Let’s turn to the Holy Revelation of GOD’s Written Word!!
To hear this message as taught at SHINE BRIGHT Church (3/06/24) click here!
INTRODUCTION: This world can be divided between truth lovers and truth haters; those who glorify GOD and those who glorify themselves, those that worship GOD and those that mock GOD. Those who walk in the Light of the LORD, and those who love darkness rather than the Light.
The LORD Jesus came with a sword (MATT 10:34-36), this sword of truth, to divide humanity into identifiable categories: those who love and follow Him, and those who hate and reject Him.
These two groups of people consist of the pure and the profane, and both groups are growing more and more in their respective conditions, motivations and desires. As GOD’s Glorious Revelation puts it:
REVELATION 22:11
He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.
PROVERBS 22:10
Cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave; Yes, strife and reproach will cease.
Scoffers (“scorners” KJV) in the biblical sense are people who mock and despise the Word of GOD, and for two very specific reasons:
1. They are children of darkness that hate the Light of GOD’s Word because it reveals their evilness. The LORD Jesus plainly stated that the world hates Him because He testifies that its works are evil (JOHN 7:7). Yet when He challenged His enemies to testify of any evil He had ever done, they had nothing to say (JOHN 8:46)!
JOHN 3:18-21
18 "He who believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.
The LORD Jesus also declared:
JOHN 8:12
…I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.
Scoffers will also ridicule the saints of GOD, who walk in the Light as He, the LORD Jesus is the Light (1 JOHN 1:7).
2. And the sin nature refuses to submit to any authority other than its own; it seeks to love self by selfish motives, to gratify self, to exalt self and debase others as well as dominance, and control over others. This is the primary objective of Satan who sees the power and glory of GOD and craves those things to dominate and subjugate souls, but he rejects those aspects of GOD’s nature such as His love, His holiness; His heart of sacrifice and service, to commune with the humble, to uplift and heal the weak.
The human heart of pride finds the idea of making Jesus LORD over their lives repugnant. “It’s my life! I’ll live it the way I want to, and if GOD doesn’t like it, too bad!”
It’s possible for sinners to get along with folks that are religious but lack the Spirit of Christ in their hearts. Any religion of this world requires works to bring about justification, salvation, the attainment of spiritual blessings or bliss. That feeds the pride of man who ‘earned’ his way to gain some ‘God’s approval.
But the Cross is an offense, because there, man has no room for pride, or self-accomplishment, self-justification, self-esteem. At the Cross we are seen for what we are: bankrupt sinners at the mercy of GOD, Who by His grace alone saves us. Only those who recognize their spiritual poverty will accept GOD’s grace meekly and with humble gratitude. The proud will never bend their stiff backs to bow before the LORD.
Absent the scoffer there will be no strife or reproach. Absent the scorner, where only the saints are who walk in the Spirit, there is unity.
As we gather together in church service, we all have the intention to worship GOD corporately, to give our time and attention to the teaching of the holy revelation of GOD’s Word, and we desire to have fellowship with the saints. This is like a taste of heaven for us!
Heaven was a place that was in absolute one accord; the only order was GOD’s Order that He established in the world in six days. It wasn’t until Lucifer decided to establish his own order that there was contention, strife, discord. And this contentious cherub and his followers were indeed “cast out”!
This scoffer that is Satan as well as sinful humanity are all about disrupting the order of GOD, and this is why the world is full of contention and rebellion – against GOD and His Word.
This is also why any appeal for peace, any policies, treaties, actions that intend to promote peace are woefully inadequate. Before man can be at peace with man, he must first be at peace with his Maker! And as “sinners in the hands of an angry GOD” as Jonathan Edwards once titled his famous sermon, we are under GOD’s Holy condemnation, with no hope for reconciliation of our own making.
The only hope we have is in the Cross of Christ! Once we know peace with GOD (ROM 5:1) we can know the peace of GOD (PHIL 4:7) and a community of such saints will be peacemakers. Eventually this world will be populated with such peacemaking saints and its then that the people of this world will “beat their swords into plowshares” (ISA 2:4).
