01 - HOW TO FIND TRUTH

No man can find the truth in religion by himself.
Why is this? Because “the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). Because “there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 16:25). And because “every way of a man is right in his own eyes” (Prov. 21:2). It is only by the divine revelation of the Bible that we can learn what is truth and how to be saved.

Many think they don’t need the Bible; they feel that science is a guide to truth. Science is a guide to truth concerning the natural world. It can tell us how to travel to the moon and how to talk with people on the other side of the earth. But it cannot tell us where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. Only God’s Word is a safe in these matters.

One of the greatest perils is the tendency to abjure all authority in religion and to depend solely on one’s inner experience for spiritual light and leading. Men declare that instead of looking to the Bible for religious guidance, people should look to their own inner spiritual impressions.

Some year ago a writer of a newspaper article stated, “The human soul is practically infallible in its recognition of the truth…. Trust you soul! Trust you mind! Your mind and soul will recognize the truth needed, and grasp it, and accept it. For other things you need not care.”

Men say, “Trust your soul! Trust your mind!” But the Bile says, “He who trusts in his own min is a fool” (Prov. 28:26). He who relies on his own reason and judgment has no sure standard for the determination of truth.

One day I held up a piece of muslin before a class of twenty-five men and women and asked them how wide it was. I received fifteen different answers, ranging all the way form 27 to 40 inches. No one gave the correct answer.

Then I said, “You can see that we must have some ultimate authority for knowing for a certainty how wide this cloth is.” I placed a wardstick on the muslin and demonstrated that it was 35 ½ inches wide. Everyone immediately relinquished his previous estimate; all accepted the actual width. They would not have been able to do that had not the yardstick been used.

The fifteen divergent answers illustrate that we cannot arrive at the real truth in religion when we depend solely upon our own judgment. When we do this, we may believe that a lie is the truth, and reject truth as being an error.

Man must have a higher standard than reason, judgment, conscience, experience, and intuition. The higher standard – this ultimate authority for what is truth – can come only from the God of truth. It must be, as He has appointed, in His word as revealed in the Bible, which contains His ten commandments.

No man should take the decrees of councils, or any reed, as the ultimate judge of the truth. God has directed that we should not do whatever seems right in our own eyes.

Some will exclaim, “If I am not to do what I think is right, what shall I do?” God gives His answer in the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy. He says, “Ye shall not do…every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes” (Prov. 28:8). Instead, He tells us to do what “is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God” (Prov. 28:28). It is safe for us to do what we think is right only when it accords with that ultimate standard of authority, as set forth in God’s law and His Word.

As there is only one test of truth, so there is only one infallible Leader –the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, and the only Saviour. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Without the way in Christ, there is no going. Without the truth in Christ, there is no knowing. Without the life in Christ, there is no living.

In one of His discussions with the Jews, Jesus indicated the infallible authority of Scripture by saying, “The scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). When we have a direct statement of Scriptures regarding a certain matter, a thousand eminent people in its favour do not add a feather’s weight to its authenticity, nor do a thousand experts against it lessen its truth.

Jesus, the Truth, set the seal of truth on some of the incidents in the Old Testament that are widely disbelieved today by many professed Christians. For example: the creation of the first man and woman by a direct act of God (Matt. 19:4, 5); the worldwide flood in the days of Noah (Matt. 24:37-39); the destruction of Sodom by fire and brimstone from heaven (Luke 17:28, 29); Jonah in the fish’s belly for three days (Matt. 12:40).

Jesus spoke of these events as being actually true. If any Christian denies them, is he truly on the side of Christ? In his denial of that which Jesus declared true, he takes a stand against Christ. The rejection of the Bible in part is the rejection of its Author – Jesus Christ.

Reader, you are determined to stand with Jesus by taking the Scriptures as an infallible guide, aren’t you? You can’t go wrong when you stand with Jesus here.

Be on guard against the cunning devices of Satan. He presents sufficient truth to lead people to wallow his big lies, as happened with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan sandwiched a big lie between two truths. He declared that if she ate of the fruit of God’s reserved tree, she would not die,. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened (true), and ye shall be as gods (a big lie), knowing good and evil (true)” (Gen. 3:5).

