Psalms 11:7, “For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.” 1st Peter 2:23-24, “Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. 1st Peter 3:12, “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”
I love those Bible verses. I often am reminded of that precious phrase: “the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.” If you want to please God, we know that Hebrews 11:6 says we need faith. But here in Psalms 11:7 we also see that righteousness pleases God. It is by faith that we live a righteous life. The Lord is not like sinful men, He is completely holy and righteous in every way possible. We know that we have no self righteousness to offer God. Even our best efforts to do good are as filth to God (Isaiah 64:6-8). God in His genuine love made a way of escape through Christ. Romans 5:9, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” We have complete righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.
Even though we are saved by God's imputed righteousness and not ours, the Lord still expects and commands us as believers to depart from sin. 2nd Timothy 2:19, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” This is not a requirement to be saved, nor to prove that we are saved; but rather, because we are saved. Jesus paid for our sins with His precious blood (1st Corinthians 6:20; 1st Peter 1:18-19). Therefore, in Romans 12:1-2 the Apostle Paul says it is “our reasonable service” (not mandatory service) that we SHOULD present our bodies a living sacrifice. Please notice in 1st Peter 2:24b that as believers we “SHOULD LIVE UNTO RIGHTOEUNESS.” We SHOULD serve Christ; not MUST (that is works); not WILL (that would be Calvinism).
When someone gets saved, the indwelling Holy Spirit (which is the Spirit of Christ - Romans 8:9), helps us to live right. Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” The Lord will live the Christian life through us if we will allow Him. Neither you nor I have the power to overcome sin by our self. Galatians 5:22-25 describes the “fruit” of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” The same was true in the Old Testament. David said that the Lord was his strength. Psalms 27:1, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” We live the Christian life the same way we were saved, which is BY FAITH.
So, God did for us what we could not do for ourselves, through the blood of the cross. Jesus paid it all, nothing to Him I owe! But it is only reasonable that we should give our lives to live for Christ in return. This is not required for salvation, but it is required to please God as His child. A parent's children do not have to obey them to be their children, but they do need to obey their parent to please them and to get along. What is faith? Essentially faith is obeying God. Everything that we do (and don't do) because of our confidence that the Bible is the eternally inspired and infallible Word of God, is faith. It is by faith that I earnestly work on my website ministry 60 to 80 hours each week, both night and day. It is my privilege for Christ.
By faith I don't commit many of the sins I would commit if I didn't fear God (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Guam has brothels by the dozens. I don't go to them. But if I didn't fear God, knowing that someday I must give account for my life (Romans 14:10-12; 2nd Corinthians 5:10), I would go there all the time, being a single man! If I weren't a God-fearing man, I would be the worst enemy of the churches—because of all the abuse, hypocrisies and mistreatment of people that I have seen and experienced personally. But I am a friend to the churches! I know that the beloved Harvest Baptist Church of Guam thinks I am their enemy, but so did the churches of Galatia count Paul as their enemy (Galatians 4:16). One does not have to be an apostle to speak THE TRUTH (Titus 1:10-13). Proverbs 12:17, “He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a false witness deceit.” The righteous Lord loveth righteousness!!! That means God loves when layman and pastors alike preach THE TRUTH! I am shewing forth righteousness, which the righteous Lord loves, by speaking THE TRUTH!!!
What truths am I speaking about? Well, all truth! I'm talking about the truth that God only authored ONE BOOK, not two, not 267, not 900! I believe the King James Bible is the faithful preservation of that divinely inspired and infallible ONE BOOK! I'm talking about the truth that there has always been just ONE GOSPEL, not two, not three, not five! People in the Old Testament were saved by childlike faith, just as we are today (Acts 10:43; Habakkuk 2:4). These truths are critically important and need to preached constantly, not only because people need to hear them, but also to thwart the Devil's false teachers from creeping their heresies into the churches.
