Tag Archives: truth

A Serious Warning

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A SERIOUS WARNING

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses, How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10: 26-31).

This is a serious and severe warning against trifling with sin. The blood of sacrificial animals was offered for sins committed in ignorance.

If any member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, when they realise their guilt, and the sin they have committed becomes known, they must bring as their offering for the sin they committed a female goat without defect (Lev. 4: 27).

‘But what about David?’ you may ask. ‘Surely he knew what he was doing when he committed adultery and all the other sins that went with it?’ David knew what he was doing was wrong, but he went ahead and did it anyway. How, then, could God forgive his sin since it was committed intentionally? Was it because he willingly admitted his wrong, unlike many of the kings of Judah and Israel who refused to take responsibility for their sin? The Bible does not tell us. All we know is that God forgave him but did not release him from the consequences of what he had done.

Is God saying that we have to be perfect in order to satisfy His holy standards? If we sin after we have come to faith in Jesus, will we be condemned to hell? If that were true, what was the point of Jesus’s death for the forgiveness of sin? That would contradict the very terms of the new covenant.

Then He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’ (Matt. 26: 27-28).

Jesus shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins, past, present and future, otherwise we would still be held responsible for the sins we will still commit in the future.

There is something else that comes into play here. Under the old covenant, the people began to look upon the animal sacrifices as a covering for sin. They could do as much wrong as they liked regardless of what God wanted of them in His covenant because they could always come back and offer a sacrifice. What God intended as a reminder of the seriousness of sin became an excuse to sin. Such was the perversity of their wicked hearts.

Ephraim has built a lot of altars, and then uses them for sinning. Can you believe it? Altars for sinning! (Hos. 8: 11 – The Message).

This is a subtle attitude that can creep in when the lure of sin becomes stronger than the awareness of the cost of our salvation. This kind of thinking spawns three unforgivable attitudes: Jesus is not worth taking seriously; His blood is cheap and the Holy Spirit’s grace is unnecessary. These attitudes effectively cut us off from the mercy of God and place us back under judgment.

How important is it that this writer issue this kind of warning? Surely those who have recognised the value of their salvation would not trespass into this kind of perverse thinking? We will never know how subtle the devil’s ways are until we realise that he will stop at nothing to alienate us from God and bring us down. He has no rules in his game. He will do whatever it takes to win God’s children back to himself, most of all by devaluing the cost of our salvation.

If we continue in our life of sin after we have received God’s gift of forgiveness, it means one of two things: we have never really understood what Jesus has done for us or we have been lured into thinking that His shed blood gives us licence to sin because forgiveness is always available. Jesus came to rescue us from Satan’s dominion and to restore us to the family of God as His sons and daughters. His intention is that we grow in our likeness to Jesus, our elder brother. That cuts sin out of the equation.

Yes, Jesus has shed His blood for us and, yes, He has forgiven all our sin, but we must keep walking in His way, and not trifle with God’s mercy by playing the fool with His forgiveness. Outside of Jesus there is no salvation. To reject Him for any other religion, or to disregard Him or the value of what He has done and the work of the Holy Spirit in us is to place ourselves in line for the judgment reserved for the devil and his angels.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublshing.com.

 

It Begins With Ingratitude

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IT BEGINS WITH INGRATITUDE

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:18-21.

Well, at least Paul was not afraid to call a spade a spade!

If he wrote this letter to explain to the Roman believers the righteousness of God in providing salvation, why did he start by painting such a bleak picture of human behaviour? Who is He talking about?

Paul spent half of chapter one, the whole of chapter two and half of chapter three taking pains to show his readers that everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, is guilty before God. There is not a single righteous person who can escape God’s wrath against sin because of their good behaviour.

What did Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit have to say?

First of all, there is a whole group of people who ignore or deny the clear evidence of a Creator, which is written on every leaf and blade of grass and on every star in the sky. They choose to live as though He does not exist; they never give Him the time of the day let alone acknowledge His goodness by thanking Him for the very breath they breathe.

The road to ruin begins with ingratitude. Anyone who fails to acknowledge God by being thankful for what they are and have is in danger of taking the road to perverted values and a perverse lifestyle. Ingratitude makes God angry. Ungrateful people are self-centred and discontented. Ingratitude kept the children of Israel who were delivered from slavery in Egypt, out of the Promised Land.

Ingratitude is the first step towards muddle-headed thinking and mental “darkness”. What is darkness? Darkness is the absence of light, and in this case, the light of understanding. When people throw God out of their lives by refusing to acknowledge Him or His goodness, they lose their ability to think straight.

The light of understanding has only one source – God. David knew that, and he wrote about it in the Psalms.

“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” Psalm 36:9

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” Psalm 119:105

“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Psalm 119:130.

