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This is our second study in response to a request from one of our readers to set down the Bible’s teaching on HOLINESS.

I was requested if I “would consider outlining in a series of email teachings, what it means to live a separated and holy life and what that looks like for the Christian in this day and age?”

This is the second part of my answer. Let me quote again the Shorter Catechism’s definition of Sanctification or HOLINESS.

“Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”

Our second study will concentrate upon the truth:

SANCTIFICATION IS THE OUTWORKING OF GOD’S FREE GRACE

This takes us a little further than our first study.

1. All that the Lord does for us is something we do not deserve but is of God’s free, unmerited favour. We so often forget this simple truth. That is because ‘self-esteem’ is deeply embedded within us. We were very much opposed to accepting this truth before our regeneration and that reluctance remains within us as part of our ‘old nature’. We have a new nature now of which Peter said: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust,” 2 Peter 1:4. We have been made partakers of God’s holiness.

We now have two natures, the ‘old’ which is sinful and the ‘new’ which is holy. They are at war with each other. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would,” Galatians 5:17. Of this inward, ongoing struggle Paul said of his resulting quandary: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do,” Romans 7:18-19.

We can surely find some comfort in the fact that Paul also struggled to resist the tendency to sin that sprang from his old nature. (more…)

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not,” 2 Peter 2:1-3.

He who “is a liar, and the father of it”, the devil, has always had his lackeys at work in this world, especially mingling amongst the people of God, passing themselves off as servants of the Lord. Peter here tells us that the devil’s pattern of activity as seen in Old Testament times will continue in this New Testament era. Indeed, as Paul and many other of the prophets inform us, his activities will increase as this age draws to a close. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils,” 1 Timothy 4:1.

His increased activity will be driven by his knowing “that he hath but a short time,” Revelation 12:12.

I think that we can have no doubt that in recent years we have witnessed this acceleration of Satanic action. Today, the world is awash with falsehoods of every form. When you think that you have just about heard every absurdity, along comes something even more outrageous!

Lies and deceits abound in every sphere of human activity.

There are scientific falsehoods and deceits. Chief amongst them is the ’Theory of Evolution’, which is presented by its disciples, not as a mere notion, but as FACT. School books, lecture halls, television nature programmes all echo to this self-contradicting folly!

There are medical falsehoods. Increasingly chief amongst them is the notion that man is moving toward the defeat of death and the beginning of physical longevity and a man-made Utopia.

There are historical lies, a perverting of the true record of past events. Chief amongst those lies are the denials of the divine creation of all things, of the accuracy of the Bible’s account of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and, more recent denials, the wonderful mercy of God toward mankind in His intervention in the times of the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

But above all, there are THEOLOGICAL FALSEHOODS.

This has always been the chief end of the devil. He would blind mankind to its true state of sinfulness and the terrible fate which awaits those who die in that state and the TRUTH OF GOD, set forth in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby God’s remedy for man’s sinfulness is declared. “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them,” 2 Corinthians 4:4. (more…)

The following report is taken from GB News. It thoroughly exposes the bitter animosity that abides in the heart of this Irish/American president, born from that inherited from his Irish ancestry!

It has rightly been claimed by some US politicians that the new proposed law will impact upon Christians, though that term is too broad, for there are many ‘Christians’ in modernistic and liberal churches who quite happily embrace the whole plethora of depraved corruptions that go under the label of  — ‘LGBT+’!

Biden, a supposed ‘Christian’ of the Roman Catholic variety, thus demonstrates that he and this ‘religious organisation’ he belongs to, are in total opposition to the Word of God, for his Pope embraces this latter-day manifestation of the increasing apostasy of mankind. See this article:

Pope Francis kicks conservative US Cardinal Raymond Burke out of his Vatican apartment and strips him of his salary after he criticized pontiff’s pro-LGBT stance

The downgrade of ‘Christendom’, gripped as it has been for generations by increasing rebellion against God and His TRUTH, becomes ever more threatening toward the remnant of true believers, who alone have a right to the term ‘Christian’!

Here in the United Kingdom, we have witnessed an increasingly overt plan of opposition to all that is Biblical.

Sincerely in Christ’s name,

Ivan Foster

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Christians could be BANNED from fostering children under Joe Biden’s new plans

 By Georgina Cutler

Published: 28/11/2023 – 18:11

A group of Republican attorneys general have warned that Joe Biden’s new proposals would drive Christians out of the foster care system – REUTERS

The group claim that the requirements for foster care families violates the Constitution

A group of Republican attorneys general have warned that Joe Biden’s new proposals would drive Christians out of the foster care system.

The new rule will remove faith-based providers from the foster care system if they do not change their religious beliefs on sexual orientation and gender identity.

On Monday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall along with 18 Republican colleagues in other states wrote a letter to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calling for the Biden administration to change the rule. (more…)