Seeing Truth Clearly - Part A

Spiritual vision, spiritual clarity, spiritual acuity belongs to those who go to the optometrist, in this case Dr. Jesus, and admit that they don't see as clearly as they ought to see. And he'll fix you up.

At the end of the program, Skip and his son Nate share about some resources that will help you get more out of your time in God's Word. If you have Alexa Skill, do you know anybody who has Alexa Skill? It's Alexa. The skill is something you get for Alexa.

Oh, it is? Yeah, so if you have an Alexa-enabled piece of technology in your home, you can get the Alexa Skill for your Alexa-enabled device. Is that software or hardware? Software.

So skill is software. So we have Connect with Skip available on Alexa Skill. Thank you Skip and Nate. Be sure to stay with us after today's message to hear the full discussion. Right now, we want to tell you about a special resource that will help you tap into a deeper faith and more meaningful prayer life. Recent research has found that Google searches for the word prayer have surged worldwide alongside the spread of the novel coronavirus. In fact, Google Trends data shows that the search intensity for prayer doubles for every 8,000 COVID-19 cases. But is there a right way or a more effective way to pray?

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Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Now, we're in 2 Timothy chapter 4 as we get into the message with Skip Heitzig. How many of you have noticed or are noticing that your vision changes as you get older? When I say change, it gets worse, right? So you become farsighted and you have to hold things like really far away to be able to see. It's a condition called presbyopia and it's because as we age, we lose elasticity in the lens of our eye so we're unable to focus up close. Now, that's not the only eye condition.

Of course, if you're like me, I had to get glasses at a pretty early age as a kid because my vision became impaired. And we have a standard that we set or doctors have set for what is called normal vision. It's called 20-20 vision. We've all heard that. What that means is that's what the average eye is able to read on an eye chart at 20 feet away.

That's normal. If you have worse vision than that, like 20-30 vision, what that means is if the average eye can read that chart at 30 feet, you have to get closer, 20 feet to be able to read it. So vision can change.

If your vision with corrective lenses is 20-200 or worse, you're considered legally blind. Now, what is true in the physical world is also true in the spiritual world. Spiritually, our vision can change. Perhaps once we saw things very clearly, they were black and white.

There were things that we commonly understood. But as time goes on, we change. Could be life experiences, could be sin that enters our life that is undealt with, that produces a haze, a loss of sharpness, lines become blurred, we can even become blinded. That's what Peter meant in 2 Peter 1 when he wrote to a young church, told them to add to their faith, to continue to grow, for he said, the more you grow like this, the more you will become productive and useful in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop these virtues are blind or at least very short-sighted.

They've already forgotten that God cleansed them from their old life of sin. You may even recall that our Lord spoke to religious leaders who claimed to have 20-20 vision. They were so prideful, so boastful, they thought they saw everything clearly and nobody else did and Jesus called them blind. John chapter 9, Jesus said, I've come to bring sight to the blind and to show those who think that they can see that they are blind. The Pharisees who were standing there heard him and asked, are you saying we are blind? If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty, Jesus replied. But you remain guilty because you claim that you can see. So here's the deal, spiritual vision, spiritual clarity, spiritual acuity belongs to those who go to the optometrist, in this case, Dr. Jesus, and admit that they don't see as clearly as they ought to see.

And he'll fix you up. Whereas spiritual blindness is a metaphor for the unwillingness or the inability to see spiritual truth. That's what I want to talk about, spiritual truth. There is a crisis of truth today. People are cynical about truth. People as they age come to this place, sort of like Pontius Pilate, who stood before the truth himself, Jesus Christ, who spoke of the truth. And Pilate in a very cynical fashion said, what is truth?

I think even with this coronavirus pandemic, people are left scratching their heads trying to figure out, so which expert is right? And we've heard so many models and narratives and so many have been wrong and what we thought was the way it was isn't the way it really is. So what exactly do we believe? What is the truth? So many contradictory messages. Here's a little video to illustrate that.

