Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, …
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Longsuffering in all our trials,
When they last for a long long while,
For the fruit of the Spirit is love.
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In God’s strength we go along,
Hear in the night a sweet sweet song,
For the fruit of the Spirit is love.
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Desiring to shield from harm,
We keep on sounding the alarm,
For the fruit of the Spirit is love.
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Often so misunderstood,
We keep on striving for the good,
For the fruit of the Spirit is love.
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Christ indeed is our best friend,
Love that endures until the end,
For the fruit of the Spirit is love.
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Speaking truth, the hour is late,
Time is short and the need is great,
For the fruit of the Spirit is love.
by Cathy White – 2010
Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Saints, please pray for these people, that they would be allowed to come home and any further investigation into the matter would take place under the U.S. judicial system. One of the group slipped a note to a reporter saying that they feared for their lives.
See MSNBC video here …
BAPTIST MISSIONARIES FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES
See photos and profiles of the 10 missionaries here …
From … SOULREFUGE
“Have The ‘Christian’ Zionists Been Seduced By An Antichrist Spirit?
The Lord Jesus Christ made a statement almost two thousand years ago, that will help you to see through all of the modern day fluff that is masquerading as Christianity today. In a conversation with Pilate shortly before He was killed, Jesus made it clear that He came to bear witness of the truth:
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all. (John 18:36-38)
This is another powerful passage of scripture that we have before us here. The Lord first of all told Pilate, that His Kingdom, was not of this world. Stop right there and meditate on that for a moment. Think of all of the nations of this world, and all of the bloody wars that have been fought over the centuries. Think of all of the proud and macho statements that have been made by the leaders of those same nations. Think of all of the millions that have been slain by those nations as they fought against each other. Then think about the statement that was made by the Lord, that His Kingdom was not of THIS world! It is quite obvious that the Kingdom that the Lord was talking about was a SPIRITUAL Kingdom and not a PHYSICAL one.
That fits perfectly with what the Lord told the Jewish ruler Nicodemus who came to Him one night, obviously searching for truth. The Lord made it clear to that Jewish man that he needed to be born again. (John 3:1-8) The Lord made it clear to Nicodemus that his physical birth (of the flesh), was not the same as the spiritual birth (of the Spirit):
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:6-7)
There it is in plain and simple English. you must be born again! If you are reading this article the word for you today is that YOU must be born again! If you go back to the previous passage you will see that Jesus Christ said that the very purpose of his coming into this world, was to bear witness to the truth. Jesus came from above (Heaven) where He was with the Father, down to this earth to tell the world the truth. Therein is the key to understanding this whole Gospel and trying to understand whether or not YOU as an individual are in the truth or not. Listen again to what Jesus said there. He said that those who “were of the truth” would hear His voice. If a person is truly a seeker of truth, then the words of scripture, including the Old Covenant (Testament) books of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms will come alive to the individual person. That same person will know that the words of the scriptures (the Bible) are truth in what they speak regarding their own SINFULNESS, and their own need for salvation. That same seeker of truth will also understand and rejoice that the true God Almighty has made a provision for SALVATION in Jesus Christ the Son of God! That is how it was for me when I was born again over 20 years ago. It is quite obvious here that those people who disregard the words of Jesus Christ and do not believe that He is the only way of salvation, are NOT of the truth, no matter how much they may claim otherwise.
Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. (John 8:21-24)
The passage above is another passage that exposes the FALSE modern day Christian Zionist movement that has corrupted the hearts of so many millions in these last days. The Jewish leaders and most of their followers rejected the Lord, along with the words that He spoke. The Lord knew that and therefore He told them that they would not be able to go where He was going. The Lord knew that He would be put to death with their consent, but He also knew that He wouldRISE AGAIN from the dead, and ultimately return to Heaven to be with the Father! That is why the Lord told them that He was from above (Heaven) and that they were from beneath (and of this world)! They( the Jewish who rejected Him) were then told that they would DIE in their SINS, if they did NOT believe that He (Jesus) was who He said He was!
The teachings of Jesus Christ in these passages absolutely shatters the thinking of the modern day Christian Zionist who insists that the Jewish people are somehow God’s Chosen people. It is amazing to me that a person could read passages such as those above and still think that way. Those same people areACTUALLY fighting against the Lord and His own words when they work hand in hand with the modern day Jewish leaders, in their defense of a PHYSICALland of Israel. The Lord made it clear that it was NOT about this world, and that would include all of the Middle East. In fact the Lord went inside the Jewish Temple and started turning tables upside down because of their wicked ways, and their merchandising in the house of God! (Mark 11:17) Not only that but the Lord Jesus Christ can be found contrasting the TRUE FAITH of the Gentile (non-Jewish) against the UNBELIEF of the Jew! (Luke 7:9)
One of the clearest passages of scripture that shows us that the Jewish people of yesterday and today, are not walking in TRUTH is the following:
And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. (John 5:37-40)
These words which were spoken by Jesus Christ Himself are the telltale sign that the Jewish people were (and still are) most definitely on the wrong course in their opposition to Him. Jesus made it clear to them that they were opposing the Father, and the very God whom they say they served. Why? Because it was the Father who sent the Son, and they flat out rejected Him! Jesus got right to the heart of the matter when he spoke to them about their scriptures. The Jewish leaders took great pride in their “knowledge” of the scriptures, but they MISSED the whole point of the scriptures, in their rejection of Jesus Christ. Jesus flat out told them that the scriptures testified about Him, and that certainly is the case. The Old Covenant (Testament) is chock FULL of prophecies about the coming Christ, but they denied that they spoke of Him. They did not believe that the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53:1-12) spoke about the DEATH of Jesus Christ 700 years before it happened! They did not believe that the prophet Micah (Micah 5:2) prophesied of the birth of Christ hundreds of years before it happened! Their own pride would keep them outside of the Kingdom of God, and the ETERNAL LIFE which God promised those who would come to Him!
Fast forward now to the 21st Century and we have the “Christian Zionist” movement going full throttle in their defense of unbelieving Israel. It is the delusion of delusions! It is most incredible because the Jewish people still refuse to come to Jesus Christ, and they do not believe that He is the Son of God, nor the Messiah whom they are waiting for. People need to realize that almost 2000 years have passed since Christ walked this Earth, and that billions have been born and died during that period. The question is this: Do you believe that a single person, whether Jewish or Gentile, who lived during that time has entered Heaven without coming through Jesus Christ? If you answer YES, then you are clearly deceived, and know NOT the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You see the Gospel can NEVER change because the Lord would then be found to be a LIAR! The first coming of the Lord, including His birth and death, is the greatest event in human history, and it opened the way of salvation for every person in the world. If a person ignores that Gospel and simply chooses to go their own way, in theirown “religion” then that is their own choice, but it is NOT God’s choice!
There is a spirit of anti-christ at work in the modern day “Christian” Zionism movement. That is why the apostle John warned us so many years ago, and he described it to us, so that we might understand it. It is unfortunate that so many sincere Christians are persuaded, and seduced by the colorful (and deceitful) ministries that are all over the Television today. Listen to John describe the Spirit of anti-Christ and then tell me if this does not describe the unbelieving Jewish people, (as well as all others) who refuse to believe that Christ (Messiah) has come!
Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. (1 John 2:22)
The Jewish people do NOT believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) and so they DENY the Father and the Son!
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (1 John 4:3)
The Jewish people do NOT believe that Jesus Christ (Messiah) has come in the flesh, and therefore they are NOT of GOD!
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. (2 John 1:7)
The Jewish people do NOT confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and therefore qualify as DECEIVERS!
