THAT'S JUST YOUR OPINION! (PART 7)

 

 

 

God gives birth to, He regenerates, His new creatures in Christ by means of His Word, the Gospel, and no other. There is no other way a man can be saved than by the Gospel of God. The apostle Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth, "...in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel" (1 Corinthians 4:15). Just as there is no other name but the NAME of JESUS whereby a man is saved (Acts 4:12), so, too, there is no other means but the GOSPEL of JESUS by which God saves His people. Thus we learn, that as with the natural birth of a man being something quite impossible unless it is by the means of man’s seed (sperm or semen), so, too, the spiritual birth of a man is something which, according to the Bible, is an utter impossibility unless it is by the means of God’s Seed which is the Word of the Truth of  His Gospel. "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter 1:23 cf. John 3:6). Remove the parenthetical, "not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible" and you literally have: "BEING BORN AGAIN BY THE WORD OF GOD". Two verses down and we discover what this Word of God is: "...this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you" (1 Peter 1:25). And so we see that a Christian is not born again by any other means other than his: BEING BORN AGAIN BY THE GOSPEL OF GOD. When it comes to salvation, no act of man's, no amount of 'good works', no amount of abstention from evil works or thoughts, etc., and certainly no belief and trust in a false gospel has, does or will ever save anyone. The apostle Paul stated clearly that the only thing that counted when it came to salvation is that a man be, "...a new creature" (Galatians 6:15). Born again not of the flesh but of the Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (see John 3:3-8 cf. John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26).  None are saved who are not made a new creature, born again by the grace of God through the gift of Faith to believe God's Gospel. The only way to be in Christ, a truly saved person, is to be born again, born from above, born of the Seed of God, born of His Word: born of the Gospel, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature..." (2 Corinthians 5:17 cf. 1 Peter 1:23-25; James 1:18). To be a new creature, born again, a person MUST BE born of the Gospel of God. The born again person goes from not believing the Gospel of God to believing it, and, from believing false gospels to disbelieving them FOREVER.

 

 

The world, with little to no regard for what is actually believed, admires people who stand up for what they believe. Many people respect what they do not know. They also say, 'A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything'. Does this mean standing for something, believing in anything is a worthwhile endeavor and in some way protection from being deceived? Can a person who believes something not be deceived? Does it also mean that whatever one stands for is right simply because one is strongly convinced of it? Many people who ascribe to different faiths have a mutual respect for one another because of the lives they lead and the charitable works they perform and because of their gentle natures and tolerance of opposing beliefs. However, differing doctrines are never to be judged or ascribed authenticity simply because the person who abides in them goes about doing good. The veracity and credibility of doctrines does not depend upon the good deeds and niceness, or lack thereof, of the person who believes them. The apostle John cuts a swathe right through all this nonsense when he says that only those who abide in the doctrine of Christ have God, and the rest do not. Nothing else is to be taken into account. Truth has no tolerance for error but rather vanquishes it. The proof of whether or not a person is a Christian is evident in whether or not they believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If they do not believe the Gospel they do not have Christ. "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the Doctrine of Christ, HATH NOT GOD. He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son" (2 John 9 cf. John 12:46). The Lord Jesus states clearly: "...if a man love Me, he will keep My Words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the Word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me" (John 14:23,24). The apostle John goes on to say, "If there come any unto you, and bring not THIS Doctrine, (the Doctrine of Christ) receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed" (2 John 10). Notice the like-mindedness in John's approach concerning the exclusivity of the Doctrine of Christ and Paul's godly attitude in Galatians 1 concerning the Gospel. Despite what a person is like or how knowledgeable, even scholarly they appear to be, no matter who it is, or how large a group of people, if they do not abide in the Gospel of Christ: THEY HAVE NOT GOD! If God were their Father they would love the True Jesus of the Gospel. Christ said: "...If God were your Father, ye would love Me..." (John 8:42). Those who do not love the true Jesus of the Gospel are of their father the Devil: "Ye are of your father the Devil...he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him....And because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not" (John 8:44,45 cf. 8:47). Notice how all this is connected with not believing the Truth. The Jews would have believed Jesus if He hadn't told them the truth. Not that the Jews upon recognizing that Jesus was speaking the Truth to them rejected it and Him, but they did not recognize the Truth of God when He spoke it. If He hadn't spoken truth to them, if He had spoken in accordance with what they already believed, which was contrary to the Gospel of Grace, they would gladly have received Him. Lost man will believe anything but the True Gospel. To be saved one must have Faith and the only Faith that saves is that which comes from God as a gift to His people "For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it" (Hebrews 4:2). So if God's Gospel of salvation is not believed, if not abiding in its doctrines does not profit a man, what makes anyone think that abiding in false doctrines, believing in something which is not God's Gospel, will save them? Not believing in God's Gospel IS believing in another gospel which profits no man. All other gospels are made up of that which is against God's Gospel. Only those who believe the doctrines of God's Gospel shall enter into spiritual rest in Christ, "For we which have believed do enter into rest..." (Hebrews 4:3). Those that believed not Moses did not enter into God's rest: "And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief" (Hebrews 3:18,19 cf. 2 Corinthians 3:13-4:5). Only the believers will enter into God's rest.

