Old Testament Reading – Psalm 25:1-22
New Testament Reading – 2 Timothy 3:1-17
Earnestly Contending for the Faith
“The Battle for Truth” # 4
Jude 1:20-23
Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor
After establishing the authority, sufficiency, and supremacy of the Scriptures in 2 Timothy 3:14-17, in the first two verses of 2 Timothy 4, the Apostle Paul gave Timothy what is known as the “Pastor’s Charge!”
- “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His coming, PREACH THE WORD!”
- One of the main reasons for the spiritual weakness in the church today is that Christians have lost their respect for the Word of God, and much of the blame for that must be laid at the feet of today’s pastors.
- If we are to preserve a gospel to hand down to our children, the church does not need more Christian entertainers, more religious speakers, or even more Bible scholars, but the church is in desperate need of true “God-called” preachers.
Likewise, if we are to preserve our children from further spiritual and moral degradation, parents must also assume their God-given assignment to train their children in the way they should go rather than the way the world wants them to go.
- In Deuteronomy 18:9-14, God told the children of Israel, when they entered the land He was giving to them, they were not to follow the abominations of the Canaanites, which included all kinds of dealings with the powers of darkness and demons.
- Since our culture is becoming increasingly demonic, Christian parents must take a stand, and speak the truth, in love, to their children, and to all those who have any level of influence upon them, for if there is to be a change in our culture, it will not start at the White House, it must begin at their house.
- The Bible makes it clear that it is the parent’s responsibility to protect their children from evil, including the spiritual forces in the heavenly places and those deceptive and destructive forces of evil they encounter every day.
There was a time in our nation when children were viewed as “a heritage from the Lord; the fruit of the womb [was] a reward.” (Psalm 127)
- Today, unwanted children are killed in the womb or allowed to die if they survive the abortion.
- Infants and toddlers are sexualized from their birth, taken to see demon-possessed men dressed as women, forced to deal with sexual issues about which they are not mature enough to begin to comprehend, seduced into questioning their gender, and allowed to medically and/or physically adapt their bodies to their gender of choice.
- In their schools, they are indoctrinated with this anti-American and anti-Christian Marxist ideology of socialism: “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.”
- Such pressure has caused an increase in depression and panic attacks among grade-school children, including suicide attempts, and an increase in successful suicides among teenagers, with fentanyl as the number one source of death among those over 18.
- This multi-front war on our children is Satan’s attempt to rob our children of their innocence and to destroy their very souls, for their intention is to stop the transfer of the truth of God’s Word to the next generation.
In our battle for truth, pastors and parents must preach and teach the Holy Scriptures to preserve and protect our children from all of the deceptive lies of the evil one and to free those who have already been deceived or are being deceived.
According to The Baptist Faith and Message: “The Holy Bible is the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.” (Timothy 3:15-17) Therefore, to prepare our children for the future and to protect their innocence, we must tell them the absolute truth according to the Word of God, beginning with these ten principles regarding their sexuality.
- God’s Word is the final authoritative rule for all matters of our faith and the practice of our faith, including sexual issues.
- Christians are to respect God’s authority.
- All people are created by God and made in the image of God, and therefore are worthy of our kindness, love, and respect.
- Even though we differ with them regarding significant issues, we speak the truth in love.
- God gave His divine order and design for human sexuality and gender when He created the heavens and the earth.
- Those societies that tried to alter God’s design and order died out or were intentionally destroyed.
- Sin corrupted everything God created and designed, including His purpose for both genders and their sexuality.
- Satan corrupted what God called good by tempting the man and woman to go outside of God’s order to get their needs met.
- God revealed His will and His way for the continual reproduction of humanity in the balance of the genders, and there is no provision in the Scriptures for that choice to be altered.
- Our gender was not determined at birth but rather it was ordered by God in our mother’s womb. (Psalm 139)
- “Have you not read that He who created them made them male and female?” Matthew 19:4
- God’s design for sex and marriage is straightforward.
- God’s design was for marriage to be a covenant relationship between one man and one woman for life. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24)
- God recognizes that all human beings will always struggle with sexual and gender issues.
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- While the temptation will always be there, any form of sexual immorality is considered rebellion against God and has eternal consequences. (1 Corinthians 6:9)
- God will use our sexual and gender struggles for His glory and our good.
- However, each time we resist the devil and allow those temptations to draw us closer to the Lord and closer to our mate, we manifest the power of the Holy Spirit to keep us sanctified until we are glorified.
- God is always with us, even when we struggle with sexual and gender issues.
- Part of Satan’s strategy is to convince us that we are the only ones facing such temptations. But God said He would never leave us nor forsake us!
- There is no pit of sin so deep that God’s grace is not deeper still.
- Psalm 51 records King David’s confession of his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uriah. Our victory awaits our full confession of that sin that so easily besets us, and our genuine repentance of that sin.
Adapted from an article from the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding at www.cpyu.org.
According to Lifeway Publishers, if the current trend continues, by 2030, 70% of today’s youth will not identify as Christians.
- Their conclusion was that we must find new ways of reaching today’s generation, for not finding the answers to their questions in today’s churches, they are now looking outside the church.
- However, the problem is, our children are being educated on the most important matters by those who have the least knowledge of and respect for God’s Word, including many of today’s pastors.
- Therefore, to “snatch them from the fire” of deception, pastors and parents must be able to answer their children’s questions from the divinely inspired, infallible and inerrant Word of God.
- “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate thereon day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)
