The Christian Doctrine of Apostasy, Pt 1

The Bible teaches the Christian doctrine of apostasy; that is, it is simply falling away from God's divine and holy and sacred truth.  We see much apostasy today in our world; that is, if someone converts from the Christian faith and embraces a strange or foreign doctrine or faith devoid of the divine Scriptures, it is apostasy.  Those of us who have embraced the Christian faith or Protestant faith or Reformed faith, should never depart from it.  Many Protestants ministers have rejected the Christian faith and embraced Romanism.  We ought never to embrace Romanism because it is a system of beliefs devoid of the Holy Ghost and His divine grace and truth.  No true Christian will fall away and if a true Christian commits some kind of apostasy, the Lord is faithful to forgive. 

National Apostasy 
1 Kings 12:26-33 KJV

²⁶ And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
²⁷ If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
²⁸ Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
²⁹ And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
³⁰ And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
³¹ And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
³² And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.
³³ So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

Individual Apostasy 
2 Kings 21:1-9 KJV

21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzibah.

² And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.
³ For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
⁴ And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.
⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.
⁶ And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
⁷ And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
⁸ Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.
⁹ But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel.
Hebrews 3:12 KJV

¹² Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

General Apostasy 
2 Timothy 3:1-5 KJV

3 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

² For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
³ Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
⁴ Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
⁵ Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Law and Apostasy 
Acts 21:21 KJV

²¹ And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

Angelic Apostasy 
2 Peter 2:4 KJV

⁴ For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Final Apostasy 
2 Thessalonians 2:3 KJV

³ Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

Apostasy and Enlightenment
Hebrews 6:1-8 KJV

6 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

² Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
³ And this will we do, if God permit.
⁴ For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
⁵ And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
⁶ If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
⁷ For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
⁸ But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

Is the Jehovah’s Witness Christian?

Christians Are Possessors of Faith

Christians know the Lord Jesus as the Living Yahweh in human flesh:  Jesus Christ is Yahweh in human flesh (John 1:14).  This means Jesus is divine, but not solely divine; He has a human nature; two natures in all; Jesus is one person, the Incarnate Savior.  We know and love Him because He first knew and loved us.  Jesus Christ is not simply an exalted angelic creature but rather He is the LORD Almighty (the Second Person of the Holy Trinity).  There are Jehovah’s Witnesses who seem to respond with their trained answers when evangelism takes place between a Christian and a Jehovah’s Witness.  Christian apologetics is not merely a spiritually vain and groundless trained response.  His God-ordained elect are used as a means by God to accomplish His beloved will in the proclamation of His divine truth. We must give scripturally founded answers to Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Those that are hostile to the Reformed faith must be countered with biblical answers derived from Holy Writ to present God’s truth.  We must genuinely put forth a defense of our faith.  Christians are possessors and professors of the notable faith of Christ. Christians are not merely professors of faith.  We must be possessors of true faith in Christ in order to be professors of faith in Christ to present the gospel of pure grace to a lost group: the Watchtower Organization (hereafter WTO).

We are all eternally indebted to God the Holy Spirit who changed our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.  Jehovah’s Witnesses have not experienced God’s changing power in regeneration.  God does not change a sinner’s heart to believe the wrong Jesus, in fact, another Jesus, wholly devoid of the Jesus of Holy Writ.  If people are not possessors of faith from the sole work of the Triune God in soteriology, plainly revealed in the divine Scriptures, they have no credible and true basis to authentically proclaim God’s divine truth from the Author of supernatural truth; the Sinless and Blessed Spirit of truth.  Our changed heart of possessing true and lasting faith from the enabling work of the Holy Spirit in monergistic regeneration (that is, being born from above) enables us to make a true profession of faith.  Christians have an assured hope in accordance with the Father’s will, purchased by His Son at Calvary, and enabled by the Holy Ghost.  We speak from our hearts of hope; the heart of Christ possessed by God’s Spirit under Christ’s control in conjunction with our Heavenly Father’s will. 

If we remain silent we contribute to the problem of the impurity of doctrine of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  The doctrines of Jehovah’s Witnesses are polluted because their doctrines are scripturally unsupported, doctrinally false, and they themselves are spiritually devoid of the Father’s Spirit.  Their doctrine does not have a scriptural or spiritual substance to it.  It is simply empty; devoid of any saving truth.  This is why an empty message produces empty souls; devoid of the spotless Spirit of truth. Silence allows for the continual manifestation of foul doctrine and leaves room for further spiritual crimes of impure doctrine against people and has devastating and eternal ramifications whether we acknowledge it or not.  Silence in the face of polluted doctrine, in this case when dealing with WTO, is the very antithesis of Christ and His beloved church. 

