Program 106: Justification: The gift that keeps on giving!

Justification covers the repentant sinner so that he stands before Yahuwah as though he had never sinned.

Welcome to WLC Radio, a subsidiary of World’s Last Chance Ministries, an online ministry dedicated to learning how to live in constant readiness for the Savior's return.

For two thousand years, believers of every generation have longed to be the last generation. Contrary to popular belief, though, Christ did not give believers “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, he repeatedly warned that his coming would take even the faithful by surprise. Yahushua urgently warned believers to be ready because, he said, “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [Matthew 24:44]

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

* * *Part 1: (Miles & Dave)

Miles Robey: Hello, everyone! Welcome to World’s Last Chance Radio. I’m your host, Miles Robey, and with me is Dave Wright for another enlightening, encouraging study from Scripture.

Dave Wright: Welcome! Thank you for making us a part of your day.

Miles: It really is a privilege to be able to share truth and we’re grateful to our listeners and all who visit our website who have expressed an interest in the ministry of World’s Last Chance.

Dave: If you’ve tuned in before, or visited our website, you know one thing we prefer to use is the personal name of the Creator, which is Yahuwah.

Miles: Or Yah.

Dave: Or Yah. It comes from the Hebrew verb-of-being, hayah.

Miles: If you missed the program where we talked about the name, I encourage you to go back and listen to it again. It’s incredibly faith-inspiring. Yahuwah’s name itself becomes a very powerful promise any of us can claim. That’s why Scripture keeps telling us, over and over, to “call upon the name of the Lord.” In the original, it’s not “call upon the name of the Lord.” It’s “call upon the name of Yahuwah” and you can’t do that if you don’t know His name!

The Saviour’s name is Yahushua and means “Yahuwah saves” or, more precisely, “Yahuwah’s salvation.” I love how descriptive the Hebrew names are!

Dave: I do, too. And they incorporate the Father’s name in many of them.

You’ll likely also hear us use “el” or “elohim.” These are Hebrew titles that refer to the Father. It’s the equivalent of our English “god,” or “lord.”

Miles: Knowing the personal name of the Almighty is such an incredible gift. It’s very faith-inspiring to claim the promise of His name.

So. What do you have prepared for us today, Dave?

Dave: Well, today I want to talk about gifts. Have you ever received a gift that was just … beyond every expectation? Something that stands out in your mind, even to this day, as extra special?

Miles: Oh, yeah! Absolutely. I’ve been given some special, heart-felt gifts before, but there is one that was absolutely spectacular.

Dave: What was it?

Miles: Well, the year I turned 15, my dad got me year passes to watch my favorite football team, Manchester United.

Dave: Wow! To every game?

Miles: Yep! He bought two passes: one for him, and one for me, and he committed to going to every game with me.

Dave: So in addition to getting the chance to see your favorite team play, you got to make some great memories with your dad.

Miles: It was great. Truly, the gift that just kept on giving.

Dave: That’s what we’re going to be talking about today: the divine gift that just keeps on giving.

Justification, of course, is what allows any of us to be saved. But there’s more—

Miles: Before you go on, let’s just summarize what justification is. I know we’ve talked about it before, but let’s recap.

John 3:16, of course, is the gospel contained in a single verse. It says: “For Yah so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have ever-lasting life.”

Justification is the very heart of the gospel message. It’s the transaction—the gift—where the merits of the Saviour’s blood are credited to the believer and he (or she) stands before Yah as though he had never sinned.

Dave: Well said. Thank you, Miles. Justification is a gift of grace. It reveals depths of divine love that boggle the mind. That Yahuwah would love you so much, that He would love me so much, that He would actually credit you and me with Yahushua’s own merits is staggering. There’s nothing any of us can ever do to deserve it or earn it.

Miles: I look at it as a donation. Yahushua donates the merits of his blood to cover sinners in a never-ending donation. His purity and perfection is gifted to us.

Dave: That’s a good way to put it. And, you’re right: it’s never ending.

But there’s more. In a very real sense, justification is the ultimate gift that keeps on giving because with justification come still more gifts that transform the sinner from Satan’s image, into the divine image.

And, again, it’s a gift. It’s all a gift. It’s never something you can earn, even by holy living!

Miles: Holy living is the fruit of justification; the result of it. Not what causes you to be justified.

Dave: Exactly. Holiness is not the price you pay in order to be justified. Holiness is the result of justification.

