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"THOU SHALT SURELY DIE!" (PART 12)

 

 

After conquering his enemies the king of Assyria boasted "...by the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom...", but Scripture asks: "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?..." (Isa. 10:15). "The sense is, that the king of Assyria, in taking cities, and conquering kingdoms, and adding them to his own, was only an instrument in the hand of God, like an axe in the hand of one that hews down trees; and therefore it was vain and ridiculous to take that to himself which belonged to the Lord, on Whom he depended as an instrument, as to motion, operation, and effect; from Whom he had all power to act, all fitness for it, and efficacy in it, as the axe has from the person that makes and uses it". So too, man can do nothing of, or for, himself in the matter of salvation. The fact that he is a man is something which is of the Lord. The axe may try to boast in itself, but it must be reminded that it is only an axe because of its maker, and its usefulness is due to the one who wields it. Left to itself, the axe merely lays there, and can do nothing of its own accord. Without its maker and wielder it is nothing more than dead wood. Man is not the one who directs and dictates what God must do—‘I chose you so you must now save me’—but is moved and directed to do "...by the power and providence of God...the grand distinction God has made among men, lies in His special, distinguishing, and everlasting love to some, and His appointing others to His Wrath; the distinguishing love for His chosen places them in Christ and unto everlasting salvation; in the gift of them to Christ in the eternal covenant; in the redemption of them by His blood; in His powerful and prevalent intercession for them; in God's effectual calling of them by His grace; in His resurrection of them from the dead to everlasting life, placing them at Christ's right hand, and their entrance into everlasting glory; when the distinction will be kept up... throughout the endless ages of eternity; all which is owing, not to anything of man's, but to the free grace, Sovereign will, and good pleasure of God....All supernatural and spiritual blessings are received from God; such as a justifying righteousness, sanctifying grace, remission of sin, the new name of adoption, strength to perform good works, to bear and suffer reproach and persecution for Christ (see Phil. 1:29), and to persevere to the end, with a right and title to eternal glory".

 

All the insignificant, and quite unnecessary, centuries old debates between the protagonists of Arminianism and Calvinism, who say, that though they are in disagreement as to what the doctrines of God actually are, they are all nonetheless saved, have been perpetuated by carnal man. According to Scripture, NONE OF THEM have the Truth! Quite a statement, but I am fully prepared to back it up with the Word of God, and show absolutely that only God's people have the Truth of God, and those who have not that Truth reveal that they are not Christians who merely have differences of opinion, but that they are not Christians at all. False brethren always show, by what they believe, that not one of them have been, or are being led by, the Spirit of Truth into abiding in the doctrine of Christ, but have been mesmerized by the spirit of error, the spirit of Satan masquerading as truth, into thinking that what they believe is the very Truth of God. True Christianity is not about opinion, but is about the very Word of God, His Gospel: what God says. The True Church of God is the ambassador of God's Truth and a perpetuator and promulgator of "...the Record that God gave of His Son" (1 Jn. 5:10). True Christianity is NOT deceived, and just like the true Christian neither can it be (see Matt. 24:24; cf. 1 Jn. 5:19). Therefore, true Christianity has never put forth lies in the name of God, for it is led by His Holy Spirit of Truth, and so "...can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth" (2 Cor. 13:8). The Church of God, the Body of Christ, is filled with His people and His Truth, and cannot be infiltrated by those who are deceived, who are not born of the Word of the Gospel, but who teach lies in His name (1 Pet. 4:17). The Church of God is not confused about what the Truth of God is, but boldly and confidently teaches it. In commanding His people to preach the Gospel to every creature, Christ was making a statement that all His people know and abide in His Gospel (see Mk 16:15. Each individual member of God's Church has been made alive, is born again, born of His Seed: "Being born again...by the Word of God...And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you" (1 Pet. 1:23,25). The only confusion over what the Truth of God is, lies within the hearts and minds of those who are lost, who do not judge the Truth of God by the Word of God, but are rather moved and influenced by the character, intellect and sincerity of those who cannot see it.