People without the Spirit of God in them have no business engaged in any kind of Christian ministry.  It is impossible to have a God-honoring and God-glorifying ministry without the Holy Spirit (of which the WTO rejects and denies, for they deny the true and actual divinity and personality of the Holy Spirit, thereby denying God Himself and disqualifies their unprofitable man-centered ministry).  The WTO has the appearance of ministry but does not actually have a God-honoring ministry.  We know it has no God-exalting truth regarding the nature of salvation and who Christ is, because of what they truly teach.  Their ministry has no Scriptural basis.  It exists in spreading wild fire heresy throughout our world.  Throughout this book it will be conclusively demonstrated and responsibly documented to truthfully present the ultimate and final conclusion of Sacred Scripture.  Their false theology requires answers.  We are called as Christian spiritual warriors to answer with gentleness and reverence.  We are to always remain in a state of humility within our blessed sanctification.  We must trust God to transform their ways.  Reverent awe of our Lord is consistent with the Christian life.  We are to have a single-minded way of Christ to live in the liberty of Christ possessing the outworking fruits of God’s divine and personal Holy Spirit. 

The truthful theology of biblical Christianity derived from Holy Writ is essential for our knowledge in presenting God’s truth.  When we hear what non-believers say we can give a suitable response always adhering to Scripture.  We are to speak in our Lord’s presence.  Our Triune Lord is everywhere and knows all things.  When we speak anything about God it is to be in a state of assuredly knowing that God is present, listening to what we say about Him.  If we speak falsely about our Lord, it is a spiritual offense against Him.  We must always be knowledgeable and prepared to lovingly present God’s truth to a fallen world.  We are to be responsible in what we say about God.  He has given us our minds to serve, exalt, honor, glorify and worship Him alone.

We are commanded, as opposed to an invitation, to believe Jesus Christ and to love one another.  Jesus Himself is the Incarnate One Who came to be the divine answer to polluted, totally depraved, and spiritually insane people who cannot keep God’s commandments. 

What does it mean to be a true Christian?  Or who makes a true Christian?  It is, indeed, God alone who makes a true Christian, not man.  It is wholly God Who makes a Christian.  Man-centered theology would have us believe, man, under the disguise of Christianity makes a Christian.  Man has elevated himself through his perverse spiritual irrationality in man-centered theology in which case he has manufactured God in his own image, a God made with human hands, which is in fact, no God at all in reality, and it is, indeed, a stench in the nostrils of God.  Thus all the religions of this world and others who falsely misrepresent God’s divine truth, either in their worldly foolishness, or their false understandings, as Jehovah’s Witnesses have done and continue to do, fail at every point where the Reformed faith succeeds.  Rather then being a man-centered religion of this world, the Reformed faith rightly and correctly exalts, honors, glorifies and magnifies God Himself, as the sole Author of salvation, which is from Scripture, of Scripture and because of Scripture alone.  It is God-centered theology alone that is orthodox and true.  It is not simply a theoretical assumption but rather it is true in real life (whether we acknowledge it or not, it is true, in the lives of His elect people because only the elect respond); the grace of God alone is experienced.

Although the WTO claims to adhere to the verbal inspiration of holy Scripture, it denies it in its practice to the adherence of Russell and Rutherford.  The WTO wrongly elevates its organization over Scripture.  The doctrine of the infallibility of the Bible is muddled by the gross and fallacious ways of their subjective hermeneutic.  Their hermeneutic provides an avenue for false presumptuous renderings of the text of Scripture itself and promotes a spiritually unhealthy imagination regarding doctrine which negatively affects their members in believing polluted doctrine.  Believing orthodox doctrine is not evidence of being saved, being born again is.  Someone can believe orthodox doctrine and not be saved.  Although this is true, the belief and adherence to unorthodox doctrine shows they are surely not saved.

I agree with those who say that Jehovah’s Witnesses is wholly improper for followers of the Watchtower because in reality these pretenders are followers of Russell and Rutherford.  The followers of the Watchtower are not true Jehovah’s Witnesses but rather they are in essence Jehovah’s false Witnesses.  Although I use the terminology of “Jehovah’s Witnesses” I do not mean that they are actually true Christians.  Rather I use this terminology merely to identify them.  I agree that the proper name for them is Russellites not Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses. 

What Makes a Christian?

