Bible Doctrine

IT’S NOT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE RIGHTEOUS REDEEMED TO SIN. IT’S UNBEARABLE. THE CONVICTING ARROW OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IMMEDIATELY PIERCES THE HEART.

Multitudes believe the one thing the Holy Spirit cannot do is produce true genuine holiness in someone.  They believe God knows this cannot be done, therefore He imputes Christ’s righteousness to sinners and declares them holy regardless of how sinful they may continue to be.

Many are totally convinced that the remedy of Calvary is not quite sufficient for the disease of sin, that God never intended His redeemed children be kept from sinning, only that they be spared the penalty!  What a horribly distorted picture of God’s character that is.

What kind of salvation is it if we are left in bondage to sin?  It is a crippled Savior who is not Lord, a weak Redeemer who does not rescue us from the power of sin, and a sickly Messiah who cannot command those He rescues!

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21). Now is some foolish person going to tell me my Lord through his powerful Holy Spirit isn’t able to keep me free from all sin on a day-to-day- basis? 

Don’t limit God! Some will say, “Well, I believe God is able to keep me from some sin.” Some will go even further and say, “I believe God is able to keep me from most sin.” But Satan has so captured the minds and thinking of most Christians that only a very few will boldly say, “I know God is able to keep me from ALL sin!”

“Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever” (Jude 24-25). That English word “falling” is a translation of the Greek word aptaistos (ap-TAH’-ee-stos) meaning “without sin!” If God can present you before the presence of His glory faultless, then it naturally follows He is able to keep you from ALL sin!

“What he has promised he is able also to perform” (Romans 4:21). When you say the Lord cannot keep a fully surrendered believer from all sin, you are then saying He is unable to perform what He has promised!!

Why is it so many Christians are appalled at the idea that our Lord can keep us from sinning?  Is it their distorted interpretation of such texts as I John 1:8 and Romans 7 alone, or do they take pleasure in sin and knowingly refuse to abandon it?  Or, is it that they are not surrendered sufficiently to really strive against every temptation that comes their way?  (“Ho-hum, so I sinned.  Big deal.  Christ paid for it anyway”).  God help us to understand.

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12)

Donald Wiley

LET’S SAY YOU ARE PREACHING TO AN ASSEMBLY OF GOD’S PEOPLE IN 36 A.D. YOU HAVE NO SCRAP OF ANY “NEW TESTAMENT” LETTERS. YOU HAVE ONLY THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES AND THE EARTHLY SAYINGS OF JESUS TO CITE AS AUTHORITY IN WHAT YOU TEACH. WHAT WOULD YOU CITE TO PROVE GOD’S SEVENTH DAY SABBATH HAD BEEN CHANGED TO SUNDAY?? THINK HARD, FRIEND. THINK REAL HARD.

Charles Dickens, of course, wrote the novel with that title. It is a very interesting story. If you haven’t read it, or haven’t seen one of the TV series or movies adapted from that novel, you have missed out on a classic.

The “Great Expectations” of which I write and base on scripture concerns the great expectations God has for the human race – YOU included. And I do mean the human race – ALL of us, all born human. Satan has succeeded marvelously well in completely hiding from the minds and understanding of most believers, even most preachers, the great expectations God has for the human race – just WHY he created human life. And Satan isn’t winning in this “game” of life, believe it or not. God’s plan of the ages is only in the beginning stages at the moment. There is no real conflict between God and Satan. Satan does not have the upper hand, never has and never will.

True we are nearing the end of an age, but this age that is fast coming to a conclusion is only the beginning stage of God’s great work with mankind. When Jesus Christ returns He won’t say, “Folks, it’s over!” He’ll say to His redeemed sons and daughters of all eras of time, “Now, let’s get started. There’s work to be done.” God’s elect were chosen and predestined for a reason, to assist our Creator in the greatest work even Divine mind and intelligence could conceive.. 

Do you know why some pastors and preachers don’t see the deeper truths of God? There are several reasons actually, one of them being they formulated and published their “statement of beliefs” years ago and locked themselves into the same. And they aren’t changing. Also, many refuse to use the Hebrew scriptures for formulating their doctrines, stating emphatically, “We are a New Testament church. We do not get our doctrine out of the Old Testament.” Where do they think the apostles got THEIR doctrine. They were dead and buried many, many years before their various letters were collected together, published and called the New Testament! And, of course, the blinding POWER of Satan must be considered. Then, too, many pastors and preachers just parrot, or repeat, what they have heard all of their lives as being the truths of scripture. They don’t question or, investigate, nor do they PROVE their beliefs.  God help us to understand.

