Straight Thinking From A Crooked Stick

Marrying a Woman of God

2011-10-27T22:34:00.005-04:00

This is a letter written from a father to his son. The son is a young man of God whose greatest desire in life is to please God with all that he is. It explores the way things should be in life, not the way things are in the world. It is counter-culture, controversial, but a sanely biblical aspiration to live for the glory of God when discerning a woman to marry. Later will be posted a nearly identical letter to a godly daughter who desires to honor God by the kind of man whom she marries .

MARRYING A WOMAN OF GOD

INRODUCTION

What I best can tell you has to do with the glory of God even beyond what I wish for you. Try to displace the thought that you have designs on any specific girl and let’s talk principle. Let us consider there is no girl in the picture so that there will be nothing inflammatory about our discussion.

It is the glory of God that we seek – in our life and in our prospects for marriage.

WE SEEK THE WAY THINGS OUGHT TO BE WITH GOD,

NOT THE WAY THINGS ARE IN THE WORLD.

Marriage WILL end or begin a richer journey with Christ. Now is not the time to play around. Beyond your salvation, this is the gravest issue with which you will ever grapple. Remember, “no practice rounds” with this decision. The prospects of marriage are sobering, not soppy.

If, over time, you are convinced that a move toward a particular girl is in the design and will of God, then you better not hold back. If you determine that you have no ministry in life without her then march to it. But, if you marry a woman of whom you know better, then your vibrancy with God will be marginalized and your light will grow dim. All your days will be as dragging an anchor.

If you determine over time that the Lord is not leading you to marry a particular Christian woman, then thank God for her and whatever richness she has brought into your life by her acquaintance and pray for her and her future husband. Do not disdain her as though she were somehow less than you. You are not saying, “No” to her as much as you are saying, “Yes” to someone else yet to come. Do not defraud her; rather defend her for her future spouse and the ministry into which God will bring her.

No matter whom you marry, you will have days of delight and days of struggle. You may ask, “What have I done?” And, without the rock hard confidence that you entered into this marriage with the full blessing and assurance of God, life will be hard. You are two sinners joined together – what would you expect. You should be able to expect at least one thing, that she will continue to turn to God for His strength to be a godly woman and to honor and respect you and she should expect from you to do the same in loving her. There will be days of bliss and times of misgiving; but it was at the altar where you were to have ended all doubt. There is no turning around after that.

Now, I take the chance here to be misunderstood. I do not want what I say to be a haunt in the back of your mind that you may have entered into a marriage with a woman who perhaps you should have taken more deliberation. I do not want anything I say to come back to you after you marry. The woman you marry IS your wife forever. I am behind you 100% from that moment on. There should be no haunting thought in your mind that floats any doubt that she is the wrong one. Now is the only time to exert your discretionary energies.

After the wedding, all your energies are to build the marriage into which you have embarked. No more doubts. No more haunts. No more hesitations or wonderings if you had done the right thing with the right person. The search is over and a new life has begun.

PART I

(Part I is the place where I apologize for everything that I will say in Part II)

I do not want to underestimate the grace and power of God in one who has been redeemed; nor, do I want to estimate someone else based on my personal experience. If I did such a thing, then I would be guilty of superficiality and of the very things I would hope for you to avoid.

We don’t look down our nose at anyone who has struggled in sin and then has come to Christ. We rejoice with heaven. We know that we exist under the same undeserved grace of God as anyone else. We know that there was no glimmer in us that caught God’s eye and caused Him to favor us above anyone else. No one needs to remind us of the death and hollowness without God and from what He has saved us. It is utter foolishness to think we are deserving of anything but a barren life and an eternity in hell. He spilled His blood for us. He died for us. We have no right to think of ourselves better than another sinner saved by grace.

Eph 4.32 “And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

In fact, the one saved from greater sin may be the one with the greater love:

Lu 7:47 “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

Further, it may be through that very one whom God changes the direction of the world. It may be that very one He uses to spark the flame of revival in this drought land. When God is at work, stand back and give way. Who knows, we may be the one standing on the sideline in all our arrogance watching the brand new Christian carry the torch of the gospel to a world in desperate need.

Who are we to hold one’s past against them when God does not? The entire body of Christ is made of sinners, including me!

1Cor 6.11 “And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”

So, I speak of a new redeemed life that has been plucked from the salvage yard - a life that has ascended in a culture apart from heaven. This new person is the product of an old mind that has been shaped by a worldview that is hostile toward God. And now, this new life is a redeemed person turning from an old life, putting on Christ, and maneuvering out of a plot of physical woes and family ties that are as present as they ever were. Physical woes don’t go away and family ties cannot be forgotten. One may say, “I am a new creature in Christ, old things have passed and behold all things have become new.”

A strange creature we are when we are saved. We are always saved from something unto something else. We are saved from what we once were – from how we once lived. We are new creatures.

The difficulty lies in the fact that at the very moment after conversion, we are still what we have become over the years. The instant after conversion begins the miracle of transformation, but it does not instantly undo who we have become over the years.

From that moment on comes the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit until the day we enter glory. We were once dead in our sins and to some degree, our sins were gratifying. Our only regret for sin was when we faced the consequences of those sins. This “new creature-hood” has now made us regret our sin, regardless of the consequences. We are alive to God and know what it is to now grieve and quench the Holy Spirit. Becoming saved from a life of sin is not the end of struggles, but just the beginning.

There is no room for arrogance in our heart when we see a person who has had a “tough life” and then is saved; however, there is a difference in how we interact with any other new Christian than with a Christian with whom we’d like to marry. Just because someone is saved, does not mean we disregard their history. Their history does matter. It isn’t condescension to use your scruples before you join your life forever with a woman who comes from a previous life that chiseled who she is today. This is not judgmental, it is discernment and it is seeking God’s wisdom toward an eternal decision. You must ask, “Who was she and then, who is she?” You will be identified with her and you will be one with her. You will inherit all that she is – her problems will be yours. Most of those problems will not come to light until the vows are exchanged and the pronouncement is made. You will carry her burdens (more about that later). You must take a very keen eye with a decision that will change the course of your life. There is no going back. Approach this event with fear and trembling before God.

There are sweet, kind people all over the world that have come to Christ, and they present their best side for all to see. But, marriage is joining your life with hers – becoming one with her; over time, you will become like her. Her pains become your pains and her wounds become yours. You live with and put on her identity. Secrets are sometimes shared openly, but most secrets are uncovered.

You’ve heard me talk about this before. Bear with me one more time as I review it in short. When you think to unite with another person forever, consider the following about them:

Just what “troubles” remain in ones life beyond redemption remains in the sovereign and providential hands of God, but the consequential ramifications of ones sin do remain.

These consequences can go generations deep. When a father (and mother) misleads his family, the effects of that misleading are often reaped in the children in countless ways, often for several generations. (Ex 20.5; Ex 34.6-7; Deut 5.9)

Whether or not this is fair is not the issue. Sin is in the world, consequences of sin affected many generations. In principle, it began with Adam…

Rom 5.12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…”

But, if we contend that the woes of our family upbringing is not fair, then we must contend that the riches of heaven in our salvation is not fair, either. Why? Just as Adam represented us in his sin bringing death, Christ represented us in His righteousness bringing life. You can’t have one and not the other.

1Cor 15.22 "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive."

However, God is just. Direct punishment for the sins of the father are not hammered on the children…

Deut 24.16 "Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin."

Ezek 18.20 "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father’s iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son’s iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself."

BUT… the residual effects of the father’s sins forecast direct punishment to the children.

Further, these residual effects of which I speak are passed to the children as tides and ripples that encompass everything in their life. Godless and ungodly instruction is grilled into little minds as soon as they are self-aware. Mingled and mixed with a sinful nature, the parents teach the child everyway but God’s way. These children grow and pass worse to their children and then to following generations. Subsequently, these life trends from the parents and the individual sins of the children bring to them the direct hand of Gods judgment. No one is innocent.

I grow to believe more and more that present evils in individuals are an indirect lineage from generations past. The choices one makes, the responses one has, the direction in which one gravitates, the propensities in which one swoons, all, are ingrained or have been fostered from childhood. One cannot “fix” a life or wish away consequences that are rooted in history. A hand paddle can hardly change the flow of the great Mississippi River. The directional flow of an individual takes the initial act of God’s miraculous regeneration and then perpetual and powerful attention of the indwelling Spirit of God. Individuals make choices that moved their lives in a course and now from that direction they must repent. Repentance does not return the individual to the beginning of life. Repentance turns ones face in the opposite direction and then through the power of the Holy Spirit and the providences of God, she moves Godward step-by-step, little by little. All this to say, God never, never intended that we live a day without Him. Sadly, as we progress through life apart from Him, we drift further and further away from the harbor of safe return.

SO, WHY WON’T GOD GET RID OF SIN’S CONSEQUENCES ONCE WE ARE SAVED?

These consequences are a testimony of how precious we are to God. He has granted mankind great dignity. It is an exclusive gift to us above all His creation. We alone are created in His image and His likeness. It is the basis for human dignity.

Ps 100.3 "It is He that has made us and not we ourselves"

Being created in the image and likeness of God is this exceptional gift that serves as the basis for us to have a relationship with God. We are the crown of His creation. What a fearful honor it is to be created to walk with God.

It is fearful because with this distinction of honor comes ominous responsibility. He has given us the choice to worship Him, and, with this dignity, He has given us the freedom to rebel against Him. We can choose our own way and to live out from under His divine blessings and pleasure, and, we can make the choice to freely enter into a relationship with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ as the noblest gift that can be given.

And, in like turn, the dignity He grants us to not choose fellowship with Him is the greatest squandering of life in the entire universe; thus, come the consequences of spiritual drought. This dignity brings us to His throne of glory or to the pit of hell.

When we do not what we ought, we are adrift on perilous seas sailing toward unavoidable shipwreck. Consequences are inevitable.

Further, His purpose is not primarily to make us happy, cleanse us from sin, to right our wrongs, erase our consequences, or to perfect for us a future spouse; His first purpose is to glorify Himself.

1Co 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

PART II

(This is the place where I talk about that for which I’ve already apologized.

Now you can’t hold anything against me… “I’m just sayin’”)

When one is redeemed, even then, the principle of sewing and reaping of sin and its consequences are still an abiding rule; however, the consequences are no longer there to reprimand us, but to remind us. They remind us from what we were saved and they generate in us a remarkable response of praise to God.

Remember, we are speaking in principle. So, let us proceed. One may say that this girl on whom I have my eye is a new Christian. God has forgiven her and she stands before God on the same ground that I stand. She was washed with the same blood of Christ that you were washed. She is just as endeared to God as you. How could you hold her past sins against her when God does not? But, this is not the issue of which I speak. This is another whole topic. It has nothing to do with whom you will seek partnership for the rest of your life in ministry. I am not speaking of the general love that we have for people or the fellowship we have with believers in the body.

I am speaking of joining yourself with someone forever – “until death do you part”. I am speaking of a relationship with someone who plows the same ground with you through all of life. When you consider a life partner, you consider her with a fine-toothed comb.

The fact that she may be a Christian is only the beginning criteria for discerning a mate for life. There are many Christians, but not all will be your wife. What are some other discerning factors to “narrows your field of view?” There are both negative and positive considerations for discerning the woman of God for you.

FIRST, THE NEGATIVE CONSIDERATIONS:

Imagine a girl who is newly saved but has had sex with 1, 2, 3, 4, or more guys. Each one of these guys with whom she has had sex has had multiple partners themselves. How many times can she divide herself? God designed us to be intimate with ONE person all our lives. Remember, we seek things the way they ought to be with God, not the way things are now in the world. You cannot perform the most intimate physical act with someone and then go undamaged, even if she is subsequently saved. There are emotional and physical laws that have been broken. Sin has consequences (we hit that issue earlier). Yes, wounds heal, but scars remain and are for life – saved or not, these consequences are relevant NOW. One cannot sin with impunity. There are principles with sin – there are indelible rules: 1. There are always consequences, 2. The consequences usually fall on us later, and 3. They are always more than for what we bargained.

Do not be surprised if in the future you are confronted with one or more of these men with whom she has been sexually active. She may now be a Christian, but these men may not be.

Are you prepared to deal with the re-entrance of these men from her past into your marriage? They may either have an “axe to grind” or your wife to re-acquire. How will this affect your life – your ministry – the glory and greatness of God’s hand in your union with this woman? These are “strap-hangers” that influence your marriage and detour your future.

Hos 8:7 For they sow the wind, And they reap the whirlwind.

Also, do not be surprised if in the future your wife must still work through deep issues with sex with you as she has had sex with others to be compared. Her memories may be confused with present reality.

Additionally, we live in an age where if a guy has sex with a girl and she becomes pregnant, she simply has an abortion. Even though she may now be a Christian, “it will always be there”. It will be a complexity throughout life and she will always carry that horrendous event deep down in her heart. And, if she doesn’t regret her act, then her heart is sick and her future is dark. Are you willing to become one with a girl who placed herself in this position? She executed an act that launched an eternal and devastating effect. The events were set into motion that will have reverberations for generations to come.

Not only does this woman face the threat of emotional scars and difficulties with past relationships, she may well bring to your marriage a sexually contracted disease. You know that is very likely. It doesn’t matter how Christ-like one may become after salvation, if she has a disease, it cannot be washed away as were her sins. Ask your mom about someone we knew who couldn’t even wear her underwear when her sores were present. It was too painful. If you marry a girl who has an STD, you will get it, too.

Imagine a woman who grew up in a godless family. When I say “godless”, I do not mean “ungodly”. A godless home just means a home where the true God is not present or is circumferential at best. Little to no consideration is given to God in any conduct of life. But note - something always takes the place of God, even in a godless home.

There is superstition, weird religious notions, humanism, half-breeds and “morphisms” of multiple religions, and man-made concoctions. We are “hard-wired” for religion. No one escapes the vacuum in the heart that God created for Him alone to fill.

And now, imagine in all the glories of heaven, this woman comes to Christ. Praise God, but all those twisted fancies must be undone. Truth must be consumed and digested with the greatest intensity. She must now think in straight lines. When a mind escapes the tyranny of lies, it must unravel with time. The Holy Spirit must wash with the Word all that her family has imparted throughout her most susceptible years. The washing is like the washing of water against oil (Eph 5.26). Cutting through grease with water takes time. Jesus knew that the time for godly training is when an individual is a child. Great headwinds await an adult who comes to Christ.

Pr 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

And, not only are there godless homes as aforementioned, but there are ungodly homes. Need we go into that?

Imagine that there is a girl who comes to Christ from whether it is a godless or ungodly home; you are marrying that whole family, too. There WILL be contention and animosity. There will be war, maybe not at first, but it will come as sure as the day.

Your new wife will have to break ties. She must “leave” them and “cleave” to you. Such is a biblical mandate.

Lu 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.

You will be the intruder to them and the fool who is sustaining this foolishness in their daughter. You will be minimalized. Yes, they are a mission field, but more a minefield. They may come to Christ, but most likely not. You don’t marry a woman to witness to her family. You can do that without joining yourself to a league against God.

