MAY 30, 2023

 “Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?” (John 18:38a)

Jesus was explaining to the Roman Governor that the very reason for which He took human flesh and came into the world was to bear witness unto the truth. He then added this Word:“Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” We are not told with what motive this question was asked, nor does it appear from the narrative whether or not he waited for an answer. It seems most likely that the fool who said this was not seeking an answer, but actually spoke this in sneering sarcasm, and in that way, declaring himself to be one who did not believe there was such a thing as truth.

This sounds like the saying of a skeptic who had heard from his earliest recollection so many incredible and barren speculations about “truth.” Being acquainted with the “theories” of the so-called, “deep thinkers,” and of the conjecturing of both Roman and Greek philosophers, he had perhaps come to doubt the very existence of truth. “Truth, you say! What is truth?”

It is depressing and sad as we come to realize that there are millions upon millions of people here in “Christian America,” as well as every other Christian land, whose state of mind is just like that of Pontius Pilate. Multitudes of people who are among the upper classes, try and excuse their irreligion by using the same plea as did this vacillating Roman Governor, they cannot find out “what is truth?” They point, in some cases, to the disagreements among the various religions of the world. “Which one should we believe? Can we believe any of them?”

Not only are there contradictory teachings among the different religions, but there are differences of a vital nature amongst Christian groups and denominations. Some erroneously teach either works salvation, or combinations of works and grace. What is truth? Neither of those teachings is true. The Scripture truth is that salvation is purely by grace through faith, without the works of the Law. Some “Christian religions” teach that grace comes through the sacraments; that cleansing from sin is found in baptism. These doctrines are not true. Thetruth is the Lord gave to the church two ordinances; Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both are for believers – they are for observance by those who are already saved – saved through faith in Jesus Christ.

Many unbelievers take shelter under this tired and worn-out excuse and go through life without any decided religion. They continue in this wretched and comfortless state until they at last pass on into a hopeless eternity without Christ, Who is Himself, Truth. He said to His disciples,“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)

So, it is not true, as Pilate seems here to imply, and as many will pretend to believe, that truth cannot be discovered. God never left any honest diligent seeker without light and guidance. Human pride prevents many from discovering truth. They do not ever humbly go to their knees and ask God to teach them. Neither will they earnestly and honestly search the Scripture. Those who imbibe the spirit of unhappy Pilate do not, as a rule, deal fairly with their own consciences when they hear the preaching of the Gospel, the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. With Very Truth standing before him, Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Even so, many will set under faithful preaching of the Gospel and go away from it still repeating their favorite question,“What is truth?”

Let every seeker of truth hear these words: “Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.”(Proverbs 2:3-5) Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”(John 8:32)

May 25, 2023

“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. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” (John 15:19-20)

If we were of this world, we would be able to find love and assurance as one belonging to it. However, we do not belong to this world; we have been chosen out of it and called to a higher purpose. Because of this, we are enemies of the world.

1 Peter 4:4 gives a parallel explanation of this idea. The unbelieving world prefers selfishness and pleasure over honoring God. Part of our sinful nature is seeking approval, especially by reassuring ourselves that “other people do it, too.” The contrasting feeling is conviction, which our sin nature responds to with anger. Despite their own demands to “tolerate,” the non-believing world levies hate at Christians who don’t conform. In the modern era, biblical faith is slandered as evil, hateful, fearful, closed-minded, or ignorant – all deeply ironic and hypocritical criticisms.

The idea of being called out by God as separated people, chosen for something more honorable than sin, makes Christians offensive to the unbelieving world. The world responds with hatred and mockery when Christians don’t join in worldly sins.

Jesus asks the disciples to remember something He said recently (John 13:16). His point then was that servants are expected to do anything their master would do. Here, the point is that servants can’t expect to be treated better than their masters.

I admire Chris Pratt for his willingness to talk about his faith openly, an often taboo topic in Hollywood. People all over social media love hating Mr. Pratt for this reason. So much so that people rush to the comments to protest whenever he gets cast in anything; at the opening of one of his recent movies, he was asked if that bothers him, and he responded by saying, “It sure does, but that’s nothing new. If I were of this world, they would love me just like [one of] them, but I’ve been chosen out of this world. That’s just the way it is. It’s nothing new, and 2000 years ago, they even hated Him too.” During this answer, Pratt even cites today’s passage of scripture directly – dispelling any confusion as to what or Whom he was referring.

As the Apostle Paul writes, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Rom 12:2). Since we are not of this world, we cannot mold ourselves to fit into the contours of it. We will, of course, be hated in this generation because we’re not moving in the same direction as the rest of the crowd, but we can find comfort in the fact that our Savior was hated in His day too. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18)

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MAY 23, 2023

 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”(Romans 5:8)

It greatly heightens the blessedness of Divine mercies when we consider them in light of the unworthiness of those to whom they are sent. Let us behold with wonder the amazing love of God that extends not only to such as do not deserve it, but to those that deserve the exact opposite. It is not enough to say, in our account of God’s love, that God was gracious when we had done nothing to merit His favor. That is, after all, a true definition of grace, i.e. unmerited favor. However, as our verse declares, God was gracious to us when we had done everything to merit His displeasure.

This wonderful truth is among the most glorious features of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the reason is very plain. God Himself, of Whose love we speak, is an infinite Being, and therefore His love must be an infinite love. All the properties are infinite as well. It must be exercised to suit an infinite power; it must be such as fits with infinite wisdom; and its effects must be such as shall be suited to infinite goodness. And therefore, in the display of it, such manifestations must be given as shall set forth that the love of God, as an infinite Being, totally differs from the love of man, who is but a finite creature.

Our love is, like ourselves, characterized by circumstances and limitations that belong to finite, limited, perishing, dying creatures, which not only ourselves but all the creatures around us, partake of. But the love of God is a boundless universe that cannot be measured or comprehended. Paul speaks in another place of the breadth and length and depth and height of the love of Christ, which “passeth knowledge.”(Eph. 3:18, 19) Now God commends (shows and puts forth) His love toward us by those properties; that is, He bids us to behold it by those special marks and characters. And when the Lord blesses the souls of His own people by the same astonishing instance of His grace in those acts of goodness, He speaks as in these solemn words: “…If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in mine eyes? saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zec. 8:6)

How precious is the chief manifestation of this love as seen in the gift of His dear Son, Jesus Christ! When was Christ given? When we were enemies? On what account was He given? Purely on account of God’s love. And to whom was He given? Not to his friends; not to those who had never offended Him; not to those by their affection could reciprocate; not to those who by their service could make some return of acknowledgment for such blessings. Christ was given to poor, helpless, barren, unprofitable sinners such as ourselves.

The love of God in Christ is particularly recommended, pressed upon our hearts by the rich display of it. For God to have blessed us, or to have loved us, if we had never offended, would have been gracious, but that, though a gesture of pure grace, would not begin to set forth the infinite riches of His grace – it would have been a stream too shallow to make known the unfathomable depths of God’s love and mercy. No! “God commandeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Take time to pause and mark the properties of God’s love. Then admire the goodness of God, and the value of the unparalleled love of God in Jesus Christ. So God commended His love towards us!!

MAY 18, 2023

“And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” (Gen 18:10-12)

We have in this chapter yet another occasion in which the Lord God appeared to Abraham. As he was sitting in his tent door in the plains of Mamre, he looked up to behold three men standing before him. Most everyone agrees that these were angels appearing in human form. Yet Abraham bowed himself to the ground before them, which indicates that he recognized that at least one of them was Divine – even The Angel of the Covenant. Some believe that all three persons of the Godhead here appeared to Abraham in the form of men. Notice in verses nine and ten the pronoun changes from plural to singular: “And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife?” (Vs. 9) “And He said, I will return unto thee according to the time of life.”

Regardless of their identity, it is clear that God here appeared to Abraham, and renewed the promise that his wife Sarah, even in her old age, would conceive and bare a son. Sarah, having overheard the words from within the tent, “laughed within herself.” Who, but the Omniscient One could have heard the silent, inward laughter of one who was hidden from view? Not only did He hear the inaudible laughter, but He revealed the secret musings of her unbelieving heart. “Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I…bear a child, which am old?”

At the time of this declaration from the Lord, Sarah was ninety and her husband was ninety-nine years of age. Admittedly, I have very limited knowledge when it comes to bearing children, but even I realize that a woman of ninety years has probably “aged out,” as they say. We can certainly understand why Sarah would find the prospect of bearing a child at her age to be a bit ridiculous. The writer of the Hebrew Epistle puts it this way, “She was past age,” and her husband was “as good as dead.” Lacking, at this point, faith to believe the promise of God, “Sarah laughed within herself.”

Notice the question which the Lord asked in response to Sarah’s laughter: “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?” Sarah’s laughter was in effect saying, “This is impossible!” But the Lord’s question is essentially saying, “With God all things are possible!” The Christian Faith demands that we believe in the impossible – that God can and must do the impossible. Concerning the very keystone of the Faith, Paul said to King Agrippa, “Should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?” And what about the new birth? Jesus said, “Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said, “How can a man be born when he is old?” In other words, “That’s not possible!” Jesus answered, “Ye must be born of the Spirit.” Sarah thought it impossible that a woman past age should conceive and give birth. But God asked rhetorically, “Is anything too hard for Me?”

The history of God’s people is replete with instances of God performing the impossible. For example, He opened the sea, causing the waters to stand as walls on either side of the passage made for His people. He gave His people drink, causing water to flow abundantly out of a flinty rock in the wilderness; and it followed their camp for forty years. He made the walls of Jericho to fall flat without any visible cause. For sake of His people in battle, God made the sun to stand still for about a day, while disallowing harmful effects upon the Creation. God does the impossible!!

God specializes in things thought impossible, and in His fulfillment of the promise here made to Abraham, Sarah becomes a type of another woman, who, by miraculous conception, became the mother of Jesus our Savior. Sarah’s son, Isaac, is a type of the promised Seed, Himself.

Sarah’s laughter was a sign of her unbelief at the time. But she did not remain unbelieving. “Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age…” (Heb. 11:11) It is somewhat ironic that, “Abraham called the name of his son…whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.” Isaac means laughter. “Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” (Gen. 21:3, 6) Sarah’s laughter was no longer that of unbelief, but rather it was the laughter of rejoicing. She gave birth to the child of promise, the seed through whom the true promised Seed, the Messiah, was to come.

Sarah rightly said, “…all that hear will laugh with me.” All who hear and believe on Jesus Christ the true Seed shall “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

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