Essential Baptist Principles™ Selected Article Series

9/1/2004

From the Nugget series (254) by Elder Ralph Harris, August 27, 2004

"But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep" (John 10:26).

Popular religion puts it just the other way around and says; "You are not of the Lord’s sheep because you won’t believe," but the Bible always gets things in their proper order.  In the case of these unbelieving Jews, they did not believe because they were not children of God.  In other words, they were not members of the family of God.   Those who are not of God’s sheep, or His elect, are never given divine life, and therefore never possess true faith.  Christ said of this class, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do" (John 8:44).  Hence, as the Scriptures declare, they are known by their fruits. (Matt. 7:16).  They are evil, and therefore their fruits are evil.  Faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit of God (Gal. 5:22), and therefore those who do not have the Holy Spirit abiding within them are incapable of bearing spiritual fruit.

The apostle Paul says to the Galatian brethren, "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts" (Gal. 4:6).  Notice how clearly the order is stated here.  It was because they already were sons of God that He sent forth the Spirit of His Son into their hearts.  It was not in order to make them sons, but because they were sons.

God does not send forth His Spirit into the hearts of those who are "none of His" (Rom. 8:9).  And if God never sends forth the Spirit of Christ into a person’s heart, that person will forever remain dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1,5) and will never embrace, comprehend, or discern spiritual things (See I Cor. 2:14).  He will never believe in God, he will never love God, and he will never desire the things of God.  Like Jesus said to the non-elect Jews, they will die in their sins (John 8:21), and they will suffer the just penalty for their wretchedness and iniquity, which is eternal punishment and damnation (Matt.25: 46, Mark 3:29).  Only God’s chosen people will ever believe on Him in the sense of trusting in Him and viewing Him as their all in all. Happy are we if the fruits of the Spirit are visible in our lives, for that indicates that we are the sons of God.  ---Elder Ralph Harris

A response to this Nugget by Sister Brenda Fordham