From God’s true irresistible grace (that is, sovereign monergistic regeneration) by God the Holy Spirit we express through our changed will, assured faith alone.  The sole ground for justification is the Incarnate Christ, having the imputed unified righteousness of the divine Lamb of God (in terms of the passive and active obedience of Christ) accounted to His elect only, and having our sins imputed to the matchless Incarnate divine Substitute, Jesus Christ.  The sin of God’s preordained elect only was transferred, given, accounted and imputed to the eternal Son of God, wholly sufficient, without any insufficiency; wholly unlimited in the benefits of the atonement of Jesus Christ for and to His beloved elect only.  The atonement of Christ was done by Christ alone for the elect alone, and it is applied by God the Holy Ghost (from the Father through His Son) to the elect alone.  Therefore, Christ is the perfect Incarnate Redeemer.

The atonement of Christ did not make Him a sinner when He willingly died at Calvary (nor was He a sinner at anytime in His life; He did not freely die to atone for any sin of Himself, but rather, He was and is without sin.  He died for the sin of His people, and He became sin so His people may become the righteousness of God in Him.  He died to God the Father; that is, He offered of Himself, the perfect ransom (a sweet fragrance unto God the Father), and He remains the impeccable, eternal, and unchanging Son of Man, Christ Jesus, the Victor).  He wholly and freely bore the totality of the sins of His people alone in their place in complete fullness.  The just dreadful wrath of our Heavenly Father was satisfied through, by and because of His Beloved Son. The sins of God’s people were expiated, that is, removed from all them as far as the east is from the west, and Christ appeased the wrath of God.  God the Father has accepted what the God-man, the selfless, all-sufficient, spotless, sinner-Seeker, has done for His people.  The sufficient work of the God-man was, indeed, and still is, wholly and completely well-pleasing to His Beloved Father.  What Christ Himself accomplished on the cross at Calvary, was not in opposition to His Beloved Father’s will but was in complete and total harmony with it and perfect cooperation to it. 

The cross of the Incarnate Lamb did not merely potentially save God’s people but actually saved His people. The alien righteousness of Christ alone avails before God the Father Himself.  There is no division or separation between the Father and the Son.  Christ Himself, the God-man, paid for our eternal sin debt which we could never pay.  God makes a heavenly and true forensic declaration in their justification of His own, once and for all, which is not a process.  His people’s salvation is dependent upon the Triune Lord Himself not man; indeed, it is God-dependent, that is, all by, from and because of God’s sheer and pure sovereign grace alone.  It is of Christ alone, because of Christ alone, and from Christ alone, wholly in behalf of totally depraved sinners.  When God bestows upon His people, graciousness, it is not from obligation but by His blessed voluntary work of His holy kindness and tender abundant mercies. It is wholly God-glorifying and God-magnifying, which is all divinely predestinated and foreordained, before the world began for His blessed elect only.  The elect of the Lamb will preserve because of the preservation of God Himself.  Those who are truly regenerate will truly preserve unto the very end.  God safely keeps His chosen from truly falling away.  His sovereign work alone is irrevocable and unchangeable.  Indeed, it cannot be undone.  This is what a Christian is, and it is entirely foreign to the WTO.

Exposing Falsehoods

We are called to love devoid of any hypocrisy, rightly hate evil, and truly cling tenaciously to good (Romans 12:9) based on the final, sufficient and sole infallible authority, the Holy Scriptures (Second Timothy 3:14-17) and we are to responsibly search them (see Acts 17:11).

          Jehovah’s Witness literature declares that exposing falsehoods is not persecution:

Can there be false religion? It is not a form of religious persecution for anyone to say and to show that another religion is false. It is not religious persecution for an informed person to expose publicly a certain religion as being false, thus allowing persons to see the difference between false religion and true religion. But in order to make the exposure and show the wrong religions to be false, the true worshiper will have to use an authoritative means of judgment, a rule of measurement that cannot be proved faulty. To make a public exposure of false religion is certainly of more value than exposing a news report as being untrue; it is a public service instead of a religious persecution and it has to do with the eternal life and happiness of the public. Still it leaves the public free to choose.  (Watchtower, November 15, 1963, p. 688).

It is surely not the approach of this author to persecute Jehovah’s Witnesses in anyway whatsoever.  My approach is to provide biblical answers, and defend divine truth against false doctrine.  The doctrines of Scripture should come from Scripture alone not from tradition, ignorance, subjectivism or the authority of an errant and human organization over Holy Writ. 

          The WTO proclaims, believing in one true religion is not egotistical:

Why should anyone practice a religion unless he is convinced that it is true and right? It is not egotistical for a worshiper to say and believe that his is the only true religion. However, he ought to be able to prove that his is the only one that is correct and that results in eternal blessings. Otherwise, his faith in his religion is foundationless and is mere credulity.  (Watchtower, November 15, 1963, p.688-689).