The modern day “Christian” Zionist has joined hands with the spirit of antichrist in working hand in hand with those who still refuse to humble themselves and repent and believe the Gospel. The last word to the people of the world was given by Jesus Christ after He rose again from the dead and we find that in the Gospel of Luke:
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (Luke 24:36-47)
That is all you need to know and the decision is totally up to you, whether you are a Christian or a searcher of truth. You can CHOOSE to follow the FALSE teachers and join hands with the decieved or you can count the cost (Luke 14:25-33) and follow Jesus Christ, the one who is THE TRUTH! I suggest that you take the latter option and follow Jesus Christ no matter what. You may lose some “friends” but that is a lot better than losing your own soul.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)”
From Spurgeon’s Faith Check Book …
February 1
Never Despair
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. (Malachi 4.2)
Fulfilled once in the first advent of our glorious Lord, and yet to have a fuller accomplishment in His second advent, this gracious word is also for daily use. Is it dark with the reader? Does the night deepen into a denser blackness? Still let us not despair: the sun will yet rise. When the night is darkest, dawn is nearest.
The sun which will arise is of no common sort. It is the Sun—the Sun of Righteousness, whose every ray is holiness. He who comes to cheer us, comes in the way of justice as well as of mercy, comes to violate no law even to save us. Jesus as much displays the holiness of God as His love. Our deliverance, when it comes, will be safe because righteous.
Our one point of inquiry should be—”Do we fear the name of the Lord? Do we reverence the living God and walk in His ways?” Then for us the night must be short; and when the morning cometh, all the sickness and sorrow of our soul will be over forever. Light, warmth, joy, and clearness of vision will come, and healing of every disease and distress will follow after.
Has Jesus risen upon us? Let us sit in the sun. Has He hidden His face? Let us wait for His rising. He will shine forth as surely as the sun.
Because of the errors of dispensational teaching many Christians have been led to blindly support unjust practices.
Look for “Jerusalem Ground Zero” on CNN’s video page …
John 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
John 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
John 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
John 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.*Galatians 3:28-29 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.*Matthew 10:42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.*John 3:35-36 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Luke 1:68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,Luke 1:69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;Luke 1:70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:Luke 1:71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;Luke 1:72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;Luke 1:73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,Luke 1:74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,Luke 1:75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.Luke 1:76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;Luke 1:77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,Luke 1:78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,Luke 1:79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.Luke 1:80 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.
Luke 2:10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Luke 2:30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,Luke 2:31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;Luke 2:32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.Galatians 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.Galatians 3:18 For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.Galatians 3:19 Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.Galatians 3:20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.Galatians 3:21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.Galatians 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.Galatians 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.Galatians 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.Galatians 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.Galatians 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.Galatians 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.Galatians 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
1 John 2:22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.1 John 2:23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
2 John 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.Matthew 10:42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
John 3:35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Have you embraced the “dispensational” lie? Many have. It has become mainstream teaching within the modern day church. Is dispensationalism “another gospel”? The article below is a bit long but will be well worth the time spent reading it …
Moses or Christ? Paul’s Reply To Dispensational Error by Charles D. Alexander
He who would understand the prophets had better begin with Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, where he will find that the Church is one in the Old Testament and New, and the New Testament Church is the fulfillment of all prophecy, the very last phase of God’s redemptive work on earth.
He will discover in Galatians who the true Israel is, to whom the promises are made and that there is no other Israel, and no further fulfillment of prophecy.
The problem of the Galatian believers was the conspiracy to impose upon them Jewish interpretations of prophecy, and to claim over them a Jewish priority or privilege. Paul repulses this conspiracy with unparalleled severity.
On this question it was ‘Paul contra mundum’ (Paul against the world) as later it was to be, on another vital question, ‘Athanasius contra mundum.’ Even Peter came under his lash- ‘I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed’ (Gal. 2:1 1). Great men were temporarily swept away by the Jewish pretensions to perpetual privilege and priority– ‘Even Bamabas was carried away with their dissimulation’ (Gal. 2:13).
Here Paul placed his foot, the last man on earth to stand between Judaistic heresy and the safety of the church: ‘To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you’ (Gal. 2:5).
In our day the same Jewish heresies have well-nigh crushed the theology of the evangelical churches and destroyed effective preaching of the Word. The error has taken different forms in our time, but springs from the same Judaistic root whose fundamental ground is that Jewish privilege and priority are perpetual and that the New Testament Church at best is only a makeshift arrangement of providence to tide over the time until the resources of a baffled and well-nigh impotent Godhead are assembled in sufficient force to compel at last a Jewish solution of the problem of redemption.
A glance at any average missionary magazine dedicated to Jewish evangelization will clearly show this. Sayings of present Jewish leaders are eagerly quoted in justification of 2,000 years of Jewish unbelief, as showing that the Jewish expectation of a Messianic kingdom on earth, with restoration of temple, sacrifices, and priesthood, is a true interpretation of prophecy, whereas it was because John the Baptist and Christ did not proclaim such a kingdom of earthly and visible Jewish glory and privilege that the one was betrayed to Herod and the other was crucified by Pilate.
Let the martyrdom of John and the crucifixion of the Savior stand for ever as the final answer to that interpretation of prophecy which displaces the church, relegates the gospel, and establishes for ‘Israel after the flesh’ an earthly empire and a national economy falsely regarded as ‘the kingdom of Heaven.’
The fact that some (but by no means all) earlier Reformed theologians and expositors have given some countenance to the error is neither here nor there; for to a man, they all lived before that final dispensational arrangement of prophecy which has turned error into a heresy.
With happy lack of consistency, the earlier theologians held their post-millennial teachings alongside a truly spiritual interpretation of prophecy, not perceiving that the two were mutually exclusive. Their hearers at least got the benefit of both worlds even though one had to be proved false by the other.
Today, we are not permitted that luxury. The theory has become sinister and subversive through its elaboration into a succession of ‘ages’ to which belong certain well-defined segments of Holy Scripture, all combining to exclude ‘the church’ from all but a fragment of the Divine Word. The Jewish theory predominates. A variety of second comings and last judgments has been invented. The abolition of the gospel has been proclaimed with great enthusiasm for it is fundamental to pre-millennialism that another gospel known as ‘the gospel of the kingdom’ will take the place of the gospel of grace when ‘the church’ is safety removed out of the way.
Paul has a word for those who proclaim ‘another gospel,’ or who even proclaim there will ever be another-’Let him be accursed … though he be an angel from Heaven’ (Gal. 1:8).
Another Gospel
This perversion of Holy Scripture, now so destructively rife, is significantly at the root of all the modem ‘cults’ which have sprung out of evangelicalism in the last 15O years, all proclaiming ‘another gospel’ which is invariably a thinly concealed doctrine of ‘works’ presented in more orthodox circles under the well-sounding title ‘Gospel of the Kingdom.’
This title occurs very blessedly in the New Testament, of course, but nowhere is it separable from the gospel ‘kingdom’ which is neither here nor there, neither in Jerusalem, nor Samaria, nor Rome, but is ‘within you’ (Luke 17:20-21). The ‘Gospel of the Kingdom’ as described by our pre-millennialist is suspiciously like that which the sect known as ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ proclaims.
The inconsistency of former (but otherwise sound) theologians who pursued the millennialist fantasy is testified by our dispensationalists today who indignantly strike from the chapter headings of the Authorized Version of the Bible any reference to ‘the church’ found in those headings throughout the Old Testament prophets.
We are on common ground therefore in acknowledging that the millennialism of the older theologians was inconsistent with modem dispensationalism or even with more moderate post-millennialism. These men cannot be quoted as experts on prophetical interpretation, but we have every ground for asserting that if they had lived after the invention of the dispensational heresy, they would have fled in dismay from their millennial house and cried havoc!
That Mr. Spurgeon did not appear to perceive this, can only be attributed to the fact that he lived too near the onset of the new error and was too engrossed (rightly so) with the challenge of the new Bible criticism, to perceive the other ‘downgrade’ which after his death became a landslide, and in two generations overwhelmed the evangelical testimony and destroyed theology and divinity, leaving evangelicalism powerless and without nerve or sinew to meet the challenge of world-wide atheism and Satanic unloosing.
We have begun by stating that the key to prophetic understanding of the Old Testament promises lies in the epistle to the Galatians, an epistle specially written to defend the church against all judaizing errors and interpretations.
