Sanctified by the Truth

(Article for publication week of 11-30-2011 AD)

“Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth” (John 17:17). These words are found in our Lord’s High Priestly prayer recorded for us in John 17. The Lord Jesus Christ is the High Priest of His elect people. If you are a believer in Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for you in John 17, and He intercedes for you even at this present moment (Romans 8:34).

Our Great High Priest prayed for the sanctification of His elect people. They were set apart for God’s use in eternity by the unalterable decree of election (Ephesians 1:4; Jude 1). They were set apart (sanctified), by the redeeming work of Christ (Hebrews 10:10,14). And they are sanctified (set apart) by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (II Thessalonians 2:13-14). Their sanctification is progressive as they are set apart from the world by God working in them of His good pleasure, so that they work out their own salvation (Philippians 2:12-13).

The Word is the means that God uses in the sanctification of His people. Note well that God’s word is THE truth. Our Lord did not say that the Word contains the truth. This is a most vital point in our day and time. The word of God has been under attack from the very beginning when Satan asked Eve, “hath God said?” Satan is still trying to get you to doubt the word of God.

The present attack on the word of God is very subtle. One of Satan’s schemes has been the proliferation of modern translations (so called). Actually this began back in the 19th century when two heretics, Westcott and Hort, compiled a new Greek text to replace the Received Text. Most all the modern translations are based on this corrupt text based on the Alexandrian texts, which had long been rejected by the True Church. These corrupt texts have subtle attacks on the deity of Christ. Most of the modern translations have notes that question the inspiration of much of the Bible. Some of these notes say things like, “older and better manuscripts”, etc. (The reason they are “older” is because they were never used by true believers, and believing scholars do not believe they are “better”.)

God’s word is THE TRUTH. He promised that He would preserve His word for all generations (Psalm 100:5). The God that cannot lie promised that though heaven and earth would pass away His words (note well the plural) would not pass away (Matthew 24:35). God is determined that His people will be sanctified by the word of truth.

One great test of a person’s standing with God is whether or not he believes the word of God. Dear reader, if you do not believe the word of God YOU ARE NOT SAVED. Now you mark that well friend. If you value your eternal soul, read the word of God, and BELIEVE it. There is no salvation apart from the truth of God’s word. It is the means that God has appointed for the sanctification of His people. Do you suppose that God would ordain sanctification through the word and then hide it from His people? This is the theory of liberals and “moderates” today. They will have you think that you cannot be sure if the Bible is God’s word or not. Take my text to heart. Our Lord plainly said, “Thy word is truth.”

The English-speaking people have been blessed for four hundred years with a faithful translation of the inspired word. Our Authorized (a.k.a. King James) version has been honored by the Lord in the sanctification of His people.

I have two booklets I want you to have absolutely free- “By What Standard”, and “The Excellence of the Authorised Version.” If you will call me at 601-927-5070, or email me at brick Floyd@bellsouth.net, I will get them into your hands so you can study this most important subject for yourself.

May the Lord bless you all, my dear readers.

The Truthfulness of God

(Article for publication week of 11-23-2011 AD)

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie promised, before the world began” (Titus 1:2).

Our text presents us with a Divine Impossibility- God cannot lie. This Divine impossibility is no limitation on God’s omnipotence, but rather a very strong declaration of His holy character. It is impossible for God to quit being God. That ought to be self-evident, and I invite you to meditate on it and let it sink in. God cannot quit being God, and He will not quit being the Thrice Holy, unchangeable God, and so He cannot lie.

Be sure, God has never gone back on any promise He has ever made. There is nothing in His ways, character, or actions that have ever needed concealment or covering up. Truth is so much of what and Who God is that the God Man proclaimed, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” God will not, yea, cannot lie.

Now this is a most comforting truth for the Christian. Our God is a promise making and promise keeping God. Our text has special reference to the promise that God made with and to Himself in eternity. God made a promise to and with Himself before the morning of time. I love the words of our text this week! “Before the world began”! Oh! What a delightful word to sound forth to the Lord’s people who know their own weakness! God promised eternal life before the world began, before there was a man to try to help Him or try to take any credit for salvation!

We might well ask, “To whom was this promise made, seeing as how it was made before the world began?” The obvious Biblical answer is that God made this promise with and to Himself. God made an everlasting covenant before the world began to give eternal life to a multitude of Adam’s race. This covenant was between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God gave a people to Christ for Him to save. Christ tells us of it in John 6:37-39. “All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine Own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.” God the Father promised God the Son that He should have an innumerable seed. The Son eternally agreed and promised to become Surety for all His people’s obligations to God. At the appointed time, Christ came into the world to redeem us from our sins, as He had promised before the world began. God the Holy Spirit, eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son, promised in eternity to impart salvation to all this chosen and blood bought host, thus they shall all come to Christ as he said.

Praise the Lord, salvation is not dependant on the fickle will of man, but on God Who cannot lie. Salvation has been an accomplished fact from eternity in the mind of God, and not one part shall fail, because again, God cannot lie. The Christian’s hope is well grounded, as our text says, for it is in God Who cannot lie, not in puny man.

God cannot lie!

