THE HOUSE OF GOD - part 2

 

 

The apostle John wrote about himself and his fellow Christians, in contrast to all non-Christians. In doing so, John signified two distinct groups of people: those who know God, and those who do not know God: “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM that is true…” (1 Jn. 5:19,20 cf. Matt. 13:11; Job 32:8). Here we learn that all God’s people know that they are of the true God because they have all been given an understanding so that they would all know the true and only God. This gift of understanding sets this group of people apart from all others. Conversely, those who are of the world have not been given this understanding, and so remain in ignorance of the true and only God, therefore, His glorious Gospel continues to be hid from them. Knowing God is synonymous with obeying, or believing the Gospel of God (see 2 Thess. 1:8 cf. Rom. 3:5,6). One cannot know God, and, at the same time, disobey His Gospel. To know God is to believe His Gospel, and to obey God’s Gospel is to know God. The terminology used by the apostle Paul in his second Letter to the Thessalonians bears this out “…taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:8 cf. 2 Thess. 2:10-12). To not obey the Gospel of God is not in addition to their not knowing God, but their disobedience toward the Gospel is the defining element of their unfamiliarity with the true God. To not believe the Gospel according to the Scriptures, to not believe that it is the only Gospel by which God saves His people from their sins, is to not know God. Christians are contrasted with those of the world. They are contrasted with those who do not believe God’s Gospel and/or those that do not believe it is God’s only power unto salvation. The whole world lieth in wickedness obviously does not include Christians, for they are of God, and have been separated from the world by God’s love and grace. They have been given an understanding so that they would all know God, and believe in His Gospel alone. Those who know God, understand, and believe only His Gospel wherein He is revealed. It cannot rightly be said of  those who disobey the Gospel of God, that they are of God, neither is this a sign that they know Him, or savingly believe in His Gospel alone. God says: “…let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord…” (Jer. 9:24). The called of God know and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe only His Gospel. Christ “…calleth His own sheep by name….and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice” (Jn. 10:3,4 cf. Jn. 13:1). The Lord Jesus added: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (Jn. 10:27). “…Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (Jn. 18:37). “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his…” (2 Tim. 2:19). “…faith is sealed and insured to God's elect, by his foreknowledge and predestination of them; so that they certainly have it, and shall never lose it: and their election is according to God's foreknowledge of them; which designs not a foresight of their faith, holiness, and good works, as the motives of his choosing them; nor a bare prescience distinguishing, unchangeable, and everlasting; and this being a seal affixed to all the elect, shows the distinguishing grace of God in their election…” Christians are all like-minded, for all have been given the same faith to believe the same Gospel, God’s Gospel. All share an identical belief in the unique Gospel of God which is the only Gospel wherein Christ, and His Righteousness, is revealed. Believing the same Gospel is evidence that these called out ones have been given a particular understanding, and the same precious faith by the same precious God to believe the same precious Gospel. You cannot know the true God, and, therefore, be of Him, if you do not believe in the true God’s Gospel.

 