But even among saints, and especially when they are in the privacy of their homes, surrounded by the people that they live with, if each isn’t submitted to Christ, with a willingness and a practice of dying to self, esteeming others higher than themselves – even there, strife will be in evidence, and reproach.
It’s a sad statistic that Christian marriages don’t do much better than the non-Christian marriages; they end up in divorce. I believe the main reason is that the spouses are insisting that ‘the other’ dies to self instead of themselves, and because neither does, strife is in evidence and no home can long survive in such a condition.
He can’t cure a sinful heart. He must take out the heart bereft of spiritual life (a “heart of stone”) and replace it with a new heart, and a new spirit that has the vitality of spiritual life. Only GOD can do this, religion can’t! Morality can’t! The will of man can’t!
Once we have the new nature based on the Spirit of Christ, then we love purity, we love holiness. We come to understand how really good it is to be good! We hate evil, we hate sin, injustice, oppression, etc. The purity granted us through faith in Christ by the new birth and heart will, through the process of sanctification, grow purity in our minds and will affect our conduct. When we love purity, we live in purity.
Such a pure heart speaks forth abundantly the fruit of its lips: those lips speak of the truth and the grace of GOD by which the saint has been given purity, and how anyone may acquire this new heart by the grace of GOD through the LORD Jesus Christ!
We have it on the King’s own word, that we who follow Him with obedient, pure hearts by grace and love, that our King calls us His friends!
You will notice that the saints who grow in holiness and purity will be the same ones who have the greatest compassion for the lost; they will have the greatest passion for the Gospel. Sanctified saints who speak of the amazing grace of GOD as found nowhere else than in the Gospel have the heart of the King and they love the saints! They are accounted as His dearest friends.
And notice that it’s to the LORD’s friends He has made known all that the Father has given to His Son – and we’re holding it in our hands. That’s why I love how we’re getting in the habit of calling the Bible “the holy revelation of GOD’s Word”! We have the full counsel of GOD, saints! None of the Old Testament saints had this! Even the first century church didn’t have ALL of this!
Think of what GOD called Abraham in 2 CHRON 20:7; JAMES 2:23; 4:4: “the friend of GOD”. In GENESIS 18 GOD had a plan He was about to execute, and He asks Himself a rhetorical question: “"Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing…?”
The LORD Jesus testified that Abraham saw His day and rejoiced in it (JOHN 8:56) and this friend of GOD was given the most glorious revelation of the Gospel in GENESIS 22: “GOD will provide Himself a sacrifice” he said to his son Isaac.
Daniel, the prophet that was given the most and greatest revelations by GOD was called “greatly beloved” by GOD – one could say, “dearest friend”.
By the same token John the apostle was referred to as “the beloved” and to him was granted the entire book of REVELATION!
And you and I, we have all of the revelation given to Daniel, to John, to Abraham and all of the others! And we who are the LORD’s friends are blessed with deep, meaningful insights in this revelation of GOD’s Word! And as His friends who obey His Word, for our faithful stewardship of His Word in following the LORD, we are given more insight!
“What A Friend We Have In Jesus”! My Friend, the LORD Jesus Christ… Jesus deciding to be my friend is something that I find most astounding!
The fact that He is LORD, to me, is a given: of course He is LORD, the King, the Boss of everything and everyone – He created everything, everything belongs to Him, so obviously He has the right as Sovereign Ruler over creation!
Back to our regularly scheduled program: When we see the heart of GOD and His greater desire to save rather than condemn, we recognize His mission as the Savior of mankind. His passion is in redeeming souls by His blood, to see us free from the bonds of sin, delivered from death, escaping holy judgment and hellfire. Of course He is the Savior, according to His heart of love and grace and truth and justice – He saves us from sin, and in a sense, He saves the Father’s honor of holiness by accepting His just punishment on sin, and by transforming sinners into heavenly saints, welcomed into the Kingdom of GOD as citizens of heaven!
Intellectuals are typically very careful in choosing their friends; they want friends of comparable intellect. It would mar their reputation if they ever stooped down and befriended a moron. But GOD is the Ultimate Intellectual – and for all of His knowledge, and wisdom and power and glory, and yet, He is of a humble heart, and chooses comparatively intellectual morons like us and is blessed to be in our company!