Let’s take just a moment to read Paul’s description of this amazing gift.

Ephesians 2, verses 4 to 10. Would you read that for us, please? I like this passage because it’s so clear. Paul really says it best.

Miles: All right. Got it. It says:

But Yah, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved); and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Yahushua: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Yahushua.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of Yah: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Yahushua for good works, which Yah prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Dave: Those good works are the result of having been justified. It’s not how you earn justification.

Now, most Christians have a fairly good grasp of justification. We’re all sinners, saved by grace.

But the plan of redemption encompasses a lot more than just forgiveness for sins we’ve committed in the past.

Miles: One Christian writer I read, years ago, said something that always stuck with me. It was: Redemption, without restoration, is not salvation.

In other words, we’re not saved just so we can be turned into immortal sinners.

Dave: That’s good. That’s really good. This is precisely why I say that justification is the gift that keeps on giving. With justification, Yahuwah bestows on believers still more gifts.

These gifts bring the individual back to the state of purity that Adam had before the fall. With these gifts, the sinner is perfectly restored and reflects the divine image.

Miles: Our Creator is also our re-Creator.

Dave: This is the sheer magnitude of Yahuwah’s gift of justification.

The very moment the repentant sinner’s faith grasps ahold of the promise that Yahushua’s shed blood covers his sins, he is justified. This isn’t a two-part transaction with divine grace doing part of it, and the repentant sinner doing part of it.

Miles: It’s not Part 1—Yah declares you righteous; then, Part 2—to maintain that state of grace, it’s now up to you to go and sin no more.

Dave: No. When Yahuwah declares you righteous, you are righteous. When He looks at you, He sees you through the lens of Yahushua’s righteousness and you appear to Him as though you had never sinned.

This is what it means to be justified. You can’t earn it by good deeds. You can’t maintain it by self-denial. You can’t even earn it by repentance, since repentance itself is also a gift.

Miles: That’s a good point. We all know that if you’re truly repentant, it means you stop committing the offense. To be so sorry for the wrong you have done that you stop doing it … that is genuine repentance.

Dave: But that, too, is not something we somehow can conjure up in ourselves. Jeremiah 17, verse 9 says: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”

Now, if my heart is “desperately wicked” and “deceitful above all things,” can I truly be sorry for my sins? Can I make myself repent and stop doing wrong?

Miles: No. Let’s face it: sin can be fun! Certainly, to our fallen human natures, it’s more enjoyable than spiritual things. So, yeah. I see what you’re saying: repentance itself has got to be a gift.

Dave: Salvation is not Yah and me working together. Salvation is ever and always a free gift. The only thing I can ever do is choose to accept it … or reject it and continue in known sin.

I’d like you to turn to Romans 3. This subject of justification, and the particulars of how salvation works, is the theme of Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Miles: What verses?

Dave: Romans 3, verses 20-26.

Miles:

Therefore, by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of Yah without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

Even the righteousness of Yah which is by faith of Yahushua the Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of Yah;

Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Yahushua:

Whom Yahuwah hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of Yah;

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Yahushua.

Dave: Again, it’s impossible to ever earn Christ’s righteousness. Salvation cannot be earned by any efforts or works of the individual. Only by faith can anyone be justified and stand before Yah as though he had never sinned.

Miles: And it’s an on-going gift; a perpetual donation of Christ’s righteousness that covers our filthiness with the merits of both Christ’s life and his death.

This was a new realization to me recently. Yes, the merits of Yahushua’s blood—his death—covers my sins, my past actions that fail to perfectly reflect the divine image.

But if that’s all there were, I’d stand before Yah as a blank slate. But that’s not all there is. There’s more. Yahuwah credits the merits of Yahushua’s perfect life to me as well, so that’s why, as you said earlier, when Yahuwah looks at us, He sees the perfection of Yahushua.

We’re not just a big, fat zero in the “totals” column. Instead, the very acts Yahushua did, the kind words he spoke, the selfless service, the loving deeds, those are actually credited to our account! So, literally, when Yahuwah looks at you, when He looks at me, He is looking at us through the lens of the perfect life of His son.

Dave: That’s a really awe-inspiring thought, isn’t it? To have not only the merits of Yahushua’s death, but also the merits of his life applied to me, to know that every kind and loving word and act that he did, is what the Father sees when He looks at me, is very humbling.

Miles: It really is, and it underscores yet again that salvation in its entirety is a gift. Our self-righteousness not only does not get us into Yah’s coming kingdom on earth, but is itself a sin!

