Let God Be True

"The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17, ESV).

"Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth"  (1 John 3:18, ESV).

This is the name of the primary Watchtower Bible & Tract Society book which denies the Trinity as being the doctrine invented by Satan himself.  Actually, the church father Tertullian coined the word, and even though it isn't a biblical word, it is taught throughout Scripture from creation, where God is in the plural (Elohim--"Let us create ...") to the Great Commission where we are to baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  All members of the Godhead are equally God and equally divine, sharing all attributes of deity alike.  

The reason Charles Taze Russell denied the Trinity was because he thought it was irrational--what made him presume God is able to be comprehended by man (The philosophers of antiquity said, "The finite cannot grasp the infinite") or in Latin: "finitum non capax infinitum").   The more one contemplates this truth, the more one realizes it is from the revelation of God, and not man's invention. Truth is that way, it is not something we would've guessed!  Christianity is a revealed religion and we know it by special revelation, personal visitation, and encounter by God Himself in the person of His only Son, our Lord.

There is one God, though manifested in three personas as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  All of one essence, but having different self-distinctions or consciousnesses.  What trait, characteristic, or attribute of one can be said of the others.  They always act in harmony and concurrence of will (there is no conflict of interest, disharmony, ill-will, or disagreement). If the members of the Trinity disagreed they would be lying by definition of the law of noncontradiction.  They work according to the role and domain they have, such as the Father purposing or proposing salvation, the Son accomplished it, and the Holy Spirit executing and making it known and real in the believer.  

The Father also authored and planned it, the Son did the work of redemption, and the Holy Spirit applied it.  They also worked in concert in creating heaven and earth.  Jesus is known as the logos or logic of God and is called the Word (expression or icon) of God (cf. John 1:14).  Jesus was the incarnation and manifestation of truth itself, proving we can know and grasp it (cf. John 14:6). He pronounced: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" (cf. John 8:32).

One thing that is impossible for God to do is lie; while man is a liar and lies from the womb according to the Psalms.  Lying isn't just saying something that is contrary to fact on purpose: not saying the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; misspeaking; giving someone a line; making up something as you go along for impression's sake; saying something to gain the upper edge or advantage; false compliments; insincere flattery; any half-truth; misleading statements; exaggeration for effect; saying something to gain advantage; deceptive practices; giving off a false impression; jumping to the conclusion; misrepresentations; saying something that hurts; bearing false witness against your neighbor; disinformation; contradicting yourself; propaganda; not being honest in niceties or pleasantries, such as in greetings and saying you're feeling fine, when you're not; not telling the whole story; leading astray; acting the con man; flirting; buttering up someone; creating a false impression or going along with one; fooling someone; putting spin on something; saying something with bias or subjectivity; pre-judging someone or something; gossip; slander; judging; false portrayal of situations or events, etc.


Face it: We all stand guilty as charged when we realize all this encompasses and more to boot, including omitting the truth as a sin of omission, and anything God wouldn't say. Remember, telling one lie makes you a liar!  But God cannot lie according to Titus 1:2. If God could lie, what kind of God would he be?  President George Washington claimed that he couldn't tell a lie; actually, that's a lie--he could, but chose not to on intentionally. The Bible calls all men liars (cf. Romans 3:4).  President Jimmy Carter told us he wouldn't lie to us, but this was an impossible task as Chief Executive.

Philosophically, Thomas Aquinas believed and affirmed what Augustine had said in that all truth is God's truth and concluded that all truth meets at the top. Francis A. Schaeffer said the Bible is "true truth." Jesus said that God's Word is truth and sanctifies us (cf. John 17:17). Jesus said that the Father is the "only true God" (cf. John 17:3). Truth is what transforms and doesn't just inform or reform. Truth changes lives and is alive and powerful and fills us then makes us hungry. It reads you as you read it!

God judges those who practice deceit and lie on purpose or deliberately like false teachers or prophets, and they will not enter the kingdom of heaven  (cf. Rev. 22:15, ESV:  "... [T]hose who love and practice falsehood").  Satan is a liar and the father of lies, the father of all men before salvation, and when he speaks a lie he is speaking naturally, for this is his nature.  The man who insists he's telling the truth and swears in God's name is probably the most insecure of his integrity.  Like Shakespeare writes: "Methinks thou dost protest too much!"

Note that the Bible records Abraham as having lied about Sarah. When I say someone is a liar I am delineating someone who practices the sin intentionally and loves or approves of it--not some besetting weakness that is confessed. After conversion we have a new nature able, to tell the truth, and overcome the sin of lying--we are no longer prone to lie; however, the flesh is still tempted.  People generally associate liars as those who got caught; however, we are all liars, we all just didn't get caught!  Don't strive to be the ideal man with unrealistic expectations, but to be a real man with ones in touch with reality and needing God to overcome sin--always a battle till glorification.