The apostle Peter described the believers he was writing to as those “…that have obtained like precious faith with us through the Righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1 cf. Rom. 1:12). There is only one Faith which God gives to His people, and it is the only faith which believes exclusively in the Gospel of God as His only power to save. Those who are of the world, in 1 John 5, are marked by their lying in wickedness, or ‘lying in the wicked one’. Such are not of God, for they neither know, or understand the true God, thus they do not seek Him, or believe His Gospel. Like all men, they are born into darkness, not knowing God, for they are without God, and without hope in this world. “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10-12 cf. Psa. 53:2,3; Eccl. 7:20,29). The word together here means at one time, altogether: “Here the adjective is used to express a state of moral corruption and depravity (stemming from the spiritual Fall of man) ...‘the whole mass of mankind, with one consent, has fallen to ruin’”. Man must be given an understanding by God, for without it, no man can even seek the true God. However, man, by nature, does seek and crave the things of the flesh, in order to satisfy his senses, which he confuses with spirituality. Man, by nature, seeks and craves the gods of his imagination (see Rom. 1:21). He looks at, and listens to all that is godless and sinful, following the lead of his father the Devil. Scripture says the whole world is deceived by Satan, “…that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world…” (Rev. 12:9). Again, the difference between those who are of God, who are made free by His truth, and those who are of the world, and lie in wickedness, is that those who are of God have been given an understanding so that they would know the true God, and the glorious Gospel of His Son. This is a manifestation of their being removed, or rescued, from the world of darkness and ignorance concerning the things of God, and brought into His Kingdom evidenced by their singular belief of God’s Gospel. It is not their deeds which make the difference between Christians and those who are of the wicked one, but their knowing God by means of grace, revelation and the gift of faith. The world, which lies in wickedness, is made up of those who are not called out of it, who have not been given an understanding, so that they may know and understand the true God, and be part of His spiritual House. Those who lie in wickedness have not been given an understanding so that they would know the true God. They do not obey God’s Gospel, but the gospels which sinful man is naturally drawn to which focus on man’s righteousness rather than the Righteousness of Christ alone. Only those whom God has called out of the world are given the privilege and honor of knowing Him, and according to His will they are all believers in His Gospel, and, therefore, part of the House of God.

 

What 1 Peter 4:17 reveals provides conclusive and irrefutable evidence of the fact that all God’s people believe God’s Gospel. There is simply no escaping this undeniable truth. Those who do not obey the Gospel of God are not part of the House of God. Only those who believe the Gospel of God, showing they have heard and understand it, are of the House of God. The most argued against point which I have received concerning the Gospel of God, from those who actually claim to believe it, but in reality do not, is that they, and others, were saved before they believed the Gospel of God. In other words, they maintain that they were part of the House of God whilst they were in disobedience to the Gospel of God, and they remain in the House of God despite the fact that they believe they were saved by a gospel other than God’s Gospel! Curiously, I have never been shown any Scripture in defence of their most blasphemous claim. ‘Believe THE Gospel’ is the Scriptures’ cry, and not ‘believe any gospel’. The Word of God teaches that salvation comes only after one has heard, and is evidenced only after one has believed the Gospel of God, and not before (see Eph. 1:12,13). The Scriptural rule is that true belief in the Gospel of God is always attended by an eternal disbelief in the fictional salvation power of every other gospel. One who is of the House of God believes only in the Gospel of God, for all those who do not obey the Gospel of God are contrasted with those who are of the House of God. Those of the House of God do not believe in differing and opposing gospels; they do not believe that one gospel is as good as another; they do not believe that salvation lies in belief of a gospel which is not God’s Gospel, and they do not believe that anyone can be saved before, or apart from, belief in God’s unique Gospel. Moreover, they do not subscribe to the absurd notion that believing the Gospel of God means that one’s salvation is somehow retrospective. Many seem to think that believing the Gospel means they had always been saved, even during the days of their disobedience toward it, and allegiance to false gospels! The question that none of these people can provide a Scriptural answer to is: How can one have been saved prior to believing the only Gospel of God, when Christians are only ever born of the very seed of the Gospel of God? You cannot be a Christian before salvation, before hearing and believing the Gospel of salvation. Christians do not come from corruptible seed, but only from God’s incorruptible seed, His Word: The Gospel. No false gospel has ever produced, or can ever produce, a true Christian. Tomatoes do not come from the seed of carrots, nor are apples the result of having sown orange seeds. You cannot get two completely different types of fruit, or vegetables, from the one seed. No seed can produce that which is not of its own type. “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so” (Gen. 1:11). Tomatoes only come from tomato seeds, apples only come from apple seeds, and Christians only come from God’s Seed, which is His Gospel (see 1 Pet. 1:23,25). Christians are not born from incorruptible seed and corruptible. It is only the incorruptible seed, the Gospel of God, which produces Christians.