LORD, transform me to become a faithful friend to you, mirroring Your faithfulness to me!
PROVERBS 22:12
The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, but He overthrows the words of the faithless.
The eye in Scripture often represents knowledge, insight, discernment and wisdom. The cherubim are seen with eyes all around (imagine their visit to the optometrist!), denoting their superior knowledge and wisdom. The LORD Himself has eyes of fire, “seven eyes” that speaks of perfect and complete knowledge and insight (REV 2:18; 5:6); His eyes that discerns and tests everything, exposing things for what they really are.
He “preserves (or guards) knowledge”, that is, He safeguards His Word of Truth! He ensures that though the world may become an ocean of lies and deception, there will be an island of truth that will remain steadfast and no tsunami of sinful lies will overtake His truth!
Our founding verse for The TRUTH UNDER FIRE (TTUF) website is from PSALM 100:5:
To expose such false evidence, we Christians must know not only what we believe, but WHY we believe!
What is the proof that reveals the Bible as truly being the Word of GOD? Can you provide such evidence to someone? Can you show from internal and external evidences of the Bible that this book is the exclusive truth source inspired by the Spirit of GOD? If not, get into some apologetics and learn! We have a tab on TTUF that provides apologetics (over 40 different categories), and you can also visit www.Once-Lost.com and get a ton of apologetic materials.
But for all his efforts, Satan can never really destroy the Truth because the Truth is beyond his corrupting clutches as the Truth sits at the right hand of the Father and is the Name higher than any other name.
GOD is faithful to “overthrow the words of the faithless” – bagad in the Hebrew. It means” to pillage (“to rob especially during war time”), to deal deceitfully, one who is treacherous and transgresses”. These are apt descriptors of Satan and those children of his – this lost world that lives in accordance with the prince of the power of the air (EPH 2:2), the spirit that is actively, mightily fervent and effective through unsaved souls in immobilizing the truth (ROM 1:18). Satan’s MO is to “steal, kill and destroy” (JOHN 10:10a)
The center of the new heavens and new earth, the New Jerusalem will be the Capital of the Cosmos and of this glorious city its said:
INTRODUCTION: This world can be divided between truth lovers and truth haters; those who glorify GOD and those who glorify themselves, those that worship GOD and those that mock GOD. Those who walk in the Light of the LORD, and those who love darkness rather than the Light.
The LORD Jesus came with a sword (MATT 10:34-36), this sword of truth, to divide humanity into identifiable categories: those who love and follow Him, and those who hate and reject Him.
These two groups of people consist of the pure and the profane, and both groups are growing more and more in their respective conditions, motivations and desires. As GOD’s Glorious Revelation puts it:
REVELATION 22:11
He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.
PROVERBS 22:10
Cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave; Yes, strife and reproach will cease.
Scoffers (“scorners” KJV) in the biblical sense are people who mock and despise the Word of GOD, and for two very specific reasons:
1. They are children of darkness that hate the Light of GOD’s Word because it reveals their evilness. The LORD Jesus plainly stated that the world hates Him because He testifies that its works are evil (JOHN 7:7). Yet when He challenged His enemies to testify of any evil He had ever done, they had nothing to say (JOHN 8:46)!
JOHN 3:18-21
18 "He who believes in Him [Jesus] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.
The LORD Jesus also declared:
JOHN 8:12
…I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.
Scoffers will also ridicule the saints of GOD, who walk in the Light as He, the LORD Jesus is the Light (1 JOHN 1:7).
2. And the sin nature refuses to submit to any authority other than its own; it seeks to love self by selfish motives, to gratify self, to exalt self and debase others as well as dominance, and control over others. This is the primary objective of Satan who sees the power and glory of GOD and craves those things to dominate and subjugate souls, but he rejects those aspects of GOD’s nature such as His love, His holiness; His heart of sacrifice and service, to commune with the humble, to uplift and heal the weak.
The human heart of pride finds the idea of making Jesus LORD over their lives repugnant. “It’s my life! I’ll live it the way I want to, and if GOD doesn’t like it, too bad!”
MATTHEW 16:24-26To cast out the scoffer, the child of darkness, all you have to do is let your light shine, and they will flee from the light. And with the absence of scoffers and scorners, there is also the absence of contention.