 

 

The primary identifying characteristic of every true born again Christian is that he believes only in the doctrines of the Gospel of the grace of God and no other. The Christian man does not remain with, nor does he have any desire to retain, any of his old beliefs, but counts them all dung for he is now renewed in the knowledge of Him (see Colossians 3:10 cf. 1 John 3:9). The number one rule of salvation is that a person believes and therefore trusts only in God's Plan of Salvation as revealed in His Mighty Gospel. The only power that is unto salvation. Salvation is by grace through faith in the Gospel of God. Without faith in God's Gospel there is no trusting in God and His Way to salvation and therefore no salvation. The prime characteristic of all lost people is that they do not believe the Gospel, the Truth of God. Those who do not have the Truth of God have not the God of Truth. "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is Godliness: from such withdraw thyself" (1 Timothy 6:3-5 cf. Romans 16:17,18). Notice that it is not the ones who teach the truth of God who are the cause of all the questions, strifes of words and evil surmisings etc., but those ones who are of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth of God who do not comply with God's truth . Also, "To the Law and to the Testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is NO light in them" (Isaiah 8:20 cf. Jeremiah 8:9).  For those who do not hold to the Word of the Truth of the Gospel of God, there remains only the Wrath of God. The Lord Jesus said: "He that believeth on THE Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not THE Son shall not see life; but the Wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36 cf. John 3:18). Those whose faith is in a false gospel, who do not believe in the True Jesus of God's Gospel, have nothing to do with the true God except that His Wrath abides on them. In John's first Letter he said: "He that hath the Son hath Life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life" (1John 5:12). What is it to have the Son? To abide in His Doctrine, to believe the Truth about Him, to believe His Gospel. What is it to not have the Son? It is to not abide in the Doctrine of Christ, it is to not believe the specific details of Who He is and what He has done to save His people from their sins as God has borne record to in His Gospel. To not know the Gospel is to not know God is to not have Christ. "...ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the Power of God" (Matthew 22:29). Put simply, if you do not know and believe the Scriptures you are not only wrong about God but you are destitute of God. Not knowing the Scriptures is a very serious matter for not knowing the Scriptures means not knowing God. Not knowing Who He is and how He saves. Paul spoke of preaching Christ Jesus the Lord, "...to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6). Not knowing the Scriptures, not knowing the Gospel of God reveals the stark reality that such a person is not saved for if they were they would surely have been sanctified by the Spirit of God and given the gift of Faith to see, understand and believe God's Gospel. Knowledge of the Gospel of God, recognizing only God's record of His Son as God's Truth concerning His salvation plan for His people, comes by revelation and revelation comes by the grace of God which is never unaccompanied by the gift of Faith. The Word of God says: "...the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:11). Writing to believers, the apostle Paul adds: "...we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; THAT WE MIGHT KNOW the things that are freely given to us of God" (1 Corinthians 2:12). The Spirit of Truth has revealed the glorious Truth of God to God's people. Christians know the Truth and non-Christians do not. Christians have the Spirit of God, non-Christians have the spirit of the world. John the apostle wrote the following to fellow believers: "I have not written unto you because ye know not the Truth, but because ye know it..." (1 John 2:21), and Paul wrote "...the Truth of Christ is in me..." (2 Corinthians 11:10). Only those who know the Truth of God have the Spirit of God, the rest have not the Truth of God for they are of the world. God's people are given the Spirit to know the things of God so that they will not remain oblivious, or continue in error, concerning them. The Spirit of God is given so that His people would know the things of God, including His Gospel of course, and the gift of Faith is given to them so that they would believe His Gospel. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW YOU CANNOT BELIEVE AND IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE YOU ARE LOST. "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I Am the Lord..." Jeremiah 9:23,24).