Although it is true that there is one true religion, it is not true that this true religion is the WTO.  All religions allege different beliefs which contradict each other.  All of them cannot be true.  We know there is one truth because of what Scripture states, and what God has presented in His Word as truth.  It is true that it is not egotistical to believe one true way, unless it is a way that is not the way of God.  If a religion claims to be the right way, and their claim is from a merely human invention of truth and not from God, it is, then egotistical.  It is arrogant to say that “this is the true way” when it is from man and not from God.  But to claim to be the true way is right if it is from God alone, because God is the Author of Truth not man.  Therefore I believe the WTO is egotistical in claiming it is the true religion because it rejects, denies and obstructs God’s divine Word and His glorious truth. 

This demonstrates that publicly revealing falsehoods about a certain religion is not persecution and believing concerning one true way is not necessarily wrong only if the one true way can be proven to be that.  It is not sufficient for Jehovah’s Witnesses to cry persecution when Reformed apologetists provide a meaningful exegesis of Scripture and, therefore, providing substantive biblically based answers devoid of the traditions of men and doctrines of demons.  For it is not persecution but rather a Christian apologetic based from Holy Scripture.  Such behavior is not biblically permissible to cry persecution when answers are rightly supplied but the only reaction of this sort is a suppression of God’s divine truth and outright rebellion against the Holy and Blessed Trinity in the adherence to false religion.  The exclusivity of Christ in the Christian faith cannot be true if it has its sole source from an errant organization.  The source of believing the exclusivity of Christ is the sole matchless written Word (see Acts 4:12). 

          Someone cannot argue from a standpoint of binding on the conscience unless it is God Himself in His sole infallible word not a fallible and errant organization.  The unwavering written Word of God actually changes lives in truth and in reality (regeneration occurs by God the Spirit under the God-man’s control from the will of God the Father) not deceptive doctrine from a Unitarian perversion of the nature of God from a flawed organization. 

          The purpose of honestly revealing documented falsehoods concerning Jehovah’s Witness religion is to demonstrate and make known the misleading and gross distortions of the WTO and to rightly establish the impurity of their doctrine and defend and maintain the purity of doctrine of the Reformed faith grounded firmly in Holy Writ.  Thus it is essential to be discerning in an ever undiscerning world. 

Born In Captivity: A Study of the Nature of Sin

CHAPTER 1:  Evil All the Time (Genesis 6:5)

CHAPTER 2:  Desperately Wicked (Jeremiah 17:9)

CHAPTER 3:  No One Is Righteous (Romans 3:10)

CHAPTER 4: No One Understands Nor Seeks God (Romans 3:11)

CHAPTER 5:  All Have Turned Aside (Romans 3:12)

CHAPTER 6:  They Have Become Worthless (Romans 3:12)

CHAPTER 7:  No One Is Good Not Even One (Romans 3:12)

CHAPTER 8:  Open Graves (Romans 3:13)

CHAPTER 9:  Tongues Which Practice Deceit (Romans 3:13)

CHAPTER 10:  The Poison of Asps Is Under Their Lips (Romans 3:13)

CHAPTER 11:  Full of Cursing and Bitterness (Romans 3:13)

CHAPTER 12:  Swift To Shed Blood (Romans 3:15)

CHAPTER 13:  Ruin and Misery Mark Their Ways (Romans 3:16)

CHAPTER 14:  They Do Not Know the Way of Peace (Romans 3:17)

CHAPTER 15:  No Fear of God Before Their Eyes (Romans 3:18)

CHAPTER 16:  Nothing Good Dwells in my Flesh (Romans 7:18)

CHAPTER 17:  The Flesh Cannot Please God (Romans 8:8)

CHAPTER 18:  The Ten Commandments: God Showing Us Our Sin (Exodus 20:1-17)

CHAPTER 19:  Apart From Christ You Have No Covering (Philippians 3:9)

CHAPTER 20:  The Christ-Call of Christ-Appointed Repentance (Mark 1:15)

CHAPTER 1:  Evil All the Time (Genesis 6:5)

            The state of an unregenerate person is a state of the abiding of spiritual evil.  Most people do not view themselves as evil, but if we approach God’s throne in light of His immaculate goodness we will tremble at the thought of our “sin-tainted” righteousness.  It fails to meet the standard of ultimate perfection. 

We are evilly corrupt, because we have Adam’s nature.  It is true that all men are not as even as they could be, but the bare assertion of our nature understands our radical corruption. Spiritual corruption affects all of life, and every dimension of our being is tainted with sin.  Most people have a cavalier understanding of what sin is, and how God views it.  Let us behold the least of sins: what do you suppose God’s reaction is?  It is a reaction of judgment against sin, because we are evil all the time: even our best works have the tainting of evil, and so it is insufficient for us to merit heaven.  In the days of Noah, people engaged in the corruptions of unrighteousness, and such are the days we live in. 

