Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #38 of Genesis, chapter 24, and we are continuing to look at Genesis 24:48:

And I bowed down my head, and worshipped JEHOVAH, and blessed JEHOVAH God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son.

From this verse, we have been discussing what the Bible says about “the right way” and “the wrong way” that people can go in their lives.  We saw in Matthew 7 that God speaks of the broad way that leads to destruction and the narrow way that leads to life.

We looked up the word translated as “narrow” and we saw that it was a word that identifies with affliction, suffering tribulation and being troubled.  This is “the way” that God has ordained for His people to go, and that is one of the reasons it says in Philippians 1:29:

For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him…

We do know that believing or “faith” is a gift of God that is given to His elect people – faith is Christ Himself.  But it says that it is not only given that you believe, but that you suffer for His sake.  Again, it says in Philippians 1:29:

For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

You will see that it also can say “for his name’s sake” or “for righteousness’ sake,” and they are all synonyms that relate to the Word of God, the Bible, as Christ is the Word.  So it is not only given to you and to me to believe (if we are elect), but to go along with it, hand-in-hand, it is also given that we suffer.  And the reason is “for his sake,” or “for the word’s sake.”  As we became saved by the grace of God in bestowing His tremendous mercy upon us, He gave us this unspeakable gift that cannot be compared to the value of anything in this world.  It is so incredibly valuable that it is more valuable than anything and everything you can ever think of, and God has freely given it to us, and we will receive it.  We have received this gift of life, and we have already received the down payment of our new resurrected souls as we live our life in this world, and we have the promise of new resurrected bodies to come that will equip us up for eternity.  Then we will enjoy the inheritance and the fruit of this gift for evermore.

But in the meantime, in the short period of time we are still alive on this earth we will suffer.  But it is not worthy to be compared with the tremendous things that will be revealed, as it says in 2Corinthians 4:17-18:

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

I should have started in 2Corinthains 4:16:

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

We talked about “fainting” in the last study and how God will keep His people from fainting.  He does encourage us: “Faint not at my tribulations for you,” and then He makes sure that we faint not.  We will not faint and fail to make it to the finish line of this glorious race.  We will endure to the end.  We will receive the entire package of abundantly rich blessings that God has in store for us.  The only condition it that we must endure affliction, hardship, and tribulation to go in this “narrow way” that leads to these blessings, for a short period of time that is likened to a moment.  It is temporal.  The Biblical evidence is indicating that it may be a period of just a few years before these things come to an end.  So God has really given us all things, but in order to receive that fulness of life that He has in store for us, we must suffer tribulation.  We have to go through the narrow way, and we will experience some grievous things.  This is why it is not only given us to believe, but also to suffer for His sake.

A little later when we look at the example of the Lord Jesus Christ and the suffering He experienced, we will also look at the relatively minor suffering that we must go through in comparison to His suffering.  He suffered for us, and now we are called upon to suffer for Him or for the Word’s sake, and this is the way that God has set before us.  It is the way we cannot avoid.  We cannot go around it.  There is no shortcut.  If anyone tries to go a shorter or easier way, inevitably they end up on the broad way that leads to destruction.  There is just one way, as Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  He also told Thomas in John 14, “the way you know.”  Let us take a look at that in John 14:4-6:

And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

He is telling him (and us) that He is the way.  You know, we might think it means that we must believe in Jesus, but it is much more than that because Jesus is the Word.  The Word of God is the way.  The Bible is that “right way” that leads to life.  And it must be rightly interpreted.  It must be rightly understood.  God has given those of us in the way the proper methodology for staying on that path.  We are to compare Scripture with Scripture, here a little there a little.  That is how we arrive at proper and right doctrine, as we are told in Isaiah 28.  The right teaching of the Bible is what we follow, as we learn from the Bible and we learn a teaching from God that this is what we are to do in this situation or in that circumstance.  For example, the Bible tells us that on Sunday, we are to turn away our foot from the sabbath, His holy day, and other Scriptures direct us into spiritual activities – this is “the way” we go on Sundays.  If you are a husband, the Bible tells you “the way” to love your wife.   If you are a parent, the Bible tells you how to raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  If you are children, the way is to honor your parents; this is how children are to conduct themselves.  If you are a worker, the Bible tells you to work heartily as unto the Lord, and so forth.  And in those few Scriptures it tells us how to conduct a good portion of our life.  Love your neighbor.  Do no wrong.  We are to follow the commandments, and not to steal, kill or lie, and as we do so, we will be loving our neighbor.  We will be following the way of God.

So the Bible is that light.  It is a lamp.  What does the Bible say the lamp enlightens?  It enlightens the path before us.  Let us take a look at that verse, in Psalm 119:105:

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

If the pathway is lighted, then you can walk and follow it.  If it is dark and you cannot see the path, what is going to happen?  You are going to go off course.  You are going to stray from it.  So the Bible is a light that enlightens the path.  It does not enlighten a hundred paths.  It enlightens “the way,” and where does this pathway lead?  It leads to life.  That is what the Lord Jesus said.

