The Invitation/ Sanctified/ Health - Salvation

To Be Healthy Requires That We Always Seek The Truth

Prov 23:23 October 1, 2015

On July 4th when we Americans celebrate independence from European domination and the iron grip of British oppression; politicians and educators always seize the opportunity to speak of the things which have made our country a powerhouse among nations. Not least of the “virtues” that are touted is the need for the people to have a sense of duty and the necessity of protecting our hard won privileges.

Amid the colorful displays, the band concerts, and the lighting of the sky with majestic fireworks, the contemporary fathers will make speeches about duty and the protecting of these precious privileges that were won on various battlefields, both domestic and foreign, by the courage and blood of our forefathers. It was their sense of duty that often gave them the wherewithal to risk their lives for neighbor and community. It is a sense of duty and the full allegiance to this obligation that makes any culture or civilization great. History teaches us that a people void of a sense of duty and respect for the general people are also unacquainted with communal and civil discipline. As a natural result, they are dominated by some outside force, nation or people that is duty bound, committed, focused, and disciplined. When sense of duty begins to erode, and people only look to their own welfare, then that body which was made strong by commitment to its principles will surely begin a rapid decline into disaster, even oblivion. History is our witness to this “natural law” of societies. It has been the pattern followed by the rise and fall of the world’s empires and her great social, ideological and political movements. This principle also holds true in spiritual matters, and particularly is reflected in both the condition of the individual Christian believer and the Church at large. When there is an erosion of a sense of duty to others and a discarding of the privileges that were won by the shed blood of its courageous “forefather” (Jesus) then her strength is sapped and she will surely become dominated by some other outside force. Those forces that wait to dominate Christians lurk at the gate just as sure as the Vandals and the Goths lurked outside the city limits of Rome waiting to bring her to her knees. Just as certain as the Nazis skirted the heavy French defenses and easily overran Paris in 1940. It is a work of ravishment, once inside it carries weakness and cowardice and brother betraying brother, and inglorious death. They chip away at a people’s heart, these monsters of neglect, they feed upon the soul until it is made to fall away from the backbone of their original purpose and principle. Their faith becomes confused, their faith atrophies then disappears, any spiritual mettle they had is gone. So God brings judgment on them, just as it happened with Israel.

THE TRUTH PERISHES
The enemies that wait at our doorstep are not only sin but those creeping serpents of humanism, ecumenism and false religion that turn lies into the truth and suggest that God’s truth is a relative thing subject to our discretion and our cultural manners. Like enemies waiting at the gate, the World and the Devil seek to dominate every true believer they can get their hands on. If they can badger or deceive the believer into forgoing their duty to respectfully and obsessively seek the truth then they will be able to dominate them. The World says, “You aren’t loving if you insist on and speak the truth.” But it is the duty, as well as the blessed privilege, that was won by the blood of Jesus at Calvary, of every Christian to pursue and seek the truth. Why else would Proverbs 23:23 say, “Buy the Truth and sell it not.” Every Christian is duty bound to relentlessly and aggressively pursue the truth and to just as aggressively hold on to that truth.

The Truth, however, is not what the World believes it to be. The Truth is not a set of principles, an ideology, or adherence to some system. It is not what a brilliant man may say or something which the eyes can attest. The Truth to a Christian is known and it is not debatable. The Truth is Christ. When we say we seek the truth and reverence the Truth, we are actually saying we seek Jesus. We seek His opinion, His assessment, His direction, His call to action, His advice to passively withdraw, His counsel, His desire, His hope and not ours, and His welfare. When he said, “Ye must be born-again” John 3:7, we know that is a fact that is irrefutable. Because Jesus is the Truth and He cannot lie. When he said, “All others that came before me were robbers and thieves John 10:8 we know that is an absolute fact, inarguable, immutable. He declared “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Matt 7:13-15 We know that He is the only way by which a person can be saved.

Once a church, a Christian movement, a denomination, a leading Evangelist, or an individual born-again believer abandons their duty to seek and follow the truth in favor of making this a more palatable place for Christians to live, or because they will be rejected or shut off by the world, or they might look bad, they are being deceived and well on the road to being dominated by a “foreign power”, that road that is broad and well-traveled and leads directly to Hell.

