Today I want to talk about reasoning, why I know what I know, why my hope is not in vain, why I know I am right about my beliefs, where my foundations lay.   There are those who trust in their scholarship and you know in order to be scholarly one needs smart intellect, self discipline, training or schooling and reputation for all of the above.  I know human nature, if you can get a doctorate degree and title yourself with a “Dr” by your name, that is a very influential tool that will at least get one a chance to be taken seriously in their scholarship.   You should already have noticed that I did not say that one needs to be saved, filled with the Holy Spirit or supernaturally gifted by God in order to be a biblical scholar.  Being a biblical scholar is NOT a gift of the Holy Spirit, it’s like any other natural ability that needs training a talent, I know how to work with my hands, I am quite good at it, while the Lord helps me all the time, but that is not a gift of the Holy Spirit.

It appears to me that all to often bible scholarship is upheld as a gift of the Spirit and is always in competition with those who would be considered the simple ignoramuses who believe that it is the Holy Spirit that tells them the truth.  Of course the scholars will proudly point to all of the false doctrine, easily discern-able myths and outright foolishness that is taught by those simpletons who claim that they are guided by the Spirit.   While I acknowledge that there is much pride among the simpletons and the scholars, the scriptures are correct in this saying “knowledge puffs up”, that means knowledge makes one proud.

I read an article earlier written by a person who was bemoaning the lack of scholarship in Christendom.  He stated this, I quote:

” The River of Life is wide and deep with lots of room for anyone to swim freely in. However, the River does have boundaries. Theology and scholarship define the safe boundary banks and the quality of the water.”

The author of the above quote is saying that “The River of Life” is the Holy Spirit, but Theology, the study about God and scholarship, trained smart gifted people, define the boundaries of where one is allowed to swim in the Holy Spirit.  Latter on in the article this person says that people who rely on the Holy Spirit to lead them to truth are Gnostics, (Gnostics believed in hidden, special truth that they only had).  I wonder if the writer of this article realizes that he denied the power of God and blasphemed the Holy Spirit?  Do you think this language is a little strong?   Maybe he is doing this ignorantly and he doesn’t mean exactly what he said?  What he said is having the Holy Spirit in a person does not empower them to know the truth, instead we need to rely on scholars for that.  That is blasphemous my brothers!

Many years ago the Lord made it clear to me that I, as a professing Christian, a music minister, was under the judgement of God for my sins.  I was made aware that the Lord had made my way crooked, the Lord showed me Lam. 3 and it was clear to me that I had to repent.

(Lev 26:40-42) If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

Today even now, I see a people who claim to know the Lord, who claim to love his truth, who claim to have the fear of God, yet they continue on the same path of their understanding of theology and scholarship.  They do not consider that it is the Lord who has made their ways crooked, they do not consider that it is the Lord they have walked contrary against and the Lord has walked contrary to them.  They do not confess the sins of their fathers in Christendom, they do not see their hearts as uncircumcised, neither do they see themselves as being in the land of their enemies, so they are not at all humbled.   Instead they say, “let’s build, let’s preach the gospel, we can do better this time, now that we have better scholars”, they are not at all humbled by the work of the Lord contrary to them!

One thing the Lord revealed to me that just really underlined the work of the Lord against his people is found in Isa 28:13, “But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.”  For many years all the leaders of  Christendom were saying that we should “study to get approved” and the Word of God was line upon line, precept upon precept, I accepted this for many years, these scriptures were used to promote hard study as a method to understand the Word of God, they were used as pro-scholarship passages.  At the time that the Lord gave me that revelation of Jesus Christ many years ago, I realized that this scripture in it’s context was one of judgement, not one of encouragement to “study to get approved”.  And then later I ran across an article by a scholarly sort, where it was exposed that the original language here was really saying more like this,  “And the Word of God was unto them bla, bla, bla, that they might be broken and snared.”  The article if you want to read it is called “The Sacred Cow of line upon line and precept upon precept”.  Anyone who understands the implications of this judgement recorded in Isaiah 28 & 29 has got to repent and be humbled to know that it is God who hides his truth,  he is even drawing you into a trap and a snare to break you.

“May the word of my mouth the the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer, because by your words you will be justified or condemned, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Now there is a little quote that comes out of my heart, it was planted in my heart by the Holy Spirit many years ago as I was seeking God and reading the scriptures.  I remember having a conversation with a hateful little man some years back who called himself “Pastor”.  I noticed that every time he spoke he always quoted scripture locations to make himself sound smart, he never quoted the scriptures, he obviously didn’t have the Word of God in his heart, but he relied on his intellectual  memory to quote the locations.  When he quoted several locations in about the span of a few minutes and you were lost, he then used that as proof that you didn’t know what you were talking about.  No where is it recorded in scriptures this saying “I hide the locations in my heart”, in fact Jesus rarely mentioned the book where the saying was written, he just said “it is written”.

Over the years I remember having many conversations with the scholarly type who would accuse me of having no scriptures to back my beliefs, when in fact I would constantly quote scriptures, what I said was in my heart and it was placed there by the Holy Spirit as I sought the Lord and read the scriptures.

(2Ti 3:15) And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Notice the above passage does not guarantee that one will be made wise by the scriptures, it just notes that one is ABLE to be made wise by the scriptures.  It’s important that you don’t get that twisted, because I know that it is the fear of God which is the beginning of all wisdom and knowledge of the holy, not the wisdom and knowledge of this world, not scholarly knowledge, book knowledge, but knowledge and wisdom of the holy, the things that are eternal, that last forever, the real riches of the Kingdom of God.

(Isa 29:11-14) And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

Above in Isaiah the Lord warns that he will hide his truth as judgement and there are two things that cause this judgement to occur, notice.  1)   People love God with their words while their hearts are far from him and 2)  the fear of God is taught by the precepts of men.  (line upon line, precept upon precept).   It may take a scholar to teach line upon line and precept upon precept, but it takes the Holy Spirit and a revelation of Jesus Christ to teach the fear of God.   Jesus said to the scholars of his day, the scribes and pharisees,  “you know not the scriptures, nor the power of God!” It wasn’t that the scribes and pharisees didn’t mentally know the scriptures, they could quote much of scripture by memory, but they still couldn’t answer Jesus, his wisdom and knowledge was far superior to theirs, those who have the Word of God in their hearts should be able to do those same works when dealing with the scribes and pharisees of our time.

Most people are to easily impressed and deceived by one of two forces at work, one force is the scholarly smart people and the other force is the ignorant persons who claims the Holy Spirit is their teacher, they sense it so it must be true.  Just as Jesus said, neither of these groups know the scriptures nor do they know the power of God.  These two things go hand in hand, knowing the scriptures which are able to make one wise and knowing the power of God.  It is the power of God who hides his truth, he even hides a clear understanding of the fear of God.

So brothers and sisters come let us reason together, the only reason for my confidence is the fear of God which is my great treasure.  While some have attempted to make me into a liar by trickery, lies and deceit, let me make a statement which I invite you to consider.

When the Holy Spirit becomes the train tracks and the water, not scholars, to keep the train on the tracks, when it’s the Holy Spirit that confirms the scriptures in undeniable terms, when the Word of God is confirmed in our hearts, then and only then will we be ONE God, ONE Faith and ONE Baptism and ONE people again!  Come let us reason together, why do we believe and let’s discover the foundations of our faith once again!