False Christs and False Prophets

False Christs and False Prophets

Matthew 24:24

            “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

            Question: How shall we know a false Christ?

            Answer: We shall know a false Christ: first by his words, second by his works, third by his person.

            We shall know a false Christ by his words. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11) Since the Lord Jesus said “the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” what must be said for those to whom our Lord alludes as, “goats” (Matthew 25:32) and “wolves” (Matthew 7:15) and others as “dogs” and “sows” (II Peter 2:22); by our Lords own words it must be true that as the good shepherd he died for his own sheep and not for wolves, goats, and others. The sheep in John 10; 11 are those of the election of grace, or the “very elect” of Matthew 24:24, who were given to the Son of God from eternity (II Thessalonians 2:13) in order that he should bring them to glory, (Hebrews 2:10; Ephesians 1:1-11; II Thessalonians 2:13; II Timothy 1:9 etc.  Someone may say, well, anyone can be a sheep if he will believe the gospel.

It is true that all the sheep of Christ, who have been given the new birth, believe the gospel, but their belief of the gospel does not make them a sheep or a member of the election of grace. Belief of the gospel is the direct effect and the immediate result of; first, the Father having chosen that particular person to salvation; second, the redemption of that particular person by the blood shedding and death of the Lord Jesus Christ; third, the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost upon that particular person by which he gives new life to that person and causes that person to believe the gospel. (Ephesians 2:8, 9; Philippians 1:29; Romans 3:10-18; John 6:44)  Proof that the Lord Jesus Christ did not give his life as a ransom for all men without exception is found in John 10:26-27, “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice,” (that is, My sheep are enabled to believe my words, and they are made willing to believe my words) “and I know them,” (because they were given to Christ of the Father from all eternity) “and they follow me:” (because they believe and love the good shepherd by the effectual operation of the Holy Ghost). The proof mentioned above is this; Our Lord Jesus declared who it is that he gave his life for, it is the sheep, (John 10:11) Then in John 10:26 our Lord declared “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep,” in these words our Lord made it clear that he did not intend his death as the redemption of all and every man, but that his death is the redemption of the elect and only the elect, for his words were “but ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep, or because ye are not of the elect.

The common argument against these principles is; men do not believe because they choose not to believe, and therefore they are not the sheep of Christ.  That statement is a clear contradiction of the words of the Lord Jesus. Our Lord said “but ye believe not” this is the effect, “because ye are not of my sheep” this is the cause. These men (the Jews; verse 24) were the inveterate enemies of the Lord Jesus, their stony hearts had not been broken through sovereign grace and they acted in their own rebellion and unbelief against Christ. Had those men been given to Christ from eternity it would have been different with them, they would have believed and loved the Lord Jesus, through the saving operations of the Holy Ghost. It is clear from this that the Christ who died for all men, without exception is a false Christ. And a false prophet is one who preaches a false Christ.

            We shall know a false Christ by his works. The angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream, saying, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) In this verse “his people” are the elect of God as in Matthew 24:24. It is the work of Christ to save the elect from their sin, for he is the surety of the New Testament, (Hebrews 7:22). Looking forward to the cross (John 17:4) the Lord Jesus said: “I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” That work concerned his people or those that the Father had given unto him (I Peter 1:2), what he did; he justified them by his blood, (Romans 3:24; 5:9; 8:30) he “put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:26). Because the elect are justified by the blood of Christ the Holy Spirit comes to them in regenerating power, and sanctifies their persons. The salvation of the elect is the accomplishment of the sovereign God; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

            Contrary-wise: the Christ that is currently preached is one who only made salvation a possibility, he only made man savable. According to main stream religion of our day; the blood of Jesus Christ has no direct and immediate fruit and effect, which procures the salvation of anyone in particular. In the current scheme, Christ has made the way and man must make the difference by an act of his own supposed free will. What utter robbery of God is this? That salvation should be a co-operative effort of man and God, and not the work of God in Christ alone. What blasphemy of the precious blood of Christ; to declare that his blood shedding and death might have had its full and proper issue and yet no one be saved thereby. Such preaching is the preaching of a false Christ, and those who preach a false Christ are false prophets.