The evil of man will end in eternal hell.  There is a price to pray for evil, and we must understand that evil came from the fall of Adam. 

Are your thoughts tainted with sin?  Do you regard the least of sin as having the greatest judgment of God?  Do you understand that sin is an eternal offense against the only true eternal God? 

If you have an improper view of the gravity of sin, you will have an improper view of what it takes to save you.  If man is evil all the time, he is need of a righteousness that comes from outside of him as extra nos. 

I suppose this final question:  What do you do with the evil in your heart, and how will you obtain the divine righteousness of Christ to cloth yourself?

CHAPTER 2:  Desperately Wicked (Jeremiah 17:9)

            Do you regard yourself as desperately wicked in light of God’s perfect standard that is Himself?  How do you view the smallest sin in your life?  Do you understand it as “It is not that bad?”  Do you make excuses fro yourself in the least of sins? 

            It is true that all sin is sin, but it is also true that there are different degrees of sin.  Some are great, and others are small.  In the world, there are great sinners and small sinners.  The Lord is Lord of both believing sinners. 

            As we grant the great sinners and small sinners as different degrees, we recognize the profound truth of God as immaculately and superlatively holy. 

            The thought of adultery is sin, but the action of adultery is a greater sin.  However, all is sin nonetheless, but do you say that the thought of adultery is not profoundly heinous in God’s sight?  Do you find yourself arguing for it? 

            What if God understands your smallest sin as a cosmic transgression?  What if He comprehends it in light of an ever-perfect standard as sinlessly holy?  Would you argue against God if He said “Your smallest sins are an infinite offense?”  If God does not permit Himself to engage in those “smallest sins,” why would He approve of your commission or omission of sin?

CHAPTER 3:  No One Is Righteous (Romans 3:10)

            Do you argue that good works of helping the poor and oppressed is enough to gain God’s cosmic approval?  Do you see it as a way of righteousness before God? 

            Can the unrighteous have spiritual righteousness as an enemy of God?  Can the unrighteous from within themselves gain righteousness? 

            The unrighteous man breaks the Law of God.  He commits sin by commission and omission, and what is his eternal solution?  Can I gain eternal life by a bare obedience to a display of “outward goodness” or an infusion of “excess” merit?  Does it matter if God approves or disapproves of how I view eternal life?  Does it matter that I disobey a law here and there? 

            If we look at Jesus’ heart, do you see a “venial” sin as you would argue it?  You do not see a “venial” sin, but yet you argue for dedication to Christ’s heart.  If you would argue against a venial-sinning Christ, why do you argue for yourself?  Would you worship a Christ of “venial” sin?  If not, we can take Christ’s example to live in light of ultimate perfection, because the Bible says no one is righteous.  In light of this, you realize you fall short, and miss the mark of eternal perfection. 

            How will you make it?  Is your righteousness equal with the divine merit of the Son?  By no means!  You are one who is included in “no one is righteous” but we know God is, but do you suppose your scheme will avail at the Final Judgment?  Will the unrighteous inherit God’s kingdom?  By all means you know!

CHAPTER 4: No One Understands Nor Seeks God (Romans 3:11)

            Do you by nature understand the spiritual matters of Christ?  Do you by nature seek after God?  The Bible says we cannot understand and that we do not seek after Him.  Can you contemplate the super-abundant mercy of God?  Can you understand the awesome mercy of Christ? 

            The natural man does not understand the things of God.  Yes, it is true that the unconverted can be religiously oriented.  The natural man does not seek God.  Yes, it is true that people investigate religions, and make their fallible choice. 

            The natural man is without spiritual understanding: he has not been awakened to his spiritual problem of cosmic sin before God.  By nature, no man can have authentic understanding that leads to true repentance.  However, it is possible to speak accurate words of theology and not have a heart of life. 

            No one seeks after God: he cannot believe in and of himself because he does not have the spiritual initiative to apprehend God by faith.  No unregenerate man can seek God because we lack the moral capacity by nature. 

            Today many like to put emphasis on people seeking God as an enemy of God, but I would simply say: maybe it’s not you seeking God but God seeking you.  If you flee to the divine Christ, you have been found by God! 

            Why do you lack the knowledge of the teaching of God the Father?  Why do you not flee to Christ as your divine Savior?  Do you reply “because I have not been found by Christ?”  Surely you know:  He has given all a command to repent: the responsibility to believe is now, but has the Almighty Christ found you?  O that corrupt nature! 