God is the source of light, truth and understanding. Without Him, we are left to make sense of our lives on our own and, unfortunately for us, we cannot make sense of anything because we have thrown out the “glue” that holds it all together. All we can do is think up nonsense which has not connection with reality. How pathetic we are to think that if we believe what we made up, that makes it true!

There is a terrible downward path to destruction for people who choose to disregard God and go their own way. Unfortunately for them, they do not know that it is not God who chooses their end; they do because their empty and futile lives are only fit for one thing — the rubbish dump. God did not plan their lives to be useless and worthless, and it makes Him angry to see wasted potential when He had so many good things in store for them.

The problem with denying God’s existence is that we have to replace Him with someone or something because we all feel incomplete in ourselves. We all need someone bigger than ourselves on which to depend. When God is no longer there, and we have muddled brains, who or what are we going to put in His place?

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

What Is Truth?

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WHAT IS TRUTH? 

“‘You are a king, then!’ said Pilate. Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.’

“‘What is truth?’ retorted Pilate.” John 18: 37-38a NIV.

Two kingdoms in collision!

In His precarious position as a prisoner on the brink of being condemned to die, Jesus remained resolutely committed to His commission from the Father. He came to represent the Father to a people who had long ago rejected the truth and created a religious system which suited them better than trusting in a good God they could not see.

They had abandoned their idolatrous worship and resorted to an elaborate self-help religion that consisted of rules upon rules to protect the Law of God so that they could be sure that God would be satisfied with their efforts.

Jesus came to show them that God is not like that at all. He lived out the real meaning of God’s Torah – teaching — by loving and caring for all people, by treating their failures with mercy and their sins with forgiveness because God had provided a lamb as a sacrifice for their sin. He placed on them an easy yoke of simple trust in a loving Father and obedience to His requirement to love Him fully and to love their fellow men.

He had one prescription for carrying out His command — “Follow me.” He was the living and visible demonstration of the truth. God had entrusted the administration of this unseen kingdom to Him as His king but the nations and even His own people had rebelled against Him and set up their own ungodly systems which reflected the imagination of their own hearts.

“Why do the nations conspire and the people plot in vain?…The One enthroned in heaven laughs. He rebukes them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath, saying, ‘I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.’ I will proclaim the Lord’s decree. He said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.'” Psalm 2:1; 4-8 NIV.

This is something that Pilate would have not understood. He represented the most powerful human system of his day, and the men who perpetuated that system by their arrogant, ruthless and despotic rule. People were there to serve them. They were at the pinnacle of authority — God’s delegated authority, mind you (…”The authorities that exist have been established by God…” Romans 13:1b NIV) and they wielded it with the foolish notion that it was their authority and they could do what they liked with it. They even claimed to be the source of their authority, demanding that their subjects worship them as God! It was treasonable to refuse to honour Caesar as Lord.

Into this scenario came Jesus to tell the world the truth. What is the truth? He, not Caesar, is Lord. Pilate asked the question, ‘What is truth?’ not with a humble desire to know but with a cynical sneer. The Jews whom he governed with an iron fist, had certainly not shown him the truth and neither had his own idolatrous religion with its debauched and depraved gods created by man in the image of man.

What a relief it is to know that Jesus is Lord! What if Caesar or some modern equivalent were Lord? Hitler! Osama ben Laden! Stalin! Gaddafi! Saddam Hussein! Or even one of our present presidents or kings! Unthinkable!

No! They mocked Him, dressed Him in a second-hand royal robe, crowned Him with thorns, spat on Him, ripped out His beard and enthroned Him to a cross but He was still the king of the Jews. He beat them all and still reigns today.

“Then the end will come when He hands over the kingdom to God His Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” 1 Corinthians 15:24-26 NIV.

Produce The Evidence

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PRODUCE THE EVIDENCE 

“Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and His teaching. ‘I have spoken openly to the world,’ Jesus replied. ‘I always taught in the synagogues or the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.’

“When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped Him in the face. ‘Is this the way you answer the high priest?’ he demanded.

“‘If I said something wrong,’ Jesus replied, ‘testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?’ Then Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.” John 18:19-24 NIV.

Annas and Jesus faced off in a pre-trial confrontation. Annas probed to find out Jesus’ hidden agenda; Jesus probed to find out whether the religious hierarchy had any intention of giving Him a fair trial. Annas tried to get Jesus to incriminate Himself. Jesus worked on Annas’ conscience to see whether he would allow the many witnesses to testify to the truth of His teaching. Annas was in league with the Jewish religious hierarchy to get rid of Jesus. Jesus wanted Annas to honour the truth.

As a rabbi, Jesus was familiar with the Torah. He understood how a fair trial was to be conducted. Would He be given His right to a fair trial as the accused, under the Jewish judicial system?

“One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” Deuteronomy 19:15 NIV.

