Is The Word Of God Important?

Is The Word Of God Important?

“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls but be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:21-22).

Most of the time I have to say that I only hear verse 22 preached on and even so I hardly EVER hear anyone preach or teach on this verse. James 1:22 is extremely important and needs to be preached on often because so many people are not doing the Word as it is written which means they are walking in deception. We have to understand that one of the main reasons that so many people are walking and living in deception is because they are not studying the Word for themselves to actually know what is in it. The second reason that so many are deceived is that have turned to other things (TV preachers, books, devotionals like crossroads, etc…) to replace the Word of God in their lives. The problem with these sources is that they are no more than someone’s opinion of the Word of God. This means that if you are not an active studier of the Bible that you can be so easily led astray. For example look at what the WOF preachers did in the 1970’s what they are still doing today. First, one of the major tactics they used was to pull a verse from here and then attach it to another verse over there and BAM guess what? They created the prosperity and “name and claim” dogma that is full of deceptive practices. I mean think about it, how much money has the followers of these false teachers sent to them over the years? You would think by now that the people sending money would have at least SOME of the prosperity the false teachers have, but no most still struggle day to day and of course they keep sending in God’s money (it’s not our money) to the wolves!! The only way this could be construed as correct is if God loves them more than the ones sending the money and that would mean that God is a respecter of persons but this would be in direct conflict with Acts 10:34-35 which says “… Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that fears him, and works righteousness, is accepted with him” so what they did is pretty simple to understand. First the false prosperity preachers created a product, then they marketed it, and then they sat back and made hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars off people who didn’t take the time to study the Word. In short, you were duped and this is why we ALL must be doers of the Word because if we are only hearers we can be led easily into deception. However, another form of deception has come in because people have chosen to follow the traditions of men or their denomination even when they are in direct conflict with God’s Word. Either way, when we are walking in deception we are then opening the door to the enemy and things will begin to constantly go wrong and instead of repenting we turn around and try and pass it off as “the devil is attacking us”. So I ask this, why do we need anything other than God’s Word? WE DON’T!!! So do we really know how important the Word of God is in our lives? Let’s look at verse 21 for some insight.

“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).

I said that I rarely see James 1:21 quoted by anyone and even more rarely do I hear James 1:21 preached by preachers and this I hate to say is the truly sad state of the americanized version of the church. This verse is such a powerful explanation of why we need the Word of God to dominate our lives and the Word of God ONLY! First it says WE (not God) are to lay aside all filthiness and this clearly shows that we as believers have a huge part to play in our Christian walk. Also, this lines up with 2 Timothy 2:19-21 which reads “let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity, but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purges himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work”. I hear a lot of people saying that are believing God to help stop sinning or that they are a “work in progress” and while we can rely on the Holy Spirit to strengthen us during times of temptation it still does not let us off the hook. Most of the time these two are no more than excuses for that person to keep sinning because the WORD clearly states that WE are to lay aside filthiness and that WE are to depart from iniquity (sins of the heart such as unforgiveness or bitterness). The truth is that many people are making excuses for their sin and this is why so many things are going wrong in their lives because habitual sin is a huge door for satan and when he comes in he is going to cause major disruptions in our lives and if we do not repent he is doing to be camping at our doorstep. The second thing we read here is that we are to receive the engrafted WORD with MEEKNESS. There is a cult out there claiming that they don’t sin, but according to this verse there are remnants of our old life that WE have to deal with. The word “superfluity” is the Greek word “perisseia” which means the “residue or the wickedness remaining over in a Christian from his state prior to conversion” so it is CLEAR that we will have some “grave clothes” to shake off after we are born again, but we cannot use that as an excuse to keep sinning. I mean, I see people all the time who have been saved for 10, 20, 30, or more years that lie, cheat, drink, cuss, and more and still say “well I was saved X amount of years ago and I am still a work in progress”. To that I would say that there is a good chance that they were never born again and just had some religious experience in some church meeting, they are backslidden, they are walking in deception, or they are lukewarm. If we continue to excuse our sin then there is a high probability that we are probably in one of those 4 categories (new converts are not included). Everyone uses 1 John 2:1 also as an excuse to sin because they say “see God knows that we will sin and that is why we have an advocate”. Once again if you STUDY the Word they would know that the word sin here in 1 John 2:1 “My little children these things write I unto you, that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous” and word sin here is the Greek word “hamartano” which does not mean habitual sin or sinning but “missing the mark, to err to wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to wander from the law of God, or to violate God’s law. Just like there are many Greek words used in the New Testament for love there are many Greek words for sin and understand this (by studying the Word) opens up God’s Word to a whole new level. To the prodigals I say this. I know from personal experience if you are a prodigal daughter or son who spent a fair amount of time in the world during your prodigalism that you will have some residue to deal with too. The good news is that when you come home God will restore everything to you and put you right where you were supposed to be. I know that my years in the desert (as I often call my days of prodigalism) prepared me for what I am doing now and everything I went through is using or going to use for HIS glory! Continuing on, part of this verse reads “receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” in the original would read like this “Take a hold of with a spirit of gentleness and a mildness of disposition the inborn and implanted spoken Word of God’s decrees, mandates, and moral precepts because this is able to preserve one who is in danger of destruction or deliver someone from the penalties of Messianic judgment and in doing so deliver that very eternal soul”.

Many people think salvation was done and completed when they said some prayer, but unless we are following the Word of God as written then we are only lying to ourselves and walking in deception. However, many people were swept into the false churches after conversion and the teachings of the wolves really all they know. However, this does not let them off the hook because 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” but many do not know how to study the Word of God and this is a major failure of every person who calls themselves a pastor. My prayer is that people realize the importance of that Bible that sits in your house somewhere day after day collecting dust and never getting opened up or just gets opened up to do some “mandatory” Bible reading we may have set up. Weak Christians are weak because they do not feed, and I know this from personal experience so today grab that Bible and start your journey with God afresh and see where it leads you!!!

God Bless,

Brother Dan