CHAPTER 5:  All Have Turned Aside (Romans 3:12)

            All have gone their own way: they have followed the ways of a depraved heart; a sinful heart; a heart of wickedness.  No one was born a Christian, and because of original sin we are fallen creatures in Adam.  Turning aside is not walking in line with God and His gospel, but a walk that is contrary to His ultimate perfection. 

            Let us not walk to the right or the left, but in God’s straight way.  Because by nature we turn aside, we have offended God.  We have caused sin as a serious offense against God. 

            Do you say that you were born a Christian?  Do you suppose having turned aside is meant for others?  When we sin we turn to sin as our highest obedience to Satan in rebellion against God.  If you want to turn, turn to God not sin this day!

CHAPTER 6:  They Have Become Worthless (Romans 3:12)

            We have become worthless because we have sinned.  It does not mean we disregard our dignity as created in God’s image.  It means we have a moral incapacity to be spiritually acceptable before God. 

            Something that is worthless is devoid of acceptability.  It is devoid of spiritual value in terms of saving ourselves in anyway.  Do you understand that you are worthless in this sense? 

            God is the all-source of all-righteousness, and spiritual acceptability.  When we understand worthlessness we comprehend our complete lack of saving ourselves or being a co-savior with Christ, because He alone is our true Savior and Lord who alone is the source of all meritorious benefits.  Christ is filled with spiritual worth, and from Him comes a worth that is the foundation of all acceptability.  It was the One who has the all-meritorious value in Himself, and not those who are worthless.  

CHAPTER 7:  No One Is Good Not Even One (Romans 3:12)

            No one is spiritually good before God.  No one.  That is, by nature we have a complete lack of goodness before God.  We are unable to be good in light of His divine perfection.  We do not truly do good deeds in light of His ever-immaculateness.  That is, by nature we have completely failed. 

            The grace of goodness is through the Lord Jesus Christ in His imputed righteousness by faith alone.  The grace of His good righteousness is alien or foreign to us, but by the favor of Him we believe by faith alone.   

We do not have actual goodness to enter the pearly gates.  We have the appearance of goodness, but it is tainted with stinky sin.  Unregenerate men can perform “good” acts, and still be outside of Christ.  But in the truest sense, those “good” acts do not constitute true goodness because we have sinned. 

However, this does not mean we should not be thankful for civil righteousness.  That is, “good” acts by mere sinners, but there is an ultimate basis, and it is only Christ’s reckoned righteousness by the grace of faith alone.   

CHAPTER 8:  Open Graves (Romans 3:13)

            The heart speaks by the mouth: the heart of man by nature is not right before God, and without God no one can control man’s mouth. 

            What comes from an open grave?  Deadness does not provide a way of life, but has gloom, and doom; and the indication of sin.  There is death of people in the world because of sin.  Where there is death there is no life.

            We are open graves before God.  That is, we are spiritually dead, and we could suffer eternal death as the second death if He does not intervene.  The graves are known to God and are manifest to Him. 

            We do not have the ability to rise ourselves to spiritual life.  We are dead in sin and iniquity, because we have sinned.  The spiritual grave is the unregenerate being of man.  We would sink lower than the grave if He did not lend His redemptive hand and save us! 

            We desperately need the work of the Spirit of God and His Word.  We do not make the Word come alive by our programs, because the Word is power, and is already alive, active and sharper than any two-edged sword. 

            Is your heart an open grave where there is nothing but spiritual death?  Do you sense that you are dead in sins and cannot save yourself? 

            God accepts those who come by the empty hands of faith, because in it is the meaning of God’s sheer grace. 

CHAPTER 9:  Tongues Which Practice Deceit (Romans 3:13)

            The tongue is a weapon, and by nature the sons of men do not know how to control their tongues.  If the tongue is about deceit, it is from a heart of deceit.  The Bible says all men are liars, because God is holy, righteous and good.  Fallen humanity is not acceptable before God in His holy terms.

            Jesus never practiced deceit, because His will was unchangeably fixed to sinlessness, immaculateness and perfection in all ways.  We can trust Jesus’ words but we cannot trust man’s words with the same level of divine acceptability.  God’s Word was inspired by God the Spirit, but man’s hearts are inspired by sin. 

CHAPTER 10:  The Poison of Asps Is Under Their Lips (Romans 3:13)

            The mouth of man is poison, because man is sinful.  Sin not only affects our mouths but every facet of our being.  Sometimes the mouth of man is all about the poisoning of God’s truth by the obedience to sinfulness in however it is manifested.

