Day2
Week19
1Samuel 12
“As befits His great name, the Lord will not abandon His people. For it has pleased the Lord to make you His people. Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach you the good and the right way. Fear the Lord; serve Him in truth with all your heart, and consider what great things He has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, both you and your king will be swept away.””
1 Samuel 12:22-25 MEV
Cross references
Joshua 7:9;
1Kings 6:13;
1Kings 8:36;
Proverbs 4:11;
Deuteronomy 10:21;
Isaiah 5:12;
Joshua 24:20
Tricky Truth
World definition of truth-
a judgment, proposition, or idea that is true or accepted as true.
Bible definition of truth-
Truth is that which is consistent with the mind, will, character, glory, and being of God. Even more to the point: Truth is the self-expression of God.
There is a disconnect between the world view and God’s view.
Therefore it is tricky sometimes to understand the difference even in our own lives and hearts.
The only infallible interpreter of what we see in nature or know innately in our own consciences is the explicit revelation of Scripture. Since Scripture is also the one place where we are given the way of salvation, entrance into the kingdom of God, and an infallible account of Christ, the Bible is the touchstone to which all truth claims should be brought and by which all other truth must finally be measured.
An obvious corollary of what I am saying is that truth means nothing apart from God.
Truth cannot be adequately explained, recognized, understood, or defined without God as the source. Since He alone is eternal and self-existent and He alone is the Creator of all else, He is the fountain of all truth.
If you don’t believe that, try defining truth without reference to God, and see how quickly all such definitions fail.
The moment you begin to ponder the essence of truth, you are brought face to face with the requirement of a universal absolute—the eternal reality of God.
Conversely, the whole concept of truth instantly becomes nonsense (and every imagination of the human heart therefore turns to sheer foolishness) as soon as people attempt to remove the thought of God from their minds.
Abandon a biblical definition of truth, and unrighteousness is the inescapable result.
We see it happening before our eyes in every corner of contemporary society. In fact, the widespread acceptance of homosexuality, rebellion, and all forms of iniquity that we see in our society today is a verbatim fulfillment of what Romans 1 says always happens when a society denies and suppresses the essential connection between God and truth.
“They were filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, proud, boastful, inventors of evil things, and disobedient toward parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, calloused, and unmerciful, who know the righteous requirement of God, that those who commit such things are worthy of death.
They not only do them, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”
Romans 1:29-32 MEV
All sin or any sin in our lives, separates us from God.
The sins are all listed above. Not one of them is worse than the other in God’s eyes.
“For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point is guilty of breaking the whole law. For he who has shown no mercy will have judgment without mercy, for mercy triumphs over judgment.”
James 2:10, 13 MEV
Action Step
Are you judging someone else’s sin?
Search your own heart according to God’s Word which we read today.
Walk in mercy and love.
Portions of today’s lesson were adapted from John MacArthur’s The Truth War 2009
Follow the link below to read more
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