You know, people like to make fun of God’s elect children because we spend so much time in the Word.  We are always reading the Bible and always studying it, and we are always talking about it.  I remember a Catholic friend that I worked with at a corporation.  I used to read the Bible at lunch every day, and one time he said to me, “You know, there are other books to read.”  It revealed a lack of understanding of the book.  There is not another book like this.  This is the only book that is able to illuminate a pathway that man can follow in a dark world.  You see, it is absolutely necessary that a pathway be illuminated so one of God’s elect children can be enabled to follow the “narrow way.”  And that is what the Bible has done at this time of the end as God opened up the Bible to reveal tremendously more truth and improved doctrinal understanding.  Why was this done at the time of the end?    It is because it is at the time of the end that Satan was loosed, and the world was given over to darkness as never before.  The churches have been given over to darkness.  So God, in His tremendous wisdom, opened up His Word to reveal doctrines and truths that help His people in traveling the short distance that remains from this life to the life to come, and from this world and its ending to the new world and its beginning.

So the Lord opened up information concerning the end of the church age, so we could know that we were in the Great Tribulation, as the Bible describes the Great Tribulation as (happening) right before Judgment Day and the end of the world.  The Bible revealed to us the loosing of Satan, so when we saw the increased wickedness of the nations and the inhabitants of the world around us, we knew that we were right at the time of the end.  It helped to open the understanding of our minds concerning the truths of the Word of God that would equip us to endure these things, as we see with eyes of faith the situation the Bible is revealing.  The things we are seeing have never happened before in the history of the world, where men marry men and women marry women, and all the governments and nations that accept and encourage it and do their best to say it is a wonderful thing.  Then there was the falling away of the churches and congregations.  These things are sign posts, as the Lord opened up Romans 1 and Matthew 24, and He now has revealed these things to His people, enlighting our path, so we can see that we are getting closer and closer to the end of the world.  And, of course, there is the Biblical timeline of history and its doctrinal truths related to time and judgment, and the Lord has revealed these things to His people to help us to see exactly what is happening from one stage to the next.  And we can know where we are at (in history) because God has given us “eyes in our heads” and we are able to see because the Lord has lit our lamps, as He significantly declares in the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-4:

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

The “lamps,” spiritually, refer to the Word of God, the Bible: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  We just read that.  The oil typifies the Holy Spirit.  The wise have oil.  They possess the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Spirit possesses them as the Holy Spirit indwells them.  So the oil lights the lamp, and we can see the pathway.  We know the way to go and where to put our next step.  But the foolish have no oil.  They lack the Holy Spirit.  They cannot light their lamp, which is the Bible, so the Bible is a “dark” book to them.  They do not know it, as they try to look at the Bible and read and understand it through the prism of their pastors and elders.  There is a remnant of knowledge left over from the church age, so they can give the appearance of having some knowledge, but they are basically in the dark.  And it is an awful time to be in the dark because at the time of the end the way has to be lit or they will be lost, so the foolish virgins cannot light their lamps and see the way.  And this leads to what we read next in Matthew 25:5-7:

While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

That is, they lit their lamps.  Then it says in Matthew 25:8-10:

And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

So the wise virgins, the elect, were able to enter into the kingdom of God.  This is all speaking of the time right before May 21, 2011.  They are safely in Christ, hidden in Him while God carries out the Day of Judgment over the course of this prolonged judgment period.  And it is all related to the lamps.  The elect’s lamps stay lit, and they continue to possess the Holy Spirit as God opens up further information during this day of wrath.  It is also likened to the revelation of the righteous judgment of God in Romans 2:5, but it all ties in with being able to see what way to go.   Where is this narrow way?  Only God’s people are able to see it, and this is why we are told in Daniel 12 that the wise will understand, but none of the wicked will understand.  It is also why evil men understand not judgment, but the wise understand all things (Proverbs 28:5), and there are many other verses like this. 

That is why God’s people turn to the Bible.  We constantly turn to the Bible and read the Bible.  We cling to the Bible, and we have our “noses” in it because we cannot afford to take a wrong step at this time, and we know the Bible will lead us.  The Holy Spirit is our guide unto all truth.

I used to say that all truth is really the degree of truth that God will mete out to His people over the course of the world’s history up until the time of the end.  But I think we can understand “all truth” as being all that truth that lights the path that directs us down this narrow way until we enter into the kingdom of God, and this world comes to an end.  So we keep following the things the Bible says, no matter how it is viewed, regarded, or spoken against by others. 

I hope we can get into talking about this in our next study, but we might think that the right way is looked upon favorably, at least by those that profess to be Christians, but the truth is that it is not.  And we are going to look to the Bible.  We have our own experiences, but we are going to see if that agrees with what the Bible says, and we find that it does.  The right way is typically spoken against by those that call themselves the people of God (but are not), and we will see that this has always been the situation throughout the history of the world – in Israel of Old, throughout the church age, and right up to this very time.