What if your wife decides to break ties with her family over the struggles? What if she chooses allegiance with her new husband? You will both live in a very “loud silence” from her family. One cannot break ties with their family and be unaffected. There will be daggering sarcasm and manipulative remarks sneaking in through all sorts of various means and media. Every place where one turns will be something to draw attention to the family severance. How will this affect ministry? How will this affect the harmony between you, you wife and the Lord? This is a voluntary crippling of your vibrancy for life and the furthering of the gospel.

Imagine again, that there is a girl who comes to Christ from a godless home where her parents are divorced. You will face times in your marriage where it will be easier to separate than to work through your troubles.

What advice will her divorced parents give their daughter? Do they expect her marriage to last? On what foundation do they stand that they might convey to their daughter to stay married?

Can she truly abandon her parents and disregard their example? It is possible, but it weighs against her. She will bring her experiences from her home into your new home.

She will watch and listen for signs to take place in her marriage that took place in her parents. She may expect the same infidelity or cruelty in you that she saw in her parents.

She will be more predisposed to divorce than she will be to pushing through. It is all she knows. She is a Christian but has no experience or history of a Christ-like home. (The stats today are that there are as many Christians divorcing as those in the world). Every day of working through issues with you will be brand new to her. She has never seen forgiveness in her home. She has never seen enduring love between her parents. Nothing of godly heritage was ever modeled for her to see.

A Christian marriage is a new horizon for her and a Christian marriage is not the same as being a Christian alone. Marriage demands everything that you are and tests you to every breaking point. Getting married doesn’t fix anything. It is not a dream world. A Marriage where “everyone lived happily ever after” is Hollywood fiction. Few remain married today and even fewer have ever witnessed a marriage founded in Christ. In fact, a vibrant Christian marriage that has lasted for years may be as rare as a unicorn in the park.

Imagine that there is a woman who is a new Christian, whose past is questionable and even a mystery, who carries with her the scars from a land of unknown iniquities, whose parents have provided a godless, broken home, in which she has dwelt most of her life. Imagine. Are you ready to enter into a life-long, forever bond with this woman? Will this union glorify God to the fullest? Will you live and breath maximally for the glory of God in this union? Marriage is not about you – marriage is about God.

Now, I said I’d address the issue of carrying the burdens of the girl you fancy. I mentioned above that most of those problems would not come to light until the vows are exchanged and the pronouncement is made. You can nearly see it coming when you consider all of the “imagines” that I wrote about above. Read the following carefully.

The demonstration of God’s love to mankind is a demonstration of His sacrifice. This demonstration is His masculine trait. Don’t misunderstand; God is not male or female. He has portrayed Himself as masculine. This translates into our marriage relationship. But, prior to marriage, we sense an initial draw to protect and to provide. As husbands, masculinity is demonstrated in this love and sacrifice for their wives.

Eph 5.23,25-27 “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body…Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.”

There is just something in a man that draws him to a woman that “needs” him. It seems the more she hurts, the more he wants to protect and provide for her. He wants to fix it. It is the masculine trait in men. He can’t help but to want to “fill her gap”. It is built into a man to want to LOVE a woman. You know this LOVE. It is a God sized love – giving, sacrificial, enduring and life-spilling.

The man is fulfilling his masculine role and senses a call of purpose and fulfillment, but it may not be with the woman with whom God had intended. He may over time discover that her burdens to which he was drawn were more of a mystery than what he had calculated. It may even come to pass that her burdens are no longer separate from her – she becomes a burden.

I believe, too, that it is innate in a woman to be drawn to a man who portrays such a masculine aura. She can easily be betrayed by this internal drawing and be just as easily confused with God’s right man for her. Why not be confused, she has never been around a man of God? She is enamored with this new genre of man. If a woman becomes so enraptured with such a man, she can allow him to take the place of God in her life. No man can carry such a weight as being “God”. Soon after the marriage, you become a man again, not the God she married.

A word of dire warning, do not confuse this innate drawing of your masculine traits with the leading of the Holy Spirit as though it were Gods mind in the matter of choosing a spouse. Emotions and nature have a near irresistible pull to unite with a woman who carries the consequences of sin’s former tyranny. Your sense of sacrifice will inspire you to carry her. It need not be. If God gives her to you to carry, then He will give you the capacity, but do not think it as a badge of honor to weigh down your saddle with more than God intended. Remember how it is supposed to be. This is no Hollywood movie.

Our culture has done a great disservice to us. The biblical model has the parents in great assist with the choice of the sons and daughters mate. It is an entire family process based on the history and knowledge of all the families known to each side. It is a combination of family units that have a fear of God and who can trace the history of each family back many generations. Such a process and familiarity of heritage leave few surprises after the alter.

NOW THE POSITIVE CONSIDERATIONS:

It is not unloving or selfish to pray for a future wife that has a godly heritage and legacy. Can you imagine marrying a woman whose greatest struggles have been to be godlier? Alas, we have moved into an age where the greatest struggle people have is to recover from the circumstances of a life without God. We die licking our wounds. Life is spent retracing and reliving our old patterns that have worn deep grooves in our past. They have become besetting sins. In fact, the past decisions, in some ways, become our future grievances.

Would it not be the delight of life to wed a woman whose past is her adorning graces, not her hidden turpitudes?

It is not unloving or selfish to dream of a woman of God who has lived a righteous life from her earliest memories – a woman whose greatest struggles in life have been to deny ungodliness and to live righteously in this present age (Titus 2.12).

It is not unloving or selfish to desire to marry a woman who has had all the pearls of wisdom not only embedded in her heart from personal devotion and godly parents, but one who has also seen her parents live out the very truths that they have told her. Would it not be a magnificent wonder for you to have a father and mother-in-law that will encourage their beloved daughter in her marriage to you; to be a son-in-law in a godly legacy that will carry the next generation to a lost world. You will have in-laws who know their daughter and will give you godly insight as to how you can meet her needs. (You will not get this from a wife whose parents are not Christians). I believe that for you to marry a woman who has deep roots with Christ and godly parents is God’s ideal way. It should not be the exception. If this is not true, then it is we who have decided to live less than His ideal.

It is not unloving or selfish to aim to marry a ministry mate above a mate who needs ministry. I am not saying that your potential mate needs to be perfect – good grief! You know better than that. I’m saying marry a woman with the prospect that she will compliment your ministry – a woman who knows what it is to have a ministry. Once you are married, then, let her become your ministry – nourish and support her that her overflow will enhance the Kingdom of God. There will be mutual edification that supports a greater endeavor for the glory of God.

Your lives together will double the impact in this world for Christ. She will be your helpmeet in furthering the gospel and serving Christ. You both are swept away in the things of God and then you notice that you are next to one another. She will pick you up when you are down and you likewise.

Your passion must be for Christ first, and then your passion for one another will be the outcome. Happiness is not what one seeks in marriage. The fruit of a right relationship with God is the joy in your relationship with your wife.

It is not unloving or selfish to long for a woman who instead carries in her a multitude of the glories of God built upon a history of seeing God perform mighty providences and even miracles in her life, a mind for mission and an untethered, unencumbered life that gives her an unburdened ability to spend her life with you in a journey pursuing and furthering the gospel. Know what is her calling from the Lord. Know what is her passion for life and where she is headed.

It is not unloving or selfish to long for a woman who instead carries the weight of many blessings. If it were wrong to desire a woman of godly bearing and heritage, then God would not have displayed in Scripture such portraits of godly women for men to long. Read all of Proverbs and observe the godly woman. Read particularly chapter 31. He would not have told us about the strength of Esther, nor displayed the tenderness of Hannah, nor have told us about the good understanding of Abigail. He told us about Rebekah, Sarah and Ruth, about Elizabeth, Priscilla and Mary as well. Why did God reveal to us the wonder of godly women in the Bible if it were not for aspiration? Pray for the ideal and hope for the woman who has been a faithful servant of Christ. Desire a woman who has been a Christian longer than the time she has not been a Christian. Seek the woman who knows what it means to deny her sinful desires and has suffered for His sake. Stand firm for the woman who has been rewarded by God for keeping purity for God’s glory. Why not long for the mate who has been waiting of God and who toils for His kingdom? Wait on this woman and then serve Him with her. Wait for a woman who has waited for you and has not given herself to any other man as you have not given yourself to any other woman. God has retained such a woman for you. If she has lived a life of purity before her marriage to you, then you have every confidence that she will live a life of purity in your marriage. She is there.

OKAY, moving on…

How about a brief excursion in the aspect of SEX now? We’ve talked about the sexual aspect of a relationship many times.

Here is the BOTTOM LINE - You are sexually compatible with any female! What more can be said about sexual compatibility?

The sexual criteria for discerning a mate should be at the bottom of the list. Set aside the initial drawing for sex. A man who has his head on right with God can see clearly beyond the “sex only” draw for a relationship. Don’t get me wrong, we are sexual beings and it is a great and powerful gift from God, but sex is sex. A marriage that is built on sex is no marriage. Sex will get old in two weeks if that is the end goal. The focus of marriage is to display the glory of God and to build a godly posterity.

The day may come when you can’t have sex. What if either of you were to be in an accident or sex was no longer a gratifying exercise. Think of Joni Eareckson. What if you were scarred or debilitated, even paralyzed? More simply, what if you were separated for a period of time? If this woman is more attracted to you for your physical assets, then what will you have when you grow older and the enhancements of youth dissolve with the advancements of age?

If sex or physical attraction is your draw to her (or even a pivotal factor), then your marriage is at considerable risk. Imagine a marriage without sex. Would your marriage remain? Would it remain strong? Whatever is left without sex is your marriage.

One more thing in the arena of practicality, remain pure during your courtship prior to marriage. When time of separation comes, she will not wonder about your chastity. You were pure with her before your marriage; she will know you are pure now in your separation.

What are some worrying signs that might indicate that your relationship is more sensual than spiritual? Be watchful now to observe her modesty. Notice if she uses sexual gratis to allure you. How does she dress around you? How does she dress in public? Every woman wants to be noticed, how far will she go – how little will she wear? Is what she is wearing attract more attention to her physical assets than to her spiritual sanctity? Does she reveal a portion of her body to catch your eye? Does she maneuver or manipulate your circumstances to be alone? (Women seem to know that guys see better with their eyes than how they think with their minds). Does she make statements or clichés that have secondary meanings? Are you more sexually aroused with her than you are spiritually challenged? What do her eyes tell you? Is she protecting you from intimacy beyond your level of commitment? What is your purpose and goal just prior to being with her? Are their determinative physical limits that you both have set? If you “went too far” with her, would you be embarrassed or would she feel betrayed? Would she be surprised or would she be satisfied and encouraged if you went too far? Do her friends hint at any eagerness on her part for you to be more sexual her? Has she talked with your friends to hint for you to be a little more aggressive with her? Be alert to these things and run from her if you suspect her motives are not pure.

Be sure that what draws you to a person is what draws you to God. The inverse is true as well. If your lives are not independently related to God, then they will not be regenerative to one another.

Take your time; know the mind and heart of God. Know the heart and mind of the woman. Know her history and recognize what you must bear with her. Determine that the struggles you have with the one you will marry will be the struggles that further the gospel, not the struggles that sputter in sins past follies.

Let me connect the dots of what I’ve been saying in a sentence or two. Just how willing are you to enter into a marriage with another person who suffers more greatly with the residual ramifications of past sins than with a person who has walked with God and suffers little from the remorse of a sinful past? Do not volunteer to inherit the valley of liabilities in the life of another person when you can share in the delights of a woman that is rich with the blessings of God and who has lived before Him in anticipation for a man of God.

Where in real life do you recall the “perfect marriage” or a “marriage made in heaven”? Understand from where you got your ideas of how marriage should be. Where did a woman who is a recent Christian develop her idea of marriage? The “perfect marriage” may be nothing more than a humanistic concept not made in heaven, but “made in the movies”. Do not enter into a marriage with a woman who carries a legacy of hurt and think that you will “live happily ever after”, regardless of whether she is now a Christian.

Look for a woman who is so caught up in the things of God so much that she must stop to consider if you are a hindrance or help in her pursuit of God.

CONCLUSION

I could go on forever. I don’t really have an impact statement that will hit a home run for you. You must walk by faith in this matter. You must hear the call of God and protect your nearness to Him. Be in pursuit of His pleasure and fight for holiness of life. Wait on Him.

Remember…

WE SEEK THE WAY THINGS OUGHT TO BE WITH GOD,

NOT THE WAY THINGS ARE IN THE WORLD.

Start with an anticipation of finding a woman that is like EVE before The Fall, not a woman that is like EVE after The Fall.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

The Genetics of Homosexuality

2011-10-23T23:00:00.014-04:00

THE GENETICS OF HOMOSEXUALITY

One cannot help but to notice the pervasive opinion sweeping the nation that homosexuality is the product of a genetic code linked in the cells of the individual. This proclamation has been trumpeted for several decades based upon studies that have been summarily dismissed not only by the peers of the academicians, but, in some cases, by the academicians themselves. The following are some of the staple studies that are still used to support the idea that homosexuality is but a trait based upon the genotype, phenotype, allele of the human code and heritability. In all, these basic studies presume that the homosexual is only displaying the heritable phenotype of his genetic heritage. They simply find themselves experiencing a same-sex or opposite-sex attraction as part of who they are. Following is a very brief presentation of the study and a refutation of the findings.

There are three major studies that are cited and for easy recollection, the acronym “STD” will be implemented:

S imon Levay’s study on the brain

T wins study by Bailey and Pilliard, and

D ean Hamers study on the XY Chromosomes

1. SIMON LEVAY’S STUDY ON THE BRAIN

PRESENTATION:

In 1991 Dr. LeVay, a neuro-scientist at the Salk Institute of La Jolla, CA, examined the brains of 41 cadavers:

19 allegedly homosexual men,

16 allegedly heterosexual men, and

6 allegedly heterosexual women.

His study focused on a group of neurons in the hypothalamus structure called the interstitial nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus, or the INAH3.

He reported this region of the brain to be larger in heterosexual men than in homosexuals; likewise, he found it to be larger in heterosexual men than in the women he studied. For that reason, he postulated homosexuality to be inborn, the result of size variations in the INAH3, and his findings were published in Science in August of 1991. This is the study reference often quoted when people insist homosexuality has been "proven" to be inborn.

REFUTATION:

1. The study has never been reproduced.

2. LeVay was not certain which of his subjects were homosexual and which were heterosexual.

Dr. LeVay admits this represents a "distinct shortcoming" in his study. The next comments review the subjects as though they were categorized as LeVay presents them, regardless of the uncertainty of their homosexual/non-homosexual identity.

Additionally, of the nineteen homosexual subjects used in the study, all had died of AIDS. AIDS has been shown to decrease testosterone levels, so it should be expected that those who suffered from that condition would have smaller INAH. Generally, the differences in the hypothalamus were most likely caused by chemical changes in the brain as a response to AIDS.