The Galatian church was the Most Gentile of all the churches of the New Testament, as the name suggests. The inhabitants of that province in Asia Minor were a segment of the great Gaelic-Gautic-Celtic race from which the English-speaking peoples take most of their blood. It is sad to see that the Judaic-dispensational heresy has found only too congenial ground in this race, as it did in their Asiatic brethren in the days of Paul the apostle. It seems that our race is peculiarly prone to casting away its great privileges and placing its mind in pawn to Judaistic doctrines. ‘O foolish Galatians! Who hath bewitched you’ (Gal. 3:1).
In Paul’s day men came from Judea to Galatia teaching that God had set aside neither the Jewish nation nor Jewish privilege, and unless the Gentiles became as Jews they could not be saved. They even insisted that Gentiles become circumcised as Jews. Against this Paul thundered,’I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law, Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace’ (Gal. 5:3-4).
It is useless for our friends to tell us that this is not their error, for their interpretations require that in their so-called millennial age Gentiles must be circumcised according to the laws of Ezekiel’s ‘temple.’ Hence our Savior Christ, supposedly reigning in person in Jerusalem, must preside over the subversion of His own gospel, the undoing of His work of redemption on the Cross and the dismantling of that kingdom of grace and truth which was the sole purpose of His coming into the world. In other words, the ‘Second Coming’ according to the dispensational scheme will undo the whole purpose of the First Coming, and the Law will supplant the gospel.
Those who reject the true spiritual interpretation of Ezekiel 44:6-9 must teach that ‘the stranger’ (that is, the Gentile) is to be excluded from God’s sanctuary unless he is circumcised. This passage occurs in that portion of Ezekiel in which the New Testament temple is described but which our friends take to mean an actual temple restoration in Jerusalem during the so-called millennial reign of Christ on earth. As they insist that Ezekiel’s temple is to be literally constructed they cannot escape the conclusion that circumcision is to be reestablished in their millennium, on a far more extensive scale than ever before; Gentiles must be circumcised as well as Jews if they are to have access to divine worship.
And who is now the heretic~we who plead for a spiritual and gospel interpretation of prophecy, or our friends who reestablish circumcision, the temple, the sacrifice, the Levitical priesthood, and abolish the church and the gospel, and put Moses in the place of Christ’? When we say that the epistle to the Galatians was written to destroy this Judiastic error, we do not overstate the truth, as we shall now attempt to prove.
The third and fourth chapters of Galatians are crucial to the interpretation of prophecy. Three things are shown therein: (1) The Church is one continuing body in the Old Testament and the New Testament. (2) The New Testament Church is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy concerning Israel (3) Therefore, prophecy concerning the promised kingdom is to be understood in spiritual, not in natural terms .
In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul proves his competence to speak with authority showing that the gospel which he preached and from which the Galatians were in danger of being subverted, was received by him as a direct and specific revelation from God, by- passing all human means, so that his apostleship was not derived from the Jerusalem apostolate with which he had only the flimsiest contact. It was three years after his conversion before he visited Jerusalem, and even then he lived with Peter for only fifteen days, seeing no other apostle save James (the relative of the Lord). His apostleship came direct from Heaven and his knowledge of the gospel from the same exalted source.
He was the man who (whether in spirit or body, he could not say) had been caught up to Heaven and in a personal interview with the glorified Redeemer received that inner knowledge of the divine wisdom in the plan of redemption that exceeded what he was permitted to teach or write (2 Cor.12).
In chap. 2 he records his visit to the great council of the church at Jerusalem called to deal with the Judaistic dispute-a dispute satisfactorily settled in favor of Gentile liberty under the gospel: a liberty unhindered by those Jewish observances which continued amongst the early Jewish believers during the appointed 40 years of Jewish probation terminating with the abolition of the temple, the Mosaic code, the priesthood, sacrifices and the synagogue connection in the Roman war of A. D. 70. In this account of the evangelical council at Jerusalem under the superintendence of the apostle James (Acts 15), the position of the church in relation to the Mosaic Law is clinched by an appeal to the verdict of the prophets themselves. Amos is being quoted as representative of all the prophets (note the use of the plural)-Acts 15:15. That Quotation governs the right use of all prophecies related thereto, in reference to thee kingdom which Christ came to establish at His first coming, and shows that the kingdom is spiritual and not Jewish, of Heaven and not of earth, and that the rebuilding of David’s house has been fulfilled in the perpetual reign of Christ, beginning with the resurrection and the ascension into Heaven.
Though Paul does not recapitulate the history of this great council, he records this result affecting the Gentiles. It was established that Gentile salvation outside the law and outside the Jewish camp was valid, scriptural and eternally binding, though (as Paul declares to his Galatian friends) it would not have mattered to him if the council had gone against him~.’God accepteth no man’s person’ (Gal. 2:6).
Later on Peter came to Antioch and because of fear of the opinion of judaizing emissaries from James at Jerusalem, compromised with the synagogue faction and separated himself from the Gentiles. Poor Peter! The same Peter who denied his Lord still denies him despite the artificial theories of conference men who declare that Peter was a different man after Pentecost than he was before.
What grandeur in Paul’s argument! The final answer to the judaizing heresy is that the Cross of Christ has abolished the earthly and temporal Jewish economy and set up in its place an economy of the Spirit which transcends the national, the carnal and the external. ‘I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live…’ (Gal. 2:19-20).
No Break Between Old Testament and New Testament
There follows the Pauline analysis of the nature and history of the true church, as contained in chapters 3 and 4, The first great conclusion Paul presents to the Galatians is that the only true children of Abraham, the heirs to the Abrahamic covenant, blessing and promise, are true believers, whether Jew or Gentile: ‘Know ye therefore that they which be of faith, the same are the children of Abraham’ (Gal. 3:7).
There can be no appeal from this fundamental statement. In one sentence Paul destroys the entire dispensational, pre-millennial and post-millennial edifice. It is foundational to all three systems that Jewish privilege and a special Jewish future must be maintained on the basis that the Abrahamic covenant was exclusive to the natural (i.e. Jewish) seed of Abraham.
But Paul shows in these two chapters that the ’seed of Abraham’ is Christ, and that they who are Christ’s (and no one else) are ‘Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise’; that this ’seed’ abolishes all distinction of birth or privilege, for ‘there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for all are one in Christ Jesus’ (See Gal. 3:16,2819). Moreover, the promise (of redemption in Christ took -precedence over the law by 430 years – the time lapse between Abraham and Moses. The Law itself, with its apparatus of temple, priest and sacrifice, was only added ‘because of transgression’ to bridge the gap till Christ came~Gal. 3:17-19.
How say our literalists therefore that the temple and Levitical priesthood and sacrifice, are to be restored in the ‘Millennium’? If they were only established as a discipline to hold iniquity in check until gospel times, who will re-establish them save at the cost of recalling the sin and transgression which they were fitted only to restrain? And who now is the heretic?
Paul goes further and shows by the nature and history of the true church that no break has occurred between the Old Testament and New Testament Church. The Church of the New Testament is the legitimate successor of the church of the Old Testament.
Few chapters of Scripture have been so maltreated and distorted as the third chapter of Galatians. Evangelical expositors have sought to show from the word: ‘The Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ,’ that the Holy Spirit uses the Law in evangelical conversion to drive us through conviction of sin into the arms of Christ. Now whatever experimental truth there may be in this, it is not the subject of Paul’s argument. The Galatians were never under ‘the schoolmaster.’ The ’schoolmaster’ is the regime of the Law over Old Testament Israel to preserve the nation in its function as the Church of God in the Old Testament till the ‘fullness of times’ when Christ came at His first advent~’Before faith came we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed’ (v.23).
This can only mean that the church was under legal restraints and administration till the time of gospel faith, that is, till the time when the fulfillment of the promise in Christ should release the people of God from all earthly and legal restraints and set them free without priest, sacrifice, temple, washings, outward observances or any such ‘rudiments of the world,’ to serve God in the spirit.