            We shall know a false Christ by his person. “I and my Father are one” (John  10:30). The Christ of Holy Scripture is God, and he is man. He is, as truly God as if he is not man, and he is, as truly man as if he is not God. The two natures are so united in that one glorious person that there is no intermixture of the natures in that person, and yet that man is God with us (Matthew 1:23) and the Word was made flesh (John 1:14). A false Christ is one, who is, a son of God (one of many) and not the unique Son of God, or one who is man and not God, or one who is God and not man. It is the person of Christ, one glorious person with two distinct natures, he who is both God and man in one and the same person, he who is the unique and peerless God –man; that gave his life for the sheep, (John 10:11) and in that, God purchased the church with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)

            It would be impossible to outline all the ways and means where by the enemy has sought to pervert the doctrine of Christ. It is sufficient to say we must diligently search the scriptures to find whether the Christ we hear preached is the true Christ who has revealed himself in the word of truth. “For the mystery of iniquity doeth already work” (in the days of the apostles) II Thessalonians 2:7 how mush more now, some two thousand years later. Therefore we must “earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.” Jude: 3. “For if he that cometh preacheth  another Jesus, whom we”(the apostles) “have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” II Corinthians 11:4 Those who preach another Jesus are “false apostles, deceitful workers” II Corinthians 11:13, 14. Therefore let us “try the spirits whether they are of God” I John 4:1. Everyone who does not preach Christ as he has revealed himself in the scripture is not of God but is of that spirit of antichrist, “because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” I John 4:1. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know it is the last time.” I John 2:18. Let us therefore “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” II Timothy 2:15.

For if the Lord Jesus died for all and every man, without exception, and without distinction; (as is taught today) then how could he say to any group of persons “ye are not of my sheep” John 10:26, since he had said in John 10:11 “the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep”? Why would the Lord Jesus say, “For this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many” (as many as were ordained to eternal life, [Acts 13:48], as many as thou (God the Father) hast given him, [John17:2])? Why would the Holy Spirit inspire the prophet Isaiah to write “for the transgression of my people was he stricken.” Isa. 53:8; why would the Lord Jesus say “the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. ” (Matthew 20:28). Why do the scriptures affirm (and the scriptures cannot be broken, John10:35) Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21)? Why did the apostle Paul write “Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25)? Why is it written “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people” Titus 2:14? Why is it declared, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us” {those whom he chose} “to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will,” (Ephesians 1:4, 5). 

But these things are in hands of Jesus Christ, and these things will be precious to his chosen, (I Peter 2:6-10), and “who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Matthew 13:9, for “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.” (Proverbs 20:12)

A.J. Ison

           

           

A Ransom for All

A Ransom for All

I Timothy 2:6

         

            The title is from I Timothy 2:6, the following are the first six verses of that text: (1) “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; (2) For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.(3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior; (4) Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (5) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (6) Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.  

From such expressions as; “Who will have all men to be saved” and “Who gave himself a ransom for all” many have inferred that the ransom is for all and every man without exception. The writer maintains a different point of view, a view which if compared to the rest of scriptures will show that rather than declaring a general ransom for all without exception, and, a will in God, that all and every man should be saved, this scripture references a ransom for, and, a willingness in God, that men of all sorts, and various stations in life should be saved. First; because verse two calls upon us to pray for all men, and then mentions only two sorts; kings, and those that are in authority. Second; because the will of God cannot be broken, thwarted, refused, or altered therefore if that assumption of a general ransom, and will in God for the salvation all without exception be true, then necessarily all and every one of Adams race must be saved without fail, else the will of God would be broken, and ruined. We know from scripture that all men are not saved, for the rich man who refused kindness to Lazarus landed in hell, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed up alive into the pit Num.16: 1-35. We may find instruction in this connection in Matthew 7:13,14 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Now if the will of God be so weak, that every damned sinner is a testimonial to that weakness, who will fear him, who will honor him?  To deny the sovereignty of God is to deny his person, power, and Godhead; it is to deny God himself, that he is God, “the high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity” (Isaiah 57:15) who is the sole governor of the universe. We must consider our religious traditions; whether they are according to the scriptures; for ”Now 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. Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” (I Corinthians 2:11-13) If we would be taught of the Spirit of God; the truth of the scriptures, we must compare spiritual things with spiritual; that is, we must compare the scripture with itself, we must compare verse with verse, line with line, truth with truth, so, shall we be taught of God. With this mind as our guide, let us seek to understand; the will of God toward the salvation of men.