This first deception was by means of a halt-truth, which serves the devil’s purpose better than an outright falsehood. People see the part that is truth, but are unaware of the false idea it hides. So, the most dangerous errors are those that are mingled with truth. In this way falsehoods are received that captivate and ruin the soul. Thus Satan leads the world with him.

Half-truths taught regarding some of the fundamental doctrines of the Bible have led millions astray form the way Jesus leads. Adherents of these teachings see the part that is truth and are unmindful of that which is untrue. The sad thing about it is they are often unwilling to give consideration to any teaching not in accord with their beliefs. In this they are really unfair to themselves and to the Bible. When the Word of God is presented, all should considers its truths regardless of how much it differs from their beliefs.

The apostles followed the Lord Jesus in clinging the Scriptures for the discovery, comprehension, and application of truth. On every issue and doctrine their appeal was “What saith the scripture?” (Rom. 4:3). This necessarily meant the Old Testament; the New Testament had not been written. Today the question “What says the Scriptures?” means “What says the Old and the New Testaments?”

When you read the Pauline Epistles, you find instance after instance where Paul says, “As it is written…” Then he cites a scripture form the Old Testament to establish the particular teaching he is setting forth. He regarded the Scriptures as the ultimate authority is religion.

In the book of Romans, Paul used “It is written” sixteen times in quoting from the Old Testament to support what he presented (Rom. 1:17; 2:24; 3:4,10; 4:17; 8:36; 9:13, 33; 10:15; 11:8, 26; 12: 19; 14:11; 15; 3, 9, 21). How can those who discard the Old Testament really understand or accept this masterly presentation of the gospel in this epistle?

Many have been led to accept false doctrines because they have read certain books using two or three texts that seem to support the author’s theory. But never forget, it is not fair to the Bible to interpret any text out of harmony with other texts it contains referring to the same subject. If we want to understand the real truth, and to avoid wrong concepts, we must secure the whole Biblical concept of the subject. Then we are on safe ground.

Satan attempted to overcome Jesus by misapplying scripture. He took Christ up on a pinnacle of the Temple and said, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone” (Matt. 4:6).

Had Jesus consented He would have committed a sin of presumption. He met the issue by quoting another text, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God (Matt. 4:7), thus meeting the wrong interpretation the devil had placed on Psalm 91:11, 12. this shows how we need a correct knowledge of the Bible lest we be deceived by those who misapply the Scriptures.

Some people say, “It makes no difference what you believe if you are sincere.” We ought to be sincere in our religion. But more than this is needed. We must follow the truth. A man who takes the wrong road, sincerely believing it is the right one, will not reach his destination. He who eats poisonous toadstools, sincerely believing they are mushrooms, will not escape the consequences.

Two men were crossing a lake when their boat capsized. One grabbed a stick; the other grabbed a life preserver. They both took hold with the same earnestness. But the man who took hold of the stick drowned.
The difference between being saved and being lost is in getting hold of the right thing. In religion everything depends on getting hold of the truth as it is in Jesus.

The approbation of Heaven rests upon all who search the Scriptures for truth that they may follow it. The Bereans “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). They pursued a safe course. They had an open mind for truth.

It is not good to turn to the Bible to prove some preconceived opinion. This could lead to twisting he meaning of Scripture in favour of our own theories. Rather, we should divest our minds of all prejudice and go to the Bible to listen to what God is saying to us.

In our search for the real truth for our day we must remember that instinct may deceive, reason may mislead, psychic phenomena may sweep one into wrong conclusions, science may err; but God’s Word can be trusted completely because it is infallible truth.

I am glad you have joined me in this journey down paths of Holy Scripture. I hope that it will be a pleasant and profitable one, and that God will show us what is His present truth for our day. Be assured that in taking this journey we will draw near to the sacred heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. His heart’s desire is that you and I should understand and heed the truth of His Word and be sanctified by it so we will be truly happy here and eternally happy in His heavenly home.