            Jesus never spoke words of poison because He was truly the standard of goodness.  The lips of men are like a cobra, because he not only speaks like a devil but he is one who comes with poison.  Therefore, the slightest sinful foolishness (apart from silliness) is under the judgment of God: the washing of the mouth can only be done by the spiritual cleansing power of Christ alone.

CHAPTER 11:  Full of Cursing and Bitterness (Romans 3:14)

            The mouth is a lethal instrument of the natural man.  The Bible says the mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.  We ought not to bless man and curse man.  We ought to use our mouths for the aim of God’s glory alone, and the pursuit of all manner of righteousness. 

            We have no reason to curse God or man, and anger should be quenched by the understanding of God having His way in this world.  Only him, who curses, is he who is born in the captivity of sin, and we surely hate God by nature (though we would not like to imagine it), because He is opposite us: He is holy and we are unholy; He is righteous and we are unrighteous; He is pure and we are impure. 

            There is real angry against God by nature.  We get frustrated with His ways because His ways are not our ways, and our ways are not His ways. 

CHAPTER 12:  Swift To Shed Blood (Romans 3:15)

            Every murderer first hated him whom shed his blood.  Hatred of a brother is understood by Christ and His apostles as murder.  Those who preach a false gospel engage in spiritual murder, because that which does not save condemns. 

            The spiritual state of man before rebirth is spiritual deadness.  In a sense, Satan through His temptation murdered us through the transgression of sin.  Those who imitate Satan have a great condemnation. 

All murder is unacceptable and we must not be instruments of death.  Are you someone who hates his brother?  Have you taken life, even abortion? 

Do not follow the example of Satan, but the example of Christ.  Satan is about all kinds of murder, but Christ is all about all kinds of righteousness and life.

CHAPTER 13:  Ruin and Misery Mark Their Ways (Romans 3:16)

            The identification of the fallen in Adam is ruin and misery.  As sinners all of us are ruined and miserable.  It is what consumes their ways.  It is about the consequences of sin. 

            The righteous have their ways marked by goodness, but the wicked live in ruin and misery.  Does it mean we ought to think we are not ruined and miserable?  All sinners are ruined by the holiness of Almighty God, and are wretchedly miserable.  The happiness of the unconverted is devoid of the true happiness of God, because no Christian can be fundamentally unhappy (unless a mental illness).

            We suffer disintegration before a holy God.  This happened before Isaiah the prophet in the Old Testament.  When we view our sinfulness in light of God’s pervasive immaculateness we fail at every level. 

CHAPTER 14:  They Do Not Know the Way of Peace (Romans 3:17)

            The essence of the unconverted man is a way of war with God.   They simply do not understand peace, because by nature we are at enmity to God. 

            The way of spiritual peace is through the Lord Jesus Christ.  He alone provides peace beyond understanding through Himself alone.   

CHAPTER 15:  No Fear of God Before Their Eyes (Romans 3:18)

            The unregenerate do not have reverential respect before God.  All sinners have a kind of dread for the immediate presence of the Almighty.  The unbelieving do not regard God as One to fear by respect, because their hearts are contrary to Him.  What does the fear of God look like?  It looks like this: it is all about daily repentance; it is all about repenting by yielding to the Holy Christ.  It is all about obeying His commands, because by this we show we love Him.  It is all about living rightly before God in Christ in all holy obedience and faithfulness to His awesome name. 

CHAPTER 16:  Nothing Good Dwells in my Flesh (Romans 7:18)

            If nothing good dwells in my flesh, why do you say “I cooperated with God to believe?”  If nothing good dwells in my flesh, why do you say “I am good?”  If nothing good dwells in my flesh, why do you say “I rely on the excess merit of sinners?”  If nothing good dwells in my flesh, why do you say “I prefer the free will of man over the freedom of God?”  If nothing good dwells in my flesh, why do you say “Obedience to the law will save me?”   If nothing good wells in my flesh, why do you say “Obedience to the sacraments will save me?”

            This verse teaches us that no one can cooperate with God in believing.  This verse teaches that no one is good.  This verse teaches that no excess merit of saints will ever avail before God.  This verse teaches that God’s free will begins where free will ends.  This verse teaches that no one can acceptably obey God’s law except first by God’s intervention in making an elect sinner born from above!  This verse teaches that the sacraments cannot save because the instruments of men are devoid of heavenly goodness.

            To whom do we go for actual goodness?  Who has this treasure of goodness in Himself?  Who is full of the all-merit of God that we need so terribly? 