You may have seen this on social media. Yeah, I really don't understand why everybody isn't following the same rules right now. They're very clear. So let's take a minute.

Let's go over them again. First, you must not leave the house for any reason unless, of course, you have a reason and then you may leave the house. All stores are closed except those that are open and all stores must close unless, of course, they need to stay open. This virus is deadly, but don't be afraid of it. It can only kill people who are vulnerable and also those who are not vulnerable. We should stay locked down until the virus stops infecting people. And it will only stop infecting people if enough of us get infected that we build immunity. So it is very important that we get infected and also do not get infected. You should not go to the doctor's office or the hospital unless you have to go there.

Unless, of course, you are too sick to go there. This virus has no effect on children except for those children in which it affects. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours or four hours or six hours.

But in most cases, it's days and not hours and it needs a damp environment or a cold environment that is warm and dry in the air unless the air is plastic. Schools are closed, so you need to homeschool your children unless you can send them to school because you are not home. If you are at home, you can school your children using various portals and online classrooms. Unless you have poor internet, more than one child, only one computer or you are working from home.

Baking cakes can be considered math, science or art. If you are home educating, you can include household chores within their education curriculum. And if you are home educating, you may start drinking at approximately 10 a.m. every day. If you are not home educating children, you may also start drinking at approximately 10 a.m.

Masks are useless at protecting you against the virus, but you still need to wear one because it can save lives. And in some cases, it may even be mandatory, but also maybe not. You must not go to work, but you can get another job at which point you may go to work. Stay home. I don't know how many more celebrities we need to have tell you how important it is to go outside and take care of your mental health. There is no shortage of groceries in the supermarket.

There are simply many things missing. You don't need to go buy a bunch of toilet paper, but you should buy some in case you need it. If you are sick, you may go out once you are better, but those in your household, they cannot go out once you are better unless, of course, they need to go out. Animals are not affected by the virus, except for that cat that tested positive in Belgium in February, plus a couple tigers. The number of corona-related deaths will be announced daily, but we don't know how many people are infected because we are only testing those who are almost dead to determine if that's what they will die of.

The people who die of corona who are not counted won't or will be counted, but maybe not. To help protect yourself during these times, you should be eating well and exercising, but exercising will be eating what you have at home to avoid going to the stores unless you need toilet paper or a fence panel. It's important to get fresh air, but don't go to parks, but do go walk in other places. Just don't sit down unless you are old or pregnant, but if you do sit down, don't sit for too long unless you are old and you are pregnant, in which case you need to sit down.

But if you do sit down, don't eat unless you've had a long walk, which you are allowed to do if you are old or pregnant, except for times in which you aren't. Don't visit old people, but you have a moral obligation to take care of old people and bring them food and medicine. And finally, no businesses will go down due to coronavirus except those businesses that go down due to COVID-19. I hope this cleared up any questions about what we should and should not be doing during this time. Please educate your friends and family with this information so we can remove any and all confusion surrounding this time. Thank you.

There you are. So now we know exactly what we should be doing during this time, and you can understand why people like Pontius Pilate might look at this and go, what is the truth? Well, we are in 2 Timothy chapter 4, and let me just give you a brief thumbnail sketch of the background of this book. This is the final letter that Paul the Apostle ever wrote. You might see it as his last will and testament.

Certainly not his last words, but his last recorded words. They are written to young Timothy, his protégé, the one he raised up in the faith and placed at the city of Ephesus. Largely, though there are themes in the book that are varied, largely he speaks about his worry over apostasy. That means a falling away from the truth, a departure from the truth because of deception. In both 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, as well as other writings, Paul is concerned that people who once believed the truth could gradually become deceived because of false teachers that come in, because they become jaded over what is right and what is wrong. So he has a real concern about deception.