In contradiction to his own theory, three of the homosexual subjects actually had larger INAH3's than the heterosexuals. Additionally, three of the heterosexual subjects had smaller INAH3's than the average homosexual subject.

His inclusion of a few brains from heterosexual men with AIDS did not adequately address the fact that at the time of death, virtually all men with AIDS have decreased testosterone levels as the result of the disease itself or the side effects of particular treatments. To date, LeVay has examined the brain of only one homosexual man who did not die of AIDS.

Furthermore, in a scientific environment where controls and standards are a necessity, LeVay did not possess a complete medical history of the individuals included in his study. He therefore was forced to assume the sexual orientation of the non-AIDS victims as being heterosexual, when some may not have been. As to further revelations, six of the “heterosexual” men (so assumed by LeVay) died of AIDS, oops. Given that very few straight men in San Francisco were contracting AIDS at the time (and still aren’t), this was a wildly unscientific assumption. Also, bear in mind that he had no evidence regarding the sexual orientation of the women whose brains he examined.

If it is uncertain which of LeVay's subjects were heterosexual and which were homosexual, how useful can his conclusions about "differences" between them really be?

3. No Proof That This Region of the Brain Is Related to Sexual Orientation.

No scientist has ever proven that the particular region of the hypothalamus under discussion causes sexual orientation. Consider the comments of Dr. Joseph Nicolosi who specializes in working with male homosexuals. He has appeared on several network television programs and has been interviewed by prominent weekly news magazines.

His book, Reparative Therapy of Male Homosexuality, has gained him worldwide respect as an authority in same-sex attractions. Dr. Nicolosi emphasized, “We’re talking about a general area of the brain that has to do with emotions, including sexuality; but in this particular nuclei, we have no clear understanding of what function it serves at this point.”

Dr. Charles Socarides, Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, also emphasized the following, “I believe this theory is completely erroneous. There’s no possibility of somebody developing homosexuality from hereditary or organic causes. It’s just impossible.”

He further noted that “the question of a minute section of the brain—sub-microscopic almost—as.... deciding sexual object choice is really preposterous.... Certainly...a cluster of the brain cannot determine sexual object choice. We know that for a fact.”

4. LeVay did not necessarily measure the INAH3 properly.

The area LeVay was measuring is quite small - smaller than snowflakes, according to scientists interviewed when his study was released. His peers in the neuroscientific community cannot agree on whether the INAH3 should be measured by its size/volume or by its number of neurons.

5. The scientific community did not by any means unanimously accept Dr. LeVay's study.

Comments from other scientists in response to LeVay's work are noteworthy. Dr. Richard Nakamura of the National Institute of Mental Health says it will take a "larger effort to be convinced there is a link between this structure and homosexuality." Dr. Anne-Fausto Sterling of Brown University is less gentle in her response: My freshman biology students know enough to sink this study.

6. Most certainly, what LeVay discovered in the brains of those he examined was only a result of prior behavior, not the cause of it.

Mark Breedlove, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, has demonstrated that sexual behavior has an effect on the brain. In referring to his own research, Breedlove commented: “These findings give us proof for what we theoretically know to be the case—that sexual experience can alter the structure of the brain, just as genes can alter it.... It is possible that differences in sexual behavior cause (rather than are caused by) differences in the brain”. Considering this type of research, it makes sense that a homosexual lifestyle (and/or the AIDS condition) could alter the size of the nuclei LeVay was measuring.

7. LeVay did not approach the subject objectively.

Dr. LeVay, who is openly homosexual, told Newsweek that, after the death of his lover, he was determined to find a genetic cause for homosexuality or he would abandon science altogether. Furthermore, he admitted to Newsweek, he hoped to educate society about homosexuality, affecting legal and religious attitudes towards it.

8. LeVay’s SELF ADMISSIONS:

LeVay has admitted:

*“It’s important to stress what I didn’t find. I did not prove that homosexuality is genetic, or find a genetic cause for being homosexual. I didn’t show that homosexual men are born genetic, or find a genetic cause for being homosexual. I didn’t show that homosexual men are born that way, the most common mistake people make in interpreting my work. Nor did I locate a homosexual center in the brain…since I looked at adult brains, we don’t know if the differences I found were there at birth, or if they appeared later.”

*“People who think homosexuals and lesbians are born that way are also more likely to support homosexual rights.”

* In a Newsweek article, LeVay was quoted as saying, “I felt if I didn’t find any difference in the hypothalamuses, I would give up a scientific career altogether”. Given how poorly twisted LeVay’s data are, and his own personal bias, his abandonment of science may have ultimately been of greater service.

2. TWINS - BAILEY AND PILLARD

Key terms as they relate to Bailey and Pillard’s study of twins and homosexuality:

The first term is “identical twins” or “monozygotic” (from “one egg”). These children share the exact same genes and hence are always the same sex and have same eye color. They are identical in every biological characteristic that is caused by the genes.

The second term involve “fraternal twins” or “dizygotic” (from “two eggs”). In this case, both eggs from the mother are fertilized by different sperms. They can be different sex and have different genetically determined characteristics (e.g., eye color). They would share the same basic degree of genetic similarities as any two siblings born to the same parents.

The final term (in this overview) concerns “concordance.” Concordance studies seek to discern the percentage of times a matching of sexual orientation of twins, especially identical twins, occurs. The general assumption is that a greater percentage of sexual orientation concordance in cases of increased genetic similarity may indicate a genetic cause for a homosexual orientation.

PRESENTATION:

In 1991, psychologist Michael Bailey of Northwestern University (a homosexual rights advocate) and psychiatrist Richard Pillard of Boston University School of Medicine (who is openly homosexual) compared sets of identical male twins to fraternal twins (whose genetic ties are less close). In each set, at least one twin was homosexual.

They found that, among the identical twins, 52% were both homosexual, as opposed to the fraternal twins, among whom only 22% shared a homosexual orientation.

They reported the following “concordance” rates, i.e., cases where both twins shared a homosexual orientation:

Males Females

Identical twins 52% 48%

Fraternal twins 22% 16%

Non-twin siblings 9.2% 14%

Adoptive siblings 11% 6%

Pillard and Bailey suggested the higher incidence of shared homosexuality among identical twins meant homosexuality was genetic in origin.

The reliability in using a concordance rate of twins has a growing resistance among the opinions of academicians. It is popularized as a fallacy; nevertheless, what is the Concordance rate of twins as a basis of study? Concordance as used in genetics means the presence of the same trait in both members of a pair of twins, or in sets of individuals. The strict definition is the probability that a pair will both have a certain characteristic given that one of the pair has the characteristic.

A twin study examines the concordance rates of identical twins having the same trait, especially a disease, which can help determine how much the disease is affected by genetics versus environment. Because identical twins have identical DNA, it follows that the same genetic diseases would affect them. This is usually true for monogenic diseases, but is not always true of polygenic diseases.

Example: In a pair of identical twins, if one twin has schizophrenia, the other is about 50% likely to be diagnosed with the disease at some point. In fraternal twins, the concordance rate for schizophrenia drops to about 15%. Therefore, genetics are partially to blame for schizophrenia, though not entirely, or the concordance rate for identical twins would be 100%.

REFUTATION:

1. Pillard and Bailey's findings actually indicate that something besides genes must account for homosexuality.

If 48% of identical twins, which are closely linked genetically, do not share the same sexual orientation, then genetics alone cannot account for homosexuality. Bailey admitted as much by stating, "There must be something in the environment to yield the discordant twins."

2. Another factor that may have had a drastic affect on the results of this study (and other similar studies) centers on methodology.

Bailey and Pillard did not study a random sample of homosexuals. Instead, the subjects were recruited through advertisements placed in homosexual publications. Specifically, the media outlets were in the greater Chicago area and made his sample less representative. It was not a random sampling. This method can be deemed questionable because it is highly dependent on the readership of those publications and on the motives of those who respond. Thus, it may lead to skewed results—for example, inflated rates of concordance in identical twins owing to preferential participation.

Hubbard and Wald observed:

The fact that fraternal twins of homosexual men were roughly twice as likely to be homosexual as other biological brothers shows that environmental factors are involved, since fraternal twins are no more similar biologically than are other biological brothers. If being a fraternal twin exerts an environmental influence, it does not seem surprising that this should be even truer for identical twins, who the world thinks of as “the same” and treats accordingly, and who often share those feelings of sameness.

In summarizing their findings, Byne and Parsons stated: “Critical review shows the evidence favoring a biologic theory to be lacking”. Commenting on Bailey and Pillard’s report, researchers Billings and Beckwith wrote:

While the authors interpreted their findings as evidence for a genetic basis for homosexuality, the data in fact provide strong evidence for the influence of the environment. When evaluated scientifically, twin studies fail to provide any valid support for the longed-for “homosexual gene.”

All of the twins Pillard and Bailey studied were raised in the same household. If the sets of twins in which both brothers were homosexual were raised in separate homes, it might be easier to believe genes played a role in their sexual development. But since they were all raised in the same households, it's impossible to know what effect environment played, and what effect, if any, genes played.

Dr. Fausto-Sterling summarized the problem: "In order for such a study to be at all meaningful, you'd have to look at twins raised apart.”

Additionally, twin studies suggest that as a class, events unique to each twin - neither genetic nor family influences - are more frequent than genetic influences or family influences. But many individual family factors (such as the distant father) are commoner than the individual unique factors. Unique events would include seduction, sexual abuse, chance sexual encounters, or particular reactions to sensitive events, when young. Everyone has their own unique path, which only partly follows that of the theoreticians!

A fascinating sidelight on all this comes from the work of Bailey. His team asked non-concordant identical twins (one was homosexual, one not) about their early family environment, and found that the same family environment was experienced or perceived by the twins in quite different ways. These differences led later to homosexuality in one twin, but not in the other.

3. Drs. Pillard, a homosexual rights advocate, and Bailey, an open homosexual, did not approach their subject objectively.

Their personal feelings about homosexuality, like Dr. LeVay's, certainly do not disqualify them from doing good research on the subject. But they must be, at the very least, considered. Pillard said, in fact: "A genetic component in sexual orientation says, 'This is not a fault,'" and both he and Bailey stated they hoped their work would "disprove homophobic claims."

4. A later study on twins yielded results different from Pillard and Bailey's.

In March of 1992, the British Journal of Psychiatry published a report on homosexuals who are twins (both fraternal and identical) and found that only 20% of the homosexual twins had a homosexual co- twin, leading the researchers to conclude, "genetic factors are insufficient explanation of the development of sexual orientation." Not only, then, has Pillard and Bailey's work not been replicated; when a similar study was conducted, it had completely different results.

Regarding the study completed in the Australian Twin Registry at the University of Queensland, notice the difference in the results, compared to the previous study:

U.S. Australian U.S. Australian

Males Males Females Females

Identical twins 52% 20% 48% 24%

Fraternal twins 22% 0% 16% 10%

Non-twin siblings 9.2% N/A 14% N/A

Adoptive siblings 11% N/A 6% N/A

5. "Inborn" and "normal" are not necessarily the same.

Even if homosexuality is someday proven to be inborn, inborn does not necessarily mean normal. Any number of defects or handicaps, for example, may be inborn, but we'd hardly call them normal for that reason alone. Why should we be compelled to call homosexuality normal, just because it may be inborn?

Surely we're not going to say that obesity, violence, alcoholism and adultery are legitimate because they were inherited. So it is with homosexuality. Whether inborn or acquired, it is still, like all sexual contact apart from marriage, immoral. And immoral behavior cannot be legitimized by a quick baptism in the gene pool.

6. Inborn tendencies towards certain behaviors (like homosexuality) do not make those behaviors moral.

Studies in the past fifteen years indicate a variety of behaviors may have their roots in genetics or biology. In 1983 the former Director of the National Council on Alcoholism reported on a number of chemical events that can produce alcoholism; in 1991, the City of Hope Medical Center found a certain gene present in 77% of their alcoholic patients. Obesity and violent behavior are now thought to be genetically influenced, and even infidelity, according to research reported in Time, may be in our genes!

7. No scientist believes genes by themselves infallibly make us behave in specified ways.

Genes create a tendency, not a tyranny.

8. Identical twin studies show that neither genetic nor family factors are overwhelming.

9. Conclusion 8 will not be altered by any research in the future.

10. We can foster or foil genetic or family influences.

11. Change is possible.

(http://www.narth.com/docs/whitehead2.html)

3. DEAN HAMER—THE HOMOSEXUAL GENE ON THE X CHROMOSOME

A little about chromosomes and “X and Y”:

Chromosomes are the microscopically visible carriers of the genetic material. They are composed of (deoxyribonucleic acid) DNA and proteins and, under a microscope, look like little rods. Humans normally have 46 chromosomes. (Everyone has seen the winding ladder DNA depiction – even at the introduction of a Spiderman movie). These 46 chromosomes are divided into 23 pairs of human chromosomes in each cell.

One chromosome in each pair comes from the mother and the other one from the father. The chromosomes in any particular pair look like each other, except in a boy. There is one pair of chromosomes, which usually settles the sex of the individual. This pair has two X chromosomes in females and one X and one Y chromosome in males.

The X and Y Chromosomes: These chromosomes -- the X and Y are always capitalized -- are the sex chromosomes. All the other chromosomes in the human chromosome complement are numbered from 1 to 22 and are called the autosomes (literally, the other chromosomes or (non-sex chromosomes).

Diagraming (ideogram), cataloguing, recording, mapping and depicting this DNA information is a way that data is displayed for the observer. It is divided into “Arms” based on their position in the genetic material. There is a short and a long arm. The short arm is labeled “P” for petit. The long arm is “Q” for queue as in a line of people.

Each chromosome arm (either short or long) is divided into regions, or bands, that can be seen using a microscope and special stains. The bands are labeled p1, p2, p3, q1, q2, q3, etc., counting from the centromere (the most condensed and constricted region of a chromosome appearing as or at the waist) toward the telomeres (sections of DNA occurring at the ends of a chromosome).

At higher resolutions, sub-bands can be seen within the bands. The sub-bands are also numbered from the centromere out toward the telomere. Also, there are even sub-sub-bands.

For example, the depiction of a gene termed CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) is 7q31.2,

which indicates it is on chromosome 7 (of 46),

q arm (longer queue),

band 3 (off of the “q” arm),

sub-band 1, and

sub-sub-band 2. (Whew!)

7q31.2 is like a grid coordinate or latitude/longitude inside the single cell.

Another means for identifying the data in chromosomes is when their ends are labeled ptel and qtel. For example, the notation 7qtel refers to the telomere (the end) of the long arm of chromosome 7.

Now, transitioning to the topic at hand, Hamers study on the X, Y Chromosome:

The MALE gametes or sperm cells in humans and other mammals are heterogametic and contain one of two types of sex chromosomes. They are either X or Y. The sex chromosomes form one of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes in each cell. The X chromosome spans about 155 million DNA building blocks (base pairs) and represents approximately 5 percent of the total DNA in cells.

The FEMALE gametes or eggs however, contain only the X sex chromosome and are homogametic (the sex that produces only one kind of sex chromosome – the female – she produces only the X, as opposed to the male who produces X and Y).