02 - THE MOST ESSENTIAL TRUTH

It is essential that every soul understand and experience salvation for himself. Consider this question that Jesus asked: “What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

Please pause a minute. Read that question again, and instead of “a man”, insert your own name. What now? Surely your response is, “I want the salvation Jesus offers.”

What kind of a salvation do you and I need? It’s a matter of three imperatives.

First, we are confronted with our acts of sin against the law of God. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Is any person without guilt? No. “All have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). Every person knows in his heart that he has done deeds the ought not to have said, and left undone duties he ought to have done. “All (are) under sin” (Rom. 3: 9). And “the wages of sin is death” (chap. 6:23). Therefore, we need to be saved from the guilt of and penalty for our sins.

Second, we are confronted with our inherent disposition to evil. The Bible refers to this as the sin that dwells in us, in our “flesh,” and as the law, or rule of sin, in the members of our bodies (Rom. 7:1,19, 23). This inbred sin uses our minds, eyes, ears, lips, hands, sand feet to commit acts of sin, although these faculties of themselves are not sinful. Therefore, we need to be saved from indwelling sin.

Third, we have to contend with sickness, sorrow, accidents, trouble, old age, and death, which are the results of sin. Therefore, we need salvation from these effects of sin in our bodies, we shall see how God takes care of these needs.

Man’s greatest question, “What must I do to be saved? Can be answered in six words: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:30, 31). Unfortunately, believing on Christ has been watered down to a mere mental assent that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for our sins. This assent is essential, but believing on Christ for salvation is receiving Him into your inner self as your personal Saviour.

The Bible equates believing on Christ with receiving Christ. “As many as received him (Christ), to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).

The following verse declares that those who received Christ “were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Born of God is identical with being “born again”, or “born of the Spirit” (John 3:3, 8). Thus John 1:12, 13 shows that a penitent believer is born again when by the Holy Spirit he truly receives Christ into his inner self.

According to Romans 4:6-8, when a penitent soul receives Jesus as his personal Saviour, God imputes, or places to his credit, the righteousness of Christ to cover his past sins. The penalty for his sins is reckoned as having been paid by Christ’s death on the cross. Then the contrite one, his guilt removed, stands before God as if he had not sinned.
This is God’s solution to the first aspect of the sin problem. But the sinner is immediately confronted with other problems: “How may I today be kept from falling back into my former sins? How shall I be saved from practicing known sins?” The answer in part is in John 1:12, 13.

God has provided that when the believing one receives Christ as his personal Saviour for the remission of his past sins, he is synchronously born again. He is changed on the inside by receiving a new heart, or a new mind. By the Holy Spirit, Christ takes up residence in his renewed mind, to live in him a life of obedience, joy, and victory day by day.

This solves the second part of the problem of salvation from sin. Day by day the believer is willingly directed and controlled by the indwelling Spirit. Thus there is a progressive changing by the Holy Spirit into the spiritual image of Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18) and a spiritual growth into Christian maturity.

The third problem of salvation from sin – that of salvation from sickness, troubles, death – is resolved when Jesus comes again. Then the Christian will receive an immortal, incorruptible body, and will be saved forever from committing sin, and from sickness, sorrow, old age, and death.

We note that the Bible uses he terms saved and salvation in three ways – referring to the past, present, and future. There are texts that refer to salvation as a past accomplishment for those who have received Christ. For example: “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8); “We have been saved, though only in hope” (Rom 8: 24) or “We were saved”; “God…hath save us” (2 Tim. 1:8,9. in the original language these texts tell us that the surrendered persons has been saved from his past sins. He was saved from them at the moment of surrender.

There are other texts that refer to Christians as being saved: “To us who are being save” (1 Cor. 1:18); “By means of which (Christ’s death and resurrection) you are being saved” (1 Cor. 15:1-4); The Lord added to their number day by day those who were was saved” (Acts 2:47), or “those whom be was saving”. These scriptures refer to a present, day-by-day salvation in which the believer is kept from sin. Being saved day by day is accomplished as Christ lives in him. Paul referred to this in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; the life I now live is not my life, but the life which lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me”.

