The Faithfulness of God in Forgiving Sin

(Article for publication week of 12-28-2011 AD)

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).

As we consider the faithfulness of God, we delight to write to you to confirm to you that God is faithful in forgiving sin.

Are you a sinner? Has the Lord taught you that you are the chief of sinners? Have you learned from the word and by the Spirit that you are a loathsome wretch in the sight of the Thrice Holy God? Do mourn in your very soul because of your sins? Do you “roar like a bear” because you feel that you are too sinful for God to save you? Well. If I am describing your case, I have some good news for you- God is faithful and just to forgive sinners for their sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It was for sinners that Christ died. He came not to call the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance. The scriptures sweetly tell us that Christ received sinners and ate with them (Luke 15:2). “ ‘Twas for the guilty Thou didst die, and I a sinner stand.”

Christ died for the filthiest of sins. All sin is filthy. Christ died for disobedience to parents. He died for fornicators and adulterers. He died for filthy sodomites. He died for liars. He died for murderers. He died for thieves. He died for railers. He died for the covetous. He died for idolaters. He died for blasphemers. He died for Sabbath breakers. He died for drunks and dope heads. He died for vile wretches like you and me. Christ died to justify the ungodly (Romans 4:5).

Christ died for many sins. All the guilt of all those who would ever repent and believe in Him was transferred to His precious Person by imputation, and He satisfied the just and holy wrath of God forever when He died on the cross and rose again the third day. Should you repent and believe in Christ, this very moment your sins are all forgiven.

Christ is willing and able to save all who will truly repent of their sins and come to Him by faith. You will never find an instance recorded in scripture where Christ ever turned away one who came to Him broken hearted for sins and pleading mercy. Now, He did turn away, and still does the self-righteous. If you still love your sins and want to continue in them, I haven’t been writing to you. But if you are broken hearted and contrite and wanting to be saved from your sins, my message is for you. Christ is faithful and just to forgive you for your sins- and to clean you up! When Christ saves a sinner, He does not leave that sinner wallowing in his sins, but rather He cleans him up and makes him into a new creature.

Do you want to be saved from your sins? Do you want God to forgive you for your sins? Do you long to be free from your sins and thoroughly cleansed from them? Well, come to Christ right now without delay. Confess to Him that you are a wretched sinner deserving of the lowest hell and throw yourself on His mercy. He is a faithful Saviour who saves and forgives.

The Faithfulness of God

(Article for publication week of 12-21-2011 AD)

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Having declared the veracity of God in our last several articles, we now proceed to declare the faithfulness of God. “Great is Thy faithfulness”! This is a most comforting truth for God’s people- our God is faithful, and great in that faithfulness.

First of all we see the faithfulness of God in His governance of the world. The world is upheld by Jehovah, the faithful God. We have no fears regarding the physical world for we know that God is governing it. The earth is held in its proper place in the universe by the power of our faithful God. We have no concerns that the earth will fall off its axis, or that the sun will burn out, or that the moon will crash into the earth. All these things are governed by our sovereign and faithful God. Fall, winter, spring and summer will continue to follow each other until God is ready to fold things up and usher in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

God is faithful in providing for His people. The Psalmist declared in the 37th Psalm that he had not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. God rained down manna from heaven for His people. He fed Elijah by the instrumentality of the ravens. He provided for a widow woman once by not letting the flour barrel, and oil cruse become empty. He ordinarily provides for His people by means of labour, but whether ordinarily, or extraordinarily, God will provide for His Own. He cares for the little birds who have neither souls nor reason; will He not much more care for you, His people saved by grace, who have immortal souls and the power of reason?

And God is faithful in keeping His covenant. God made a covenant with Noah and his posterity after the Flood and signified it by the rainbow. Every time we see a beautiful rainbow we are reminded of the faithfulness of God in not sending another Flood over the whole earth. But His faithfulness in His covenant of grace is even more glorious than that! God made a covenant with Himself in the everlasting, that is from before the foundation of the world (Hebrews 13:20), whereby He gave a chosen people to His Son to save. The Three Eternal Persons of the Godhead were involved in this covenant. The Eternal Son agreed to become a Man to work out a perfect Righteousness for all those the Father had given Him. The Holy Spirit agreed to effectually call, regenerate, convert, sanctify and preserve all those the Son redeemed. Not one part of this everlasting covenant has ever failed because it was made by our faithful God. The Son was faithful in doing the absolute will of the faithful Father. The Holy Spirit has been, and will continue to be faithful in the calling of every elect person for whom the Son died. Not one has ever failed to be saved that was ordained to this salvation in the covenant made by our faithful God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are faithful in their love to all the blood bought saints. Not one who is truly saved by our faithful God will ever be lost, not because of our faithfulness, but because of God’s faithfulness.

“Great is Thy faithfulness”!

Christ, the Truth

(Article for publication week of 12-14-2011 AD)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).

Much could be said concerning Christ being the only way to God. It is only through the suretyship and mediation of Christ that any can be saved. Much could also be said regarding Christ being the life, for it is only by salvation through Him that we have everlasting life. However, the focus of our attention this week is in this statement, Christ proclaims He is “The Truth.” Now, we know that Christ proclaimed the truth, but what does it mean that Christ is “The Truth”?

First of all, this is a plain statement of Christ’s Deity. He is God Who cannot lie (Titus 1:2). It is Divine Impossibility for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). When our Lord says, “I am the Truth”, He is declaring that “in Him is light“, and there is no darkness at all in Him (I John 1:5). One of the many proofs of the Deity of Christ is that He has all the attributes of God. The veracity of Christ is indisputable proof that he is God. Christ is infinitely more than a truthful man, He is the Truth.