 

Being saved prior to hearing and believing the Gospel of God, would mean being saved without grace, without faith and, therefore, without God. All Christians believe that there is one God, one faith and one Gospel to believe in unto salvation. “…that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel” (Phil. 1:27). Salvation begins AFTER one has heard “…the Word of Truth, the Gospel of…salvation…" (Eph. 1:13). The Word of God’s Truth is the Gospel of salvation. No other gospel can rightly claim to be the Word of God’s Truth, therefore, no other gospel can possibly save anyone. No other seed can rightly claim to be a tomato seed other than the tomato seed, therefore, no other seed can possibly produce tomatoes. Believing the Gospel of God, and recognizing it as God’s only power unto salvation is a gift from God to all His people, and the telling sign that they are the people of God. All who claim salvation can come before the hearing and believing of the Gospel, are saying that salvation can be a reality in one’s life without believing the truth of God. In other words, that one can have salvation without truth! This is equivalent to saying it is possible to produce a tomato without a tomato seed! But how can one be saved without believing the truth of God, when Scripture states clearly that the Gospel of salvation is the Word of God’s Truth? And, that there is no salvation without believing in the Word of the Truth of the Gospel of salvation. The very hope of Heaven, salvation, is inextricably linked to the Gospel of God’s Truth: “For the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven, whereof ye heard before in the Word of the Truth of the Gospel” (Col. 1:5). “…or in the true word of the Gospel; which comes from the God of truth, is indicted by the Spirit of truth, is concerning Christ the truth, and which contains nothing but truth, and lies in the Scriptures of truth: or ‘in the word of truth’, even the Gospel; which explains what word of truth is meant…this is what only the Gospel brings an account of; life and immortality are only brought to light by the Gospel (see 2 Tim. 1:10); which not only speaks of it, but lays that before men, which gives them ground and encouragement to hope for it.” Those who believe salvation is possible without the truth of God have not eyes to see, or ears to hear, for they differentiate between believing in God, and believing the Gospel of God. However, as we have seen, one cannot believe in God without knowing God, and one cannot know God whilst not obeying the Gospel of God (see 2 Thess. 1:8). To know God is to believe God’s Gospel. Those who disobey the Gospel are those who have not received the gift of faith by grace, who put stock in the ridiculous assertions that salvation can come before the Gospel of God, before the grace of God, and before the gift of faith given by God to believe only His Gospel. When people, however well-meaning they believe themselves to be, start to remonstrate, and debate the plain and obvious truth, they become detached from reality, and begin to wonder what the truth could be rather than believe what the truth is. Such people often fall into the category of those “who contend for victory, and not truth; who strive about words to no profit; become quarrelsome, and sow discord among men…” All too often, man’s opinions are derived from the misinformed, or ill-informed sources they choose to pay attention to. Their beliefs only provide evidence of their ignorance. Distracted by lies, they are lead to gospels which have no semblance to the reality of what God’s Word proclaims.

 

