Exodus 23:1 - "A False Report"

Exodus 23:1

“Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked

to be an unrighteous witness.”

On January 2, 2006, in Sago, West Virginia, a blast and collapse trapped 13 miners for nearly two days; only one survived. Who among us was not moved by watching and hearing the cries of grief of the West Virginia coal miner families after learning that the report they had received three hours earlier that their loved ones were alive was a false report?  Their grief quickly turned to justified anger that someone had given them a false report.  Until the truth was known, they lived in a false sense of joy, excitement, and elation, all the while unaware that those for whom they rejoiced were dead.

Let this be a warning to any who, even in the name of Christ, falsely promise peace to sinners, or that all is well, by believing their report of a salvation conditioned on anything (man’s will, works, believing, or experience), and not on the blood and righteousness of the LORD Jesus alone. How many are there that face death and eternity in false assurance based on a lie? Someone has reported them alive, when death reigns, and they have never actually been delivered from the just wrath of God by the just satisfaction for their sin in the death of the LORD Jesus. God forbid that even those of us who profess to believe the Gospel of Grace, and salvation conditioned on Christ and His finished work alone, put our hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness, promising salvation or peace on any other basis than one’s sin having been charged to the LORD Jesus, and His righteous obedience imputed to their account. This is the salvation of the Bible, the only Truth! God purposed it in eternity for those He chose, and Christ accomplished it in time, satisfying God’s law and justice in His obedience unto death. Christ’s death demands the life of every one for whom He died, and therefore, in time, the Spirit will cause every redeemed and justified sinner to hear the TRUE REPORT of salvation by His righteousness imputed alone, and believe it, being delivered from every other false report or hope to that point. Sinner! Have you heard, believed and submitted to the TRUE REPORT?  

Isaiah asked the question, “Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1).  By nature, we would all rather hope against hope, even to believe a lie, than to believe the Truth. In Isaiah’s day, it was much the same then as today.  In the last three verses of the former chapter, Isaiah, God’s prophet, made a specific report concerning the great and wonderful humiliation and exaltation of the LORD Jesus Christ, as the coming Messiah. In Isaiah 53 he, by the Spirit of God, enlarged upon that revelation in a more particular manner. “Who,” not only of the Jews, but even of the Gentiles, “hath believed” the Truth?  Few or none, except those that the Father purposed from eternity to save, and did save, when the LORD Jesus Christ came and fulfilled their work of salvation, (John 1:11-13). 

The majority of the world doesn't, nor will it ever, receive, nor believe in, such a Christ as God’s Spirit reveals in Scripture. Christ Himself, John 12:38, and Paul, Romans 10:16, both quoted Isaiah as a caution to the Jews that they should not stumble at this Stone, and a warning to the Gentiles that they should not be surprised nor seduced by the Jews' unbelief. Some today are tempted to follow the false report of modern day preachers, simply because their message looks more impressive to the natural mind, with so many believing it, and so few believing in THE CHRIST and His very narrow Message of salvation in, by, and through His finished work of redemption, justification, and propitiation at the cross alone. This is only revealed for the deliverance of those in whom the Spirit of Grace reveals HIM, and therefore, they believe the report. The Gospel IS the Power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, (Romans 1:16). Those who do believe on the Christ of the Bible are those that God purposed to believe (Acts 13:48).