Highway of Holiness Truth 04

Highway Of Holiness Truth 04 by Rev. Duane Maxey

HIS JOY AFTER LEARNING TO READ

TEXT: -- "So THEY READ IN THE BOOK in the law of God DISTINCTLY, AND GAVE THE SENSE, and caused them to understand the reading" (Nehemiah 8:8).

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Isaiah 35:8 says that "The Way of Holiness" is so delineated -- so clearly indicated -- in God's Word that "wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein."

However when I man can't read the printed words of the language spoken in his homeland, no matter how clearly the words on a road-sign may be, he will often be puzzled by what the sign says.

Such was the case of a man whom I heard over the radio tell of his woes years ago.  His inability to read English made it particularly hard for him to do his job.  You see, he was a truck driver!

He may have been an excellent driver, and able to jockey the trailer of his "tractor-trailer" rig around, into, and out of all sorts of "tight spots" but . . . being unable to read road-maps and road signs made it more difficult for him to deliver the goods he was hauling to the right city, the right street, and the right address.

As I recall hearing him tell the story, he drove for quite a long while, with his inability to read.  I can imagine how many times he had to park at some cafe, or roadside area, and get directions from others.  Also, he probably memorized certain things being at key places where he had to make turns or just keep going straight ahead.  I don't recall him telling whether he was a Christian or not, but if he wasn't he might have made up little stories to tell folks why he needed their help knowing which way to go -- so as to get the needed information from them, without having to admit to them that he couldn't read.  Also, sometimes he may have been forced to let it be known he couldn't read, so that for x-number of years this poor man was delayed, frustrated, and perhaps often embarrassed, all because he couldn't read when trying to do his job.

Then, he told how he made up his mind he was going to learn to read, DID SO! -- AND NOW HE WAS DELIGHTED TO SAY, "I CAN READ"! -- and this simple knowledge of being able to read road-maps and road-signs had MADE DOING HIS JOB MUCH, MUCH EASIER!

In listening to his story, one could not help ENJOYING WITH HIM the pleasure he now had in being able to deliver his loads without having to repeatedly stop and ask people which way to go!  Had I been in an auditorium with a whole crowd of people hearing the conclusion of his story, I would have joined the whole crowd in standing to my feet and applauding that man.  Plus, in such a situation, I may have made my way up to him and given him an vigorous handshake and a clear-voiced "GOOD FOR YOU"!

Again, however, I think of Isaiah 29:11 which tells of a sealed book being delivered to "one that is learned" -- with the request, "Read this, I pray thee," only to receive his reply: -- "I CANNOT, FOR THE BOOK IS SEALED!"

One of the greatest, and most pathetic, tragedies of our times is the fact that "LEARNED THEOLOGIANS" -- those with large vocabularies, even in Hebrew and Greek -- cannot read nor discern the simple, but profound, truths of Salvation in God's Book!  To them, it is A SEALED BOOK!

They can be described with Ecclesiastes 10:15: -- "The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because HE KNOWETH NOT HOW TO GO TO THE CITY."  They are like the ignorant truck-driver who couldn't read the road signs, so as to KNOW HOW TO GO TO THE CITY!

Knowing how to go to The New Jerusalem, is so simple that even a little child with Saving Faith can "lead them" there (Isaiah 11:6), but many a highminded, erudite theologian, who can read Hebrew and Greek, still "knoweth not how to go to THIS CITY"!

WHY IS THIS? -- It IS because God's Book was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and HE ALONE can "DISTINCTLY GIVE THE SENSE" of its words!  Many learned theologians who have not the Spirit of God within them are "EVER LEARNING, AND NEVER ABLE TO COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH" (2 Tim. 3:7), because they are NOT "born again" and filled with God's Spirit, WHO ALONE can distinctly read the waymarks of Salvation found in God's Word along Life's Way.

How many thousands of born again Christians would rejoice with such learned, but spiritually ignorant truck-drivers if they would only make up their minds that they are going to let GOD teach them to read "THE GENUINE SENSE (meaning)" of His Book!  If they were to do THIS, Heaven's Angels, and Earth's True Saints would (as it were) STAND TO THEIR FEET AND LOUDLY APPLAUSE THEIR HUMBLE, BUT WISE DECISION!  Also, thereafter as born again, spiritual truck-drivers they could deliver their spiritual cargo to its intended destination, instead of landing it in the pit of Hell, there to be eternally rotten and forever spoiled!  Selah.