My Duty to God’s Truth

By John Waddey

Solomon exhorts us to "buy the truth and sell it not" (Prov. 23:23). Jesus declared, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). We who live in the 21st century have arrived at a strange juncture of human history. Heretofore, virtually all inhabitants of our Western Civilization believed in the reality of truth. They believed that absolute truth did exist and could be known and that sacred Scripture was in fact objective truth. But alas a new generation has gained ascen­dancy in our institutions of learning, in our media, our literary world, government and law. We now live in the "postmodern age." They deny the reality of absolute truth. This leads them to declare that it is impossible to find such absolute truth. They teach our children that truth is relative and subjective, that your truth might be different than my truth. Ours is a day when otherwise intelli­gent people, including not a few who pro­fess to be Christians, hold this foolish view.

Winston Churchill correctly observed, that "Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it; ignorance may deride it; malice may dis­tort it; but there it is."

No matter what the world thinks, says or does, we who are priests of Christ must of necessity reject their faulty views of truth. God's word is truth (John 8:32)! That grand fact we can never deny! If we are to be true to Christ, it is incumbent on us to:

              I.      Love Truth, especially God's truth. Those who have not the love of the truth endanger their souls (II Thess. 2:10). In all things we want truth and nothing less. We speak the truth in our daily conversation and especially in our teaching. We lie not (Eph. 4:25). God's truth is precious to Christians. We long for it more than for our necessary food (Job 23:12). Like newborn babes we long for the sincere milk of God's Word (II Pet. 2:2).

            II.      Because we love God's Truth we seek for it (Acts 17:11). All of our earthly days are a quest for truth. With Paul, our greatest desire is to know Christ who is the Truth incarnate (Phil. 3:10; John 14:6). We ply the pages of God's book to discover and understand the Truth He has provided us. We seek out those wise teachers who can explain to us His Truth. We look to his church for guidance in our search for Truth.

          III.      When we discover Truth, we gladly em­brace it. We need not have a taskmaster to force us to accept His Truth. We ea­gerly do so. It is a rare treasure which we want to make our own.

         IV.      When we embrace Truth we eagerly obey it (Acts 2: 2:41). God's Truth benefits us only when we conform our lives to it (Rom. 2:8). Christ is the au­thor of eternal salvation only to those rational souls who obey him (Heb. 5:9). He asks us, "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). The truth seeker never balks at truth nor gets angry at truth. He readily adjusts his thinking and conduct to God's Truth. No man is our enemy who tells us the truth (Gal.4:16).

           V.      Having found and embraced God's Truth, it is our privilege to share it with others. All of us are to be teachers of truth and righteousness (Heb. 5:12). The things we have learned we are to impart to others that they may do the same (II Tim. 2:2). Thus the great wheel of Truth ever moves onward.

         VI.      As possessors of and beneficiaries of God's Truth, we must defend it when it is attacked by its enemies.

"Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood,

for the good or evil side" (James R. Lowell)

With Paul we must always be set for the defense of the gospel (Phil. 1:16). We must be willing to earnestly contend for God's Truth (Jude 3) and thus be good soldiers of Christ Jesus (II Tim. 2:3). &

The Will of God (Part 5)

By Bob Myhan

Stated positively, God’s ideal will is that all men believe in, love and obey Him always. Stated negatively, it is that no man ever sin, even one time. But He gave to man a free will—the ability to act contrary to His ideal will. It must, therefore, be the case that He was willing for man to sin, though He did not desire him to do so. After Adam and Eve sinned God drove them out of the garden making it possible for them to suffer and die. Therefore, man’s sin and suf­fering must have been in accord with God’s incidental will. But then there is the circum­stantial will of God—His desire for all who have sinned to turn from sin in faithful, lov­ing obedience.

³ For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:3-4)

⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. (Gal. 5:6)

⁹ And having been perfected, He be­came the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Heb. 5:9)

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, 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." Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:22-25)

From these passages we must con­clude that (1) God desires all men to be saved, (2) faith working through love is what avails, (3) you must obey Jesus or He is not the author of your eternal salvation. (4) souls are purified in obeying the truth through the Spirit, which is the same as hav­ing been born again through the word of God and (5) one is born again through the word of God when he obeys the truth through the Spirit, which is the same as being born of water and the Spirit (John 3:3-5).

What truth must one obey in order to be born of water and the Spirit? He must obey the truth contained in the Great Commis­sion. The only thing Jesus ever said while on earth about salvation, after He became the author of it is re­corded in Mark 16:15-16.

¹⁵ And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. ¹⁶ He who believes and is bap­tized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

He also said repentance and remis­sion of sins should be preached in His name. (Luke 24:47) And when repentance and remission of sins was preached in His name, baptism was sandwiched between them. (Acts 2:38)

When Saul of Tarsus saw Jesus on the Da­mascus road, he was told by Him “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:6) Jesus then sent a man named Ananias to tell Saul, “And why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” (Acts 22:16)

An angel told a Gentile centurion named Cornelius to send for Peter who would tell him words whereby he and his family would be saved (Acts 11:13-14). And Peter, when he came, “commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.” (Acts 10:48)

When people in Samaria “believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were bap­tized.” (Acts 8:12)

When Philip later “preached Jesus” to the Ethiopian, the man asked, “What hinders me from being bap­tized?” (Acts 8:36)

Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailor, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Af­ter they “spoke the word of the Lord to him ... he and all his family were bap­tized.” (Acts 16:31-33)

Therefore, preach­ing Jesus (or speaking the word of the Lord) causes some people to de­sire bap­tism.

Baptism puts one “into Christ” (Rom. 6:3-4; Gal. 3:27), where “every spiritual bless­ing,” including salvation, is found (Eph. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:10). Therefore, baptism is essen­tial to obtaining salvation, as well as every other spiri­tual blessing.

Therefore, it is God’s circumstantial will for alien sinners (those outside the king­dom of God) to believe, repent, confess faith and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

We will con­sider His circumstantial will for citi­zens of His kingdom in the next issue of the Faith Builder. &