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

You know, there really is a fountain.  Satan would like for us to forget that, but there really is a fountain and, yes, it is filled with Immanuel’s blood, the blood of our Savior and our Lord.  And if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.  (See I John 1:9).

Such a story, such an event, such a grand thing could not be fiction.  No human mind could have composed such a marvelous and unending story.  Creator’s don’t die.  They do the opposite, don’t they?  They create.  They bring forth.  They give life.  They don’t die.  But, yes, our Creator did die.  And He died that we might live and live forever.

I have played that hymn “There Is A Fountain” many, many times.  Years ago I had a man who attended worship services where I played and every time he made a request it was always that I play “There Is A Fountain.”  The English poet and hymn writer William Cowper wrote that hymn in the late Eighteenth Century, not long before his death on April 25, 1800.

Here are some of the words of that stirring hymn:

“There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins,

And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

For since by faith I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.

When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave

Then in a nobler, sweeter song I’ll sing thy power to save.”

The prophet Isaiah was inspired by God to write, “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (See Isaiah 11:9). “And IN THAT DAY (yes, at that time in the yet future) there shall be a root of Jesse (the father of King David), which shall stand for an ensign (standard) of the people, to it shall the Gentiles (the nations) seek, and His rest shall be glorious” (verse 10). There will be a glorious rest from the deceptions and false religions that have gripped the minds and hearts of men for ages.

Approximately 200 years after Isaiah, God inspired another lesser known prophet, the prophet Habakkuk to write again, “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (See Habakkuk 2:14). Just as the sea beds of earth are covered with thousands and thousands of feet of water, just so someday this earth will also be inundated with the truth of God. God has a plan, folks, and a wondrous plan it is. God wants us to know that His time for enlightening the world to the truth IS FUTURE! God’s not even trying to save the world in this present era, nor has He tried to do so in any previous era. This should be obvious when one looks at the world as it is and has been for ages. 

“Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch (Jesus Christ), and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days (as reigning King) Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely….” (See Jeremiah 23:5-6). God isn’t even trying to save His chosen people, the Jews yet. Save for only a small remnant, they have been cut off in this present “church” age. (See Romans 9:1-3). Upon Christ’s return He will minister His Word and truth first to the Jews THEN to the Gentile nations. “The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah FIRST!” (See Zechariah 12:7). “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn…….In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness” (See Zechariah 12: and 13:1).

A misunderstanding of 2 Corinthians 6:2 prevents many from seeing the truth of scripture regarding a future offer of salvation to those who lived and died in total ignorance of the truth. That scripture says, “For He saith, ‘I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in THE day of salvation have I succored (helped) thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is THE day of salvation.'” Few seem to realize that 2 Corinthians 6:2 is a quote from Isaiah 49:8 and that the translators did not correctly translate that text, for Isaiah 49:8 reads, “”Thus saith the Lord, in AN acceptable time have I heard thee, and in A day of salvation have I helped thee….” thus signifying that time was not the only time salvation was being offered to men. They also fail to see that the entire population of the world in all ages is not being spoken of by Paul in Romans 1 when he says, “they are without excuse” (See verse 20). The context clearly shows that Paul is speaking of the enlightened Jews being without excuse for rejecting the truth and embracing rank idolatry. God help you to understand.

Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

“They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (I John 2:19)

Now this is what many think John is saying with that statement: “They fell away from the Lord, but they were never truly saved, for if they had truly been saved they would no doubt have remained faithful to the Lord, but they left the church that it might be manifest that they were never truly saved.”

But is that what John was really saying? Or, was he merely saying some – like the agnostics prevalent in John’s day – were departing from the apostle’s doctrine and teaching as they never truly accepted what the apostles of the Lord taught in many matters.

Scripture presents salvation as a process of two distinct parts: 1) justification, and 2) sanctification. Justification is a past event in a believer’s life and occurs at the moment one truly believes Jesus Christ died to save them, repents and is then baptized into union with Jesus Christ. “Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ (that is, baptized into fellowship with Jesus Christ) were baptized into His death? Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).

The picture true baptism portrays is that when the repentant believer is lowered beneath the baptismal waters he is being buried. The old former YOU has thus been put into the grave. He has died and is no more alive. The one raised up from that watery grave is the new man (or person, male or female) in Christ. “Our old man (our former self) is crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed (left behind, corrupting in the grave pictured by baptism), that henceforth (from that moment forward even to the end of our lives) we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin” (See Romans 6:6-7). Every prospective candidate for baptism ought to be told this: “Brother (or sister), the person that you have been up to this point in your life is now considered dead. When you go down into the baptismal waters you are, in a real sense, being buried. When you are raised up from those waters you are to reckon yourself to be a new person in Christ, one now dead to sin, a child of God and a citizen of heaven.”

