THE ANVIL OF TRUTH

The truth is like an anvil. A man came into a blacksmith’s shop one day and noticed a pile of broken hammers in the corner. He asked the blacksmith about them and the blacksmith told him that he had broken many hammers over the years as he shaped the metal on his anvil. The man then asked him how many anvils he had broken. He responded, “none.” He still had the same anvil he started with! The truth is like that, unchanging and unchangeable. It is singular, “THE truth.” The “word of truth” of the gospel concerns Christ the Truth. Many “hammers” come against it but it remains the same. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Truth is not truth because one man preaches it. It is not truth because I believe it. It is not truth because the mass believes it to be so nor is it false because they don’t believe it is true. No, truth remains the same. The truth concerning the Person and work of Christ is eternal and it is always used of God to set His people free. It’s very stubborn and will not bend or shape to fit my own ideas and opinions or yours. While natural men we set ourselves against it. But when the Spirit of truth comes in power to our souls, we are brought to rest upon it, rely on it and rejoice in it. We receive “the love of the truth.” We then love what we once hated, believe what we once denied and find hope and consolation in what we once were ignorant of. The truth concerning that salvation which is all of God’s free grace, totally accomplished by and in Christ Jesus and Him crucified, will always be the soul-liberating instrument of, the hope of and the glory of all God’s elect. No matter how many hammers are broken against it! They are not saved by “some truth” mixed in a message of error but by the truth. The word of truth is the gospel of their salvation. (Eph. 1:13) They are brought to trust and believe on the One revealed in the true gospel. Paul, writing to the church at Thessalonica declare this very thing: “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:” (2Th 2:13) Christ’s words to them are: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32) GS

I have heard writers and preachers do something that is just not scriptural. They glorify unbelief! They write or preach as if it is a good thing to live in darkness, doubt and despair. They sometimes say, “I only despair myself.” Yet, God has not told us to look to or in ourselves! We are to look to Jesus Christ the Light! It will always be darkness, doubt and despair looking to ourselves and our feelings. I realize and know from experience that the believer will have dark days, fits of unbelief and be found at times in despair. But that is not the tenor of our lives. Unbelief is just that, unbelief! It is sin, not to be glorified but recognized for what it is and condemned. To not believe God, what He says, is sin. The scriptures call upon us to believe God, to trust Him, to delight in what He’s done, to rejoice and be glad. Why? Because He has made Christ the Light to be light to us! He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. It is the light that reveals His mercy, grace and the gift of righteousness to us in His beloved Son. We are loved with an everlasting love, chosen by grace in Christ, redeemed by His blood and called to Christ in faith by the Spirit of light. He has forgiven us our sins and blessed us with all spiritual blessings. We are to walk in His light and the light of His word. In Christ there is no darkness. “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:” (Eph 5:8) Believing God is not presumption, it is FAITH! GS

GOOD NEWS!"

But now mercy and truth have met together (Psalm 85:10); now grace is righteousness and righteousness is grace. This satisfies the sinner's conscience by showing him righteous love for the unrighteous and unlovable. It tells him, too, that the reconciliation brought about in this way shall never be disturbed, either in this life or that which is to come. It is righteous reconciliation and will stand every test, as well as last throughout eternity. The peace of conscience, thus secured, will be trial-proof, sickness-proof, deathbed-proof, judgment-proof. Realizing this, the chief of sinners can say, "Who is he that condemneth?" Horatius Bonar

LOVED WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE

God's love to His elect is not of yesterday; it does not begin with their love to Him, We love Him, because He first loved us. It was bore in His heart towards them long before they were delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. It does not commence in time, but bears date from eternity, and is the ground and foundation of the elect's being called in time out of darkness into marvelous light: I have loved thee, says the Lord to the church, with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I have drawn thee. that is in effectual vocation. Many are the instances which might be given in proof of the antiquity of God's love to His elect, and as it is antecedent to their being brought out of a state of nature. God's choosing them in Christ before the foundation of the world, was an act of His love towards them, the fruit and effect of it; for election pre-supposes love. His making an everlasting covenant with His Son, ordered in all things, and sure, on account of those He chose in Him; His setting Him up as the Mediator of the covenant from everlasting; His donation of grace to them in Him before the world began; his putting their persons into His hands, and so making them His care and charge, are so many demonstrative proofs of His early love to them; for can it ever be imagined that there should be a choice of persons made, a covenant of grace so well formed and stored, a promise of life granted, and a security made, both of persons and grace, and yet no love all this while? John Gill