Christ said to the woman of Samaria: ‘Neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, shall men worship the Father, but the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth…’ (John 4:21-24). In these words Christ abolishes temple, priesthood, sacrifice, circumcision and the entire apparatus of the Mosaic Covenant. Though for another 40 years of probation these ‘rudiments’ were permitted to continue (though without legal enforcement) among pious Jews still attached to the nation and the synagogue, the judgment of the Roman war brought all to an end.
Among Gentile believers no such regulations and requirements were to be tolerated. The attempt to impose them was subversive to the gospel itself~the belief so current now among sincere Christians that the ‘rudiments’ of the Mosaic code will actually, after 2,000 years, be reimposed not only on the Jew but on the Gentile also, is a heresy which baffles credence.
The thunders of the Galatian epistle notwithstanding, this subversive doctrine has obtained a stranglehold on theological thought and under the form of ‘dispensationalism’ has vindicated 2,000 years of Jewish unbelief. It must be repelled and repudiated with the utmost vigor if preaching and exposition of the Word of God is to be restored to the church, and in this exercise the Epistle to the Galatians is crucial.
The Church ‘Comes of Age’
‘But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a ’schoolmaster’ (v.25). The ‘coming’ of faith in the apostle’s argument denotes the passage of the church from the Mosaic to the New Testament economy. It is not an individual experience of the sinner coming to the Savior, but a moment in history when the regime of law gave way to the regime of faith, and the ’schoolmaster’ (the apparatus of the law summarized under the term ‘circumcision’) handed over his office to Christ, and the church passed from its minority’ to its ‘majority.’
The conclusion of this chapter (vv. 26-29) is the charter of the New Testament Church and the ground of her invincible claim to be the lawful successor of Abraham, the true Israel, the true circumcision (not in the flesh but in the spirit), the inheritor of the promises and privileges and hope of Old Testament Israel. Hence-’If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise’ (v.29). This glorious sentence winds up the Old Covenant, abolishes the law, the temple, and circumcision, terminates the mission of the Jewish nation, ends their exclusive rights and privileges, and provides the key to the understanding of the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets of the Old Testament.
This one sentence is the death-knell of that dispensational heresy which has filled the Church with the rubbish of a dismantled legalism and aims to reimpose in an age yet to come all those temporalities and restrictions which Christ died once and for all to abolish. The subtle doctrine that the gospel of Christ’s free grace is going to give away to an imagined millennium of reimposed Jewish privileges, is reinforced by the teaching that there will be in that ‘golden age’ another ‘gospel’ preached, the so-called ‘gospel of the kingdom’ which, whatever way we look at it, becomes a gospel of works and not of grace.
We beg our readers to consider that every false cult or sect which has sprung from the evangelical body in the last century and a half, is dispensational in nature and carries to its logical conclusion this Jewish and rabbinical principle of a gospel of works. It is proclaimed by the ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ in their significantly named ‘Kingdom Halls,’ by Christadelphians and Adventists, and by the newly developed cult launched by Mr. Herbert Armstrong, a financial wizard who claims to be the only man or organization on earth to be proclaiming the truth, and therefore entitled to all the legalistic ‘tithes’ of the Lord’s people. Aptly he has been called, ‘Mr. Ten Percent.’
These outrageous impositions are evangelical in their origin and are only variations of that dispensationalism which began in the early 19th century, became standardized by Dr. C. I. Scofield in his ‘reference Bible’ and has ever since dominated the evangelical scene.
We cannot proclaim too strongly the dangers of this subtle and incredible movement which now shackles the evangelical mind and destroys all true Bible exposition. It is one of the principal tasks of the movement in our day towards sound Biblical and ‘Reformed’ exposition, to destroy this error. In that task one principal weapon must be the epistle to the Galatians.
The Final Form of Israel
If we can demonstrate and prove that the Galatian epistle establishes beyond all cavil that the Church is one, a unity, in Old Testament and New Testament, and that therefore the New Testament Church is the final form of ‘Israel,’ the inheritor of all the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the fulfillment of the prophecies of the kingdom which Messiah came to establish, and did in fact establish-our task will have been completed and our readers must do the rest.
It is our deliberate contention that this is the very position established in the next chapter (the fourth) of our Galatian epistle, established with such force that it can only be avoided by a blindness or an ignorance culpable in its nature.
Chapter four contains Paul’s final argument, proving these two things: (1) That the work of ‘adoption’ performed in the hearts of all true believers demonstrates that they are the legitimate successors of the Israelitish church of the Old Testament. (2) He reinforces this by an allegory built upon Abraham’s history, showing that the natural Jew is not Israel at all but Ishmael; and that the church of Jew and Gentile believers is the true and only and exclusive Israel of God.
This being so, the promises to Israel in the Old Testament prophecies are to be spiritually understood even when they speak apparently of literal and material restoration of ‘Israel and Judah. This is the key the only key, to prophetical interpretation. We proceed therefore: Gal. 4:1~’Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all.’
Paul is saying that in Old Testament times the true church, the true people of God, were in a state of minority. Not having ‘come of age,’ they were treated as a child in a rich man’s household, the heir to all the father’s estates and privileges, but not yet at that age when that inheritance could properly be bestowed. Therefore, the child-heir finds himself fenced about with restrictions and officers who regulate his life so that he has no liberty to enjoy his privileges but must await ‘the time appointed of the Father.’ This is expressed by Paul in the words, ‘But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father’ (Gal. 4:2).
The tutors and governors of the church in the Old Testament were the regulations of the Mosaic code. Paul deliberately transfers the figure of the child-heir to the church in her Old Testament minority in the words- ‘Even so we, when we were children, were in bond age under the elements [margin - rudiments] of the world’ (Gal. 4:3). The childhood of the church was in Israelitish form under the Old Testament. The ‘bondage’ was the subjection of the people of God to those earthly ‘rudiments’ of visible temple, sacrifices, circumcision, and all other legal observances ‘in the flesh’ which constituted the preparatory condition of the people of God before the coming of Christ.
Of that glorious event when the church obtained her release and passed from under the law to the full liberty of gospel faith, Paul now speaks- ‘But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons’ (Gal. 4:4-5).
‘The fulness of the time’ means the times of prophetical fulfillment of all the purposes and promises of God in redemption. That Paul should call the gospel times ‘the fulness of the time’ means that the gospel age is the age of fulfillment of all things which God spake by His holy prophets since the world began-Luke 1:70.
These are ‘the last days’ described by Paul in Hebrews 1:2, ‘the end of the world’ (Heb. 9:26), ‘the last time’ (1 John 2:18). If these are the last days and the last time, and the end of the world, how say the dispensationalists that there is a ‘time’ after ‘the last time,’ another kingdom to come after the ‘kingdom of God’ has run its course, another age after the gospel age? We await with confidence their reply.
In this ‘fulness of time’ God’s Son was sent forth, born of the virgin, born under the law, that as One obliged by His true humanity and the time at which He appeared, to keep the whole law, did so in the perfection of His mediatorial office, redeeming ‘those who were under the law’ that they with us Gentiles might receive together that ‘adoption of sons’ which sets us beyond the servitude of the law and introduces us to the full inheritance of the sons of God. ‘And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying Abba, Father’ (v.6).
This is the difference between the experience of the people of God in the Old Testament and those in the New Testament. The difference is not one of the quality of salvation or the nature of faith, but in the status and privilege enjoyed. Living after the sacrifice of Christ which procured the full restoration of the soul to direct communion with God, the believer now receives the full witness of sonship and is released from the service of outward forms and ceremonies.
Sarah And Hagar
After remonstrating with the Galatians for yielding so easily to the subversions of Judaistic teachers, Paul resumes his argument in the famous allegory of Sarah and Hagar. This occupies verse 21-31 of our chapter and is the final word to end all argument of prophetical interpretation.
Abraham had two sons-Ishmael and Isaac. The former, who was the son of the bondwoman, Hagar the Egyptian, was rejected by God as not being the true heir. The other, Isaac, was the son of Sarah the true wife, and this was the true seed through whom the promise of God would come. Then, in the apostle’s argument, comes the most startling reversal in the entire history of prophecy. Hagar, the Egyptian bondmaid, is identified with Jerusalem and Jewry. Sarah is identified with the true Church~’the heavenly Jerusalem.’
