Bonus Lesson!

Due to time constraints ... I had one more lesson to share from the Seven Letters of Revelation 2-3 that I was unable to cover during my message. Since you took the time to visit the blog ... I trust you will be blessed by this bonus lesson:

KNOW THE TRUTH .... STAND FOR THE TRUTH! 

In a number of the letters (Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyratira) ... false teaching is mentioned. The churches are rebuked for tolerating it in their midst. The church in Sardis (a dead church) is told to "wake up" and "remember, then, what you have received and heard." This is an obvious reference to the Truth which they had been taught in earlier years.

Now it should not surprise us that false teaching was in the early church. The Apostle Paul warned the elders of the church in Ephesus that "fierce wolves" would, through their false teaching, seek to lead many astray (Acts 20:29-30).  Peter warns his readers of the infiltration of the church by false teachers (2 Peter 2:1-3). Jude urges his readers to contend for the "faith once delivered to the saints" because the Truth was under attack by false teachers (Jude 1:3-4).

Sixty years after the birth of the Church ... false teachers had crept in and through their influence had begun to destroy some of these churches of Asia. My friend, it is of utmost urgency that we therefore, KNOW THE TRUTH (for if we do not know the Truth we will never be able to spot the false teaching that pervades the church today) ... and then we must STAND FOR THE TRUTH!

This leads me to a couple of critical questions:

1. What are YOU doing to better KNOW the Truth?  How often do you open your Bible? Do you do more than read a verse or two? Do you know the fundamental truths of historic Christianity? (The Apostles Creed is a good place to start!). Do you know how to study your Bible? Click here for some pointers.

2. What are YOU doing to STAND for the Truth? Are we even bothered when we hear someone claim the Bible teaches something that we know the Bible does not? And when we hear false teaching ... do we just shrug it off or do we challenge it?

I hope our studies in the book of Revelation are proving to be as much a challenge to you as they are to me!

Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj