Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. Many of the letters of Paul are
written to combat errors which had arisen in the very earliest
days of the New Testament church. Because wherever you find fallible
men, you will always find some sort of error. While there has
never been an age when evil and error have not abounded, the
days in which we live have given rise to so many distortions and
deceptions that often men have made the truth to appear to be
error and error to be the truth. Woe unto them that call evil
good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light
for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
This sort of error begins as the slightest aberration or distortion
of the truth in its earliest forms, but in time, due to the
innate propensity of men to entertain and be deceived by error and
the working of the powers of darkness to send forth its angels
of light, false doctrine takes on a life of its own and sometimes
even becomes a predominant teaching among those who call themselves
Christians of one stripe or another. If you should inquire of most
church-going folks in our day as to how a man gains salvation,
most would speak of a cooperative effort between God and men, with
God doing all that He can to save everybody, and leaving the
outcome of whether or not any are saved up to men. They say
that God has done all He can, and now it's up to men to make
a free will decision to believe what He has said, thus completing
the transaction of salvation and bringing them into its possession.
This is the greatest and most deadly error that exists today.
There is but one salvation spoken of in the scriptures. It invokes
no cooperative effort between the Savior and the saved. Salvation
is of the Lord. The only folks who are in doubt
about that are those who have never been acquainted with their
own lost and undone condition. A man who knows himself to be
truly lost cannot find any comfort at all in some cooperative plan,
but knows that unless the Lord shows mercy on him, he is done
for. Nothing but the revelation of
the Holy Ghost in causing men to see the error and outright
deception of this doctrine can they ever be delivered from it.
There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. Salvation is spoken of in the
Scriptures in three aspects, all of which are the sole work
of God in the behalf of His people. The salvation of the sons of
God has been decreed in times past according to His purpose,
and the basis upon which it rests is finished by the work of Christ
in living, dying, and rising again from the dead in their
behalf. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. The salvation of the sons of
God is being made manifest in the present time, as He is pleased
to give them the gift of faith and to cause His Spirit to dwell
in them, in whom He also trusted, after that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
The salvation of the sons of God shall yet be shown complete
in the future, when the glorified sons of God are displayed for
all of creation to see in the final day, and that knowing the
time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now
is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Since salvation
is the total work of God in the behalf of His own, He will accompany
it with proofs which cannot be overturned, for we are His workmanship. These are the things that accompany
salvation. First of all, a love of the truth and the way of God.
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in
their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will
be their God, and they shall be my people. Then secondly,
a love for the people of God. We know that we have passed from
death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abideth in death. Thirdly, a manifestation of good
works. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. And in the fourth one, a contrite
spirit. But let it be the hidden man
of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great
price. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and are broken
in a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Number five,
the fruit of the spirit. He is a producer of all fruit,
but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against
such there is no law. In the sixth place, a desire
to honor and exalt Christ alone. But God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. Next is the
steadfastness or perseverance in the faith. He is able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy. And then finally, a separation
from the world. Whosoever will be a friend of
the world is the enemy of God. If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.