The allegory thus declares that earthly Israel (the twelve tribes) is to be regarded as Ishmael because they are in bondage to the law and not free. The true Church of Gentile and Jew (in which all distinctions of race, degree and privilege are abolished) this is the true Israel to whom the promises made to Abraham apply.
Hagar and Ishmael stand for Jerusalem ‘which now is’ (that is, the earthly Jerusalem standing with temple and sacrifice at the time of Paul’s writing). Sarah and Isaac stand for the true gospel church, the ‘Jerusalem which is from above.’ The covenant made with Abraham is the promise of the gospel, and from that promise every Jew alive or who ever will be alive, is excluded except insofar as he comes by the same road of repentance, faith and regeneration which the Gentile believer treads.
Paul reinforces his allegory with a quotation from Isaiah 54:1 ‘Rejoice thou barren [Sarah] that barest not; break forth and cry thou that travailest not: for the desolate [the New Covenant] hath many more children than she that hath an husband [the Old Covenant].’ The abolition of the Old Covenant means the abolition of Israel (Jewry) from all her privileges, and the emergence of the New Testament Church is the rise of the new ‘Israel of God,’ Jew and Gentile, with all distinctions obliterated, to whom alone the Abrahamic promises belong.
This is tersely and categorically expressed by the apostle in the words, ‘Now we, brethren [i.e., the church of the N. T.] as Isaac was, are the children of promise.’ Paul touches in v.29 upon the persecuting envy of the Jews against the church to whom their privileges have passed, and likens it to the hatred of Ishmael against Isaac and concludes his argument by quoting against the Jew the very words originally spoken against Hagar and her son Ishmael~’Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman with her son [i.e., the Old Covenant and the earthly Israel]: for the son of the bondwoman [Israel] shall not be heir with the children of the free woman [that is, the N. T. Church]‘ (v.30).
The dreadful judgment of these words is unmistakable: Israel is cast off and cast off forever as a nation. Paul gives no hint of any ‘restoration’ though here would be the place to state it, if restoration there is to be. Jewish privilege is ended for all time. The covenant has passed to the New Testament Church in which Israel has no part except as individual believers.
This ‘casting off’ is not anywhere modified by Paul. We have elsewhere shown that in Rom. 11 Paul is speaking of individual Jews and not the nation, when he writes, ‘If the casting away of them be the riches of the Gentiles, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?’
His last word to the Galatians is, ‘So then brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free’ (Gal. 4:3 1 ). This he writes to the most Gentile of all the churches, showing that to the Gentile church has passed the covenant, the glory, the birthright, the privilege and the redemption hope.
The consequences are most far-reaching. They extend to every prophecy of the Old Testament in which the New Covenant is foretold, even though the words of the prophets are addressed to ‘Israel and Judah.’ That ‘Israel and Judah’ is the New Testament Church, and though the prophecies are couched in terms of the land of Israel and employ topographical and geographical details drawn from the earthly territory of the twelve tribes, these are ‘figures of the true’ just as temple, sacrifice and priesthood, passover and feasts were ‘figures of the true,’ designed to portray gospel truths to those whose ears are open to hear. It is greatly to be feared that to very few of our prophetical teachers today those words could be addressed: ‘Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear’ (Matt. 13:16).
It might well be asked of our dispensational friends today-What was it that the Lord hid from the wise and prudent Jews of His day and revealed only to ‘babes’ (Matt. 11:25)? If it were ‘the things’ pertaining to His kingdom which He had come to establish on the ruins of Satan’s empire of sin and death, then the ‘kingdom’ which he ‘offered’ to the Jews was entirely spiritual and not natural, and this is the reason why it was concealed from all except those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
The reason why the Jews rejected Christ is the same as that for which they still reject Him today-namely, because they expected an earthly kingdom, and Christ did not bring them this. The prevailing prophetical theories, however, insist that Christ did in fact ‘offer’ this kingdom to the Jews and because they rejected the offer, the gospel was brought in as an afterthought or a substitute. What the dispensational theory is saying is that Christ offered to the Jews the very kingdom which they expected, but they rejected Him and it! At the last, says this extraordinary theory, Christ will relent and will in fact give the Jews the very kingdom which they crucified Him for not establishing at His first coming. The dispensational theory therefore vindicates the Jew for 2,000 years of unbelief and at the same time contradicts itself by alleging that the kingdom which the Jews rejected was the very kingdom which they crucified Him for not offering but which will be gratuitously conferred upon them in the near future as the fulfillment of what God promised to Abraham.
If our friends cannot see the hopeless dilemma in which their theory involves them, we can only marvel at the success of that error of dispensationalism by which evil powers have succeeded in well nigh destroying scriptural exposition and understanding.
The truth is that there is not a breath of suggestion that Christ ever offered’ to the Jews any other ‘kingdom’ but the gospel: that this was in fact the kingdom which John the Baptist came to present under the keyword ‘repent,’ which Christ Himself presented with the same keyword ‘repent,’ that the Sermon on the Mount with which He formally introduced His mission was in fact an exposition of the text- ‘Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’ In that great sermon Christ promised or offered nothing to anyone except ‘the poor in spirit,’ the ‘mourner for sin,’ the ‘meek,’ the ‘brokenhearted,’ and those who ‘hungered and thirsted’ for true righteousness.
Dispensationalism, faced with the embarrassment that these dispositions of soul are noticeably absent in the Jewish occupation of Palestine today, had to descend to the device that the Jew must go back to Palestine in unbelief though this was the very reason for which the Jew was cast out of Palestine. The theory teaches that the Second Coming of Christ will convert the Jews ‘in a day’ despite the fact that they do not need to be converted to the conceptions of an earthly kingdom of Christ, seeing they crucified the Savior for not setting up this very thing.
The dispensational theory today is jubilantly hailing the prospect of an early fulfillment of Jewish expectation of an earthly kingdom of Messiah. The theorists exceed the rabbis in this enthusiasm, though it is from rabbinical sources that their theory has been contrived. They actually tell the Jews that their present occupation of Palestine, in a state of bitter hostility to Christ and the Christian gospel, is the fulfillment of prophecy and that their ungodly zeal against Christ and truth will be rewarded shortly by God with an instant faith and that this extraordinary act of God will be a fulfilling of the promises made to Abraham.
But Paul in Galatians has already told us who Abraham’s seed are, to whom these promises are made, and he mentions not a word about restoration to Palestine, but builds it all on the nature of the Church. He maintains, as we have shown, that the Church is the lawful continuation of Old Testament Israel and the inheritor of the Abrahamic covenant and promises.
We ask our dispensational friends to consider what their position will be if the present Jewish occupation ends in disaster. While they are forming their reply, we would point out to readers that so far from converting Israel and establishing them in the land, the second coming of Christ will overtake them (and all the world) ‘as a thief in the night,’ in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up (2 Peter 3: 1 0).
Peter knows of no other ’second coming’ save that which abolishes the heavens and the earth in one stupendous conflagration. Where then is the earthly kingdom which Christ is to bring to the Jew, and where is the ‘kingdom’ of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Christadelphians, the Adventists and the Armstrongites? We fear for the company which our dispensationalists keep and earnestly entreat them to consider Paul’s interpretation of who Israel is, what are ‘the two covenants’ and what is the nature of ‘the promise’ made to Abraham?
Our last word is that of Paul, significantly found in the conclusion of that epistle specifically written to deliver the Church from Jewish error and Jewish pride:
‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.’ (Gal. 6:14-16).
Psalm 68:20 He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.
