The vital key to understanding the scriptures correctly is not just given one time in the Bible in some obscure passage in the middle of one of the prophet’s writings. This key is given over and over and over again throughout the scriptures in both Old and New Testaments. Omit this key, fail to use this key in your attempt to unlock the scriptures and gain a good understanding of what God says to us in the book we call The Holy Bible and, for the most part, the scriptures will seem contradictory to your mind at times and many scriptures will simply be unintelligible. Here is that key:
“As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayers before the Lord our God THAT WE MIGHT TURN FROM OUR INIQUITIES, AND UNDERSTAND THY TRUTH” (See Daniel 9:13). Trying to understand God’s truth while permitting sin to remain in your daily life is as foolish as trying to empty the ocean by filling a teacup with its waters and then pouring the contents on the dry ground.
“You, therefore beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also , BEING LED AWAY WITH THE ERROR OF THE WICKED, fall from your own steadfastness” (2 Peter 3:17). Those who do wickedly, by continuing to sin day in and day out, are led by Satan into embracing gross error all the while thinking they have and know the truth!
“You might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, ADD TO YOUR FAITH virtue (moral excellence), and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance (self control), and to temperance patience (fortitude), and to patience GODLINESS, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity (love). FOR IF THESE THINGS BE IN YOU AND ABOUND, THEY MAKE YOU THAT YOU SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN NOR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST” (See 2 Peter 1:4-8).
Many, who present themselves as spiritual guides to others have yet to escape the corrupting influence of the world. The lusts that drew them into gross sin prior to their belief in Jesus Christ still lures them into the same old sins of the flesh today years, even decades after their supposed conversion. Been there. Done that. They have not added to their faith in Jesus Christ. They are not godly and they know they are not godly. Self control, virtue and godliness does not abound in their lives. Such attributes are woefully absent. They, therefore, remain unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Unto you therefore which believe He is precious, but unto them which be disobedient (continuing to give in to their lusts and sinning), the stone which the builders (the Jewish elders and religious leaders) disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner (the Chief Cornerstone), and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, EVEN TO THEM WHICH STUMBLE AT THE WORD, BEING DISOBEDIENT, WHERE UNTO ALSO THEY WERE APPOINTED” (1 Peter 2:7-8) It is a divinely appointed spiritual LAW that if you are disobedient to God’s Word, continuing to allow any manner of continued sin in your life, you will stumble at what God’s Word actually says. You will believe it is saying one thing when in actuality it is saying something quite different from what you believe to be the truth. This law is inexhorable and as sure as the law of gravity. Continue to sin and the scriptures will remain locked to your understanding. You will actually think the scriptures teach that a fully surrendered believer cannot stop sinning, that God never intended to purge your sins via the cross but only to forgive your sins while leaving you in the bondage of sin! What a devil’s doctrine that is.
“And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and the same man was JUST AND DEVOUT (a righteous, godly worshiper of God), waiting for the consolation of Israel (the Messiah’s arrival), and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And IT WAS REVEALED UNTO HIM by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ (the anointed Messiah – Jesus)” (Luke 2:25-26). Notice, godliness brought revelation. The two are conjoined twins. Had Simeon just been a religious man, but a man still allowing sin to rule in his life, he would never have lived long enough to hold the infant Jesus in his arms. In all probability Simeon was of great age at this time. (See Luke 2:27-35).
“His secret is with the righteous” (See Proverbs 3:32). “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). The knowledge granted those who walk in holiness and purity of mind and life is a good understanding of God’s Word. The hidden things of the Lord are opened to the minds of the righteous ones.
“You through your commandments have made me wiser than my enemies” (See Psalm 119:98). “Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness” (Psalm 112:4). “Light is sown for the righteous” (Psalm 97:11).
“I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you” (See Isaiah 43:12). God warns that Satan deceives THE WHOLE WORLD! (See Revelation 12:9). Satan is the strange god who taints and oftentimes engulfs entire denominations of Christianity with his deceptions and errors. Don’t sell him short. He deceived the wisest man who ever lived into wholeheartedly embracing idolatry. “And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel….he kept not that which the Lord commanded…And the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon….And the Lord stirred him up another adversary” (See I Kings 9-10, 14 and 23). Satan was able to reach into the very nucleus of Jesus Christ’s apostles and lure one of them (Judas) into betraying the Lord! Peter warns every believer, “Be sober, be vigilant, because YOUR adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8). Are you so blind and arrogant that you think, “Well, he might be able to deceive Solomon and Judas, but not ME!” Well, if that is what you think, you are in all likelihood, already held firmly in Satan’s clutches. God help you to understand is my prayer.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley,