ONE DOCTRINE

April 20

Psalms 119:129 Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.

We live in the age of advertisement. A product, a method, a cure, a political party, an opinion, a therapy, a Church, a religion, a philosophy, everyone wants to sell you something, or on something. In their efforts to convince you, they will fill your senses with seemingly irrefutable testimonials and proofs that they are the “best”, the “original”, and the most “viewed”, “heard”, “sold”, “practiced”, “growing trend”, “natural”. But how can each of these, be all these things? This reminds me of the story of how the inmate of an insane asylum came to the director pointing out that another inmate believed with absolute certainty that he was Napoleon. Feeling that the reporting inmate was finally coming to his sanity, the director asked, “And why would you think that he cannot be Napoleon?” “It is simple” replied the first inmate, “How can he be Napoleon when I am Napoleon!”

Beloved, let it not be so with our views of the Word of God. There are today many teachers and expounders of the Word of God, each with his own convincing interpretation, so much so that an overdose of “objective” listening in this doctrinal “supermarket” where one can pick and choose what he wants to believe, can leave one completely confused and disillusioned. In the early days of the Church at Corinth, some members wanted to free themselves from the responsibility of following some of the “straight and narrow” (Matthew 7:14) truths of the Word, so they started “shopping” their doctrinal beliefs from among their religious teachers. Paul, in his wisdom stopped the dispute by bringing them all back to the Word: CHRIST-JESUS (1 Corinthians 1:11-13; 3:3-7, and also 1 Corinthians 3:21-23; 4:15-16).

Beloved, the words and teachings of man are an unsound foundation. They have, and will always fail. Look only to the inspired Biblical Word of God, interpreted in your heart by the Holy Spirit which has been ordained to teach us all things (John 14:26). The Word is Wonderful. It is Wonderful in its exactness, balance, accuracy, truth, wisdom, invariableness and consistency; His testimonies are wonderful and your soul can commit itself to the keeping of them with no fear of error or falling.

Revelations 21:2-3; 12-14 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (3) And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: (13) On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. (14) And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.