There are other tests in which saved and salvation are applied to the third aspect of salvation. For example: “Christ…shall…appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:28). Paul redemption when salvation from sin is completed for Christians (see Eph. 4:30). Then they are glorified with Christ. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4).

According to Isaiah 25:9, when God’s people see Jesus coming back to earth, they will exclaim, “Lo this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us.” They have been saved from the guilt, the penalty, and the dominion of sin. But at His appearing they say, “He will save us,” for then, mad immortal, they will go with Jesus to heave – saved for eternity!

This third phase of salvation is referred to in 1 Peter 1:5 as a salvation that is revealed at the last day for those who receive Christ and are kept by His saving power. Jesus referred to this when He said, “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13). Paul referred to it when he said, “Now” is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom. 13:11).

The first two phases of salvation are distinct but inseparable, like the designs on the two sides of a coin. The first phase includes the draying by the Holy Spirit, conviction, faith, repentance, yielding to the pleading of the Holy Spirit, confession, full surrender, pardon, being born again, becoming a child of God by adoption, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit.

No one should attempt to mark out for every person an exact order in which these happen. Why not? Because there are wide differences in education, culture, and personality. Hence, there is bound to be a wide difference in the way each individual reacts to the preaching of the gospel of salvation. And the Holy Spirit works in different ways, as He chooses.

But there is one common denominator: Christ is received into the inmost soul by the Holy Spirit and there is a rebirth.

Eternal life begins for you when you are born again. Christ, living in the renewed heart by the Spirit of life, is the first instalment of eternal life. The person who receives Christ has everlasting life and “is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). He has passed from being dead in sin to being alive unto righteousness in Christ. He has passed from being appointed to eternal death to having eternal life in Christ.

However, he has eternal life only as he retains Christ as his personal Saviour. Some say, “Once saved, always saved.” But the Bible says, “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end” (Heb. 3:14). We are among the saved only as the Saviour dwells continually in us.

And Jesus said: “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13). This second phase of salvation includes the daily crucifixion of self so that the life you live is not your life but the life Jesus lives in you (Gal. 2:20). The experience is maintained and deepened by a spiritual renewal each day through a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, daily prayer and feeding upon the Word of God, a morning-by-morning surrender and consecration, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, doing good to others, a daily conformity to Christ’s commandments, attending corporate worship, endeavouring to win others. These bring a progressive transformation into the likeness of Christ and Christian growth to maturity in Him.

Some say, “A Christians cannot avoid committing sins.” If you mean a nominal Christian, perhaps, this is true. But it is not true if Christ is living in a person. “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him” (1 John 3:6).

When a Christian has Christ living in him he need never commit sin. Sin will no longer be the controlling factor in his life. He will be kept from sin to the extent that he is directed by the mind of Christ. He has victory over sin to the degree that he appropriates by faith the imparted righteousness of Christ. His full transformation into the spiritual image of Christ is determined by the extent to which he continually yields to the in working of the Holy Spirit.

Some people accept the erroneous concept that Christians, saved by grace, are released from the obligation to obey the Ten Commandments. But the Word of God declares that Christ is “the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Heb. 5:9). Obeying Christ includes obeying the Ten Commandments, because they are a part of His character. He taught that all of the ten are binding upon His followers (Matt. 19:16-19; Luke 10:25-28).

The gospel of Jesus Christ does not use the Decalogue as a means of salvation, but it does hold the law up as God’s standard of righteousness for the Christian. James points out that we shall be “judged by the law of liberty,” which he shows to be the Ten Commandments (James 2:10-12).

The gospel provides God`s way of obedience to His law of obedience to His law in those who are saved by grace. Paul asked, “Shall we sin (or transgress the law), because we are not under the law, but under grace?” He answered emphatically, “God forbid” (Rom. 6:15). The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who live not according to the flesh, or sinful impulses springing from our human natures, but according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:3,4).

