What does it mean that even though many professing Christians are actually faithless, but Christ is faithful? He is faithful to save all those who truly believe (John 3:16), He is equally faithful to judge all who do not (John 3:18). This is Christ’s faithfulness to Himself. He is Holy and immutable and will be consistent in all He does concerning all believers and unbelievers. Now my brethren, with these truths about Christ’s faithfulness and the assurance that all genuine believers will endure to the end, be encouraged and confirmed in your heart that you will pursue Christ as you obey Him on the difficult and narrow path of discipleship. 

1 But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Titus 2:1 (NASB)

6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:6-11 (NASB)

Our enemy is quite clever in his deceit. He knows exactly what buttons to push to incite us to step into conflicts or situations designed to do damage to our faith and our relationship with our Lord. He also has his own deceived people whom he has convinced that they are the only Christians who have it right and everyone else, including such Bible scholars as John Owen or John Calvin or preachers such as Charles Spurgeon were heretics and tools of the devil. This group would also include men of today such as John MacArthur or the late R.C. Sproul. If we are not very careful, we can be drawn into “discussions” with these people whom our enemy is using for his own heinous purposes. These discussions can grow into conflict very quickly because it will not take long for these servants of our enemy to go for the jugular and attempt to demolish our faith by casting doubt through distracting arguments.

Thank God that He gave His Spirit to all of us who know Him and that we can come boldly to the throne of grace. I pray every day that God will give me wisdom, discernment, and direction. I am so grateful that God is faithful and answers these prayers according to His will. I am contacted nearly every day by at least one person whose first appearance is that of another Christian, but who is soon revealed to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I am able to detect this because of God working through our interaction to reveal what is really going on. Sometimes I am not very quick to catch on. However, there are other times that the alarm in my Spirit is going off very early in the conversation that there is something amiss. Those times that I am taken off guard are frustrating for me, but I am still grateful because God does make sure that I eventually catch on that something is not right. It is then that I know I must ground the “discussion” in the succinct, black and white standard of God’s Word.

The scenario I encounter most often in these attacks are attempts to cast doubt on the men of God who teach us. That would include men such as Luther, Bunyan, Owen, Spurgeon, Edwards, MacArthur, Sproul, et cetera. These are personal attacks on their character and I am nearly always taken aback because I simply cannot understand why they do that. I teach from God’s Word. I use exegetical word studies and contextual studies to mine out God’s truth from His Word for the edification of God’s people who read these posts. I am not worshipping these men. I am not placing them up on pedestals of infallibility so the only thing I can come up with that would cause these “attackers” to try to torpedo these men is that they are assuming that we are getting our doctrine from them or that our trust is in them.

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