 

 

Upon reading the words of Paul the apostle in Galatians 1 no one would be right in concluding, in having even the faintest notion, that the Gospel of God is whatever one sincerely believes it to be. That anything a man believes the Gospel of God to be qualifies as the Gospel of God, the only Gospel He has Authored. That God's Gospel of salvation is subject to a man's opinion and that it matters not if that opinion differs in any way to any degree with the Gospel God revealed unto Paul. How you define the Gospel is obviously not what Paul is advocating. In fact, Paul is saying that if what you believe the Gospel is, is not identical to that which Paul believes, you are an accursed person. One gains a clear picture from Paul's recorded and inspired words that the Gospel of God is one thing and one thing only: WHAT GOD SAYS IT IS! What the Gospel of God is, is not rightly determined by perception but only by God's Directive. You cannot rightly judge what is Truth by what it could be but only by what it is. Anyone who is led astray from what God says His Gospel is cannot in any way be Scripturally qualified as a Gospel believer. They are anti-Gospel believers who not only oppose God's Gospel but have another gospel, a man's gospel, in its place. If a person does not believe God's Gospel as His only power to save they oppose God and His Truth having another's words in its place. To truly believe in the one and only Gospel which saves one must believe the Gospel of God and no other. To say that one can be saved prior to believing the Gospel of God, or without believing the Gospel of God altogether, or believing that any other gospel also has the power to save, are nothing but lies from Hell which will lead to your destruction. Any who believe that one can be saved by believing in the Gospel of God and/or any other gospel, are perhaps the blindest of the blind seeing that all false gospels contradict the Gospel of God and therefore cannot be of God. Believing in a version of the Gospel of God has never saved anybody. Not your version, not your parent's version, not your grandparent's version, not your family's version, not any church's version, not your favorite writer's version, not your favorite preacher's version, not your pastor's version, not the little old lady who lives down the road's version, not your wife's version, not your husband's version, not your son's version, not your daughter's version, not your best friend's version and not anybody else's version is able to save if it is not God's 'version'. ONE MUST BELIEVE THE ONLY 'VERSION' WORTH BELIEVING, THE ONLY 'VERSION' THAT SAVES: GOD'S TRUE GOSPEL! To truly be saved one must believe only what God says His Gospel is and never acquiesce to any another. To truly be saved one must believe God's Gospel as His only power unto salvation and forever reject every other gospel one has ever believed.

 

 