Dave: And yet, how much our fallen natures want to be righteous in our own efforts! Robert Murray M’Cheyne was a deeply spiritual man. He was only 29 when he died in 1843. He said once, quote:

Self-righteousness is the largest idol of the human heart – the idol which man loves most and God hates most. … You are always trying to be something in yourself, to gain God's favour by thinking little of your sin, or by looking to your repentance, tears, prayers; or by looking to your religious exercises, … etc; or by looking to your graces, the Spirit's work in your heart. Beware of false Christs. Study sanctification to the utmost, but make not a Christ of it.

Unquote.

Righteousness and justification are the exact same thing. In fact, in Greek, they’re the same word! So, just as there is no self-justification, there is no self-righteousness that is acceptable to Yah, either.

Miles: That reminds me of what Isaiah said in Isaiah 64, verse 6. He said, quote: “We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”

Dave: Justification is the gift of righteousness and, like everything else necessary for our salvation, it’s a gift of divine love.

* * *

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* * *Part 2: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: You’ve been saying that once a person accepts the gift of justification, there are other gifts that come with that one great gift. What more can you tell us about these other gifts?

Dave: Well, it’s like the Father is just waiting with bated breath to pour out blessing, after blessing, after blessing. He’s not going to force the human will, so before He can bless, and help the way He wants to, we have to first make that choice to accept Him and His gifts.

One of these gifts—and it’s a really precious one—is sanctification. Now, this is one of those big words Christians like to toss around, but we don’t really use or even hear it in any other context.

You’ve got your favorite dictionary there—

Miles laughs: Yeah, I’ve learned to just keep it here.

Dave: Thank you! Well, could you look up the word “sanctify” and tell us what it means?

For those of you who don’t know, Miles has this really old dictionary. I mean, it’s really old: eighteen-oh–?

Miles: Eighteen-twenty-eight, actually. Hey, the definitions are great! A lot more depth of meaning.

Okay. Here we go: “Sanctify.” It says: “In a general sense, to cleanse, purify or make holy. To separate, set apart or appoint to a holy, sacred or religious use. To purify: to prepare for divine service, and for partaking of holy things … To cleanse from corruption; to purify from sin; to make holy by detaching the affections from the world and its defilements, and exalting them to a supreme love to God.” End quote.

That’s powerful!

Dave: And that is one of the gifts Yahuwah bestows on those who accept the gift of justification. Sanctification is, literally, transformation into the divine image.

Have you heard of Neil T. Anderson? He’s a Christian author.

Miles: Uhhh, no. No, doesn’t sound familiar.

Dave: Well, he made a statement I think is very insightful. He said, quote:

“The inner change, justification, is effected at the moment of salvation. The outer change in the believer’s daily walk, sanctification, continues throughout life. But the progressive work of sanctification is only fully effective when the radical, inner transformation of justification is realized and appropriated by faith.”

Miles: That’s good. I like that. To “appropriate” something, of course, means to claim it. So what this is saying is that sanctification, just like justification, is bestowed. It’s not something we earn.

I think this is important to emphasize it’s so easy to slip into this mindset that in order to maintain our state of justification, we have to do something, anything. We have to stop eating THIS or start wearing THAT. And pretty soon we’re right back into salvation by works.

The fact that sanctification itself is a gift is a very powerful, encouraging point.

Dave: Well, we can’t do it. It’s got to be a gift! It’s the only way any of us could ever be transformed into the divine image.

I think Ezekiel says it best. Let’s take a look at that. Ezekiel 36, verses 25 to 27. What does that say?

Miles: Almost got it …

Okay, it says:

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Dave: We’re sinners, so from our perspective, it’s normal to view the divine law with fear and apprehension. But the truth is, the divine law is merely a transcript of the divine character.

Miles: It’s the law of love.

Dave: Exactly! Yahuwah gifts to each justified believer the gift of a new heart. It’s a divine gift! On that new heart, He inscribes His law of love—the transcript of His own character.

This is powerful, because once you receive that gift, guess what happens? Your secret desires, your hidden, inner heart is cleansed. Now, you naturally delight in holiness and you find sin hateful.

Miles: What a gift!

Dave: Oh, it really is!

Miles: And obviously, it’s not anything we could ever conjure up within ourselves.

Dave: Absolutely not.

Miles: It reminds me of a statement made by the great Charles Spurgeon. He said, “Saving faith is an immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, resting upon Him alone, for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of [Yah’s] grace.”

