The Discriminating God

(“Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings”, as Charles Spurgeon would say.)

"God is in the generation of the righteous." (Psalm 14:5b)

Righteous: Justified and vindicated by God, not by self, not by your pastor or priest, not by your church, and not by your religion. It is by God and none other. Be very wary of Church tradition. Be very careful that the foundation and first cause is always God and His word.

Righteous in both conduct and character; in what you do and who you are. Who you are is the cause. What you do is the effect.

Righteous is congruence between God’s being and nature; His deeds and acts. This is the standard for all men which was manifested and expressed in Jesus Christ. Any deviation from God’s righteousness (nature and act) is sin.

Man, due to the fall, is stained with original sin. It has changed man’s nature from God’s “factory preset default position”. Original sin makes man susceptible and agreeable to sin as well as making his environment conducive to the act of sinning. The only true and everlasting righteousness man can have is through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. It is His covering which renders man acceptable in the eyes of the Lord.

Jesus Christ is the way, the only way to righteousness and salvation. We must accept Jesus as our Savior. We must confess Him with our mouth only if it is an outlet for our heart and spirit.

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” (John 10:1,2,9)

Jesus is the way, the door. But why does the thief want so badly to enter in? Why does he deny Christ but yet try so desperately to be with the fold?

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

The thief, he is also called the stranger and the wolf in chapter 10 by John. The thief is nothing but the adversary the devil. The devil, “walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8b).

The devil doesn’t want to go through the door that is Jesus Christ to get to the other sheep. That would mean accepting Christ as his Savior. That would mean becoming righteous and that would defeat his purpose of stealing, killing, and destroying.

The devil isn’t concerned about God and heaven. He knows his fate is sealed and it isn’t with God in heaven. What the devil is concerned about is you. He wants to make sure that you are not in heaven with God, but with him in hell instead.

Now is the time to secure your present and future.

“For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Bill Hitchcock