To argue with people whose opinions are steeped in ignorance of the truth, is to become a fool (see Prov. 26:4). Many people often preface their statements with the phrases, ‘I think’, or ‘to my way of thinking’, or ‘my opinion is’, or ‘I see it as’, as though such phrases somehow transform mere opinion into assumed fact. “The strength of our convictions, however strong they may be, does not have the power to transform opinion into fact.” Conviction without fact is nothing more than mere opinion. Political correctness dictates that ‘Everyone is entitled to their opinion’, and people, for the most part, have embraced this half-truth because it gives them a voice regardless of how vague their knowledge of the facts is. “If ‘Everyone’s entitled to their opinion’ just means no one has the right to stop people thinking and saying whatever they want, then the statement is true, but fairly trivial…But if ‘entitled to an opinion’ means ‘entitled to have your views treated as serious candidates for the truth’ then it’s pretty clearly false. And this too is a distinction that tends to get blurred.” Truth is critical in any conversation, for it is truth which separates fact from fiction. “The problem with ‘I’m entitled to my opinion’ is that, all too often, it’s used to shelter beliefs that should have been abandoned. It becomes shorthand for ‘I can say or think whatever I like’—and by extension, continuing to argue is somehow disrespectful. And this attitude feeds, I suggest, into the false equivalence between experts and non-experts that is an increasingly pernicious feature of our public discourse.” Despite what man might think, the Gospel of God is not something which is subject to man’s opinion, it is not something which true Christians argue over, or debate, nor is it something which is relative to what a person believes it to be, but the Gospel of God is what God says it is. The Gospel of God is God’s definition, His sworn affidavit, if you will, of Who His Son is, what His Son has done, and for whom salvation has been obtained. The Gospel of God is not some empty vessel to be filled with the whims, opinions and eccentricities of every Tom, Dick or Harry. The Gospel of God is not something which can be discerned by the myopic intuitiveness of sinful man, which can only ever lead him to false gospels that do not reveal the Righteousness of Christ. The Gospel of God is not a blank check to be filled in with what we believe it should contain. Man may think he has been given some altitude in what the Gospel of God is, but God has never given anyone license to believe that salvation can come any other way, but by belief in what God says His Gospel is. The Gospel of God is filled with God’s truth. The truth about His grace in the salvation of His people. The Gospel of grace is God’s Testimony of His Son, Jesus: Who He is, what He has done, and for whom He has done it. The apostle Paul wrote of his being “…a servant of Jesus Christ…separated unto the Gospel of God….concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord…” (Rom. 1:1,3,6 cf. Rev. 19:10).

 

“When forming personal convictions, people often interpret factual evidence through the filter of their own values, feelings, tastes, and past experiences. Hence, most statements people make in speaking and writing are assertions of fact, opinion, belief, or prejudice.” The Gospel, Who God is, and how God saves, is not about feelings, values, or past experiences. The Gospel of God was not formed by the opinions, or prejudice, of men. God’s Gospel is the truth of God grounded in undeniable fact. It is of God and no other. What the Gospel of God is, has nothing whatsoever to do with the ill-conceived suppositions of men, but only what the Holy Scriptures of God declare it to be. People judge who God is by what they feel is right, often confusing sentiment and emotion, for spirituality and truth. Man is inherently drawn towards mysticism, “…that direct knowledge of God can be attained by subjective experience”. Man loves the subjective because under its protection a perceived level playing field is created where the opinions of one who knows next to nothing may be deemed on a par with one who is an expert. While labelling something as subjective may be viewed by some as a way of promoting some form of unity on an intellectual level, it only serves to distance man further from the reality of truth. If all truth is subjective, or relative, then each man’s opinion of truth is just as ‘right’ as another’s. Something subjective is open to interpretation thus reducing truth to a matter of opinion, which is judged in different ways by different people. This runs contrary to what the Scriptures say concerning the Word of God “…no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation” (2 Pet. 1:20). “If every book but the Bible were destroyed, not a single spiritual truth would be lost.” Everything in the Word of God is inspired by God, and so, its proper meaning cannot originate within the opinions of men, but must equally be of God’s inspired interpretation. It’s not what a man thinks the Word of God is saying whereby he arrives at the truth, but God revealing His truth to the man, and providing the faith with which to believe it. That which is subjective exists only in the mind. It is “Something belonging to the thinking subject rather than to the object of thought”. The subjective “Pertains to, or is characteristic of an individual”. This is the outcome of man being dead in sin, and not seeking the true God, and is why there is so much confusion when it comes to the matter of what the world calls Christianity, and what real Christianity is all about.

