Purchase and Secure the Truth.

“Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.” Proverbs 23:23

God is Truth, Jesus is Truth, to properly worship them can only be done in truth. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 God does not accept worship in any other form than Truth, God does not accept anything that isn’t done in Truth. The truth of the bible is a revelation from God the Spirit or the Holy Spirit, no one just learns the truth. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” John 14:26 So we must all praise God that He has allowed us to understand the truth we do understand. As Christians we must search the scriptures daily to seek more truth, and if we fail, we will not be blessed with more truth. People that fail to attend church is also failing in their feeding of God’s sheep. Jesus created the church as an institution of biblical learning, and a place of proper worship. Jesus told His disciples just before His crucifixion these words, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” John 16:13 - 14 The truth is not what you believe truth is, it is what God teaches you it is. No one believes the entire truth, that is why we never stop searching, studding, and learning with much prayer.

What does the Lord mean when He says, “Buy the truth”, He means to purchase it at any cost. He doesn’t mean with money because money buys you nothing with God. He means to acquire it at any cost and pay any price to get it. But if you can’t but it with money then how can buy it? You buy with dedication, hard work, much prayer, and attending church. God said, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 The word “study” means - to make effort, be prompt or earnest - The thought is this the workman needs to be diligent in his labors of their study so that they will not be ashamed when his work is inspected by the Lord. Biblical lazy people, people with not enough time to study and attend church is not being diligent in his labors of study. They will lack the truth and be biblically ignorant. Then God says once you learn the Truth, “and sell it not” which means never surrender it. We must cleave to it and guard it, even at the risk of thy life, also at any cost. A biblical education in Truth is as glorious as our salvation because both were given to us by God through the power of the Holy Spirit. The difference is we can lose one but not the other. There are so many ways a believer can surrender their gift of truth. One way is to stop going to church, another way is to stop giving time to studding, another way is to listen to false teachers. I have seen so many Christians lose their belief in the truth simply by listening to false teachers. It has been said, “if you play with fire one day you will bet burnt” and it is so true. God warned us, “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” 2 John 1:8 Adam Clark said, “Be on your guard against these seducers; watch, pray, love God and each other, and walk in newness of life.” False teachers are everywhere, and Satan is using them to mislead you into false doctrine. If you are not guarding yourself against them, they will take your truth, you will sell it for their lies. Listen to God, “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” 2 John 1:10 – 11 You will sell the Truth for the lies of Satan and lose the blessed gift of God of believing and walking in Truth. Folks, I have seen it in Christians and Pastors alike, do not believe Satan, you do not owe it to hear what they have to say. You are not to be open minded, and if they teach a little truth today, tomorrow will be full of lies. Remember this, Satan was very subtle with Eve, very sly, He know how to get you, so walk very careful and never sell the truth.  

God is a Spirit; He is not a man.

John 4:24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

 God is not a man, Jesus Christ His Son was a man, but He was also God Incarnate. God is a Spirit and in that Spirit are three, Father, Son, and Spirit. These three are not separate, they are not different, They are one God. With God being a Spirit, it means that God is without a body. Good is invisible, in every place at one time, forever Pure and Holy. God is everything, He is everywhere, He knows every detail of everything, He never errors, He never sins, He is never wrong, and He needs nothing. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Numbers 23:19 Just as God does not lie, He does not change, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6 God who cannot lie, also is One who cannot change because He is perfect, He is complete in every point of His existence. And as His Son Jesus is also God, He will never change either. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8 “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:” Colossians 1:15 Jesus is a separate being from the Godhead, Jesus has a body just as we do, Jesus lived and grew, slept, eat, cried, suffered pain, and even died as we do. But Jesus was different, He is God’s own Son, He sits on God’s right hand, and He now has a name above all names, and all authority is in His hands. The only way a sinner could be redeemed and justified eternally is if God sent His own to die for the unjust. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:” 1 Peter 3:18 Jesus Christ died on that cross, the Son of man, I cannot believe it is proper to say God died on that cross because God cannot die, not even one part of the Godhead. Look at John 13:31 - 32 “Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. (32) If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.” Since Jesus is glorified then God is glorified in Him, it is not the Father was glorified but the Trinity was glorified through the works of the Son of Man and in what He do. I do not pretend to have all the answers, but this is known, God cannot die! Since God is a Spirit He must be worshipped as a Spirit and not as a man. It is wrong when people treat God as less than He is. God said, “For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts.” Malachi 1:11 God must be worshipped, Christians and churches a like are required to “Reverence” God which means we are supposed to fear His name, fear His eyes continually on us, and worship Him every moment and in everything. God did not save us to be our servant, friend, or buddy, He saved up to be His servant and for us to glorify not only our Saviour but also Him.  

Why does God love us?

