SMOKING or NON-SMOKING? SABBATH or NON-SABBATH?

In recent years, with the widespread campaign against the use of tobacco and its implications for lung cancer, etc., many restaurants have separated dining areas into SMOKING or NON-SMOKING sections. When you enter, ready to be seated, often a waitress will present the query: “SMOKING or NON-SMOKING?”

The soul-winners got hold of the question and began to picture “HELL” as “SMOKING” and “HEAVEN” as “NON-SMOKING.” Thus the question, on bumper stickers and billboards became:
ETERNITY — SMOKING or NON-SMOKING?

Calls for some serious reflection! Remember THE ETERNAL LAW OF GOD:

^ 1. Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me.
^ 2. Thou shalt not make any graven image.
^ 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
^ 4. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.
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^ 5. Honor thy Father and thy Mother.
^ 6. Thou shalt not kill.
^ 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
^ 8. Thou shalt not steal.
^ 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness
^ 10. Thou shalt not covet. (Exodus chapter 20)
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Then I began further reflection:

Since I know there are no SABBATHS in HELL, and from all that I can learn in the Word of God, HEAVEN will be one eternal SABBATH, I have wanted to ask the people of this discussion group, as well as other religious professors with non-law or dispensational tendencies, who usually deny that there is a “Sabbath” remaining to the people of God (Heb. 4:9):

What do you want in ETERNITY — SABBATH or NON-SABBATH !?

God help us to realize the seriousness of the implications with regard to the opposition of God’s Holy Law and His Eternal Sabbath Law! So many have stated that they “hate” the idea of keeping one day separated, that they consider it “ball and chains” and a “slave ship” mentality. Solemn indeed when we look ahead to Man’s Eternal Abode — Heaven ONE ETERNAL SABBATH or Hell NO SABBATH AT ALL! Which do you prefer? Which would you enjoy most? Your destiny is one or the other.

For the cause of God and truth, I remain

A partaker of the GRACE of God
and a lover of the LAW of God,
W.W.F.

SABBATH - Moral Law

THE MORAL LAW, of which the Sabbath is an integral part, touches every point of human nature.

The first commandment is God’s statute in regard to monotheism;
The second in regard to idolatry;
The third in regard to profanity;
The fourth in regard to time;
The fifth in regard to family;
The sixth in regard to life;
The seventh in regard to moral purity;
The eighth in regard to property;
The ninth in regard to truth;
The tenth in regard to covetousness.

The New Commandment given by the Lord is supplemental, and may be termed the Fountain of Brotherly Love, that burst forth among the disciples after His resurrection. If these principles are incorporated in our lives, all of our relations towards God and man are fulfilled and we find the Law of the Lord is perfect.

As a part of the Decalogue, the Fourth Commandment which treats of human duty in relation to time is as necessary and binding and sacred as any other commandment, and no man can be perfect without remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy, under all covenants, as long as the cycles of time shall run their rounds. To do this intelligently, to understand the moral law, every commandment of which is binding upon Christians in all times and places, it is vital for the followers of Christ to know that the Sabbath has been transferred from Saturday to Sunday, and also to learn what modifications the Sabbath has undergone in passing from one economy to another.

The transferred Sabbath is a day of rest, but not a day of idleness and sleep. The Fourth Commandment has an outer and an inner aspect, a twofold relation to man. The outer law of the Sabbath is to abstain from ordinary daily labor; the inner law of the Sabbath is to keep the day holy.

— Johns D. Parker, in The Sabbath Transferred, 1900.

HAD YE BELIEVED MOSES

Here is what our Lord said to the most “legalistic” people on the face of the earth in His day. And you will notice that He did not in any wise set aside the Law and the Old Testament — He merely put them in their proper perspective. “Don't do away with the words of Moses; believe him and you will believe Me. If you don't believe him, you won't believe Me either.” Read John 5:42-47 carefully.

MY SOUL! I'm sure the only way the antinomians can handle that verse is to say it applies only to the Jews — then they're into dispensationalism and racism, but so be it. I'm glad it ALL applies to all the people of God — the much-loved & chosen true “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). W. W. F.

Now let us read the entire passage — John 5:42-47:

“But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”

[ I cannot refrain from repeating verses 46 & 47. May God apply it! ]

“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?”

In the words of another, "Now you let that soak in!" 

