{"id":45080,"date":"2022-10-01T01:39:36","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T06:39:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/distinguishing-our-spiritual-color-bible-study\/"},"modified":"2022-10-01T01:39:36","modified_gmt":"2022-10-01T06:39:36","slug":"distinguishing-our-spiritual-color-bible-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/distinguishing-our-spiritual-color-bible-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Distinguishing Our Spiritual &#8220;Color&#8221; &#8211; Bible study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Compared to women, some folks say that all men are at least a little colorblind. This may be true, because in the hazy light of early morning, it&#8217;s a struggle to distinguish my black socks from my navy blue socks. The only way I can tell them apart, is by holding them up against a black pair of pants in the sunlight.<\/p>\n<p>By the same token, we often make the mistake of judging our spiritual &#8220;color&#8221; by looking at ourselves in isolation  comparing ourselves to our own standard of righteousness (Romans 10:3 NKJV). However, the only problem with doing that, is we more than likely will always meet our own standard. We know there was a time when such thinking was the norm, because Judges 17:6 NKJV and Judges 21:25 NKJV tell us that &#8220;In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.&#8221; Does this mean everyone in Israel in those days was approved of God? Certainly not. But these folks weren&#8217;t looking to God&#8217;s law as their spiritual standard of measurement. Everyone did what seemed right <strong>to him<\/strong>  whether it was truly right or not.<\/p>\n<p>Folks, that&#8217;s the trouble with a self-composed standard. It always <strong>looks right<\/strong>. Note the Proverb writer&#8217;s statement  &#8220;There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death&#8221; (Proverbs 14:12 NKJV; Proverbs 16:25 NKJV). Or as Solomon put it in another proverb, &#8220;The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise&#8221; (Proverbs 12:15 NKJV).<\/p>\n<p>We can easily be self-deceived when we follow our own spiritual path without first making sure it is in line with God&#8217;s spiritual standard, the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Paul tells us, &#8220;For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself&#8221; (Gal. 6:3 NKJV).<\/p>\n<p>We can make the same mistake in looking at other people, too. We sometimes say of our neighbors, &#8220;They&#8217;re not Christians, but they&#8217;re good moral people.&#8221; What we&#8217;re doing is comparing them with ourselves  if they look okay next to us, they must be okay before God. Brethren, that&#8217;s a fearfully dangerous perspective.<\/p>\n<p>The inspired writer Paul again tells us, &#8220;For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise&#8221; (2 Corinthians 10:12 &#8211; NKJV). Someone may be &#8220;good&#8221; in our <strong>subjective<\/strong> assessment, but our standard is not the defining measure  God&#8217;s word is (Matthew 7:21). As Paul says, we dare not get into the habit of comparing anyone against ourselves, any more than a carpenter measures his boards against pieces he has already cut, rather than by the measurement standard of a ruler.<\/p>\n<p>The only safe way to distinguish our spiritual &#8220;color&#8221; is to measure ourselves against the <strong>light<\/strong> of the Scriptures  (Psalm 119:105; Proverbs 6:23; cf.  2 Corinthians 13:5; James 1:23-25). Similarly, the only safe way to tell others whether they are heaven-bound is to open the Bible with them, and invite them to make that same comparison (Acts 17:11 NKJV). We don&#8217;t want to be guilty of sending anyone before God&#8217;s judgment wearing the wrong color garment (Matthew 22:11-14 NKJV; cf. Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10; Colossians 3:12; Revelation 3:4; Revelation 16:15; Revelation 19:7-9).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Compared to women, some folks say that all men are at least a little colorblind. This may be true, because in the hazy light of early morning, it&#8217;s a struggle to distinguish my black socks from my navy blue socks. The only way I can tell them apart, is by holding them up against a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/distinguishing-our-spiritual-color-bible-study\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Distinguishing Our Spiritual &#8220;Color&#8221; &#8211; Bible study&#8221;<\/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-45080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45080","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=45080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45080\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}