This is one of the major reasons why we have objected to any leader in the Church who suggests that duty to truth is less important than living peaceably with everyone and mollifying their fears. We have nothing personal against these men or their ministries, but we do take it seriously because of the harm it does to true believers. Without a sense of duty to follow after the truth we will be dominated by some other force than the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We are duty bound to refute and resist the selling of the truth for any kind of gain. Does God do this? Has he ever dishonored the Truth or ignored it just to placate man’s indignation about the truth?

The truth is highly offensive to the unsaved soul. We are told we are a sweet smell to God but to the godless we have the stench of death. The truth is in opposition to the World, Humanism, False Religion or unrepentant Man. The Lord warned His disciples, “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” Matt 10:22 At the Last Supper he told them, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” John 15:18-19

The religions of Mohammed, Buddha and Hindi are rightly called world religions. They do not confirm nor regard the Divinity of Jesus Christ as the ONLY begotten Son of God. They do not acknowledge that His shed blood on the cross, and only His shed blood on the cross, can save man. They spread the deception of the serpent that says there are many ways to come to God. They believe in reincarnation and salvation through good works and not by faith through the mercy of God. Any backpedaling from the truth of Jesus as the only Savior of Man is a denial of the entire gospel and a shirking of the duty to truth that makes a believer strong in Christ. Fudging on the truth simply will not do, even if we are doing it to have “fellowship” with all religions and leaders that might add to our power and importance.

Did Christ ever do that? Would He have said, “Yeah Caesar and the gods of Rome can help to save you too”, just to get people to listen to Him? No. Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. Then how can a Christian do it?

We see the morals and ethics of our youth in decay. Students are capable of gunning down classmates and teachers without the slightest remorse. Satanic worship is on the rise among the younger generation of narcissistic self-worshippers. Our nation falters because the generations that are ascending to power and position are all too committed to self-gratification rather than honest civil service. If you can get away with it then it must be OK. Our national sense of duty has been exchanged by an expectation that we should be served rather than serve others. Christians of every stripe, across this land, believe that God is their errand-boy or Satan Claus who came down and died on the cross just to supply their worldly needs and level out the roller-coaster ride of life to make it safe and amusing. During the holiday of the fourth of July there will be plenty of flag waving, at Christmas plenty of gift-giving, on Memorial Day plenty of remembering of heroes. Our Politicians make political hay and will insist on looking at the bright side of things. Rather than taking a hard look at the truth they will be looking hard for votes. Pastors and evangelists will tickle the ears of their congregants in search of votes and larger revenues. They will be seeking the safe ground, being careful to be politically correct, looking anxiously for nodding heads, smiling faces, approving amens and hallelujahs. While they lament the condition of our country and the direction in which she is heading, they will try to assure us that everything is going to be all right and that men ought to love one another and not stir up a fuss about their religion.

It Is The Christian’s Duty to Love the Truth
The world will do what it will. It will continue to fight against Christ and everything that the cross of Calvary has done for men. Christ taught us to let the World do its thing. The World will not be converted. This is why Jesus, just before going to the cross, said, “Father… I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.”John 17:9 This is why we are taught, “know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”James 4:4 And, “what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” 2 Cor 6:15 We are chided to “come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor 6:17

It is our Christian duty to defend, honor and preserve the Truth that Christ purchased for us with His very own blood. It is this blood and only this blood that can wash us clean and make our sins, though they be as scarlet, white as snow. Mohammed, Buddha, and others cannot wash my sins away by anything they ever did or claimed. Only the Son of God, Jesus Christ, did this for me. How can we fudge on this? How can we give away such a gift of love? Though there are evangelists who sadly take this gift and sell it we shall be wise students of Proverbs. Every day is Independence Day for the Christian if they take serious vigil and maintain their freedom. For we are told we can know the truth and that it will set us free indeed. A wise Christians will be a fanatic about the Truth, take hold of the Truth, which was purchased for us by Jesus, and the wise Christian will sell it not, not at any price!