Secondly, this is a declaration of the salvation that is in Christ and nowhere else. The Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel, which is the truth. John 1:17 tells us “the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Our Lord is eternal God, but He became a Man. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father,) full of grace and truth.” It is the Person of Christ Who saves poor sinners. He became flesh that he might work out a perfect righteousness for His people. He actively obeyed the law of God, so that God counts the believer in Christ as being obedient to His law. He suffered as a sin bearer to satisfy the justice of God and turn away His holy wrath from all who believe in Christ, Who is the Truth. In the Lord Jesus Christ “mercy and truth are met together” (Psalm 85:10). This is the truth of the gospel.

Salvation is in Christ Alone, who is truth Personified. Salvation is not in the schemes and efforts of man, it is in a glorious Person. Christ is the Person of the Gospel. Without Christ, we have no gospel. But because of Christ, we have a glad announcement to make. “We preach Christ” (I Corinthians 1:23). We preach the One Who is the Truth. Christ, Who is the way, the truth and the life has finished the work of salvation. Salvation is in Him, and Him alone. May the Holy Spirit bless you to receive the Truth.

Christ, the Truth

(Article for publication week of 12-14-2011 AD)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” (John 14:6).

Much could be said concerning Christ being the only way to God. It is only through the suretyship and mediation of Christ that any can be saved. Much could also be said regarding Christ being the life, for it is only by salvation through Him that we have everlasting life. However, the focus of our attention this week is in this statement, Christ proclaims He is “The Truth.” Now, we know that Christ proclaimed the truth, but what does it mean that Christ is “The Truth”?

First of all, this is a plain statement of Christ’s Deity. He is God Who cannot lie (Titus 1:2). It is Divine Impossibility for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). When our Lord says, “I am the Truth”, He is declaring that “in Him is light“, and there is no darkness at all in Him (I John 1:5). One of the many proofs of the Deity of Christ is that He has all the attributes of God. The veracity of Christ is indisputable proof that he is God. Christ is infinitely more than a truthful man, He is the Truth.

Secondly, this is a declaration of the salvation that is in Christ and nowhere else. The Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel, which is the truth. John 1:17 tells us “the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Our Lord is eternal God, but He became a Man. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father,) full of grace and truth.” It is the Person of Christ Who saves poor sinners. He became flesh that he might work out a perfect righteousness for His people. He actively obeyed the law of God, so that God counts the believer in Christ as being obedient to His law. He suffered as a sin bearer to satisfy the justice of God and turn away His holy wrath from all who believe in Christ, Who is the Truth. In the Lord Jesus Christ “mercy and truth are met together” (Psalm 85:10). This is the truth of the gospel.

Salvation is in Christ Alone, who is truth Personified. Salvation is not in the schemes and efforts of man, it is in a glorious Person. Christ is the Person of the Gospel. Without Christ, we have no gospel. But because of Christ, we have a glad announcement to make. “We preach Christ” (I Corinthians 1:23). We preach the One Who is the Truth. Christ, Who is the way, the truth and the life has finished the work of salvation. Salvation is in Him, and Him alone. May the Holy Spirit bless you to receive the Truth.

God’s Enduring Truth

(Article for publication week of 12-7-2011 AD)

“For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations” (Psalm 100:5).

The God Who cannot lie has been pleased to reveal Himself to us by His inspired and infallible word, that is the Bible. The Bible is the truth of God. It is “His truth.” The inspiration and infallibility of the Bible is inseparable from the very veracity of God.

By inspiration of scripture we mean that God breathed His word into the human instruments that actually penned it. God used several methods of inspiration in transmitting His word to us. The Ten Commandments were actually engraved by God’s Own finger (Exodus 31:18). Much of the first five books of the Bible, perhaps all of it, were mechanically dictated by God to Moses (Exodus 20:1). God gave the prophets a message to declare, and then commanded them to write it out (Isaiah 1:1). The Holy Spirit gave the apostles perfect recall of Christ’s life and words so that when they wrote out the gospels they had perfect memory of what the Holy Spirit inspired them to write John 14:26). When John wrote the Book of Revelation, God gave him visions and then instructed him to write out what he saw (Revelation 1:19). Regardless of the particular instrumentality and mechanics that God employed in the inspiration of the Bible, it is all ultimately His word. It is His truth, not the opinions or fancies of men.

The character of God requires an infallible Bible. He is the God Who cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Beware of false prophets who suggest that we cannot be sure of the integrity of the Bible. Beware of modern translations that have notes that question the authenticity of any part of the scriptures. All such is the work of the devil who tempted our first parents by asking, “Hath God said?” God has magnified His word above all His name (Psalm 138:2). To question the word of God is to question the very truthfulness of God. An honest man is rightfully offended when any one questions his word. How much more so the God of the Bible Who cannot lie and has magnified His word above all His name!

The God who cannot lie has promised to preserve His word to all generations. As long as the world stands, God’s word shall endure. The enemies of Christ have many times and at many places sought to destroy the word. The devil and his ministers continue to attack it. But the Bible endures by the sovereign providence of our great God. God is so determined to sanctify His people by the word of truth that He shall preserve His word for them.

Dear readers, when you open up your Bibles thank God for its inspiration, infallibility, preservation and translation. The Bible in your hands is a testimony to the truthful character of God. God cannot lie. It is Divine Impossibility for Him so to do. Never doubt the word of God, for it was written and preserved by Him Who cannot lie.