 

“Mysticism is the acceptance of allegations without evidence or proof, either apart from, or against the evidence of one’s senses and one’s reason. Mysticism is the claim to some non-sensory, non-rational, non-definable, non-identifiable means of knowledge, such as instinct, intuition, or any form of ‘just knowing’. Reason is the perception of reality, and rests on a single axiom: the Law of Identity.” This Law of Identity originated with Aristotle, a Greek philosopher and scientist (384 – 322 BC). Now, for the purpose of clarification, I do not seek to promote Aristotle, or , for that matter,  any other philosopher, but, as with all men, some things which he spoke were quite true. Simply because a person is a fool does not mean he cannot intermittently utter true statements. Truth is independent of whoever speaks it. Truth is an entity which cannot be rightly denied no matter if the one speaking it is a fool, or a highly educated person. Aristotle wrote: ‘Everything that exists has a specific nature. Each entity exists as something in particular and it has characteristics that are a part of what it is. ‘This leaf is red, solid, dry, rough, and flammable’. ‘This book is white, and has 312 pages’. ‘This coin is round, dense, smooth, and has a picture on it’. In all three of these cases we are referring to an entity with a specific identity; the particular type of identity, or the trait discussed, is not important. Their identities include all of their features, not just those mentioned. Identity is the concept that refers to this aspect of existence; the aspect of existing as something in particular, with specific characteristics. An entity without an identity cannot exist because it would be nothing. To exist is to exist as something, and that means to exist with a particular identity. To have an identity means to have a single identity; an object cannot have two identities. A tree cannot be a telephone, and a dog cannot be a cat. Each entity exists as something specific, its identity is particular, and it cannot exist as something else. An entity can have more than one characteristic, but any characteristic it has is a part of its identity…The concept of identity is important because it makes explicit that reality has a definite nature. Since reality has an identity, it is knowable. Since it exists in a particular way, it has no contradictions. 

 

The substance and reality of truth can never be validly denied by a person’s false perception of it, in their believing that something else is the truth, or by the dizzying rise and proliferation of popularly accepted error. The Gospel of God is not subject to the interpretations of what men believe it to be. The Gospel of God can only be identified and confirmed by the characteristics of the true God, and how He saves. The Gospel of God has a single identity. The Gospel of God is what God says it is, and any gospel which contradicts what God says, is a false gospel, a completely separate entity to that of God’s, for it has different characteristics. Though there are gospels which have similar, and even some identical characteristics to God’s Gospel, it is the differing characteristics that make all the difference. Only one Gospel can be God’s Gospel, for it is the only Gospel which is identified by all of the characteristics—doctrines of grace—that are peculiar to, and originate, within it, and no others. The characteristics of God’s Gospel are representative of its uniqueness. If a gospel has different characteristics to God’s Gospel, then it is another entity, another gospel. All false gods, whose characteristics have been selected and developed in the carnal minds of lost men, are other entities, and not the true God. One cannot identify the true by the false, nor the false by the true. Each are single and separate entities with an existence all their own. Therefore, no one can be truly saved by believing in a false gospel, which they purport to be the true Gospel, when that gospel’s very characteristics contradict, clash with, and oppose the authentic identity of the true Gospel of God. As with the Gospel of God, the House of God is an entity which has a specific, identifiable and distinguishable identity. Its principle characteristics are that it is God’s House, and that it is comprised solely of those who believe the Gospel of God. Just as wood is chosen as building material because of its characteristics, so too, only Christians make up the House of God, for the characteristic of their believing the Gospel of God, having the faith of God and saved by the grace of God, makes them the only suitable ‘building material’ for the House of God. The Gospel of God cannot be what man says it is, for the Gospel is God’s Gospel not man’s gospel. It originates with God, not man. The Gospel of God cannot have two, or more, identities. It cannot be one thing whilst being another. The apostle clearly taught that if anyone were to bring a gospel which differed with his Gospel, they were accursed people (see Gal. 1:8,9). Also, Paul taught that even the slightest change to the Gospel would make it another gospel completely. To believe in a changed gospel, is to disobey the Gospel of God. The apostle taught “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Gal. 5:9). The word little comes from the Greek word mikros from which we get our word micro, meaning very small. This confirms that even the slightest deviation when it comes to the Gospel is enough to brand that message a false gospel, and anyone who believes it a false Christian. A false gospel is any gospel that does not say exactly the same thing as God’s Gospel says. IF THERE IS ANY DIFFERENCE IT IS A SURE SIGN THAT IT IS NOT GOD’S GOSPEL!

