There was a time in history that the Bible was not readily available for commoners. People had to rely on the Catholic Church to be able to bring the Bible to them so that they could hear the testimony about Jesus Christ. It was a miracle that the Bible became readily available for everyone, and as knowledge increased and people learned to read and Bibles were in the hands of the commoners, people started to figure out that they could have a relationship with Jesus Christ personally. That was a wonderful miracle. That is something that God allowed to happen on the earth so that people could come to Him. But then as time went on, people became very complacent. Instead of the Bible being read, they left it on the shelf collecting dust to the point that no one was reading the Bible. People wanted to be listening to the radio, watching TV, and listening to music. As some more time went on, the Christian Church realized how few people were reading the Bible, and they started to push. They started to push people to read the Bible, and they built a culture where people prided themselves in reading the Scriptures, memorizing the Scriptures, and understanding the Scriptures such as the Pharisees understood the Scriptures. But the problem is, because this generation of people has prided themselves in knowing the Scriptures, they have forgot about Jesus Christ. The tide has turned to such a degree that people have loved their Bible, but they have hated the words of Jesus Christ.
We live in a time where people want to become more biblically literate. They don't want to be like those people of old who were ignorant to the Bible, or who were just naive. So they memorize the Scriptures, they know the Old Testament prophecies, they know what Jesus said, they know things about God, about the Messiah, but they don't know the Lord's voice. The knowledge of the Scriptures has only poisoned them, and because they say they can see, their sin remains, just as Jesus said to the Pharisees. The Pharisees said to Jesus, “Are we also blind?” And He said, “If you were blind, you'd be without sin. But because you say you see, your sin remains.” And that is the state of this generation we have today.
This generation of people can see clearly, and their sin remains on them. They're ending up in hell because they refuse to live by the words of Jesus; they refuse to truly repent. They openly confess that they are sinners. They say, “We have to be in church, we have to be part of this body, we have to be reading the Scriptures, we have to be more noble like the Bereans, we have to educate ourselves.” And they're very biblical, they're very educated, but they never come to the knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ. They never come to love Him or their neighbor as themselves. What they love is religion. They love sounding like a good preacher. They love sounding like a good pastor. They're like whitewashed tombs. They love it when people call them father or elder or deacon or minister or missionary. They love titles. They love the respect in the Christian community. They love being able to give a sensational sermon. They love it when people admire them for bringing out some tidbit of information. But they could care less about what Jesus is actually doing in His church. They're not genuine.
Are we as the body of Christ in love with Jesus Christ, or are we like the Pharisees that love Scripture knowledge, always learning but never coming to the truth? Too many Christians have been poisoned by their Bible. They love going to Bible study. They worship the Bible. But they never come to Jesus Christ. They don't have a word from God. They're not spiritually led by the Holy Spirit. Even though they've been feasting on the Bible and feasting on church, feasting on fellowship and on their pastor's word, they're still spiritually emaciated. They're not spiritually growing. They're spiritually dying. And they are still in sin and in bondage. They're on their way to destruction. The Bible has only poisoned them. They're on their way to their death. Have you come to Jesus Christ? Is He daily filling you? Are you eating His flesh and drinking His blood? Or are you like the Christians who are spiritually malnourished and dying because they have been poisoned by the Bible? May the grace of Jesus be with you.