The sperm cell from the male sex determines the sex of an individual in this case. If a sperm cell containing an X chromosome fertilizes an egg, the resulting zygote will be XX or female.

If the sperm cell contains a Y chromosome, then the resulting zygote will be XY or male.

A normal female will have a pair of X chromosomes; a male will have an X and Y pair.

Female (XX) and the Male (XY):

The male sperm will either carry the X or Y to the females ovary. The female ovary, X, will combine with male X or Y and will develop an XY or XX child.

PRESENTATION:

Two years after Simon LeVay’s report (1993), a group led by Dean H. Hamer of the National Cancer Institute allegedly linked male homosexuality to a gene on the X (maternal) chromosome. His team investigated 114 families of homosexual men. Hamer and his colleagues collected family history information from 76 homosexual male individuals and 40 homosexual brother pairs as they searched for incidences of homosexuality among relatives of homosexual men.

In many families, homosexual men had more homosexual relatives through maternal lines than through paternal lineages, suggesting a linkage for homosexuality might be found on the X chromosome. They then used DNA linkage analysis (an exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes - maternal) in an effort to find a correlation between inheritance and homosexual orientation. He purports such an association at region Xq28.

REFUTATION

1. Clarity as to what Hamer really found:

Hamer released a study that claimed to have found a genetic component to some instances of male homosexuality. That is very different from saying that he found a gene that inevitably determines that a man will be homosexual. Hamer never claimed to have done that. He studied 40 pairs of brothers who were homosexual, and hypothesized that a certain genetic marker on the X chromosome was at least partially responsible for their homosexuality. Since men have an X and a Y chromosome, and they inherit their X chromosome from their mothers, Hamer theorized that the mother might be the carrier of the gene determining homosexuality in their sons. It would not manifest in the mothers’ lives, but they would pass that gene on to their sons.

Hamer’s results are often misunderstood. Many believe that the study found an identical sequence (Xq28) on the X chromosome of all homosexual brothers in the study.

In reality, what it found was matching sequences in each set of brothers who were both homosexual. Dr. Byne argues that in order to prove anything by this study, Hamer would have had to examine the Xq28 sequence of homosexual men’s heterosexual brothers. Hamer insisted that such an inclusion would have confounded his study. Byne responds: “In other words, inclusion of heterosexual brothers might have revealed that something other than genes is responsible for sexual orientation.

2. Research tainted by agenda and corruption:

The National Cancer Institute sponsored the “gay gene” research. This study alone cost $419,000 of the institute’s taxpayer-backed funds (dollar value in the 1990’s), according to The Washington Times.

The National Institutes of Health’s Office of Research Integrity investigated Hamer over allegations by a colleague that he ignored evidence that conflicted with his hypothesis. NIH never released the results of the inquiry, but Hamer was shortly thereafter transferred to another section.

Hamer had done the “gay gene” research under a grant to work on Kaposi’s Sarcoma, a skin cancer that inordinately afflicts homosexual men.

One of Hamer’s researchers told the Times that homosexuality is “not the only thing we study,” but it is “a primary focus of study.” Hamer reportedly stated he has pushed for an Office of Gay and Lesbian Health inside the National Institutes of Health, and he testified in opposition to Colorado’s Amendment 2, which sought to keep homosexual activists from winning minority class status. Then-Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-New Hampshire) accused the doctor of “actively pursuing a gay agenda.”

This study won an enormous amount of media attention, and Hamer’s own activities as a homosexual activist within NCI were ignored when Hamer offered interviews only when reporters agreed not to identify him as a homosexual.

3. Research not replicated:

Hamer’s results have never been reproduced. In fact, two subsequent studies of other homosexual brothers have since concluded that there is no evidence that an X-linked gene influences male sexual orientation.

Another fact that casts doubt on Hamer’s conclusions is that other researchers tried to replicate his study but failed. In 1999, Drs. George Rice, Neil Risch and George Ebers published their findings in Science after attempting to replicate Hamer’s Xq28 study. Their conclusion: “We were not able to confirm evidence for an Xq28-linked locus underlying male homosexuality.

Moreover, they added that when another group of researchers (Sanders, et al.) tried to replicate Hamer’s study, they too failed to find a genetic connection to homosexuality.

Ultimately, no gene or gene product from the Xq28 region was ever identified that affected sexual orientation. When Jonathan Marks (an evolutionary biologist) asked Hamer what percentage of homosexuality he thought his results explained, his answer was that he thought it explained 5% of male homosexuality. Marks' response was, "There is no science other than behavioral genetics in which you can leave 97.5% of a phenomenon unexplained and get headlines."

4. Hamer’s SELF ADMISSIONS:

Hamer tempered his enthusiasm about the research results…

*“We knew that the genes were only part of the answer,” he said in a speech given in Salt Lake City. “We assumed the environment also played a role in sexual orientation, as it does in most, if not all behaviors.

*In a later interview, Hamer said, “Homosexuality is not purely genetic. … Environmental factors play a role. There is not a single master gene that makes people gay. …I don’t think we will ever be able to predict who will be gay.”

5. Various scientists from diverse disciplines have questioned the clarity and accuracy of the suggested findings from these genetic scans.

They have generally dismissed the idea that the Xq28 marker provides evidence of genetic causation for homosexuality.

MISCELLANEOUS STUDIES

The above three major studies are cornerstone for arguments that genetics determine homosexuality among human beings. These studies are not the only representation of refutable data. The studies continue a multitudinous effort to connect homosexuality to a non-choice, nurtured decision. The following are just headlines that indicate this attempt is still ongoing:

1. Hormones - exposure to androgen in the womb.

2. Finger Length – differential sizes of the index and ring finger,

3. Eye Blinking – a pre-pulse inhibition of the human startle response (PPI),

4. Neuroendocrine Hypotheses homosexual men show a trend toward female-typical neuro-anatomy as compared to heterosexual men and female homosexuals excel at some tasks that favor heterosexual males.

5. On and on…

CONCLUSION

The entanglements and enslavement in which one endures when personal responsibility for one’s behavior is abrogated to a base of unfounded reasoning confounds reason itself. The Bible is so easy, so clear and so direct that it confounds the senses that one would read it and, thus, not think in straight lines. One cannot “figure out” the depths of a life wrangled in sin - Sin is senseless.

The flight from moral responsibility is a hallmark of the modern age. We hope for modern science to heal our diseases and excuse our sins. The Bible will not allow this evasion. Our sinful behavior, rooted in biology or not, is a matter for which we are fully accountable. After all, as the Psalmist confessed:

Psalm 51:5 "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me".

The doctrine of human depravity reminds us that no part of ourselves is free from sin and its injury. That certainly includes our genetic code as well. As early Christian theologian Ambrose of Milan [340-397] stated, "Before we are born we are infected with the contagion, and before we see the light of day we experience the injury of our origin." In other words, everyone's genetic code is corrupted by sin--why should we be surprised?

In the end, the scientific evidence is not morally important, though it may be medically useful. The church's witness to the biblical condemnation of homosexuality as sin is a crucial test of faithfulness, no matter where the biological research may lead. The church must take its stand on the Word of God, and leave the genes to the geneticists. (Albert Mohler)

It is a truth in Scripture that wherever the sinfulness of sin is mentioned, the power of the gospel is also mentioned as that force which counteracts the power of sin to enslave and to condemn.

After the condemnation of homosexuality in Romans 1, Paul wrote,

Rom 3:23-24 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus”.

After the condemnation of homosexuality in 1 Cor 6:9, Paul adds,

1 Cor 6:11 “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God”.

The homosexual can experience regeneration through the Holy Spirit, the power to triumph over indwelling sin as described in Romans 6, and the full assurance offered to all believers in the justifying work of Christ (cf. Romans 8).

(Resources drawn from johnankerberg.com, tms.edu, and other sites)

WHERE DO WE BEGIN?

2011-09-26T00:32:00.009-04:00

“Where do we begin?”

History is not cyclical; History is going somewhere. It will end. It is a linear path that has a finish line just at the horizon. Broadly speaking, upheavals, catastrophes, movements and rising new world orders are thundering like giants tromping upon the earth. More narrowly, individuals are unable to walk out of their homes without the threat of losing life and property. Personal freedoms are a thing in the mist. Nothing remains the same. History seems to roll up yesterday and toss it to waste as it plunders its consuming pathway into tomorrow. When the ground moves beneath our feet, we grasp for something familiar and stable on which to hold. Alas, even the strongholds upon which we once clung moves with the uncertainty of the times. What are these “Times”? We speak of “History” and “Times” as though they were alive and had their own will and aspirations. Politics and governments, gangs and crowds seem to be a term used to grant these unidentifiable forces immunity from individual detection. We speak of the “economy” as though it were something set apart from the way individuals write regulations with specific agendas or money holders steal bundles or traders maneuver with inside knowledge of pending laws and regulations. The headlines refer to “this administration” or according to popular “consensus” as though it had it’s own congruous identity without specific character.

*The question before our eyes is not, “What can we do?” rather, “What have we DONE?”

All of these monstrous entities and faceless masses were not always ominous boulders smashing through our lives without distinctiveness. Like a slap of ice-cold water in the face, be startled to hear that these “times”, these “administrations and governmental powers” and multitudes on the street were once a single heartbeat cradled in our own arms. They came from us! They once were held against our chest. We delivered them to world, to their jail cells, to their street corners, to their classrooms, to their chairs and thrones, and indirectly, to their graves. We birthed these “Times”. These shakers and movers in your world that rock the earth with chilling tales and horrible quakes were once rocked in your own arms. We birthed these children. All of “them” are you. One may call them our corrupt representatives in government, or one may call them the thugs on the street, but the slice of truth is that they represent who we are as individuals. They look like us. They are we. The main difference between “them and us” is that now they have more hands, more mouths and more strength. When once they were but a single child in their bedrooms as an innocent baby in our homes, they have grown and progressed and morphed under the thorns and of a godless throng. Many have been leaders and conceivers of evil and some have just fallen into the grove worn by countless millions before them, but they come together like swarms and packs launched by a seed that was planted in our home.

One may argue that they did not create this consequence in their children. One may say that society or government created this child to be what they are now. The same would say that government is responsible for the care and welfare of their child. How fictitious a world in which one lives. A mind that can concoct such a fabrication bears the proof at the heart of this very argument. The parent who relies on such a lie, that their neglect of biblical upbringing had no effect in the outcome of their child, would as soon push down that first domino and disregard the grounding of the next. They would look into a cloudless noonday sky and not see the sun. Such parents are bereft of reason, much less, wisdom.

Others may contend that their child “turned out” okay and refute that God needs any place in the home. Not so that their child “turned out” okay. No person has eyes of the future. God alone owns the next moment. The child that one thinks has turned out okay is but a fraction into his existence. No one knows what may befall them at the next strike of the clock. No one knows what twists and turns a decision will make without the wisdom of God attending it. No one knows the extended effects on others that the child who “turned out” okay will have on his neighbor. And most certainly, no one knows what that child will unknowingly pass to the next generation and the next beyond that.

1 Tim 5.24 The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins follow after.

One of the first evidences of a godless home, is that the children evidence no pulse for righteousness. They have no passion, principle or conviction of a biblical worldview. This trait is absurdly labeled “Tolerance.” Further, a godless heritage has an entropic effect. It may begin with tolerance, but quickly generates an ungodly and ruthless nature with a terrible chain of events.

Above all else, the one who may say that their child “turned out” okay, has no inkling of what is in store, not only for their child, but for themselves, in the day of judgment before the righteous God of the universe. There is no standing before Him without the righteousness of Christ imparted at the cross. The one who says their child turned out okay without God is near sighted and unwise beyond belief. What does it matter that we gain the whole world, but lose our soul. Things are not okay.

*So, might we ask again, “Where do we begin?”… Not just yet…

Another question prior to this should be asked with no more than a word for the answer – the question is not “Where do we begin?” but, “Begin What?” – the answer, “Redemption”.

Redemption is in the mind of God; it has always been there from eternity. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Spirit of God moves in mankind and draws him to Christ the Redeemer.

Redemption does not begin in elections. It does not begin in any Democratic, Republican, Conservative or Liberal movement; not even the in Tea Party. It does not begin by revolution, good intentions, good deeds, education, rebellion, fixing government, building soup kitchens or managing pregnancy homes – all of this is down stream from where we begin. Shockingly, redemption does not even begin in the church. The church is comprised of families and individual pockets and units of individuals; thus, one must begin with the Individual. “Begin what?” Redemption. “Where?” IN THE HOME.

REDEMPTION BEGINS IN THE HOME

A parent’s work is redemptive. If a parent is not pointing their child to Christ in every waking moment, the best one can do is modify their behavior. When a child is no longer constrained by you, they will turn to their own way. True evangelism is with children, the rest is salvage work. You are the primary evangelists on this earth – do the work of an evangelist. Parenting is Redemptive – everything points to Christ. You are their front line defense from the salvage yard.

God never intended that mankind be born and live a day without Him. When we took our first breath, we were born with a malleable heart and with a mind that could accept the tenable things of God. Clay will display any shape or imprint when it is fresh, but as exposure to the ambient air increases, so does its resistance to influence. Parents can remember a time when their children would believe anything. They were open and excited to hear whatever dropped from the mouths of their parents.

That may be why Jesus continued to point to children when He spoke of the kingdom of heaven:

Mt 18:3 “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Mt 19:13-14 Then some children were brought to Him so that He might lay His hands on them and pray; and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Lu 18:17 “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all.”

As we grow older, our hearts become crusty. Our minds begin to collapse into suspicion of spiritual truth. We drift further and further from a peculiarly tender status with God to a mindset similar to those in Israel of whom it was said, “Everyone did that which was right in their own eyes.”

The ramifications of the fall of mankind grow unencumbered and sins deceit grows deeper and broader. It is not long before full rebellion and noxious contempt for the things of God are at full throttle.

In this day, contempt for God does not start over and over again anew with each generation; rather, an embedded, then overt contempt for and exclusion of God is passed down from one generation to the next. The child begins his first awareness of the world without God. Soon, the child is encased with a solid repulsion for spiritual things.

Consider these following texts from the Bible as it was meant to be:

Prov 22.6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Children are like an empty cup. Cups will carry the aroma of its contents long after it is emptied. If children are brought up with godly, biblical training, they will always carry within themselves a link back to God even though they may disregard His loving graces. They will always retain the reminiscent aroma of the sweet graces of the gospel. They carry with them a trail to redemption.

Look further into this verse:

Prov 22.6 Train (dedicate, inaugurate) up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from “IT”.

“IT” will not depart from him.

“IT” is the “Training in the way the child should go”. And, He will carry the fragrance of that gospel training all his life, just as a cup carries the remnants of its previous contents. He will know right from wrong and where to turn when he is old. He will know right from wrong all his days, regardless of his willful decision to walk with or to walk without God.

The expected consequence of such training is that it will last throughout life. The sages were confident of the character-forming quality of their training. However, proverbs are not universal truths, but principles. One can anticipate positive results from careful child training — but there may be an occasional exception.