 

Error can never make a false gospel true. Error is a characteristic feature which the entity of God’s Gospel does not contain, but is always that which identifies a counterfeit gospel that cannot save, and reveals those who believe it, not as saved people, not as people who are of the House of God, but accursed people who are of their father, the Devil. Gospels which contradict the true Gospel of God, immediately disqualify themselves as being of God. Likewise, those who believe in such gospels immediately identify themselves as among those who are ineligible for the House of God. Truth cannot be truth and error, but only truth. Truth and error cannot both be characteristics of truth, for they are two separate entities. Whilst the entity of error can contain some characteristics of truth, the entity itself remains error due to the characteristics which are foreign to the entity of truth. A murderer can, at times, manifest the characteristics of a gentle person, but this cannot change the fact that he is a murderer. Just like the deceiver needs the characteristic of sincerity, the counterfeit needs the characteristics of truth, but no matter how much truth is included in it, it will always remain a counterfeit, even if it contains more truth than error.  Just as God’s Gospel and a false gospel have separate identities, and, are therefore, knowable and identifiable by their individual characteristics, truth and error are identifiable by their characteristics. The Gospel of God must be heard and believed, not felt, or something which is to be mystically contrived, or something which is left to a man’s interpretation, or concluded to be what each individual believes it to be. There is no darkness in God, no shadow of turning, so too, there is no error in His Gospel. God is Light, and, so His Gospel is Truth (see Jas. 1:17 cf. 1 Jn. 1:5). Any gospel which contains the slightest error, or deviates in the slightest degree from grace, is a gospel which does not come from God, and, therefore, cannot save.

 

Man is forever debating and arguing over what the true Gospel is, and is not, and who the real Christians are. There have even been religious wars fought between differing groups who, with equal conviction, believed themselves to be the people of God. The simple fact of the matter is that all those who are part of God’s House are believers in the Gospel of God, and all those not part of that House are those who do not obey the doctrines of the Gospel of the grace of God, “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 Jn. 9). Conviction is not that which identifies true Christians, but their belief of the Gospel of God, is that which separates them from those who only have conviction. God’s people do not believe in gospels which differ one from another, nor do they believe in gospels whose doctrines directly contradict and oppose one another. God’s people are commanded to believe and preach one Gospel, God’s Gospel, and that is the only Gospel they all preach and believe in, for it is the only Gospel which God reveals to His chosen people (see Gal. 1:11,12). Christians are saved by God, and they are given the gift of faith by God to believe His Gospel, and no other. They believe in one Gospel as much as they believe in one God. God’s Gospel is the only Gospel which God grants His faith to His people to believe in. If true Christians believed in different gospels, then either what a person believed would not affect their salvation, or God would have several Gospels, and not merely one. The Scriptures are clear that the Christian is to preach the Gospel to every creature. Not several gospels, for they have only been given one Gospel by God to believe in, and, therefore, preach. This alone is absolute evidence that God has only one Gospel by which He saves His people from their sins. All Christians believe in, and testify to, the only Gospel that saves. All others are false gospels which only false Christians believe. That which passes as Christianity in the world’s eyes is filled with people believing all sorts of contradictory gospels, all sorts of variations of the truth to suit their particular religious bias. Opinions of what the Gospel is are as good as truth, for some, whilst many others within religion’s bizarro world of Christianity, do not even believe one can know what the Gospel of God is. This is not a true picture of God’s Christianity. This is not a true picture of God’s House. God’s Church is the pillar and ground of the truth, therefore, no one belonging to God’s Church could possibly be deceived into believing a false gospel. The Church of God is not the pillar and ground of speculation, or error, or lies, but of God’s truth which all His people are blessed to know and believe. To ensure this, salvation is never given without the gift of faith which God gives by grace to ALL His people so that they will all believe His Gospel, and no other, EVER again. This is what is called being brought out of darkness, and into God’s marvellous Light (see 1 Pet. 2:9). Those who do not believe God’s Gospel remain in darkness.