Yesterday we had yet another visit and another service at the nursing home where my father resides. My father still is not eating properly (see prayer request) and yesterday he was having a pretty strong episode of dementia. I say episode because he has had these seasons of dimentia in the past and has always come out of them. He has Parkinson disease and I believe the dementia is, at least in part anyway, related to that. I should be discouraged but I am not. I have hope in the Lord and just maybe the Lord has put that hope in my heart. I know we can all succumb to wishful thinking but I hope that is not the case. I felt the Lord impress the following scripture verse on my heart this morning. I think of the man who survived six heart attacks. We had the privilege of giving him a gospel tract. What if that man had been under a DNR order? Against my will my father has DNR (DO NOT RESUSCITATE) written on his chart. But what does that really mean because “He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.” Hallelujah!
On another note I just want to share a little something about one of other residents at my father’s nursing home. She is a 92 years old woman who comes to our meetings. She has full mental capacity, praise the Lord, but she is not born again. She has told us in the past that she likes to come to the meetings because she likes the music and singing. Another time she said that it takes time for her to understand the new things she is learning at the services. Yesterday she told my husband she loves to hear him speak. I say this not to boast but to encourage evangelism. This woman is a Roman Catholic and at one point stopped coming to the meetings. She’s back again and I know the Lord is calling her. Over the years I have observed many souls listen to the gospel message and yet not understand a word of what was spoken. This woman not only is understanding but is seeing that there is a difference between what she has believed her whole life and what the word of God declares. Only God can do that!
Psalms 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
If you are born again I would ask you to please keep my father and our family in prayer, and if possible add this prayer request to the other prayer requests at your church fellowship. My father is 93 years old and I do not perceive that he is born again. He is in a nursing home, and has recently begun to lose weight because he’s not eating as he should. The doctor plans to give him an appetite stimulant to see if that helps. A family member who does not know the Lord is the primary health care proxy. The issue of a feeding tube may arise shortly. As a Christian my conscience will not permit me to agree to the denial of a feeding tube for my father at this time. I know that the main health care proxy believes otherwise.
Please pray that the Lord will give my husband and I wisdom and grace in this situation and that the Lord’s will be done. Please pray for my father’s salvation. Though I realize that not all of our family members will be saved I also realize that all things are possible with the Lord. Above all please pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in all of this. We have been doing Christian services for the residents at my father’s nursing home for several years now and have sown much gospel seed among the precious souls in this facility. Thank you.
See …
This is a work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of believers …
“Christian Liberality
“Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble” (Psalm 41:1)
To think about the poor and let them lie on our hearts is a Christian man’s duty; for Jesus put them with us and near us when He said, “The poor ye have always with you.”
Many give their money to the poor in a hurry, without thought; and many more give nothing at all. This precious promise belongs to those who “consider” the poor, look into their case, devise plans for their benefit, and considerately carry them out. We can do more by care than by cash, and most with two together. To those who consider the poor, the LORD promises His own consideration in times of distress. He will bring us out of trouble if we help others when they are in trouble. We shall receive very singular providential help if the LORD sees that we try to provide for others. We shall have a time of trouble, however generous we may be; but if we are charitable, we may put in a claim for peculiar deliverance, and the LORD will not deny His own word and bond. Miserly curmudgeons may help themselves, but considerate and generous believers the LORD will help. As you have done unto others, so will the LORD do unto you. Empty your pockets.
From Spurgeon’s Faith Check Book
January 22nd”
Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee et al.
Should believers be following these people?
See post here …
MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD
See also …
GLENN BECK TEETERING CLOSER TO THE BRINK
(If you have a few minutes take a look at the comments on the above posts.)
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
John 10:4-5 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
Acts 13:39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Matthew Henry Commentary:
… be it known to you that it is by Christ only that those who believe in him, and none else, are justified from all things, from all the guilt and stain of sin, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses (Acts 13:39); therefore they ought to entertain and embrace the gospel, and not to adhere to the law in opposition to it, because the gospel is perfective, not destructive, of the law.
Note, …
1. The great concern of sinners is to be justified, to be acquitted from guilt and accepted as righteous in God’s sight.
2. Those who are truly justified are acquitted from all their guilt; for if any be left charged upon the sinner he is undone.
3. It was impossible for a sinner to be justified by the law of Moses. Not by his moral law, for we have all broken it, and are transgressing it daily, so that instead of justifying us it condemns us.
Go here for …
and here …
A great song of comfort …
Sometimes I cannot believe what I hear. Please do not think that this man is representing Jesus! There is genuine Christianity but what I see in the mainstream organized church and the media is bogus Christianity. Run from it as fast as you can!
See video here …
Acts 2:40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Strong’s Greek Dictionary:
untoward
from the base of 4628; warped, i.e. winding; figuratively, perverse:–crooked, froward, untoward.
Matthew Henry Commentary:
Note, To separate ourselves from wicked people is the only way to save ourselves from them; though we hereby expose ourselves to their rage and enmity, we really save ourselves from them; for, if we consider whither they are hastening, we shall see it is better to have the trouble of swimming against their stream than the danger of being carried down their stream. Those that repent of their sins, and give up themselves to Jesus Christ, must evidence their sincerity by breaking off all intimate society with wicked people. Depart from me, ye evil doers, is the language of one that determines to keep the commandments of his God, Psalm 119:115. We must save ourselves from them, which denotes avoiding them with dread and holy fear, as we would save ourselves from an enemy that seeks to destroy us, or from a house infected with the plague.
See … SALVATION
Go here …
So many in today’s organized church have fallen into the trap of believing that Roman Catholicism is just one of many valid Christian denominations. All a Roman Catholic has to say is “I love Jesus” and that settles the issue for many born again Christians. Now I do realize that many believers may not have a clear understanding of Roman Catholic teaching, but that does not absolve them from the responsibility of searching into the matter more deeply. In my experience, of more than twenty years, I have found that when a believer is confronted with the truth about Roman Catholicism it is most often rejected. This I do not understand. Maybe it’s because “the majority rules.” In other words most go with the flow of what is being taught in the mainstream churches etc. This certainly is a dangerous place to be for it does not honor the Lord and His truth, nor is it being merciful to the poor lost Roman Catholics who have few who are willing to give them a Gospel witness. I have heard believers questioning whether all Roman Catholics are lost (with a hint a sarcasm in their question). The issue is that the Gospel the Roman Catholic is sitting under is not the true Gospel and “Mary” is the main mediator even though many say otherwise. If we belong to the Lord we will be lovers of souls and lovers and seekers of truth.
Learn the truth about Roman Catholicism here …
Psalms 38:20 They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.
From Spurgeon’s Treasury of David …
” They are mine enemies because I follow the thing that good is. It is a bold attempt to ding Satan out of his nest. If we conform us to the men of this world we find peace with them; they will not discord with us so long as we go their way; but to shame them by a godly life is an affront they cannot digest; and to rebuke their sin, findeth at their hand all that Satan disappointed or corruption provoked can devise. A sleeping dog is quiet, but being stirred, turneth all in barking and biting. Not to do as they do is matter enough of anger, but a reproof is the highest degree of disgrace in their account. All that hatred which they ought to bear to Satan and his instruments, is turned upon God in his rebuking and reclaiming servants. That anger that in remorse should burn against their own sin is set against their reprovers. William Struther.”
Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, January 5th
Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Light might well be good since it sprang from that fiat of goodness, “Let there be light.” We who enjoy it should be more grateful for it than we are, and see more of God in it and by it. Light physical is said by Solomon to be sweet, but gospel light is infinitely more precious, for it reveals eternal things, and ministers to our immortal natures. When the Holy Spirit gives us spiritual light, and opens our eyes to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we behold sin in its true colours, and ourselves in our real position; we see the Most Holy God as he reveals himself, the plan of mercy as he propounds it, and the world to come as the Word describes it. Spiritual light has many beams and prismatic colours, but whether they be knowledge, joy, holiness, or life, all are divinely good. If the light received be thus good, what must the essential light be, and how glorious must be the place where he reveals himself. O Lord, since light is so good, give us more of it, and more of thyself, the true light.