*One would be lead to ask next, “Well, then how do I Train up my child?”

God answered that, too.

The parents must first love God. Simply, moms and dads, get right with God. Love Him with everything that you are. Live for Him and your children will witness in view what words cannot speak. Do the work of a redeemer.

A nominal Christian home is an ugly escapade and is as damaging as a godless home. The child is minimally introduced to “religious” ideas, but makes no connection of it with daily life. Nominal religion is but a superficial antic. The child sees no power or purpose and lacks any desire for persistence in the things of God. As the child ages, the staggering weight and exponential factors of thoughts and influences upon his developing mind sway him from the cursory and trite religious proprieties that have merely dusted his thoughts. When the sobering effects of “real life” confront him, the fanciful notions of a nominal faith have no bite. Guidance from within his circle of friends to seek God is dismissed. He will say to himself, “Tried that and it didn’t work.” Christianity was just a device to entertain him and to contain his behavior. Ne'er would he turn back to something tried but not found true. Pragmatism is one of many siblings in the family of pluralism.

The parents must be walking the Truth in their own lives; living, breathing and consumed with Christ. Their greatest persuasive tool to win their children to Christ is their own life. They live by God’s Word and attribute everything to the possession of God. They must be solid and unshakeable, walking worthy of the calling to which they have been called. They must respect the authority of God and their children will respect the authority of their parents.

One more time, “Well, then how do I Train up my child?”

Deut 6.5 “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

6 “And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart;

7 and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.

8 “And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.

9 “And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

These words SHALL FIRST BE IN YOUR HEART…THEN,

LIVE IT OUT WITH YOUR CHILDREN…

Everything must relate to God. Everything is about God. Wake up, go to bed, go to the store, the mall, to school, to work – all must relate to God. Ask this question from dawn to dusk, “Is what I am living for, worth Christ dying for?” Examine everything.

Be “Counter Culture” with them. Teach them the transforming power of the Word of God. Teach them FROM YOUR LIFE:

1. To Love God and to fear Him

2. To guard their minds

3. To obey their parents and to respect authority

4. To select good companions

5. To control their lusts

6. To watch their words

7. Enjoy their spouses

8. Pursue their work

9. To manage their money

10.To love their neighbor

It doesn’t matter who is in the white house or who runs congress. It doesn’t matter who is Prime Minister, King or Head of State, If God’s spirit swept from coast to coast and border to border, righteousness would fill the land, but, IT BEGINS IN THE HOME.

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

2011-09-21T12:53:00.002-04:00

Take a few minutes and refresh yourself with God. Think again on His attributes. See again those things that are true about Him. Renew your mind and cast your hope on Him. Remove your eyes from your pain and gaze upon His person. The following is an excerpt on the Attributes of God from several different sources that will aid in a moment of worship turning from despair to hope in this great God.

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

He is Sovereign

God’s sovereignty is the attribute by which He rules His entire creation, and to be sovereign God must be all-knowing, all-powerful, and absolutely free.

The reasons are these:

Were there even one datum of knowledge, however small, un-known to God, His rule would break down at that point. To be Lord over all the creation, He must possess all knowledge. And were God lacking one infinitesimal modicum of power, that lack would end His reign and undo His kingdom; that one stray atom of power would belong to someone else and God would be a limited ruler and hence not sovereign.

Furthermore, His sovereignty requires that He be absolutely free, which means simply that He must be free to do whatever He wills to do anywhere at any time to carry out His eternal purpose in every single detail without interference. Were He less than free He must be less than sovereign.

He is Holy

Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, His attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy. God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe. Sin’s temporary presence in the world only accents this. Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death. The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon meaning, “well, whole.”

Since God’s first concern for His universe is its moral health, that is, its holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under His eternal displeasure. To preserve His creation God must destroy whatever would destroy it. When He arises to put down iniquity and save the world from irreparable moral collapse, He is said to be angry. Every wrathful judgment in the history of the world has been a holy act of preservation. The holiness of God, the wrath of God, and the health of the creation are inseparably united. God’s wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys. He hates iniquity as a mother hates the polio that takes the life of her child.

God is holy with an absolute holiness that knows no degrees, and this He cannot impart to His creatures. But there is a relative and contingent holiness that He shares with angels and seraphim in heaven and with redeemed men on earth as their preparation for heaven. This holiness God can and does impart to His children. He shares it with them by imputation and by impartation, and because He has made it available to them through the blood of the Lamb, He requires it of them. God spoke, saying, “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” He did not say “Be ye as holy as I am holy,” for that would be to demand of us absolute holiness, something that belongs to God alone.

He is Faithful

In studying any attribute, the essential oneness of all the attributes soon becomes apparent. We see, for instance, that if God is self-existent He must be also self-sufficient; and if He has power He, being infinite, must have all power. If He possesses knowledge, His infinitude assures us that He possesses all knowledge. Similarly, His immutability presuppose His faithfulness. If He is unchanging, it follows that He could not be unfaithful, since that would require Him to change.

Any failure within the divine character would argue imperfection and, since God is perfect, it could not occur. Thus the attributes explain each other and prove that they are but glimpses the mind enjoys of the absolutely perfect Godhead.

All of God’s acts are consistent with all of His attributes. No attribute contradicts the other, but all harmonize and blend into each other in the infinite abyss of the Godhead. All that God does agrees with all that God is and being and doing are one in Him.

The familiar picture of God as often torn between His justice and His mercy is altogether false to the facts. To think of God as inclining first toward one and then toward another of His attributes is to imagine a God who is unsure of Himself, frustrated and emotionally unstable, which of course is to say that the one of whom we are thinking is not the true God at all but a weak, mental reflection of Him badly out of focus.

God being who He is, cannot cease to be what He is, and being what He is, He cannot act out of character with Himself. He is at once faithful and immutable, so all His words and acts must be and remain faithful. Men become unfaithful out of desire, fear, weakness, loss of interest, or because of some strong influence from without. Obviously none of these forces can affect God in any way. He is His own reason for all He is and does. He cannot be compelled from without, but ever speaks and acts from within Himself by His own sovereign will as it pleases Him.

I think it might be demonstrated that almost every heresy that has afflicted the church through the years has arisen from believing about God things that are not true, or from overemphasizing certain true things so as to obscure other things equally true. To magnify any attribute to the exclusion of another is to head straight for one of the dismal swamps of theology; and yet we are all constantly tempted to do just that.

He is Omniscience

He possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn. But it is more: it is to say that God has never learned and cannot learn. God has never learned from anyone.

God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.

Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything. He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor does He seek information or ask questions.

Isa 40.13-14 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has informed Him? With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding?

He is Omnipresent

God is everywhere here, close to everything, next to everyone.

God is immanent in His creation, there is no place in heaven or earth or hell where men may hide from His presence. God is at once far off and near, and in Him men move and live and have their being…

Ps 16.11 …In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

Answers to a major objection: “Wouldn't the sin in the world defile an omnipresent God?” Some argue that if God is everywhere, He must be impure because the impure things that touch Him would defile him. Without a doubt God is in all places and in everything. As a holy God He enters the hearts of sinners to inspect and convict them of sin. He also is in hell to execute judgment, for Matt 10.28 "And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

But while God's essence is everywhere, He never mingles with any impurity. He is like the sun's rays. A sunbeam may fall on a manure pile in a field, but the manure pile can't defile the sunbeam. In the same sense nothing can defile God--He is unmixed with anything. HE IS TRANSCENDENT.

Jesus came into the world and lived among sinners. Yet the apostle John said of Him: "In him is no sin" (1 John 3:5). He was among sinful men and women yet totally undefiled by them.

Ps 139:8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

Further on the support that God is in some sense, “actively occupied in hell judging sinners”…

Perishing means fiery torment. In one of John's other books, the Revelation 14:10, he describes the one who is perishing like this:

"He will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb."

And on the other hand…Perishing means separation from the glory of God. Paul describes the perishing in 2 Thess 1:9:

"These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power."

Here in this world God reveals himself in a thousand ways every day, if we would see. In hell the perishing will be cut off from all his work—except the work of wrath.

He is Omnipotent

Sovereignty and omnipotence must go together. One cannot exist without the other.

To reign, God must have power, and to reign sovereignly, He must have all power-

Ps 62.11 Once God has spoken; Twice I have heard this: That power belongs to God;

The words “God is love” mean that love is an essential attribute of God. Love is something true of God but it is not God. It expresses the way God is in His unitary being, as do the words holiness, justice, faithfulness and truth. Because God is immutable He always acts like Himself, and because He is a unity He never suspends one of His attributes in order to exercise another. God is not schizophrenic!

From God’s other known attributes we may learn much about His love. We can know, for instance, that because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence and from which the loftiest eloquence retreats confused and abashed.

He is Just

God’s being is unitary; it is not composed of a number of parts working harmoniously, but simply one. There is nothing in His justice which forbids the exercise of His mercy. To think of God as we sometimes think of a court where a kindly judge, compelled by law sentences a man to death with tears and apologies, is to think in a manner wholly unworthy of the true God. God is never at cross-purposes with Himself. No attribute of God is in conflict with another. God is His own self-existent principle of moral equity, and when He sentences evil men or rewards the righteous, He simply acts like Himself from within, uninfluenced by anything that is not Himself.

The words “God is love” means that love is an essential attribute of God. Love is something true of God but it is not God. It expresses the way God is in His unitary being, as do the words holiness, justice, faithfulness and truth. Because God is immutable He always acts like Himself, and because He is a unity He never suspends one of His attributes in order to exercise another.

Justice is not violated but satisfied when he redeems a sinner…as in any of God’s attributes, none contradicts another. His love is not violated, but satisfied when He passes judgment on a sinner. No attribute violates another when God acts – He is a unity unto Himself.

Thus justice actually goes over to the side of God’s trusting children. This is the meaning of those daring words of the apostle John: ”If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” But God’s justice stands forever against the sinner in utter severity. The vague and tenuous hope that God is too kind to punish the ungodly has become a deadly opiate for the consciences of millions. It hushes their fears and allows them to practice all pleasant forms of iniquity while death draws every day nearer and the command to repent goes unregarded. As responsible moral beings we dare not so trifle with our eternal future.

He is Incomprehensible

Matt 11.27 …no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son…

1Co 2:11 … Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

He is Self-existence

God has no origin.

Ex 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"

He is not composed.

Col 1.16: For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.

He is Self-sufficient

JN 5.26 “the Father has life in Himself”

But the truth is that God is not greater for our being, nor would He be less if we did not exist. That we do exist is altogether of God’s free determination, neither by our desert nor by divine necessity.

Thou dost seek us though Thou does not need us. We seek Thee because we need Thee, for in Thee we live and move and have our being. Amen

He is Eternal

He has no past and no future.

Ps 90:2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

Or,

From vanishing point to the vanishing point

This is why God can say Isa 46.9-10 "Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning.

He sees the end and the beginning in one view.

He is Infinite

Limitlessness.

Measureless.

Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

He is Immutable

He never differs from Himself.

He does not grow, nor develop; He does not change for the better or the worse.

”All that God is He has always been, and all that He has been and is He will ever be.”

Mal 3:6 "For I, the LORD, do not change…

He is Wise

Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. It sees the end from the beginning, so there can be no need to guess or conjecture. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision.

PS 104.24 O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; The earth is full of Your possessions.

Ecl 3.14 I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him.

He is Transcendent

He is exalted far above His created universe, so far above that human thought cannot imagine it. – “far above” does not here refer to physical distance from the earth but to quality of being. … not with location in space nor with mere altitude, but with life.

Yet we must not compare the being of God with any other, i.e., the mountain with the child. We must not think of God as highest in an ascending order of beings, starting with the single cell and going on up from the fish to the bird to the animal to man to angel to cherub, then, ultimately, to God. This would be to grant God eminence, even pre-eminence, but that is not enough; we must grant Him transcendence in the fullest meaning of that word.

Forever God stands apart, in light unapproachable. He is as high above an archangel as above a caterpillar, for the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar is but finite, while the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite. The caterpillar and the archangel, though far removed from each other in the scale of created things, are nevertheless one in that they are alike created. They both belong in the category of that-which-is-not-God and are separated from God by infinitude itself.

Isa 57.15 For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place…

He is Merciful

As judgment is God’s justice confronting moral inequity, so mercy is the goodness of God confronting human suffering and guilt. Were there no guilt in the world, no pain and no tears, God would yet be infinitely merciful; but His mercy might well remain hidden in His heart, unknown to the created universe.

No voice would be raised to celebrate the mercy of which none felt the need. It is human misery and sin that call forth the divine mercy.

He is Grace

In God mercy and grace are one; but as they reach us they are seen as two, related but not identical.

As mercy is God’s goodness confronting human misery and guilt, so grace is His goodness directed toward human debt and demerit. It is by His grace that God imputes merit where none previously existed and declares no debt to be where one had been before.

Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. It is a self-existent principle inherent in the divine nature and appears to us as a self-caused propensity to pity the wretched, spare the guilty, welcome the outcast, and bring into favor those who were before under just disapprobation. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and to make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

We benefit eternally by God’s being just what He is. Because He is what He is, He lifts up our heads out of the prison house, changes our prison garments for royal robes, and makes us to eat bread continually before Him all the days of our lives

And He is Love, Righteous, Triune, and Good

(Sources: AW Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy; John Macarthur and John Piper)

What Color Would You Paint "Compromise"?

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QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT QUESTIONABLE MATTERS

(Are there really "Gray" Areas?
Is anything Black or White?)

Heb 3:13* But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

1. IS IT FOR THE LORD? Does it bring praise to Him?

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10.31)

“He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14.6-8)

2. CAN I DO IT IN HIS NAME (on His authority, implicating Him)? Can I thank Him for it?

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Col 3.17)

3. CAN I TAKE JESUS WITH ME? Would Jesus do this?

“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (PS 139.7)

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Col 3.17)

“Christ lives in me” (Gal 2.20

“Christ…leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps” (1 Pet 2.21)

(Matt 28.19-20; JN 14.16-17; 23)

4. DOES IT BELONG IN THE HOME OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6.19-20)

(Eph 4.30)

5. IS IT OF FAITH? Do I have misgivings? Must I have to justify, rationalize, or seek what is “right” with it?

“But he who has doubts is condemned, if he eats, because he does not ant from faith; for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom 14.23). Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God” (1 Jn 3.21)

6. DOES IT POSITIVELY BENEFIT, BUILD UP (not simply, “Is it harmless?”)?

“Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Rom 14.19) “Let all things be done for edification” (1 Cor 14.26) (Rom 15.2; 1 Cor 15.2; Eph 4.12-16)

7. DOES IT SPRING FROM, OR LEAD TO, LOVE OF THIS WORLD AND ITS VALUE SYSTEM?

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If any one loves the world, love for the Father is not in him” (1 Jn 2.15). (Mk 9.47; 11.14-15)

8. DOES IT INVOLVE UNION WITH AN UNBELIEVER?

“Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Cor 6.14)

9. “DOES IT COME FROM OR HAVE THE POTENTIAL OF LEADING TO BONDAGE?”