Dave: From beginning to end, salvation is a gift of divine grace.

Now. This does not mean that at any point prior to glorification you’re going to be able to claim perfection.

Miles: Oh, my wife could have told you that!

Dave: She knows you well, huh?

Miles: Oh, yeah! How does this work, though? It’s a gift, yes. But obviously we’re not going to be sinning in Yah’s everlasting kingdom. We won’t even want to.

Dave: Justification and sanctification are both gifts, but we still have our fallen human natures. We’ve still got the failings and weaknesses that come with having inherited and cultivated tendencies to sin.

The difference, though, is that with Yah’s gifts of justification and sanctification, the deepest desire of the heart will be to be united as one with the Father. This means that if given the choice of … oh, watching that movie for a couple hours of escape versus keeping your mind attuned to Yah, you’re going to choose to keep your mind focused on Heavenly things. Not in order to “maintain” your state of justification, but simply because you get more joy in communion with the Father than you could ever have by watching some Hollywood movie.

Miles: This reminds me of Yahushua’s prayer for his followers just before Gethsemane. Give me just a second to look it up. It’s in John 17.

Here it is. Verses 20 and 21. It says: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.”

Dave: The gift of a new heart inscribed with the divine law? That’s Yahuwah’s answer to the Saviour’s prayer.

Miles: That’s beautiful. I never thought of it quite that way before.

Dave: There is another gift that comes with justification, and that is glorification. As you said, we’re not going to be suddenly transformed into immortal sinners.

The thing is, it’s not just that we’ve got cultivated tendencies to sin. We also have inherited tendencies to sin. Glorification takes care of all that. You could say glorification is the crowning touch in the plan of salvation.

Miles: Thomas Watson was an English minister and author back in the seventeenth century. He was a Puritan, and a number of his books are still in print. Anyway, he said something I haven’t fully appreciated until now. He said that it was “absurd” to imagine Yahuwah would justify a people and not sanctify them, or that He would justify people He couldn’t glorify.

Dave: The plan of salvation isn’t just to forgive us for sins past. It is also to completely restore in us the divine image, to bring us back to where we would have been had we never sinned!

So. A quick recap:

• Justification applies the merits of Yahushua’s blood to the repentant sinner and he stands before Yahuwah as though he had never sinned.
• Sanctification is the gift of a new heart that has the divine law—the divine character—inscribed on it. With this gift, sin becomes hateful to the believer.
• Glorification, then, is the gift that removes the fallen human nature, and transforms body and soul completely into the divine image.

Miles: This occurs at the resurrection of the righteous, right? When Yahushua returns?

Dave: Yes. Glorification is the final gift that fully transforms the believer into the divine image.

Turn over to Philippians 3. Paul actually speaks rather a lot about this. Philippians 3, verses 20 and 21. What does that say?

Miles: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Yahushua Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.”

Dave: Sanctification makes sin hateful to the believer, but sin itself is still part of that nature. Glorification is the gift that transforms the nature, making it one with the divine. This is also the point at which our sinful, human, fleshly bodies are transformed into new, spiritual bodies that will never die.

Let’s let Paul explain it. He says it best: 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 46 to 56. Would you turn there and read that passage for us?

Miles: 1 Corinthians 15–?

Dave: Verses 46 to 56.

Miles:

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly.

And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of [Yah]; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O Death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory?”

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to [Yah], who gives us the victory through our Lord Yahushua Christ.

Unquote. Wow! That passage just comes alive, doesn’t it?

Dave: It does! And it is all due to Yah, “who gives us the victory.” He gives us the victory. From beginning to end, and at every step along the way, it is a gift.

The saints were given new hearts at justification. Now, at glorification, they’ll be given new spiritual bodies that will never die, and with that comes the gift of a higher nature.

Miles: Can you imagine what it will be like? To be gifted with a higher nature? To never more be tempted to sin, because there will be nothing in you to respond to Satan’s drawing? What an incredible gift that will be!

Dave: This is what allows the saints to behold the face of Yah Himself, and live in His immediate presence. Moses was told that no man could see Yah’s face and live because our sinful natures are so much a part of us. But with glorification, we become sons and daughters of Yah and can spend eternity with Him.