No sooner is there a good thing in the world, than a division is necessary. Light and darkness have no communion; God has divided them, let us not confound them. Sons of light must not have fellowship with deeds, doctrines, or deceits of darkness. The children of the day must be sober, honest, and bold in their Lord’s work, leaving the works of darkness to those who shall dwell in it forever. Our Churches should by discipline divide the light from the darkness, and we should by our distinct separation from the world do the same. In judgment, in action, in hearing, in teaching, in association, we must discern between the precious and the vile, and maintain the great distinction which the Lord made upon the world’s first day. O Lord Jesus, be thou our light throughout the whole of this day, for thy light is the light of men.
Spurgeon, Faith’s Checkbook, January 5th …
Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
When called to serve or to suffer, we take stock of our strength, and we find it to be less than we thought and less than we need. But let not our heart sink within us while we have such a word as this to fall back upon, for it guarantees us all that we can possibly need. God has strength omnipotent; that strength He can communicate to us; and His promise is that He will do so. He will be the food of our souls and the health of our hearts; and thus He will give us strength. There is no telling how much power God can put into a man. When divine strength comes, human weakness is no more a hindrance.
Do we not remember seasons of labor and trial in which we received such special strength that we wondered at ourselves? In the midst of danger we were calm, under bereavement we were resigned, in slander we were self-contained, and in sickness we were patient. The fact is that God gives unexpected strength when unusual trials come upon us, We rise out of our feeble selves. Cowards play the man, foolish ones have wisdom given them, and the silent receive in the self-same hour what they shall speak, My own weakness makes me shrink, but God’s promise makes me brave. LORD, strengthen me “according to thy word.”
Corrie Ten Boom tells about the difficulty she had forgiving a former Nazi guard. She recognized him from her stay at Ravensbruck. He was now a believer. When he offered her his hand she prayed …
Page 238 …
“Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness. As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”
From the book: The Hiding Place
Isn’t it so very true.
Listen here … HE GIVETH MORE GRACE
and here … HE GIVETH MORE GRACE
Deuteronomy 33:25 Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.
(Matthew 10:34) Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
“The Christian will be sure to make enemies. It will be one of his objects to make none; but if to do the right, and to believe the true, should cause him to lose every earthly friend, he will count it but a small loss, since his great Friend in heaven will be yet more friendly, and reveal himself to him more graciously than ever. O ye who have taken up his cross, know ye not what your Master said? “I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother; and a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” Christ is the great Peacemaker; but before peace, he brings war. Where the light cometh, the darkness must retire. Where truth is, the lie must flee; or, if it abideth, there must be a stern conflict, for the truth cannot and will not lower its standard, and the lie must be trodden under foot. If you follow Christ, you shall have all the dogs of the world yelping at your heels. If you would live so as to stand the test of the last tribunal, depend upon it the world will not speak well of you. He who has the friendship of the world is an enemy to God; but if you are true and faithful to the Most High, men will resent your unflinching fidelity, since it is a testimony against their iniquities. Fearless of all consequences, you must do the right. You will need the courage of a lion unhesitatingly to pursue a course which shall turn your best friend into your fiercest foe; but for the love of Jesus you must thus be courageous. For the truth’s sake to hazard reputation and affection, is such a deed that to do it constantly you will need a degree of moral principle which only the Spirit of God can work in you; yet turn not your back like a coward, but play the man. Follow right manfully in your Master’s steps, for he has traversed this rough way before you. Better a brief warfare and eternal rest, than false peace and everlasting torment.”
From Spurgeon Morning & Evening
(Evening, December 28th)
Amanda Smith and the Christians with her at the old fashioned Holy Ghost camp meeting knew about the soul harming errors of Rome and were not afraid to speak about them. Today hardly any are willing to speak up and speak out about such things. Here is a short excerpt from the book “Amanda Smith, The King’s Daughter” …
” … The power of the Spirit was manifest. Brother Adams sat down in a tempest of glory. It was the very Sunday that Rome was declaring the infallibility of the Pope. Brother Boole sprang to his feet, as by inspiration and said, as he only could say it:
‘In Rome today they are crowning the Pope infallible; let’s rise and sing ’All hail the power of Jesus’ name, and crown Him Lord of all,’ in our hearts forever.’
And the whole congregation rose in an instant as one. I think I never heard such singing – never heard that old Coronation sung as it was that day. Yes, we crowned Him King of kings and Lord of lords. Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!”
From the book: Amanda Smith The King’s Daughter
Read unabridged version free online …
An autobiography: the story of the Lord’s dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith … By Amanda Smith
Amanda Smith, a beautiful Christian woman evangelist, talks about her daughter Mazie, who was doing well as a new believer until …
“As she (Mazie) stood so well I thought there would be no danger of her being influenced at a Catholic school. And then they told me she could have her Bible and hymn book just the same; and so she did take them with her; but they very quietly took them away from her after she was there a while, and said they would take care of them for her, and gave her such a nice book that she would like to read, about some good saint or sister; and as sh e was so fond of reading she accepted it at once. But she never saw her Bible or Hymn Book again till she left. Sending my daughter to this school was a serious mistake on my part, and one that is made by many parents who are ignorant, as I was, of the subtlety of Rome.”
From the book: Amanda Smith The King’s Daughter
Read unabridged version free online …
An autobiography: the story of the Lord’s dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith … By Amanda Smith
I recently finished reading Corrie Ten Boom’s “The Hiding Place” and found it to be a great encouragement to my faith. The book gives a personal account of God’s love, comfort, and faithfulness. You will read about the Lord’s power amidst, and rising above, the most horrid of circumstances. You will learn it is possible to love your enemies. Having said that, I will give a word of caution. The book gives the impression that Roman Catholics are within the realm of orthodox Christianity. This thinking is already widespread within the organized church of our day. Needless to say to have it repeated within the pages of such a popular and encouraging book, by such a godly woman, is not good. Apparently she did not have clarity on this issue. The bottom line is that many Roman Catholics may never hear the true Gospel because born again Christians think they are saved. The simple truth is Rome preaches “another gospel.” You will also find within the pages the teaching that Jewish people, even though they reject the Gospel, remain the “apple of God’s eye”. While we are to love the Jewish people, and really we are to love all people, the “apple of God’s eye” theology is incorrect. Reader beware, these are not minor issues. We as believers must be careful not allow anyone to become an idol to us, and we must learn our theology only from the bible, as taught by the Holy Spirit. The bottom line is what saith the Lord.
From the book: The Hiding Place
Page 201 …
“They were services like no others, these times in Barracks 28. A single meeting night might include a recital of the Magnificat in Latin by a group of Roman Catholics.”
Page 206 …
“Nights when Betsie and I reported to sick call we left the Bible with Mrs. Wielmaker, a saintly Roman Catholic woman from the Hague who could render the Dutch words in German, French, Latin, or Greek.”
Page 69 …
“I pity the poor Germans, Corrie. They have touched the apple of God’s eye.”
Two very good posts.
Read here …
Interesting little post. I fully agree.
Read here …
Go here …
Go here … CHRISTMAS
I wrote this little poem two years ago. I pray it will touch the hearts of those who love the Lord …
CHRISTMAS – A Poem
Thanksgiving’s gone, another year,
The race is on, we’re in high gear.
Black Friday, the official date,
The shopping mall, our starting gate.
* * *
So many trees, and twinkling lights,
Ah, gifts galore, oh what a sight!
The houses glow, adorned anew,
In colors green, red, white, and blue.
* * *
The stores are packed, with brand new fare,
And soon you’ll see a Santa there.
The music very mystical,
It makes one feel so whimsical.
* * *
Now clean, and cook, and decorate,
So much to do, we stay up late.
Send out the cards, and wrap the gifts,
No wonder that we need a lift.
* * *
The day has come, dinner’s ready,
Family gathered, people many.
But do they know of Gospel grace,
Dare you preach it, now, in this place?
* * *
If they’re lost, what could be merry,
Sudden death would be so scarey.
Affections set on things above,
I say these things because I love.
* * *
His death remember, that He said,
Not day of birth, we’re so misled.
What have these earthly things to do,
With Jesus Christ who died for you?
by Cathy White – 2007
2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2 Corinthians 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2 Corinthians 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
*
See also … CHRISTMAS MOURNING, a tract by Keith Green
I just love this song. The words are great. Praise the Lord!!
