up this lengthy article/sermon is that there are two kinds of people in this world.

There is people who love the truth, and people who don’t.

Those who don’t love the truth in regards to the fact that the bible is the Word of God, and that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the World; the cost of that is to be damned, to be condemned for all eternity. Those who have pleasure in unrighteousness and the cost of rejecting Jesus Christ as the Messiah is eternity in Hell.

Is the bible wicked?

Is the bible unrighteous?

No, these people don’t like it because it shines a light on their wickedness, it exposes them for whom they really are and don’t want to accept the truth.

Listen, there are people out there who are not saved, but have a love for the truth, I was one person like that; who always chased conspiracies. These people, if you give them the Gospel and show them the bible way to heaven where by Salvation is by Faith and not of your works; these types of people like myself once was are easier to win over to the Lord.

Other people will just want to walk after their own lusts.

Once we have the truth, it doesn’t stop there; we have to remain in the truth, true preaching will offend us, if you get mad at the preaching and its biblical truth, then you’re not right with God.

Let’s bow our heads and have a word of prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father,

I thank you for giving us the truth, please help us remain in the truth, which is that rock that we should hold onto, I love the truth your Word is the truth, we can’t always be sure from other things that they are true, but thank you for giving us your true Words in the form of the bible; In Jesus name,

Amen.