Miles: It reminds me of Paul’s statement to the believers in Philippi. In Philippians 2, verse 13, he explained: “For it is Yahuwah which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

Dave: We know salvation itself is a gift! But so are justification, sanctification, and glorification. All you have to do is accept these gifts by faith! There is nothing you can do to earn it. Just accept it by faith. When you do this, Yahuwah Himself will get you ready.

Miles: Don’t go away folks. When we return, we’ll be answering your questions sent in to our Daily Mailbag. Stay tuned.

* * *

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* * *Daily Mailbag (Miles & Dave)

Miles: All right! Time to answer questions submitted to our Daily Mailbag. This one is anonymous. It says: “Hey, there—”

Sounds American, doesn’t it? Hey, there! How y’all doin’ today?

Dave laughs: Be nice!

Miles: I’m just saying—

Okay. Trying again: “Hey, there! So, I’ve got this question for you. I really want to study the Bible more but every time I try, I have a hard time concentrating. My mind wanders and honestly, I’m bored. That sounds awful and is why I’m going anonymous with this message, but it’s the truth. I don’t enjoy reading the Bible. Do you have any ideas that can help me? I really do want to study the Bible and I feel guilty for not enjoying it. What can I do?”

Dave: First, I want to say, don’t feel guilty. The devil uses guilt to separate us from Yahuwah.

Secondly, I can relate.

Miles: Me, too! The less you study the Bible, the less you want to study!

Dave: But the converse of that is true, too: the more you study, the more you want to study.

It’s a spiritual principle that spiritual things are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14 says: “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of Yah, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Miles: That’s the truth!

Dave: But even if Scripture study bores you, it is possible to get past that and, in the process, develop a very strong faith.

Would you read Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 12 for us? This holds the key to developing a love for Bible study.

Miles: Hebrews 4:12. It says, quote: “For the word of Yah is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Dave: Because the word of Yah is living and powerful, the more you study, the more you will want to study.

Yes, at first it may require doing so as simply a choice, rather than a heart-felt desire. But the more you study, the more you’ll discover hidden depths to passages you may have overlooked before.

Miles: Do you have any advice on how to get started? Yes, jump right in and just do it. Is there anything else?

Dave: Yes. Remember that anything you need, you can pray and ask for.

Miles: Including a hunger for Bible study?

Dave: Absolutely! In Revelation 3, what is the problem with the Laodicean church?

Miles: Well, that they think they are rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing.

Dave: While, in reality, they are …?

Miles: Wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

Dave: Basically, in need of everything. Right. So, what’s the advice given the Laodiceans? How are they supposed to pull themselves out of the slough of spiritual pride in which they find themselves?

Miles: Well, for one thing, they don’t “pull themselves out.” Let me read it here. Revelation 3, verse 18.

It says, quote: “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”

Dave: So, they go to the Saviour, and they ask for what they need, right?

Miles: Right.

Dave: That’s exactly what each one of us needs to do. And we need to do it, not only to obtain a hunger for Bible study, but because we need spiritual discernment to even grasp what we’re studying! That’s the eye salve the True Witness says he’s willing to give us.

Miles: This reminds me of a promise Yahushua made in John 16. Listen to this. It’s beautiful. It says: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”

Dave: That’s good! So, yeah. Ask for the spiritual discernment to understand what you’re reading. Ask for a hunger for the word of Yah. View the Bible as His personal love letter to you. Because that’s really what it is. The Almighty Monarch of the universe loves you so much, He wants to communicate with you, so He’s preserved the Scriptures so you can get to know Him.

Miles: One thing that really helps my personal Bible study is leaving myself plenty of time to pray. And I’m talking about something more than a quick, rushed, “Dear Father, thank you for a new day. Come live in my heart and let me properly represent You aright this day. In Yahushua’s name, amen.”

Dave: You’re right.

Miles: Take the time to visit with Him! Take the time to sit in silence and listen for His impressions in return. That’s a big part of it for me. Not rushing through prayer, and building in time to listen for the still, small voice. Then, I can take that same prayerful attitude to my Bible study and listen for His voice as I read.

Dave: I like to ask myself a few questions as I read the Bible. First, what does this tell me about Yahuwah? Second, what does this tell me about myself? And, thirdly, what does this tell me about Yah’s will for my life?

Not every passage of Scripture will answer all the questions, but every passage of Scripture will address at least one of those three questions.

Miles: Do you keep a notebook? Take notes as you read?

Dave: Not always. Sometimes. It is helpful, though, if you’re doing a deep study, comparing Scripture with Scripture.