 

God’s people are a brotherhood, they are all family, they are part of the Household of God, key to which is the fact that they have all been saved by the grace of God, and given the same Faith which can only come from God, the only Faith which God gives to all His people, that leads them to believe only His Gospel—the truth about Him and how He saves—and that only God’s Gospel is the Gospel which saves. Nothing can possibly hinder a true Christian’s believing in the true Gospel of God, for he is given the faith which comes from God that ensures he believes only and always in God’s Gospel, and is led by the very Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, into all truth “…when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth…” (Jn. 16:13 cf. Jn. 18:37). “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14 cf. Jn. 14:17; 15:26; 1 Jn. 5:6). “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17). God does not give a faith to His people which leads them to believe in differing gospels, or in gospels which are best suited to each individual and their variously limited levels of understanding, or denominational preference. Those who are part of the House of God “…stand fast in ONE spirit, with ONE mind striving together for THE faith of THE Gospel” (Phil. 1:27), for they have all been led by the Spirit of God into the truth of God. Jesus said: “…the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me” (Jn. 15:26). What brings the people of God together, what it is which makes them one, is the fact they have all been saved by the one God, and given the one faith with which they all believe in that one true God, and His one and only Gospel. How could this not be when the Word of God shows clearly that they are led by one Spirit, and given the same precious faith to believe the same precious Gospel of God. No one denies that it is God who saves, so why would any attempt to cast doubt upon the fact that the saved all believe the same Gospel which is God’s very power unto salvation.

 

There is no confusion in the House of God. God does not teach a doctrine that deals with the Person and Work of His Son, Jesus, to one person, and then teaches something which opposes that doctrine, to another. Differing doctrines teach different saviours. The Church of God should not be the pillar of truth, it should not be striving to become the pillar of truth, FOR IT IS THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH OF GOD! Each and every member of the House of God has been given the truth of God, and the faith with which to believe it. The Church of God is not the pillar and ground of truths, or sincere opinions of what the truth is, but is THE pillar and THE ground of THE truth! ONE truth! God reveals His ONE Son through ONE Gospel, and that is the only Gospel which all God’s people, as ONE, believe. This is what makes them God’s people: the fact that by grace they believe the one true God of the one and only true Gospel to the exclusion of all others. This is what distinguishes Christians from those that are not God’s people. Christians are not polytheistic, they do not believe in multiple gods, and so do not trust in multiple gospels as having the power to save, but only in one God as He is revealed in His one unique Gospel. Any gospel which differs with God’s Gospel reveals another god that cannot save. Any gospel which differs with God’s Gospel reveals another way to salvation other than grace. True believers have forsaken every false god, and every false gospel, having been freed from darkness and ignorance by the grace of God through the faith of God, and brought into “…the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ…” (2 Cor. 4:4). God grants to all His people the same understanding of Him, and the same Faith to believe in the same Gospel, the only Gospel which reveals the Father and the Son. If this were not so, then we would have a situation where God has not revealed Himself. If one does not believe God’s Gospel then one does not have God (see 2 Jn. 9). The apostle Paul spoke of the true God and the only Gospel which reveals Him. Any gospel which differs in any way with God’s Gospel cannot be revealing the true God, which is why all are pronounced accursed whose faith is in a false gospel, for their trust is in a false god. God is not revealed through lies, but only by His truth. The gospel which false brethren believe is not from God, the faith they have is not from God, therefore, the god they follow is not the God of Paul’s Gospel. Scripture speaks of only “One body…one Spirit…one hope….One Lord, one faith….One God…” (Eph. 4:4-6 cf. Rom. 12:5). There are not several faiths which justify, but only one, and that one faith is given so that those to whom it is given will all believe in the only Gospel which reveals the true God. There is, but one Gospel which saves, therefore, the faith given by God to all His people believes only His Gospel. Why would God ever lead any of His people to believe a gospel which is not His, and which, therefore, does not save? “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him” (1 Cor. 8:6).