24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself [not love himself, not esteem himself, not gratify himself], and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 "For whoever desires to save his life [for himself] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul.
PROVERBS 13:10The fact is these children of darkness will sooner or later be cast out of this life and cast in to the lake of fire, which is the second death (REV 20:14-15).
By pride comes nothing but contention; but with the well-advised is wisdom.
PROVERBS 18:6
6 A fool's lips enter into contention, And his mouth calls for blows. 7 A fool's mouth is his destruction, And his lips are the snare of his soul.
It’s possible for sinners to get along with folks that are religious but lack the Spirit of Christ in their hearts. Any religion of this world requires works to bring about justification, salvation, the attainment of spiritual blessings or bliss. That feeds the pride of man who ‘earned’ his way to gain some ‘God’s approval.
But the Cross is an offense, because there, man has no room for pride, or self-accomplishment, self-justification, self-esteem. At the Cross we are seen for what we are: bankrupt sinners at the mercy of GOD, Who by His grace alone saves us. Only those who recognize their spiritual poverty will accept GOD’s grace meekly and with humble gratitude. The proud will never bend their stiff backs to bow before the LORD.
Absent the scoffer there will be no strife or reproach. Absent the scorner, where only the saints are who walk in the Spirit, there is unity.
As we gather together in church service, we all have the intention to worship GOD corporately, to give our time and attention to the teaching of the holy revelation of GOD’s Word, and we desire to have fellowship with the saints. This is like a taste of heaven for us!
Heaven was a place that was in absolute one accord; the only order was GOD’s Order that He established in the world in six days. It wasn’t until Lucifer decided to establish his own order that there was contention, strife, discord. And this contentious cherub and his followers were indeed “cast out”!
This scoffer that is Satan as well as sinful humanity are all about disrupting the order of GOD, and this is why the world is full of contention and rebellion – against GOD and His Word.
This is also why any appeal for peace, any policies, treaties, actions that intend to promote peace are woefully inadequate. Before man can be at peace with man, he must first be at peace with his Maker! And as “sinners in the hands of an angry GOD” as Jonathan Edwards once titled his famous sermon, we are under GOD’s Holy condemnation, with no hope for reconciliation of our own making.
The only hope we have is in the Cross of Christ! Once we know peace with GOD (ROM 5:1) we can know the peace of GOD (PHIL 4:7) and a community of such saints will be peacemakers. Eventually this world will be populated with such peacemaking saints and its then that the people of this world will “beat their swords into plowshares” (ISA 2:4).
But even among saints, and especially when they are in the privacy of their homes, surrounded by the people that they live with, if each isn’t submitted to Christ, with a willingness and a practice of dying to self, esteeming others higher than themselves – even there, strife will be in evidence, and reproach.
It’s a sad statistic that Christian marriages don’t do much better than the non-Christian marriages; they end up in divorce. I believe the main reason is that the spouses are insisting that ‘the other’ dies to self instead of themselves, and because neither does, strife is in evidence and no home can long survive in such a condition.
Yet we know the healing, restorative power of GOD's grace, that He is well able to prosper a marriage composed of two previously divorced people.
We know ultimately in GOD’s new creation, when sin and sin nature are both obliterated, “…strife and reproach will cease.”
Let’s conclude PROV 22:10 with a reading of PSALM 1:
He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend.
We all know what the LORD Jesus had to say:
We know ultimately in GOD’s new creation, when sin and sin nature are both obliterated, “…strife and reproach will cease.”
Let’s conclude PROV 22:10 with a reading of PSALM 1:
PSALM 1:1-6PROVERBS 22:11
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. 4 The ungodly are not so but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend.
We all know what the LORD Jesus had to say:
MATTHEW 5:8We saints recognize that we have no means of acquiring purity of heart on our own; we can’t even help GOD in this endeavor. This is a spiritual surgery that involves a heart transplant:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
EZEKIEL 36:26“GOD can do anything” – just about. Some things He can’t do because He is GOD: He can’t lie, He can’t learn, He can’t travel, He can’t create a rock so big that He can’t lift it. He can’t leave sin unjudged. But He also can’t deny His own heart of grace and mercy towards humanity.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (also EZEK 11:19; JER 32:39).