But that is not the complete salvation experience. When raised from that watery grave the second, all-important part, of salvation begins – your sanctification! You have not yet been truly and completely saved. You have been justified from the guilt of your sinful past. You are now saved only in that respect. You have had God’s Holy Spirit imparted to you to enable you to go on with the Lord as in His office of High Priest He brings you to perfection of character. This is a process, and, for most, it will take the remainder of their earthly life. At any time, from that point forward, they, like Demas, can throw in the towel, neglect their salvation, abandon Christianity for another religion, or even become enemies of Jesus Christ. The Lord will work long and hard to retrieve and save any who even begin to stray in any such manner, but He will NOT possess you as some demon might. He will not force you to stay on the course of sanctification. It is possible you could resist all his efforts to turn you around. Once justified, you could end up lost. “How shall we (believers) escape if we neglect so great salvation?” (See Hebrews 2:3). “Christ (is) as a son over his own house, whose house (family) are we IF we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end (of our lives or our Lord’s return, whichever comes first)” (Hebrews 3:6) “Take heed, BRETHREN, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in DEPARTING FROM THE LIVING GOD” (Hebrews 3:12). “For we are made partakers of Christ IF we hold the beginning of our confidence (in Him to save us) stedfast unto the end” (Hebrews 3:14). I trust the foregoing has given enlightenment to some minds.

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

Why do you observe Sunday as a day of rest and worship?  Is it because you think Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead on Sunday?  If so, read on. (Oh, and keep in mind the wise proverb, “He that answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame unto him (or, put another way, he is a shameful fool!)” See Proverbs 18:13.

What if you had a ninety year old uncle who lived a few hundred yards from one of the many lakes in Michigan.  He had witnessed the freezing over of that small lake well over fifty times.  It was winter and the lake was beginning to freeze again.  The temperature was in the teens and the weather report said that it would remain in the teens for at least the next 5 to 7 days.  This uncle told you that it would not be safe to go ice fishing on that lake for at least 72 hours, but that after 72 hours, if the temperatures remained in the teens, he himself would go out on the lake, towing his small fishing hut and begin ice fishing.  Would you ignore your uncle’s warning and go out on the lake just a-day-and-a-half later?  I think most would answer, “Of course not.  I would wait seventy-two hours.”

God gave us wondrous mind power, thinking ability, the capacity and potential to reason and draw conclusions, saying, “Come now and let us reason together…” (See Isaiah 1:18), and “What think ye?” (See Matthew 21:28).  Jesus said “by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.”  If my uncle says the lake will be frozen over in 72 hours and 72 hours later such is not the case, he is condemned by the words he spoke as being mistaken or untruthful.  If 72 hours later the lake is frozen sufficiently for one to go ice fishing thereon, then my uncle is justified and proven to be accurate and truthful in what he said.  IMMEDIATELY AFTER making the above statement about either being justified or condemned by what you say, Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees that He was going to give them ONE SIGN AND ONE SIGN ONLY that He was truly their long awaited Messiah.  He said that just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the fish’s belly, likewise He would be three days and three nights in the tomb!  (See Matthew 12:37-40).  That was the ONLY sign He gave the Jewish people He definitely was their Messiah.

Multitudes contend that our Lord was crucified on Good Friday and placed in the tomb as the sun was setting that Friday.  They further say He was resurrected from the dead Sunday morning before sunrise!  How many days and nights are there between sundown Friday and sunrise Sunday?    OK, you have Friday night and Saturday night – two nights, right?  You have the daylight part of Saturday and that’s all – one day, right?  So Christianity’s erroneous teaching makes Jesus a false Messiah, a liar, a deceiver, for most of Christianity says Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and resurrected on Easter Sunday morning.  And it is this FALSE teaching that locks the Jewish people into rejecting Jesus as their Messiah, because He said He was giving them only one sign that He was indeed the Messiah – that sign being that He would remain in the tomb for three days and three nights.  Do you think God is happy with the those who perpetuate this horrible falsehood?  There were TWO sabbaths crucifixion week, an annual Sabbath and the weekly Sabbath (See Leviticus 23).  The first day of Unleavened Bread was an annual feast day, a Sabbath.  The day prior to that feast day was the Passover.  Jesus was crucified on Passover, which fell on Wednesday that week.  The very next day, a Thursday, was the Sabbath of Unleavened Bread.  That was the Sabbath that was drawing nigh, causing them to hasten to get His body placed in the tomb before that Sabbath – NOT the weekly Sabbath.  