The doctrine that grace release Christians from obeying the Ten Commandments frustrates grace, even as depending upon obedience to the law for salvation frustrates grace.

Many are caught in the error that Christ’s death abolished the Ten Commandments. His death did abolish the Mosaic laws concerning animal sacrifices, new moons, the Jewish feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, the seven yearly Sabbaths, and so on (Col. 2:16,17; Eph. 2:15). On the other hand, His death confirmed forever the validity of the ten-commandment law, with its weekly, seventh-day Sabbath.

Christ died to pay the penalty for man’s transgressions of the law of God. If this law could have been abolished, or set aside, Christ need not have gone to the cross. The New Testament repeatedly refers to the Decalogue as being binding upon Christians (James 2:8-12; 1 John 3:4; Rom. 7:7, 12; 13:8-10; Eph. 6:2).

The supreme law of God in both the Old and the New Testaments is to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbour as ourselves (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:35-40). These principles of righteousness, expressed in God’s ten words upon the two tables of stone given under the old covenant at Sinai, are engraved by the Holy Spirit upon the renewed heart of the Christian under the covenant of grace (Heb. 8:8-10). Since Christ is the law in living form, the law written upon the heart of those born of the Spirit leads them to live the same kind of life Jesus lived on earth.

We know that regardless of how completely a Christian is saved from committing sin, or how fully he reflects the image of Jesus day by day, he is still subject to sickness, sorrow, trouble, old age, and death. He needs to be saved forever from these effects of sin. Paul referred to this as the believers´ “waiting for…the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23) at Jesus` second coming.

We read “that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). “Flesh and blood” is a general statement referring to mortal man. No mortal, corruptible body can enter heaven. The sin scarred bodies of believers will be changed to immortal ones at the second coming of Christ (Rom. 15:51-55) so that they may be taken to heaven. Then the redeemed will be saved forever from the possibility of sinning, and all its evil effects, and will have everlasting joy.

The three aspects of salvation include all the experiences and spiritual attainments a believer has in Jesus. Salvation is an all-inclusive attainment in Him. It sets before every person infinite possibilities. Reconciliation, plus justification, plus regeneration, sanctification, and glorification, , equals full salvation for a transcendent eternity with the Lord.

If a person has met God’s conditions, he can say, “I have been saved from the guilt and penalty of my sins by the death and priestly intercession of Christ. I am being saved from being controlled by indwelling sin because Christ is living in me. And I have the blessed hope that when Jesus comes I shall be saved forever, saved from all the effects of sin in my present mortal body.”

What is the situation in Christendom for the preaching of this true gospel of salvation? There are preachers who deny that Jesus is the eternal Son of God. They have no true salvation to proclaim. Other preachers are to be commended for proclaiming the scriptural first and second aspects of salvation, and for their belief in our Lord’s second advent. However, they do not tie in this third phase of salvation with the Second Coming as Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John did.

Why this omission? Mainly because the concept of the righteous being taken to heaven when they die leaves no place for the third aspect of salvation, immortality at the Second Coming. There is bound to be some confusion regarding salvation when people do not take the whole Biblical concept into account.

God made man for the highest and holiest state of enjoyment. But it is attained only by those who follow through for full salvation. Salvation by the blood of the Lamb will be the song and study of the saints in heaven (Rev. 5:8-10; 7:9, 10).

Our heavenly Father so loved each individual – even in his most sinful state – that He gave His best Gifts – His own Son – to make salvation available. And the Son, in His everlasting love for man, gave the His all to save him. Christ gave up His equality with the Father, came to this world in human form to live a life of perfect obedience to His Father’s law, and then suffered and died on the cross as our Surety and Substitute.

Let us show our love to Him by gladly accepting Him and His salvation from guilt and the penalty for past sins. He will then live in us day by day to keep us from sinning.

If you have made that decision, “hold fast the confidence… unto the end” (Heb. 3:6). If you have not, Jesus is appealing to you to let Him into your life by the Holy Spirit. Open the door of your life and let Him in. in love to Him determine you will be His, fully and always.