“All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up” (1 Cor 10.23)

10. IS THE MOTIVE PRIDE, OR LOVE?

“We know that all of us possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know” (1 Cor 8.1-2)

11. IS A GODLY MIND-SET THE CONTEXT OF MY DECISION ON THE MATTER?

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4.8). (Rom 12.1-2)

12. WHAT DOES THE CHURCH SAY ABOUT IT?

“He who thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men” (Rom 14.18)

“For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things” (Acts 15.28). (Rom 14.16)

13. WOULD I LIKE TO BE DOING THIS WHEN JESUS COMES?

“And, now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame at his coming…We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 Jn 2.28; 3.2-3). (Matt 24.44-51; Lk 23.34-35; 1 Thess 5.2-4)

(Robertson McQuilken)

What is Unique About the Christian?

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THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE CHRISTIAN

THE COVENANT (The Promise of the Holy Spirit to Dwell in Christians)

Ezek. 36:27 "And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

John 7:38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'"

John 7:39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

THE COMMAND (Christians Commanded to be Filled with the Spirit)

Eph. 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit

Gal. 5:16 ¶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Gal. 5:25 ¶ If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

1 Thess. 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit;

Eph. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

THE CHARACTERISTIC (The Distinction Between a Christian and Non- Christian is that the Christian has the Holy Spirit Residing in Him - FACT)

Rom. 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

John 14:17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.

John 14:20 "In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.

Rom. 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

Gal. 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

1 John 3:24 And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

1 John 4:13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

Rom. 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

1 Cor. 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God,

2 Cor. 5:5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

Rom. 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Rom. 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

1 Cor. 3:16 ¶ Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

1 Cor. 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

2 Tim. 1:14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

1 Thess. 1:5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

James 4:5 Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"?

THE CONFIRMATION (Proof that the Christian is Permitting/Yielding to the Holy Spirit Who resides in Him)

Gal. 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Rom. 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Acts 5:32 "And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him."

1 Pet. 1:2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.

Rom. 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (Assurance)

Who Rules Hell?

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The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, does not need to be defended. He is God. But, people are under the impression that God has a nemesis that is opposite and equal to His activity and presence in this world. The perception that Satan is somehow thwarting God’s every move and countering and frustrating His every purpose at every turn is a devilish lie that seems to be endeared throughout humanity. The devil is portrayed as a ruler of hell and a torturer of souls. He has maneuvered himself as a powerful king that wheels and deals for the souls of men. He is seen as one who reigns in Hades and who captures and controls who it is that becomes his subjects. We are taught to fear him and to treaty with him. He spasmodically ups himself from the depths of his throne in hell to grab the next soul and take him to the abyss as his slave and eternal toy.

Every media format – movies, television, books, and folklore crown him as the king of hell and the owner and punisher of souls for eternity. Sadly, this false staging is trumpeted in some pulpits from pastors and crusaders who are just as deceiving and manipulative as the Deceiver himself. There is even a church in New York that travels the nation bringing to local churches a production drama called “Eternity” that perpetuates this very lie - good intentions, but subtle deception.

The following is to bring clarity and straight thinking back to earth. It is a review of basic Bible truth about God, hell, and the devil. It also addresses how this evil lie contorts the true nature of God.

We Must Not Compromise the Clarity and Soundness of Gods’ Word

Tit 2: 6-8 Likewise urge the young men to be sensible; in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignified,

sound in speech, which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.

Eph 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;

1Tim 1.3-4 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths (fiction, fables, inventions, conjecture) and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.

1Ti 4:6 In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine, which you have been following.

1Ti 4:16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.

1Ti 6:3-5 If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.

2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

Tit 2:1 But as for you, speak the things, which are fitting for sound doctrine.

2Jo 1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting;

Gal1.8-9 – But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

HELL – THE FACTS

Matthew 25:41 - "the hell of fire"

Matthew 18:9 -"eternal punishment"

Matthew 25:46 - "anguish in the flame" (Luke 16:24).

Revelation 14:11 - "The smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day or night." Torment forever and ever.

(Mark 9:48); "unquenchable fire"

(Matthew 3:12; Mark 9:43); "eternal fire"

Daniel 12:2; Matthew 3:12 (Luke 3:17); Mark 9:43-48; Matthew 18:8; Matthew 10:28 (Luke 12:4-5); Matthew 25:41,46; Matthew 26:24; Mark 3:29 and Matthew 12:32; Luke 16:26; Romans 2:6-8; Thessalonians 1:9; Hebrews 6:1-2; Jude 12-13; Revelation 14:11; Revelation 19:3; Revelation 20:10

The wrath of God is God’s settled anger toward sin expressed in the repayment of suitable vengeance on the guilty sinner.

The wrath of God that falls on human beings at the final judgment - we can say at least these four things about it:

1) It will be eternal—having no end.

2) It will be terrible—indescribable pain.

3) It will be deserved—totally just and right.

4) It will have been escapable—through the curse-bearing death of Christ, if we would have taken refuge in him. We will be judged in one of two places - at the cross or in hell.

BUT HELL BELONGS TO GOD AND IT MANIFESTS HIS GLORY

Ps 145:10 All Thy works (to include hell) shall give thanks to Thee, O LORD, And Thy godly ones shall bless Thee.

Re 15:3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

FOR WHOM WAS HELL MADE?

Mt 25:41 "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;

2Pe 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

Jude 1:6 And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,

WHOM SHOULD WE FEAR – God or the Devil?

Eccl 12:13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.

Luke 12:4-5 Jesus said, "Do not fear those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear him who, after he has killed has the power to cast into hell". (In other words, fear the judgment of God).

Romans 11:20 and 22 said, "Do not become proud but fear . . . behold the kindness and the severity of God."

Hebrews 10:31 says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

(Nowhere in the Bible are we told to fear the devil)

WHO IS THE ETERNAL JUDGE – God or the Devil?

Heb 10.10 "Vengeance belongs unto Me, I will recompense, says the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge His people." And then he says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Ac 10:42 "And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead….

2Ti 4:1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:

1Pe 4:5 but they shall give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Ro 2:16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the SECRETS of men through Christ Jesus. (“SECRETS” – only AN OMNISCIENT GOD knows all our secrets)

Heb 13:4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Ro 14:10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.

Ps 9:8 And He will judge the world in RIGHTEOUSNESS;

He will execute judgment for the peoples with EQUITY.

Ps 98:9 Before the LORD, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness And the peoples with EQUITY.

Gen 18.25 Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?"

Ps 7:11 God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day.

Ec 3:17 I said to myself, "God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man,"

Ps 50:6 And the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is judge.

Ps 75:7 But God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another.

Ps 82:8 Arise, O God, judge the earth! For it is You who possesses all the nations.

Ps 96:13 Before the LORD, for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness And the peoples in His FAITHFULNESS.

Pr 24:12 If you say, "See, we did not know this," Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?

Ec 3:17 I said to myself, "God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man," for a time for every matter and for every deed is there (Only an OMNISCIENT God can know every matter and every deed of every soul from all time). and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

Re 1:17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,

18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Rev 14.9-10 Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

(Whoever reigns over Hell is the Judge - The devil is not the Judge)

WHAT KIND OF JUDGMENT CAN SINFUL MAN EXPECT FROM GOD?

HIS JUDGMENT IS A JUST, EQUITOUS, PRECISE, MATICULOUS RECOMPENSE FOR DEEDS DONE AND DECISIONS MADE

THIS SIDE OF THE GRAVE.

Ps 9:8 And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.

Eze 24:14 "I, the LORD, have spoken; it is coming and I will act. I will not relent, and I will not pity and I will not be sorry; according to your ways and according to your deeds I will judge you," declares the Lord GOD.'"

There is no Crossed-Purpose in GOD… There is no contradiction within Himself when He acts. Everything HE does satisfies Himself. He will never cover His face when He executes His own judgment on sinful mankind.

God’s being is unitary; He is not composed of a number of parts working harmoniously, but simply one. There is nothing in His justice that forbids the exercise of His mercy. To think of God as we sometimes think of a court where a kindly judge, compelled by law sentences a man to death with tears and apologies, is to think in a manner wholly unworthy of the true God. God is never at cross-purposes with Himself. No attribute of God is in conflict with another.

God is His own self-existent principle of moral equity, and when He sentences evil men or rewards the righteous, He simply acts like Himself from within, uninfluenced by anything that is not Himself.

1 Cor 4.3“…the Lord will come and bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart."

2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Ro 2:16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.

(Only an Omniscient God can judge because He alone knows all secrets of all men and will judge each secret with perfect balance and equity)

Heb 4.13 "but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

Matt 12:36-37 Jesus said, "But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account of it in the Day of Judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

Hebrews 10:29 says, "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant...an unholy thing...."

Matthew 11. 24- when Jesus condemned the people in the cities that rejected Him, He said, "...it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the Day of Judgment, than for thee".

The “furnace” or intensity will be hotter to those who have sinned against light, than to those who lived in darkness…So, hell will be a place of unrelieved torment of body and soul in varying degrees. John Gerstner said, "Hell will have such severe degrees that a sinner were he able would give the whole world if his sins could be one less."

Luke 12:47,48, "That servant which knew his lord's will, and did not do it, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.'

Matt 16.27 "For the Son the glory of His Father with His angels; and WILL THEN RECOMPENSE EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS

Because you have sinned against such an infinite God and high command. There are different levels of sin and punishment (Luke 10:12; 12:42-48). A crime is weighed according to the seriousness of the command and the stature of the person who is sinned against. It is one thing to disobey your coach at school. It is another thing to disobey a judge. It is one thing to turn in a late term paper. It is another thing to murder the president. The highest command is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength." The greatest being is God. Each time you sin, you commit the highest crime against the greatest being! God ought to be angry.

(Since hell will be a righteous judgment, the devil cannot be the ruler of Hell; The Evil One is incapable of righteousness)

WHO DELIVERS SOULS UNTO JUDGMENT – God or the Devil?

Mt 13:39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.

Mt 13:41 "The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness,

Mt 13:49 "So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous,

Mt 16:27 "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.

Re 20:1-2 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;

(Biblically, Satan has no contact with souls beyond the grave)

SATAN

His limited domain is not over hell, it is generally on earth….

Job 1.7: "The Lord said to Satan, 'From where do you come?' And Satan answered the Lord and said, 'From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.'" What's he doing? What's he doing "roaming around on the earth"? 1Peter 5:8 answers that. Satan goes about like a "roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

JOB 2, again, another day "when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord." Satan shows up. He's going to try again. "The Lord said to Satan, "'Where have you come from?' Oh, "'Satan answered the Lord and said, 'From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.'" Just going around, doing harm, just making trouble, creating chaos, trying to destroy people." BUT, HIS DOMAIN IS EARTH…EARTH…EARTH…NOT HELL! HE DOES NOT HAVE ANY BUSINESS IN HELL.

Nowhere in the Bible does God tell us that Satan is, has, or ever will have any jurisdiction in Hell. Hell will be the devil’s judgment; never will he be the Judge.

Martin Luther said, "The devil is God's devil." God is God and He is sovereign.

What is Satan up to on earth?

Satan desires to pervert the truth so that what people hear isn't the truth. WHY? Satan has only one weapon that can damn to hell. Unforgiven sin.

His best way to prevent the proclamation of forgiving grace is through false doctrine--

Dwight Pentecost said, "Satan, of course, would rather not have to do this work of taking away the seed that has been sown. He would rather so control the one who is doing the preaching that something other than the good seed of the Word of God is proclaimed. Think of the work that Satan has to accomplish when the Word is preached: if there are 500 people present when the true Word of God is planted in 500 hearts, he has to have 500 demons to get into 500 different lives to take out that which has been sown. What an economy of operation it is if he can have those people who think they will be taught the Word of God hear some lie of the devil. He has had to work with only one individual instead of 500. But knowing that the Word of God will be proclaimed and that the truth of God will be declared, Satan has prepared to prevent the good seed of the Word from falling into the good ground so that it can bring forth fruit".

Satan would much rather pervert the truth than prevent people from receiving it. Even now he is actively perverting the truth by propagating false doctrine. (J. Macarthur)

THE RAMIFICATIONS IF THE DEVIL IS FALSLEY PRESENTED AS

GOD’S EXECUTOR OVER HELL

IT ATTACKS AND MISREPRESENTS THE ENTIRE CHARACTER OF GOD

Since God’s Attributes are gloriously manifested in His judgment…to present Satan as the judge over hell and the one who actually judges mankind for eternity, it annuls and mocks the Person of God and the whole counsel of God; additionally, the TRUE FEAR OF GOD is lost in the mist of a false target - Satan. We teach mankind to FEAR THE DEVIL. Nowhere in the Bible are we told to do that. And really, no one really does fear the devil…they think they can deal with the devil. They think that they can out-whit him.

This notion foils mankind’s capability to worship God in spirit and TRUTH.

Re 14:7 and he said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters."

MISREPRESENTS SATAN

How could God make the Evil One the executor of His righteous Judgment? How can the Righteous Judge of all the earth deputize the Originator of evil and the Corruptor of holiness to execute His holy verdict upon mankind?

What has God done? Is He now in league with the devil? Has He redeemed the devil so that he can function now as an angel of God’s vindication against sinful man? Is God colluding with His enemy? Could this be treason against heaven?

Hell is a unique crescendo of God’s dealings with each soul that has rejected Him. This is God’s moment to demonstrate and vindicate Himself to the universe. His wrath for every ignored warning and all His striving with sinful men during their lifetime and to those who have continually rejected Him is now being eternally executed.

TO THE GOSPEL

Has the church now become the expositor of false teaching? Is the church now preaching another gospel? The Gospel presented with this twist is not THE GOSPEL.

MISREPRESENTS MAN’S FUTURE DESTINY

Throughout the ages the premise that Man will prevail in the end has been his song of delight; he always has and will always win in the end. In every fairytale, every book, every movie, every imagination “…life will find a way…we shall prevail…”

Man always has triumphed over the devil and he can do it again, even in hell. If the devil is in charge of hell, then there must be a way out for man. Man has never lost to any foe…he will gain the edge at the last second.

Man believes he is the beginning and the end of all that there is, and in the final end, he will triumph again. Even if failure is forecast or doom is for certain, the inevitable is always postponed.

If Satan is the keeper of hell, then for mankind there is still a way out, even from hell. Man has always dealt with the devil and he can do it again. In this idea of hell, the Fear of God is not taught, but the Fear of the Devil is pronounced and highly animated. The devil is supreme in man’s judgment and it is him with whom we have to do and we are presented with a wishy-washy God who can’t bear to watch.

Biblically, however, Satan has no place beyond the grave with mankind. The devil has no dominion, domain, or jurisdiction beyond the grave. Satan has no word against mankind in the judgment. Hell is God’s holy ground and the first time Satan will ever see it is the moment when God casts him into it without second thought, without any debate, and with only one angel. Hell is not his living room nor is it his torture chamber against the lost souls of those who have died. Hell is the echo of God’s Holy Righteous Wrath sounded out throughout an eternity of Justice.