False testimony was banned. “The convicted false witness would suffer the punishment inflicted on the accused.” In criminal cases, both witnesses must have witnessed the whole event; “any person able to testify who has seen or learned of the matter who does not come forward to testify is liable for punishment.” (Levicus5:1) (1).

Why did the official slap Jesus in the face? Did Jesus say anything impolite or offensive to Annas?

“Since Jesus is still bound, there is no way for Him to defend Himself…This blow is more an insult than it was physically damaging. It highlights Jesus’ dignity and boldness as well as His respect for the truth, rather than for mere office holders. His reply to the servant stresses this issue of truth: “If I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” …In essence, Jesus’ question is a final act of grace extended toward a representative of His opponents. But Annas does not accept the offer to consider the truth of Jesus. Instead he sends Jesus, still bound, to Caiaphas.” (2)

1. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0021_0_21003.html

2.http://wwwbiblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/IVP-NT/John/Jesus-Confronted-Peter-Annas

Throughout His public ministry Jesus was more concerned about the truth than He was about offending people, sometimes causing His disciples anxiety when He offended the religious leaders. Truth will be the criterion for the final judgment of the nations when the books are opened.

In spite of the grace Jesus extended to him. Annas was too preoccupied with the threat that Jesus posed to his position and that of his fellow religious leaders to realise what a precarious situation he had placed himself in. He chose to sell out truth for power and the lucrative benefits of his connection to Rome to consider his own future

What would we have done in a similar situation?

Set Apart By The Truth

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SET APART BY THE TRUTH 

“‘Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

“‘As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

“‘For them I sanctify myself, that they, too, may be truly sanctified.'” John 17.17-19 NIV

“Sanctify”? The dictionary meaning of sanctify is to set apart for its proper purpose. If something is not sanctified, it is abused, i.e., not used for the purpose for which it was intended; for example, if a paring knife is used for any other purpose than peeling fruit or vegetables, it is being abused.

God created human beings to be holy, to be separated to Him to bring glory to Him that is to reflect Him in His nature and character. We do this by living our ordinary human lives for Him.

“…Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Isaiah 43:7 NIV.

What has separated us from God and caused us to be abused — i.e., not fulfilling the purpose for which God created us? Through our ancient ancestor, Adam, we declared independence from God, set up our own standards of right and wrong and overthrew His right to govern us in righteousness and truth. We became subject to the devil’s deception, followed his lies and set ourselves on a path of self-destruction.

There is only one way back from this suicidal rebellion — to change our way of thinking (repent) and return to the truth about God and ourselves. God made this possible by sending Jesus to remove the barrier of sin that separated us from Him, cancelling our debt by paying it Himself, and pushing the “reset to factory default” button by reconciling us to Himself and restoring His image in us.

When we follow His prescription for sanctification — returning to the purpose for which He created us, we embark on a twofold process which begins when we start again through repentance from our old rebellious life and faith in Jesus to forgive our sin and enable us to begin a new life of trust and obedience to Him. This process is both unlearning and re-learning — called repentance; not necessarily an emotional melt-down but rather the recognition that what we used to think about God and ourselves was wrong, lies spawned by the devil to degrade God and us and to take us away from God’s love. Lies must be replaced by the truth which God has set out in His Word for us.

There is only one antidote to lies — truth. Before we came to recognise that our thoughts about God were lies, we misjudged Him, were suspicious of Him and even outright hated Him. Why? The Bible says, “While we were God’s enemies…” Romans 5:10a NIV. Enemies? Isn’t that a rather strong word? Yes, but it’s true. Why were we God’s enemies? Because we were on the side of His arch enemy, the devil. We listened to him, followed him and believed his lies about God and hated God for no reason.

How are we sanctified? When we believe and receive the truth that God loved the world so much that He gave His Son as a sacrifice to pay the world’s debt so that we can be reconciled to Him, we took the first step towards returning to God to fulfil His purpose for creating us. We began a journey that lasts a life-time, replacing lies with truth, one lie at a time, one thought at a time by learning from God’s Word what He thinks and plans for us.

Jesus’ high priestly prayer was the expression of His deepest desires for His people before He went to the cross, and the reason for His willingness to be sacrificed for us. In the entire prayer He made only three requests for His disciples, both those whom the Father had given Him and those who would believe through them, and they summarise the purpose and outcome of His death:

1. That the character of God would be restored in them to immunise them against the devil’s deception (“Protect them by the power of your name”),

2. That the Word of God would be so deeply embedded in their minds that they would begin the journey of revealing God’s glory in the way they think and live (“Sanctify them by the truth”) and

3. That God’s image of oneness would be restored in them so that the world would believe that the Father had sent Him (“That all of them may be one. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you”).

This is the Saviour’s prayer for you and me. Will it be answered?