There is one little word in the English language that has the power to disannul every acknowledgement of truth and seemingly noble intention – that word is “but.” When someone says, “I know I ought to, but….”, you immediately know what’s about to follow. The use of the word “but” becomes a process of explaining why a particular truth does not apply to them. By their use of the word “but”, they have in effect denied their responsibility.<\/p>\n
Have you ever heard folks say, “I know I ought to obey the gospel, but….”? The truth is that while God has provided mankind salvation through Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12), there are conditions listed in the simple gospel of Christ to be obeyed (Romans 10:17; Romans 1:16; Romans 10:9-10; Mark 16:16; Acts 17:30; Gal. 3:26-27; Revelation 2:10). Peter said, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth….” (1 Peter 1:22). The Hebrew writer said of Jesus, “Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, being then made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation to all those who obey him,” (Hebrews 5:8-9). If you comply with the conditions of salvation as presented in the New Testament, then God washes away your sins through the blood of Christ (Acts 22:16; Revelation 1:5; cf. 1 John 1:7).<\/p>\n
The disciple says, “Oh, I know I ought to, but….” The excuses come flowing as rushing waters down a mountainside. That which follows the word “but” runs the gamut from, “I’ve got a hangnail on my pinky” (a very serious illness to some), to once-in-a-lifetime special events. This writer knows of one member who says, “It’s ok to miss worshipping God for special events, as long as I don’t do it all the time” (?). God’s word, however, says something entirely different (Hebrews 10:24-27).<\/p>\n
James says that man is inconsistent and acts contrary to what is natural when he, from the same source, speaks evil and good – “Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?” (James 3:11 – NKJV). It is just as inconsistent to acknowledge God’s truth, and then deny its applicability to self.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is one little word in the English language that has the power to disannul every acknowledgement of truth and seemingly noble intention – that word is “but.” When someone says, “I know I ought to, but….”, you immediately know what’s about to follow. The use of the word “but” becomes a process of explaining … Continue reading “The Little Word \u201cBut\u201d – Bible Lessons”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}