Only those to whom God gives His gift of Faith by Grace will see and believe God's Gospel. Those to whom Faith is not given will never recognize God's Gospel for what it truly and uniquely is: The only Gospel of God, the only Gospel by which God saves. They will, however, see any other gospel, or gospels, as God's Gospel. The only document, if you will, which contains the unmitigated Truth of Who God is, what God has done and for whom He has done it, is the Gospel which comes forth from God. God's Gospel is the True and Good News of, and from, God to His people and believed by His people. Any other gospel is the false news and views of, and from, man concerning who God is and how He saves and is believed by the lost. Jesus says: "...if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch" (Matthew 15:14). To be saved is to believe in the true God only and to believe only in the true God is to have one's Faith, one's trust in the only Gospel of the True God. To rightly believe the Gospel, to rightly consider oneself  a Christian, one must believe only in what God declares His Gospel to be: "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the Witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; BECAUSE HE BELIEVETH NOT the record that GOD GAVE OF HIS SON." (1 John 5:10 cf. John 3:32,33; 8:18). The word 'record' here means testimony. The Gospel of God is God's written statement, His statutory declaration, if you will, His Testimony of His Son. The Gospel is where God proclaims Who His Son is, what His Son has done and for whom He has done it. Any gospel which differs from the record that God has given about His Son cannot be God's unique and only Gospel, but only a false gospel. Therefore, any gospel which differs with God's Gospel, is NOT GOD'S Testimony of His Son. It simply cannot save. Christ says that anyone who does not believe in the particular and definitive record which God has given of Him, and which is contained in His Gospel that defines Who Christ is and what He has done etc., will die in their sins: "...ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I Am He, ye shall die in your sins" (John 8:24). Christ could just as easily have said, 'If you do not believe what the Father says about Me, ye shall die in your sins for your affections will be toward another, and your trust will be in another, and not in Me'. There are billions of people who do not believe that the True Christ is the True Christ! They believe in another as the true Christ! They call his name 'Jesus', but they have fallen for an imposter whilst having overlooked the True! They have received unto themselves a fraud, a charlatan, whom they believe to be the True Christ, and traduced the True as being the imposter, labelling Him as the deceiver (see John 5:43; Matthew 24:24). They believe in a jesus which is not real but who exists only in their imaginations which are fuelled by their ignorance-based and Scripture-warping carnal minds. If you believe in a false gospel you believe in a false christ. "And the Father Himself, which hath sent Me, hath borne Witness of Me....And ye have not His Word abiding in you: for Whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not" (John 5:37,38). God has borne witness of the true Jesus not a counterfeit. Only the Father bears witness to the true Jesus. Only GOD'S Gospel bears witness to GOD'S Son. If a man be without the Word of God, he is without God. If a man believes in doctrines which do not portray an accurate picture of Who Christ is and what He has done, then he cannot have the true Jesus, however much he believes he does have Him, for the false doctrines which he believes in depicts a distinctly different jesus to the one God has borne record to. The doctrines of the Gospel are not the 'fine print' of Christianity but rather the headlines. They serve to draw the distinguishing line which separates that which is true from that which is not. That which is of God and that which is not. The Word of God, what God says, is the distinguishing feature of the Gospel of God for it separates God's Gospel from every false gospel, what man says. If there were a photo available of the True Jesus everyone would be able to readily recognize a false jesus for they could simply refer to the picture of the True for comparison. For the Christian, his God-given ability to readily recognize a false jesus by comparing the jesus of a false gospel's doctrines with the Jesus of the doctrines of the true Gospel of God is just as reliable as if he did have a photo of the True Messiah. There may not have been cameras available in Biblical times, but God has recorded Christ's Image in doctrinal form, which He calls, the Gospel. A digital photo is made up of a series of pixels (short for picture elements). These pixels are what constitute and define pictures. Pixels are what gives a picture its individuality, its distinctive appearance. So too, the doctrines of the Gospel of God are the unchangeable and defining 'pixels' of what God's Gospel is made up of, and are what differentiates God's Gospel from every other gospel. Only the pixels/doctrines which are exclusive to God's Gospel are able to accurately portray the Gospel of God.

 

 