Another thing that’s really helpful is to use a concordance. Look up words! If you don’t have a copy of your own, look it up online. There are a lot of Bible study resources online.

Miles: I second that! When I started looking up words in the concordance, my Bible study really came alive. There’s often meaning that is lost in translation, nuances you just don’t get. But if you look up the word in a concordance or, better yet, a Bible dictionary, wow! There’s a lot there!

Dave: Another way to use the concordance to bring your Bible study alive, is to use it to study out a theme. If your idea of “Bible study” is to just sit down and start at Genesis 1:1, shooting for Revelation 22:21—

Miles: That’s the last verse in the Bible, in case you didn’t know.

Dave: You might make it a ways, but just as soon as you hit the begats, you’re going to slow down. And even if you make it past the begats, you’re not likely to get much out of the descriptions of all the sacrificial rites in the Levitical code … unless it is part of a theme you’re researching throughout Scripture.

Miles: For someone who’s never used a concordance before, how would you use a concordance to research out a theme in Scripture?

Dave: Well, say you want to do a study on “faith.” The first thing you’d do, would be to look up the meaning of the original word. Yes, the translators may have used the word “faith” in English, but what’s the actual definition of the original Hebrew or Greek word?

Then, just go through. Look up and read every use of the word “faith” in Scripture. I guarantee, if you do that, you will have a grasp on what faith is, what it’s not, and how we can use it to overcome that you didn’t have before.

And again, don’t rush! For some of these words, it may take you a few days to get through.

Miles: That’s a good principle to keep in mind any time you study the Bible: don’t rush. Don’t go faster than you can understand any given passage.

Dave: The good thing is, Yahushua promised to send the Comforter to us. The spirit of Yah itself is to be our teacher. Let’s read it. John 16:7-8 and 12-13.

Miles:

It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment … I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.

Dave: This is a promise. Claim it and watch your Bible study come alive!

Miles: If you’ve got a question, send us a message! Go to WorldsLastChance.com and click on contact us. We enjoy hearing from our listeners.

* * *Daily Promise

This is Elise O’Brien with your daily promise from Yah’s word.

One rainy afternoon, Faye dashed to the local mall with her friend, Tami, to purchase a gift card. Faye slipped her smartphone into her pocket while walking in. The women stopped at an information kiosk to find the location of the store they needed.

While talking with the clerk at the information kiosk, a young man came and stood uncomfortably close to Faye. She thought it was strange but laughed it off with a joke.

It was only later, as Faye and Tami were leaving the store with the gift card, that Faye realized her phone was gone. She started to panic. Sure, a smartphone can be replaced, but the precious pictures of her little granddaughter, couldn’t. Tami tried to reassure her, suggesting they retrace their steps to the car. The phone probably just fell out of Faye’s pocket, she suggested.

No phone. The women retraced their steps to the mall and asked a manager to call security. They began praying that an honest person would find and turn in the phone. They went back to the store where they’d purchased the gift card. Still no phone.

Tami started calling the phone. The third time she called, a voice answered. It was a security officer at the mall. Faye was so relieved and so happy, she danced a little jig, right there in the mall. She and Tami praised Yah, uncaring who saw them, then hurried to the mall’s security office to retrieve her phone with the precious photos.

Talking with Mall security, the women learned that it had been the young man that had stood too close to Faye at the information kiosk that had been the one to steal her phone. Because her phone was password protected, he had left it lying in a stairwell, where a little girl and her mother had found it. They then turned it in to a nearby store.

As one Christian writer put it, quote:

Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before [Yah]. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. … His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest. … The relations between [Yahuwah] and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare ….

In Jeremiah 33, verse 3, Yahuwah says: “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

We have been given great and precious promises. Go, and start claiming!

* * *Part 3: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: I really like the idea of justification being the gift that keeps on giving.

Dave: It’s really the riches of divine grace that is poured out without measure to save the human soul. There’s nothing we can ever do to earn it or somehow commend ourselves to Yah in order to deserve it. It’s a gift, pure and simple, and one we don’t deserve.

Miles: You know, at WLC, both on our shortwave radio programs, as well as in our videos and on our website, we tend to focus a lot on prophecy and end time events. Even our name, “World’s Last Chance,” underscores the sense of urgency that time is running out and Yahushua will be returning soon.

The gifts of justification are so precious because they’re what get us ready to see the face of the Father and to live with Him for eternity!

