1— “It Is Impossible for God to Lie”
THE word of God declares that “All things with God are possible"; and yet that" It is impossible for God to lie." Hence the eternal importance of believing all that God says; for to doubt it is to make Him a liar. Let us weigh then His words," Be still, and know that I am God." Again," Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." Not to believe this, is to be involved in everlasting sorrow, for" He that believeth not shall be damned." The slighting of God's word in the garden of Eden brought upon man universal ruin; and the Saviour declares," He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
Now, when God promised aged Abraham that he should have a son, He kept His word, and “Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief... being fully persuaded that what God had promised He was able also to perform." In due time, Isaac was born. A few years rolled away, and God, in order to test Abraham's faith, told him to take his son, his only son Isaac, when but a lad, and offer him up for a burnt offering on mount Moriah. Abraham immediately obeyed, and came to the place which God had told him of. There he built an altar, laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son, when lo! a voice from heaven, " Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me." A ram, caught in the thicket, proved the divinely provided substitute that day, and Abraham received back from the dead, in a figure, the much-loved son he had surrendered to the God who had given him.
This was faith indeed, and it brought its bright reward. For " the angel of Jehovah called to Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou Nast obeyed my voice.”
Thus, by two immutable things—His word and oath—God confirmed His promise to Abraham, and has ever since been proving to all His creatures that "it is impossible for God to lie." Hence, whenever a soul is really converted, that soul, on the principle of faith, enters two families at the same moment—the family of God and the family of Abraham. For, "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
"God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. I-lath he said, and shall he not do it; or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" All lies spring from Satan, for he is the father of lies; but all God's promises are "yea and amen" in Christ, who is "the truth"; and "faith" in every age sets to its seal that God is true. Now, by God's unalterable word and oath, is offered "strong consolation" to all who have “fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made a high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.”
Just as the manslayer of old found refuge from his pursuer, when once within the city gates, so Both the trembling believer find salvation to-day in the person of that living Christ who, as Son of God, and great high priest, has passed through the heavens, and sits in triumph at the right hand of God. Let us then doubt no more, but receive this gracious message from His own lips, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.”
S. T.