The following verse is to be paid particular attention to by those who profess to know God and yet do not believe His Gospel. Jesus says, "SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they WHICH TESTIFY OF ME" (John 5:39). So many people have been deceived into thinking that simply because they have the name right then it is the true Jesus Whom they believe in. Not so, for if you do not believe in the doctrines of the true Jesus, the One Whom God has borne record to, testifies of, in His Gospel, the One of Whom the Scriptures teach, thereby, defining the very Person and Work of Christ that must be believed, you will die in your sins. The Jews thought they had eternal life, they were convinced of it. Their conviction, however, was not in accord with the true knowledge of the Scriptures (see Romans 10:1) but according to their misunderstanding of them which led them to their erroneous conclusions about the Messiah. Likewise, false Christians the world over - blind leaders as well as their followers - read the Scriptures of God, their problem, however, lies in the fact that their interpretation of the Scriptures, which is also not according to right knowledge of the Scriptures, has revealed to them, not the true Messiah but a false one. They do not understand what the Scriptures say about the True Jesus but have attached the name of the True Messiah to the false messiah that has been formed in their minds by a fallacious understanding of God's Word. They have injected their false ideas of the Messiah into the Scriptures and subsequently taken out of the Scriptures a messiah of their own imagination that appeals to the flesh, and not the One Who is revealed by the Spirit of God. False concepts, opinions and ideas of the true Jesus are scattered throughout their minds to form a messianic monstrosity, but which their spiritual blindness has convinced them is the Messiah of the Scriptures. Just as the Roman Catholic Church has taken the statue of the false god Jupiter, modified and retitled it, 'St. Peter', so too, every false Christian has, unbeknownst to them, taken the true Jesus of the Scriptures and, through their misconception of Him, modified Him by their warped understanding of God's Word and stolen His name. Just like the Jews, all false Christians have their idea of what the Messiah would do, and who He would save and, therefore, who He would be. They have rejected the true Messiah by rejecting the truth about Him, what God the Father has said about Him in His record of Him contained in the Gospel. If the jesus you love is not the One whom God bears record of in His Gospel ye shall die in your sins. If the jesus you bear record to is not the One Whom God bears record to then you might as well call your jesus, Scott or Tom. It will profit a man absolutely nothing to call his god Jesus if that 'Jesus' is not the true God. God has testified in the strictest legal sense of the word concerning Who His Son is, what His Son has done and for whom He has done it. To reject the Gospel is to reject what God says about His Son and therefore to trust in another jesus, another 'savior'. To accept any other gospel is to call God a liar. It is to place one's faith and trust in a false christ, one of whom God has not testified as being HIS Son. A false gospel is a false god's testimony about a false messiah. Notice also how the word 'record' is used in the singular, in 1 John 5, and not the plural. God has not given records of His Son but God's Testimony of His Son, Jesus, is revealed in ONE record and that is the Gospel of God which is His sole power unto Salvation. TO BELIEVE THE GOSPEL OF GOD IS TO BELIEVE IN THE ONLY SALVATION PLAN THAT ACTUALLY SAVES. To believe THE Gospel is to believe GOD'S Record of HIS Son AND NO OTHER! No other gospel speaks of God's Son as He is revealed in God's record, the Gospel. How could the Lord have made it any clearer than that? God's people hold only to the record that God has given of His Son and it is this record alone, which may rightly be called, the Gospel of God. The Word of God defines Christians as those who,  "..keep the commandments of God, and have the Testimony of Jesus Christ" (Revelation 12:17; cf. 14:12), not as those who do not know it or believe in another's testimony. Christians keep the commandments of God "...and not the traditions of men: nor are the commands of the moral law of God so much designed here, though it is true that these were kept by the seed of the Church; but rather the ordinances of the Gospel, the commands of God our Saviour, such as baptism and the Lord's supper; which were kept by these faithful ones.  The Testimony of Jesus Christ, meaning, the Gospel, which is a testimony concerning Him". Only the Jesus of Whom God has Testified may rightly be referred to as the  Savior, the Son of God.

 

 

