Study To Show Yourself Approved

Study to Show Yourself Approved

God says, "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman (manuel laborer; hands on) that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." (II Timothy 2:15)

It takes work!

Yet most people take the easy way. They take someone else's word for it figuring they've already done the legwork, the indepth study, the hands on labor. They must know what they're talking about...why question it?
There's a reason why God said, "Study to show yourself approved..." If every person were to study the Bible themselves, allowing God to give them understanding through the Holy Spirit, then we would all be of one mind, not arguing over the Word as we do.

Paul said to the church at Corinth: "My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (II Corinthiians 2:4-5)

Warnings About False Teachers:

There are just so many of them out there in the world today, you really need to study the Word yourself. They don't even realise they're false teachers...they really believe what they teach so they're very convincing. What they say makes sense and is so easy to accept as Truth. There's only one way to protect yourself from inadvertently accepting false doctrine and that is to study the Word yourself. You need quiet time alone with God, to quietly meditate on His Word and let Him speak to you. Let Him give you understanding just as He promised.

"In the last days people will not endure sound doctrine, but following their own lusts will find many teachers..."
"They shall turn away their ears from the Truth and shall turn to fables." (Because it sounds good...it seems to make sense) (II Timothy 4:3-4)

God says, "Don't give heed to fables and commandments of men that turn from the Truth." (Titus 1:14)

"...you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things." (through Him)
"...Let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard (through the Spirit) from the beginning shall remain in you, you shall also continue in the Son and in the Father."
"...the anointing which you have recieved of Him abides in you and you have no need for any man to teach you, but the same anointing (the Holy Spirit) teaches you all things and is the Truth and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you shall abide in Him."
"And now, little children, abide in Him." (I John 2:20-28)

"Beloved, believe not every spirit (or every teacher) but try the spirits (test them) whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." (I John 4:1)

There's only one way to do that. To have a personal understanding of God's Word. Not what someone else has told you, but what God has taught you through your own study and meditation of His Word.

"If we recieve the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." (I John 5:9)

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you."

You Need To Be Weaned

What does "wean" mean? It means to grow accustomed to food other than mother's milk. It means to learn to feed yourself.

This definitely pertains to your study of God's Word as well...your soul needs to be weaned as a child. When you try to obtain all your learning and understanding only from studies done by others, you are still being fed. You are going by the understanding of others...it's not your own...it will never be a part of you. Until it becomes your own, it will never be a part of you.

The day has to come when you break away from all the crutches and let God's Word speak to your heart alone. It's very exciting when you begin to understand on your own and then go back and read a commentary or talk to other brothers and sisters and realize your spirits agree. But, no "man" put their thoughts in your head...the Holy Spirit did...God gave you understanding!

Just as a child needs to be weaned from his mother's milk, our souls need to be weaned from our teachers and our "helps." Jesus wasn't physically there teaching His disciples forever...He only "fed" them until it was time for them to go out alone. Then they were no longer called disciples (students)...they became apostles. An apostle is someone who is mature in Word and capable of going out alone and leading others to the Truth. He told them, "You have no need that a man teach you because in my place I'm sending the Holy Spirit." Jesus, the Living Word, through the Holy Spirit, would still remain their one and only guide as He should be with us today.

We all start out learning from our trusted teachers. If this leads us to maturity where we can step out on our own, that's exactly how it should be. Just remember, a good teacher prepares you to "fly" by yourself. (Like a mother bird pushes her babes out of the nest!) No good teacher tells you to be dependent on them for everything and never to venture out on your own. Every baby learns how to walk when the time comes, every child learns how to talk. Every son and daughter eventually becomes their own person and they separate from parents...so why then, do students of God's Word cling to their teachers and their "helps" for so long??

When you remain dependent on teachers and on other people's understanding rather than on the Holy Spirit...my child, you are just not weaned.

"Whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall He make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk..." (Isaiah 28:9)

Wisdom and Understanding

"But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living." (Job 28: 12-28)

Wisdom and understanding is not derived from many books or studies or from well-meaning friends. It's not how much you think you know because you have read many books. There is only one way to wisdom and understanding:

"...Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is WISDOM; and to depart from evil is UNDERSTANDING." (Job 32:8)
"...there is a Spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." (Job 32:8)

The more of the Word you digest, the more you are filled with the Spirit. Hear the Word of God...not from men, but by Him through the Spirit.
Love of Truth means studying the Word because you crave the knowledge and the Truth it imparts.

What is the oil in your lamp? God's Word, His Truth.

Do you think you have much knowledge because you are book-smart or have many study tapes or follow a pastor who seems to be right up there with God? You need to read and digest His Word every day yourself. You cannot "borrow" your oil from any book, tape, pastor, or well-meaning friend. Only God Himself can fill your lamp. Only He can give you true wisdom and understanding.

"Through Thy precepts I get understanding." (Psalm 119:104)

"I have more understanding than all my teachers: for Thy testimonies are my meditation! (Psalm 119:98-99)

I rejoice at Thy Word, as one that findeth great spoil! (Psalm 119: 162)

Gaining Wisdom

Ecclesiastes Teaches What True Wisdom Is

In Ecclesiastes we read about a King who sought wisdom. No matter where he looked on this earth, he found that "all is vanity." (But a vapor, a breath, done vainly) From my understanding of this, it seems that anything we try to do on our own, here on this earth, is like a vapor that vanishes into nothing and there is no wisdom in anything that is "done vainly." But, to follow God's commandments and to allow Him to guide our lives is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. Ecclesiastes is a good book to read when you're striving so hard to understand and to gain wisdom in the world and you just don't seem to be getting anywhere. King Solomon finally realised this after all his striving to gain wisdom, and after searching endlessly everywhere, he realised it all comes down to one thing:
"Behold, the fear (reverence) of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." (Job 28:28)

Revere the Lord and depart from all evil...this most certainly is wisdom.