God’s Elect Inseparable from His Love

(Article for publication week of 11-16-2011 AD)

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

We come this week to conclude our series on the love of God, and we have a most fitting text with which to summarize and conclude. Nothing in God’s universe is able to separate us from God’s sovereign, everlasting , saving love.

First of all, we notice that it is the elect of God who cannot be separated from the love of God. My text belongs not to the reprobate, but only to the chosen of God. The “us” of Romans 8:38-39 refers to those who believe in Christ through the electing love of the Father, the justifying love of the Son, and the regenerating love of the Holy Spirit. To these, the Apostle Paul writes to comfort their often despondent hearts that nothing can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus their Lord.

In verse 35, 38, and 39 Paul mentions some things which in and of themselves would be catastrophic. But none of these things can separate God’s people from His love for it is in the Eternal Son of God that we are loved. God will no more cease to love His children than He will cease to Love His Eternal Son! It is in fact a Divine Impossibility for the Father to quit loving the Son of His eternal love. The Son is the express image of the Father and One with Him. The Son of God was eternally in the Bosom of the Eternal Father (John 1:18). The great Triune God has eternally interacted with Himself in love. This eternal interaction moved God the Father to choose a people in God the Son. They were eternally united to the Son by eternal and unalterable election. “They on His sacred Bosom lay, loved with an everlasting love” (John Kent). Believer in Christ, God the Father loves you because He sees you in His Son! It is unthinkable that God would ever cease to love one who is in Christ.

The preceding verses in Romans 8 are proofs of God’s love for us. God causes all things to work for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28). The believer is connected to God by His golden chain of grace (Romans 8:29-30). God is for the believer, so it is futile for any to try to oppose the believer (Romans 8:31). God loves His elect so much that he spared not His Own Son that they might have everlasting life. Not one charge may be brought against a child of God, for he is justified by God Himself. None can condemn a believer in Christ for Christ was delivered for his offences and rose again for his justification and is now at the right hand of God interceding for him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God!

Not one child of God shall be lost having been loved by God. The final perseverance of all the elect is a certainty because of God’s everlasting love. Though believers are assaulted continually by the world, the flesh and the devil, we shall persevere to the end, because of God’s unchangeable love. Though believers slip and slide and falter and fail, God’s love is unchanging. And even our own sins cannot separate us form the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thank God our salvation does not depend on our faithfulness, but rather on His unchanging Love!

Christian, God cannot love you any more than He has in eternity. He loved you before you loved Him, for He loved you in Christ. God loves you as He loves His Own Son! God cannot love you any less than He loves you now because He loved you before the foundation of the world, and He is unchangeable. There is no variableness nor shadow of turning with Him. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God which is in His Son, Christ Jesus our Lord! Now , you can believe that because it is written in the word of God!

God’s Love for Sinners

(Article for publication week of 11-9-2011 AD)

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Dear reader, has God taught you that you are a sinner? Have you seen yourself as hopelessly lost? Have you reached the end of your rope as far as salvation is concerned? Has your heart been broken because of your wretched condition? Have you tried saving yourself by your own efforts and seen that you were getting worse instead of better? Well, I have good news for you. God loves sinners!

The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is a message for sinners. It is the good news of the commendation of God’s love toward sinners. The gospel is a declaration of what Christ has done for sinners. The gospel is not a message of morality or ethics, but it is the message of how God justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5).

God’s love is an amazing thing is it not? Just to think that God loved us when we were His enemies! God loved us when we were unlovable. He loved us when we were ungodly and vile. He loved us when we did not love Him. This is most glorious! God Who is thrice holy, loved sinners who were unholy, unrighteous and ungodly. God would have been perfectly just to hate us rather than love us, but He commendeth His love toward us.

Now see the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of God’s love for sinners. He loved sinners so much that he gave His only begotten Son for their salvation. Christ died for sinners, not for the righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ is the co-equal and co-eternal Son of God. He became a Man to die for a sinner like you and me.

“Christ died for sinners.” Why must the spotless Lamb of God die? He died as a Substitute for sinners. Our sins had separated us from God. God , being infinitely holy and inflexible in His justice must of necessity punish sinners. His law demanded it, and the unchangeable God would not, could not quit being God, so He must punish the sinner, except a Substitute be found. In all of God’s heaven not another was found that could die for sinners. No angel could have been a sin bearer for those that God was determined to save. The substitute must be one of us. On earth not a man was found who could be the substitute, for every man was a sinner himself. No man can pay for his own sins, much less the sins of others; much, much less the sins of the great multitude that God was determined to save.

So God was manifest in the flesh. The Son of God became the Son of Man. Infinite God, became one of us to die in our “room and stead”. Christ died on an old rugged cross to pay the sin debt of all the Father had given Him in the covenant of Grace (see John 6:37, first clause). We may also say it this way: Christ died for all who would ever believe in Him (John 37 again, second clause). Christ died for sinners.

Now, if you know yourself to be a sinner, and want to be saved from your sins, look to Christ alone. There is salvation in Him and nowhere else, for God loved sinners to such a degree that He gave his Son to die for such in my case and yours.

Have you ever heard of a love greater than this?!