To claim that you don't lie is a lie and a claim to divinity because only God can claim this:  "... Let God be true and every man a liar" (cf. Rom. 3:4, ESV).  In essence, this is blasphemy (which is a lie by definition) and a direct insult to God's holiness, as He is a jealous God and will tolerate no rivals or someone asserting deity or divinity.  If you've never realized what a liar you were before salvation or that you still are prone to do it because of the resident old sin nature, you have never been convicted of sin and don't know what the word really means or its connotations--the more you realize lies and the more sensitive you become, the more honest you become, the closer to the truth you get, the more aware you become of sin, and then the less sin!


The sad fact is that people aren't concerned with whether an idea is true anymore, but just whether it works, and works for them in particular. There is no Truth with a capital T and all truth is relative now, especially the ones relating to Christianity.  Christians are to proclaim the truth incarnate and that it is knowable, relevant, and profitable. New Age adherents believe something is true if it feels right. Morality is always based on transcendent truth that we all should know and appeal to, not personal opinion, feelings, or conjecture. Unbelievers are those who reject the truth (cf. Romans 2:8). People today deny universal truth that is valid for everyone but insists that it might be true for you, and not for them.


Objective truth is true whether believed or not. (Note:  Even the Greeks sought and loved the true, the good, and the beautiful.)  Two contradictory ideas cannot simultaneously both be true. What they tend to believe is that there is no truth and it is vain to search for it or claim you've found it.  Just like Pilate asked Jesus in John 18:38 what truth was, but didn't stick around for an answer. If you seek the truth with your whole heart you will find it and it will set you free--then you can speak forth truth, and not the lies and deceptions of Satan.   Soli Deo Gloria!

Look At Me!

Ponder and meditate on these texts with added emphasis:

"Look unto me, and be ye saved..."  (Isaiah 45:22, KJV, emphasis added).
"... 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world'"  (John 1:29, KJV, emphasis added).  
"Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: and thereby good shall come unto thee"  (Job 21:22, KJV).


When Moses lifted up the serpent on a pole in the wilderness in Numbers 21, all that was required was an act of faith to be healed from the bite of the venomous snakes.  Just look at the bronze serpent! Later people turned it into a fetish and worshiped it so that King Hezekiah had to destroy it--they missed the point!  We just need to look unto Jesus!   1 Peter 1:8, emphasis added, says the following:  "...[And] though you have not seen Him you love Him."

How can you keep your eyes on Jesus according to Hebrews 12:2 if you don't see Him?  It wasn't faith in the offer, but faith in God and obeying Him.  It is imperative that we look unto Jesus to be saved and get our eyes off ourselves (our merit).  Paul rejoiced in Galatians 1:16  that God "was pleased to reveal His Son in [him]."  He prayed "that the eyes of [hearts] may be enlightened'  (cf. Eph. 1:18, NASB).


We believe in spite of the fact that we don't know Him after the flesh, or are eyewitnesses to His resurrection.  Jesus said in John 20:29 (ESV):  "...Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." We don't need to be empiricists relying on experience, nor rationalists, relying on our reasoning faculties either.  God makes Jesus real to us just like being there--the Holy Spirit convicts: this means that having the Holy Spirit's inner witness is greater assurance that if we had been there and seen Jesus for ourselves.  It is much more vital that we learn to see Jesus with our hearts than our eyes and God can indeed open the eyes of our hearts, that He does become real to us.


The Greeks inquired:  "Sir, we wish to see Jesus" (John 12:19, NASB, emphasis added).  The point is that "we do see Him" (cf. Hebrews 2:9).  I would love to say to my brother:  "I see Jesus in you!" Or:  "He's got his Father's eyes!"  We are the icons of Christ and represent Him to the lost. We all bear the image and likeness of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work.  God works on us till He sees Christ in us and until then we are a work in progress--the final sanctification and glorification won't happen till our resurrection.


God wants to open our spiritual eyes to beware of what He is doing in the world through Jesus.  We are the hands of Jesus that lends a helping hand; the ears that hear people's needs; the voice that speaks up for Him; the heart through which Christ loves and that spreads compassion; the feet that are welcome to spread the good news; and the mind that thinks Christlike ideas to share with a lost world, and through which Christ thinks.