 

What a person believes about that which occurred in the Garden of Eden sets the tone for what a person will believe concerning salvation: Who God is, Who God saves and how He saves. If one believes man's free will remained intact after the Fall, instead of man becoming spiritually free of will toward God, it is foolishness to believe that a man can only be saved by God's choosing. And, if man can choose, via an innate ability, then the teaching that Christ died for all would make sense. For if man can choose to come to God then surely Christ would have been obliged to offer His sacrifice for all men, and salvation must, therefore, be conditioned on an individual's acceptance of what Christ has done, and not on His death alone. If salvation all depends on a man's choice, then we enter the deadly waters of theological fantasy which would have us believe that Christ's Sacrifice is not the difference maker, but that a man's eternal future depends upon his free will choice to make that sacrifice effective in his life. If man can choose to be saved, then he can also choose to remain unsaved. Any choice God has made of man, must then be because God foresaw which people would choose Him, and so guided by this template, and not God's free will, purpose, love, mercy and grace, God is enabled to choose the right ones. If reality, however, is as the Scriptures describe it, that man was utterly corrupted after the Fall, then not only would physical death eventually come and preclude him from being able to do anything physically, so too, spiritual death would render man utterly incapable of doing anything to come to God. Thus, election is God electing man, and not at all by a man’s electing God. Intrinsically, according to Christ, man does not have the ability, or capability, of coming to Him. He cannot choose to, and he cannot come to, the Lord. This includes not having a love or desire for the true God. That no man can come to Christ shows that no man has ever, or will ever, come to Him of his own volition, for he has none when it comes to the True God. And, if no man can come, or even desire to come, then any talk of a man's free will is simply illogical and unscriptural. If I may paraphrase Mr. Churchill's words, It is all a myth wrapped in a fantasy borne out of an enigmatic gospel which makes no Scriptural sense whatsoever. Man in his ignorance says, excitedly, "I have a free will to come to God', whilst the Lord's words echo from the depth of Truth: "…no man can come unto Me…" (Jn. 6:65), and "...there is none that seeketh after God" (Rom. 3:11).

 

If man is dead in sin and, therefore, dead to God (see Eph. 2), and if, according to the Lord Jesus, no man can come to Him without the Father, a statement which perfectly aligns itself with the Lord's words in Matthew 19:26 where He proclaims, quite unreservedly, "...With men this (salvation) is impossible..." which in turn is in perfect agreement with the Scriptures which teach that man has no hope, and is without God, it becomes transparently obvious that God must be the One Who comes to man. God must be the One Who does the choosing, and Christ's death, His substitutionary, vicarious, sacrifice  must, therefore, have been exclusively offered to God on the behalf of those whom God had chosen, and given unto His Son (see Jn. 17:2). Salvation is either by man, or God. It is either one or the other. One teaching is a lie of Satan's and the other the Truth of God. There is no biblically logical reason to attempt to merge these two doctrines. It makes no Scriptural sense to try and assimilate  a Satanic lie with the Truth of God. Nor is any of this simply a matter of debate between Christian people. If it is an undebatable point that to score a goal in football one must have a ball, then it is of a certainty that the Truth of God cannot rightly be reduced to some arguable issue amongst Christians, but is actually an inarguable fact held to by true believers who have been given: "...an understanding so that we may know Him that is true..." (1 Jn. 5:20). True Christians know God, they understand, and believe His Truth for they are "...in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ..." (1 Jn. 5:20) and been granted the love of the Truth (see 2 Thess. 2:10). Man, by nature, is without God and without the love of the Truth of God. True Christians have all received the love of God's Truth. They are not in bewilderment as to what it might be, for they know what the Truth is, and that they are of the Truth: "...we know that we are of the truth..." (1 Jn. 3:19). All non-Christians have not received the love of God's Truth that they may be saved. Conversely, ALL CHRISTIANS HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY GOD "...THROUGH SANCTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT AND BELIEF OF THE TRUTH" (2 Thess. 2:13). They do not debate the Truth of God, for they have been sanctified by it, and granted the Faith which comes from God to believe it. Those who do not love the Truth of God, do not see it as the Truth of God, and so will forever fight against the Truth of God. Clearly, those who do not love the Truth of God will not be saved. The damned are recognizable, not by horns on their heads, or by an unpleasant demeanour, but by the fact they believe in lies concerning God (see 2 Thess. 2:10-12).