At that time, Satan and all his demons will neither know or be aware of any other soul in hell for he will be suffering the agony of GOD’s torture upon him for the eons of reckless rebellion and unspeakable evil. After all, hell was created for Satan and all his angels and thus the judgment of the evil one begins.

It is God with Whom we have to do in the great judgment. It is God who created hell and it is God who will judge man with an eternal judgment, and it is God who will execute His own sentence on man.

Man must see biblically that at the very end, they are up against God and it is God who is against them and He will prevail without struggle; there will be no way out, forever; God rules hell.

If the church presents hell as Satans’ Throne Room, then the Ramifications are as follows:

Bottom line #1, the essence and character of the Immutable God must change. He told us that judgment would be a specific way, administered by Him; but since HE has somehow gone into collusion with the devil, He is no longer Faithful, Just, Trustworthy, Righteous, Good, etc. He has relegated all execution of judgment to the devil. And, since He said that the devil and all his angels would be cast into the lake of fire, but they are now co-regents with God forever in His eternal judgment of lost sinners…God is a liar. We have no salvation; ultimately, all that the Bible reveals is a fanciful illusion of some spiritual concoction to a doomed collection of mankind.

Bottom line #2, the essence and character of Satan must change. He must now be given attributes of deity in order to KNOW every deed and every secret of every man throughout all history and all at the same time in order to execute fair and equitous judgment. He must also be imparted a righteous nature because that is the essence of hell and the type of judgment that God promised and must be executed. Satan is now righteous.

Bottom line #3, if Satan is not changed, then hell must be changed. It can no longer be a place where God’s Holy wrath is administered in Righteousness. Hell must be surrendered to Satan for vindictive, arbitrary, reckless, purposeless torture. Also, it will no longer be the place for Satan’s judgment, since he is now the Judge. Oh, of course if hell did change for Satan’s purpose, then again, God is a liar and impotent. Satan has usurped a Part of God’s Kingdom. He has kicked Christ out of His Judgment Seat and now rules. Satan lost heaven, but has gained hell. Satan rules with God.

Additionally, if God lets Satan rule hell, then eternal hellfire would reduce God to some sort of monster letting Satan run his own Auschwitz. Being tormented at the hands of cruel, unjust tyranny is a far cry from punishment inflicted by a totally pure, righteous, holy, and perfect Lord. His holiness has already been the subject of praise in Revelation (4:8, 11) and should recall the many statements of Scripture about His character and attributes. God will rule over hell, alone and with full absolute control. Satan will not even have a whisper.

Who Rules Hell? - Synopsis

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INTRODUCTORY SYNOPSIS

1. Regarding the satanic myth that the devil and his demons greet and torture souls in hell:

*Currently, Satan and his demons are not ruling over or present in any aspect of hell. Hell is not Satan’s throne room. There is no biblical evidence to support anything different.

*Satan and his demons are not the gatekeepers of hell in similarity to the opposite myth that St. Peter sits at the pearly gates of heaven.

*The only demons in hell are those who have already been cast there by God for judgment. Those demons are presently in hell and are under judgment themselves and are in no way assisting in God’s judgment of other souls present with them.

*The first time Satan will see hell will be the future day when God dispatches him to the abyss.

*Satan is restricted to earth where he roams about seeking whom he may devour. He may go before God occasionally to accuse the brethren. His domain doesn’t include hell.

Satan has no business doing God’s business.

2. The nature of God’s wrath in hell against the unsaved is just, righteous, meticulous, and His judgments are with absolute equity.

*God’s wrath against those in Hell is not a vindictive, arbitrary, reckless, circus-like torture chamber. God is no monster.

*Hell is an echo of the glory of God. It reveals the greatness of the glory that has been rejected and the greatness of Jesus' suffering because he bore that hell (judgment) for all who believe.

*Judgment on those in hell is specifically measured exactly and precisely for each of the billions and billions of unbelievers in hell. Every thought, every deed, every secret of every soul in hell will be judged specifically and righteously. Not one judgment against any soul in hell is exactly like another’s. Only an omniscient and all-powerful God can measure out and execute this kind of judgment to every soul for all eternity perfectly and simultaneously.

3. For the church to present to the world that the devil has been made God’s executor of judging mankind in hell promotes at least three heretical doctrines:

a. Righteousness must be imputed and imparted to Satan in order for him to execute God’s righteous wrath against sinners. Not only must Satan be made righteous and just, but also, he must be given certain elements of deity and a measure of equality with God.

b. If Satan is not made righteous and is not deified, then the nature of hell must be changed from God’s holy place of wrath to an Auschwitz of unspeakable evil.

c. If either Satan or hell is changed to adopt it as the devil’s throne room, then God must be unfaithful, unjust and unrighteous. God has clearly told us in His word that Satan will be judged in hell. He has also told us of the righteous nature of hell, too. Imagine instead, that God has made Satan the judge over hell? Would not God be a liar and everything else in the Bible subject to mistrust? Would not even our own salvation and eternal glory be fabrication as well?

4. If the church presents the devil as God’s deputized ruler over His hell, then we teach the world to fear the devil and not to Fear God. In reality, no one really fears the devil…they make deals with the devil and in all human lore, in the end, man always wins over the devil; there will always be an escape hatch somewhere in hell; thus, no one needs God to escape from future wrath.

5. Satan rebelled against God in a mutinous attempt to rule over heaven, but was handily cast out. Funny, he lost his challenge to defeat God in heaven, but now we give him a kingly crown to rule over God’s hell. Satan wanted a kingdom - Heaven, and we have given him one - Hell. Unwittingly, God’s people, duped by this myth, use this devilish lie of Satan to evangelize the unsaved. What is wrong with the TRUE GOSPEL that we must resort to myths to manipulate people to Christ?

2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine;

but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

(For further, read, "For Clarity in Regards to Who Rules Hell"

Does Jesus Address Homosexuality?

2011-09-16T12:40:00.003-04:00

IT CANNOT BE SAID THAT JESUS DID NOT ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF HOMOSEXUALITY

1. Jesus sustained the supremacy of OT Scripture. Why not, the Godhead Inspired it! He referred to OT Scripture constantly as Authority:

JN 17.17: “Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.”

The moral and righteous living references in the Old Testament are entirely relevant today – they were to Jesus.

2. Jesus stated that marriage is between a MAN and a WOMAN:

Matt 19.4-5 And He answered and said, “Have you not read, that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS CAUSE A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND SHALL CLEAVE TO HIS WIFE; AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’?

Jesus need not say what is not marriage, saying what is marriage is sufficient

GK Chesterton: “There are many, many angles at which you can fall but only one angle at which you can stand straight.”

3. Jesus commissioned His Apostles – His “Sent Ones” – to be His authority throughout the world in the Great Commission.

Acts 1.8* but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

4. The Apostles carried the confidence that when they spoke, it was as though Christ was speaking; thus, when the Apostles addressed the issues of righteous living, Christ was their Authority:

2Co 2:17* For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

Ga 1:12* For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

1Th 2:13* And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.

1Th 4:1-2* Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more. For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

1Ti 4:6* In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.

1Ti 6:3-4* If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions,

2Ti 3:16* All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

Heb 2:3* how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

2Pe 1:4* For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

2Pe 3:1-2* This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

2Pe 3:15-16* and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.

So, when the Apostles directly address the sin of homosexuality, or any sin, the Lord Jesus Christ is their Authority.

Rom 1.20f For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

1 Cor 6:9f Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals…

1 Tim1.8-11* But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous man, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.

So, what is Justification and Sanctification and what's the difference?

2011-08-23T09:04:00.002-04:00

JUSTIFICATION

CHRISTIAN’S POSITION / STANDING

“Justification” is a biblical term for an act of God’s grace whereby He declares that all the demands of the law are fulfilled on behalf of the believing sinner through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Justification is the reversal of God’s attitude toward the sinner. Whereas He formerly condemned, He now vindicates-not because of any good thing found in the sinner himself, but because of the imputed (credited) righteousness of Christ.

Because of justification, believers not only are perfectly free from any charge of guilt, but also have the full merit of Christ reckoned to their personal account. Justification and sanctification are both essential elements of salvation.

In its theological sense, justification is a forensic, or purely legal term. It describes what God declares about the believer, not what He does to change the believer. In fact, justification effects no actual change whatsoever in the sinner’s nature or character. Justification is a divine judicial edict. It changes our status only, but it carries ramifications that guarantee other changes will follow. Forensic decrees like this are fairly common in everyday life. ( Marriage Ceremony, Jury Foreman, etc.)

In biblical terms, justification is a divine verdict of “not guilty-fully righteous”; from

wrath to blessing. It is not just a pardon; pardon alone would still leave the sinner without merit before God. So when God justifies He imputes (credits) divine righteousness to the sinner (Rom 4.22-25).

Christ’s own infinite merit thus becomes the ground on which the believer stands before God -

Rom. 5:19 “For as through the one man's disobedience (Adam) the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One (Christ) the many will be made righteous.”

1 Cor. 1:30 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption...”

Phil. 3:9 “and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith...”

So justification elevates the believer to a realm of full acceptance and divine privilege in Jesus Christ.

Christ’s death paid the price so “PAID” can be written on the believer’s spiritual invoice…

(Col. 2:14 “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”)

…As our sin was imputed to Christ -

1 Pet. 2:24 “and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” So, His righteousness is imputed to the believer. No other payment or reimbursement is required.

Ps. 32:1-2 “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!”

Therefore because of Justification, the forensic realities and “Positional” truths which flow out of justification are as follows:

1. Believers are perfectly free from any charge of guilt.

Rom. 8:33 Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies...

2. Have the full merit of Christ reckoned to their personal account.

Rom. 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

3. Adopted as sons and daughters.

Rom. 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

4. Become fellow heirs with Christ.

Rom. 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

5. United with Christ / One with Him.

1 Cor. 6:17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

6. A new creation.

2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

7. POSITIONAL TRUTHS: Henceforth “in Christ”

Rom. 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Rom. 12:5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Rom. 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

1 Cor. 1:2 to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:”

Our life is hid with Christ in God

Col. 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

We are buried with Him by baptism into death

Rom. 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Col. 2:12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

We are one body in Him

Rom. 12:5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Christ is our life

Col. 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Our hope of Glory, Christ in us

Col. 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We are seated with Him

Eph. 2:6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus...

SANCTIFICATION

THE CHRISTIAN’S CONDITION / STATE

“Sanctification” is a biblical term, meaning in part, the daily and continuous operation of the Holy Spirit in believers, making us holy by conforming our character, affections, and behavior to the image of Christ.

Contrasting Justification and Sanctification:

Justification is distinct from Sanctification because in Justification God does not make the sinner righteous; He declares that person righteous

Rom. 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. and

Gal. 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.

Justification imputes Christ’s righteousness to the sinner’s account

Rom. 4:11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be reckoned to them;

Sanctification imparts righteousness to the sinner personally and practically (Rom 6.1-7; 8.11-14).

Justification takes place outside the sinner and changes the believer’s standing or position Rom. 5:1-2 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Sanctification is internal and changes the believer’s state or condition

Rom. 6:19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

Justification is an event, sanctification is a process.

Justification frees us from the guilt of sin, sanctification from the pollution of sin.

At Justification, we surrender the principle of sin and self-rule. In sanctification we relinquish the practice of specific sins as we mature in Christ.

When we trust Christ for salvation we settle the issue of who is in charge. At salvation we surrender to Christ in principle, but as Christians we will surrender in practice again and again. This practical outworking of His Lordship is the process of sanctification.

The two must be distinguished but can never be separated. God does not justify whom He does not sanctify, and He does not sanctify whom He has not justified. Both are essential elements of salvation.

1. Holiness is to be the TOUCHSTONE of the Christian Life.

Although justification is not sanctification, justification is intended to produce sanctification. Christ came in order to save His people from their sins; they were not to be saved in the midst of their sins and then lie down in them again.

Matt. 1:21 "And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins."

Though men seek to pervert the gospel, the Christian must not be drawn aside to any position other than that which demands holiness and which leads to holiness.

Heb. 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

Holiness starts where justification finishes, and if holiness does not start, it may be valid to suspect that justification never started either.

2. Christians cannot serve God and sin...living in two opposing spiritual domains simultaneously.

Matt. 6:24 "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

We are either slaves of sin by natural birth, or slaves of righteousness by regeneration. No true believer will continue indefinitely in disobedience, because sin is diametrically opposed to our new and holy nature. Real Christians cannot endure perpetual sinful living.

Col. 1:21-22 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach-- and (Rom 8.5-9)

3. Sanctification is not some second work of grace or second level experience that occurs sometime after conversion. There are not two stages in the Christian Life...Stage One, conversion - receiving Christ as Savior...Stage Two, consecration - surrendering to Him as Lord.

2 Pet. 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

1 Cor. 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

2 Thess. 2:13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

If the positional aspects of God’s truth are applicable to a life, His practical sanctifying work will also be operative in that same life.

4. There is an immediate aspect of sanctification that is simultaneous with justification. 1 Cor. 6:11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. This once-for-all aspect of sanctification is undoubtedly what the apostle had in view when he addressed the Corinthians as “those who have been sanctified”. 1 Cor. 1:2 to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours …

(This initial, immediate aspect is sometimes referred to as “Positional Sanctification”.)

Sanctification, unlike justification, is not a one-time, legal declaration. It is an experiential separation from sin that begins at salvation and continues in increasing degrees of practical holiness in one’s life and behavior. Sanctification may be observable in greater or lesser degrees from believer to believer. But it is not optional, nor is it separable from the other aspects of our salvation.

5. The “In Christ” aspect of Sanctification (Refer to #7 above under Justification)

To be “In Christ” is not only to believe some truths about Him, but rather to be united to Him inseparably as the source of our eternal life, as both the “author and perfecter of faith” (Heb 12.2). To be “In Him” is to be “in the process of sanctification.”

Paul’s stress is not on the immorality of continuing to live the way we did before we were saved, but on the impossibility of it (Rom 6.3-10). The whole purpose of our union in Christ’s death and resurrection with Christ is so that “we might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6.4). How could we continue in the realm of sin?

Certainly we can commit sins, but we do not live anymore in the dimension of sin and under sin’s rule (Rom 8.2-4). Sin is contrary to our new disposition. “No one who is born of God practices sin,” according to John, “because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9). It is not merely that we should not continue to live in unbroken sin but that we cannot.

6. There are not two kinds of righteousness-only two aspects of divine righteousness. Righteousness is a single package; God does not declare someone righteous whom He does not also make righteous. Having begun the process, He will continue it to ultimate glorification

Rom. 8:29-30 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Phil. 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

7. Sanctification is so much an essential part of salvation that the term is commonly used in Scripture as a synonym for salvation.

