Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
I Corinthians 2:12-13
Like signs along the roadside posted to navigate our safe travel from point A (the earth), to point B (heaven), God gives us signs which are to be observed. God has placed his signs in his word to protect us and guide us.
1. Ps.16:11a “Thou wilt show me the path of life...” How do we know if we are on the Lord’s path? The answer is also found in His word;
2. Ps.27:11 “Teach me thy path, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.” The Lord has our path picked out, and he uses teaching from his word to lead us.
Two Aspects of the Lord’s Path
3. In his path is blessing, Ps.65:11... “thy paths drop fatness.”
4. In his paths are overwhelming trials of our faith in him as we are called upon to exercise faith in what we have been taught, Ps.77:19 “Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.”
5. How do we navigate our steps in life’s trials and temptations so as to be faithful to the Lord? Ps.119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
The Bible is full of God’s wisdom and his exhortations for us to change our ways and walk in his paths. It is full of warnings which are repeatedly sounded out against sin. It is full of commands for us to be faithful and to move forward in faith. It is full of encouragement so that when you feel like throwing in the towel if you look into the word you can see the light at the end of your trials. These instructions run from cover to cover in the Bible as hope and prophetic promises lay before the child of God like an open road. When we do get to heaven will we have learned these things and will we have complied with these things to the glory of God, or will we come limping in; all beat up from running off of his paths? Will we have to be towed in?
There will be a jury at the judgment seat of Christ. Each sitting member on the jury has been with us all the way through our Christian life. Each one was a divine asset given to us by the grace of God.
The Lord’s Jury
1. The indwelling Holy Spirit as our spiritual teacher will be there, I Cor.2:12-13.
convicting us - conforming us - and comforting us
2. Our human spirit worked for us like an interpreter to our soul of spiritual things learned from the Holy Spirit. It will testify to the ability that we had to learn the whole council of God’s word. It is also a huge spiritual hard drive imputed at salvation which has lots of storage space for accommodating God’s instructions and wisdom. It interfaces with your soul. No one will be able to say they did not have the human I.Q. to learn the Bible, I Cor.2:13-14. Spiritual I.Q. is supernatural. You will not be able to get away with saying the preacher was too far over my head so I gave up on my advance in spiritual understanding of God’s word; that I have to settle for ceasing my understanding of the paths God for me at the spiritual grade school level or the spiritual Jr. High level or even the High School level. Paul studied until his death, II Tim.4:13.
3. Also, the Bible as the word of God will be there, Jn.1:1; I Cor.3:13; Heb.4:12.
4. Our free will, which God gives to each of us to choose to follow him on to spiritual maturity will be there, Josh.24:14-15. We will not be able to say we didn’t grow because we were forced to stay in a non-teaching local church. From II Pet.3:18 the Lord commands us to grow, and not stay in a church because of Aunt Martha, or Uncle Joe expected us there, or we got to perform there and we didn’t get the same opportunity in that Bible teaching church.
The Lord calls on us to stay in a teaching church where our virtue love is expanded through learning Bible doctrine, I Jn.2:5. Because only through learning doctrine do we learn how to love God.
5. Our conscience will be there testifying as to what we once learned, I Pet.3:15-16. God establishes through his word his norms and standards for righteous living. Learning the word is only part of obedience. Practicing it is the goal.
6. The divine institution of the local church; the Lord’s classroom for the saints, which he ordained as a place for us to grow in his word; it too will stand as a testimony to our spiritual opportunities, I Tim.3:15; Heb.10:25. Did we take advantage of a teaching ministry where a pastor fulfilled his calling to reprove, rebuke and exhort in doctrine, or did we forsake it because we would not endure sound doctrine. Did we find more fulfillment in entertainment or a social works type of church, or no church attendance at all?
7. Even the pastor-teacher’s ministry, while you were here on earth; of preaching and teaching the Bible for your edification and instruction will be there as per Heb.13:7,17.
If he rightly taught the word of truth it was for your profit. Did you let it profit you?
All of these assets will be there like members of a jury. They are a testimony to God’s grace provision to glorify himself through Jesus Christ in us. They are not there to point a finger at us, or to condemn us. They simply agree with Christ that you and I had the opportunity to glorify God in life.
God’s plan for our life is simple, and Bible doctrine makes the issues very clear and plain for us.
Our problems side line us from being all God wants us to be when we turn away from the Word to the world for answers.
I trust that you have turned to Jesus Christ, and have committed the salvation and the keeping of your soul to his name.
Read Jude 24-25.