 

The truth of God is not some theological issue for scholars, and the masters of theology to talk about, to haggle and compromise over, etc., and then tell the rest of us what it is. What is taught in the name of God is either truth or lies. It is either God's Truth, or Satan's lie which is at issue. Believing the Truth of God, and believing a lie of Satan's is what distinguishes the true believer from a deceived person. There is no middle ground, no room on the fence, for any sitting to be done, for one either believes the Truth and is saved, or one does not believe the Truth and is lost. By Truth here is meant the Gospel of Christ. Those who say they are still contemplating what the Truth is reveal that they do not have it, and so are currently lost. If one can see, understand and believe the Gospel of God, then one is saved. However, if that Gospel is not seen, if it is not understood and believed, it is clear from Scripture that "...if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (2 Cor. 4:3). Clearly, those who argue against the Gospel of God are opposed to the Gospel of God, for they are manifestly NOT among the people of God who have all received the love of the Gospel of God. One has either received the love of the Truth, or maintains a natural aversion to it (see 2 Thess. 2:10-12). Believing in God's Truth, and believing in lies are diametrically and eternally opposed. They are two different gospels which portray two different Gods: the true Gospel reveals the True God and a false gospel, any gospel which is not God's Gospel, can only reveal false gods that cannot save. Believing the true Gospel is believing in God, and believing in a false gospel is only believing that you believe in the True God. People continue to be impressed by men who are respected the world over, and who have thousands who flock to hear them. Men who have numerous degrees, and multiple letters after their names, and who have studied, and taught for decades are seen as those who can be trusted to speak, and teach the truth. However, none of this proves a thing unless those men believe the Gospel of God. No attrbute of man's, nor any amount of studiousness he has plunged into, can lend itself as any proof that what the man teaches is the Gospel of God. The only proof a man is teaching the Gospel of God is that he is teaching it. All Christians believe the same Gospel, for there is only one Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. To argue with men whose trust is in a false gospel, who do not believe the true doctrines of Jesus Christ and YET STILL CONSIDER THEM CHRISTIANS, is to believe a cat is a dog simply because it has four legs. There is absolutely no Scriptural argument for such a preposterous assertion.

 

The Scriptures state clearly that a born again man, a saved-by-God person, is born of the Word of God, the Gospel. Without that Gospel there can be no new creature. All Christians are born of the Seed of God, which is His Word, which is His Gospel: "Being born again...of incorruptible (Seed), by the Word of God....which by the Gospel is preached unto you" (1 Pet. 1:23,25). Literally all Christians are born of the Truth of God. A plant begets a plant begets a plant ad infinitum because of the seed of that plant. The process never changes, and so the product never changes. The Gospel of God produces Christians. No other gospel can do that. You cannot get a tomato plant from the seed of any other plant. So too, the Seed of God, His Gospel, only produces Christians, and Christians can only come from that incorruptible Seed. The process never changes , and so the product never changes. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CHRISTIAN WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. There is no such thing as a Christian who has been born out of a false gospel. You cannot have a true Christian as a result of a corruptible seed. You cannot be a true Christian by believing in a false gospel. The seed must be incorruptible, and, therefore, MUST be the Seed of God. If a true Christian can be the only outcome, or fruit, of the Gospel of God, it is a given that no true Christian can possibly be produced by a false gospel. You cannot get a true Christian from a corruptible seed. You cannot be a true Christian if you were not born of the Seed of the Gospel of God. As the plant comes after the seed is sown, so too, the teaching (planting of the Seed) of what God's Gospel is, happens before one is born again and not after. The plant can never come before the seed. Scripture teaches that a man trusts in Christ only after he has heard the Word of Truth which is the Gospel of salvation (see Eph. 1:12-14; cf. Rom. 10:14-17). Of course, after one is born again one’s understanding of the Gospel, and the intricacies of its glorious grace-based doctrines certainly increases, but what those doctrines actually are, coupled with a fundamental understanding of them which leaves no room for man to boast, and gives all the glory to God alone for salvation, is a matter which has been settled by God's revealed Truth and His glorious gift of Faith by grace to believe it. Scripture speaks of the Spirit of Truth, and the spirit of error. A person is led by either one or the other. A Christian is not one who has been led by the spirit of error to the true God, but only by the Spirit of Truth using only the Gospel of Truth, for how could the Spirit of Truth use anything other than Truth. Those who are led by the spirit of error do not believe the Gospel of Truth. How can anyone be led by the spirit of error to the True God? They are NOT Christians, nor can they be as long as they follow the spirit of Satan headlong into perverted versions of the Truth of God, which only present a distorted image of the true and only God that saves, and which have never led a man to the true Gospel of God, but always further and further away from it.