“We love him, because he first loved us.”1 John 4:19

I have asked myself this question countless times, why does God love me? If you have never asked yourself that question, you ought too. David wrote in Psalms 5:4 - 5 “For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee. (5) The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.” The word “hatest” means - to hate, personally – people that are sinners. But weren’t we all sinners at one time? We were all born sinners, we were all born at enmity with God, which means we hated God. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (8) So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:7 – 8.  So, why did God love me, that is the question? The point we must see in 1 John 4:19 is that God loved us first, when did God love those who are going to be called saints? God loved us before the foundation of the world before sin was in existence. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:4 “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” Before God laid the foundation of the world God loved us and chose us in Him, IN LOVE. God also chose us, before the foundation of the world that we, “should be holy and without blame before him”. This is what we as Christians must see, God loved us before the foundation of the world because He chose too. Let’s look at it this way, before God created one single thing, back in eternity past when only God existed, before Satan was created and fell, before Adam and Eve sinned, long before evil and sin came into existence, God loved a remnant of souls. Also, before that creation God had already made us a Redeemer in His own Son Jesus Christ, all this was before evil was created and sin existed. Read this, “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (20) Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, (21)  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” 1 Peter 1:19  Listen to Solomon in Proverbs 8:22 - 23 “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. (23) I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.” Why God loved us we cannot answer that question except, He chose too. We must understand that God is Omniscient, and God never changes, never ever changes. Therefore, what God was before creation He is today, what God ordained or decreed before the foundation of the world He is today. So, we must understand that God never “come to love us” He has eternally loved us. While we will never understand this, we must accept it because it is fact. Let’s ask ourselves this question, when did God actually elect us to be His children? If God never changes, if nothing is added to Him nor anything taken away from Him, then when exactly where we elected? We who are the elect of God were never hated by God because before we were born sinners God loved us. We love God because He loved us in eternity past before sin. Our love to God was after His love was manifested to us in salvation. 1 John 4:9 “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” God sending His Son to redeem us was the manifestation to us of God’s love. We, the elect of God was given to His Son before the foundation of the world, and Jesus Christ redeemed us all at the cross. This was all ordained before evil or sin came into existence. The elect of God was never like the non-elect because our redemption was assured in Jesus Christ before the world was ever created. Read this very carefully, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” Romans 5:8 - 11

Three tenses of our salvation.

“Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (11) And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” Romans 13:10 - 11

Did you know that salvation is a three tenses process? Past, present, and future, just as a person is tri-being, body, soul, and spirit, just as God is a trinity Father, Son, and Spirit. Salvation does not end when you believe, it ends when Jesus returns to rapture and resurrect His people from the earth. The dead in Christ will have their bodies raised and they will receive new glorified bodies and those who are alive will have been raptured from the earth and their bodies will be changed. “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15:51 - 52 Sin will no longer be a part of our life, our souls have been redeemed, our spirits have been quickened, and last our bodies will be redeemed. So, how is our salvation three tenses you might ask, past tense is our justification, when the guilt and penalty of sin was removed from the believing sinner. Present tense is our sanctification, which is the life we live for the Lord Jesus Christ according to the direction and power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gradually conforms us to the image of our Lord by causing us to walk holy on this earth. Future tense is our glorification, the changing of our bodies at the Rapture into perfect bodies, completing our process of salvation. This is what Paul was saying when he said, “…for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” There will be a time when sin will not be a part of the believer’s life, soul, spirit, or body because all will be quickened, redeemed, and glorified when we are with the Lord. For us who are alive, we are in our present tense which is our sanctification stage. It is unfortunate that some believers sleep in this stage, they are not fulfilling the commandments of the Lord. They walk according to the course of this world and not according to the course of God’s word. They have no gratitude toward God who saved their unworthy souls by grace, by sacrificing His own Son at the wicked hands of Satan and evil people to save our souls. God put all our sins on Him who knew no sin to bring us all to the point of sanctification our present tense of salvation. They refuse to join and/or attend church as though church is unimportant to them. They refuse to support the local church as though its survival is unimportant to them. They refuse to walk in the word because they do not attend church to learn God’s word at feeding time. They refuse to let their spiritual light shine in this dark world of sin, in fact some lights are so dim it can be hardly seen at all. Some believers lack the most important ingredient of sanctification which is love. Paul wrote “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour…” The word "love" here is agapaō, which is divine love produced by the Holy Spirit, remember the spiritual gifts given to us at salvation. Gal. 5:22 God gave us love because love is required to serve God. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10 Everything starts with love and ends with love, God loved us so He elected us, adopted us, sent His Son to die for us, redeemed us, sanctified us, and will glorify us in the end. This is how important love is, and just as some believers have a dim light of sanctification in their daily life, some have a dim light of love about them. Think about this, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” 1 John 4:11 God never, does not show His love toward a believer!