Salvation and Faith

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6). So what is it with which God rewards those who "diligently seek him?" With the greatest of all rewards, which is "that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (Jn. 17:3). From everything I see with my eyes and hear with my ears, there are very few people who truly know God. Don't get me wrong, I'm talking about 'Christians' too. Obviously those who don't even profess faith in Christ don't know Christ. Being a Christian doesn't mean that you know God, and as far as that goes being a Christian doesn't even mean you have been born again and had your sins taken away. How so? Well, because anyone can become a Christian by 'getting saved,' which is to say 'accepting the Lord as your personal savior,' or 'confessing Jesus as Lord.' None of the above are even in the Bible, except for the confession of Jesus as Lord, which in fact was an exhortation to people who were already in Christ to CONTINUE in the faith, both from their hearts and with their confession (Rom. 1:7,8; Rom. 10:8-10). The only new birth experience in the Bible is the baptism of the holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking with other tongues, just like it was when the body of Christ began (Acts 2:4; Acts 10:44-46; I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27; I Cor. 6:11; etc.). And contrary to what many have been taught, receiving God's Spirit is not a two or three phase deal. We receive the Spirit when we are baptized with the Spirit. That is the Bible way (Acts 19:1-6). Anything else is the way of modern religious man. Anyway this is not a post about the new birth experience. If you would like to see one, just search our page here or go to byonespirit.tumblr.com. There are plenty of them to read. But the point of mentioning the new birth is that if we don't even know what being born again really is, how are we going to know more advanced things in the Spirit? And if we're believing the modern Christian invention of 'getting saved,' it's certain that we don't know what the new birth is; meaning we don't know when someone receives the holy Ghost, which washes us, sanctifies us, justifies us, renews us, and regenerates us (I Cor. 6:11; Tit. 3:5).

That kind of leaves us in a tough spot, seeing that the scripture says, "even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (I Cor. 2:11). The problem is that there just aren't that many people who are diligently seeking God, to truly know him and what he's about. It seems most folks are content to just have an opinion about everything, whether it be about the Gospel or about things that are going on in the world around us. According to the scriptures however, an opinion is not going to get us through to the finish line: "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Dan. 12:10). It is in fact the wicked who refuse to know God, and it is the wicked who refuse to diligently seek the Lord and thereby be rewarded with the actual knowledge of God. The scripture confirms that for us as well: "A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself" (Prov. 18:2). Then there is the flip side of that saying: "For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy" (Eccl. 2:26). If we're going to talk about the Gospel of Christ or about the affairs of the world around us, we really need to know what the heck we're talking about and how the heck to talk about it. Otherwise we're just wasting energy and edifying nothing or no one. Not only so, but we're also putting ourselves at risk for incurring judgment for our foolishness, as the scripture also tells us: "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few... Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?" (Eccl. 5:2,6). So then what is the remedy for the honest of heart? That takes us back to where we started: "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." For those who will not diligently seek God there simply is no remedy, but to incur judgment for being foolish and wasteful. Amen.