YouTube is a minefield of false teachers, arrogant wannabe theologians and dangerous heretics! I get disgusted reading foolish YouTube video comments—seeing how gullible people are, who are woefully ignorant of the Word of God—praising and thanking incompetent Bible teachers for denying that Hell has fire, and denying that there will be a Rapture, and denying that people were saved by faith alone in the Old Testament, et cetera. By God's grace, I wrote the preceding blog articles to refute some of these heresies and heretics. They are all sincere teachers, of that I have no doubt, but they are utterly mistaken in some of their unbiblical views. Right doctrine matters! Please don't ever believe anything I teach you—go SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES for yourself and check to see if what I am saying is true or not.
The righteous Lord loveth righteousness! Micah 6:8, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” God just wants us to do the right thing. Trusting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior is the right thing to do (John 1:12-14). Rejecting any other gospel, that detracts or adds to the truth of the Gospel, is the right thing to do (Galatians 1:6-9; 3:1-3). Rejecting Bob Jones University for preaching another gospel of partial faith in Christ, plus the work of turning away from your sinful ways, is the right thing to do.
Rejecting the Devil's hundreds of modern corrupt English Bible revisions is the right thing to do. That is what God requires of you and me—to do justly! It means to give to whom whatever is do. It means to be honest and pay your bills. It means not to spend when you know you don't have. It is wicked for anyone to run up their credit cards, knowing that they won't be able to repay that money. Psalms 37:21, “The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.” God loves honesty! By God's grace, I have built excellent financial credit since 1993, and have never failed to pay anyone money that I owed them! I am an honest man. I have my sins and faults, but being a thief is not one of them. To God be the glory (Matthew 5:16).
Unfortunately, I am aware of some Bob Jones University alumni, preachers who are thieves—collecting an undeserved paycheck while they promote Devil's Bibles, preach another gospel of Lordship Salvation, and parasite off the churches with their Bible college racket!!! John 10:1, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.” Any preacher who says that you must “repent and turn away from your sin” to be saved is preaching another gospel. You cannot show me even one Bible verse that says to “repent and turn from your sin” to be saved.
Repent Ye, And Believe The Gospel
Mark 1:15, “And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” The word “repent” in this verse is the Greek verb metanoeo, which means “to think differently.” The noun form of the word “repent” is metanoia, which simply means “a change of mind.” You change your mind to believe the Gospel. That's it! Repentance and believing are simply two different ways of viewing salvation. The man who repents has believed, and the man who believes has repented. What must we change our mind about? I'm glad you asked. 2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;” You must change your mind toward THE TRUTH. You must accept the truth that you are a needy sinner (Romans 3:19-20).
You must accept the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten Son of God (John 20:31). You must accept the truth that Jesus died on the cross to pay your debt of sin. He was buried. Three days later Jesus miraculously resurrected bodily from the dead. These are the truths that you must embrace by faith to have your sins forgiven and receive eternal life. If you place your confidence (faith, trust) in this GOOD NEWS, you are saved (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). You don't need to turn away from sinful behavior to be saved, you simply need to acknowledge the truth that you are a guilty sinner in need of Christ. That is Bible repentance!
Dr. John R. Rice offers these helpful words about getting saved...
There are those hyper-dispensationalists who think that John the Baptist preached a different Gospel from Christ when he commanded repentance (Matt. 3:2). But it is the same repentance Jesus commanded in Matthew 4:17, in Luke 13:3 and 5, and the same repentance that Paul preached in Athens that God “now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30 31). Repentance is not a different plan of salvation from having faith: it is part of the same plan of salvation. Or rather repentance is simply another way of describing or looking at the plan of salvation. One who turns from sin to God has done so by trusting in Jesus Christ. A change of mind toward sin is necessarily involved in saving faith. [emphasis added]
SOURCE: Evangelist John R. Rice, “Acts: Filled With The Spirit,” pp. 250-252; Sword Of The Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee; ©1963
Whatever changes God expects to see happen in your life after you receive His free gift of eternal life is God's department. If you recently got saved (born-again), here is what God says to you in 1st Peter 2:1-3, “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” God wants you to start living right dear friend, not to get saved, nor prove that you really are saved, but simply because YOU ARE SAVED. If you refuse, then you are still saved 100% guaranteed, but you will never be happy in life living in disobedience to your Lord and Savior. There is a horrible spirit of indifference and discouragement in the churches today.
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