Do you know why multitudes hold to their erroneous Good Friday-Easter Sunday tradition?  Because it is this tradition that they cite as their reason for abandoning God’s eternal holy Sabbath for Sunday worship.  They say it is in honor of Jesus Christ arising from the dead on Easter Sunday that causes them to hallow that Sunday and every other Sunday as God’s new day of rest and worship. Jesus came out of the tomb Saturday evening as the Sabbath was drawing to a close, not Sunday morning.  When the women got to the tomb a great while before day while it was still dark THEY FOUND HIM ALREADY GONE!  Read it in your own Bible.  (See John 20:1-2). Believe God’s Word.  Placed in the tomb at sunset, three days and three nights later would end at sunset, not sunrise.  Jesus came out of the tomb at sunset- not sunrise.  That’s why the women found him gone before sunrise Sunday morning.  He had been gone for many hours, going into Galilee before returning to Judea and appearing to Mary Magdalene and the disciples.  (See Matthew 26:32).

Yes, I speak rather frankly sometimes, so did our Lord.  If there ever was a Teacher who made it plain, it was Jesus.  I’m just following in His footsteps and He blesses me mightily and continuously.

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:1,

Donald Wiley  

Had you been alive and a mature Christian during the first 20 to 25 years of the 20th Century you would have heard preacher after preacher proclaiming confidently that the Lord’s return was imminent, many exclaiming quite emotionally, “He might well return tonight, brethren!”  Billy Sunday, the most famous evangelist of that era, loudly and consistently proclaimed Jesus could return at any moment.  In fact, He said the Lord’s return was imminent!  (That was a hundred years ago, folks!)  And many, perhaps most, would have believed Billy Sunday and his fellow preachers as they would have proclaimed “the signs are all here, brethren!” The signs?

1899-1901 over 9 million people died of famine in India

1918 Spanish flu epidemic 50-100 million dead, 3 to 5% of the world’s population

From 1899 to 1923 a major cholera outbreak originating in India spread to the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia and Africa, killing over 800,000

April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake leveled 4 square miles of the city and 28,000 buildings. More than 3,000 died.

The hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas on September 8, 1900 was the worst natural disaster for the United States in the 20th Century. The city of Galveston was completely obliterated. 6,000 to 12,000 dead.

World War I, July 28, 1914 to November 1, 1918, 20 million dead.

Time after time, decade after decade, preachers have ignored many plain and clear scriptures, proclaiming “this is the time of the end.” And now, nearly a quarter of a century of the 21st Century has passed and they are still at it. “The rapture of the church could happen before this service ends this morning, brethren.” But could it?

Brethren, the signs were NOT all there in Billy Sunday’s day, nor were they all there in Billy Graham’s day.  And they still aren’t there today!  Do YOU know all the signs to look for?  Are you sure?  To be continued……

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley

Out of the billions and billions on this planet our great God and Savior has chosen to open the minds of some of humanity to His existence and reality. Think of it. He passed over billions and billions, multitudes of whom were more moral than many of us were. Many had more talents to offer Him in His work here on this earth. Yet He rummaged through humanity and placed His finger on some of us and said, as it were, “I want that one, and I want that one now!” The Spirit was sent forth. The Word of God was revealed. The heart was stirred. Repentance was granted. Faith instilled. And contact was made with the divine.

“For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty (the great and near great) not many noble (members of royal families or the nobility) are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, and things which are despised (yes, the little nobodies) has God chosen, yea, and things which are not (of no reputation), to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence” (I Corinthians 2:26-29). “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them” (Matthew 13:16-17). “Thus says the Lord, ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight,’ says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

“He has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him…” (See Ephesians 1:4). We are “the light of the world….a city set on a hill!” (See Matthew 5:14). “Let your light (of holiness and purity of life) so shine that they may see your good works, and (thereby) glorify your Father which is in heaven” (See Matthew 5:16).

We are called with a special calling, brethren. We are to be dramatically different from the rest of the world, so different that men and women who see us, having known our former conduct, are given pause to reflect and think, “There must be a God! How else can you explain such a conversion of character and nature?”

“For even hereunto were you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile (deceit) found in his mouth” (See I Peter 2:21-22). Let us go on to spiritual perfection so that we richly deserve our place in the bride of Christ. “Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you were called with all lowliness and meekness” (See Ephesians 4:1-2). “Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing (pleasing the Lord in all areas of your life – thought, word and deed), being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all (God’s) might, according to his glorious power” (See Colossians 1:10-11). “Walk worthy of God, who has called you unto his kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12).

God grant you the wisdom to believe and the will to do is my prayer.

Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),

Donald Wiley