 

One is either right or wrong concerning one's beliefs. One either has truth or believes error. Belief in erroneous teachings is always accompanied by sincerity, but sincerity is no guarantee that what a person believes is truth. Nor can we take counsel from our conviction. Judging truth or error by sincerity is in no way a proper guide to who is right and who is wrong. There is no gray area when it comes to what is true and what is not true. Who God is, and Who God is not. One is as absolute as the other. 2+2 =4 is as absolutely a truth as 2+2 = 5 is an untruth. Neither answer can be argued into a gray area for one is black and the other white, and there is no mathematical, let alone logical, reason for mixing the two, or trying to reach a compromise. If one did mix the two together all one would, and could ever have, is a dull greyish mess of perverted truth. Error has nothing which the truth requires, for the slightest error added to truth perverts it, and renders it useless. This does not mean one is in a no man's land of neither right, but not wrong either, for any time you add, or take away from truth, all that remains is error whichever way you look at it. No one is right while they are in the process of learning what the Gospel is, while they still hold to error as they are being taught the truth. No one who believes any number of false answers whilst they are being taught the truth do not have, and believe the truth until they actually believe it, and have rejected all that they previously believed, and in their ignorance even considered could be the truth. The only sure sign that one believes the truth is a flat out rejection of all that error says in contradiction to it, and of ever thinking one was right when subscribed to it. To truly believe the Gospel of God is to understand, and embrace it, and to repent of ever having believed anything else was God's Gospel, and that it could in any way have saved you. To believe the Gospel of God as God’s sole power unto salvation, is to also believe that no other gospel can save, and, therefore, that no one believing in another gospel is saved.

 

All these highly revered and respected Bible scholars, teachers, ministers and professors etc., that people are following are NOT Christians unless they believe the true doctrines of the Gospel of the grace of God in the salvation of His people, for only those doctrines, only the true doctrines of God reveal the true God, and only those people who believe in those true doctrines are revealed as true Christians. "...if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Gal. 1:9). If one claims to have been saved believing in erroneous doctrines rather than acknowledging, believing and being subjected to the Truth, something which God's Word insists upon, then truth, and grace would not be necessary to salvation. Knowing the true answer to an equation would not be necessary if believing in any answer would be viewed as having the right answer. So too, sincerely believing anything about God does not mean you are a Christian, for the evidence that one is a Christian is seen in the fact that one is born of the Gospel: believes the True God, and the doctrine of Christ according to the Scriptures. One cannot be a Christian whilst believing in a gospel that is riddled with error, and ignorance, or even holding to one erroneous teaching which conflicts with the Gospel of God. Ignorance is not innocence when it involves unbelief toward the Gospel of God. The Christian acknowledges, he understands and recognises the Gospel of God, and so rejects all false doctrines, and the gospels which contain them as having any power to save, for they are not of God, and do not tell of Him.

 

Without realising what they are saying, or how illogical, and utterly unbiblical their thinking is, those who count a man saved, whether he believes the true Gospel or a false gospel, have concluded that believing error, believing a false gospel, in other words not abiding in the Doctrine of Christ, is no hindrance at all to being saved! Believing in a false gospel is as good as believing the True Gospel of God to such people, for they all count themselves, and others saved regardless of what they believe, and when they began to believe it. Such people are saying: ‘Believe in God’s plan of salvation, or in those gospels which do not present God’s plan of salvation, it’s all the same thing’. You are just as saved whether you trust in God’s plan of salvation, or not. Evidently, as long as a person shows themselves to be studious, and has a modicum of intelligence, or is at least equipped with an  undeniable sincerity in what they believe, they are accepted as being saved of God. But surely even these can see through the utter madness of statements like, 'To believe error is as good as believing truth'. 'A man is saved whether he believes God's Gospel, or one which is not Authored by Him'. 'Salvation has come to you whether you believe in the true Gospel, or a false gospel'. 'I was saved before I believed the Gospel',  is equivalent to saying 'I was saved before I believed in God'. That one can be saved whilst believing in error makes as much sense as one being correct when one is believing in the wrong answer, or the man who claims to be perfect, but not always. The reality of the situation is that believing a false gospel is to disbelieve the true. To believe another gospel can save you, as well as God’s Gospel, is to deny the fact that God’s Gospel is God’s only power unto salvation, and the only Gospel which reveals His Righteousness (see Rom 1:16,17; cf. Heb. 3:19; Heb. 4:6). To be saved is to be right; made right by the Living God. The gift of Faith is given to ensure all God’s people believe in His Gospel alone, and reject all others as having any power to save. To be saved is to believe God's Gospel with the gift of Faith which comes from God, not in another gospel authored by a false god that cannot save. Stubbornly holding on to a false gospel, and the vain belief that one has been saved by it, is to evidence a spiritually dead state, for it is a rejection of grace, and, therefore, a rejection of the True God, and the only Gospel by which He saves. To believe in salvation by any other gospel other than God’s unique Gospel, is to believe in salvation by any other means than grace.