THE CROSS

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There is a spot, and only one,
Where I can truly cry,
“I pour contempt on all my pride,”
As in the dust I lie:
No room for foolish pride in me,
When at the place called Calvary!
— A. Gardner
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THINK FOR A MOMENT

Have you ever set up camp on the ancient hill called Golgotha, and there watched that middle cross whereon a Man hanged dying outside the most religious city on earth? Despised and rejected of men, He dies alone without the gate (Heb. 13:12). And it is only as you become identified with Him, united to Him, that you can be saved. The cross of shame, so despised by the world, must become attractive and glorious in your view, or else you must die in your sins with the world! And, remember this: The more truly united you are to that despised and rejected ONE, the more you are rejected by the religion of the day.

Brethren, the offense of the cross has not ceased! You can join the modern Baptist church, the Reformed, the Presbyterian, the Primitive Baptist—or any other professing church of God—and there is no offense involved. But when you come to hunger and thirst after Christ Himself, instead of some church organization, then you begin to know what it means to be totally opposed by religionists and branded as an ancient fool! Ah, Paul knew this, for did he not declare, “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness”?

TFT suffers some reproach, no doubt, for not being allied with the Missionary Baptists, the Fundamentalists or Reformed Baptists—we are Old School or strong Calvinistic Baptists, BUT we DO NOT “tow the line” of all the theories or sectarianism of any group. All the dead-letter ministry of today can easily fit into certain ecclesiastical molds, but we who insist on an experimental acquaintance with truth in its life and power are rejected, categorized and sneered at, or else our witness is mostly ignored. When we will not “let up” on proclaiming the Cross of Christ and Blood Redemption “in the old time way,” some think we are gone crazy! Oh, may the Lord arise and bring forth truth and righteousness unto His own people! Pray for the ministry of Truth for Today if you wish to see this pilgrim witness continued.

— From a special newsletter written to Truth for Today readers in 1992.

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Fountains of Grace
TFT Publications
111 Robin Hood Drive
Forest City NC 28043

THE REFINER - An Encouraging Word

“And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver” Malachi 3:3.

SOMETIME AGO some ladies were reading the third chapter of Malachi, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me,” etc. One of the ladies gave it as her opinion, that the fuller's soap and the refiner of silver were only the same image, intended to convey the same view of the sanctifying influences of the grace of Christ. “No,” said another, “they are not just the same image; there is something remarkable in the expression in the third verse, He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” They all said that possibly it might be so.

This lady was going into town and she promised to see a silversmith, and report to them what he said upon the subject; she went, without telling him the object of her errand, and begged to know the process of refining silver, which he fully described to her. “But do you sit, sir?” “Oh, yes, Madam, I must sit, with my eye fixed steadily on the furnace; since, if the silver remains too long it is sure to be injured!”

She at once saw the beauty and comfort of the expression, “He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” Christ sees it needful to put His children into the furnace; but He is seated by the side of it, His eye steadily intent on the work of purifying; and His wisdom and His love are both engaged to do all in the best manner for them. Their trials do not come at random; the very hairs of their head are all numbered.

As the lady was ready to return to her friends and report what she had heard, turning from the shop door, the silversmith called her back and said that he had forgotten to mention one thing: that he only knew that the process of purifying was complete by seeing his own image in the silver. When Christ sees His own image in His people, His work of purifying them is complete.

— S. Boyes, in Zion's Trumpet (1857)

CHRIST FINISHED THE WORK - John 19:30

God’s Christ has finished transgression, and made a complete atonement for sin; such an atonement that, as the Holy Ghost solemnly declares, “the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Now the Christ that you believe in and have felt in your soul, is it a Christ of this nature? Or is it a Christ that you say gives all men a chance of being saved, has done the best He can to save them, has made it possible to accomplish the conditions of salvation and so to save themselves? That is antichrist; as the living God is in heaven, that is not His Christ!

God’s Christ has so completed the work that all the perfections of the Eternal Jehovah harmonize in it, to the complete salvation of God’s people. A chance of being saved? Why, bless you, when I hear of men talking about a “chance” of being saved, I am led to reflect — Then the declarative glory of the Eternal Trinity hangs upon a chance; the honour and effect of the work of God the Son hangs upon a chance; the honour of God the Spirit in His quickening, enlightening, sanctifying work, hangs upon chance! And that chance, too, to be accomplished by man — a poor, dying, crawling reptile! — the Eternal Trinity having to wait in heaven to see if perchance we will let Him work! Talk of Christ! It is antichrist. It is an insulting of God’s Christ — a despising of the Christ God has revealed in His Word and makes known in the hearts and consciences of His people.