CHAPTER 17:  The Flesh Cannot Please God (Romans 8:8)

            If the flesh is not good, it cannot please God.  If the flesh cannot please God, it cannot avail to divine righteousness, goodness and purity by itself, or with the help of other devices of men.   

            Who has the divine righteousness in Himself?  Whose righteousness alone is pleasing to God?  How do we know what is pleasing to Him but by His Word (Philippians 3:9)?

How can we stand in what is not pleasing to God?  That is, anything but His divine Son.   He alone is your raft. 

You, my friend, are like a totally disabled child who cannot run to Christ.  Is Christ a Savior that does not think of your condition?  No, the Christ of the Scripture is the Sinner-Seeker of His fallen ones, because Christ runs to you, my beloved. 

If you cannot please God, and you become aware of it, believe in the light of His righteousness by belief alone, and live a life in the Spirit.  Only then will God be pleased with His work in you. 

            If we cannot please God, do you suppose we can add to His all-completed work?  Surely the Only Begotten One is the Only Acceptable One.

CHAPTER 18:  The Ten Commandments: God Showing Us Our Sin (Exodus 20:1-17)

            Have you read the Ten Commandments recently?  Have you studied the Westminster Larger Catechism on what is forbidden according to the Law of God?

            The Law of God shows us the Law of Sin, because by the righteousness of the Law we can understand our depths of depravity.  God uses the Law to show us our sin, because He is righteous.  We cannot obey the Law of God perfectly, because when it says “Thou shalt not commit adultery” it refers to the thought as well as the action.  The whole concept of the Law of God is essential for obedience.  We can come to obedience by the Spirit’s work in us by applying the grace to our hearts. 

            If you really understand the law you will really understand your nature.  If you doubt that you are a sinner, the honest reading of the Law teaches us an in-depth presentation of sensible righteousness.  In-depth studies or meditations of the Law of God by the Spirit are what are needed in the process of holiness. 

            I want to say something out of place here.  I realize that there are people who deny they are sinners.  Bare with me a word: my friend, Satan has dealt with you in super-cruelty because you are under his will.  Those who deny sinfulness of themselves are a great casualty of Satan.  There is not a greater cruelty on earth.  However, you can rebel against Satan by recognition of your nature under the God-approved way of remission of sin by His Spirit in rebellious repentance.

            The in-depth truth of the Ten Commandments about what is forbidden is an in-depth look into the soul.  Have you rebelliously obeyed His commands because of the deep love you have of the Lord Jesus Christ?

CHAPTER 19:  Apart From Christ You Have No Robes (Philippians 3:9)

            Have you seen your sin?  Have you seen your spiritual nakedness?  Without Christ or apart from Christ you can do nothing of spiritual righteousness, because in Him is the true treasure of matchless holy goodness: a full treasury of light-bearing immaculateness. 

            You need His unified righteousness.  These will fit you well as the ultimate spiritual robes of the Lord Righteous.  You cannot make it in the spiritual robes of man’s religion, because it is devoid of the Spirit of the apostle Peter. 

            Have you looked at your spiritual cloths?  Why are you wearing filthy rages? 

CHAPTER 20:  The Christ-Call of Christ-Appointed Repentance (Mark 1:15)

                                                                                               

            The Bible calls us to repentance.  Have you been convicted of sin here and there but afterwards it leads to no daily conviction?  The daily conviction I speak of is centered on the in-depth view of the Ten Commandments. 

            You have infinitely offended God, because sin is an eternal offence against Him.  That does not mean you should beat yourself or embrace suicide, but it means you must submit to His command of redemptive love for His people. 

            Every time you repent, Christ wins.  Every time you repent, Satan loses.  Do you wish to know smash Satan by holy ways?  Repentance is the way you should go, because God is pleased with the obedience of that command. 

            Learn from these men:  Esau tried to repent after selling birthright or soul but God denied him repentance because it was not of God.  Judas threw back the money he gained from betraying Christ, but his repentance was not of Christ.

            Do not be discouraged by these men, but I provide them so you may fear and tremble before God.  He is only One who can really forgive you. 

            Do you have sincerity devoid of malice?  Do you have a hatred for doing good that good may come?  Do you want to please God by second-by-second ort minute-by-minute repentance and commitment to Christian honesty in His presence?  Do you repent in the understanding of knowing your sin offends God?  Do you repent over bad, sinful feelings?  Measure you’re standing by this: if you stood before Christ or if someone saw your thought-life in your mind, how would you look?  Take steps to amend your life in light of the Divine Word apart from unnecessary extremes. 

            Peace be with you as you devote yourself to His matchless Word in all blamelessness by His power and avoidance of yielding to Satan.  Amen.