 

The true Christian is born of God. He is born, given birth to, or produced by His Seed, the Word of God, and the false Christian is not. The true Christian is born of incorruptible seed, and all false brethren are born of corruptible seed (see 1 Pet. 1:23-25). There can be no Christian if one has not been born of the Word of God: "Of His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth..." (Jas. 1:18; cf. 1 Cor. 4:15). Though he names the name of Christ ten thousand times a day, every day, if a man does not believe the Gospel of Christ, if he does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, then that man is not a Christian (see 2 Jn. 9), he is not saved, and, therefore, remains in his sins. True Christians do not proceed out of the womb of The Word of the Truth of God running around like chickens with their heads cut off, some believing this, and some believing that, and others believing a combination of this and that. Christians are not born into a spiritual world of uncertainty hopping from one doctrine to another, and one denomination to another arguing with each other about what the Truth of God is, or trying to find out what the Truth is by listening to men, for they are born of the Truth into God's world of Truth. A Christian is not born ignorant of the Truth, but is born by the Seed of Truth. Being born of the Gospel of God means they all believe that Gospel, God's Gospel, and no other. They are of one God, and one Faith (see Eph. 4:4-6), and so believe the exact same Gospel, for that one Faith given by God is given as a guarantee that they will all believe God's Gospel, and no other. Every Christian joins hands with the apostle Paul, and says: “…I know Whom I have believed…” (2 Tim. 1:12). People, including many who are regarded as great leaders, and ‘spiritual giants of the church', tend to give credibility to just about whatever is taught, and believed based on a person's saying they love God, and their performing kind, and charitable deeds, and speaking with an ever so gentle voice, or holding a position within a recognized, long standing, and respected religious denomination whose long dead leaders seem to gain more, and more credibility the longer they are dead. When it comes to the Gospel of God one either believes it, or one does not; and, when it comes to Salvation one is either saved, or one is not. John the apostle speaking in the context of God's testimony concerning Who Christ is, and what He has done, says: "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 Jn. 5:12 cf. Jn. 3:36; 2 Jn. 9). AND, TO HAVE THE SON IS TO BELIEVE THE RECORD THAT GOD HAS GIVEN OF HIM, AND NO OTHER (see 1Jn. 5:10-12).

 