Dave: In Ephesians 4, Paul expressed gratefulness that with the gift of grace, quote: “we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.” [Ephesians 4:14]

This is a really precious promise! Because every wind of doctrine is blowing.

Yahuwah may be pouring out new light and restoring old truths, but the devil is more active than ever, working hard to bring in error and prop up traditions that have absolutely no basis in the word of Yah.

Miles: It’s interesting to me how many of the devil’s lies are aimed at destroying true righteousness, true justification, by faith.

There’s the delusion of once saved, always saved. The idea that if you’re truly saved, you’ve lost your will and can never turn back.

Dave: Yahuwah will never strip us of our freedom of choice. The right to free will is a divinely given right and He’s not going to take it away from us when we choose to accept salvation.

Miles: The flip side of that coin is the error of salvation by works. And this isn’t a condemnation of my brothers and sisters in Christ who fall into this error. Being totally honest here, I’ve fallen into that delusion before, too. It can be hard to realize that you’re trying to work your way into Yah’s kingdom.

Dave: Oh, it can be really hard! It can be one of the most subtle ways Satan gets our eyes off of Yahuwah. And, yes, I have fallen into that, too.

Miles: Liberals tend to fall for the once saved, always saved deception, while conservatives end up trying to work their way to salvation without even realizing it. And it creeps in without our even realizing it! You know, this idea that there is only One Certain Way to observe the Sabbath and anyone else keeping it differently is wrong! Or … uh, if you see someone that’s dressed a bit more “worldly,” or wears jewelry, or …

Dave: Eats meat?

Miles: Yeah, or eats meat or does something you don’t do, then somehow that makes you the superior Christian. These are all ways an attitude of spiritual pride comes in, and spiritual pride is always the fruit of salvation by works.

Dave: We, all of us—and I’m speaking to myself here, too—need to prayerfully search our hearts and ask Yahuwah to cleanse us.

Turn over to Psalm 139 really quickly, would you please? This is a beautiful prayer of David and it’s one we all should pray. Read verses 23 and 24 once you’ve got it.

Miles: All right. It says: “Search me, O Yah, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Dave: When you look up to Heaven by faith and you say, “Father, I am a sinner and totally undeserving of your mercy. But you have promised to accept even me, so by faith I’m going to claim the promise of your salvation,” the … floodgates of divine mercy open up.

Miles: The dam breaks.

Dave: The dam breaks. He’s done all the work. All you have to do is ask, believe, and receive. Then, any works of holiness are the fruits of His work in your life!

You know, a moment ago, you were talking about the delusions Satan is using to try to deceive people. And it’s true, but I don’t want anyone going away today, fearing Satan’s power. You don’t have to be afraid of the devil. He lost!

Miles: He’s a defeated foe, folks!

Dave: He really is. And with Yah’s gifts, we are perfectly safe resting in Him. I want to read a really precious promise to you. It’s found in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3, and verse 3. It says, quote: “Yahuwah is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.”

This is one of the gifts of justification! You don’t have to protect yourself.

Miles laughs: It’s a good thing! We’re no match for the devil’s power.

Dave: And Yah knows it! So, even when it comes to protection from spiritual delusions and doctrines of devils, Yahuwah will protect us. There are so many gifts that come with the gift of justification, and each one gets us ready or protects us and helps us in some way.

Miles: That reminds me of a promise in 1 John. Let me find it really quick.

Here it is; 1 John 5:18. It says, quote: “We know that whoever is born of Yah does not sin; but he who has been born of Yah keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.”

Unquote. When we accept Yah’s gift of justification, we are justified and the wicked one does not touch us!

Dave: Amen.

Miles: Amen! Put your trust in the Father, friends. He provided Yahushua to cover us, both for our past sins, as well as for our present transformation. Absolutely anything you need to get you ready for eternal life, He will provide.

Join us again tomorrow, and until then, remember: Yahuwah loves you . . . and He is safe to trust!

* * *

You have been listening to WLC Radio.

This program and past episodes of WLC Radio are available for downloading on our website. They're great for sharing with friends and for use in Bible studies! They're also an excellent resource for those worshipping Yahuwah alone at home. To listen to previously aired programs, visit our website at WorldsLastChance.com. Click on the WLC Radio icon displayed on our homepage.

In his teachings and parables, the Savior gave no “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, the thrust of his message was constant … vigilance. Join us again tomorrow for another truth-filled message as we explore various topics focused on the Savior's return and how to live in constant readiness to welcome him warmly when he comes.

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.