He can’t cure a sinful heart. He must take out the heart bereft of spiritual life (a “heart of stone”) and replace it with a new heart, and a new spirit that has the vitality of spiritual life. Only GOD can do this, religion can’t! Morality can’t! The will of man can’t!
Once we have the new nature based on the Spirit of Christ, then we love purity, we love holiness. We come to understand how really good it is to be good! We hate evil, we hate sin, injustice, oppression, etc. The purity granted us through faith in Christ by the new birth and heart will, through the process of sanctification, grow purity in our minds and will affect our conduct. When we love purity, we live in purity.
Such a pure heart speaks forth abundantly the fruit of its lips: those lips speak of the truth and the grace of GOD by which the saint has been given purity, and how anyone may acquire this new heart by the grace of GOD through the LORD Jesus Christ!
We have it on the King’s own word, that we who follow Him with obedient, pure hearts by grace and love, that our King calls us His friends!
JOHN 15:12-15The pure of heart will also practice in life all that the LORD commands us!
12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. 14 "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
1 TIMOTHY 1:5Those who have a heart like Jesus – the saints whose lives mirror the most (albeit still not perfectly) will be afforded the highest station of authority and rule in heaven. To those humble saints, our LORD will say, “Friend, go up higher”!
Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith (genuine faith produces genuine good works).
2 TIMOTHY 2:22
Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
1 PETER 1:22-23
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
You will notice that the saints who grow in holiness and purity will be the same ones who have the greatest compassion for the lost; they will have the greatest passion for the Gospel. Sanctified saints who speak of the amazing grace of GOD as found nowhere else than in the Gospel have the heart of the King and they love the saints! They are accounted as His dearest friends.
And notice that it’s to the LORD’s friends He has made known all that the Father has given to His Son – and we’re holding it in our hands. That’s why I love how we’re getting in the habit of calling the Bible “the holy revelation of GOD’s Word”! We have the full counsel of GOD, saints! None of the Old Testament saints had this! Even the first century church didn’t have ALL of this!
Think of what GOD called Abraham in 2 CHRON 20:7; JAMES 2:23; 4:4: “the friend of GOD”. In GENESIS 18 GOD had a plan He was about to execute, and He asks Himself a rhetorical question: “"Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing…?”
The LORD Jesus testified that Abraham saw His day and rejoiced in it (JOHN 8:56) and this friend of GOD was given the most glorious revelation of the Gospel in GENESIS 22: “GOD will provide Himself a sacrifice” he said to his son Isaac.
Daniel, the prophet that was given the most and greatest revelations by GOD was called “greatly beloved” by GOD – one could say, “dearest friend”.
By the same token John the apostle was referred to as “the beloved” and to him was granted the entire book of REVELATION!
And you and I, we have all of the revelation given to Daniel, to John, to Abraham and all of the others! And we who are the LORD’s friends are blessed with deep, meaningful insights in this revelation of GOD’s Word! And as His friends who obey His Word, for our faithful stewardship of His Word in following the LORD, we are given more insight!
“What A Friend We Have In Jesus”! My Friend, the LORD Jesus Christ… Jesus deciding to be my friend is something that I find most astounding!
The fact that He is LORD, to me, is a given: of course He is LORD, the King, the Boss of everything and everyone – He created everything, everything belongs to Him, so obviously He has the right as Sovereign Ruler over creation!
Commercial break: in GENESIS 1, we see GOD as Creator. It’s not until we get to GENESIS 2 that we see Him as “LORD GOD” the Sovereign over creation. In GENESIS 3 the serpent only calls Him GOD – but doesn’t acknowledge His sovereignty for he refuses to call Him “LORD GOD”, challenging in effect His Lordship.
By the same token we see the Last Supper – and when the LORD announces that one of the twelve will betray Him, they all ask Him one by one, “LORD, is it I?”
But Judas, having been indwelt by Satan asks Him, “Teacher (or Master – not “LORD”), is it I?”
