Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter – Christ’s way is the home of our soul.Title: Ruth 4:8-12. Final chapter – Christ’s way is the home of our soul.
Satan has a campaign to destroy our vision of our home in Christ and so to destroy our love, joy, peace, and fellowship with our brothers and sisters.
We overcome the hateful attacks of the devil by receiving the word of God with faith and walking in its way and thus producing fruit. Jesus was clear that we must love Him and keep His word. The NT is clear that we must come to know Him through the written word. He is on its pages and these must be soaked in and believed by every saint. By walking in His precious way, the campaign of the devil against us will fail, and not only this, but it will only serve to make us stronger. It will not draw us away from God, but rather nearer to Him by seeking His power in our own weakness.
The way of Christ simply cannot be lived by anyone other than a believer who knows and loves Him. Only the power of Christ, given to all to are “in Him” can resist evil and overcome sin and the world.
And so, we turn again to Paul’s example. There were many fatalities around Paul, men who tried to destroy him and his ministry. They were sinful people that came up against the power of God in that man. The same will happen to all who live godly.
2Ti 3:1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2Ti 3:2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
2Ti 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.
There is much said about the phrase “last days” and we will explore them at a later time, but we can see that the description here is a constant motif throughout all history.
A few scriptures describe the coming and teaching of Jesus as the last days, last times, and end of the ages.
One thing is for sure:
The appearance of Jesus was a decisive happening. It changed everything, and many of those changes could never be undone.
Because of Jesus’ Second Coming, the Armageddon rebellion will be completely squashed. In the end we have rebellion (Armageddon, Gog) and victory (the return of Christ), but we know that His victory was actually accomplished 2,000 years ago through His death and resurrection. His incarnation, His death, His resurrection and ascension turned the whole world upside down and with it came a more intense and coordinated rebellion.
In a way, the last days can refer to the entirety of the church age when the New Covenant lives in the hearts of men and Satan and the kingdom of darkness have intensified their campaign against the manifestation of the truth and the gospel.
2Ti 3:6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,
2Ti 3:7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2Ti 3:8 And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected as regards the faith.
2Ti 3:9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, as also that of those two came to be.
2Ti 3:10 But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance,
2Ti 3:11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch [Paul and Barnabas were driven out by persecution], at Iconium [enemies sought to stone them to death] and at Lystra [Paul was stoned by the enemy]; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me!
2Ti 3:12 And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Persecution of the godly is a surety. The campaign against Christ is against the church.
2Ti 3:13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
2Ti 3:14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them;
2Ti 3:15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
2Ti 3:17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
The sower sows the word of God. The word of God is inspired and profitable. Both of these things are true of nothing else. We do not have all knowledge and so the word must be continually learned for training in righteousness, correction, and reproof.
The issue with John is that they had infiltrated the churches and he confirmed them as liars without truth.
John was protecting believers from the false teachers who claimed to know Christ.
1Jo 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
1Jo 2:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
1Jo 2:3 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
1Jo 2:4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
1Jo 2:5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
1Jo 2:6 the one who says he abides in Him [remains at home with Him] ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
John uses the verb abide (meno = to abide) in this epistle 24 times. It means to remain, to reside and not leave.
Let’s look at some of them before we go to our Lord’s use of the term.
1Jo 2:10 The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
1Jo 2:14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Fathers most likely refers to those who entered the fold early on, young men to those who entered later (2nd generation), and children still later (3rd generation).
1Jo 2:24 As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning (the doctrines you heard at the start over the falsehoods that came later). If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. |