Those who are of God are led by the Spirit of God: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God....The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:14,16). The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Truth. Therefore, the Spirit of God leads all God's people to God's Truth, His Gospel. God's Spirit of Truth will never lead anyone to a gospel of lies. Nor will He ever lead people to believe that there is salvation in any other gospel but God's Gospel, "...when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all Truth..." (John 16:13). And what Truth might that be? The Lord Jesus explains: "But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, HE SHALL TESTIFY OF ME" (John 15:26). And what do you think the Spirit of Truth will testify of Him? Lies? Untruths? Inaccuracies? Hardly. The Spirit of Truth has, does and will always lead all God's chosen people to the Truth. The Spirit of Truth will testify the Truth of the Lord Jesus, He will PRECISELY and faultlessly bear witness to, and only to, the record that God has testified of His Son in His Holy Gospel. Not incidentally, the accurate Testimony of God's Gospel by the Spirit of God must, therefore, surely guarantee the accurate believing of the Gospel of God by all His people who have not only heard the true Gospel, but have received the Faith which comes from God to believe what the Spirit testifies to the general assembly and Church of the firstborn. Can anyone imagine the Spirit of Truth faithfully, accurately, bearing witness of the Truth to His people only to see it received inaccurately by His chosen ones? Can anyone imagine the Lord Jesus speaking anything but the Truth of God seeing that He is the Truth and, "...a Minister...for the Truth of God..." (Romans 15:8). Importantly, "...if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Romans 8:9). Those who believe not the Gospel of God provide the strongest possible evidence that they have not the Spirit of God, for to have the Spirit of God IS TO BELIEVE THE TRUTH OF GOD which the Spirit of God leads all God's people to. It is only AFTER a man believes in the True Christ that he is, "...sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise" (see Ephesians 1:12-14). Scripture says: "But this spake He of the Spirit, which they THAT BELIEVE on Him should receive..." (John 7:39). In other words if one does not have, and is therefore not led by, the Spirit of God he cannot be a believer in the true God. If one is led by mere opinion and not the Spirit of Truth He cannot have the true Gospel. If any man has not the Spirit of God then he is not a believer in the Truth of Christ. If any man does not believe in the True and only Christ, he is plainly not a child of God. To be a saved person there must be evidence of salvation, not merely good works etc., what a man does, but of the Truth of God indwelling the saved man's life, what God has done! To be a saved person is to be sanctified by the Spirit of God Who always and only leads these chosen and sanctified ones to believe the Truth of God (see 2 Thessalonians 2:13,14). TO HAVE THE TRUTH IS TO HAVE GOD!!! The saved man is not led by just any spirit. He is not led by his own spirit or some imagined spirit or an unclean spirit, nor is he led by the spirit of men, false teachers, but by the very Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of the Gospel. Scripture says that man cannot be chosen of God unless it is through sanctification of the Spirit of God AND belief of the Truth of God (see 2 Thessalonians 2:13). Again, we see the connection between the Spirit of God and belief of the Truth of God as indispensable and fundamental elements evidenced in all those who are saved of God. A man is not saved by clinging devotedly to his view based on family tradition or a church's tradition, of what the Truth of God is. Loyalty reveals love, and love of a false gospel reveals a loyalty towards a false god and a disloyalty towards the true God. A man is not saved by what he believes the Truth of God to be, but only by the Truth of God. BY WHAT GOD BELIEVES IT TO BE AND SAYS IT IS. The Truth of God is not how you define it, or think of it as being, but what God says it is. "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because GOD hath from the beginning CHOSEN you to SALVATION through SANCTIFICATION of the Spirit and BELIEF of the TRUTH: whereunto He called you by our GOSPEL..." (2 Thessalonians 2:13,14). You cannot be a Christian if you have not been CHOSEN of God, if you have not been SANCTIFIED of the Holy Spirit of God, and if you do not BELIEVE the Truth of God: His GOSPEL. The children of God are all "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through SANCTIFICATION of the Spirit, unto OBEDIENCE..." (1 Peter 1:2). Not one of these is missing from a Christian man's life. You cannot be a saved person unless you have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit and made a believer in His Gospel. SALVATION ONLY COMES THROUGH SANCTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD AND OBEDIENCE TO, BELIEF OF, GOD'S GOSPEL. In other words, if you do not believe God's Gospel then you show no evidence which will stand up in God's Court that you are saved. You cannot believe if you are not sanctified and you cannot be sanctified if you have not been chosen. If you are chosen then you are/will be sanctified and if you are sanctified you are a believer in God's Gospel. These cannot be separated. They are the preeminent characteristics of every born again person. Chosen, Saved, Sanctified are the 'ingredients', if you will, that make up a child of God, a Believer of His Gospel. These four are inseparable and therefore eternally linked.