— William Gadsby in a sermon, Scripture Rule for Trying the Spirits

An Old Editorial from TFT —

TIMELY WORDS ON
REPENTANCE

True it is, as stated by several men of recent years, Repentance is indeed the missing note in today’s ministry and so-called Christian life. Where there is no evidence of genuine, heart-felt, mourning repentance before God, there is no evidence of true saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—and thus such impenitent “Christians” are no Christians at all! How can we be more charitable than our Lord? He says, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5).

In contending for the basic principles of our most holy faith, we must preach deep experimental repentance. Such repentance, however, must be clearly shown to be a gift of God’s sovereign grace and not the work of the creature. Therefore in our explanations of repentance we will have to distinguish between that which is legal and that which is true or evangelical repentance. The latter is always bestowed by God’s grace upon elect and regenerate, convicted and seeking souls—but the former may be little else than a sorrow about getting caught. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (2 Cor. 7:10).

We are gravely concerned when we see multitudes who have been wrought upon in various ways by religious hucksters, promising them an easy way of salvation if they would only “confess their sins and give their hearts to the Lord.” And while there may be much sincerity and honest sorrow over certain outward acts of sinfulness, these people yet remain total strangers to a genuine work of grace and to that “godly sorrow” of which the apostle writes: “For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!” (2 Cor. 7:11). My beloved, to be a partaker of that true, saving, evangelical repentance—which is always God’s gift—means something! It is real, never-to-be-forgotten and lasting, while your flimsy, temporary, self-motivated “sorrow of the world” will soon pass away.

True repentance is David in the 51st Psalm: “I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest... Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to know joy and gladness; that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me... For Thou desirest not sacrifice: else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.”

Evangelical repentance is Ephraim in Jeremiah 31: “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou has chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded” (vs. 18-19).

Repentance is Job at the end of his long trial: “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). And, my friends, when Job was finally brought down to this point of thorough brokenness and repentance, God restored him.

The repentance of which we write is Jacob wrestling with the angel of Jehovah until he is touched in the hollow of his thigh and thoroughly broken, crying, “I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me” (Gen. 32:6). His name was changed to Israel; the promises of God were sealed to his heart and he received the desired blessing.

Repentance, this evangelical grace which is almost unknown in modern times—Repentance, this great need of our hearts—Repentance before God in sackcloth and ashes—is the one pressing need of hearts—of the hearts of this editor and his readers, especially. We cannot create it, cannot spin it forth of our own bowels, cannot produce it by the exercise of our free wills. It must be given. “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30-31). “Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18).

True repentance is a sinner not only believing but turning unto the Lord (Acts 11:21). It is the sinner not only seeking the Lord but seeking Him with all his heart (Jer. 29:13). And to such earnestly seeking souls, and to none others, we have the promise: “And I will be found of you, saith the Lord” (Jer. 29:14). Such repentant souls not only experience a mourning after Christ but a mourning apart (Zech. 12:10-14); and only to these is the fountain of the cleansing blood opened (Zech. 13:1). In this agony of repentance, the soul lies so low at the table of mercy and says, “Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table,” and ultimately receives the blessing, “Be it unto thee even as thou wilt” (Matthew 15:27-28). “When God’s grace touches the heart, men are in earnest to get to Christ by faith and to get to God by repentance” (Tom L. Daniel).

We have often opposed “free offer gospel,” “duty-faith,” and “duty-repentance”—and rightly so, for such repentance as we have outlined from the Word of God cannot be produced by man in response to a preacher’s exhortations. All that “duty” preaching will ever produce is a legal repentance, a mere work of the flesh and not the evangelical repentance herein described.
Oh, cry to God that your repentance be not mere natural remorse, a “repentance” not worthy of the name, for it gives God no glory (Rev. 16:9). When men are caught in iniquity, condemned for it and punished, they repent. When the errors of his life have been exposed, any criminal will feel sorrow and shame. But allow him to evade punishment and he returns to his old ways.
Today’s religious converts, in their temporary, trumpery zeal, may sing about forgiveness, love and mercy. But in their enthusiasm for Jesus and the “Way of the Cross,” never do they come to the words:

“Then I bid farewell to the way of the world,
To walk in it nevermore!”

That is repentance, in the light of our Lord’s cross. Only grace can bring us this far, and then all will be well with us. Please read carefully and search your heart honestly over this matter of repentance before God. Let us hear from you. My dear friends, God’s people need to stay in close fellowship with the Lord and with each other—in this day when Satan as an angel of light stands ready to oppose the truth and, through his false Christs and false prophets, to deceive the very elect, if it were possible (Matthew 24:24). — W. W. Fulton