Love sees better than any eye could ever hope to--just look at Helen Keller, exhibit A!  The trouble with some Christians, and we all believe, having not literally seen, is that they think their faith will be strengthened if they had a vision of Jesus or personal encounter with the Almighty of some kind, or revelation to share.  The fact is that God doesn't exist to grant our whims and wishes and provide us with experiences. All we need to know and experience is in the Word--we can have an existential encounter in the Word itself!  The Word is sufficient, clear, and simple enough for the child to understand its main message of salvation (cf. Matt. 11:25 where Jesus commends the Father for revealing the truth to infants).  God does want us to have a genuine experience and relationship with Christ but on His terms, not ours.


Everything He has to say to us is in the Word; we don't need any manuals, commentaries, lexicons, etc., to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit--that His job description.  Though God has not retired dreams or visions or audible communications, He has promised to speak through the Word.  Like the psalmist said in Psalm 119;18 to God:  "Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law."  (This refers specifically to the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit.)  It is with man's heart that he disbelieves and doesn't see.  Jesus said to the unbelievers:  "You are slow of heart to believe..."  "The fool has said in his heart, that there is no God"  (cf. Psalm 14:1, emphasis mine).

Jesus proclaimed Himself the Word of God and John called Him the Logos or the Word which became flesh or incarnate (cf. John 1:1, 14). How can anyone claim to know Jesus if He is unfamiliar with the Word (John 5:39, ESV, says plainly: "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me").  Jesus is the theme of the entirety of the Word, on every page, in some prototype, analogy, parallel, etc.  He is like a scarlet thread running the course of Scripture to be seen by the believer--the key to unlocking the mysteries, understanding its message, and knowing God. personally.


After all, Christianity is about "the God who is there" (for us) and is a relationship with the living God, not just a philosophy or school of thought, though this is important.  It is not a list of dos and don'ts, a catalog of rules, collection of pious sayings, but a methodology for getting to know the living God and enjoying this relationship.  The better we know God, the more we will learn to see Him; just like His fingerprints are in every living creature under heaven and the skies show His handiwork.   The most tragic thing is that there are those who think they see and are blind; a much worse state than knowing you're blind and acknowledging this to God.


We can progress like John Wesley, who said he read the newspaper daily "to see what God is doing in His world."  We need people today who have eyes to see and ears to hear what God wants a man to do in these desperate times that seem to bear the signs of the times (the coming of our great Savior in glory for us).


As Christians we must realize that we represent Christ to the lost world and the only Jesus they may see is the one we show them; you could ask the question:  What is the gospel according to you?  Your brother may know Jesus in a different way or manifestation than you from an entirely different experience and background, but never get tired of learning about the Jesus you don't know or never knew.  Don't limit the Jesus you know putting Him in a box and being a spiritual Lone Ranger out of fellowship; after all, we are to teach and edify each other about Christ.  One person may be the ear and the other the hand of Christ to the lost.  God works in each of us in a unique way.  The whole point is to keep focused on Christ and get our eyes off ourselves and our own little world, thinking primarily of His will and His kingdom, not ours.


The final judgment of God is a hardening of the already confirmed and hardened will in defiance and is mentioned in Acts 28:27 and Isaiah 29:13 in the NASB as follows:  "For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would hear them."  God has blinded Israel in part that the Gentiles may be grafted into the Olive Tree.  Just like Paul says:  "... [B]ut the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded" (Romans 11:7, NKJV).  The sole qualification for seeing is to come to Jesus admitting you cannot see!  Soli Deo Gloria!

Point Man Of The Church

Every team needs a leader (good leaders have learned how to follow first) and who speaks for it and keys in on what's going on in the game being played. Some Christians march to the beat of a different drum, and that is good since we are not all cookie-cutter Christians--when God made you, He broke the mold!   Pastors need to know where their sheep are spiritually to be able to relate to them and meet their needs on the bumpy roads of the rat race with the law of the jungle--some are lambs, some sheep.  Some need an additional cheerleader to come into play in a bind and to get them through the week, a boost of inspiration, to stimulate growth in Christ.

The point man or principle spokesman and advocate is called by God into the ministry--he didn't volunteer himself into it, because he needs the requisite spiritual gifts and training.  It comes with the territory to be the role model of the church body and to reach out and get to know some, not to be aloof and confined to one's ivory tower.  All in all, it sometimes seems that the pastor has the thankless job of denouncing sin and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom through repentance and faith--some people never hear it clear enough to reject it!  "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth:  for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts" (Malachi 2:7, KJV).

We all need to know the scoop, the skinny, or the lowdown to be able to relate to other believers in fellowship.  Sometimes the sheep don't relate to the pastor because he "wows" them with his scholarship, or appears too pedantic, or condescends--don't talk down to anyone, nor over their heads--they can tell. Sermons can inspire, and using the Word of God, can change lives too--they can be a turning point in one's life and a point of contact to reach out to others.