In the book of Job we find; “But he is of one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.”(23:13) Our God is of one mind and who can turn him? Certainly this is a comforting thought for the children of men, in that, the covenant of grace sets before us the mind of God; that it is toward the children of men. For the message that God has sent of the angel to us is; “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” Luke 2:10. 

Though our race fell in ruin in the first man; yet our gracious God has ordained a seed (Genesis 3:15; psalms 22:30, 31; Galatians 3:16, 29) to eternal life (Acts 13:48) they are his elect, his chosen, his peculiar people; that is, a people of his own. It is true; the elect are born in this world with all the sinful characteristics that are common to the men of the world, and that they are “children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:3) yet God has determined that he will “bring many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10) the “many sons” are his chosen.

 Since God has declared the end from the beginning; we may know the end by viewing the stated will of God in the beginning, or at any point in the interim. “The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, .so shall it stand:” (Isaiah 14:24.) It is true of our God that the thoughts of his mind come to pass, for he brings them to pass. Again our God declares; “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” Isaiah (46: 9, 10). Again “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure (or purpose) of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53:10)  From the New Testament “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29) And from Romans 9:19 … “For who hath resisted his will?” From what is before us we may gather, that our God “is of one mind and who can turn him”; as he has purposed so shall it be, the thoughts of his heart shall come to pass; in short, the will of God cannot be thwarted, broken, or overturned.

Now as we view the end we may know the will of God from the beginning; we may view the end by looking in the Revelation of Jesus Christ; for there it is that God shows us the end of all things. In particular look at Revelation 5:9, for there, before us is the entire body of the redeemed, of all the ages. “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;” Now as we view the vast multitude; (for it is a number that no man can number), we know that all of mankind are not present, for many of the race of men would not bow the knee to the Lord Jesus in this world, and therefore have nothing of his mediation in the next.

According to the testimony of the elect, they are redeemed “out of every kindred,” tongue, people, and nation. Now we know that whom God has redeemed, those are they who he intended to redeem, for “he is of one mind and who can turn him?” His “counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure.” Therefore by viewing the redeemed at the end, we know who it was that God chose to salvation from the beginning, (II Thessalonians 2:13) and that he failed not in his purpose and grace which was given the elect before the world began, (II Timothy 1:9); which he must have (that is he must have failed of his purpose and grace) if his will was that all men should be saved, for we know by the testimony of the holy scripture that all men are not saved. It is evident that there is a will in God that men of all races, social strata, financial situations, sexes, nations, tongues, and what ever distinctions there are among men, that God has chose some of every sort to salvation, by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, and for Christ’s sake alone, for he is the ransom for all. The question is all of whom?

A Ransom for Many

Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) A ransom is a price paid to secure the release or discharge of someone who is captive. Now according to the testimony of the Lord Jesus; he gave his life a ransom for many, and the ransom must have been sufficient to secure all that was intended by him that paid the ransom, and by him that received the ransom, otherwise there could have been no resurrection from the grave of our Lord, for the resurrection is witness that divine justice was and is satisfied.

Our God is a just God; (Isaiah 45:21) everyone who was ransomed by the blood of the Lord Jesus must go free from the curse of the law; for “The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable.” (Isaiah 42:21) Our Lord Jesus fulfilled the law; in it’s precept and it’s penalty; for he said “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am come not to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17, 18) Again “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” ( Galatians 3:13).

            Since the ransom has been paid in full, by the Lord Jesus Christ; and since the law has been magnified and made honorable, being fulfilled in it’s precept and it’s penalty by our Lord Jesus; since the curse has been fully borne by our Lord; because of that, divine justice requires the release of all for whom the ransom is paid. Since Christ Jesus has made satisfaction to divine law and justice, for his people, “for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21); the law of God requires that Christ’s people must live, (Leviticus 18:5); and therefore “.. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 2: 4-6). Dear reader; the complete election of grace, the entire family of God, is at this moment seated in Christ (representatively) at the right hand of God, the elect were crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20), the elect were baptized into his death (Romans 6:3), the elect were buried with him (Romans 6:4) his elect were quickened together with him, they were raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:5, 6) . It is all the elect of God (the many of Matthew 20:28) that Christ Jesus ransomed. If he had ransomed some who were not quickened together with him, he being their representative before the justice God, the law of God would be violated by God himself, for the ransom was paid and received, but the captives were not set at liberty. This cannot be. Call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Christ Jesus ransomed all his people, and according to the justice of God they (his elect) must live with him (John 17:24).

A.J. Ison