Got it here …
Will I testify for Jesus,
And proudly bear His name?
Will I tell the world about Him,
Or will I be ashamed?
* * *
Will I put up with the mocking,
Bear for His Word disdain?
Will I keep proclaiming Jesus,
Though it may cause me pain?
* * *
Is the Lord my pearl so precious,
The treasure that I’ve found,
So valued and so wonderful,
I must tell those around?
* * *
Or will I shun to tell the truth,
Because it may offend,
And in my silence compromise,
My knee to this world bend.
by Cathy White – 2008
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
A soldier’s statement …
“I have been trying to justify being a soldier and finding a way to do so while still being a Christian, because that is what I wanted to do since I was a kid,”
Barnes wrote in his request for conscientious objector status in December 2006.
“But I can no longer justify spending my short time in this world participating in or supporting war. … I must try to save souls, not help take them. I fear not for my life, but for my soul.”
Richardson PFC, Ruled Conscientious Objector
***
Read about another soldier here … LOVE THY ENEMY
See also … WAR
Read post here …
THE MORMONS AND THEIR COUNTERFEIT TEACHINGS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST
This is a must read for all born again Christians that have been deceived into thinking that Roman Catholicism is a valid Christian denomination. The testimony at the link below was written by my husband but it is also my testimony.
Just recently a woman in her 90’s told me she doesn’t come to our Christian services any more because she is afraid she would be blaspheming “Mary.” I was so grieved because she loved coming to the services. This sweet woman is in fact blaspheming the Holy Ghost and doesn’t even realize it. I once overheard someone, who claimed to be born again, say that God is not going to send a person to hell because they pray to “Mary.” But in reality, praying to Mary it is an indication that a person is not born again, not saved, and does not know the Lord.
Excerpt …
“Jesus was not even part of the equation in my prayers to Mary. She was the one who I called upon, and she was the one that the Catholic Priests taught me to call upon at the hour of my death.”
Read entire post here …
ROSARY NO MORE! WHY I STOPPED PRAYING THE ROSARY
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
When we consider how far and wide the Scofield Study Bible has propagated false doctrine we ought to be amazed. When we consider how many born again Christians have believed the false teaching contained within the notes of the Scofield Study Bible we ought to be amazed … amazed and warned … that so many believers have bought the lies of a man and substituted those lies for gospel truth!
Read post here …
Who is our bible teacher? Is it the Holy Spirit or are we allowing false teachers to interpret the Scriptures for us?
John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary:
There is a philosophy which rightly exercises our reasonable faculties; a study of the works of God, which leads us to the knowledge of God, and confirms our faith in him. But there is a philosophy which is vain and deceitful; and while it pleases men’s fancies, hinders their faith: such are curious speculations about things above us, or no concern to us. Those who walk in the way of the world, are turned from following Christ. We have in Him the substance of all the shadows of the ceremonial law. All the defects of it are made up in the gospel of Christ, by his complete sacrifice for sin, and by the revelation of the will of God. To be complete, is to be furnished with all things necessary for salvation. By this one word “complete,” is shown that we have in Christ whatever is required. “In him,” not when we look to Christ, as though he were distant from us, but we are in him, when, by the power of the Spirit, we have faith wrought in our hearts by the Spirit, and we are united to our Head. The circumcision of the heart, the crucifixion of the flesh, the death and burial to sin and to the world, and the resurrection to newness of life … and by faith wrought in our hearts, prove that our sins are forgiven, and that we are fully delivered from the curse of the law. Through Christ, we, who were dead in sins, are quickened. Christ’s death was the death of our sins; Christ’s resurrection is the quickening of our souls. The law of ordinances, which was a yoke to the Jews, and a partition-wall to the Gentiles, the Lord Jesus took out of the way. When the substance was come, the shadows fled. Since every mortal man is, through the hand-writing of the law, guilty of death, how very dreadful is the condition of the ungodly and unholy, who trample under foot that blood of the Son of God, whereby alone this deadly hand-writing can be blotted out! Let not any be troubled about bigoted judgments which related to meats, or the Jewish solemnities. ... All the Jewish rites were shadows of gospel blessings.
I do not belong to the Mennonite denomination, and I know modern day Mennonites have strayed from some of their biblical roots, but I do believe they had a correct and biblical view on issues concerning government and war. They would not participate in armed conflict and violence, yet they were in all ways respectful to those in governmental authority and prayed for them. What a leap from the hostility we see coming from professed believers in our current day. I believe we can learn much from the peaceful Mennonite declaration found at the link below. If you can take a few moments to read it, I believe it will be time well spent.
Read here …
Do we listen to men who are not born again speak about God? Men like Glenn Beck who is a Mormon, and Sean Hannity who is a Roman Catholic. Do we read World Net Daily and other similar material? If so, we are being led into deception. These people do not speak for Jesus but rather they are drawing us away from Jesus.
John 18:36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary:
Art thou the King of the Jews? That King of the Jews who has been so long expected? Messiah the Prince; art thou he? Dost thou call thyself so, and wouldest thou be thought so?
Christ answered this question with another; not for evasion, but that Pilate might consider what he did. He never took upon him any earthly power, never were any traitorous principles or practices laid to him.
Christ gave an account of the nature of his kingdom …
Its nature is not worldly;
it is a kingdom within men, set up in their hearts and consciences;
its riches spiritual, its power spiritual, and its glory within.
Its supports are not worldly;
its weapons are spiritual;
it needed not, nor used, force to maintain and advance it, nor opposed any kingdom but that of sin and Satan.
Its object and design are not worldly.
When Christ said, I am the Truth, he said, in effect, I am a King.
He conquers by the convincing evidence of truth;
He rules by the commanding power of truth;
the subjects of this kingdom are those that are of the truth.
Pilate put a good question, he said, What is truth? When we search the Scriptures, and attend the ministry of the word, it must be with this inquiry, What is truth? and with this prayer, Lead me in thy truth; into all truth. But many put this question, who have not patience to preserve in their search after truth; or not humility enough to receive it. By this solemn declaration of Christ’s innocence, it appears, that though the Lord Jesus was treated as the worst of evil-doers, he never deserved such treatment. But it unfolds the design of his death; that he died as a Sacrifice for our sins. Pilate was willing to please all sides; and was governed more by worldly wisdom than by the rules of justice. Sin is a robber, yet is foolishly chosen by many rather than Christ, who would truly enrich us. Let us endeavour to make our accusers ashamed as Christ did; and let us beware of crucifying Christ afresh.
To say that our fathers have inherited lies is not easy. To say that, we have to admit that our beloved parents were wrong and were deceived. Very few are willing to do this. Seems family ties make some unwilling to believe the Gospel. They don’t realize that a family that has a genuinely born again believer in the midst is the greatest blessing that could ever ever come to that family.
Jeremiah 16:19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
Matthew Henry Commentary:
They shall acknowledge the folly of their ancestors, which it becomes them to do, when they were smarting for the sins of their ancestors:
“Surely our fathers have inherited” not the satisfaction they promised themselves and their children, but lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. We are now sensible that our fathers were cheated in their idolatrous worship; it did not prove what it promised, and therefore what have we to do any more with it?
Their deliverance out of captivity shall be a type and figure of this great salvation to be wrought out by the Messiah, who shall gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. And this is that which so far outshines the deliverance out of Egypt as even to eclipse the lustre of it, and make it even to be forgotten. To this some apply that of the many fishers and hunters, the preachers of the gospel, who were fishers of men, to enclose souls with the gospel net, to find them out in every mountain and hill, and secure them for Christ. Then the Gentiles came to God, some from the ends of the earth, and turned to the worship of him from the service of dumb idols.
See … REMEMBERING MY MOTHER
Within the post at the link below is an excerpt from “Who Is My Brother.” The post is about the error of Christian Zionism, but the principle taught in “Who Is My Brother” certainly applies to many other areas of our lives. It’s an excellent teaching …
Read here …
Christians Gathered in Jersusalem to Show Support for Israel