Man's so-called free will indicates an inherent ability to choose to believe the Truth of God. It also rejects the Scriptures’ teaching that man’s unbelief is due to his being dead in sin, but claims man’s unbelief is a free will choice of his. Free will teaches that man is not imprisoned by sin, he is not blinded by the god of this world from the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ (see 2 Cor. 4:3,4), but can see, and freely choose, for, or against it. Free will teaches that man is a neutral creature, that far from being in an accursed state, can choose what he wants to believe, and what he wants to disbelieve when it comes to God. Man can, therefore, resist the will of God, or allow it to come to pass. This line of thinking insists that not only does man have the capacity to choose to do good, or evil, but that he also possesses the power to choose the true God, or reject Him. The lie of free will is encased within the false perception that there must of necessity exist an intrinsic freedom to believe, and choose, for things to be on a level playing field. What this lie conveniently ignores is the fact that the sole catalyst for election, according to the Scriptures, is the mercy of God, and that God shows mercy on whomsoever HE WILLS. People say that Sovereign election is not conducive to a level playing field for not all can come, but only those who have been chosen. My friend, THERE WOULD NOT EVEN BE A PLAYING FIELD WERE IT NOT FOR THE MERCY OF GOD in His electing some to salvation!! What makes all men, by nature, equal is the fact that all are spiritually dead to God, and none can come to Him. The fact that God, by His great mercy and Sovereign will, has chosen to save some is that which makes one man differ from another. Contrary to the almost universally accepted fallacy of man’s freedom to believe, man is not free to believe whatever he wants, but is imprisoned by his own sinful nature to believe anything but the Truth of God! As with the stillborn child man can do nothing spiritually. He cannot discern spiritual things, for he is spiritually dead (see 1 Cor. 2:14; cf. Jn. 14:17). Man's being dead to God, his separation from God, must, necessarily, include his separation and alienation from God's Truth as well as any ability to discern and desire it. Separation from the God of Truth is to be separated from the Truth of God. Man, by nature, is dead to God, and dead to His Truth. Dead to His Gospel and dead to His Spirit. This is why Scripture places so much emphasis on believing the Truth, God's True Gospel, for this is the sign of spiritual life. Without this belief there can be no proof of spiritual life. Far from being free to savingly believe God’s Gospel, man is in bondage to sin, and belief in any and every kind of false gospel he can imagine, including the false gospel of, and which promotes, free will (see Rom. 8:21; Jn. 8:34; 2 Tim. 2:26; 2 Pet. 2:19). Which is why every false gospel includes within it something which man must do to either get saved, or remain saved, for this is the only type of salvation plan spiritually dead man has ever had the ability, or ‘free will’ to conceive, and believe in. Being dead to God, and His Truth is to be alive to false gods, and every untruth. This is not to say that a man who is dead to God can only believe lies. Man can have an intellectual knowledge about God's Truth, a knowledge which merely lies on the surface of his mind, but not a saving knowledge of God’s Truth, for it has not penetrated his heart, and he is not subject to, nor does he have a love, for this knowledge (see Heb. 4:2; cf. 1 Thess. 1:5). Man can with head knowledge 'believe' the Gospel of God, but he cannot, and will not believe that all are lost who do not believe the Gospel of God as His only power unto salvation. Somewhere along the line he will make excuses for this person, or that person, and even himself being saved before, or without hearing the Gospel. And, he will always insist that man must do something to either get saved, or attempt to maintain his 'salvation' by performing good works, and abstaining from bad. As no man is saved without God, and without the Gospel of God, so too, no one is saved before believing the True God Who is only revealed in, and by His only Gospel.

 

Man is bound, and blinded by sin as he aimlessly walks along the pathways of an inescapable religious maze. And yet man is deeply convinced that he is free, and wise and, accordingly, believes that he has the right, freedom, and capability to believe whatsoever he wants about whatever he wants to believe in. Such a man's trust is in himself, in human ability, and not in God. Humanism/Satanism always has man in the driver's seat. Man, rather than God, is always the pre-eminent one. The very essence of true Satanism is not to consciously worship Satan, but to love oneself, to always give oneself the pre-eminence above all others, even God. True Satanism is the love of self. It is to follow in the footsteps of Satan. The humanist says man is always in command. Man needs no assistance or guidance from God, or His Truth, for it is believed, in ever-increasing numbers, that whatever man believes the truth to be is what the truth is. Arminianism, rightly described as "...an elastic, progressive, changing liberalism", is a humanist-based collection of God dishonouring lies. It is a progressive movement that promotes human self-sufficiency, and which does not take its adherents in the direction its proponents claim. It does not lead to God, but only, and always takes its people further away from Him.

 

How, in light of this irrefutable evidence which has been presented to you, can anyone seriously entertain the notion, let alone honestly believe, that man by his own free will can come to God? The fact that man by nature is without God, and that no man by nature seeks God, is confirmed in Jesus’ own words found in John 5:40: "And ye will not come to Me, that  ye might have life". No man by nature can will to come to God because no man can come to God, he has no desire for God, for the Scriptures say that no man seeks after the true God. The Lord Jesus leaves no room to doubt this by saying, "No man can come..." Doesn't this match perfectly with Romans 3 where we have learned that no man seeketh after God. Christ goes on to say "...except the Father" (Jn. 6). ‘No man can except the Father’, clearly teaches that without the Father no man can. Without God no man can be saved. Man is without hope within himself, and has no help from without, for he is without God. Salvation is simply impossible with man, but not with God. It takes God to save a man! And, God saves a man not by enabling him to make a free will decision, BUT BY MAKING THE MAN ALIVE UNTO HIM! THAT is how God saves, for in that aliveness, his now spiritually responsive state, man is given eyes to see, and ears to hear, and a Faith that understands, and believes only in the true God, and His Gospel, and which rejects all false gods and false gospels, forever. No man can come to Jesus without the Father doing that which no man can do. Man's coming is not the result of a man's free will decision, but by God's drawing the man (see Jn. 6:44). Unless God intervenes by grace no man can be saved. Unless it is by God's free will no man can be saved. Christ said that salvation was impossible with man, and that only with God was such a thing possible, and that this possibility all rests upon a grace-inspired act of God, and not what a man can do, for without God man can do nothing to come to God. Never once did Jesus speak of a man's will being the catalyst for his salvation, but always, and only the power of God, HIS will, as being not only the catalyst, but also that which is responsible, for the whole process of a man's salvation. Man is taken on a free ride by the grace of God, for with man every aspect of, and element in, salvation is impossible. Man cannot save himself. Salvation is NOT God helping the sinner. Salvation is NOT God enabling the sinner to do for himself, but salvation is God doing what the sinner cannot do. SALVATION IS GOD, AND GOD IS SALVATION! "...God is my salvation..." (Isa. 12:2). Salvation is God doing everything FOR the sinner because the sinner can do nothing for himself! That is why salvation is all of grace, all of God, and of God alone. The Scriptures teach clearly that without God man is hope-less. Man is without hope in whatever he devises to ‘get to God’.

