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Do you really believe that? ONLY Scripture Sola Scriptura
ONLY Scripture – Sola Scriptura

The HOLY BIBLE IS: The written word of God from scripture.

  • Covenant and Truth – 4

    Covenant and Truth – 4

    And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. – 2 Peter 2:2

    1 John 1:6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 

    8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 

    [Links open separate windows to different Hebrew & Greek roots or scripture.]

    Amos 5:8  They hate him who reproves in the gate,
    and they abhor him who speaks the truth.

    Malachi 2:6 True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

    The Prophets speak of truth, the Apostles speak of truth, God speaks of truth time and time again. Truth must be important.

    No Gospel mentions truth more than the Gospel of John. (You would do well to consider the Truth of every verse of this Good News.)

    John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)

    The Gospel is a testimony of Truth in the Court of God with witness before all mankind.

    17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

    John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

    John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

    God values Truth so much that He sent His only Son to the Cross as witness of His love for us.

    Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

    Let those of us with ears to hear, hear the words of Jesus about our spoken words and our promises (not even addressing the more serious violations of breaking the covenants of our written words).

    Matthew 5

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    Oaths

    33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’

    34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

    36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

    37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

     Do we realize the context of this teaching from Jesus?

    It is from the Sermon on the Mount: after the Beatitudes (or blessings), after His call to us to become salt and light to the world, after His warning that He has not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, after His warning against anger and call to reconciliation, after his warning again lust; and after His prohibition of divorce.

    bride signs certificate

    Christians and Christian marriages are being watched. We are witness to Christ Jesus and the permanence of His relationship with His faithful Bride the church – a topic which we will pursue after our next focus on hypocrisy.

    To be continued…

  • Covenant and Truth – 3

    Covenant and Truth – 3

    Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement;

    when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us:

    for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

    Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD,

    Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation:

    he that believeth shall not make haste. – Isaiah 28:15-16 KJV

    Two issues & two cases continually used as precedent by God and Jesus (Advocate for believers):

    1. Covenant between God and man, broken by man
    2. Covenant between a man and his wife, broken by a man (who was the only one permitted by the Law to write a bill of divorce to put away his wife).

    Malachi addresses the issue of unfaithfulness of God’s chosen people of Judah and the Priests of the Temple in Jerusalem by comparison of Judah as the chosen wife of God.  Malachi 2:16 in the Revised Standard Version is translated:

    “For I hate divorce, says the LORD the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.” – Malachi 2:16

    As we will address later, Jesus points out that from the beginning it was not so.

    IF God and Christ hate divorce, THEN so should Christians.

    IF God and Christ love truth, THEN so ought the vows of a Christian speak truth.

    Isaiah takes it a step further and points out that the unfaithfulness of God’s wife is a covenant with death and warns us that such unfaithfulness to God not only breaks His covenant with us, but places us as adulterers against God in a counter-covenant: and with hell are we at agreement.

    God instructs the Prophet Hosea to take the illustration of the covenant of marriage and the counter-covenant of the unfaithful woman with hell a step further. Hosea is told to marry a whore!

    We will address the witness and truth of Christian marriage once again, later. We will also address the issue of truth verses hypocrisy.

    Truth and covenant (solemn promise and vow of permanence) stand as witness before God in the Court of our betrothal to Righteousness.

    Again, as books are opened before God our Judge, Isaiah indicts:

    “for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves…”

    Yet before the all-knowing eyes of the Lord our Creator, we stand naked in our sin. Again, in Hosea, God threatens to uncover our nakedness for all to see! God will show our naked sin to all IF we do not repent and return to Him who has married us, against whom we have committed adultery.

     Hosea 13:14 

    Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?
    Shall I redeem them from Death?
    O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

    We have broken our covenant with God!

    Will the LORD not also punish the one who would stand before Him without truth?

    • Consider your covenant with God and with our Lord, Christ Jesus.

    Before we reexamine the covenant of our ‘Christian Marriage,’ next we will consider God’s premium He places on truth.

    To be continued…

  • Covenant and Truth – 2

    Covenant and Truth – 2

    Malachi 2

    English Standard Version (ESV)

    2 If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart…

    10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

     

    Have you ever said to God: Where is Your justice?

    Do you think that the Lord does not see the injustice done to you or the sin committed by you?

    Why does the Lord not answer our prayers? (Surely God knows all truth.) Is God not going to seek justice for me?

    Indeed God will judge. It is not a court (when books are opened) where you would dare to plead even your own case, let alone come to God as the plaintive about others.

    In fact, God in several passages of scripture, pleads His own case to us; indeed, as warning against the same injustices we have committed against Him and against others.  This is God’s plea through the Prophet Malachi. Hear the proceedings of our case:

    The charges are serious. The consequences are eternal. The call for repentance is immediate.

    13 And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. 

    14 But you say, “Why does he not?”

    Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 

    15 Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? 

    And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring.

    So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.16 “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts.

    So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

    The Messenger of the Lord

    17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.

    But you say, “How have we wearied him?”

    By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

    And we ask for God to come and bring justice?

    What were we thinking, without first bowing down to the will of Christ Jesus, our Redeemer by His Cross and our Judge Advocate?

    Read Malachi 3 for further conviction, if need be.

    Malachi 3:2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

    NOT me; not without Christ Jesus as my Lord.

    To be continued…