We all need to touch base and relate to others in the body and the sermon supplies a commonality or stimulus to further that effort. Homiletic devices should be personal and suited to what favors your style--but most of all a pastor should make his sermon his own, he should personalize it and relate directly to the body. Reading a sermon is generally considered a no-no, but Peter Marshall read him, but his delivery made up for it and no one faulted him for it--not everyone can get away with this!

The most challenging part of a sermon is its opening, trying to pique interest and whet the appetite for the body of the sermon.  This can be done by anecdote, story, something humorous to lighten the mood or current event in a new light. It is so easy to lose people because not everyone has a good attention span, and you must be able to keep it simple and to the point--as Einstein's dictum says: "Make it as simple as possible, but not more so."

The pastor is key to the fellowship of the body in that God speaks through him to the body and he speaks in the role of prophet, speaking on God's behalf to the churchgoers.  No matter where you are spiritual, you should be able to come away with some sort of message that applies to you.  Don't lose people or bore them with the unnecessary details, because they may think you're being academic or, worse yet, trivial and missing the point yourself.  A spiritually sound and healthy pastor will lead to a healthy and growing church.  The whole point of a sermon is to feed the flock and make them hungry for more, whetting their appetite and inspiring self-exploration of the Word.

The purpose-driven pastor seeks to edify the body, not educate or inform them.  He seeks to lead them to the Author of the Bible, not just into the text. It is easy to get sidetracked or go off on a tangent and into asides or off the subject, but he is sensitive to the leading and anointing of the Spirit and is prepared and has done his homework so that he is at the Spirits disposal to be used as God sees fit--sometimes going into uncharted or unknown territory that he couldn't have foreseen.

Who knows what the Spirit will do, one must just be ready and prepared to be used as a vessel of honor.  The ultimate goal is to knock them out of their comfort zones and challenge them, not just make them feel good for a few minutes.  A good preacher afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted in a prophetic role, not afraid to denounce sin and take stands for the Word, showing his Christian colors.  Soli Deo Gloria!

The Highest Calling

"Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season..." (2 Tim. 4:2, ESV).
NB: We are called to be Christ's ambassadors, preaching the gospel.

What this means is that preparation (and knowing the Word is implied here) is a requisite for preaching.  One needs to be ready for any opportunity God may give, in opening doors to preach--being sensitive to the leading of the Spirit. There is a world of difference between preaching and teaching and some teachers end up preaching!  (or should I say, in some cases, lecturing) and the latter may be "interesting, edifying, challenging, and informative (like info FYI)," but preaching takes it to the next level and faith comes by the preaching of the Word, while teaching is for discipling, and preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit's unction and anointing and is illuminating, enlightening, prophetic, challenging, upsetting, convicting, edifying, and inspiring--viva la difference!

When you preach you never know where the Spirit will lead, but that doesn't mean you don't prepare notes; it just means God may lead you off your subject, go off on a tangent, or go somewhere you couldn't have guessed and may mention in passing and be forced to leave your notes, because of a special anointing. Preaching the Word means faith in the Word and not in yourself, your experiences, your research, or the media you use. It isn't how professional you appear, but how spiritually prepared and led you are--prayer and faith are a must.

The called preacher afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted.  You don't just learn something--you are edified (i.e., built up in the faith).  People have to be knocked out of their comfort zones, and you have to know where the sheep are to be able to do that.  People tune you out once they feel you are lecturing them and aren't speaking to their needs or relating to them--don't condescend or "wow" them with your scholarship or expertise. The last thing he wants to do is to appear pedantic or as dry as a seminary prof.  Paul said that he preached the "Christ and Christ crucified," and not himself--he wants to keep the focus off himself and on Christ and the cross, where the power is.

Preaching is prophesying to some degree when you edify the body you are controlled by the filling, having the anointing.  This is the highest calling for a believer, not a job (he isn't a hireling), but he will be judged according to how faithful he was in using his gift and being available, humble, sensitive, and obedient, more important than being able intellectually or naturally talented with appropriate inclinations.  God is able to make him able if he has faith and is sensitive to the leading of the Spirit.  There is a certain effect when one is preaching that the person really believes what he is saying and practices what he preaches and preaches what he practices, and he does it with obvious passion and a delivery that is noticeable and effective, through the power of the Spirit, not his own charisma or personality, lest he get the glory instead of God. 

The gift of teaching is not necessarily connected to the gift to preach, and elders who are good at teaching should be given double honor. Preaching is not something you seek, or aspire to, but are called to (if you can do anything else, do it!), and if you are ordained, you must do it and it drives you. Every mature believer should be able to teach to some degree, but he who prophesies edifies the church, and may not necessarily be called to preach.  Soi Deo Gloria