Somebody once said, and it's attributed typically to Mark Twain, that a lie can travel halfway around the world while truth is still lacing up her boots. Satan from the very beginning questioned God's truth. In the Garden of Eden, he said to Adam and Eve, has God indeed said? Did God really say what you think he said? How do you know that's the word of God? How can you be sure that you are listening to the voice of God? And that's the same question that lingers today. Has God indeed said?

Most people, frankly, are not sure what God has indeed said. So, we felt it's time to get a refresher course on the foundations of Biblical truth. This is an introductory message, 2 Timothy chapter 4. We're going to look at three steps to seeing truth clearly, three criteria for spiritual vision. They're simple. Be concerned, be cautious, be careful.

Easy, right? Be concerned, be cautious, be careful. Say that with me. Be concerned, be cautious, be careful. Now let's see about what. What Paul tells Timothy in these verses is be concerned about knowing the truth.

Look at how he frames it. Verse 1, I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you, be watchful in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. I want to string together a few words in these five verses. I want you to notice them with me.

They are all appositional terms. Let's look. Look at verse 2. Notice the phrase, the word.

I'll get back to that in a minute. The word, preach the word. Also in verse 2, you'll notice the word at the end of the verse, teaching.

So connect that with the word and teaching. Verse 3, notice the phrase sound doctrine. Verse 4, look at the phrase, the truth. And then in verse 5, the very end of it, your ministry. The word, teaching, sound doctrine, the truth, your ministry. All those are appositional nouns, meaning they're all speaking about the same thing. There's just a little nuance with each word, a little bit of a twist. What Paul is basically saying in these five verses is your ministry, Timothy, is to teach people the word, which is sound doctrine.

That sums up your calling. Now what does Paul mean when he says preach the word? Well, we would understand that being New Testament Christians as the New Testament, the Old Testament, the whole Bible, the Scriptures, and we are accurate, but you need to see it in its context. Go back, if you don't mind, to chapter 3, verse 14, because we always want to look at every text in its context, and it's unmistakable as you read it. But you must continue, verse 14, in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from childhood you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Keep reading. We now get into our passage. I charge you, therefore, based on what I just said about the Scriptures, I'm charging you, therefore, Timothy, preach the word. So the word equals the Scriptures equals doctrine equals truth.

Truth. We are primarily people of the truth. We are those who follow the one who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Daniel chapter 10 calls the Scripture the Scripture of truth, because the Scriptures tell us the truth about God, about us, about our condition, about our need. And truth is tied to the word doctrine.

He says the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Now that happens to be a word Paul liked a lot. He uses it a lot. 19 times in all of Paul's writings he uses that word didaskalia, the Greek word for doctrine.

It's a simple word that means teaching, teaching, or instruction. It's a good word. It's a word you shouldn't be afraid of, and yet it's a word I feel a lot of people are sort of afraid of. In fact, the word doctrine is one of those words I feel sorry for, if that's possible to feel sorry for a word. It's sort of like somebody gets a name that's weird and you go, I feel sorry for that guy.

He has to have that name his whole life. Skip. Skip over him. Okay, so doctrine is a word I feel sorry for because I hear the conversations of well-intentioned believers who marginalized the idea of doctrine. Oh, I don't want to talk about doctrine.

It's so technical and potentially divisive. I'd rather just talk about Jesus, because it's just good and loving, but not doctrine. Listen, you wouldn't know who Jesus was were it not for doctrine. It means teaching. It's instruction about Jesus.

And I fear that many Christians treat scripture like they treat their operator's manual for their vehicle. Okay, you know it's there somewhere. Probably your glove compartment. I'm guessing most people keep it there.

Most manufacturers put it there. But who really buys a car and goes home and reads the owner's manual? Oh, you might have one or two, but honestly, nobody reads that thing until something breaks.