Back to our regularly scheduled program: When we see the heart of GOD and His greater desire to save rather than condemn, we recognize His mission as the Savior of mankind. His passion is in redeeming souls by His blood, to see us free from the bonds of sin, delivered from death, escaping holy judgment and hellfire. Of course He is the Savior, according to His heart of love and grace and truth and justice – He saves us from sin, and in a sense, He saves the Father’s honor of holiness by accepting His just punishment on sin, and by transforming sinners into heavenly saints, welcomed into the Kingdom of GOD as citizens of heaven!
JOHN 15:16Anyone who knows Jesus would of course want Him for a friend! But the idea that Jesus, looking over all humanity, would choose me?! And call me His friend!? That just blows my mind! And after more than 4 decades, I can say that my Friend Jesus has not once failed me but abides as a faithful Friend always and forever.
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
Intellectuals are typically very careful in choosing their friends; they want friends of comparable intellect. It would mar their reputation if they ever stooped down and befriended a moron. But GOD is the Ultimate Intellectual – and for all of His knowledge, and wisdom and power and glory, and yet, He is of a humble heart, and chooses comparatively intellectual morons like us and is blessed to be in our company!
LORD, transform me to become a faithful friend to you, mirroring Your faithfulness to me!
PROVERBS 22:12
The eyes of the LORD preserve knowledge, but He overthrows the words of the faithless.
The eye in Scripture often represents knowledge, insight, discernment and wisdom. The cherubim are seen with eyes all around (imagine their visit to the optometrist!), denoting their superior knowledge and wisdom. The LORD Himself has eyes of fire, “seven eyes” that speaks of perfect and complete knowledge and insight (REV 2:18; 5:6); His eyes that discerns and tests everything, exposing things for what they really are.
He “preserves (or guards) knowledge”, that is, He safeguards His Word of Truth! He ensures that though the world may become an ocean of lies and deception, there will be an island of truth that will remain steadfast and no tsunami of sinful lies will overtake His truth!
Our founding verse for The TRUTH UNDER FIRE (TTUF) website is from PSALM 100:5:
PSALM 100:5Satan through the various agencies of Communism, the Roman Catholic Church, Secular Humanists, Islam and others has been determined to destroy the Holy Bible. Throughout the centuries this meant the literal destruction of copies of the Scripture. Yet in more recent times, the ruination of the Word of GOD by Satan’s agencies is through the printing and promoting of ‘per-versions’ of the Bible as well as providing so-called evidence to cause people to lose confidence in the Bible, and to “fall away from the faith” (1 TIM 4:1).
For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
To expose such false evidence, we Christians must know not only what we believe, but WHY we believe!
What is the proof that reveals the Bible as truly being the Word of GOD? Can you provide such evidence to someone? Can you show from internal and external evidences of the Bible that this book is the exclusive truth source inspired by the Spirit of GOD? If not, get into some apologetics and learn! We have a tab on TTUF that provides apologetics (over 40 different categories), and you can also visit www.Once-Lost.com and get a ton of apologetic materials.
But for all his efforts, Satan can never really destroy the Truth because the Truth is beyond his corrupting clutches as the Truth sits at the right hand of the Father and is the Name higher than any other name.
GOD is faithful to “overthrow the words of the faithless” – bagad in the Hebrew. It means” to pillage (“to rob especially during war time”), to deal deceitfully, one who is treacherous and transgresses”. These are apt descriptors of Satan and those children of his – this lost world that lives in accordance with the prince of the power of the air (EPH 2:2), the spirit that is actively, mightily fervent and effective through unsaved souls in immobilizing the truth (ROM 1:18). Satan’s MO is to “steal, kill and destroy” (JOHN 10:10a)
1 PETER 1:24-25aOne day this old earth and the old heavens will be folded up, cast aside and burned into oblivion, and all of the works of mankind, Satan and the kingdom of darkness will be utterly destroyed along with the old creation.
24 because "All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, 25 But the word of the LORD endures forever."…
The center of the new heavens and new earth, the New Jerusalem will be the Capital of the Cosmos and of this glorious city its said:
REVELATION 21:27
But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
PSALM 101:6-8
6 My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, That they may dwell with me; He who walks in a perfect way, He shall serve me. 7 He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence. 8 Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, That I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the LORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment