GOD AND TRUTH ARE INSEPARABLE

In every age when God makes known his will, Satan's strategy is to obscure that truth in every possible way. He does that by probing our spiritual weaknesses seeking an avenue of temptation. Though Satan continually scans our lives for character flaws, God through His Word gives us security with the promise that when we resist Satan he will flee from us (James 4:7). Jesus' life, death and resurrection constitutes his victory over sin, death and Satan, a victory that bound Satan (Rev 20:2-3) and granted hope to believers. The triumphal ending for each person now depends upon faith in God, his word and promises. In Psa 31:5, David said, "Jehovah is the God of truth. Into thine hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth". Friends it has always been God's good pleasure to endow his intelligent creatures with the power of choice between remaining loyal and faithful to Him or turn in some other direction. O how God must be grieved today with the directions of so many of his people have chosen to go. Paul speaking to the sorcerer said,   "O full of all subtlety and mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord". Before any serious effort is made to understand the teaching of Jesus regarding truth, one should first endeavor to ascertain as to whether or not he is prepared, in mind and in heart, or which is the same thing, as to whether or not he has the proper disposition of mind and heart, to receive that which our Lord says, Jesus said, "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself "(JH 7:17).

In 1 Cor 2:14 Paul tells us what the problem is that confronts God's people today in getting others to accept this truth, "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned". The natural man that Paul speaks of is more concerned about what people will say, than what God says. The Truth instructs aliens, sinners to hear this truth and believe, repent, confess Christ and be baptized into Christ for the remission of sins. Friends you cannot separate God from these truths, and the same is true when the Church comes together, God has given his people specific instructions when we come together into one place to worship Him what we are to do and how we are to do those things; for a few examples, I Cor 14:19-40, I Tim 2:11-15 you will find God, through his Holy Spirit instructing us that when the whole Church comes together into one place it is to stay together in one accord, and that men are to be in charge of the teaching, not that we don't have faithful women with a very good understanding of God's word, but that God has given the responsibility of teaching in these public services to faithful men. That excludes the dividing of the church when it comes together into classes for the purpose of teaching and also, women doing some of that teaching. Please let me say just a few more words about what God expects for his people to do when they come together to worship. We have the great privilege to partake of the Lord's supper on every first day of the week, which is the greatest monument that this old world will ever know. It is a time when our minds look back to the cross where we see a man, Christ the Lamb of God being put to death, making it possible for us to live.

When Christ instituted the communion, he took a loaf of unleavened bread and a cup (one container) filled with the fruit of the vine; in which Paul said, was the cup of blessing I Cor 10:16. Jesus said, the cup was the New Testament and the fruit of the vine was his blood. Making it forever clear, that the cup represents that one covenant, which was sealed by the blood of Christ. That excludes having more than one loaf on the Lord's table and more than one cup is a violation of the truth and are excluded by the same reasoning. I was baptized when I was thirteen in Athens, AL. At that time there wasn't a congregation in Athens, and I was twenty-two before I learned the truth concerning the Lord's Supper and that was in Milford, Mich., I will forever be grateful for their patience and concern that everyone there showed to me and my wife. How time has a way of getting by, that was twenty four years ago. There are so many people today in the same condition that I was in, not knowing the truth concerning these matters. May God help all the faithful to make these truths known. I am reminded of the prophet Haggai in chapter 2 and verse 19, "Is the seed yet in the barn?" As we look at the following, Satan has, and we bemoan the lack of conversions to Christ, can it be because the "seed" is yet in the barn? Are we limiting the harvest of souls from that "field that is white unto harvest" because of this? Are we depending upon those few outsiders who come to where the seed is dispensed for our growth and for conversions to the glory of God? Is this the reason for the more often than not, limited harvest, the seed is not being taken out of the barn? Are we storing and not sowing the seed?

Jesus said in Matthew's account (13:13) of the parable of the sower, "Behold the sower went forth to sow?" Have you ever stopped to ask, "Why did the sower go forth" in this presentation? Simple. He knew the field wouldn't come to him. Literally, harvest depends on putting the seed in the soil. The same is so with respect to the lost and teaching them the will of God, it depends upon putting the seed in their heart. Harvest depends on this and is in proportion to the amount of seed sown.

As Jesus called his disciples to follow him he promised, "I will make you to become fishers of men" (MK 1:17). One may buy the best fishing equipment on the market but it won't produce in the closet or garage. To catch fish you have to use your equipment and go where they are. To catch a lot of fish you must fish a lot. The application to being "fishers of men" is more than obvious. We have the necessary equipment, the gospel, the revealed will of God, the power of God unto salvation. God can never be separated from his inspired truth.

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