Acts 20:32 "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Acts 26:18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. '

1 Cor. 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,

1 Cor. 6:11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.

Heb. 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

Heb. 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

8. Paul attacks the notion that justification is the sum of God’s work in salvation.

Rom. 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Including Rom 6.11-14)

9. Our union with Christ guarantees a changed life.

Rom. 6:5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, We will share in His holy walk. Gal. 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. Our new life as Christians is not an amended old life but a divinely bestowed new life that is of the same nature as Christ’s very own. It is what our Lord spoke of when He promised abundant life

John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.

10. If the old self is not dead, then conversion has not occurred.

Gal. 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Eph. 4:22-24 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Col. 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

11. No genuine Christian lives in bondage to sin.

1 Pet. 4:1-2 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

Rom. 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.

12. Even our sanctification is by faith.

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith.

As HOLINESS is to be the TOUCHSTONE of the Christian Life (#1 above),

the HALLMARK of Grace is an OBEDIENT HEART.

Rom. 6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,

A person whose heart has not been changed is likely not saved.

13. Obedience does not produce or maintain salvation, but it is the inevitable characteristic of those who are saved. The desire to know and obey God’s truth is one of the surest marks of genuine salvation. Jesus made it clear that those who obey His word are the true believers.

John 8:31 Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;

John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

John 14:21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him."

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him.

John 14:24 "He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.

John 15:10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.

14. Slaves of sin, unbelievers, are free from righteousness...

Rom. 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

Christians, on the other hand, are free from sin and enslaved to God through faith in Jesus Christ...

Rom. 6:22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

The inevitable benefit of salvation is sanctification, and the ultimate outcome is eternal life.

God not only frees us from sin’s penalty ( Justification ), but He frees us from sin’s tyranny as well ( Sanctification ) and AT THE SAME TIME.

Contemporarily speaking, God IMPUTES $1,000,000 into our bank account (Justification-declares us righteous through Christ), and IMPARTS the Holy Spirit into our hearts to empower us to live like millionaires (Sanctification-makes us holy through the Holy Spirits’ working). He makes us to become what He has declared us to be.

Happily Divorced?

2011-08-21T23:20:00.027-04:00

This article does not address a married couple that is very giddy about a divorce and who is already on the fast track for remarriage, even while their present marriage is still current. Neither does this article address a couple that portrays no demonstrative remorse for the demise of their covenant. A couple that displays a disconnect to the gravity of such circumstances possesses a rip current in their souls that bottoms out in the deep void of a vast wasteland than one can comprehend. All is not hopeless, the resolution to their marriage woes lies in the redemption of their heart and soul.

This article addresses the couple who recognize their destructive path and readily acknowledges that something indeed has gone wrong. They confess that this river of despair is far deeper than they alone can tread. They may not yet be persuaded that it was they who walked down this road of disintegration by their own means, but may be willing to hear a word of the insolubleness of marriage.

Perhaps they will see that a marriage is a refuge, not a refuse. It is a refuge under which God provides a forever-bond that shelters and protects a man and woman from wandering through a labyrinth of swirling emotions and spiraling affairs. It is a providence that enables a man and woman to comprehend more clearly His divine presence and infinite graces so freely lavished in a union with Him.

A married couple going through the throws of a painful union wants instant reconciliation, justice, or some action that reverses their current marital condition. Often, a dying marital relationship must turn to recover in the same manner in which its life was lost, step-by-step in the opposite direction, day-by-day.

For those considering a divorce, the decision to marry the spouse to whom they are now wed was a decision made without the clarity and gravity it deserved. More or less, we want micro solutions for mega issues and we want shortcuts and elevators uphill to a mountain top. We presently act as though past decisions are of no current relevance. Nothing done in a marriage can ever be undone, regardless of what a divorce decree may litigate. The wedding bound two individuals into one and the marriage grew one life from the two. Marriage is not a secular event. Marriage was designed and contemplated in the mind of God. Mankind was created in His image. Marriage relates us to one another and to God. It doesn’t matter whether one “believes” in God or not - life and marriage is of God. Whether one agrees or not, this is gapless logic. There will be a day when everyone will give account to Him and there will be no denying this fact.

The downward destructive relationship for each individual that was repressed in marriage will only heighten in separation. Whatever the nature for destruction that LIVED between the partners, will only THRIVE when divorce has replaced the marriage. The marriage was not a dissolute union, rather, the union was a marriage destitute of God.

It is not judgmental or cruel to resist the option of a divorce between two people, rather the resistance to divorce is a compliant yielding to the will of God as we hold the Highest Regard for His Institution of Marriage. It is more important to retain this high view of marriage than to compromise it’s life long covenant for selfish pursuits. When we understand that all of life is all about God, then we will live our life all out for Him with all out intensity and in the pleasure of His will.

Regardless of what a writ of divorce may decree, there is still a relationship between the two – it has not ended, but only changed. As weeds in a garden that have subtly consumed the beauty therein, so has the lie of divorce so confused the truth of independence.

A hundred times have we heard that the two are now better off as friends and things have never been better. The couple convinces themselves that they can be friends after divorce and somehow life for the two will be better apart than life together.

One must understand that no matter how convulsive a marriage may become, it is not the will of God that any should divorce. We are too concerned about the present condition of our marriage and we rage uncontrollably when questioned about our right to be happy or to not be condemned to stay with the other rather than be concerned about how we never obeyed the will of God with all our intensity at the onset of our relationship long before the altar.

It was never God’s will that we should be joined in marriage without being joined with Him first. Our uniting with our Creator is preliminary to our uniting in marriage. When we are “right” with Him in the beginning, we will receprically be right with one another. A bad start leads to a bad journey and, sadly, a dismal end.

A divorce attempts to “restore” the two to individuality, but can only rip apart one life into two broken pieces; both parts are now torn and scarred and neither will ever be intact as before. No one can just start over again. There are no “re-do’s without ramifications”. Every union that a divorce may end, begins permanent and indelible chasms.

It has been said by many people, “I married the wrong person”. Not True.

Noone married the wrong person. If it were true that any one person married the wrong person, then it must be said that a timeless and world wide chain of events has been created to where everyone married the wrong person...

“If you married the wrong person, then that means you married someone else's spouse, thus, another person married your spouse, then, who married that person’s spouse?” It could go forever.

The logic is not valid.

No person entered the marriage relationship with the wrong mate, rather, they entered into marriage with a wrong relationship to God. Would the married couple have been in right relationship with God, through Christ, then they would be in right relationship with each other.

A relationship between a man and a woman that is precipitously encountered and leads to the altar, should not be blamed on God if their marriage precipitously leads to divorce. A relationship that labors in love for God’s will at it’s inception is a marriage that labors in love through a monogomous lifetime.

So, how does one know who to marry? It is the one you marry that is the Will of God. If we are “doing” God’s will, then we will live in God’s will. The individuals who are moving toward marriage and are doing God’s will, most certainly will marry in God’s will. They may have all the confidence of God’s presence and pleasure in faith, up until they are pronounced, “Man and Wife”. Then, at that very moment, their faith becomes sight and they know that they have married their partner for life. Said another way, they may be 90% sure of their future partnership in marriage and 10% in confidence of faith, but when they are pronounced “man and wife”, they are 100% certain.

God shows mankind such great dignity as creatures created in His image, that He permits them to make decisions that will derive great pain and personal desolation and may even cost them their very life; both in the flesh and in eternity.

A marriage that now has no present stability is a marrige that had no previous foundation.

It was never God’s intent that anyone live a day without Him.

Addendum: A hard-hitting note to parents...

Moms and dads, step-moms, step-dads, single moms and single dads, we know the pain of making wrong decisions that shape our future. We know how it is to live an, “If only” life:

“If only I had not…”,

“If only I would have…”, or

“If only I had done this or that…”.

For many of us, we keep going back to pick up the pieces. We are too busy trying to fix our own lives from our preceding muddles to have the energy, focus, and open passion we need to guide our children from following in our footsteps. Mending our own pain from wrong decisions gives us little stage to preclude the same mistakes that would lead our children into dark days not unlike our own past. How can we lead them any further than we ourselves have gone? In what truth can they be persuaded when we ourselves have failed to obey what we have denied as Truth? Leonard Ravenhill has said, “Truth never becomes yours until it becomes you”.

There was a time when we would have given anything to go back and start over in our lives. “If only” we could undo that moment, or moments, that led to the next and to the next…had we not tasted that “Turkish Delight” and fancied more and more. Now, it has come to pass that a shadow grows on the wall. A child has struck discord in your home and what now ambles around the corner is a challenge to your authority and an abrupt end to childhood innocence. We shall soon be startled to discover that those little feet are following our old serpentine ways that were thought to be undiscoverable.

“What we excuse in moderation, our children will abuse in excess”

And presently, our preceding sins will be revived in our children. We can “If only” ourselves to death about where our on personal decisions have taken us, but soon we will bear a burden so regretful that we would walk as dead men. Our children will follow our steps. They will make those same mistakes. We thought that we had pretty well covered our tracks; they were only covered from our own eyes. Our children have eyes – they see.

Inevitably, a whole new category of “If only” burdens rise:

“If only I had parented better…”,

“If only I had done right before my children…”.

We have carried our own saddles for so long and now we will carry those of our children. Our daughters will come back into our homes with their fatherless children. Our sons will leave fatherless children in a hopeless world. Drugs, alcohol, sexual wantonness, gripping fears, married infidelity are all but a few dizzying expiries in which our children will be enchained. We will spend the rest of our lives bearing not only our own distresses, but also, the life crushing burdens of our children. We have lost another generation to the wind. And, so sadly, what was once a joyful journey in life for a budding family of hope and fullness for our children has become a salvage yard for broken hearts and dreams. We die inside.

*Where is there hope? Where is God? Is there some sort of divine eraser for my life? Can I start over?

There is darkness so thick that it chokes the breath from our chests. It grips the bravest warrior with waves of claustrophobic fever; but even the faintest hint of light will instantaneously snatch the eye to itself in the thickest black of night. Better yet, God is not a mere hint of light flickering in and out of view. He is a spear and bolt of fantastic brilliance that can knock the weary soul to the knees. His presence is so bright, that darkness flees in peril. When we are drowning in alarming swells of hopelessness, He brings up from the abyss a sure and steady firmament. He is Light. He is the Solid Rock. He is the Resurrection and the Life.

De 32:4 “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.

2Sa 22:3 My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; My savior, Thou dost save me from violence.

2Sa 22:32 “For who is God, besides the LORD? And who is a rock, besides our God?

Ps 18:2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Ps 62:7 On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life…”

John 8:12 Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

John 9:5 “… I am the light of the world.”

1Jo 1:5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

*Where do we start with God when we have lived so long without Him? We start from where we have fallen. Turn you eyes toward Him and stop your striving:

Ps 46:10 “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

*Turn around. Repent of your own ways and save nothing of yourselves. You have seen how life on your own has led to a lonely life. Yield to your Creator, Lover and Provider of mankind.

Lu 13:3 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Ac 3:19 “Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;

*Be made righteous and purified, washed from your sins in His sight.

2 Cor 5.21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Philip 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

Col 1:13-14 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

*Can I start over? Is it too late? How much of my trouble will He take away and how many consequences must I endure?

Everyone turns to God’s calls from heaven to His beloved Israel when they need hope. We can see God’s pleading heart for His people to disembark from their rebellious way. We can see God’s redemptive promises to a people who have lost their way. We can see the promise of God’s sacrificial gift of His only begotten Son. And, we have beheld that promise at the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We remember the cross where His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins and a bridge to close the chasm between our Heavenly Father and us. We rejoiced when the tomb could not hold Him and death was conquered and when heaven was opened to us. Surely, in Christ, we see a sovereign God Who can shape and recover a life that we have broken. He brings to life that which is dead. He can wash away the years that have been squandered. God is the God of the lowly, the contrite, and faint of heart. He will mend and He will restore. It is to the sick that He came to heal and to the sinner who He came to forgive.

Dan 9:9 “To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him;

Eze 36:26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ps 34:18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Ps 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted, And binds up their wounds.

Joe 2:25 “Then I will make up to you for the years That the swarming locust has eaten,

Mt 26:28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

Ro 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Eph 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace,

Tit 2:14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

But, again one might ask, from the decisions I’ve made, will this banquet of consequences remain forever?

Just what “troubles” remain in ones life beyond redemption remains in the sovereign and providential hands of God. All ramifications of ones sin will become an honorarium to His wonderful working power. All scars and all devastation will be a tributary to His honor. He will take the darkest blot in your life and work it to His own glory. Consequences may endure, but they will be the tools He uses to pave a new way for you and a gallery of artifacts from what you were saved. The consequences are there to be an effervescence of praise. One will say, “From this is what I was saved and will never forget.” The consequences are no longer there to reprimand us, but to remind us.

Israel left God and fell under siege at the hands of the Philistines. Many years of defeat facing the Philistines coincided with the spiritual drought in the land. During this period of godlessness in Israel, the Philistines had defeated Israel time and again and they drew up against Israel and shook them to their core. When Israel turned to God, He miraculously saved them.

The prophet Samuel built a stone memorial and called it, “Ebenezer”. This Ebenezer was raised so that Israel would remember how God had delivered them from the Philistines, and that they might remember what life was like without Him.

1Sa 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”

The Consequences that remain in our life may in like manner be our Ebenezer to remember how and from what God delivered us.

Additionally, consequences are a testimony of how precious we are to God. As mentioned before, He has granted mankind great dignity. It is an exclusive gift to us above all His creation. We alone are created in His image and His likeness. It is the basis for human dignity.

Ps 100.3 "It is He that has made us and not we ourselves"

Being created in the image and likeness of God, is this exceptional gift that serves as the basis for us to have a relationship with God. We are the crown of His creation. What a fearful honor it is to be created to walk with God. It is fearful because with this distinction of honor comes ominous responsibility. He has given us the choice to worship Him.

And, with this dignity comes freedom. This freedom belongs to humans alone. He has also given us the dignity and freedom to choose our own way and to live out from under His divine blessings and pleasure. Our choice to freely enter into a relationship with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ is the noblest gift that can be given. And, in like turn, the dignity He grants us to not choose fellowship with Him is the greatest squandering of life in the entire universe; thus, come the consequences of spiritual drought. This dignity is not a freedom to do what we want, but the ability to do what we ought. When we do not what we ought, we are adrift on perilous seas sailing toward unavoidable shipwreck. Consequences are inevitable.

Further, His purpose is not firstly to make us happy or even to cleanse us from sin and to right our wrongs; His first purpose is to glorify Himself.

1Co 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Others will see the redemptive work of God in your life. They will know that God has been at work. They will taste the salt and see the light that you have become. You are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. You will be a monument to the grace and power of God. Christ will be glorified and lifted up and others will be drawn to Him.

Joh 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”

When Christ was nearing His death on the cross, His premier focus was to glorify His Father. When we come to Christ for salvation, our foremost aim should be to glorify God – even above the restoration of our family and the reconstruction of our lives. When in our sufferings as Christians, our chief end must be to glorify God.

Joh 21:19 Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me!”

1Pe 4:16 but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God.

All the “If Only’s” will be swept away.