 

The Lord Jesus says no man by nature has the ability, or capability of coming to God. The fact no man by nature has ever sought, or can ever seek, the True God further supports the fact that man is dead to God. He is spiritually lifeless. Man cannot seek that which he is ignorant of. Man, as a creature spiritually alive to God by nature, is extinct. No man is of God unless he is born of God by the will of God with the Word of God: "Of His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth..." (Jas. 1:18). No one can be born of God without the Word of Truth. Without God man by nature is lifeless, and helpless, and therefore destitute of  hope. Man needs to be brought back from his spiritual state of death by being made alive from this lifeless state by the Living God. This is something which can only be by the Will, and Power of God. In his lost state, man cannot come to God, he cannot even seek God, because he is without God. If this is not spiritual death then I could not imagine how spiritual death could possibly be any worse than not being able to seek, or even want to desire the True God. Believing error, and lies, false gospels, etc., about God is evidence of this lost, and lifeless condition all men are in by nature. Scripture points out that if the Gospel of God is hid, or not revealed, to a person THAT person is lost "But if our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost" (2 Cor. 4:3). There is no argument against this, for it is the Word of God on the matter. God has spoken clearly, and succinctly, the Lord Jesus confirming this fact when He said, in Mark 16 "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mk. 16:16 cf. Jn. 3:15,18,36; Jn. 5:24; 1 Pet. 4:17,18). John the apostle words it in the following way: “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). Man is lost because he is dead to God, and, therefore, cannot savingly believe in the Gospel of God. Man must be spiritually born again.

 

An important question for those who believe man is not spiritually dead to God is: Why must a man be made alive spiritually if he is not spiritually dead? Man in his blind, lost, and eternal state of separation from God, cannot seek after the true God, nor will any come to the true Jesus. Man will not come to God, he will not seek God, because he CANNOT. He is dead to God. Dead man has no free will in his spiritually dead condition just as a dog has no say in the fact that it is a dog, and no right to protest that it is a dog. Every man is a product of another man. Adam's sin has passed down to every man, and so spiritual death is the natural state of every man. TO SAY THAT EVERY HUMAN IS BORN DEAD TO GOD, IS AS RIGHT AS SAYING THAT THEY ARE BORN HUMAN. Man cannot escape the fact, nor can he flee the reality of his God-less existence. All man can do, in his natural lost state, is seek, and continue to seek false gods who present themselves as the true God, for they are the only ones he is alive to, and thus, they are the only ones he can seek and desire. This is something of man's own doing, and he has no one to blame but himself. Man is the source of all his trouble. If you do not believe any of this try desiring that which you know nothing of. Man's miserable spiritual state prevents him from ever desiring the true God in, and of himself, and, of ever reaching a state of Righteousness before the Holy God (see Rom. 3:10). Dead men seek lifeless gods that cannot save. All man can do in his imperfect, and utterly devastated, lifeless spiritual state is seek after imperfect, and imagined gods, in whom there is no salvation. Such is the utterly vain, and unprofitable condition of every man by nature. The reality is that man in his spiritually dead state is in bondage. Man is a slave to sin, and Satan, and is subject to the many guises he dons, and the lies he spews forth.

 

 

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