Our understanding is not God's understanding. So how then can we possibly hope to obtain wisdom? We can study ourselves to death and rack our brains, but we are so feeble in our "humanness." We cannot possibly obtain wisdom...not by our own understanding. Only by reading the Bible and allowing God to give us understanding, can we even begin to obtain wisdom.

"Canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?" (Job 11:7-8)
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts, saith the Lord."(Isaiah 55:8-9)

How comforting it is to know that it is not in our own strength, or in our own efforts that wisdom and understanding is obtained. I truly believe that as we grow closer to God by seeking to do His will and as we allow His Spirit to guide us instead of relying on ourselves, it's only then that we truly begin to understand. It's not our understanding...it's His.

Here is some of King Solomon's story:

Ecclesiastes 8:
16 When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth:
17 Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

Ecclesiastes 9:
1 For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this: that the righteous and the wise, and their works are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

The only thing we all know for sure in our human understanding is that we'll all die someday, no matter who we are or what position in this life we hold. Once we're gone so is everything we've ever held onto here on this earth:

6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in any thing that is done under the sun.

Even our human emotions are "but a vapor". There is no forever in anything human that is done under the sun. Only what is done through God is forever.

11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

13 This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:

14 There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it:
15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
16 Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.

There is a huge difference between man's wisdom and God's. What is "wisdom" under the sun compared to God's Infinite Wisdom? Man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.

Ecclesiastes 12:
1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Don't wait until the end of your days to remember your Creator. Remember Him "in the days of your youth", in all your days in everything you do. Live your whole life pleasing to Him for we are only dust which will return to the earth from whence it came...(all is vanity).
Only His Spirit and what we have done on this earth through Him will return unto Him.

8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

9 And moreover, because the preacher was wise (only through God's Holy Spirit), he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
10 The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.

That which was written is upright. These are words of Truth.

11 The words of the wise are as goads, (anything that urges to action) and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

After all his searching for wisdom under the sun, the king finally realised that the only true wisdom to be found on this earth was written long ago by one shepherd.

Ecclesiastes 12:
12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

What good is keeping a closet full of notes that only burden you down or by constantly studying other people's thoughts and ideas until you're utterly confused, when all the law and all the Bible concludes in one thing:

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

There you go: Fear God and keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man and this is where you find wisdom.

The LORD Alone Shall Be Exalted

I regret the days that I "replenished from the east"...the days that I fed on every man's word that I could find that sounded right...the "soothsayers" who said what I wanted to hear, whose words sounded good and tickled my ears. I "pleased myself in the children of strangers." I thought I had found "silver and gold"...there were no end to my many books and tapes and notes. What "treasures" of knowledge I had set before me...I truly thought I had obtained wisdom and I was very proud of "the work of my own hands...that which my own fingers had made." One day I realised that I am nothing that the LORD, Himself has not made me...I know nothing that the LORD, Himself has not planted there...I am NOTHING that He has not made me. "My breath is in my nostrils," I am flesh. Who am I, without HIS SPIRIT, to be accounted of?

The LORD alone shall be exalted.

Isaiah 2:
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

6 Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.

7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:

8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:

9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.

10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.

11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,

14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,

15 And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,

16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures..

17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.

19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

The Way To Truth

The way to truth is through God's Word.
It's a narrow way. A narrow path.

That path can be hard to find in the midst of the world-wide web, the "many congregations," the many teachers, the many books people have written...the many everything.
There are not many paths...just one. And few there are that find it.

It's probably right there sitting on your desk or table...a lonely book...the book, the Holy Bible. That's all you need to keep you on that narrow path. Don't take detours or short cuts by only reading what others have written about it or by only listening to what other people say their understanding of it is. Read it and study it yourself!

Psalm 106:
13 They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel:
14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.
15 And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.

That's exactly how I felt when I searched for truth within many groups of people, many books and tapes, many everything...I had "leanness in my soul." I was "lusting exceedingly," searching for answers everywhere I could, and even though what I lusted for was the right thing, it wasn't God's way. I forgot His way...I stopped waiting for His counsel...I sought my counseling from friends, from teachers...let's face it... I sought it from man. God was glad to give me my request, but I definately had leanness in my soul. I was confused by so many different views and oppinions...which one was right??

It was only when I got weary of all the books and tapes and words, and so many things...I felt like I was getting nowhere and all I saw around me was disagreeing and arguing over words and meanings, and people even calling each other names...It was only then that I shut it all out, and finally turned to the one Book. God's Word...His pure Word.

I have to tell you friends, God spoke to me like I never heard before. All alone with Him with nothing to distract me, His love and guidance just overwhelmed me. His Spirit just showered me with peace and understanding. I realised only then, that I had been taking detours and short cuts and looking everywhere but to Him. The more I read and study, the more His Spirit fills me. Don't get me wrong, understanding doesn't come in an instant...sometimes it's as I do my every day things or sometimes it's as I lie in bed at night and the quiet surrounds me. Sometimes it's weeks later when maybe something I'm doing applies to something I've read in His Word. Suddenly His words are "fitted in my lips" (brought to my remembrance) and I begin to understand things as I apply them to my own life. His words have become a part of me...He fills my heart and my soul...His Spirit dwells within me.

There's only one path. How blind I must have been...it was right in front of me all along.

Searching For Truth

We search the world for truth,
We cull the good, the pure, the beautiful.
From graven stone and written scroll,
From the old flower-beds of the soul...
And weary seekers for the best,
We come back laden from our quest
To find what all the sages said
Is in the Book our mothers read.

Wed, Dec 7th - 9:50AM

Introduction