If it goes wrong, we consult the owner's manual to find out what to do with it. My fear is that the manual of truth. This is the manufacturer's manual for how to do life is overlooked by many Christ followers. Some are preaching that what you feel about the truth is more important than the truth itself. Your feelings are paramount, not the truth, not objective truth, but subjective feelings about it.

That's a danger. The prophet Hosea in chapter 4 declared, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. They're not destroyed for lack of love. They're not destroyed for lack of spirited singing. They're not destroyed for lack of emotion. They're destroyed for lack of knowledge. Acts chapter 2 verse 42 tells us what the priorities were of the early church.

They continued steadfastly in the number one on the list. Apostles, doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. 1 Timothy chapter 4, the apostle says, until I come, give attention to reading, exhortation, and doctrine. When he writes to Titus, another protégé of Paul's, he will say, teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. One of my favorite quotes regarding truth and Scripture comes from the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice.

I'll put it up so you can see what he said. He said, we do not have a strong church today, nor do we have many strong Christians. We can trace the cause to an acute lack of sound, spiritual knowledge. Ask the average Christian to talk about God. After getting past the expected answers, you will find that his God is a little God of vacillating sentiments. Close quote. See, in this case, in this case, ignorance is not bliss.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what the Bible says, but ignorance is not a good position to take. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

That's Skip Heitzing with a message from the series 2020. Now, here's Skip and Nate to share about some resources that will help you get more out of your time in God's Word. In today's message, we learn why it's so important to know God's truth.

It really helps us avoid becoming spiritually blind. Skip, we have so many resources for listeners so they can dig into all of the truths found in God's Word. Can you share about some of those for us? Well, we have so many, and I love the fact that so many of our listeners tap into them, use them, and then write us about how those things are benefiting them.

We have, for example, our website connectwithskip.com. Connectwithskip.com puts our listener in touch with over 3,500 full-length sermons, messages, that unpack the entire Bible verse by verse. There's resources on that website, books that you can order on that website, and then we have one of my favorite little things is YouVersion. It's like the best online Bible that there is for your phone. I can't imagine life without YouVersion anymore.

Yeah, it's just so nice to have every version just about at your fingertips. And we have different devotionals on YouVersion, like The Biography of God, my newest book, Thoughts About Thanksgiving, How to Cultivate a Grateful Heart, all things like that that are available just by clicking. Go into YouVersion and type in Skip Heitzig and you'll find that. Also, we have a podcast that's on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Google Play. And then one of my favorite things to talk about is our YouTube channel.

The Skip Heitzig YouTube channel gets so many… We just reached 50,000 subscribers, so thank you if you're subscribing to our YouTube channel. It's a huge milestone, 50,000 subscribers. It's quite a platform, you know, and we have the ability to put sermons on there, put personal messages on there. We also have something called DevoMail, where we say it's truth delivered right to your inbox.

All you have to do is go to connectwithskip.com and we can send you those updates weekly, bring encouragement to you. And then if you have Alexa skill, do you know anybody who has Alexa skill? It's Alexa. The skill is something you get for Alexa.

Oh, it is? Yeah, so if you have an Alexa-enabled piece of technology in your home, you can get the Alexa skill for your Alexa-enabled device. Is that software or hardware? Software. Software. So skill is software. So we have Connect with Skip available on Alexa skill.

Yes, there we go. And we also have an incredible app. If you have an Android or an Apple-enabled device, we have a great Connect with Skip app that has resource to 3,500 full-length sermons, a 30K 30-day challenge.

You can see the DevoMail. You can listen to the Connect with Skip radio broadcast. A lot of great resources on there as well.

Lots of free stuff. We want to get it to you. Thank you, Skip and Nate. The Bible tells us that God longs to have a relationship with you and wants you to know Him personally. That's why we love sharing these biblical teachings with listeners like you. And when you support this ministry, you help keep these messages you love on the air. Call right now to give 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you. Come back tomorrow and Skip Heitziger's practical ways you can nourish spiritual truth in your daily life. You don't want to miss that. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitziger is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.