FORBIDDEN SCRIPTURES No.

9 Try this test: Read the verses below from the Bible and then think back and try to remember the last time you heard a sermon taken from this text. Probably you never have. That is because these verses are among a good number which contradict the beliefs of most modern preachers and churches. Because of this most preachers have never preached on these verses. Probably they have never dealt with them except to try to explain them away, assuring their hearers that they do not mean what they say. Think of it! Modern professing Christians who refuse to believe all that the Bible teaches while claiming to believe that the Bible is Gods Word. So, take the test. Read these verses and decide if you and your preacher and your church really do believe all that the Bible says. Perhaps you will decide that some changes need to be made not in the Bible but in your thinking and understanding. Here are some of the Forbidden Scriptures about salvation that only a few people believe. The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee (Jeremiah 31:3). Again, we invite you to think with us about what the Bible really says. In this text God tells the prophet of His everlasting love for him. Gods love does not depend on human goodness or works. God sovereignly shows mercy and love. Proof: For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy (Romans 9:15, 16). Gods love for you depends on Gods will: not on your will or actions! You do not and cannot merit it! James said, Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world (Acts 15:18). God did not begin loving the prophet after the prophet was born. In fact God told the prophet, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). God knew Jeremiah and set him apart and ordained him a prophet and then formed him in his mothers womb! Let that soak in! That is Gods order! People often have a low an opinion of God thinking He is at war with the devil and busily engaged in trying to undo what the devil has done. This is not the case! It is the devil who is fighting God and trying to undo Gods plan! God has an everlasting plan: one that He conceived in eternity and which He is accomplishing! God says, I will do all my pleasure (Isaiah 46:10). Note the consequence of Gods eternal love, for love produces actions. God said He loved Jeremiah with an everlasting love. God knew Jeremiah and chose him (set him apart) and ordained him before he was even formed in the womb clearly in eternity past. The consequence of Gods love is also seen in our text above: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Those whom God loves He draws! (Contrast this with John 6:44, 65). Not all people are drawn: not all are children of God. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke to the most religious Jews of that time, the Pharisees. They were fundamentalists (see Acts 23:8) and were great soul winners (see Matthew 23:15), but their converts were lost and in a worse state than the soul winners themselves. Jesus said to these religionists, Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not (John 8:43-45). Jesus said that these super-religious people lacked the ability to hear His word and also that they did not believe Him! Notice also that Jesus said to them, Ye are of your father the devil. Some people are children of the devil! They are like their father. He was a liar and they are liars. They may be very religious sons of the devil as the Pharisees were. The lies they tell may be religious lies. They may tell lies in Christian churches or on Christian radio or by distributing Christian literature. The future of liars is prophesied in Revelation 21:8, But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Do you have the

ability to hear Christs word? He said, Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish (Luke 13:3, 5).